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Maybe his speechwriter is the person that yelled "WTF" during his speech.

I look at it from the standpoint of sex: pulling out isn't the best method of birth control. However, it's better than not pulling out, especially when I can't get a condom. Now find a way to make that work for masks. You're welcome.

I'll pick up that torch. 6. Crozier retires with an O-6 pension. 7. Lands a comfortable, high-paying gig. 8. Writes a book and/or becomes a news SME. 9. Looks back at his decision with his head held high. 10. Realizes he's much happier now that he's out of the shitshow that is the service.

This is what it sounds like when you know you done fucked up.

Air Force: You are mission essential! You and your job are so critically important we need you to continue to come to work during a pandemic. Also the Air Force: make a face mask out of an ABU sock

Having a speech writer does not guarantee sticking to the script, as seen on a daily basis.

Do any of us really believe this was the guy’s first course of action? How many conversations, day in and day out, are happening at every single wing right now? In my humble opinion, not knowing the facts, I’d call that one a Hail Mary that didn’t manage to work...until the media basically force it. Anecdotally, it was just days prior to me hearing about this letter that the SecDef Himself was saying he would not evacuate that ship. Innocent until proven guilty...holds. His command...more fickle...does not. To tell a group of sailors, most of whom have this virus now, to shut up and color is low class at best. I hope that one gets his. Not because it’s untrue, but because mouth is running for poor reason. This one is a real mess. Fortunately we forget easily... Modly 2020! ~Bendy

Name that commander.

Because they fired a commander that did something that most of us wouldn't accept from an O-3 under our command? "Hey, CNN... we are way short on jet fuel needed to accomplish our mission; the food is terrible because a bunch of refrigerators are broken; and we have leaks in over half of the bathrooms. I hope my bosses will get this stuff fixed!" CAPT Crozier sounds like a great guy and a number of my Navy acquaintances have nothing but good things to say about him. I have to think that he realized that jumping that much of the chain of command was going to have blowback. Maybe he didn't realize how much... who knows? But he had to go. SECNAV's handling of the aftermath is a completely different discussion.

Origin story of my screen name. In short, don't do it, it's not worth it nor necessary. Let my life regret be your cautionary tale. 😄

Mask fabrication techniques and filtration effectiveness aside, this is just the latest in a laundry list of half-assed mitigation measures put in place by leadership to simply look like they're doing something. Want to hear another one? UPT bases are currently doing two-team alternating day ops with half the IPs/studs flying one day while the other half has the day off. The idea is to mitigate the spread by reducing total pool of people you interact with. Which sounds like a decent idea until you consider the fact that they're all working in the same building, sitting at the same desks, flying the same airplanes, and storing their gear in 6-9 inches from someone else's in a cramped peg room. My buddy's quote referencing this policy: "it's almost like we're doing something.. to look like we're doing something.. while not actually doing anything at all."

This one was me. I got told by the AD recruiter when I was graduating undergrad back in 2004 that I wouldn’t get a flying spot without a STEM degree. Recruiters never lie, of course, so I took it as the truth and chased after playing fireman. About 15 years later, the turntables and here I am; an age-waivered ancient 2LT in UPT.

Unbelievable. Let's count the F2ckups: 1. Navy apparently blows off Crozier's request for assistance. 2. Crozier blasts an email regarding the ship's readiness, most-likely knowing it would get picked up by the press and thinking it would add leverage to his cause. 3. Navy chain of command breaks-down, Crozier gets fired from the top. 4. SECNAV visits the ship and off-the-cuff riffs his tough-love "real talk" over the ship's intercom. 5. SECNAV issues an embarrassing public apology. What's next? Our enemies and allies have both got to be asking, "WTF?"

And that’s when you leave and don’t come back for the rest of the day. I’ll laugh if someone tries to chief over this. I already don’t have to get my haircut, who gives a what color my bandana is? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ll be sewing mine with the standard issue sewing kit from initial AF inprocessing. It’ll probably be about two weeks before I can make it in.

