Danger41

Damn, that’s a tough watch. Reminded me of that C-130J out of JBAD a few years back. Heartbreaking stuff.

Class A’s are actually higher than historically? I did an informal look at AIB’s (https://www.airforcemag.com/docs/type/accident/) and raw numbers aren’t any different than the norm over the past decade.

USA Men’s Wrestling won 2 gold medals in crazy dramatic last second fashion. David Taylor and Gable Stevenson. Kyle Dake and Thomas Gilman won a bronze and Kyle Snyder is going for Gold Saturday. https://youtu.be/fSXPmihrX3c https://youtu.be/ADcFirJcob4 The women’s wrestling team is also bringing home serious hardware. Love to see it!

Posted for a hilarious look back.

Wow, that’s really unfortunate. Truly sorry to hear that on an individual level but also on an institutional one.

Have you ever really had commanders like that? I’ve had a bunch of commanders and not one that would go out of their way to punish you if you stood up for what’s right. I’ve had some great ones and some real turds, but nobody truly vindictive. No shit there I was…when I was teaching at the WIC we had a commander who had never been a black border previously and made a big deal about getting the real experience of earning a black border and not just pencil whipping it. He was a previous DO and had a notorious rep as an asshole. He gave a brief that wasn’t up to the standard to the cadre (who was grading him) and asked for feedback. One by one the cadre told him how good it was and gave him glowing reviews on the grade sheet. It gets to me and I told him how that wasn’t up to standard and I hooked him. I said that if a student did that, he absolutely would have hooked and that’s not passable as an instructor at the WIC. There was a gasp in the room because he had a reputation as a hard ass. Fast forward to the standard one on ones with squadron members and he asked me why I did that. I told him my job is to produce the best Patches that I can for the combat squadrons and uphold the standard. He said thank you and ended up making me the #1 guy in the squadron as a brand new Major. Nothing bad happened at all and it helped the cadre realize that “selection is every day”. I don’t tell that story because I’m so great but I truly think if you do the right thing for the right reasons, you’ll be fine. And if you truly do have someone punishing you for doing the right thing, go to the IG. Sorry for the thread detail.

I followed all of it and actually communicated with the guy several times. I think it’s an interesting commentary on social media and modern times. Where is the line of GOAD and all that? Who knows. I also think people that think the AF is overreacting to dudes tagging individuals by name and not offering anything constructive but making very personal and derisive statements towards said individuals need to take a step back. Communicating directly and publicly to a GO from an anonymous meme page and repeatedly saying “fuck you” and other things is going to produce a result. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but you can’t act surprised. I’m biased against anonymous social media shit talking so this is just me. It just feeds into the mob mentality and jades the force for no reason. Hell, every one of those anonymous climate surveys I’ve done for a squadron I’ll put my name in the comments if I actually make a comment. I hate that anonymous shit and pussies that don’t speak up when asked unless it’s anonymous. Commanders aren’t psychics and most of them want to do a good job. If you don’t give them feedback when they ask, how do you expect them to fix things? And saying “this is stupid fuck you” isn’t feedback.

Now she’s pulled out of the individual competition so her olympics (and probably career) is over. To focus on her mental health. I’ve got absolutely no problem with people focusing on their mental health. I think that’s great. I’ve got a problem quitting in the middle of the biggest competition in your sport and costing your teammates. And ViperMan, she’s probably the most popular athlete on the planet during the most popular sport during the olympics. So a lot of people care. I know it’s not Trump or covid restrictions, but I appreciate your always valuable input.

Last night (aired today) Simone Biles - greatest American Olympic gymnast- withdrew from the women’s team competition after one event. Original thought was a medical issue but it turns out she withdrew because of mental health concerns. The US ended up finishing second to the Russians for the first time in several olympics. Thoughts? Smart/brave/cowardly/??

My case was 5 days of getting my ass kicked completely. After that it was fine. I’m a healthy person with no real health problems and a physique that I would describe as “godlike”. Medical science would probably describe me as balding mid-30’s dude that could lose 15 lbs. I don’t know about the other people, the antecdote just stood out to me. I don’t really care to join in on either side of this but I do find it interesting the number of vaccinated folks getting sick. If I hadn’t been vaccinated, I guess I would’ve died since I was sick for so long.

