New AF Motto

[Red Fox]

When I joined the USAF, Reagan was still POTUS (still miss him), and we were still in the midst of the Cold War. Narcissism was abound in our GO's like it is today, IMO. But, I don't remember multitudes of uniform changes, motto changes, reg changes (they were regulations before they were instructions, does anyone remember 35-10 or 60-16?). Maybe I was too busy getting through UPT and then becoming MR to worry.

Our GO's had a high intensity conflict to stay prepared for. They had the "Evil Empire" to focus on.

It seems to me after Desert Storm and the ending of the Warsaw Pact and when "He who shall not be named", the epitome of a narcissist, was the CINCAF, the reg changes, command changes, uniform changes, etc. began and has not stopped since. CINCs institute changes and their successors change or rescind them - never-ending. It seems that some our GOs (I believe there are many with good intentions)are looking for relevance and since there is no "Evil Empire" to prepare for, they look to change the USAF to meet their desires.

It may be my imagination, but it also seems to me that not all of our current AF leadership are that interested in our current operations overseas. Maybe its not an intense enough conflict for them to give their full attention. In my opinion, if our current leadership were appropriately focused on the war, we wouldn't be having all of these changes.

With that written, I'm not going to waste my too few brain bytes to fret about it much. It is what it is and I can't change it. I am glad to see Aim High again.

Regards,

RF

Edited October 10, 2010 by Red Fox

[TarHeelPilot]

Let's see... Blues on Mondays, a new PT test, and this stupid motto. Yup, Schwartz has turned out to be a great leader.

The next motto will be "Aim High...Fly, Fight, and Win...Fly, Fight, and Win in Air, Space, and Cyberspace...Cross Into the Blue"

This is why we're a joke to our sister services. How about we focus on the real issues of the Air Force instead of wasting money on stupid policies and reinventing the wheel?

You have to throw at least one "warrior" and one "combat" in there...

[Mainer]

Love this comment from the link:

10/8/2010 10:10:36 AM ET

Well I can see the disappointment with this new motto. I've said it aloud several times and it just doesn't roll off the tongue quite nicely. Then again I do have beef with the Fly Fight Win. How does this truly encompass all AF career fields? Not all of us fly or fight. I believe a more appropriate motto that encompasses everything we do would be Push the Limit. Aim High.

Steve, Tampa

Because 'Push the Limit' "truly encompasses all AF career fields." That is the first thing I think of when I walk into a closed finance shop at 1300L.

[Slander]

10/8/2010 10:10:36 AM ET

Well I can see the disappointment with this new motto. I've said it aloud several times and it just doesn't roll off the tongue quite nicely. Then again I do have beef with the Fly Fight Win. How does this truly encompass all AF career fields? Not all of us fly or fight. I believe a more appropriate motto that encompasses everything we do would be Push the Limit. Aim High.

Steve, Tampa

Everything we do, Steve? Everything we do supports the boots on the ground. That is the mission of the air force. Securing Air Dominance and using it to support the Army/USMC/USAF/SF/whoever who need it to defeat all enemies foreign and domestic. All the other shit we do supports that mission.

I believe this is a primetime example of what is wrong with and what I hate about my generation. Apparently to him there is no honor in supporting someone besides his twitter account, youtube channel, or facebook friend counter. If it doesn't directly impact his ego, he's not interested. Same shit with reality television, TMZ, grocery store line magazines, and SNAP UPT studs crying at assignment night (or worse threatening lawsuits...it happened at CBM a year ago) because they got KC/C/MQ/B/F-XX when they DESERVED and were OWED KC/C/MQ/B/F-YY. I think it was when I played 10 and under soccer that tournaments started handing out participant trophies. WTF?! I didn't win, I shouldn't get a trophy. That's my motivation to work harder and do better next time.