I'm just frustrated at how this mask guidance came out. On a Sunday afternoon, instructing people who largely aren't supposed to be leaving the house to come to work Monday with a mask... From somewhere? And the Air Force wasted no time dictating appearance rules for the masks... But provided zero resources to anyone to fulfill the guidance. Maybe it is better than nothing, but it seems like a lot of higher level leadership decisions. Can't do anything smart, can't solve the problem... But they can do something visible so they don't get fired for "not doing enough".

Put a trash bag over your head with a rubber band around your neck, that’ll keep that shit out.

This is going to have the effect, intentionally or not, of reducing the reported caseload, making containment efforts look more effective. And of course, making the death rate look even worse.

SECNAV just help create an Undue Command Influence defense that a first-year online-law school student could close

My ROTC offering even specified “Electrical Engineering.” Nah.

Def a regional dependent thing wrt ownership, airpark living, and the feasibility of clubs vis a vis sole ownership. I own because I've never lived in a place where rentals or clubs were a viable option, or even existed in the first place. So the decision matrix was a Hobson's Choice. My life has been too nomadic to make partnerships a palatable option. At this point I'm too set in my ways to want to dabble in the opportunity cost that comes with cost sharing. Access is worth the premium to me, under-utilization be damnned. Some urban locations tend to have the density to support flying clubs, and sometimes it's the only way to attain covered storage in these areas too, since the waiting lists and hangar costs in desirable metropolitan locations are stiflingly scarce. To be clear, not all metros have the same availability of general aviation. There are socioeconomic and demographic reasons for this variability in outcome within metros of otherwise the same population size, good bad or indifferent. So again, it's all gonna be regionally dependent of an answer.

Agree. When I applied for an ROTC scholarship, all I could get was a "technical scholarship" and you had to be working to obtain a "technical degree", which was Engineering, Computer Science, and maybe something else I can't recall. There were "non-technical scholarships" but they were few and far between.

The vagaries of ROTC scholarships is a factor. Depending on how competitive commissions are, ROTC tends to goes back and forth between, “Only tech majors get $$” to, “Do you have a pulse?” Obviously the only settings are idle and max AB. A good friend of mine is a kick-ass Nav and majored in Art History and I am a Nav-now-RPA Pilot and majored in International Studies. Needless to say our year was more “have a pulse” and less “calculus required” haha. I know others only a few years later who had to choose between a tech major they didn’t really want to pursue and not getting a scholarship/commission.

69. Repeated attempts by all parties to problem-solve using public opinion.

I can't imagine the average pilot will fly enough per year to justify owning their own plane. Couple reasons I own. For one, I love flying tailwheel aircraft and there isn't one for rent within 100 miles of me. There is one place that has tons of tailwheel aircraft, but it's a 2.5 hour drive and their insurance restrictions are ridiculous (still a cool place). With my own aircraft, I can fly it anytime and anywhere I want. I like knowing what's going on with the plane...I've seen videos of guys doing some pretty stupid shit in rental planes. Finally, I enjoy the "community" out at the airport, our airfield has Cubs, N3Ns, L-5s, a chipmunk, a Meridian and everything in-between. We have a good group that loves to share rides and have beers at the end of the day. It's a bit extreme and you really have to have a passion for aviation, but I hope to move to a fly-in type community when I get out of the Guard. I've hung out at a few and it's awesome grabbing a coffee in the am and strolling down the road (taxiway) and wondering into hangars. Guys are always willing to show you their planes, plus there are tons of A&Ps around to learn from...which is always great for airplane ownership. Not every community is created equal, so you have to choose wisely.

The benefits of wearing a mask may be non-zero, but I think the jury is still out on the benefits of haphazardly wrapping a t-shirt around your head.

Nice. Here's the mask I wore today. Gate guard said I didn't look like the picture on my ID

I was rocking the last-minute cut-out fabric off my black T-shirt from the black boot days, folded through two rubber bands. Look like a ghetto Shinobi. Fit's worth a shit but hey, 'resiliency'. 😄 Sounds like sage advice for that SECNAV clown to take right about now.

Activity equals achievement.

One wing commander put out a policy at 0700 this morning that masks will be ocp print or ocp colors to match the uniform.

Bet the Navy is sad that Top Gun II was delayed right about now.

