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Comey knows best. What could possibly go wrong with an unelected official with law enforcement and government use of force power deciding he knows best?

I dunno. I know some kick-ass Morales. They live down the street... I kid... edited to note: nsplayer beat me to it by 7 hours.

This isn't about Trump, but it is highly political and very troubling. As this is the most political thread running, thought I'd put it here. https://circa.com/politics/declassified-memos-show-fbi-illegally-shared-spy-data-on-americans-with-private-parties

My theory is that chang, being an A1 "in the know" kinda guy, saw the most recent promotion board results and he didn't get something he thought he would. The timing of his "I now hate the Air Force" works out in that the list would have floated around the appropriate A1 shops prior to release so that some ducks could be arranged regarding HPO schools/assignments, etc. While I have no doubt his pain is/was real to him, Big Blue don't care. Took that kick in the junk for him to realize that.

Well, this oughtta take care of any more fly-bys...

Argh...I knew this wouldn't go well nor would I do a good job of asking the question, but to your point: IF the board sees finance officer leading a flight of 10-15 accountants and you flying as #1 in a 4-ship, what does it see? A leader vs. a technician. Just a quick, probably not very accurate example, but I am desperately trying not to get lost in minutiae or get out-lawyered. Concept vs. details. I am not agreeing with the premise of all things are equal, but if the underlying concept of a promotion board is "potential for leadership" and not "potential to become a mission commander" then one of those things is at a disadvantage. Hence the board results you are seeing. So how do you fix that? Promote by AFSC? Put it in the ADSC that along with the 10 year, soon to be more, commitment for UPT, you WILL get promoted at the appropriate time, i.e., guarantee promotion? Does it matter about that outstanding, but non-rated officer who busts his ass to support the mission, but he gets passed over yet a dirtbag (and there are those in the cockpit - see Rhatigan, et al threads) makes it? Something just not right to me about that scenario, but that's just me.

Agree 100%. But if the promotion boards don't see it that way, then what?

Intellectual exercise. Please take the question as that and not sport b1tching against zipper-suited sun gods: Lots of complaints since the results of the last board(s) released (and even more since Air Force time began). Comments about "saving the top 15% of a commander's strats for pilots" or the like abound. I do not for a minute defend how Big Blue does promotions (trust me, I have my own war story that absolutely no one but me cares about anyway), but if you are going to complain, then at least spend a few minutes on a way to fix it (that will never be considered. The leviathan likes what it does since what it does got those in power there in the first place.) A few comparison have been made about MX guys and other support fields leading airmen while highly-qualified pilots are doing the mission. I agree, but think bigger. The ops personnel in the Air Force are, largely, technicians. Highly, and expensively, trained, but still technicians. Even AC's of big jets run a very small fire-team equivalent. Again, stay with me. Not at all blowing off the absolute library of information that every pilot has to know, the amount of buffoonery he/she has to overcome in order to accomplish the mission, etc, etc, etc. But the actual operating and employing the equipment - jet, missile capsule, computer keyboard, satellite keyboard - is the job of a technician. Obviously, not including the CC or DO of a unit (but USAF does a piss poor job of getting those people practice at the junior ranks so a good one is more a matter of luck than training/growth). IF, again, IF the purpose of a promotion board is to reward and encourage the growth of future leaders, then doesn't the technician enter the fight at a disadvantage? Leave aside the PME and other square-fills, but the currency here seems to be "being good in the jet." Which I don't disagree with. Uncle spent a helluva lot of money on you, and you expended a helluva lot of sweat to earn the wings, then keep them and be awesome (hopefully) at employing the jet. He opened his wallet to make you a world-class technician, in my opinion. He's hoping that you'll figure out on your own how to be a good leader. Not a great investment strategy in my mind since if you don't, Big Blue will get rid of you. So if the board is looking at leadership, then Capt Snuffy leading a flight of 200 would seem to have an advantage over Capt Bag O' who, even though a Patch and a mission commander, might lead a flight of 10 at the squadron. Apples to razor blades comparison regarding level of difficulty in the warfighting, but technical, aspect. But the amount of asspain in dealing with 200 airmen does equate in time and frustration for that captain as it does for the jet-jockey captain who is held back by the shoe-world. As an aside, and one that won't gather much agreement, the proposal to auto-give the top strats to rated over support does seem to be against basic fairness. As an institution, the Air Force already does that, at least so far, with the numbers of support GOs compared to the numbers of rated GOs. We are the Air Force, after all, so the big chief should be a rated guy. But the mantra of a rated guy running AFPC and doing a better job just because he's rated seems a little unionized to me (he wouldn't do a worse job, very much agreed!). But if Capt Snuffy sees he has no chance of a successful career simply because of his job, then he, like you will punch and take his talent and skills where he can advance. The difference between him and you, largely and a huge generalization, is the amount of money Big Blue spent on you. And in today's environment, you have some golden opportunities which I wish you well and hope you go for it. But if he leaves, Big Blue has to spend its resources on finding his replacement as well. Much cheaper to do so, admittedly, but a few hundred here, a few hundred there, and pretty soon it's some real money. One proposal has been the promote by AFSC. How long until the b1tching about 11Fs far out-promoting 11Rs? Or pick your shred-out to complain about. My thinking runs somewhere along the lines of making a dual-tracked commissioned and call it whatever you want, but for my purposes, warrant officer program. Similar in concept to Army rotary wing, but not run the same. You still have to grow future WG/CCs, etc, but you make the officer pilot a leader at a much younger age. Put MX back into a squadron and have Capt Bag O' be a department head (er, sts) like the Navy does. True, he won't likely be your Night 1, #1 guy, but there is no reason he couldn't be #3 or the second -4-ship lead. You also reduce the need for the MX officers. Meanwhile, your Warrants are the tactical technicians that you all seem to strive for. BTW, the pay for these Warrants would be a very special duty pay like ACP but much larger. Fly and you get a lot of money but don't have the BS PME and other squares that Big Blue demands. But you have to fly to get it. Soooo many holes in this way too long post to identify, but the bottom line is the Air Force says it promotes based on past performance, including leadership and on the expectation that you will continue to perform and lead, with more emphasis on the latter as you progress in rank. A flyer not in a command position would seem to be defensive at the board merge.

