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1. Sex with the wrong person. 2. Money 3. Offended the wrong person. It's usually #1. I've long thought that Big Blue should publish leadership mishaps like we do for aviation, with the same level of privilege protections and the overall intent that we can learn from the mistakes of others. You don't have time to make them all yourself, so might as well learn from others. One could make the argument that the information eventually comes out, but I'd counter with the same "links in the chain" that safety discovers. How many times in a leader's past did we have a chance to avoid the catastrophe waiting in the wings? How can we learn to break that chain earlier in the sequence? If you fire someone, I think you should have to write that report. Might keep a Bob busy enough to cancel one of the BS meetings that we love so much.

Screaming at his wife. When another GO tells you about going to his house and hearing him pull his wife into the hallway then scold her loud enough for all the other senior leaders to hear...he is a sociopath lunatic and proof the system is completely broken.

Truly a sign that there is not a loving, compassionate god that regularly intervenes in man’s affairs…

Why do we have UPT? Just take civilian pilots with commercial licenses and go straight to the FTU. After a couple years you won't notice the difference. And why do we have ivy league schools anyway? It's not like you can't become a doctor or a lawyer online. Just do that instead. Having trained UPT 2.0 students, the answer is clear: You don't realize what you have until you don't have it anymore. If you want a high quality product, you create competition and a set a high bar. That's what every elite university does, or should do. Judging that process by the vocal minority of arrogant asshats it creates is not how you measure the quality of the process. Yes, military academies need to improve (and get rid of the social experimentation bullshit). So does EVERY university. If you can't understand the reason for having a process that's competitive and pursues creation of elite levels of education, university level R&D, and leadership, you're seriously missing the point. Zero hit the nail on the head. We need USAFA and the other Academies to live up to what they're supposed to do: create and cultivate high quality mission focused military leaders. I think they still do that to a degree, although they've noticeably strayed into social activism. That means they need to course correct, not cease to exist.

Just increase the flow from Texas A&M, problem solved.

Don’t know about this particular one, but it’s astounding the amount of parents I see/hear of who are lazy fucks and don’t do shit to parent their kids. And then they wonder why their kid ends up all fucked up. It’s not the kid’s fault, it’s the parents’.

I’m a fan of the Academies and think they should exist as a means to produce the top caliber of Officer for our military branches. What I see coming out of USAFA is a bunch of cynical weirdos that seem to have gotten an accelerated education on bitching about everything, knowing the levers to pull for career advancement, and (in a sad amount of grads) a lack of warrior spirit that I can only assume isn’t inculcated at the Zoo*. That last point is my main gripe with USAFA. Not to discount the academic rigor and the outputs of that such as the AC-130 gun fairings mentioned above, but IDGAF about that. I want Officers with a warrior mentality produced there, not big brain nerds. If you can make both, perfect. Some folks can do both. However, the masses can’t and if you have to favor one over the other, pick the warrior side. *This doesn’t apply to all grads. Some of the best I’ve seen are Academy grads.

The sad part is that everyone knows it’s a lie, but too many are afraid to say anything out of fear of being called a bigot. It’s like we’re living in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”….

New PRF automatically sets DP if "tranny" checkbox is marked. 🤣

The academy didn't stray, society did. It will continue to stray until Something Very Bad happens that reminds society of the importance of serious thinking. If we win that struggle, we will have another century of seriousness and success. Rinse and repeat.

In for a shock when they separate us by sex at the POW work camp. It’ll almost be worth losing the next fight if I can’t watch this ass find out nobody cares what his pronouns and they will beat you the same way they hit the other men. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Like George Carlin said, “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it”.

The only Power 5 Florida school that didn’t lose a bowl game this season!!

I was surprised the WG/CC wasn't fired in addition to the OG.

Well, to be accurate, he’s an 11S, but I get your point. Slife the knife.

The idea is to let dudes transfer in time for the next semester at their new school. If they're going to "play school" as well, you've got to let them transfer in December.

The defense rests.

Please….. help me understand why the armed services can’t meet their recruiting goals.

Bowl games are so fucking dumb now. Half of FSU isn't playing. They gotta figure something out. Viewership numbers can't be good.

Looks like the committee got it right with FSU.

www.biffsunicornfartpowereddildos.com

Fired by the new AFLCMC commander who had an official taking command ceremony a couple weeks ago. I'm at W-P and this is interesting. Sent from my SM-N960U using Baseops Network mobile app

And for Biff...

Can confirm preventing at least one dumb copilot from pancaking an aircraft. ...but don't call the Huey names. She doesn't deserve that.

Wait, are you suggesting leaders at an academy that is supposed to develop leaders should demonstrate good leadership rather than contracting out their responsibilities? What a novel concept.

Damn, fired to be retired in a rank that most officers never reach. Thoughts and prayers.

