Leaderboard

I like the "Thats the way it is/has always been" attitude. I've always wondered at what point in one's career that attitude started molding itself in the minds of our fearful "leaders" It seems like people are just afraid of change no matter how much sense it makes because they feel safe with the way things are...they won't get fired if they just keep it the way it is. Yet we will spend waste millions of dollars and man hours making subtle changes to uniform regs about hairy legs and yellow t-shirts when it makes absolutely NO sense (ok, maybe the chick hairy legs part makes sense) Ask yourself this: If the Air Force changed the rules (back) to masked Masters degrees, would you all of the sudden support the idea because "thats the way it is?" or would you be against it? Or is there another reason you support getting a Masters as a Lt so much? IMO, it seems the only people who are against masked Master's degrees are the ones who most rely on that AAD to help them stand out. The bottom line is that the way we manage the AAD for officers promotes wasteful spending...period. You can argue that it is the "game" and "just do it because thats the way it is" but it doesn't mean that we are using those funds and the AAD program to our advantage. You have people getting a BS online quickie Masters two years into their career who otherwise would not get one JUST so they stay in the game. The degree is worthless to both the individual and the Air Force if that person just picked the online degree they can finish quickest. Who does it benefit?...the online school that is overcharging for the degree in the first place. In addition to completing your degree too early, depending on your degree, you have to worry about degree recency requirements. Just look at some of the current job requirements out there...some of them require a Masters degree within the past 10 years. How competitive do you think you'll be with an MBA or Aviation Systems Masters from the 80s or 90s (or insert your current degree 20 years from now)? IMO, to use a Master's degree as a tool to measure potential leadership is some of the most backwards thinking I've ever seen. We should be using them to help the Air Force and our mission. I have never met a single person in my life who all of the sudden became a great leader the day after they graduated from their Master's program. Not once did I ever watch a true leader in action and think to myself "Wow, I wonder what kind of Master's degree that guy has." I know O-5s and a few O-6s without Master's degrees (not including the ones awarded at PME), and they seem to be doing just fine in leadership positions. Imagine that... I will always say education is important. It is important because it promotes innovative thinking (the exact opposite of "thats the way it has always been" thinking), brings new ideas to the table, and allows for networking of best practice ideas that could change the way we operate as an organization. The people most suited to make those operational level changes/decisions are not Lts and Capt, but rather Majors and Lt Cols...the people we should be targeting for specialized AADs. The irony is that we HAVE a highly educated force, yet some still have the "thats the way it has always been" mindset...probably because that education isn't serving the purpose I've indicated above, but rather box checking and promotion opportunity (sarcasm) The culture has to change. In these times of fiscal constraints, we are going to have to figure out ways to better spend our money. TA and other education programs are lower hanging fruit and are going to change, the money just isn't there anymore. We just let 157 experienced officers walk because we can't "afford" them. I'm calling on all the highly educated officers out there...this is just one of many ways we misuse our funds...with all that education, surely you can figure out how to do this smartly instead of just saying "thats the way it is/has always been." I think I've kicked the sh*t out of this dead horse.... Edited for grammar (gotta look smart)

Having been in CE, I might be able to shed some light on why they're renovating rather than building a new BX. It's about the funding regulations mandated by Congress. I'm pretty sure AAFES and DECA have to follow standard government construction rules, as dicked up as they are. What you're seeing is actually all driven by Congress, not AFFES, not DECA, and not Big Blue. There're two pots of money - MILOCON (Military Construction) and O&M (Ops and Maintenance). With O&M, base and Majcom spending authority is pretty high, into the $ millions, IIRC, the timelines for funding are much shorter, and the amount of discretion in how the budget is spent is much greater at base and Majcom level. For MILCON, the funding limit at SECAF level used to be $300K back in the 90s, but is likely to be about $500K now. In either case, it's about enough to build a small garden shed and not much else. Any "new" construction costing more than that and the project has to go into the DOD's budget to Congress as an individual line item with full cost estimates, project justification, and environmental assessment. Typically it takes 3-5 years from concept to funding approval to go the MILCON route. What that means is that CE gets pretty creative in how they classify work. I can't remember all the specific rules, but they're something like, if you can keep 51% of a structure, you can do nearly anything you like under the O&M rules because, the logic goes, you're merely maintaining an existing facility. So, you keep the shell and foundation of the BX, rip out and replace everything else. You could even put on a small addition to the building if you wanted but that addition would have to be costed out separately and can't cost more than $500K or it has to go into the Congressional budget and takes years. There was the case of the Ramstein O'Club back in the late 80s where everything of the old club was demolished except one wall and from that was built an entirely new club under O&M rules, all as a way to circumvent the MILCON rules. That was taking the piss and some wrists got slapped over that one. I'm not necessarily trying to defend my CE brethren, because CE can still be pretty screwed up, but if you work in CE for very long you become extremely adept at "working the grey zone" of the regulations and CE actually delivers quite a lot given the rules they have to bend every day. I include this only so you can direct your fully justified anger at the right target - Congress. Oh, yeah, and I hated AAFES as much as some of you. Self-absorbed thieving bastards, was my view, and hanging was too good for the lot of them. When they tried to have the squadron snack fridges shut down or run by themselves because they saw them as competition was when they really just went way over the line.

