Leadership at the 'Deid

[afnav]

If anyone gives a shit, there is now wireless internet hubs in all but one of the BPC dorms, the BPC mall, and a 100-yard area (conservative) around the BRA. The last BPC dorm had the equipment installed today, and should be up by the end of the month. That dorm is mine, so I don't know if the signal is strong enough to penetrate the foot-thick walls to the rooms.

You are not allowed to plug in power strips into the outlets at the BPC mall, so if you have peripherals that need them, don't go there.

[slacker]

That's gay

Not that there's anything wrong with that....

[Guest Krabs]

That's gay

Not that there's anything wrong with that....

Embed failed...

https://www.hulu.com/watch/59748/family-guy...n-peter?c=15:33

[CHS17]

If anyone gives a shit, there is now wireless internet hubs in all but one of the BPC dorms, the BPC mall, and a 100-yard area (conservative) around the BRA. The last BPC dorm had the equipment installed today, and should be up by the end of the month. That dorm is mine, so I don't know if the signal is strong enough to penetrate the foot-thick walls to the rooms.

Some of the smoke pits on the CC side has WiFi w/ about a 20ft radius. Just in time for me to go home.

[Guest Yoda]

I'm actually gonna say you are a dumbass:

There is nothing cool about this place.

1. There are not a TON of people there are people there that weigh a TON.

2. Yes there are, and no it doesn't.

3. The only people that pull their weight are the ones that weigh a TON pulling their weight to the DFAC. I have plenty to hurry home to.

Differing opinion equals dumbass. Got it. There are some hefty folks over there which your pun comically pointed out. I'm heartbroken over the dumbass comment but I'll press on....

[capt4fans]

I'm actually gonna say something nice on here about the Deed

Yoda,

As evidenced by your total lack of SA and the thread topic, it's called the 'Deid for a reason. As in Al Udeid Air Base......Deed would be that thing to your house that you get once you finally pay it off totally.

And as evidenced by the rest of your post, you are obviously not a flyer who has to continue to put up with bullsh!t rules that make our mission harder to execute. The only good thing I have to say about the Deid is that I"m not there. That place BLOWS

Edited after daynight posted. Damn I have to stop drinking when I post.

Edited April 22, 2009 by capt4fans

[daynightindicator]

Yoda,

...

And as evidenced by the rest of your post, you are obviously not a flyer who has to continue to put up with bullsh!t rules that make out mission harder to execute. The only good thing I have to say about the Deid is that I"m not there. That place BLOWS

much more succint than I was going to write.

basically i saw Yoda's post as a perfect example of why the Deid continues to evolve the way it does. Especially the comment about being at a base where the mission is number one. As anyone who flies out of the Deid knows, that is far from true and is only even remotely conveivable due to the efforts of the people who truly accomplish the real mission everyday despite leadership's best effort to make it more difficult.

Evacuating my dorm because of a supposed "bomb threat" (that was very blatantly just a joke - albeit a bad one), forcing two crews to break crew rest and thus cancelling two lines, potentially leaving troops in the AOR without close air support for the better part of a day, is NOT putting the mission first. I won't even get into the stupidity of evacuating people from buildings designated as SHELTERS and forcing them to congregate CLOSER to the supposed "bomb" - that ineptitude is for another thread.

Saying a place is cool because you might run into someone you knew is rediculous - it's supposed to be a forward operating base in a combat location - not a class reunion.

Saying that most of the people there aren't "slackers" either means you haven't been there long or might be one yourself. The permanent party people I spoke to talked about how they went downtown to Applebees EVERY weekend, and went bowling/rollerskated, etc or went shopping - of course that's after suffering through a (gasp) 40 hour workweek. Might just be me, but during my two deployments to the Deid I made it downtown ONCE (sacrificing some good sleep in the process), and usually had trouble telling what day it was due to a rotating schedule where a 12 hour day was short. I won't even get into our awesome maintenance personnel who worked 12 on/12 off 6 days a week (sometimes 7) to keep us in the air. Talk to them about who qualifies as a slacker.

I can see from your perspective why the Died might not be "all bad." Unfortunately for the sake of the real mission, that perspective is exactly the problem.

[sputnik]

Evacuating my dorm because of a supposed "bomb threat" (that was very blatantly just a joke - albeit a bad one), forcing two crews to break crew rest and thus cancelling two lines, potentially leaving troops in the AOR without close air support for the better part of a day, is NOT putting the mission first. I won't even get into the stupidity of evacuating people from buildings designated as SHELTERS and forcing them to congregate CLOSER to the supposed "bomb" - that ineptitude is for another thread.