Priority of our DoD 🤡

I pissed and shit myself reading this! Thats a LOL brother...for real We're having our next sale on New Years day! Don't miss out on the Big Henry buy two for one deal. We also call that the "General" special..

Ahhh USAFA... like Big Blue, never passes up an opportunity by throwing money at problems in the attempt to get someone else to clean their house... What the Academy never seems to comprehend, or maybe even just acknowledge, is that a major contributing factor to many of their "problems" is that the place is full of cadets. (Yes, Edward Longshanks 'Braveheart' reference for the other grey-beards in attendance). Cadets are going to make mistakes-- a population demographic of 17-23 year olds, under intense pressure daily (debatable-- it was FAR tougher back in the day!), with limited and regulated pressure-relief options, suddenly given the anonymity of social media and intense social issues streaming around them-- some are going to make bad choices. If you read the referenced articles that came out of VMI back in 2020 (there are free ones that can be found other than the Washington Post's paywall), you can see the genesis of this issue-- apparently it's not relegated to the East Coast, but USAFA believes they have a problem. So, what would this silverback recommend? Lean into it. Get ahead of it. Build a center specifically to address these types of things-- call it the Character and Leadership Center. Build an old-school sundial to mark the location. Wait, they already did that? Seriously though-- I'd direct AOCs to get on the app and OBSERVE. DO NOT INTERACT! Look for the leadership lessons and get to the root causes of the statements rather than taking a comment purely at face value. Publish the quotes internal to your organizations and get your cadets talking about them. It has to be a conversation-- cadets will tune out a lecture. They're experts at it. All college students are. Like the Dodo of old, the cartoons we published were generally attacking an issue that we had at the time. E-Dodo, in some ways, made things worse by removing the oversight of the official publication. There were times that we pushed the limit just for the purposes of pushing the limit-- the kid in the back of the classroom who yells "F#CK" just because he knows he'll get a laugh and the punishment will be worth it. But does it contribute anything meaningful? But we also dealt with serious issues through humor and wit. Our idea was that if you could laugh at something, you could address it and move on. Unfortunately, the expletives for laughs ruined some of that credibility. Not all-- not every artist went down that same rabbit hole. Like the best instructors know-- look at what the student asked, then look at what they DIDN'T ask in that question. Same with statements made via this social media outlet-- look past the words and look at the issues that they're really commenting on. They're tough issues-- EXACTLY the kind of thing I want officer candidates working through in an ACADEMIC environment. Realize that some are going to take it too far-- it's a given with that age group. Expect it-- lean into it. Get ahead of it and show them where the off-ramps are before they run themselves too far in the heat of the moment. Some will no matter what you do. The ones that exhibit TRUE toxicity can be shown the door before they end up on the COMMANDERS ARE DROPPING LIKE FLIES thread. It's hard-- leadership is hard. Contracting out a solution will seem easy-- it's specific, measurable, and will seem attainable as printed on OPBs that get people promoted and off to their next assignment while the true problem still festers. Cadets will go deeper underground once the contractors show up on the threads. They'll spoof and move on. And contracting out leadership will only make the problem worse. But Zero, isn't your idea what they're trying to get at? Provide the examples so the Character and Leadership Center / AOCs can do their job? Maybe. But why use a middle-man then? And the worst part of the contract is the direction to de-anonymize the users. That's going to push them further underground and make your problem a maneuvering target. They're YOUR cadets. And guess what? This solution works for ROTC. It works even if there ISN'T an actual problem! It gets our future officers talking about what's going on around them. Too many instructors think that such discussions are a third-rail that carries the potential as career-ending suicide. Maybe. Maybe not if you do it right. Doing nothing or ignoring it is FAR worse in the long run. Lead them. Teach them. Cut the ones who don't make the grade. Remember that they're kids, and their vectors need to be adjusted. Mine sure did. I'm thankful for the mentors I had at the joint and every assignment afterwards who took the time to keep the engine running, but in a constant and consistent state of adjusting that thrust.

Sorry dude, you communicate like a frustrated toddler. If I had to bet on who's just the random person on the forum, and not an educated officer with leadership experience, you are probably my top guess. And considering we have Biff here now, that's saying something 🤣😂.

You know there is still a South Korea, right? You have the most curiously simplistic view I've seen in a long time. That's not to say the argument against Ukraine aid is necessarily simplistic. It's mostly just you.

