DirkDiggler

Wait, a Middle Easten Air Force showed itself to be tactically inept? Shocked I tell you, just shocked.

Thats fucking horseshit. AF leadership has already stated they're having/going to have a problem producing & retaining qualified people for Sq command; now they're back to levying an artificial requirement for command that will drive more good people away.

Just watched Dune Part 2, phenomenal movie, honestly think it might be better than the first.

CAE currently has the contract; it was just re-bid and awarded to a company called ATC. Someone protested, so the ATC can’t do anything until the protest is resolved. Government asked CAE to bridge the contract until the protest is resolved. CAE said sure, give us X number of dollars to do it. Government said we’re not gonna give you anything, CAE said great, dueces, and laid everybody off.

I've got some buddies up there that are trying to effect change/do the right thing where they can, but agree with everything you wrote above. I've never seen this level of thrash/the HQ reaching into line units directly. I honestly think the only thing that would satisfy the guy is every -130 and person in the unit fully committed 100% of the time. On an another fucked up note, CAE just laid off 100% of the MC-J CIs at Kirtland two days ago. That's really gonna do wonders for PFT production/shortening the pipeline like CAT 5 was adamant about.

Also, that’s the second Sq/CC fired from the 353rd SOW in 4 months. 1st SOS commander was fired back in November with no cause or details that were made public. Must be something in the water over there.

Just read the 27 SOG/CC rebuttal today, that shit was harsh.

You’re correct he was an Olmstead guy, Czech Republic if I remember right. Dang Anderson is all about Dag Anderson, first and foremost. Smart guy, but a straight politician who’s out for #1. He’s better than having CAT 5 in the seat, but that’s not saying much.

Well, when one of your first initiatives as MAJCOM CC involves trying to kill the SOCOM 4 day holiday weekends, you're gonna leave an impression. Just probably not the one he was hoping for. Our sewing circle thought the next guy in the seat would be Farrell, or possibly Matrie. I get the impression that AFSOC's GO bench isn't that deep right now, but I could be wrong. If they're jumping someone ahead I'd be curious to see who; that also sounds a bit ominous given there's several young AFSOC GOs that I haven't been too impressed with.

It was quite a rough period for that Sq, for sure. I don't disagree that he shouldn't be leading anything or anyone. That period in AFSOC in general was real stupid; the command almost seemed like they were trying to out-AMC AMC with the number of Q3s that were being handed out. That said, I personally think that he'd do less harm at USAFA than his current position, but that's just one guy's opinion. While I appreciate the sentiment regarding the "Dear Boss" letter, CAT 5 doesn't and won't give a shit about something like that. At all. If anything he'd probably track down the guy or gal who wrote it, delay their retirement pending some type of investigation, and try to give them an Article 15 for insubordination or some such nonsense. I kid, but not really. I personally believe that at the upper echelons of leadership the AF knows exactly the problems it has; they're just either unable or unwilling to take actual steps to address it. CAT 5 being a case in point. After he put an Osprey in the trees as a Grp/CC, his wing commander told the AFSOC/CC "I can fix him". Nothing happened, and now fast forward 12 years we're all dealing with the fallout.

There's some of that, for sure. Definitely seems like some guys are leading scared. Since CAT 5 gave out 34 CC directed Q3s in his time as a Sq/CC and isn't averse to firing people, if you're a careerist CC in AFSOC right now you can see that logic (not that I agree with it). A lot of the mishaps/buffoonery I referenced above isn't coming from that; its coming from either ignorance or in several cases willful disregard of regs. AFSOC is extremely lucky that there hasn't been more death/injury up to this point. In my MWS, I'm seriously concerned that CAT 5 is willfully marching my community towards Class As. We're about to have an almost 50% reduction in the SOI at the schoolhouse, they're also going to stop teaching several METLs that I'd argue are core to our mission sets. These METLs will now have to be taught at the Sq, where we're younger than we've ever been; some of them are also the more risky things we do. We're also about to start getting pilots direct from the T-6 track on a shortened syllabus with less hours and experience. CAT 5 is pushing more and more risk to the line Sq/CCs without giving them any additional resources (beyond trying to throw a shitload of additional flight hours our way) to try and fix the experience problem. Most of the ideas he's pitching/implementing (large increase in flight hours, large increase in MQF test questions, pushing training onus onto ops Sqs that are ill equipped to conduct it) aren't fixing anything; in many cases it's going to make things worse, at least WRT retention and risk. The guys in HQ seem like they either don't care or are just trying to keep their heads down since if they speak up they'll get shot in the face anyway. Apologies for the long post and possible thread derail.

Honestly don’t know, this is all coming out of the HQ and I don’t work there so it’s second hand info. There’s speculation that it’s tied to that but that’s all firm as jello. There’s been a lot more buffoonery/mishaps across the command in the last year then what’s made the news, could be related to that. There’s a CV-22 all call this coming week at HRT where they’re supposedly discussing the way ahead WRT that community.

I’d argue that the cadets are young and will bounce back. They probably don’t give a shit who is in charge at the top as they’re just trying to keep their heads down and graduate. Much better him there as opposed to his current position where he’s doing his level best to completely trash/fuck up every part of AFSOC. The level of thrash in the command right now cause of him is the worst I’ve seen in 20+ years.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Project_K_nuclear_tests My thoughts exactly. This just political theater, and dumb political theater at that.

Lots of interesting RUMINT in the ether this week regarding the early replacement (soft firing?) of the current AFSOC/CC. Not sure that I'd put money on it given who his daddy rabbit is but here's to hoping.

Ha! Maybe so. I get that new things/changes sometimes take a while to implement and function correctly but right now getting the same RFIs 3-4 times a day from the same part of the A-staff cause they're not talking to each other and whatever O-5 happens to have a burr up his ass about said RFI making the most important thing in the world is kinda frustrating. I AFSOC fucked up by not having the A-3 be an O-6; probably wouldn't have been able to find another O-6 to come to CVS anyway.

Seems kinda Army-esque, at least with regards to how the proposed garrison/base commander and combat wing commander is being proposed. Ditto with reorg of MAJCOMs. In other news the move to A Staffs/groupless wings seems to be going swimmingly at my location/s. So far from what I can tell the A Staffs' primary purpose is to annoy the shit out of the line units with RFIs that they could answer themselves if they put 2 minutes of effort into it. Who knows, maybe it'll get better.

Maybe the Bobs accidentally selected the throwaway COA and no one on staff spoke up…..

I’m getting ready to retire this year after 21 and change. If the no shit ballon would go up with China, Iran, or Russia I’d do this, but probably nothing before that scenario.

Can't speak to the renovation piece but we just went through this at my location WRT to alcohol consumption at the Sq. Have your Sq/CC draft an MFR stating where/when in the Sq people can booze. Have him put a blurb in there at the end that says something to the effect of "or any other location/time that the Sq/CC deems appropriate". You should be gtg after that.

Pretty good secondaries on some of the open source videos coming out, hopefully they hit some solid targets.

China's Economy Is Shrinking. That Should Worry the US and the World. (businessinsider.com) I'm not smart on global economics at all but I found this article interesting, don't know anything about the author.

Pretty sure it was the return of that Shazam Martian. Weird, non-sensical self-aggrandizing posts followed by family insults when people called him on his bullshit. Looks like the mods already cleaned it up.

Glad everyone got out.