What's wrong with the Air Force?

[Champ Kind]

21 hours ago, Majestik Møøse said:

People don’t have fun in the MAF because it’s run by Chiefs, wanna-be Chiefs, support officers, and some rated guys that pander to all of the above. Life in garrison is dominated by bureaucrat queep and non-support, so any fun doesn’t start until you’re at least 69 tacans away from the MOB, and only then if you have a good crew.

This was life at Travis 5 years ago, for me at least. Sq/CCs, in unison with the OG, once reminded aircraft commanders that they were still responsible for checking their .mil emails on the road daily, just in case someone required an immediate answer for some queep. You’re in crew rest? In Thailand? With only your personal laptop and CAC reader you stole from DOV? Well we need quarterly award bullets from 2 of your boom operators yesterday, and by the way we all hate you because we’re still in the office.

When I was there, the thought of Travis AFB, and by extension its AD flying squadrons, generated a near-Pavlovian wretching action associated with non-stop, no-gain bureaucratic queep churn. There was no squadron morale, and certainly no desire to hang out for any amount of time in the building when the emails slowed down enough to allow it.

The U-2 is a complete 180 from that. The MOB is fun, FOLs even more so, the flying is rewarding and fun, and the work is all to make things actually better.

 

9 minutes ago, joe1234 said:

What's there to get? You extrapolated your personal bad experiences at Travis into being a MAF-wide problem, and how life is better being in U-2's. Which, I'm sure your new life is a great experience and all, but the problem was never the MAF, it was your priorities. I somehow managed to exist in the same MAF as you, at the same time, and had a much different experience. Because I had different priorities.

It reminds me of the dudes who choose career over family and then bitch and then complain about how the Air Force ruined their marriage and estranged them from their kids. Like, no dude, that's your own damn fault.

 

1 hour ago, Standby said:

If you play into that game it’s your fault.

This is a good discussion and worth highlighting for any youngins reading.  

First off:  it is douchey for a boss to expect crew members TDY to work their queep while on the road.  To expect that is an admission that you either can't manage suspenses or you've placed too much responsibility on one individual. 

If you find yourself in a situation where you're expected to work office stuff while TDY, you have a choice.  Like Standby and Joe have said, if you agree to do so, you do so willingly.  You have a choice.  You're not going to receive paperwork or something for being TDY and not working an awards package/OPR/etc.  But choosing to do so could mean "punishment" in the form of your douche boss (that we can all agree shouldn't be asking in the first place) not "pushing" you for jobs/strats/awards, etc.  Nothing you can do to stop that, and it will have effects down the road if you're interesting in making a career out of the AD AF.  On the other hand, if you're trying to advance in rank/position for whatever reason, and you have a douche boss that asks you to work office stuff while on the road, you'll probably keep yourself in the running by doing so.  Again, as Standby and Joe said, you do forfeit any reasonable right to complain when you knowingly participate.

The good news is that crew dogs are in a buyers' market right now.  You are all but guaranteed to make O-4 these days as long as you have no derogatory info in your records, and that should take you to your UPT ADSC.  You can fly the shit out of your aircraft and push this stuff off and not have much to worry about, especially if you plan to get out anyway.  

[Sua Sponte]

3 hours ago, matmacwc said:

Enlisted aircrew is why this will never happen.  Ever.

Why’s that?

[Champ Kind]

Enlisted aircrew is why this will never happen.  Ever.

Was it not an enlisted SARM troop that effectively caused the cleansing of every flying squadron several years ago?

[Hacker]

33 minutes ago, Champ Kind said:

Was it not an enlisted SARM troop that effectively caused the cleansing of every flying squadron the entire USAF several years ago?

 

FIFY.

FWIW, I wouldn't say that Jennifer Smith "caused" any of the shenanigans.  She has whatever right to complain about whatever she wants to complain about.

It is the spineless senior AF leadership that capitulated to the demands of the PC warriors that caused The Purge.  They could have just as easily responded to TSgt Smith's Congressional complaint differently (although it would have required a warrior fortitude to over-ride the political pressures), and it wouldn't have happened at all.

That same group fails to understand that they, even today, hold all the power to fix the trajectory of the AF toward the ditch.

But, hey, if Mark Welsh says that his dad never sang dirty songs, and that means there's no historical tradition of it, then I guess we can just disregard these 50 years worth of songbooks I have copies of and flush heritage down the toilet at the altar of social justice.

[Sua Sponte]

1 hour ago, Champ Kind said:

 

Was it not an enlisted SARM troop that effectively caused the cleansing of every flying squadron several years ago?

 

Enlisted Aircrew have about as much in common with a SARM troop as a fighter pilot does with a Force Support Officer.

[cragspider]

4 hours ago, matmacwc said:

Enlisted aircrew is why this will never happen.  Ever.

