That was a pretty good read. We see the same thing on the E side of the house too. We do not promote the right people with the right focus and that's why we will continue to get more E-9's than Chiefs. Careerism is IMHO one of the biggest problems for the AF. We had a Chief at the KC-135 FTU give the same new class day speech to booms, and something he would say has always stuck with me. He said "at some point another country(s) would have the same technology as us, the only thing that would separate us would be the skill of the operator. The skill set and knowledge that we gain in tech school and beyond would carry us to victory because we were the most prepared to deal with the situation". So I paraphrased a little but you get my point. We need to be focused on the mission of fighting and winning, and if we aren't doing that then lets look at what can be dropped and lets get back to basics. I am not sure what it will take to make this happen, but maybe sequestration could be the catalyst to a well needed culture shift.
Edits for grammar, spelling, and generally incoherent rants late at night.