Agreed, although my base put out guidance on how to sew your own mask from household materials. Like with a sewing machine; because we all use those things...

I feel sorry for any Navy recruiters right now.

Well...that's going to go well. Here's a fun one with sailor commentary (aka yelling) at certain portions. My fav @ 1:58 - "What the fuck?"

Great, wear a fucking mask since there's a ton of people who are asymptomatic and don't even know. They're not dumbasses since we can't even get tests to most of the folks with some of the symptoms. They wouldn't test any of my Airmen/buddies who didn't have all the symptoms: One dude had all of them but the fever..."no test, not COVID-19." One dude's wife is positive, no test for the rest of the family, they only had fevers and slight cough..."no test, not COVID-19." Another guy had all the symptoms, not healthcare worker..."no test, not COVID-19." Buddy in another Sq, all symptoms and had to get carried into the ER, not healthcare worker, "no test, not COVID-19." He had to have his family carry him to the bathroom he was so exhausted. More data will become available and we'll adjust. Acting like something isn't a perfect solution so why try...are you a Col/GO? This whole thing is the greatest example of "it's not about you" and give a shit about your fellow human being.

This dude won’t make it through the day. Calling the commander of the TR “naieve and stupid” to his former crew...what an assclown. https://www.foxnews.com/us/acting-navy-secretary-ousted-uss-theodore-roosevelt-captain-stupid-naive-coronavirus and here’s the audio he broadcasted to the ship’s crew https://youtu.be/G7mwlwO0mdM

Guys, it's not hard. Wash your hands, don't touch your face, stay home if you can. If you have to go out, stay 6 feet away from people/social distance if possible, and wear a mask in order to reduce/slow transmission of the virus. The mask is for those around you, in case you have the virus and are contagious but not yet symptomatic. Keep your mask clean, change it out when it gets moist. Assume it's dirty when you take it off, so wash your hands. That goes for cloth masks, n95 respirators, surgical masks, bandannas, etc. If you are sick, stay home. These are the TTPs we have right now, hopefully we can get more research into it and industry to move on a future solution to enable better TTPs.

First person to get “chiefed” for inappropriate mask wear in 3, 2, 1...

So if you do AFTP’s/RD/RSD’s you can do 2 a day and they count 2 points towards your 50. Orders (AT, MEST, MPA, etc) only count as one.

Take care of your balls, and they'll take care of you!

MOPP gear for all my friends...

It's not like it was a unilateral decision. It was a scheduled port call. And again, his immediate boss was on the ship. Does anyone think his boss said "don't stop in Vietnam" and he did it anyway? Edit to add: at the time they disembarked the ship in Vietnam, the country had fewer than ten cases total. It was before the travel ban from China. It was before Italy had their first case. It wasn't the height of the epidemic.

Organize your drop sheet based on what you feel you would enjoy doing the most after UPT. Trying to play the system or plan for beyond your first ops assignment is pointless and won’t end well. By the time you qualify for any of the weird, non standard assignments they may no longer be a thing, your life will have changed, you may no longer desire to apply for them. As much as I’m sure you and all your buddies in UPT feel you can stick it out for the long game, you will not be okay doing something you don’t enjoy for years, no matter how much you feel you could.

I had an '88 RV-4 for 20 years and was always tinkering. Purchased a 2010 RV-8 5 years ago and it has been pretty much gas and go. Newer RV's seem to be set up better. Define your mission. RV's are not as solid as a spam can. Flew mine MN---> AZ in one day and I was still vibrating when I went to bed but would never trade it. My -8 is the last plane I will ever fly.

Dick move. It costs absolutely zero fucking effort to write two lines (which are already handed to you and scrubbed by about 8 different layers of the Bobs in between!) and give a chance to a record to succeed. In fact, it takes MORE effort to go in and delete everything after it's gone up. Such a waste of manpower in the end. Sorry this is your situation, brother...

He won't be fired for long.