WWHHAAAAATTT?! Two sides to the story?! You obviously aren't interested in a job at the Washington Post, New York Times, or any major TV network. edited to add: Or a divorce lawyer...

So the draft outline for the script for Top Gun 2 has leaked (probably Trump and/or Russians. Same thing, right?): "TOP GUN 2: This Time It's Non-Gender Specific" Having been caught up in the 'Fat Leonard' supply scandal, former Rear Admiral, now Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell is given his final assignment as the Commanding Officer, Naval Fighter Weapons School, Miramar Naval Air Station, California. Having been the number two graduate of his class in 1986, 'Maverick's' has unique insight into what the daring young aviators have to face in flying their high-performance, stomach-churning aerial chargers in modern air combat. SCENE 1: 'Maverick' is shown being given a ticket by the Shore Patrol after he was caught driving his Lexus on the flight line road trying to keep up with an F-18 doing touch-and-goes, exceeding the station's 25 mph speed limit by nearly 8 mph. SCENE 2: 'Maverick' puts the auditorium at ease to welcome the Class of 2017B. The roster includes three women, a two-dude married couple, one undeclared person, and four heterosexual men; one black, one Hispanic, one Asian, one White. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Top Gun. I am Captain Maverick Mitchell and I want...yes? What is it, lieutenant?" "Sir, you only welcomed the ladies - which is a very patriarchacal thing to do - and the men - which just demonstrates their historic privilege. But you didn't include the zir. I am offended and have uploaded your comments to youtube. I assume I will be receiving an apology from the Department of the Navy and you after the press conference with Gloria Allred?" SCENE 3: Operations Officer Holly 'Diaper' Nowak briefing the class for a mission: "Today, you are scheduled for a 4v4 DACT - Hornets against the 3rd generation contract air. Unfortunately, the MC rate won't support it, so "Snowflake" and "Cis-G" you two will go fly a BFM. The rest of you can knock out some of your CBTs." SCENE 4: Having sweated their way through the CBTs, the 2017B class makes its way over to the Miramar All-Ranks Club where the SARC and Alcohol Prevention offices check their IDs at the door, carefully noting their data, and placing their CAC cards in the file to be retrieved on the way out, after the mandatory breathalyzer and room sweep checking for sexual assault victims. Finally making their way to the near-empty bar, as the Isley Brothers "You've lost that lovin' feelin'" begins to blare from the speakers, the four heterosexual men are accosted by the irate school instructor that looks remarkably like Kelly McGillis. But not the hot, wild-haired Kelly. No this the haggish, yet with an Adam's apple, Kelly who instantly begins to berate them for building the modern world. SCENE 5: Meanwhile, in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, the despot that rules that arid, worthless land gases and kills his citizens. Despite it having absolutely no strategic value to the United States, the President, fully backed by the hawks in Congress dependent upon the defense contractors in their districts, sends a short-manned carrier battle group to the region. Why it's short-manned, especially in pilots, is never questioned. Class 2017B receives its orders to man, er, person-up the carrier's flight department despite not having worked up or being current in carrier operations. Stepping into their F-35Cs, they find out that "this helmet is too heavy." This ejection seat is "too tall." But this all-seeing, all-knowing fighter is "just right." Flying an Alpha strike (not your father's Vietnam Alpha strike of 50 jets), this one has four F-35s and two UCAVs, our class of heroes flies into the double-digit SAM rings where they all synch their Blueteeth to some Starbuck's selected folk-rock tunes and proceed to ISR the hell out of the dirt. They return to the boat, all take the three wire, shut down. And hand in their separation papers since they each got a call from major airline. AND CUT...

