Leaderboard

The Air Force, as in the flying I get to do and the people I work with on a daily basis are awesome; I wouldn't trade where I am right now for anything. Most people I know don't hate getting up everyday and putting on the uniform to go to work, in fact most of them also enjoy. However, most of those same people and anyone with a two eyes and half a brain can see the institution that is the U.S. Air Force is in a severe crisis. This is crisis is a leadership, readiness, training and most importantly ethical crisis. The people at the top are out of touch and screaming "remain calm, everything is fine" as people run for the door, leaders abuse their power and our equipment falls apart due to a broken acquisitions process. It reminds me of when I spatial-D'd in the T-6 while flying IMC, my IP in the back is telling to cage myself on the instruments, while I'm telling him "no, I'm good". In reality I was 10 degrees nose low and in a 20 degree left turn. The leadership stands in front of the world and says there's nothing to see, while the people they lead scream for help. They fail to see that the institution is being held together at the seams by extraordinary airman the do amazing things every damn day to keep jets in the air. I don't hate the Air Force, I love the Air Force, it runs in my blood all the way back to the Army Air Corps. Yet I see the attrition of experience and knowledge heading to the civilian world everyday, leaving greener and inexperienced aircrew to fill their spots. I see leaders who can manage a wing but have no idea how their jets or crews execute their mission. People that care more about SAPR and quarterly awards than whether their crews can effectively execute what we've promised to COCOMs. That being said the Air Force is still the best in the world and when the order comes we get shit done because those of us on the frontlines make it happen. However, the Air Force hasn't been challenged in a very long time, the Army went through a crisis during the early years of the GWOT and managed to make some changes, but we've been chugging along since Korea having yet to meet a foe that gave us a run for out money. I'm not sure the institution as it stands today could actually withstand that challenge with out some very painful and costly consequences.

Obviously there's no universal Active Duty experience or AD service member. Some people will love it. Some will hate it. Got it. My heartburn with an ADSC longer than the current one is that you're asking a 22-year old to go all-in on the bulk of their professional life without any reasonable understanding of what that entails or what the opportunity costs really are. Some will get lucky and love it. Good for them. But the others will be trapped for no reason other than its hard to predict who you'll be or what your life circumstances will be a decade down the road. How is the Air Force supposed to build a leader/follower relationship built on trust when the AF's first move is to take adavantage of youthful naïveté and dream chasing for its own cynical ends? I understand the investment it takes to build a pilot, and that you need a guaranteed return if you're going to put in that effort and resources, but there's an upper limit to what it's morally reasonable to ask someone to agree to with no way out and no recourse. At some point it becomes predatory. I really consider the 10-year ADSC as at the upper limit. Hopefully it's just talk and we can get back to figuring out how to encourage quality people to stay rather than trapping them when they just don't know any better.

It can...so can the Air Force. The real world also doesn't check your cell phones, or send you across the globe to make ppt slides, or wonder where you're going over the weekend.

Would've preferred reformatted.

As long as DARPA can figure out how to shark fin the UAV's vertical stab on the tanker out of a cloud bank so the receivers stay popeye, we won't be able to tell the difference.

Just two cents offered on BO.net but I would rather be here: New AWACS cockpit (in 2018) https://www.hanscom.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123424407 Than here: That's no offense to RPA dudes either, I had an RPA assignment while on AD, didn't regret it but after about 2 years in the shelter I was ready to go back to anything that slipped the surly bonds of earth.

13 year ADSC? Normal first assignment with a decade long MQ-9 follow on ... no thanks.

Hell yeah, AWACS!

Headed to Flight Safety at SEATAC soon...Need a current FC1 medical. Anyone got a contact in the area who can knock one out? Thanks in Advance.