Get rid of all BXs stateside. Just pass a law that allows military and retirees to buy stuff sales tax-free.

Or...play the game, assimilate without surrendering, progress, survive the lobotomy and when the time is right, be the agent of change...do it for the bros behind you.

This. HRT has gone insane, and what stuns me is the way everyone seems to be taking it lying down. I'm not saying go out and defy orders, but the . . . just defeated, demoralized way folks seem to accept the insanity bothers me. As if they have given up on AFSOC ever being different and special from Big Blue. As if they really feel that our AF has no hope of ever having the right priorities again . . . and nsplayr's use of the "straw that broke the camel's back" is spot on. Are my sleeves important? no. Morale patches, my t-shirt color, etc? no. But when you're running the command ragged with deployments for a decade or more, endless alert commitments locking people down, all the above bullshit and the threat of Cannon . . . there are a lot of dudes just one morale patch away from voting with their feet. Leadership, if you want to fix retention, do some give-and-take to show us you realize that the sum total of the BS is pretty high. Meet every increase in The Suck with a reduction elsewhere. So the new CC has a hard-on for sleeves? OK. But he's BFMing the rules to get us Friday patches, cool. Massive inspection prep taking our family time? gay. But the WG/CC just called a down day after it, and the SQ/CC bought a keg. If you just keep piling on useless rules and obstructions that make the mission harder to accomplish and life just generally suck, eventually one meaningless thing will be what makes a guy punch out.

Fuck DECA/AAFES. I make every effort possible to avoid supporting these institutions. If your base is the the middle of nowhere or an overseas location, it make perfect sense to have one. But for the most part they are unnecessary on modern AF bases, just a place for arthritic old farts to shop and middle-aged asian women to have a job. When you factor in the surcharges, you're paying more than you would off base.

Saw this gem back in June.

AAFES partially funds your FSS activities. Sure, the posters have pictures of money going to play-grounds in base-housing or new ski equipment at Outdoor Rec. The reality on most bases is that the bulk of the money goes into the Child Development Centers. I'm pretty sure that bases that said "Just go shop at WalMart. Child Development Center closes 1 Oct due to lack of funding." would be really crappy places to be for our troops with young kids. I'm not saying purchase every roll of TP and every tool at AAFES...I'm saying know where the money goes. I can handle paying $0.50 extra for a bag of dog food knowing that the profit goes to SSgt Snuffy's toddler vice to Bentonville.

Until he breaks his leg the first game of the season

His point is still valid.

In my MDS and AFSC, if you want to be an FTU instructor you have to have your CCAF (Associates) complete. Doesn't matter if you already have a Bachelors from somewhere else, you MUST be CCAF-complete.

This. The delays are real. Exactly, in my mind the single biggest cultural problem we have is the "I had to do it so you should to" attitude. The bullshit always adds and rarely subtracts.

Not true. Coming from a current FTU instructor in your AFSC you must be CCAF complete or within a year of completing it.

Sailor Jerry and "excellently" do not go together.

I'd bet a good fortune that my 'read-in' is much bigger than yours. Don't be ignorant. With VERY few exceptions the AF is the supporting command. Embrace it.

Also never pass up the opportunity to use spell check.

This is BaseOps...so, no Rainmain, you already have credibility in my book, but after a scathing 2 volume response, criticizing brevity?...really :-) STS

Very nice! How original!