FlyinGrunt

Indeed. I have yet to be shown in 11-202v2, 11-2MDSv2 etc where it says that any flight examiner can Q-3 any crewmember at any time. Now he can certainly report his observations and recommendations to the Sq/CC for a CC directed Q-3, authority for which is quite clear. But this "I can hook a pilot if I want" crap? I would just tell him to get the F*&#K off my airplane, take him off the orders and report what I'd done to my Sq/CC after I'd landed at my next RON. Based on an incident we had (a new AC and an FE misunderstanding the vol 2, not mention the AC's authority and responsibility for all things mission accomplishment) I'd bet my FEF that he'd agree.

But we have to have a DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM! Because we're AIRMEN! Bleh. Things I have learned in the military: generals act like 7 year olds in a sandbox, or 15 year old girls at the prom, depending on the occasion. "But MOOOOOOOM!! The Marines are wearing the same dress! I HAVE to have something special!" I called this in Afghanistan in 2010. Just like everyone wearing the BDU pattern, everyone wearing Multicam (screw you, silly acronyms) makes sense tactically and strategically (in this sense, facing budget realities.)

OK, I respect the way she essentially says, "guys, I'm not gonna do anything drastic until I get the lay of the land and see how things go." One of the marks of a good commander, unless things have seriously gone Lord of the Flies. What I cannot stand: The SECAF is the civilian in charge of the entire AF. Am I missing something, or has she not even served in the military at all? Or even the civilian aerospace industry? I used to check myself as an LT thinking I could do a better job as SECAF than he/she could. I'm genuinely starting to thing that a decent (real, full-time, top-tier) masters in economics, combined with a former O-3 patch in any community, would/will always be more qualified than the idiots we appoint. Thanks, America. I guess I we get the government we deserve.

Still pretty damn accurate. I was laughing bc nothing ever changes in this shithole apparently

Here's what I think is lacking, and I accept the possible spears. We all agree with what he's saying. We all agree that the problem is somewhere between the CSAF and us. The "leadership" in the middle, somewhere along the line, is just silently ignoring what he says and going on their merry way with compliance-at-all-costs culture. What is the CSAF doing to force THOSE leaders from squashing the initiative he seeks to foster? I think it's time for a reign of terror, in a perversely awesome sense. I know he's busy. But random visits, unannounced, everywhere, all the time is the answer. Down in the trenches, talking to maintainers at DM at 0300, or pilots getting back from TDY at HRT, or that FS at Mountain Home whose CC has apparently lost its mind . . . or hell, ANYONE at Cannon. Solicit honest feedback, with no entourage in tow, and no warning to the chain of command. Then follow up. When a stupid policy letter like banning #69 is issued, or Jim Slife opens his mouth about Art 15s for rolling your flightsuit sleeves, or an AMC senior leader pulls one of their famous political crucifixions of an aircraft commander . . . call THEM on the carpet at 0700 in service dress. Put the fear of God into the O-5s and O-6s. Start specifying that some regs CANNOT be made further restrictive, and that to do so is to risk being fired by the CSAF himself. I'm hopeful. But what I think is necessary is to make the careerists in the middle be scared to death for their careers if they do not push decision-making back to the appropriate level and stop thinking all rules are created equal and unbreakable. Curtis LeMay meets the Common Sense fairy.

nsplayr has hit the nail on the head in AFSOC. On the negative side, some analysis on the HRT vs CVS numbers: most of those folks at CVS have been stuck here for some time. Probably thinking it'll be their turn for parole soon. However, the HRT folks KNOW CVS is inevitable if they stay in. At least that's what AFSOC leadership has been preaching for 4 years now: it's not a question of if, it's a question of when. However, on the plus side (gunship only) the 27 SOG/CC gave a brief a few weeks ago outlining some of his big plans that might offer a ray of hope for our manning situation. Not immediate, not approved all the way up, but enough straight talk and plausible facts to encourage even a cynical SOB like me.

