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And the equation changes from new young guy, to young married guy, to guy with kids, to old grey beard with kids. Different priorities for each.

My opinion, in my own little corner of the AF, that I've spent a decade in is that there is a lot more selfishness in the AF than altruism at all levels. I joined to serve my country and to do something that I thought I would love and had always dreamed of doing. To my surprise I have rarely heard or seen anyone talking about doing this to serve their country or that this is something we do for our families. Instead, I see and hear rampant careerism, poor morale, people throwing away their integrity to get ahead and a whole lot of back stabbing to get ahead of the next guy. I have been stabbed in the back more times than I can count and can't believe some of the b.s. I have seen be our senior leadership. Remind me again why I should keep doing this for my family? Remind me why I should deploy to "serve my country" when I am only making power point slides or fighting in a "war" that we aren't fighting to win?

I made a decision early on after seeing too many pissed off senior leaders with multiple ex wives that I was not going to sacrifice my family for career. Don't get me wrong, I'm good at what I do and I fight for my guys every day. I'm just not going to be the doormat that volunteers for every shit sandwich because I realize how broken the system is. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not sure all of these will show up, but I gotta give it a try! And Rainman has been spotted again!

I joined to serve my Country and protect my family, but my priority has been and always will be Faith, Family, Country and the the Air Force, in that order. The problem is that the Air Force is constantly pitting Air Force members in a position where they are forced to choose between their family and Active Duty, and too many times it is due to deployed kingdom building or pointless tasking that some O-6 or higher refuses to get rid of. In those cases I see people become disillusioned with AD and choose to take their talents elsewhere, mostly to the Guard or Reserves where they feel they can better shield their family from AD careerism and the bloody trail it leaves behind.

How does it compare to Lone Survivor?

Absolutely the wrong answer. Exactly, my wife and children will still be here long after I'm out of the Air Force. Which do you think I spend more time on? The one that won't miss me a bit the day after I leave or retire, or the ones who will be here until the day I die? Easy choice for me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Absolutely the wrong answer.

The best people I've worked with Cyber side are out or heavily considering it. If they don't get out entirely, they palace chase. Which is great for them. Meanwhile, I'm sitting less than 5 years from retirement and I'm just... tired. I'm tired, and I've been unable to deploy. So I haven't even felt the suck of the 6/12's most cyber officers have been feeling. I don't have the people to support the missions we're asked to do. The next large AEF-band is coming and it's going to be the super-suck for the base for another 6-months. Where a single Airman takes leave, and I've got <30% work center output. Looking at the already low manning levels and no-shit deploying 30% (as of now) of available Amn. WHAT? Last time it came down to "do we spend all day patching" or "do we spend all day working high priority tickets?" I could not do both. I refuse to hold my Airmen at work for extended periods of time when the AF can't figure out it's manning. I'll burn, but I'm not going to force my Amn to. I can't quit anything like the CSAF wants, because I don't have the authority to quit and the bosses don't want to ask. Plus, what am I going to quit.. equipment accountability? Patching? Issuing new equipment? Making iPhones work? Making VPN work? That awesome IA test? Sure... it might save a little time now, just wait until the next inspection or audit. Especially since we get inspected by non-AF entities who don't care what some Gen said.

I think he means: we're using a $138 million jet to drop a $1 million bomb on a $20 tent killing a couple warriors for Jihad at a time but scattering all the rest of the cockroaches and creating ten more Twitter Jihadis in the process.

You do what you do when you put on your uniform for the Air Force? This what was just implied and to use Champ's words, "absolutely the wrong answer." This might be part of our collective problem right there. You should be doing it for your family and your family's families, as distinctly and directly as it could possibly be. If you are doing it for the Air Force itself, it's just a job and you should make your snappy quips to the management at Delta or Costco. You've lost your way in serving your country and need to recage or separate. To do your best to care for families and bring them with us out the other side is "absolutely the wrong answer"? You think we should, specifically as a service to our country put ourselves (by proxy our families) first? Interesting prism...you can put your family first by going to work at Costco. We need to do better, I absolutely agree, but if "trying our best" is "absolutely the wrong answer" (particularly when that's all you have to offer) it as hollow as the guide we're currently possessed with. It's not an all or nothing, or a "you're all in" (a statement I loathe by the way). However, if you are going to go out of your way to avoid hardship while others bear it...get the fuck out of the way. If you think what you do isn't important to the welfare of the people and principles you thought you protected when you signed up all the years ago...get the fuck out of the way. I think your family is important. I also think this work we do is important. If you leave it up to Big Blue to take care of your family, you're a fuck tard. Make the choices you need to make, if it's too much for you, step aside and let someone else with more flexibility step in to help. There is a massive gray area here when almost everyone is threading the line of maintaining the Homefront while executing the down range mission...it's on you to work it out, all you should ask of someone else is their honest best to balance things. There is and will never be any doubt who one would chose if you had to choose one or the other...if there was, you should probably file for divorce (Oklahoma is a good place for that I hear). Give me a fucking break, Champ. Sometimes you're such a tool. You know I know you're not, but sometimes... Bendy