Same thing could be said of having enlisted patches. But now we have them in multiple communities. I don’t see namings happening in the MAF for other reasons besides enlisted aircrew, primarily it’s not part of the culture or heritage of them.  

[Champ Kind]

Enlisted Aircrew have about as much in common with a SARM troop as a fighter pilot does with a Force Support Officer.

 

You missed my point. Or maybe I missed his. Merry Christmas.

[matmacwc]

3 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

Why’s that?

A good one would break more fraternization rules than are in the book.  A bad naming nobody would go to, figure it out, it isn’t that hard.

[Guardian]

Enlisted aircrew is why this will never happen.  Ever.

Senior enlisted aircrew is a big problem in a lot of communities.

[Sprkt69]

4 hours ago, cragspider said:

Same thing could be said of having enlisted patches. But now we have them in multiple communities. I don’t see namings happening in the MAF for other reasons besides enlisted aircrew, primarily it’s not part of the culture or heritage of them.  

Big Blue does not care about heritage. Unless it involves a new uniform. Then they will be All In

[HuggyU2]

4 hours ago, Guardian said:

Senior enlisted aircrew is a big problem in a lot of communities.

I flew the MC-12 for 13 months... and the rampant enlisted aircrew that felt they were in change (and leadership that didn't fix it) helped make that a shitty assignment.   Of course, there was plenty of other things in the MC-12 that were FUBAR.  

[Splash95]

6 hours ago, matmacwc said:

A good one would break more fraternization rules than are in the book.  A bad naming nobody would go to, figure it out, it isn’t that hard.

I was in a community that had both callsigns and enlisted aircrew. Naming nights were a blast (from what I recall), the E's just didn't attend...YMMV

[Hacker]

14 minutes ago, HuggyU2 said:

Of course, there was plenty of other things in the MC-12 that were FUBAR.  

Dude...I'm right here...you don't have to talk that way behind my back like that.

 

🙂

[hindsight2020]

Do u even barrel roll bro? 

[matmacwc]

7 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

Do u even barrel roll bro? 

Too soon?   Naaaaaaaa

[Bigred]

15 hours ago, matmacwc said:

A good one would break more fraternization rules than are in the book.  A bad naming nobody would go to, figure it out, it isn’t that hard.

 

Why invite the e-dogs? Is there something that prohibits a naming from happening with just the officers?

Kangaroo courts (Navy version of the naming) happen all the time, in squadrons that have a ton of enlisted aircrew, and I can't recall ever hearing of an enlisted dude showing up.

[Hacker]

7 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

Do u even barrel roll bro? 

Well, not in that thing I don't.

I have the paperwork to prove it.  🙂

[FLEA]

1 hour ago, Bigred said:

 

Why invite the e-dogs? Is there something that prohibits a naming from happening with just the officers?

Kangaroo courts (Navy version of the naming) happen all the time, in squadrons that have a ton of enlisted aircrew, and I can't recall ever hearing of an enlisted dude showing up.

In RPAs we just invited our Es and even named some of them. I promise you there is nothing in a fighter pilot song book a loadmaster hasn't asked permission for from his wife at least once. I mean that as a compliment. 

 

[HuggyU2]

9 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

Do u even barrel roll bro? 

It’s an “aileron roll”!  Sheesh!!

[dream big]

12 hours ago, HuggyU2 said:

I flew the MC-12 for 13 months... and the rampant enlisted aircrew that felt they were in change (and leadership that didn't fix it) helped make that a shitty assignment.   Of course, there was plenty of other things in the MC-12 that were FUBAR.  

Yeah, mostly from TSOs! 

[hindsight2020]

2 hours ago, HuggyU2 said:

It’s an “aileron roll”!  Sheesh!!

"Attempted" aileron roll was more like it. But the MIF is Fair (3+) so "barrel dive" is good enough. No fighter/FAIP follow-on, press to next block. LOL 

[Hacker]

14 minutes ago, hindsight2020 said:

"Attempted" aileron roll was more like it. But the MIF is Fair (3+) so "barrel dive" is good enough. No fighter/FAIP follow-on, press to next block. LOL 

Clearly we are not talking about the same thing here.

[Bender]

"Attempted" aileron roll was more like it. But the MIF is Fair (3+) so "barrel dive" is good enough. No fighter/FAIP follow-on, press to next block. LOL 

Either way, a barrel dive out of a aileron roll is far from fair. Impressive, yes...fair, no.

Bendy

[HuggyU2]

8 hours ago, hindsight2020 said:

"Attempted" aileron roll was more like it. But the MIF is Fair (3+) so "barrel dive" is good enough. No fighter/FAIP follow-on, press to next block. LOL 

Uh... it was executed to perfection... well beyond the DLO.  Even the Russian judge gave it an "Excellent".  (BTW, isn't "Fair" a 1?)

In any case, I know these things.  I was a FAIP... and I saw the video.  

So I got that going for me.  

[Guardian]

One could be a fan because ole fingers got all twisted up about it.