AnimalMother

I don't think the 524th is where you want to be right now. From what I hear, the climate is rather hostile and acrimonious.

I hear this a lot, and while I agree with it in some respects, I think you have to be a little careful. Our founding fathers were indeed Christian, and they certainly invoked many of the teachings of that religion. However, they did not do so in an attempt to proselytize. Honestly I think they realized that at a very basic level, many religions are very similar and they wanted to protect the ability of people to follow a religion of their choice in order to lead a moral life without the government having the ability to dictate what religion that would be, or even worse, what constitutes morality in the first place. When exercised properly, religion is a vastly preferable guiding institution than the dictums of big government. Much of this is nearly moot however, as we have strayed very far indeed from the vision of our founding fathers. I highly recommend the book "The 5000 Year Leap," if you haven't read it, absolutely fantastic.

Honestly, that's really not all that different from all the people who sign their emails "have a blessed day," or something similar. "Allah Akbar," is not a terrorist rallying cry. But, I agree, the level of "PC awareness" in the military is off the deep end.

...And it was as valid 13 years ago as it is today.

People. Leadership is people; knowing them, taking care of them, empowering them. As a commander, your people ARE your job. They will take care of the mission regardless, your obligation is to take care of them. People. The rest is just background noise (mostly). Just my 2 cents...now back to your regularly scheduled program of drowning the embarrassment I feel towards my squadron in copious amounts of alcohol. Ugh...

Good Lord, just when I have a "hey, the Air Force ain't so bad" day, I can always count on this forum to set me straight again. I seriously wonder how people become such self-aggrandizing, small-minded, narcissistic dipshits. Probably something along the lines of the nurture vs. nature argument, but who the hell knows. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the WIC shibboleth: "Knowledgable, Credible, Approachable." Too bad so few truly walk that walk (not saying that I'm the role model here, but I sure as shit make a concerted effort not to be a douche). Finally, maybe I'm missing something here, "waive your dwell?" Didn't think it was up to the individual at this point. We just tried this and it takes 1 star approval, which was denied.

Haha. Don't you have more important things to be doing with your time?

Damn skippy. Hopefully he'll start taking a closer look at how his subordinate commanders are executing his orders and intent. That's the problem with these types of things, it all depends on what your definition of "is" is, right?

Apparently the online masters degree the Air Force paid for you to complete neglected to critique basic grammar. Whatever, I'm sure the tax payer will still see a satisfactory return. Yea, about that... Just ing with you man.

Or even worse, EWOs.

Personally, I'd be happy to see this but it will certainly put the AFSOC folks at a disadvantage with all the Q3s they like to throw around. Well, some of them at any rate.

Not sure id agree with this 100%. I came to AFSOC in '07 expecting to find a bunch of hard charging, mission focused, tactically proficient folks. Instead, I found a lot of small-mindedness, arrogance, and tactical flaccidity-all excused by cool knives, cool tactical vests, and "air commandoness." Granted I was only in one small corner, but I haven't seen much to change my original conclusions in the last 7 years. Sure, I've had the opportunity to do some cool stuff, but the lack of realization of potential in this command nearly brings me to tears. It's an unfortunate symptom of what I like to call excessive operational inbreeding. Additionally, we've had a terrible run of the most phenomenally abysmal leadership I've ever seen. The queep wasn't brought in from the outside, it was fabricated and embraced internally. But yes, we've tried to grow too large too quickly. I head something once about the folly of mass producing SOF. I also heard something about how people are more important than hardware...Naaaa, must be making shit up in my mind, probably need to drink less. 2.5 hour staff meeting? Yup, 'nuff said. Back on topic, free beer for whomever posts an unaltered picture of Fiel with a clearly discernible mustache.

AFSOC policy memo prohibiting mustaches in 5, 4, 3...

Too bad his RIF/VSP programs aren't as squared away as his custom tailored blues shirt and cufflinks. I didn't know that uniform modification was authorized. On a more serious note, you've asked the million dollar question here. My guess is the answer is currently unpalatable to most people. We'll see how long that lasts...