Reminds me of a deployment to Iraq with the Army. We did a practice evac. The dumbest mf'ing Sgt Maj I've ever met (and that's saying a lot, I've met many and most were stunningly dumb....I digress) is somehow in charge of the clusterfuck. He says, with a complete lack of irony, that instead of evac'ing to the shelters, we'll evac next to the shelters, that way they can gin up "little bears" (his speak for "litter bearers," took me a while to figure out we weren't looking for care bears) to go back into our now collapsed, shelled workspace and collected casualties. I asked why we would abandon a hardened, though bombed, facilty to stand next to a really hardened shelter in the aftermath of an attack. Instead of say, standing in it. And if there was a concern for care bears, we could appoint them from inside the shelter as easily as we could in the open field.

I shit you not, he did not understand the question, but you could tell he was pissed off at the smart ass AF officer.

Sorry, go back to bashing on the 'Died. I'll be there next week and am very excited to have a reunion.

[donkey]

I won't even get into the stupidity of evacuating people from buildings designated as SHELTERS and forcing them to congregate CLOSER to the supposed "bomb" - that ineptitude is for another thread.

/facepalm

[Guest Yoda]

Can't say I'm surprised at the backlash at my post. I don't know how many post I've made on here but the majority of them are ridiculed and picked apart relentlessly. No big deal. Still a good read and a faceless environment.

No, I am not a flyer. Don't view that as a good or bad thing just a fact. I serve a role in the AF, and I served a role in the Deed. As I stated, I worked in the 8EAMS and cargo/pax world on the base. In my view of the installation it was a hub for both cargo and pax. We brought in alot of support for both the base and support to be filtered out into the theatre. We also brought in the majority of the folks who served a function (whatever it was on base from clerical to security) and we handled alot of troops from all services and civilians who were on their to or from another theatre location.

In my little box, I had a decent expierence and at the end of the day it felt like what we were doing was relevant. Spin that and pick it apart all you want...it's a damn opinion.

It's a stretch to call it a "class reunion" becuase one thing I enjoyed was seeing people I hadn't seen in years; and getting to meet new people. We weren't there for that, we were there for the mission but it still occurred. Don't see how that was spun into a negative about the base.

The comment about permanent party eating at Applebees every weekend after a 40 hour work week is baffling as well. What's the two options to stop that: do you ban downtown, do you enforce longer work weeks? Is the goal to do the mission or not? If the mission allows you to work the 40 hours, and go downtown every wknd...........? Yes there are probably too many people there and yes there are ridiculous rules and exercises and drills that arise becuase of that. OK. That's WAAAAAAAY above anyone on this thread. You can pick apart anything on any base. Hate the permanent party at the Deed becuase they aren't working as long hours or as dangerous jobs as for an example some of the fly'ers. Why leave it at the Deed...take that mentality back home base and use it as if one person has a sh^tty job or schedule than everyone should.

And I'll concede to the point that my little view of the installation was a "hub". It's where they put me and told me what to do. Hell, I never saw where the B1's were parked until I taxied out on my flight home. Likewise I'm sure the B1 crews were clueless as to what all those damn pallets were by the Grab n Go. Maybe I am part of the problem in the view of the some of the commentor's to my post. Unfortunately for them it seems they are in the minority and as they stated there are more of "me" over there than "them".

[Guest Hueypilot812]

Yoda...

I don't think they are trying to say people who work 40 hour work weeks are somehow lazy or inept because of their job or work hours. I think much of the frustration beaming from that place on behalf of the flyers is the overall LACK of understanding the non-flying masses have towards why that base is even there in the first place. Luckily you work a job that at least gives you some visibility of part of the mission of OTBH. But most of the people deployed there don't, and have no clue. And that has created friction. Among some of my own personal experiences while at the Deid:

Having non-flyers whine about why we get every other day "off". What they don't understand is we flyers regularly worked 16-18 hour duty days. Our day "off" was often spent sleeping. Giving us days off between flights was the only way we could maintain our 12 hour crew rest as per AFI. That didn't even take into account the gradual rotating schedule, where one week you'd be waking up at noon to go fly all night, and other weeks you're waking up at 1am to go fly all day. Body clock? Forget about it. Sure, we had it good with all our days "off".

Then there was the time we would pick up our food for the day at the Grab-n-Go. As we filled our cooler with food, the food service guys would stand there with a clipboard marking down what we took, and then input it into a computer. They did this in an air conditioned office, right next to a walk in cooler. Above them was a sign that said "Our morale suffers so yours doesn't". Never mind that WE were the ones who had to walk out the door into the 120+ degree heat to go work for another 14-16 hours. We did this while strapped to an airplane, in searing temperatures that caused the aircraft air conditioning system to fall way behind. It would easily top 140 degrees on the flight deck even with the A/C on, and we've got helmets, gloves, fire-resistant one-piece suits, body armor and weapons strapped on to us to make it even less comfortable.

