Leaderboard

Here is the letter I was sent. A couple buddies of mine are there right now (for the 1st 8-week course), and they said that this letter is making the rounds. Standard disclaimer - I didn't write this, nor do I know the person who did. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear SOS, Well, you tried. You started off somewhat strong—there were great briefers (none of whom used powerpoint) and, though it’s tough to admit, some decent classroom topics and discussions. But after 7 weeks, I’ve had it. I just can’t drink the SOS Kool-Aid any longer. I’ve seen too many failures of leadership at the “leadership center of the Air Force.” I’ve seen too many “future leaders” stabbing each other in the back to try to get the coveted “DG” from SOS. I’ve seen too much wasted manpower, time, and money to stand it any longer. All is not lost. SOS has potential, and I’ll admit, from what I’ve heard about the past, it has come a long ways. You, the leadership, at least SEEM to care about the feedback you receive from the students. Well, in that spirit, here it is. Get ready, because it won’t be in the “everybody gets a trophy” spirit of today’s feedback sessions and OPRs. I’m going to ignore what you’re doing right, as well as the less important or obvious examples of what’s going wrong, and get right to the meat of the matter. Please listen. Understand that this isn’t one disgruntled student. This is a consensus of the overwhelming majority of SOS students. We’re not automatically bitter about this place, and we certainly came here with open minds. We want to see this place improve, for the good of those after us and the Air Force in general. And, from the perspective of the students, here is how we see it happening: First and foremost, get your act together. It seemed from day one you were on the defensive—telling us not to get bitter about the 8-week course and that this curriculum will be “good, but not perfect.” Even though you had something like 6 months to prep, I understand that rarely does anything go perfect on the first try. But come on. It’s not just the 4.5-hour average day. I wouldn’t feel bad about that if I didn’t know that the bro’s back at home station were now working 14 (as opposed to the usual 12) hour days to make up for my absence. It’s the half-assed briefs on AFPC, the Air Operations Center, the Coast Guard, Alabama Homeland Security and AFSO-21 that seem like they were not for our benefit but simply to fill time. It’s the fact that you want us to pay “attention to detail” on games like FLEX, only to have your “referees” demonstrate an egregious lack of understanding of the rules. It’s the fact that TAV, which is supposed to test our ability to plan and execute a war, was turned into simply an exercise in patience and composure as the computers continually crashed and failed to execute as they should. It’s the debacle that ensued from the FRLM essay, and now our only graded written piece is for naught (more to follow on this). It’s the fact that every assignment that’s given to us seems to be hastily drawn up and has contradicting requirements and standards. It’s the fact that even the commandant himself can’t seem to express a clear message (“…get your master’s degree! No you’re not just checking a box. We want to you to increase your thinking ability, which is done the same whether you go to TORO or Harvard…”). There are so many examples—these are a few of the glaring ones. Taken individually, they seem to be minor inconveniences. Taken as a whole, they paint a picture of a program that is wholly unprepared to execute its mission. If you hear nothing else please hear this, stop rewarding the “me-first,” cutthroat attitude that may have a place in the civilian word, but not in a brotherhood of arms. Now I’m not naïve, I know that this has always been and always will be a problem. And I also recognize that the bigger problem is that “mother Air Force” sees “DG” from SOS as being something other than the ball-wash that is truly is. Regardless, the fact that so many people will do anything to walk away with “DG” has led to it having a stigma amongst the CGO’s. The fact that almost everyone who comprises the student council usually walks away with DG is the best example of this problem. Do you really think that those guys are the future leaders of the Air Force? Are you saying the student council president is someone who deserves to be a leader in tomorrow’s Air Force? That guy has demonstrated such a shocking deficiency of interpersonal and leadership skills that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad. But this isn’t a vendetta against one guy. It’s against the system that rewards the wrong kind of leadership. Let’s find a way to actually recognize the people who actually have potential to change the Air Force. There are myriad ways to accomplish this. If you are seriously out of ideas, grab a pitcher of Jack and Coke at the O’Club and sit down with one of the guys playing crud. I’ve heard more than a few good ideas thrown around, all of which beat the current system in place. You heard it straight from the most respected member of the staff, Dr. Stafford: “we need to change the style and persona of the leadership of the Air Force.” What better place to start than the schoolhouse for tomorrow’s leaders? Along those lines, you need to either disband the student council entirely, or at a minimum change the method in which it is selected. I know a good number of the people on Class 12B’s student council, and I literally believe that only one of those people has the interest of the entire class truly at heart (and that person is there involuntarily). The rest are there for the wrong reasons; specifically, to “play the game” and get their name and face out there for senior leadership. How can I say this? Let’s look objectively. The first speech the president made, he was booed off the stage as a result of his inability to communicate effectively. After that, he tried to fraudulently use funds raised in the name of charity to buy a class gift—a gift that would only serve to enhance the standing