I am not the pointy end of the spear, I am not a warrior, I have not done anything to earn the military discounts or the "thanks for your service" I get while at lunch in uniform. Do I work hard and am I proud of the work I do? Yes, but I don't get why so many people born after 1984 require the world to revolve around them. If Steve from Tampa had said to himself "well, fvck, maybe I'm not the guy who flies the KC-135s at MacDill, but I am the guy who works 12 hours a day in MPF/LRS/POL/MX/Comm/CP/CE to make sure that the guys who ARE flying the KC-135s to the war zone 3 times a month are getting the TDY credits they need and their records aren't fvcked up because they're probably too busy to check up on them. This is an important job I have, making sure that the records are straight. I am a valued member of the Air Force not because I carry a rifle but because I help the guys who do."

Why can't we just be proud of helping each other out? Makes me think about the guy on here a month or so ago talking about pilots in afgan...something about "you're helping someone out on the worst day in the life and they're counting on you." Certainly making sure I get paid the right amount is vastly different than keeping a fire team alive, but it is along the same spectrum.

I know this is a generalization and there are countless examples of how this doesn't apply ( like this guy who is 6 months younger than me), but clearly this is a generational thing because it sure as shit wasn't like this 30 or 40 years ago.

I don't know how to fix it, but I'm trying my best for myself and I'm open to suggestions. That is all.

/rant

EDIT: Better, AlarmRed? Seriously, I'm not trying to be a dick, I want to know what I screwed up so I get it better next time. I added some other acronyms for who may have boots on the ground. What else does the USAF do besides support this end-state goal? Cyberwarfare? Ok, I would argue that Cyberwarfare hinders an enemy's ability to fight thus making things easier for the ground guys. Space assets? That's obvious, GPS, Comm, ISR, SBIRS, etc. AFSOC stuff in unnamed countries? Yeah, that's part of who the rest of the USAF supports, that's my point.

Edited October 10, 2010 by FSUBadger

[Jughead]

(or worse threatening lawsuits...it happened at CBM a year ago)

I remember reading here about the crying... but a lawsuit (even "threatened") is news to me. Seriously? I can't imagine anything coming of that, aside from a lieutenant with an over-inflated sense of entitlement getting his pee-pee whacked.... Any more details?

[Slander]

I remember reading here about the crying... but a lawsuit (even "threatened") is news to me. Seriously? I can't imagine anything coming of that, aside from a lieutenant with an over-inflated sense of entitlement getting his pee-pee whacked.... Any more details?

It's a very long story and I've only ever heard it through hearsay. I'm not sure what the real story is, but I know lawyers were involved on both sides. It was a mess.

[Guest Alarm Red]

Everything we do, Steve? Everything we do supports the boots on the ground. That is the mission of the air force. Securing Air Dominance and using it to support the Army/USMC who need it to defeat all enemies foreign and domestic. All the other shit we do supports that mission.

Try again.

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

just more invented psudeo heritage while the AF tried desperately to minimize our real heritage (which includes FLYING)

[funny_haha]

We had a DV come through the other day. When he came in he yelled Aim High, I knew he was waiting for Fly, Fight, Win. Everyone just stood there looking at him. He said something to the effect that we must not have heard yet. When he left he yelled it again, I still could not bring myself to yell back at him.

[Guest]

When he left he yelled it again, I still could not bring myself to yell back at him.

Ugh.

[zrooster99]

He said something to the effect that we must not have heard yet.

Out of touch. Maybe he should have asked whether people had heard of the motto, and if so why they weren't pumped about it. Shit's supposed to inspire the troops, right? Right...

[sky_king]

Out of touch. Maybe he should have asked whether people had heard of the motto, and if so why they weren't pumped about it. Shit's supposed to inspire the troops create an OPR bullet, right? Right...

fixed

[Guest aero610]

Hic!

After a couple of good belts I must share with you the story on how the Air Staff came up with the AF motto "Aim High!"

