Leaderboard

I think the damn thing is too long, but you all know how this really went. After a month, someone on the Air Staff probably had a decent motto, and sent it up with a eSSS to get approval. Along the way, it was edited, completely changed, and sent back down again to said staffer. There were probably countless hours spent on many weekends away from family and friends in the pentagonal windowless office, and then, it finally got approved. I've seen how stuff like this works first hand for the "motto" on the bottom of our new unit letterhead, that continues to change shades of blue until we get it just right. In my humble opinion, fucking ridiculous, and a testament to how we waste our time on a day to day basis. I love "fly, fight, win", but when I was browsing through AF Times today, and told coworkers what it was, their first reaction was that we are not pilots. I don't think people get that the tip of the Air Force spear is our pilots. That is why I applied after many long hours of study to get the slot that I currently have. There are other arguments on threads here like "ammo against the shoe clerks" in the general discussion thread that are also a testament to how wrong our mentality has gotten. Without MX, support, finance, MPF, and other organizations, we could not do our jobs. The purpose of all those jobs is to support the pilots who are in the fight, dropping bombs on all that wish us harm. [end rant]

I like "FLY HIGH". Then we could put the motto on a patch with a pilot who has bloodshot eyes. Take that Air Force!

Frankly, I really don't give a shit. I didn't join the Air Force because of a motto. If I wanted sharp uniforms and a meaningful motto, I would have joined the Marines.

I walk every time...even when parked on Oscar or Pappa row (which is a looong way from our ops building). Why? Because it takes trans no-shit 15-20 minutes to get a bus to our airplane..I can be back in the building by then. I give kudos to our MX troops because for the most part, they work pretty damn hard. As for ferrying parts to the flightline, I've got TONS of stories where the MX troop was sitting around waiting for the part, telling me "it's just a 10 minute fix, but they are waiting on the part..." 2 hours later, he's got the part in hand. As for bus drivers...my favorite trans story: I planned an exercise for our crews to prepare for the upcoming ORI. We were to do some ATSO drills out at the CE facility with flash-bangs, and have them brief in their MOPP gear. Normally, trans sent two buses for the crews...a bus for the Loadmasters and FEs, and then later a bus for the pilots and navs. My intent was to do all the briefings in their gear at the CE facility and have trans bus them to the aircraft at the normal time (so not to screw up trans' schedule). I called about a week out and said "hey, we're still going to go with the same two buses at the same times, but instead of picking them up at the squadron, I need you to pick them up at the CE facility (which was right down the road)". Response? "Sir, we can't do that because we're undermanned, and you didn't coordinate with us to support an exercise". Me: "OK, well you guys aren't in the exercise...I just need the same two buses, at the same two times, to pick up the same people, just at a different location" Trans: "Sorry, you don't understand, we are way undermanned and we can't do it. You'll just have to have us pick you up at the squadron" Me: "Right. Let me ask you a question...why does changing the pick up location change your manning situation?" Trans: "Because we didn't plan for it" Me: "OK, let me talk to your NCOIC" I spoke with the NCOIC and got the same story...sorry, we're undermanned and can't support your change of pick up location. Ditto with the OIC (a young 1LT). So I re-attack and get our chief of XP (Lt Col) to make a call to their Squadron Commander....from my boss, he said the Trans Sq/CC reluctantly agreed to change the pick up location. WTF??? This in addition to a plethora of finance screw ups, cops trying to arrest me and my toddler kids on the flightline (while I was in a flight suit with line badge...and yes, I had authorization to take them out there), and comm ing up my email box to where I couldn't get email for over a week...just the tip of the iceberg. If there was this level of incompetence in the flying/mx world, we'd be losing jets weekly if not daily. And the most frustrating part...the USAF leadership is catering to the "lets make the support people feel like they are the mission" mentality.

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to differentiate between the incompetent and the unfortunate." - Gen Curtis LeMay Chuck

Clearly you do big guy. Oh, by the way, little FF (fun fact) for ya: not everything you need is at the parts store when there's a redball. Part of my PME? Fuckin' A right it was.

Safety has NOTHING to do with AIBs. You must go talk to the SJA about those.

And the shoe clerks are here to spy on you....nothing like gathering intel straight from the natives...

You said it best yourself there, when time critical. Not everyone shops at the Air Craft Parts store on the flight line....so, perhaps you don't recall as much as you think you do. No worries, and so quick with the profanity.....was that part of your PME? Of course it wasn't. Meanwhile go have a smoke and calm down.....I have more threads to troll....

That's a fantastic idea. Flawed, but fantastic. Not every crew that lands needs picked up, EROs and QTs come to mind. Having a driver sit on the flight line is a huge waste of manpower. And I promise you we do take pride in what we do, I can't tell you how many times I have gotten a cell phone call from a crew that has been waiting a long time, and what do I hear from CP? The crew/SOF/Tower didn't call us saying they were down and needed transpo. Does that mean I need to stage resources on the flight line when my manning is already at or below 50%? Currently where I am at now I have the SOF in the tower give us a call before they call CP, 7/10 times CP calls. So you can see we worked out something amicable, down side of it is, the weak link in our system isn't held accountable for their culpable inefficiency. Can I account for all misdeads done by my AFSC.....not even possible. Every section has that retard that somehow made it's way into our AF.

Ok here is one issue with the scanner, CP finds out we have one and they assume we know everything thats going on, and they quit calling. Between phone calls, customers returning vehicles and the radio they can't always catch when a crew is down. We do do have a flying schedule and know when they "should" be on the ground. I have called CP myself and asked them *why* they did not call, the answer I get is: "don't you have a scanner, you should have heard them land." This is my issue, it's CP's *job* to call us. When crews don't get picked up or are late being picked up, who gets blamed? No worries though.

This whole thing is a good example of how the AF doing more with less idea and drawing down our size(in the middle of a war?) is one hell of a bad idea. The cold war was a great time, you could walk into finance and TALK to someone, and like GBock's issue TMO manning going the way of finance. I am all for saving tax payer dollars, but not at the cost of impeding the mission and lowering quality of life by outright frustration. Technology is great, there is just too much of it. Anyone remember when we had "Admin" troops who typed up EPRs and what-not? Those wonderful days are long gone. Bottom line, more with less is killing us. Back to back deployments for 6-8 months with very little dwell time, it's burning people out.

And that's where your feelings are misplaced. Crews walk because Command Post forgot to call, no ,matter where I have been CP has been the weak link in crew pick up. So if you walked, give those guys a shout and ask them WTF? Becareful calling them, they record all phone calls. Out bound crew? Did your Ops office call for crew pickup? I assure you we are more than just bus drivers. But then any cargo flyer is a bus driver.....so see we have alot in common.