Fuzz

As to your early examples of CSAFs, a lot has changed in 60 years. The structure of the military is entirely different, the way we wage war is different (air, land & sea vs air, land, sea, cyber & space), and the world has changed. These require our leaders become educated, there's more to leading military than tactical prowess, eventually one needs to learn to operate as higher levels by building on their tactical knowledge. Yes we overeducate our leaders in quantity but not in quality. Fewer high quality programs would be more valuable, ones that actually required significant effort but made the effort worth the time put in, and not cramming a 2 week course into 5. We need highly educated leaders but we need to max perform these education opportunities to return them to the operational front as soon as possible to leverage what they've learned not sit them on the side lines for 4-5 years.

Oh good an O-4 that's going to be shuttled up to the group/wing or ADO is really the "great reinforcements" that the guys getting crushed on the line need help from. I feel even worse that not only will you probably provide no relief but also will be some leadership position having demonstrated such great "leadership" views here on this board. But hey you're probably going to go far with the mentality you have since you're just drinking the blue koolaid by the gallon.

Oh good another "if you don't like it leave" speech, just what I needed to see the light. For a dude that spouts of about leadership principles you have pretty shitty examples so far. It's not a democracy but that doesn't give leadership the right to abuse the people under their command (again leadership 101). Talking up the good parts of the job and ignoring the shitty parts isn't leadership, it's one of those cut rate traveling life coach seminars, "Focus on the good and everything will be ok". The mission will always come first and people have been bending over backwards to make it happen. But when people raise concerns leadership says "what's the problem? You accomplished your mission, so what's the problem?". I have plenty of perspective, you're right the AF doesn't owe me a plane to fly however, it does have an ethical and moral obligation to lead and care for its servicemembers, something it is not doing currently.

I'm beginning to wondering if you really volunteered or your unit was just tired of dealing with a douchebag. The leper colony talk I'm sure exists but the most common complaints I hear are shift work, shitty locations, undermanning and few career opportunities because of the undermanning. I work with an RPA patch on a daily basis, it's been a good education experience into the community and it's a needed capability. I've eaten my words on occasion, but that's a bold move telling someone he has a sense of entitlement in a community you obviously have no clue about. Here's some leadership 101, the shit you spew about needs of the Air Force and chain of command wanting people in RPAs is irrelevant because when it all comes down to the baseline it's about people. The people are unhappy with the current state of the community and leadership isn't doing much to fix it. People will put up with a lot to make the mission happen but that only last for so long and requires a valid reason and inaction/lack of a plan on leaderships part is not one of those reasons.

This is true as well, I see fewer of these but literally for most the grass is greener on the other side and it doesn't matter what the other side it.

You have to honestly be trying to be this ignorant and blind to the current reasons that RPAs are undermanned. What makes you think the SrA isn't going to punch at the first chance to go make six figures working as a contractor?

Many on here are not washed-up pessimists including myself, we are the line flyers and Instructors in the squadrons hacking the mission. I and many others don't need anyone on here to tell me the current state of the AF. The numbers and daily office conversations say it all, and I can see it with my own two eyes. Few people I know are sticking around, several have turned down school. Colleagues with several years on their ADSCs are positioning themselves to leave for the airlines with knocking out their ATPS or considering which assignment will best set them up to for a palace chase and airline gig. The daily conversations in the office becomes more and more about the airlines as more dudes that punched get hired. I have the luck of working in an awesome squadron under phenomenal leaders but that doesn't change the over arching fact that the AF is in a leadership death spiral that even a young captain like me can recognize.

Change of leadership probably, Col Starr wasn't your run of the mill AF commander.

Open source the F-16 costs about $22K/hour and the KC-135 is about $20-25K. In my view, the reality is the most likely threat is going to be these low end wars in shitholes all over the Middle East and next Africa. The China/Russia/Iran threat is always there and we must continue to expand our high end capabilities to exceed theirs. We are an extension of the political arm of the government but it's only as good as the person on the other end taking us seriously. The ability to kick in a near peer countries IADs before they even see us coming is part of that leverage. However, we also can't bankrupt ourselves by only buying the most expensive, highest tech toys. The fight today and in the near future is going to be ISR, CAS and Strike focused against an adversary with limited anti-air capabilities. We should be investing in a cheaper way (I.e. A-10 replacement, A-29, Scorpion) to free up budget space for the F-35, 22 etc. I despise the F-35 because of the acquisitions nightmare our leadership has turned it into and the depths they have gone to manipulate data, spin narratives and pit fellow airman against each other in an MWS hunger games fight. It is a needed asset and could bring a lot to the battlefield, if we don't go bankrupt and it ever gets flying.

Makes sense for fighters and training bases where recall isn't an issue, however in the mobility world I've been called 3 times that I can think of and put into crew rest for a 7-10 day mission alerting in 12 hours. It's not a fairly common thing for the C-17 community but it happens often enough that the travel restrictions make sense.

Your point? He asked where people's units kept their written leave policy.

Our standing pass and leave policy is set by a policy letter from our squadron commander.

I believe it's 6 hours driving at McChord, anytime you fly or go to Canada, and then during Nov-Mar you can't be through the passes in case they close due to WX.

Not 100% sure but I think that person was allowed to stay in after the court martial against the other pilot came back "not guilty".

Yes, your point is what?

No that was the infamous General Johns also the one that court martialed the McChord crew for the airdrop fatality.

Is that like assistant to the regional manager? In all seriousness what does he do/is in charge of?

U.S. Supplied TOW Missile against Russian T-90

My apologies, further proof for the need of a sarcasm font. The sarcasm mirrors reality so closely now a days, its hard to tell the difference.

I joined to serve my country not get rich, however I also joined an organization that touts integrity first but has a horrendous toxic leadership problem. Everything bad is only temporary if those in the leadership positions with the power to change it actually care, so far senior leadership seems content to keep their head buried in the sand as people run for the exits. People are bailing this ship left and right and nobody is asking why because they hold to the idiotic mentalities of "if you don't like it get out" or "there's always someone to take your place". Most people are tired of being deployed to fight a war with no long term strategy or staring down the barrel of a 365 after years gone already because nobody will throw the bullshit flag on useless or obsolete deployed billets. I'm tired of hearing my career field is overmanned and watch AFPC make forces cuts like a bull in a china shop, while I'm left trying to fill lines with no bodies available or quick turn the crew to their 2nd or 3rd trip in a row because there's literally nobody else. I watch my tanker bros come home from a 60 day deployment to turn right back out to another 60 day deployment a month later. I'm tired of leaders who refuse to step up and tell Congress we don't have the people and funding to perform the missions they task us with, while watching those same people bend over backwards day in and day out to ensure the mission doesn't fail while hoping that help is just around the corner. I'm proud to wear my uniform on a daily basis but that doesn't mean there isn't a problem with our organization and it is most certainly not above scrutiny.

So they hand them over and then what? They just sitting there decaying while the CC even goes more to shit?

I wouldn't put it all on red, but I'd highly consider it.

Gen. Hyten proposes contracting our base network support to free up money of offense/defensive cyber. How exactly is paying a contractor going to free up money? Although if they can fix a lot of the problems (not hopeful due to previous mentioned issues with DISA/regs) maybe it will be worth it. https://www.stripes.com/news/air-force/air-force-to-develop-cyber-squadrons-general-says-1.391974

Unregard, I confused the T-50 with the pictures Clark posted. To your comment I agree.