Leaderboard

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/01/air-force-suicides-rise-lead-to-standdown-013012w/ January 2012 has seen a record number of suicides across the Air Force. What does the Air Force do? Why, they schedule a 1 day stand down for additional resiliency training. How idiotic. This mindset that you can just brief away problems only causes more problems. So we have a one day standdown. During that we are reminded just how "important" we are. The Air Force can't afford to lose any one of its airmen (well, aside from the thousands they fired last year, and the additional ten thousand they are seeking to get rid of). Instead of a day off, we get another day of briefings. Monday morning we come back to more of the same. --More briefings about what needs to be briefed --More slides to create --More CBTs to accomplish --More "volunteer opportunities" --More reinvention of the wheel, and disregard of common sense --More mandatory "training" that has nothing to do with your job --More lectures implying that we're on the verge of driving drunk or raping someone (or killing ourselves) --More uniform changes and associated queep Guys who want out can't get out. Guys who stay in are constantly worried that putting up with all the queep will be met with a hearty "you're fired" from leadership that can't stand to lose you. I'm not saying anyone should kill themselves. There's always a better way, but I can understand how someone can get into a situation so miserable and desperate that the only way out that they can see is by killing themselves. Throw in some family stress that comes with multiple, endless deployments and it would be enough to push a lot of guys over the edge. The problem isn't that we aren't told enough times to not kill ourselves. Its that the root causes are never addressed. Guys aren't killing themselves because they don't know any better, they're killing themselves because they can't deal with the bullshit anymore, and they feel that nobody cares. This post may be a bit of a vent, but articles like what I linked to frustrate the hell out of me.

The dirty little secret of suicide: those who want to kill themselves, will. Corollary: you honestly cannot understand the though process that brings someone to the point of straight up killing themselves as opposed to making a suicide attempt. This thought process is so completely irrational that we sit around after a friend commits suicide and we just can't understand. Unless you personally have experienced the absolute destructiveness of the suicide thought process, you can't comprehend it. The best way to describe it is that a suicidal person lacks the ability to understand, whether through anger or isolation, the effect their actions will have on the people around them. To truly achieve resilience within the AF, we have to build lasting friendships with our fellow service and/or community members. The number one thing that stops people, aside from those who will kill themselves anyway, is that real connection with other people. No amount of training, CBTs, or resilience/wingman days can instill the type of personal relationships needed to give a suicidal person pause in their actions.

I got back from a 7 month stint on Palau back in August 2011. Part of my duty was maintaining the WW2 sites on Peleliu and Angaur Islands, the battles that had the highest casualty rates in the Pacific campaign. Most of the battle sites and memorials have been left untouched to this day, and even now if you stray off the beaten path you still have a 50/50 shot of stepping on an UXO. I took the time and tried to get a thorough photo documentary of what I saw and thought this would be a good place to post some of the photos. I don't want to overload it on the first post so I'll just throw a couple on for now. These 2 were on Angaur Island:

That's a ridiculous comment Tank. Grand Moff Tarkin can't force choke you by clenching his kegels.

FYSA...so SOS is currently running a max of 840 students per class for the next few classes. Accoording to an O-6 in the school's leadership will be at 600 per class thereafter. Promises of 100% attendance seem to be fading fast.... reference the math... 3,009 Captain promotions in the 2011C board alone (not including the other promotion boards, Medical Officers, JAG, etc) and 5 SOS classes per year To make things worse they're beta testing some B.S. that the in-residence course will actually have the first 3 weeks as distance learning through the software Blackboard from your home station. The first class of beta-testors will actually be TDY to Montgomery for those first three weeks "interacting" from their lodging. ...yay! BTW - Battleshots was a bad, but fun idea...

That right there is the problem. Though I believe that none of the commanders are ok with suicides occurring (leadership does suck, but I don't think they're full of hatred), they only do these kinds of things when they're told to and/or when their leadership puts their asses on the line for having too many suicides, DUI's, etc. I firmly believe that 90.69% of O-6's and above (you can also include BTZ O-5's) will always put their own self interests above what is truly the right thing to do. Often times their own self interests naturally match up with what is the right thing to do for people and the mission (ie take care of wounded soldiers because leadership is told to so and they'll look bad if they don't do it), but other times, these 'leaders' will do whatever is necessary to impress their own bosses and make sure that their own records shine--regardless of whether it's the right (read integrity) thing to do. They are "Yes Men" in the purest form. Again, this is just my opinion...but you know what, it's close to the same opinion of the majority of my peers. And if we're wrong, then there is obviously a disconnect...but a disconnect none the less, and then the leadership should do something about it, because this opinion has negative effects. A leader is someone who inspires you to do what is needed...a manager just tells you what they believe needs to be done and then makes sure go ahead and do it. We have a lot of managers in the upper ranks.

Are you implying that airmen are so distraught with AF policy that they take their own lives? The leading cause of suicide is untreated depression. I seriously doubt someone is hanging themselves because they got chiefed at 3am on their way to the cadillac. I'm shocked at how many people let the queep consume them and ruin their outlook on a career in the AF. We get paid to fly jets for a living, just let it roll of your back and press. With that said, leadership by powerpoint was not the best way to handle resiliency day. A round table discussion between key leaders and the wing commander on direct involvement of leadership and getting to know your people would've been much more effective.

These two pics look way too similar, coincidence?????

"The service ceiling is the altitude at which the aircraft is unable to climb at a rate greater than 100 feet per minute (fpm)." FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aviation Knowledge page 10-7.

I chose not to go with a safe. I'm screwed in the event of a fire or burglary, but I made this decision (insurance rider is a wonderful thing) vice moving several hundred pounds of steel and concrete. YMMV.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16809532

13B...nuff said