I wondered where that nearly epic-length post went. My brilliant (ahem) rejoinder about "corpseman" and "57 states" only made sense when compared to your screed about how inarticulate Trump is and how gifted an orator Barack Obama was/is and how smart he is coming from his Harvard then community organizing background as compared to the Trumpinator who has decades of experience as a billionaire CEO. For a laugh, google a speech where Obama's teleprompter took a dump. In particular, you took exception to how Trump pronounces the word "Nazi." You didn't like his "Naz-eeee" and wanted whatever you think is the correct way to say the word. "Not-si" I would imagine. But, invoking a little history from someone who, you know, actually fought Nazis, you'd probably lose your mind if you actually heard a speech from Winston Churchill. His "Nar-zee" should've cost him the war at least from the pronunciation police forces. As to M2's censoring, I defer to him (and the other mods) on judgement calls. Since the posts of those others who aren't enamored with Trump seem to remain although they seem to be in the minority, your "echo chamber" also seems to be inaccurate.

Definitely "not worked up." Both sides pretty much suck. Democrats seem to be able to actually accomplish things (much that I don't like as in Obamacare). Republicans seem to be good at... well, I'm still working on that one. But in this case, they had the numbers to hold their line until, surprise!, they took the White House. High stakes game on that one because if, as expected, Hillary won, the uber-liberal she would've named would have taken his/her/its seat on the Court would have been very gun unfriendly among other issues.

Red herring and/or moot event. Or ask Joe Biden. Split control of government means not always getting one's way. Obviously, you didn't like the way the Garland nomination played out. edited to add: Given the make-up of the Senate as it was comprised at the time, no, no he wasn't qualified for a hearing and they acted via inaction accordingly. Spoken to your senators about this?

Corpseman and/or 57 states. Given the binary choice present last November 2016 between viable candidates Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, enough people in enough states chose Trump. The establishment, on both sides, didn't take kindly to that and appear to be attempting to overturn the results that both surprised and scared it. Trump was not my first choice of the GOP (I won't use conservative except for, perhaps, a couple of them) candidates. But he beat 16 other candidates in the primaries, then more than enough people did not want Hillary, myself included. He won. No hanging chads, no other excuses. He won using the system that we in the United States have agreed to use in holding such elections. He won. So we are where we are today. The Establishment, instead of seeking to change to fit the voters, is attempting to change the voter's choice via shady methods. I'm agin that. Want to ensure it doesn't happen again? Run better candidates.

Intentionally ironic? If so, well played... I only know what I read in the "newspapers." https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration-arrests-up-during-trump/2017/05/17/74399a04-3b12-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.b2fad21e5d64 Fake news?

Still not Hillary (or !Jeb!) Illegals crossing is down some 70%. Numbers being deported is up 40% (still miniscule, but it's a start) Media/Democrats/NeverTrumpers have decided they are going to undo the election results. Not to mention the freak show being generated is very effectively slowing the agenda he ran on to a crawl. If Congress has/wants to spend its time on Russia/Russia/Russia, well, not much gets done on taxes, Obamacare, and the rest https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/19/trump-press-coverage-sets-new-standard-for-negativity-study.html Not only are anonymous sources the primary means of attack, but their weapons are also anonymous. "Memo" is read to a reporter over the phone. "Someone is a person of interest," and, of course, Trump gets two scoops of ice cream. No verification of the charges/alleged facts/memos, just a breathless rush to print the latest rumor. Despite a string of being factually wrong articles in evidence. He, Trump has more than his share of negative traits to be sure, but A) he won. That should say something about the state of American politics today as well as the weakness of the other candidates EACH party ran, and B) he's still not Hillary. The man is not an idiot.