A valid question; here's my opinion based on my involvement as an AF O-6 at NSA working airborne programs for the Asst Dep Director for Operations, Military Affairs and post- retirement as a civilian in OSD (DARO, OUSD/ISR, and NIMA/NGA)at the time The answer is that in the very early 90s, Bill Lynn, the Director of DARPA (actually named "ARPA" at that point but returned to its original title of "DARPA" later in the 90s), and Bill Perry, the DepSecDef (not sure if they were in those exact positions in the very beginning, but by mid-90s they were) believed that unmanned aircraft had the potential to revolutionize airborne operations, starting with ISR, by reducing personal exposure to threats, enabling extended ISR (long duration ops) and save money by reducing the manpower costs in the systems. Additionally, they believed that a new acquisition concept called the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) could speed up the introduction of new systems from the current (in the 90s) and painful 15-20 years. The idea was to marry up the contractor side and the government side early in the development cycle to better work out operational issues while designing the vehicles (sounds good...didn't work!). They married the two ideas and DARPA initiated the High Altitude Endurance (HAE) and Medium Altitude Endurance (MAE) programs in 1994. The HAE program envisioned two platforms; a high altitude "U-2-like" vehicle and a smaller low observable, craft for better penetration of highly defended areas, referred to as "tier 2+ and "Tier 3-" in their concept terminology. The MAE program started with an existing much less capable unmanned RPA called the "Gnat", built by General Atomics for another purpose. You'll note here that this effort was a DARPA technology development effort, not an acquisition effort responding to an approved DoD mission need. In fact, the Air Force was not particularly enamored with the idea of unmanned mission aircraft and did not support the effort; there was no AF money or manning in the POM to support it. In fact the HAE program plan itself says there is only one required outcome...and let me quote from the ARPA 6 Oct 1994 ver 1.0 HAE CONOP..."A dominant objective of the HAE UAV program is to obtain the maximum capability possible for a set, non-waiverable Unit Flyaway Price (UFP); accordingly, while there are performance objectives, the only requirement that must be met is the UFP." In other words, it doesn't have to do anything except fly, hold a camera, and cost less that $10 million a copy; no operational needs have to be satisfied. To many in the system, the real effort was for DARPA to develop the new acquisition concept, using the HAE and MAE as exemplars. The AF eventually got the aircraft because the outcome of an ACTD was to be either: 1) a failed program, so cancel it, 2) showed promise, so move on and correct issues, or 3) Provide program residuals to the eventual user (AF in this case) for them to decide to either keep and operate or dump. The ARPA and SECDEF seniors decided it flew, collected something, and (sort of) met the UFP goal (at about $15.5 each), so they chose option 3 and passed it all to the AF (both HAE and MAE, although the DarkStar segment of HAE was cancelled after it crashed on flight 2. Why they kept it was the usual case of political and industrial influence, I guess. Some of us suggested the best course of action was to dump the Global Hawk because it met few operational needs, would cost too much to upgrade (if it could ever be upgraded...too little space, too little power, too little payload), and met few of the original desired capabilities, We felt it would be cheaper to take the money and start with a clean sheet design, using the knowledge gained to drive the new (unmanned) platform (which we referred to as "Global Truck"). The estimated $200-400 million extra was consider too much money by leadership, so we stay on the "cheap" track...which I suspect has cost us an extra $5-8 Billion by now (just my guess). As for the ACTD experiment, it hit a few bumps, too. When the Predator program was turned over to the AF and told to operate it, they found the DARPA program provided no money or manpower in the DoD budget to do so, no tech data was ever developed for the Service (it was all contractor proprietary) so they couldn't fix it, no ground control systems built except the contractor's test stuff so they couldn't deploy or fly it fly, No additional money was provided by DoD or Congress to the AF so the AF started a program called "Predator 911" to find money (to operate and buy support) and manpower, and facilities, "robbing" it from the current and future years budgets, causing major disruptions for years. As for GH, the idea of killing the U-2 and replacing it with the GH didn't float either, because the GH had practically no operational capability as delivered and it took a decade to develop the RQ-4B with more capability and slightly better sensors. So, that's why we have it! BTW, as far as Perry and Lynn were concerned, the success of unmanned systems since then probably indicates their vision was a success, and I can't really argue that they'd be wrong. Its all in your perspective.

BWAA! Hahaha!!!