of the few people on student council in the eyes of the senior leadership. Following the uproar from that debacle, student council proceeded to do nothing except pass up ridiculous ideas that do not serve the general student body; rather, they serve their own personal agendas. Here’s just a few of the gems that I’ve heard were discussed at student council meetings: “let’s have everyone submit their GRE scores with their SOS applications” (genius!!), “FLEX counts too much/little towards overall flight standings” (guys…it’s dodgeball…really??), “the FRLM essay should be thrown out of DG consideration” (I bet my career that whomever brought up this gem got less than an A on his/her paper), “we shouldn’t have to wear blues on Mondays” (no shit, 100% true statement), “we should throw out the team challenge,” etc. etc. etc. The bottom line is that it’s become a place for personal or flight agendas to be pushed in lieu of actual, legitimate ideas. What’s not being mentioned at student council meetings? How about the fact that the leadership here does nothing but espouse outside-the-box thinking, critical analysis and leadership, only to reward followership, yes-men, and a failure to challenge the status quo? How about the fact that that everyone—from the students to the upper leadership at SOS—seem to agree that the course is too long, only to feel hamstrung to the 8 weeks because they are afraid to speak their mind? How about the fact that we place so much emphasis on flight performance here, only to essentially leave up to chance the flight one is assigned to? How about the fact that one unmotivated, out-of-shape person in the flight can ruin the 8 weeks of effort by an entire flight in one morning? How about the fact that the cold, hard truth is that the SOS flight commanders are at or near the bottom rung of people in their peer group, and yet we entrust them to judge and grade the next generation of our Air Force’s leaders? How about the larger problem of placing too much emphasis on SOS in general? Have you seen the YouTube video of an OPR review? The comments there ring true, but a blind eye is turned to it by the leadership here and of the Air Force. If we are going to enact the legitimate, true, required change, this is the place to do it! I think most people here get that, but the people who volunteer for student council (the Kool-Aid drinking yes men) are afraid to say it. So let’s make student council either a randomly assigned or constantly shifting role. That way you can at least try to rotate out the people who are there for the wrong reasons. Listen, I get it. I really do. I’m not trying to blindly ramble on and rage against a system that is obviously at least functional. The Air Force has done the J-O-B for the past 65 years, and it continues to operate well enough to get the job done. It could most definitely be doing a worse job. But it could also be doing a much better job. And if we are serious about wanting to be a leaner, more efficient force, it’s time to really revamp our way of doing things. That starts here at SOS. Let’s rethink this school and what it teaches. Let’s work together to really create the next generation of leaders. Let’s eliminate the waste here at SOS, let’s stop wasting the time of our CGO’s, and let’s start rewarding the right kind of future leaders. We can’t afford to fail. -SOS Class 12B --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The answer to your questions is 1) NO and 2) YES. Plenty of 1990s passed over Captains now LTCs in the Reserves. Hell one is even an O-7 (not a compliment to him btw). No one will look down on ya, units with shitty locations in the ARC are absorbing these RIF people left and right, my unit is one of those. They'll all make major, what made them not make major on AD is already good enough for them to make major in the ARC. Beyond O-4 is where it gets testy, but dude honestly, I was a Reserve baby who went in day one because I didn't and I don't care if I ever make O-5, so Rainman is right about the motivations of us citizen airmen. And when this shit gets even sillier and espousing the above becomes blasphemy in the ARC too, I'll just fucking quit and go teach TP stalls to chinese immigrants. At least I'll be happy with my day to day rather than moping like a bitch trying to rationalize spending 50 hours a week minding the shop of ice cream and qweep not related to hacking the mission one iota, oh and watch the neighbor take care of the wife in every way, just because I want to make 20. To each their own. Fuck the online masters. Or get it if it strikes your fancy and you think you can make use of it in the civilian market. Just don't be like Cougar, don't hold on too tight [to the AD idyosyncracies..]. Good luck!

I'll believe it when I see the promotion stats for in residence/in correspondence guys being exactly the same.

I'm in the next class, 2004 year group guy, I consider myself lucky to go because there are a lot more people that need to go and not enough slots for them all to go. Word on the street is that it won't matter if you went in residence or by correspondence... until I hear that from the CSAF I won't believe it. From my perspective I have far less expectations of this course. I expect to go, learn what I can and hopefully gain some perspective on how the rest of the Air Force does business and make some friendships. If Al Udeid is to Combat as SOS is to CGO PME I'm fine with that and hopefully I will be able to change it, otherwise I'm going to have as much fun as I can. I'm not worried about DG, I have not been a DG from any formal training program so far so I apparently lack the required prof level of backstabbing to even be worried about it WRT SOS

Yeah, and according to page iii, she still claims to have attended Southern University and A&M "Collage". (Just in case, it is the south after all, I googled the school.. it is, in fact, a "college") Edit: asked and answered...

I can absolutely believe this is legit. Chalk up another win for the great state of Louisiana. Ugh.

Well, she actually attended collage. Maybe they grade differently.