I don't fly the C-17, so I'm not going to talk out of my ass about coulda/shoulda/woulda. However, I echo what was said earlier: I respect the hell out of you for coming forward, even on an internet forum, to say "I was that guy" so that others may learn. 1. On my aircraft(with another crew), an additional crewmember did some dumb shit with his weapon and had an AD through the floor of the aircraft. He flew with us in combat a few weeks later. As he introduced himself, he finished with, " . . . and I'm that guy." Our crew respected the hell out of him too. 2. I concur with your analysis of your actions. Clearly, there are things your crew could have done better. But seeing as you landed the plane and everyone lived, I think it would be infinitely easier to live with myself, wings taken and all, than if I had been a mindless checklist monkey and, say, I had glided in a brick and killed half my pax as a result. I don't know if everything you did was right, but if I were the 4-star, I'd keep you around if for no other purpose than instilling the importance of systems knowledge and the seriousness of our business in the new guys. 3. I sincerely wish that the other recent C-17 mishap crews would do as you have. I feel that all jokes aside, there are lessons to be learned by all of us that cannot be taught by an O-6 politician briefing an SIB/AIB, and all of us would respect those crews more for having the courage to stand in front of us and teach. 4. I'm sincerely glad you all made it back alive to see your families again, like you said. Too many aircrews have died in these wars for what said conflicts have achieved. I wish you luck in your next endeavor . . . and beers on me if I meet you.

The abnormally huge amount of rain we've been having has caused a lot of things that are supposed to be dead to be spewing pollen, ragweed, etc at a ridiculous rate. If you know that a certain allergy medication works for you, I'd start taking it now. It's like the whole base has a case of the sniffles . . .

So this guy used to be the CC of the 8th? Olds' unit? And then went full retard on mustaches . . . the irony makes me want to puke . . .

The irony of Lawman's survivability discussion is that Army Aviation tried to prove they could play A-10. Najaf - Mar 24, 2003. 32 AH-64s vs everybody on a deep strike mission. Results? 1 Apache crew captured, a shitload shot up, and the rest were forced to RTB. Mission failure. No SA-22s or SA-24s here. Or 2S6. Etc. Everyone's got their role. The AC-130 is not an A-10 is not an AH-64. Let's be grown ups here - admit that we all bring something different to the table that helps the good guys get out of trouble and the bad guys rest in pieces.

Disagree. Spectre and Spooky are still just that. And the J is not gonna have "combat" either, at least according to LTG Fiel.

Yeah, I fly gunships, but I still think the U-28 mission is cool. I second scudrunner's opinion: don't listen to the haters. I will say that the opstempo is kinda hardcore, just like most of AFSOC . . . you will get plenty of experience, that's for sure.

Guineapig, you'd have to recall him to active duty . . . not that I wouldn't give up a kidney to see that happen and see him sent to Leavenworth as you suggest . . .

Tumbleweed, I agree with you that you shouldn't punch out without at least seeing it. That would be dumb. For the record, I have been there, a number of times. But to say that everyone that punches with more that 2 years on their commitment is an idiot is also missing some of the big picture. GC, Liquid, and countless other senior leaders have said it, and they have a point: you can't make force management decisions based on pure bitching and rumint alone . . . at some point, the bros have to put their money where their mouth is and drop papers. Until we start losing people in significant enough numbers, nothing will change. And speaking from the gunship side, it has. I've been around just long enough to have been in the era where Us and Hs did not crossflow except by exception only, and witnessed the bloodbath thus far. And guess what? A ton of dudes did, and are, dropping papers, both when HRT dudes get the orders and when CVS dudes can punch. And though a lot is due to the ramp-up to the J, THINGS HAVE (sorta) IMPROVED. 16th dudes are coming en masse to the 4th, and the squadron leadership, at least, is losing sleep over ways to get dudes away from CVS and ease the pain. Gunships, U-28s, MCs . . . someone has to fall on their sword and actually leave, or rather a lot of someones, but unless they actually commit, nothing gets better.

