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I would not agree that it is either one or the other. It is not that black and white. Here is how I break out how the AF evaluates people, at least in the B-1 community. The guys/girls that are in either group #1 or group #2 are the ones that get promoted and have above average careers.The people from these two groups form the leadership of our community. 1) WIC grads, OG & Wing Exec 2) Non-WIC grads that are good at primary job and still get the admin stuff done. (CFC, Party Planner, etc) 3) Guys that are great at primary job of flying, SOF, etc, but don't lead anything 4) Guys that are average at their jobs and do nothing extra I never see the guys in group #1 planning Christmas parties or doing CFC, etc... They don't have to. They are considered the tactical experts or have high visiblity Exec jobs that keep them very busy. As long as they work hard at their primary jobs, they will progress and be near the top of the strat pile. If they can be the squadron patch and also lead projects around the base, they will be considered a superstar. If you are in group #2, you must be good at your job, attaining at least some proficiency (instructor, evaluator, not a dirtbag) but you don't have to be the absolute best in the squadron either. As long as you meet this bar, you are good. Be good at your job and knock out a lot of admin stuff to help your CC and make the squadron look good. The mistake many guys make, that don't want to go to WIC, is to try to be in group #3. It is not enough to be the very best pilot or WSO in the community. You will not be rewarded for knowing more than every single person in the squadron, or taking that extra deployment. When these people don't get promoted or get RIFed, everyone is shocked because they are seen as the backbone of the squadron, but this is not what the AF rewards or promotes. After you become good at your job, don't spend all your effort on being the best, you should back off a bit and aim to be in group #2 by volunteering to lead some projects. Unless you are a rockstar and can be the very best at your job and still able to knock out important taskers for the boss. Guys that are in group #4 usually will have a below average career and may not get promoted or may get RIFed. I'm sure I will take some spears from others for this but this is based on my experience in the B-1 community. I realize that some guys will say this is BS and that you should strive to be the absolute best at your job and to hell with everything else (group #3), like Joe1234. This is valid, but if you want to stay in for a career, it will be very difficult for you to go this route and you probably won't be the CC.

Please bear with me while I tell a little story highlighting what the AF truly values. Hint: It doesn't involve flying or deploying. When I was a Lt in a B-1 Operations Squadron, I was a scheduler and a line WSO. All I did was fly a lot and bust my ass in scheduling. I received very good strats and excellent OPRs. I never once did a holiday party or any other such BS. When I got to the FTU, I continued that same routine of flying a lot and being great at my ground job. When I received my first OPR, it was terrible. I was furious. I asked my rater why it was so bad and he said it was because I never did any volunteer work. Being the smart-ass that I am, I told him I would volunteer for every single thing that came across my email for the next year and pay little attention to flying, and that is exactly what I did. I really just wanted to prove a point at how ridiculous the AF is. I ran the CFC for the entire wing. I organized, no shit, an ice cream social at the WG/CC's house. I led 30 airmen to paint the B-1 at the gate. I organized a flight line social for the city of Abilene. I led the LtGen Rand visit. I led a tour for Sen Cornyn. I even got myself elected as the VP of the CGOC for a few months. Because I was doing all this, I never flew or sat SOF. I only worked on this BS. I flew only 12 times in 2011 but the strange thing was that nobody cared, exactly as I expected. Not once did anybody question why I was never flying with students or doing my job. I logged maybe 50 hours the entire year as an FTU instructor. I constantly received praise from the SQ/CC and WG/CC about everything I was doing and got all #1 or #2 strats. I won CGO of the Year for the squadron and the Ops Group. The next year I went back to my normal self, and my average OPRs. This example taught me that there is no incentive to be good at your job, or even care about flying. The guys that are logging the most deployments and flying the most with students get shit on careerwise and the guys that shirk flying so that they can go plan the christmas party are getting school slots and becoming commanders. This creates a lot of resentment from the guys actually out there doing the work of the squadron and severely lowers morale. The 3 guys they RIFed in the B-1 were perfect examples of guys that were busting their asses get the job done and they get the boot. Refusing to play this game, I took the VSP a couple months ago and now love life in the ANG. For the young guys, if you intend the make the AF a career, you have to play the game at least a little bit, not to the extreme I did, but you have to lead some stuff around the group and the wing. I have seen more than a few guys not get promoted, and now guys getting RIFed for being very good at their jobs, but not volunteering to do stuff outside the squadron.

Put a wheel on the boom! It would've been cheaper than changing the fuselage.

I think some of it will be useful but most will be just categorizing and useless efforts to solve a very complex problem due to the human involved. If we could solve human error, experienced golfers would never be off hunting errant golf balls.

Premise 3 is false, We know the problems: read just about any thread in these here forums to find them, categorizing into human factors code is as useless as categorizing your dogs shit color when he drops a turd on the carpet... It's a secondary/tertiary effect that makes for pretty charts but does nothing to address what the problem is or how to solve it. You want to fix aviation, at least military aviation, you make it your only priority and make sure, absolutely, nothing else matters. We'll stop crashing airplanes when get back into the business of flying them.

Great example of a false dilemma.

Congratulations ladies. You can take your place behind every other woman who has stunted progress towards gender equality by feeling the need to suggest that a woman accomplishing something extraordinary is more special than it would have otherwise been because it was a woman who accomplished it. Because of course, we don't expect much from you...you're just a woman.

https://yellowhammernews.com/faithandculture/lone-survivor-navy-seal-marcus-luttrells-speech-bama-football-team-will-floor/

Skywalker did it

Is there an option field for a hellfire into wedding celebration?

9-3 with 2 hour lunch?