Fud

what he said...

I harped on this in a previous thread about LOC/LOA/LORs, and an LOR is definitely the worst of them all, since it gave Maestro a UIF for two years, and severely limits any opportunities, and can generate a referral OPR. It's a sad Air Force we live in, but our decisions can definitely be used against us in the future. My addition to the "NOTE" issued above are the following. - Never, ever ever speak to the media. Especially in uniform. (thanks Rainman). - Never post pictures of yourself on social networking sites, or give any information away that will compromise your real life identity. - Never pose for pictures/videos involving dead iraqis, sheep, coffins, penis-puppets, strip clubs, etc...(you get the idea, hopefully). - Don't make postings online that can later be construed as being disrespectful to senior leadership...fine line with this one.

Copy, I guess the leadership was told they had to fire him, or else the SOW/CC would have gotten fired. Who knows.

LOCs, LOAs, and LORs are seen as corrective actions according to the Military Commander & the Law, and can also generate a referral OPR for the individual issued any of the aforementioned letters. The only thing requiring a referral OPR is a court martial conviction, however, it is recommended that actions are recorded in performance reports since a UIF will go away after it's disposition period (usually 2 years, but there is some variance depending on the infraction). All this to say, there are many ways your career can go down the tubes without official "administrative" action. A referral OPR would fit here, due to the fact that said individual did not "meet standards" according to the generic infractions listed on the back of the AF 707. I'll bet his/her OPR read that they did not meet standards for decisions or judgement. The individual could be taken to an administrative discharge board depending on multiple infractions, or if their infraction was big enough. This would be the only thing that could negatively affect discharge, since the guidelines for separation are relatively clear cut. FIFY? Agreed, and again, firings are made for all types of reasons, but the main one I have seen is so top level leadership will look like they are holding their leadership accountable. It's a shitty thing to see, but it happens everywhere, even the civilian side. At that point, hopefully the commander has near 20 years and can save their pension. Did you mean investigations into the SIB/AIB were not complete, or that there were open investigations into other areas? I'm not asking for specifics, but the mention of "investigation" made me wonder.

I'm not a flyer, yet I hope to always see a pilot at the reigns. I'd especially hate to see a conehead in charge. It's funny, because we don't determine what truly gets purchased. Congress does that, and we've had multiple issues since Boyd's phenomenal influence on the F-16 acq process. It truly doesn't matter if it is a good or a bad thing, because nobody will ever ask us what we think. She is there, and someone obviously trusts in her leadership ability. I wish her the best, and sincerest congratulations. However, I'd love to see her be a part of the solution of fixing the service along with Gen. Welsh.

Huge 2 on this one.

Agreed on this wholeheartedly, and was interested by the perspective of different generations in the military. When my grandfather left for WWII, there was no timeline for him to get back. He would have R&R, but that was about it. I don't remember how long he was gone at a time for, but it was significant. When asked how he felt about that, all he said was "I felt it was what I had to do". During WWII, there were gripes and complaints, but it seemed there was more of a purpose than in the conflicts afterward (Excluding Desert Storm). Almost all of the other wars/conflicts have been prosecuted in the wrong manner IMHO. Vietnam and Afghanistan could be talked about for ages, but I won't go there at the moment. Desert Storm was awesome in how short the conflict was, and how well it was prosecuted. I'm a Boyd fanatic, so I'm partially biased. Agreed on this, other than semantics of the word choice, following my response to Billy Pilgrim. I think we have fought a little to long in this conflict and that no clear objective has been set or met. Military success is measurable, and I never heard a specific objective (i.e. find OBL and kill him, etc...). I also think a lot of people in leadership roles would not like the "everything else" comes after the mission, but they are lieing to themselves if that is how they really feel.

I guess a better word would be that priorities often have to shift. As much as I'd love to say the family is first all the time in my life, it does not mean that I will not go to work and perform the mission I'm assigned. Mission, in reality, almost always trumps family (i.e. deployments, TDYs, PME, etc...). Another good quote I like is from a former squadron commander. He said "If you retire from the service and have no family to spend it with, you are doing it wrong." I guess I used a poor word choice.

I think the problem lies in the presentation of the past three letters, and who the adressees were. In the book Sierra Hotel, it mentions that, then Capt, Ron Keys was assigned the task of compiling inputs to give to the TAC commander, Gen. Creech. He wrote a draft letter, dropped it on the squadron secretary's desk, and headed to a TDY in Alaska. However, the letter was never combined with any other letter and happened to make it to the general's desk in the same form as the draft. Upon return from his TDY, Keys was called on the carpet for the letter, but Gen Creech wanted to hear how he was going to fix those problems and carry on. A few important points I see here: 1. All of the past letters, except Key's letter, has not been directly addressed to an USAF Flag Officer. Even though Gen. Welsh wanted inputs, I have yet to hear any significance come out of that action. I am not in his command yet, and I highly respect him as a person and an officer. This is not to say that no action was taken, but it did not have the same effect as Key's letter to Gen Creech. We can write in climate assessment surveys all day long, and I have seen commanders at the sq/gp/wg levels fired over enough negative comments. 2. In this day and age, if an O-3 wrote a letter to an O-7 and above, he would be run out of the service in a heart beat after receiving at least an LOR or punishment under Article 15 of the UCMJ. The words would be viewed as disrespect/contempt towards senior officials and so on. I have no doubt in my mind this is the case, since we are a much more politically correct service than we were in the past. I'm glad the general had the foresight to keep him around, but I respect the big brass balls that Keys has. 3. I agree with a comment made earlier about making this a personal decision to leave the service. My mantra is this, "If serving my country is no longer equitable to me and my family, it will erode my ability to serve before self, and be excellent in all I do". Family and mission have to change priorities on occasion, but that is the nature of the beast.