I'm in.

What Mark1 and NSplayer said. The biggest obstacle that is in AFSOC's control, sorta, is the absurd training pipelines to crossflow between U, H, and Ws. About 2 years ago, we were told, "nothing in the UK until you fix the TX courses!" Obviously, there are a ton of issues outside of the AFSOC/CC's control, but I'd say the earliest this will happen would be 2018-2020 or so, when you see a substantial number of AC-Js around. However, in that far-future USAF where the entire AD gunship fleet is AC-Js, I'd say this is almost a certainty. I'm about equally sure I won't be AD any more to see it.

I thought that name sounded familiar. Then I read the DFC. Yep. Murph, we don't claim him . . . and seeing as he's in MQ-9s, apparently even the 73rd won't. Which says something. <apologies for 73rd hate, just kidding . . . about them at least>

No shit. But telling us what the shoes are doing is key intel for devising our own TTPs. Or just tales of buffoonery in general. Religion debates? Take that shit elsewhere.

How about we get back to talking about Deid buffoonery? Like how many cans of Cope I'm going to have to pack in my "72 hour bag" in a few months . . .

i don't exist: 1. Please don't confuse my perhaps-misplaced nostalgia for what possibly wasn't in AFSOC for a slam on everyone else. A slam on big-blue "leadership" . . . yes. I wish I had the picture, but what AFSOC should be: remember the pic of the back of an MC-130 (I think P) with a shit-ton of water bottle piled into it for the tsunami relief? No waiting 2 months to get a whole wing in theater to palletize, stand up ATOC, etc etc . . . just get. it. done. Apply to silly, useless uniform crap and bureaucratic rules strangling the mission . . . rainman: Please see above. A squadron, command, etc isn't special without DOING something special, so if we can't do that which others can't, better . . . then what's the justification for any other special stuff? And this goes for the "talon 3" stab as well - I agree. AFSOC needs to continue to adapt, move faster than big blue to meet the changing environment, or we're just wasting money and claiming the "special" part for no reason. But seriously, if you haven't read Apollo's Warriors . . . THAT's the stuff I'm talking about.

This. HRT has gone insane, and what stuns me is the way everyone seems to be taking it lying down. I'm not saying go out and defy orders, but the . . . just defeated, demoralized way folks seem to accept the insanity bothers me. As if they have given up on AFSOC ever being different and special from Big Blue. As if they really feel that our AF has no hope of ever having the right priorities again . . . and nsplayr's use of the "straw that broke the camel's back" is spot on. Are my sleeves important? no. Morale patches, my t-shirt color, etc? no. But when you're running the command ragged with deployments for a decade or more, endless alert commitments locking people down, all the above bullshit and the threat of Cannon . . . there are a lot of dudes just one morale patch away from voting with their feet. Leadership, if you want to fix retention, do some give-and-take to show us you realize that the sum total of the BS is pretty high. Meet every increase in The Suck with a reduction elsewhere. So the new CC has a hard-on for sleeves? OK. But he's BFMing the rules to get us Friday patches, cool. Massive inspection prep taking our family time? gay. But the WG/CC just called a down day after it, and the SQ/CC bought a keg. If you just keep piling on useless rules and obstructions that make the mission harder to accomplish and life just generally suck, eventually one meaningless thing will be what makes a guy punch out.

JS - looks like I stand corrected, thanks. Always good to get the correct info. I think my sentiment stands though. Stract's point is also valid - if you've got the A-code, you're not a copilot anymore (at least for that flight.)

eh, and AMC says a copilot is a "first pilot" but that doesn't mean it's not BS as well.

Yeah, I'm an AFSOC dude and I believe there is only one guy in my entire freakin squadron who can now get the damn giant reports. The rest of us had our accounts expire, never were created, etc. Terrible move, AMC.

WTF? Can you source that? I'd like to know what else (other than small payload, esp for the gun) they are screwing up.