Why does the USAFA even exist anymore? It’s an expensive way to make an officer and I can’t see any notable difference in quality between the rotc/ots/academy grads. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Can you point me to a pro-Putin stance articulated by a Republican? I am not a Republican, so I won’t defend what they say, just curious what you’re talking about because it does not check with counterpoints I’ve seen to the “cult of agreement without debate” that is our UKR policy. I personally think it unwise to pauper ourselves by enriching the corrupt dictatorship in Ukraine. I appreciate the coldhearted calculation of using Ukrainian people to degrade the Russian military, our historic strategic adversary. And I appreciate the Machiavellian political ruse of pretending this issue presents only the binary choice of supporting Putin or protecting democracy; it has worked on several dumb people and I do like effective TTPs. But ultimately I cannot support what we’re doing in UKR because I don’t believe we can afford it. And I don’t think the geniuses who oversaw 20 years of GWOT are capable of doing this one correctly. I hope you don’t mistake this viewpoint as pro-Russian aggression.

I’m currently on mil leave finishing up my retirement but looking at the January Bid lines out of Orlando they varied from 60-80 hours, some of them with 18 days off for the month. Since I’ve been gone for a couple years, I’m not sure what the high time flyers are getting, so I’ll leave that question for an active guy. Before I left though, the sky was the limit and as long as it was legal and you could put it on your board, you could bank $$$. Personally, life is great. I ended up having to take my ex back to court and won full custody of the kids (hence the reason I am putting the airline life on hold temporarily and finishing up the mil career). We are all extremely happy. I did end up getting remarried and she has been amazing and my kids all call her “mom”. My older two have pretty much nothing to do with their birth mom, and my youngest is the only one that goes for any sort of visitation. It’s funny what a little bit of wisdom, maturity and life experience will do for the second time around. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

That’s a tough development. Sorry to hear that. Whatever you end up doing, know that the Air Force needs studs at every AFSC. You can make a giant difference in mission and morale by your competence and leadership in support roles. Quick story…WW2 kicks off and my grandpa, his cousins, and brother all left their town of Lakeside, SD (population N/A because it was just an incorporated farming community) to sign up. My grandpa only had a 9th grade education and wouldn’t be accepted by any service but the Merchant Marines as a baker. He was very disappointed but did his best. Fast forward to 1944 off the Philippines when Typhoon Cobra hit (3 destroyers sank, over 700 killed). From his rodeo background, he was one of the only guys that wasn’t violently ill and ended up relaying the orders to help control the ship and save the crew. He was also the POC from the ship to Admiral Halsey and was personally cited for heroism and exceptional performance by Halsey after the typhoon. The whole point of this story is that I don’t know if there can be much more disappointment after Pearl Harbor than being told you’re too dumb to do anything in the military and can only bake bread for the Merchant Marines. However, you never know when your number will be called. Even if that had never happened, baking bread and providing good food for men is a worthwhile and important role that you should be proud of. Whatever you end up doing, it is also a worthwhile role and an honorable profession that deserves your best effort.

You've been hit by... A smooth criminal

Thanks again guys. Unfortunately the CR did not go the way I had hoped. This is definitely not how I had envisioned this journey ending when I started it 6 or 7 years ago, and it hurts about as much as you would expect, but I’m gonna try and still be the best officer I can be wherever I end up.

He wasn't dumb. He saw what his superiors valued, and he put on the mask. Just another "great dude" as a captain who only ever wanted to be a general, at any cost.

DEI and intersectionality should be returned to hell where they originated. When you seek to divide, it’s usually successful, to your detriment and to your organizations.

True story. On a Nellis trip, a new OG (from off station) was standing in the lobby of the casino/hotel, when two girls walk past with lots of skin showing. He says to the D.O., "Oh look, the working girls are out already." D.O. says, uh sir, that's two of your 1CO's... 🤣.

This is one of the most abused lines of false reasoning I've heard used in attempts to back up nearly any argument these days. "I didn't see it so obviously ... *insert claim*" It's arrogant, irrational, and lazy. In my military career it was the go-to argument of every arrogant career climbing O-6 to justify why he didn't want to implement the COAs his team had just spent days creating to solve some problem. Absence of evidence is not evidence of anything. You choosing to be actively ignorant about what actually happens at the academies is simply evidence of your own intellectual habits. Are you grad? Have you ever been to the academies? You are looking at elite centers of education and research that are service centric and saying "I don't know why we have that." The Jet Lab at USAFA by itself sets it apart as an elite development center, not to mention the R&D done on aviation tech that takes place at the airfields. Have you ever seen the 105 hanging out the side an AC-130J? The aerodynamic fairings on and around it were initially designed by cadets as an aero department senior project. Or perhaps the cadet chemist who created a whole new style of body armor. I know for a fact the USA and USN both have equivalent stories. But I'm sure those kinds of developments would definitely happen at Berkley or Embry Riddle, so yeah, clearly we should shut down the academies. Come on man. If you're going to make an argument against them, please do. But put some meat behind it. Otherwise, pull your head out of the sand and do some observing.

What’s wrong with the AF? https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3628675/slife-promoted-to-general-assumes-afs-second-highest-military-position/