There was a last minute scramble for a CSAF meeting prep and discussion was on the selection for AF motto's. Well prior to the meeting, a couple of LtC's were in the john taking a leak when they noticed the janitor putting up a sign above the urinals, "Aim Higher!" It appears the janitor was getting weary of cleaning up after some short dick missing the urinal and he was doing his best to make a "Kentucky wind age" change using the sign.

Well these two brilliant staffers went on to their meeting and apparently the selection choices didn't meet the boss approval. He started yelling some short expletives about surely someone could think of something better......

Well the two LtC's did...."AIM HIGH!"

So now you know that our motto for many years was the result of short shot from a pencil dick at the puzzle palace!

And this is no bs, hic!

[zrooster99]

So now you know that our motto for many years was the result of short shot from a pencil dick at the puzzle palace!

How is that any different from any of our other mottos?

[Whitty]

How is that any different from any of our other mottos?

Zing!

[ol-IEWO]

"Inspiration springs from great traditions. Guard the traditions of your service, built in the foothills of the Rockies and in the air over Ploesti, 'MiG Alley', Red River Valley and a thousand other places." - President Ronald Reagan, in his commencement address to the 1986 graduation class at the Air Force Academy. And "etched" in stone at the AF Memorial. Oh well.....

[AZwildcat]

Ugh. If I may share the simple yet effective motto of the gone but certainly not forgotten New Mexcio ANG 150th FW TACOS.

"We Don't F*CK Around"

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Schwartz....

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

If this thread deserves to be merged with the motto thread, then so be it, but I don't really intend this to be about the motto, rather, the gem contained in the latest AF Fish Wrapper article regarding said motto:

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/10/af-motto-brings-praises-103010w/

Playing favorites

There’s a long-standing tradition of enlisted airmen and nonrated officers resenting pilots, and several readers didn’t hide their disgust with the new motto for continuing what they think is the glorification of fliers.

“The new motto sucks!” wrote Joe Fry, who retired as a colonel in 1997. “Get over the myth that the real Air Force is only rated pukes. They are the majority of Air Force leaders because of the old-boy network. The real Air Force includes missileers, intel specialists, maintenance personnel, admin specialists, lawyers, doctors, nurses, all enlisted personnel and others who work.”

That part is about 1/3 of the way down the article, with further gems of boohooing shoeclerky. More of the same "everyone has an equal piece of the pie" bullshit that is not the case. Sorry, but the AIR force is primarily about FLYING. Whether we are flying airplanes, missiles, satellites, or trons, we are about FLYING. We are not about admin, we are not about finance, we are not about personnel. If you are not FLYING, you are supporting FLYING. There's no shame in supporting, and there would be absolutely 0.0 effective flying without effective support, but don't get all butthurt when the AIR force embraces its heritage of FLYING and its core mission of FLYING. (notice a trend in this rambling rant?)

[lloyd christmas]

Everything else is support.

[Hacker]

We'd all be better off if we acknowledged and embraced that our whole damn service is support...and that's okay.

[Guest Alarm Red]

We'd all be better off if we acknowledged and embraced that our whole damn service is support...and that's okay.

Insomuch as we exist to support national policy, yes.

[JeepGuyC17]

Not that i give a shit, but the motto does kind of suck. Oh well, back to work... flying

[Spoo]

Insomuch as we exist to support national policy, yes.

Don't worry, I just put this in your forms:

Sarcasm detector does not work in O-F-F mode.

Better R&R that bitch!

[HerkDerka]

My reading came to a screeching halt when I saw this sentence in the article

:

Despite all the help from airmen, the motto didnt come cheap. The Air Force spent roughly $400,000 for help in conducting research and focus groups, Vician said.

Really AF...Really?

Edited October 31, 2010 by HerkDerka

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

My reading came to a screeching halt when I saw this sentence in the article

:

Really AF...Really?

don't forget that all that "help" from airmen was put on disregard. And how many people did we fire to pay for R&D of this asinine motto? If this isn't FW&A, show me something that is (aside from TIB, that's confirmed FW&A)