after tinkering with the RPi3 i realized that it was the power consumption.. plugged in my RPi power supply to the connection on the Pi and then a power supply from my phone charger (samsung 2a charger) to the port for the display. no rainbow square and the alfa card was working with no freezing of the device or kick off's.
tested the card by placing it on monitor mode and ran airodump and wash and was picking up AP's with no issue.
I would consider this issue resolved so if a mod wants to close out the thread, please do so.