Fast & Furious (with the Attorney General held in contempt of Congress for ignoring a document subpoena)/IRS targeting Tea Party/Benghazi/Clinton home-brew e-mail server that the POTUS knew about and used/etc, etc, et-bloody-c... And not one damn special counsel in 8 years. 120 days and being the majority party in both House and Senate, as well as the White House, and the GOP rolls over, even is rushing to the microphone to bellow "Watergate!" Leviathans don't diet...

The leviathan decided on November 9, 2016 that it would not go on a diet.

All media sources have their biases. Most are for profit and their editorial stance relies on what corporate suits tell 'em to. That said, IMO about 80% are left-leaning to one degree or another. About 10% are right-leaning and a few try, but generally fail, to split the difference. As individuals, we all have our own bias and like to have it reinforced (well, duh!) That also said, take a stroll down memory lane and see if you honestly believe that Obama was subjected to the same scrutiny by as many and as relentlessly as the current Administration. While I'm nothing special, I do read left and right outlets. You find little nuggets that the other side conveniently leaves out depending on editorial slant. So you think Israel will ever share intel with us again? How much do we give them annually in foreign and military aid? And did you ask the same question when the previous Administration directly funded the political campaign of Netanyahu's last opponent? Wait, you are suggesting that it is the NYTs fault that an Israeli source was outed, and that they deserve retribution? There's no mention of Israel on any of the illegally leaked U.S./Russia discussions so someone with access to classified committed a felony and gave the information to the NYT. Yes, there should be some retribution on anyone committing a felony. Previous court cases say it's not the paper's fault and they can't be prosecuted, but the leaker can be. I hope so. Finally, in today's 5p.m. Eastern bombshell, just in time to make the evening news and talk shows. fired FBI Director Comey supposedly wrote a memo following a meeting with POTUS in February saying POTUS asked him to drop any investigations on Flynn. "Sources" in the FBI say they have seen the memo and Comey told them about it then. So, A) why didn't Comey come forward with such a charge before now? Why didn't he mention in his numerous Congressional appearances? Why didn't he resign in protest? Why didn't the "sources" do something about it then? B) Now acting, then deputy, director of FBI testified under oath that "no one had tried to impede the investigation." BTW, since 2003, the LA Times has been sitting on a supposedly damning speech recording that Obama gave regarding his views of Palestine and Israel. And they have refused to release it. Yet, a private conversation about "grabbing 'em by the pu$$y" is released just prior to the 2016 election in a vain attempt to derail Trump. Hmmmm, objective journalism? edited to add: When I lived in the DC area, my literal next door neighbor was Jayson Blair.

Washington Post, swiftly picked by the mob, reports via anonymous sources, that Trump revealed sources/methods when meeting with Russian PM and ambassador. The only Americans in the room besides POTUS were SecState, NSC Director Lt Gen McMasters, and another senior NSC staffer. All three have made on the record statements that it didn't happen. Hmmm, anonymous sources who physically weren't in the meeting room or on the record statements by the senior USG officals. But they are in the Trump administration so it's gotta be the anonymous sources that are correct, right?

Home unit would my recommendation. But, if you have a relationship with boss at current location, give it a try to save time. Bottom line, who in a position to raise hell, knows you now and can pick up the phone on your behalf? Re the IG, notionally, the IG where you are or your home station when you get there should be able to open a complaint investigation. It's not a "national" thing since it's about you. DFAS happens to be the buffoons screwing you over, but the idea is to get your problem solved ASAP. Yes, something about DFAS itself would be handled via HHQ levels. But at DoD, not USAF.

Squadron commander. Should solve this with one phone call. If not, he/she needs to make one more to: Then Wing. Ditto. Then State Adjutant General. Along with IG and congresscritters.

Given the final choices of the last Presidential election, I still, delightedly, fall back on my ABCs...Anybody But Clinton. Trump should've announced Comey's firing with "after careful consideration and listening to the advice from Shumer, Waters, et al, I fired him." Maxine Waters for President, 2020! (rings all the progressive bells - minority, woman, dumber than a box of rocks. Winning!!)

We're good. I just wasn't getting "principled" nor was I offended. I believe we are on the same page. If Big Blue keeps the stupidity set to 11, those of options will bail.

Not sure if "principled" is the right word. If it is, I am missing your point. If you meant pilots have an expensive skillset that has a real market value today, I'm with you. But remind me what adorns most of the GOs' upper left side of their uniforms in the Air Force, including, especially, the ultimate leadership in the USAF? So no, I don't think "principled" is the correct word choice.