I about spit my beer out reading your post here. cheers!

Spoo...classy shit brotha...Nickel in the grass.

A short answer to the question raised in this topic..."No". That is all.

Nice website. I hadn't looked at that one in a while.

Best way to fix this problem is to use the "create rule" function. It will allow those who fill your inbox with mindless banter to have their emails automatically go into either the junk folder, or the trash. You'll see the end result when you get that puzzled look the first few times you have unread emails in your trash bin. I had a friend who refused to do this at my previous base, and he emailed the base CGOC president himself asking to be removed front the email list. He was sent an email approximately 10 minutes later from the CGOC advisor who was a Lt Col asking why he did not want to be a part of the CGOC and the buffoonery continued. My friend had a target on his back for a while because our leadership at the time was very big on this organization.

I was talking to one of our stellar SNCOs today before I left work, and she was talking about the "Top Three" meeting she was about to go to. It occurred to me that the CGOC should be called the "Bottom Three" meeting. I hope it sticks because it made her laugh, as well as the CGOs around me.

Agreed, with all the posts in between my last one and this current one. Brick...I meant to say that she might sue for libel/slander (whichever applies here) since she might know who he is. However, the UCMJ does apply to retirees. https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2006/04/could_rumsfeld_courtmartial_the_retired_generals.html You still have to watch what you say either way, although I'm not aware of many cases where a retired officer has been taken to a court martial to date.

Rainman, I applaud your trepidation to post any stories you may have on this person for the following reasons. 1. If she wins, this post could be used to screw anyone over who said anything bad about her. 2. People that know and remember her will tell the stories themselves. I've never understood any gender/race/religion discussions in the media, or that the USAF condones (i.e. all female aircrew, first female African American...you get the idea). I just wish it was listed that Capt XXXX accomplished XXX with a picture of the individual involved.

If you haven't read this book yet, then reading it is a must. I also highly recommend reading "Pentagon Wars" by James Burton as well. "To Do or To Be".

I almost sounded off here as well (Since I don't know shit about this topic), but I think I get what you mean here. The subtleties of your posts on this topic are enough for me, and I can even imagine having to be in the unit a person like this was in command of. As much as I'd love to hear some stories about the $5 dollar individual, I'd rather just see a person like this pop up from time to time and shake my head in awe, disgust, or whatever.

Nope...our OG/CD made us write up every single one. It was a huge pain in the ass working there. I had a cut off time of 7pm and I'm sure he stayed much later into the evening, and I know he came in on the weekends.

2 on this, but these taskers at my old base are few and far between (10 a month max). I heard from my old commander that taskings started late on a Friday night by the CAGs at the NAF/MAJCOM/AF level. When a General officer at the top of these chains simply wonders about something, it gets turned into a tasker.

I don't think this is what he was getting at at all, just saying that the competitive mindset can be a positive thing in the exec environment. I worked as a group exec and hated the wing exec with a passion. However, we were able to get a lot of work done despite his douchebaggery. I wish I had another exec or an exec assistant, but my group wouldn't do that.

Go to the base legal office and talk to one of the Assistant Staff Judge Advocates (ASJA) and you will not only get free advice, but they deal with landlord/tenant disputes on a regular basis. I agree with lawyering up on this one, as anything you say unprofessional could be used against you, especially if this female is a superior officer. I know you are pissed off about this, but I would let the lawyer speak for you, as you should in any situation. Agreed that a good squadron commander will handle this in a five minute telephone call, but these days, that probably won't happen for multiple reasons. a. your sq/cc will probably tell you to contact base legal anyway. b. they might have better things to do unfortunately I would do the following if I were you. a. Read the lease objectively and see if there is a way she can legally do this. My guess is no. b. Look into SCRA and see if she is in violation. c. Do not threaten legal action yet, but mention to the property manager that this person might be in violation of SCRA. Generously provide said property manager a copy of SCRA or the website where it resides. d. Seek legal action from JA on the issue. Show them the signed/notarized lease. Ask them if they are there to represent you and talk to the property manager/owner or just to give advice. My guess is on the latter. e. If the situation does not work itself out, tell the property manager/owner that you have no other choice and have "sought counsel and it seems they are in violation of SCRA". By doing these things, you will have covered all your bases, and my bet is the property manager has dealt with SCRA issues before. They will probably back down if they are smart. I have dealt with a few cell phone companies and got out of two contracts just by mentioning SCRA and that the respective companies' service was not covered in my area. Best of luck and I hope this advice helps.

There is definitely a "heritage" rearing it's ugly head in the last ten years. Blue tiger striped BDUs, A heritage jacket for the service dress, and many more fun things that set us apart from other services. They have their problems as well, but ours are pretty bad.