I can remember landing on three engines in a sand storm there once. The firefighters responded by driving out to the airplane, giving us the once over, then giving us a thumbs up, and they all drove back to their station. End of "emergency". The next day was a story in the base paper about the "combat firefighters" coming to save the day, when all they did was drive to the taxiway, then drive back. No mention at all about the crew that recovered an airplane in a sandstorm with 30-40 knot winds and visibility pushing mins. Not that I expected to be front page news, but it seemed that the flying mission was often cut out on purpose, to avoid ops looking like it was the only bunch of folks doing anything.

Not at the Deid, but at Salem...but still same point...had somebody at the gym get asked what they thought all the C-130s were doing there. The answer out of this guy's mouth? "Well, they are here to bring us supplies". Sure, sparky...they are here to support YOU handing out towels at the gym.

Also not at the Deid, but here at Baghdad...one of our guys is going to the shower to get ready to fly a REAL combat mission. In the meantime, Sather decides it's time to play war, and the sirens go off while the giant voice is beaming "exercise, exercise, exercise". He is not allowed into the bathroom, and told that he needed to take cover. He explains that he's not playing because he's just been alerted for a real mission. He gets stares and drool from the folks he's pleading with, and they respond again that he needs to take cover. He winds up showing an hour late, and the flight takes off late. We explain it to the group here and they state it would be unfair to the rest of the base if our flyers were exempt.

See where I am going with this? While we're working 12, 14 or 16 hour days, and getting shot at on occasion, we see guys that do 8 hour days in an office copping an attitude that the most important thing in their day is to get to the Texas Hold 'em tournament...I won't even start with the time they brought in a Humvee and loaned body armor and an M4 to people so they could get their "combat hero" picture taken to send home to the folks...

So now do you understand? We're not disillusioned or cranky because some people only work 40 hour work weeks. We're cranky because no one in the Air Force takes the time to understand the REAL reason they work at Base X, and the leadership goes out of its way to minimize the accomplishments of Ops so they can pat the Services guys on the back and make them feel like "warriors".

Final point I'll make..."there I was"...at SOS, giving my Job Brief. Of course it's about being a C-130 pilot. And of course after the briefing, the floor is open to the class to critique my speech. Among the critiques...my speech was too "technical...because not everyone knows what a C-130 is". That was seconded and backed up by a couple others...they felt "confused" because not everyone knows what these aircraft are, and I was too "ops oriented". No kidding...that's what they said, and they believed every word of it.

[Guest flyguy]

Huey.....spot on....great post.

[FlyinGrunt]

huey, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what "job brief" got the rave reviews? Was it a mega-dumbed-down flyer's, or some shoe's "i am so important!" one?

[Wing Sweep]

Hell, I never saw where the B1's were parked until I taxied out on my flight home. Likewise I'm sure the B1 crews were clueless as to what all those damn pallets were by the Grab n Go. Maybe I am part of the problem in the view of the some of the commentor's to my post. Unfortunately for them it seems they are in the minority and as they stated there are more of "me" over there than "them".

Yoda,

1. There are too many flyers on this forum that will keep you honest and call you out on your lame cheap shots.

2. I'm calling you out on your lame cheapshot remark about "clueless B-1 crews." I'm a B-1 pilot and prior Herk Load. I know exactly what the hell those 463L pallets are. I hauled trash to this crap hole long before those lines of pallets ever got here.

3. Even if I didn't know what was in those pallets, who gives a flying flip?! STFU and do your job just like I'm doing mine. It's not my job to know what's in those pallets. That's your job. Clueless? Really? So does that make you clueless because you didn't know where B-1s were on this base until you left back for the States?

4. The Grab n Go is actually a flight kitchen. At least it used to be. In case you forgot, a flight kitchen is where aircrew go to get food and drinks for their missions. More times than not, I have to wait for BDU wearing dudes and dudettes who are too lazy to go to the chowhall. I understand if the dudes working out on the flightline get food from there, but guess what? They should all back the F up if they see aircrew trying to get food. Aricrews are (or at least should be) priority # 1 through that line.

5. Just because shoe clerks outnumber flyers on this base, it doesn't make their view point count worth one sh!t. The only opinions that should matter on this base (with a few exceptions) are the guys flying the missions. "Hello Mr. Support guy. I need you to do X, Y, and Z right now so I can do my mission better and faster." That's the way it's supposed to be.

[Toasty]

Great post Huey.

Forcing active crews to participate in exercises is complete BS. I think it should be pretty clear that if you're in crew rest or alerted for a mission, you are untouchable by any/all external forces.