I know this doesn’t count, but I also got covid recently after vaccine. Doctor told me that “60% of the people getting it coming in here are vaccinated”. Not scientific but that’s what the doctor told me.

So on the topic of “toxic leadership” and command pressure to fly, I’d love to get opinions on this scenario. And spears as well but hopefully someone can learn from my thought process and your responses. Several times in deployed environments, other AC’s have elected to cancel based on low weather given instrument approaches available (e.g. 300&3/4 when an ILS with 200 & 1/2 is available) with no forecast showing it will get worse or significantly better). The phrase they’d always use is it’s the “conservative” choice. Well one time I’m the DO deployed and a guy who is a bit notorious for canceling in that scenario comes to me and says he’s going to cancel. I ask why and he says for weather. I had him walk me through it and there was usable weather at the field at Takeoff and Land +\- 1 hour and also a viable alternate (which admittedly was 250 miles away and would reduce 75% of station time). After showing that, I said I didn’t understand the cancel decision. There was then a bleeding heart speech about backing up AC’s and undue pressure to fly when it was unsafe etc. I’m not particularly proud of my response but I said that I’d back up his decision every time, but I asked if we need to look at our evaluation criteria because we don’t have Pilot Weather Categories and all of our AC’s are approved to what’s on the plate. He said no (he was a SEFE) to which I retorted why aren’t you going then? “Because that’s my decision” and I said “then why do we have the 202v3 if it’s just up to your gut”. He then asked if I was ordering him to go when he felt unsafe and I said no, I don’t have that authority and wouldn’t do that if I did. We canceled the line, NBD and then I get feedback at the end of the deployment from this guy about how I set up a toxic environment and he cited this particular case. That pissed me off but I just let it go and moved on but it ate at me for awhile. A few other guys made similar comments while others praised me for upholding the standard, etc. Debrief? Is that toxic? Where’s the line between toxic and upholding the standard? Is this in the same ballpark as the Tinker OG?

I’ve seen you say this multiple times. What’s your source on that? Isn’t it just a federal agency policy to wear mask if unvaccinated?

Interesting. Thanks.

Regardless of the OG/CC’s actions, wtf was the exercise white cell team thinking planning that exercise that way? That is some piss poor exercise planning.

I’ve never seen someone who deserves to be an incredibly salty Major more than you. Speaking of public disclosure, want to share why you feel that way?

I’d rather use that then some of the things the uncreative types come up with. Unsolicited advice, but if you want to make an acronym for a callsign, don’t make up something that looks like an unpronounceable fix on an approach plate.

I’d much rather just make the damn vaccine mandatory instead of this passive aggressive shit I see a bunch of Commanders doing. Since it’s not mandatory, STFU! I was recently asked why I didn’t want the vaccine and I produced several pages of my vaccine history from all those deployments and asked if they would want another shot for something with the pK of a fly swatter. One man’s opinion.

Reading all the comments about how he should be helping the poor and solving climate change and such just makes me want to ask these people what it’s like to go through life as such a giant pussy.

I don’t think they’re lying. It’s the personnel operating the stuff that’s the problem. Put me in front of a piano and it’ll sound like complete shit. Put Mozart there and you’ve got something.

Yup, the pilots being targeted doesn’t surprise me. Hopefully they can protect them and they can put lots of bombs on lots of targets.

Classic scene that’s obviously farsical, but the part that I’ve come to understand more as I’ve gotten older is the line of “someday this war’s gonna end” and being dismayed by that. I haven’t gone overseas in a few years and I can’t believe that I miss it. Looking back on it, I really enjoyed my 3 Afghanistan trips and really felt like we accomplished some good things in the tactical sense. It’s all a ball wash in the grand scheme, but being there to help out some young Rangers or even just walking to mid rats at Dragon with the Bros was truly a great time. Queue up Dos Gringos “Back in the LPA” while I fill out these TPS reports.

They probably just swapped them out for you knowing your neck and back are wrecked with that level of experience and you can’t see them anyway.

I haven’t been in AETC since 2011 but see Gen Wills interaction across the various Facebook groups so that’s all my knowledge. Why the hate for the guy? UPT evolution decisions or something else?

FWIW, I got a “fix it” email from United with an availability 2.5 years in the future...