Yea man, that pretty much sums it up. The most salient point here being that, in general, the Air Force (and by definition the leadership that runs it) really doesn't give two shits about its people. Anyone remember good old jimmy slife telling us that we were all replaceable, every single one of us, and he didn't care how many people decided to separate? Seriously, you can't make this shit up. But then, why would we expect our organization to act any differently that the organization it is a part of? Large bureaucratic organizations are a lot like wild animals. When push comes to shove, they are really only concerned with 2 things: survival and procreation; and they will gnaw off their own ing leg if it guarantees survival. Everyone here lives somewhere on that leg.

Beer good, grammar hard.

I find it interesting that we have an entire thread dedicated to how ed up the Air Force is, but when an outsider lobs some spears at us, everyone rushes to defend the organization. To be perfectly honest, I trust Gates' assessment of things more than any leader I know in the Air Force and I share his distrust of the service. Maybe he has a personal grudge, or maybe he spent just enough time in the service to know how myopic, inbred, and close minded we really are. I was happy to see Moseley go, but not so happy to see Stephen Hawking's long lost brother take the reins (honestly I expected him to be a little smarter). However, I think we're missing the forest for the trees here. The problems in the Air Force do not stem from our preoccupation with F22s or our reluctance to embrace UAVs, they come from our unconscionably pathetic ability to produce real leaders of substance, intelligence, and vision. Or, alternatively, maybe our problems are forced upon us by a system that is hopelessly corrupt and self serving and beyond the influence of any single man. Either way, it's hard to deny that the Air Force is in rough shape right now and will be for the foreseeable future. Good Luck Mark... Shut up Drew Brees

Wow. I am at a total loss for words here. This has turned out more buffoonerous than I had ever even imagined it could. Unbelievable. AFPC, you guys really outdid yourselves on this one. Good thing I never planned on it working out for me anyway. But, whatevs, already got the ATP taken care of on the AF's dime. There's not an assignment out there that will convince me to stick around for one second longer than I have to. Year and a half to go...

Except for that one time when we did. Wait, two times.

Truth

Did you seriously just throw core value #2 at the very dudes who constitute THE Air Force contribution to efforts over the last 10+ years? You should be ashamed of yourself. There are people on here who probably have more deployments than everyone at AFPC combined, never mind yourself. I don't know what kind of shoe clerkery you are involved in, nor do I really care, but I'm willing to bet that your definition of "service" is significantly different than the definition we use around here. Want to help clarify some of this RIF/VSP buffoonery? Please, we would like nothing more, but DO NOT come here and try to lecture us about our alleged lack of service or our lack of faith in a unit which has repeatedly implemented the most asinine, obtuse, and myopic personnel programs. Faith is a synonym for trust, it is tediously earned and easily lost, and you are not helping to earn back anyone's trust or faith here.

Unbelievable. I would seriously like to know how things work up at AFPC. Hamsters? Darts? Ouija Board? Peyote spirits?

The RZR pretty much said it all. Diversify your shit. You say you have $XX in the bank? That's cool, how much real wealth do you actually have though? Do you hold any foreign currency or equities? Any foreign real estate? Any real money? How much diversification are you actually achieving? Some food for thought: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10548104/IMF-paper-warns-of-savings-tax-and-mass-write-offs-as-Wests-debt-hits-200-year-high.html

Well shit. That actually makes some sense. Thanks. Fighter pilot?? Not according to his bio, or am I missing something?

I don't know of any commanders who would be obtuse enough to call up the functional and mention something like that outright. I do know of several however, who would be vindictive enough to affect such ends, albeit via more surreptitious methods. Ultimately, I think it depends on who your commanders are, but I agree with Porkchop here, proceed with caution. It's difficult to know what ends up on the "for eyes" section of one's record. On another subject: VSP eligibility matrix -> 2004 year group eligible PSDM 13-130 -> 2004 year group ineligible WTF?