I think AFN reflects alot of that "pat on the back" mentality in the commercial advertisements about other military folks doing their jobs. I've never seen an aircrew being featured for saving lives, flying on NVG's to low-vis fields, and working regular 16+ hour days.

[Guest flyguy]

Great post Huey.

Forcing active crews to participate in exercises is complete BS. I think it should be pretty clear that if you're in crew rest or alerted for a mission, you are untouchable by any/all external forces.

But at the same time..I would just the guy get the fck out of my way I am taking a shower and have a mission to hack..if you have a problem...tell your boss..now move out of my way.

[capt4fans]

Yoda,

Here's a part of the problem with you. Go to Google and search Al Udeed.

I saved you the time and did it myself. Just click the link.

Here's the results from that search. https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=a...amp;btnG=Search

Now, try that search again, but the time, spell it AL UDEID

If you can't learn how to spell the base you were stationed at (see the thread topic on this one again) then how can I even begin to take you seriously. You don't even know where you worked. I've never heard of the Deed, unless it was in reference to my house.

I know it's hard to understand, but it called the 'DEID for a reason. Until you can learn that, we'll continue to have problems.

And yes, I know what those pallets are for. And the fact that you were clueless about those B-1s in your tour over there, shows just how narrow your view of the AF is. I'm sorry for you and for the rest of the people who feel the same way.

"Rant off"

Edited April 24, 2009 by capt4fans

[Guest Hueypilot812]

huey, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what "job brief" got the rave reviews? Was it a mega-dumbed-down flyer's, or some shoe's "i am so important!" one?

It's been a few years but the shoe briefs all got pretty good reviews, because it was full of stuff 75% of our flight understood. There were only three pilots and one nav in my flight. Two of the three pilots were FAIPs that were thoroughly brainwashed with what the "real Air Force" must be like. During the exercise where you discuss following orders in combat (those that have been to SOS will know what I'm talking about), an argument ensues, and there's nothing like a bunch of shoes and a female Tweet FAIP who just go told of her upcoming F-16 assignment preaching to a Herk pilot and Herk nav about flying in combat. I was secretly thinking "I hope you wash out of IFF, b****". OK, maybe that wasn't nice, but I don't care.

[Wing Sweep]

GUYS, GUYS, guess what? I just came up with a great idea!

Lets have an airshow at the Deid (base personnel only) so we can introduce all the aircraft to the shoeclerks who have no idea about our mission (just kidding guys, insert sarcasm now). I am willing to bet 100% the Wing king would do it. This is a great idea because it could possibly mean keeping some guys from having a day off after working 3-4 weeks straight. It would even rock more if it meant one of our spare lines couldn't hack the mish because it was busy pulling static duty.

I hope the Wing King doesn't read this because I'm seriously afraid he would make it happen .

I bet your ass I'd be the one out there on the static bird too.

Any volunteers?

Here's to you Wing King

Do I sound bitter, pissed, angry, ready to feel like an adult again? YES

[Guest Bender]

You should mention to the Qatari's that it's spelled, "Died."

I don't think they know that.

BENDY

[Guest Hueypilot812]

There is no direct translation from Arabic to English, it's all phonetic, FYI. Thus, there is no "correct" way to spell Arabic words.

[Guest Hueypilot812]

Arabic doesn't use a Latin alphabet. It's got something to do with that. There is no "correct" way to spell an Arabic word using Latin letters.

[slacker]

And the fact that you were clueless about those B-1s in your tour over there, shows just how narrow your view of the AF is. I'm sorry for you and for the rest of the people who feel the same way.

Okay- for everyone's education:

B-1s are at the Deid to blow up C-130s and provide a firework show for the flightline guys.

[Butters]

Okay- for everyone's education:

B-1s are at the Deid to blow up C-130s and provide a firework show for the flightline guys.

Like I told the bitch Airman in PERSCO.. "Hey, they don't tell us to fly all the way out here just to give you something to do."

Support troops need to learn to support and STFU!

[capt4fans]

GUYS, GUYS, guess what? I just came up with a great idea!

Lets have an airshow at the Deid (base personnel only) so we can introduce all the aircraft to the shoeclerks who have no idea about our mission (just kidding guys, insert sarcasm now). I am willing to bet 100% the Wing king would do it. This is a great idea because it could possibly mean keeping some guys from having a day off after working 3-4 weeks straight. It would even rock more if it meant one of our spare lines couldn't hack the mish because it was busy pulling static duty.

I hope the Wing King doesn't read this because I'm seriously afraid he would make it happen .

I bet your ass I'd be the one out there on the static bird too.

Any volunteers?

Here's to you Wing King

Do I sound bitter, pissed, angry, ready to feel like an adult again? YES

g2s,

Hate to spoil your Friday, but this was done during my last rotation in that hell hole.

P.S. Bendy.....you need to drink more.