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I don't want to be rude, however, your post fills me with an overwhelming urge to murder a baby seal, step on a kitten, shake a baby, or untuck my PT shirt in front of a Chief. Instead of induldging those options, I'll simply tell you that I totally disagree. I DO want people working for me who do the absolute minimum amount of queep to get by. Why? Because I want to fly into combat with dudes who are in the vault, know their systems cold, understand capabilities of every platform they'll work with, know CDE, understand the LTA process, have the confidence to assault a target in any weather, and most importantly: are filled with a burning desire to hunt and kill the enemy. Because at the end of the day, battles are won by a handful of dudes with the diligence, persistance and passion to fight despite the myraid of obstacles they face. Maybe you don't have this kind of job, I don't know what you fly. But I'll tell you point blank there are terrorists alive today because the people persuing them were young captains focused on their masters whose minds weren't in the game the night an opportunity presented itself. 100%. We are smothering our combat forces with bullshit. The majority of guys around me have accepted we'll likely burn out as career Majors or LtCols for the chance to be on the line in the fight. And people like you question their place because they've only done "the minimum?" See why I want to step on a kitten? The AF recently retired a guy who logged the most combat hours of anyone in any service. He retired as a Major after 17+ deployments. That should tell you the system is fucking broken; instead you ask if I really want to fly with someone like him who only did "the minimum." The answer is yes, he was a warrior and I'd fly with him into the worst.

Sucking $h&t at Spang If this story wasn't posted on airforcetimes.com, I would have guessed it was from "The Onion."

Pics?

If your SQ/CC isn't drawing a very clear line between his mission-hacking, skilled IPs and his unskilled, repeat failure safety risks...he's fucking up as a SQ/CC. Period dot.

joe1234, nicely stated. A lot of the current angst feels like "I deserve something" or "The USAF owes me." The USAF doesn't owe any of us shit. Is it unethical to give people unreasonable career demands? Debatable. Look at the industry of law: new hires bust their asses for years at 80+ billable hours a week just to make partner and have a normal work week. The airlines: fly shitty routes for years to build the seniority to bid for good routes and aircraft. And so on. Every group has barriers to entry and a bunch of shit you have to put up with to "earn" your promotions and higher pay scales. Ours just happens to be PME and other things we've labeled queep. Does that make it right? No. I guess to put it another way: we'll define the minimum as PME complete and a Master's. I'm sure we've all heard the phrase "if the minimum wasn't good enough, why is it the minimum?" I've said it myself. However, the more I think about it, I come to the conclusion...do you really want people who just do the minimum? All that said, those of us who don't have our ATP yet...should really consider doing it, even if you're not sure you want to ever go to the airlines. Never close a door you don't have to.