What's wrong with the Air Force?

[Shakermaker]

Sat in a wing staff meeting yesterday, wing leadership is all in on it.  When he started to give the "if I can't trust you to wear the right patches, how can I trust you to make the right decisions in the aircraft.." speech I swear I could hear the boots song playing in the background and my desire to reach out to the embassy kicked in.  1 more year of this BS.

[Boomer6]

Anyone have serious ideas on why we're doing uniform inspections? I have trouble believing the general's actually believe they're is a connection to uniform inspections and defeating china.

[ClearedHot]

2 minutes ago, Boomer6 said:

Anyone have serious ideas on why we're doing uniform inspections? I have trouble believing the general's actually believe they're is a connection to uniform inspections and defeating china.

They are the older generation...if your gig line is straight then everything else must be good as well.  I am not saying we don't have standards but we should have just as much focus on innovation and warfighting.  Most of these clowns are cud chewers...Alvin and Slife...are NOT warriors.

[Zero]

Get ready y'all... we're living out the book "Catch 22."

[Boomer6]

2 hours ago, ClearedHot said:

They are the older generation...if your gig line is straight then everything else must be good as well.  I am not saying we don't have standards but we should have just as much focus on innovation and warfighting.  Most of these clowns are cud chewers...Alvin and Slife...are NOT warriors.

If generals with their level of education and training truly believe the gig line corresponds to tactical/strategic success then we should all start learning mandarin.

[Biff_T]

Checking out a dude's gig line sounds pretty gay.  

[SocialD]

2 hours ago, Shakermaker said:

Sat in a wing staff meeting yesterday, wing leadership is all in on it.  When he started to give the "if I can't trust you to wear the right patches, how can I trust you to make the right decisions in the aircraft.." speech I swear I could hear the boots song playing in the background and my desire to reach out to the embassy kicked in.  1 more year of this BS.

 

 

Of course they are all in on, it's a survival instinct.  I remember back in UPT a crusty reservist talking about how you see pilots get into whatever the new boss is into.  If he's a big church person, everyone finds Jesus.  If they're into biking, everyone gets bikes, etc....  At our UPT base, the WG/CC loved biking, so there were lots of bikers.  When I showed up to Luke, the WG/CC was into crossfit (or his wife was) and so suddenly crossfit was the thing to do.  He even made the studs do it during academics.  

[Pooter]

2 hours ago, Shakermaker said:

Sat in a wing staff meeting yesterday, wing leadership is all in on it.  When he started to give the "if I can't trust you to wear the right patches, how can I trust you to make the right decisions in the aircraft.." speech I swear I could hear the boots song playing in the background and my desire to reach out to the embassy kicked in.  1 more year of this BS.

The O-6's I interact will fully agree all this uniform revamp BS is dumb and a waste of time.. behind closed doors. They just can't publicly say that, so they have to fall back on the tired "get the basics right" refrain

[Biff_T]

"Allvin[4] graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1986. During his time at the Academy he played team handball with USAFA Team Handball.[5] " - Wikipedia 

Hand ball.   He played collegiate level hand ball.   The gig line thing is making sense now.   

 

[arg]

48 minutes ago, SocialD said:

 

 

Of course they are all in on, it's a survival instinct.  I remember back in UPT a crusty reservist talking about how you see pilots get into whatever the new boss is into.  If he's a big church person, everyone finds Jesus.  If they're into biking, everyone gets bikes, etc....  At our UPT base, the WG/CC loved biking, so there were lots of bikers.  When I showed up to Luke, the WG/CC was into crossfit (or his wife was) and so suddenly crossfit was the thing to do.  He even made the studs do it during academics.  

When I was in the 8th one of the CCs was a fat bastard, so we all tried to be fat bastards.

"Hope the next CC  is not into cliff diving"

[nsplayr]

If I hear one more commander brief that if we don’t uphold standards like straight gig lines and specific nail polish colors, we’re inevitably going to wreck more airplanes…I am going to become The Joker.

EVERYTHING IS NOT EQUALLY IMPORTANT. Should you have the correct color of socks, sure. Do I really give a F? No.

You should however apply the boldface correctly, understand the threat and how to counter it in your theater of operations, how to best employ your aircraft and the other assets you will be working with, etc. When are we going to hold quarterly reviews of how well Commanders are actually caring about and proactively taking care of their people, how well are they shepherding scares unit resources, how well they are executing their flying training program to meet METs, etc…I’ll hold my breathe. But by god all the gig lines will be straight!

For all this “refocus on lethality” we’re supposed doing all I’ve seen directed from HHQ is to hurry up and scrub any mention of women & black people, numerous confusing & contradictory emails about how federal civilians can (and should!) quit their jobs regardless of how critical that person or function might be to my installation or mission, for God’s sake have that shaving waiver on your person 24/7 (or better yet just shave you dirty hippy), and what the precise definition of a gig line is.

I’m feeling so much more lethal now!! 🫠

[17D_guy]

5 hours ago, ClearedHot said:

The pendulum constantly swings back and forth form take the assignment or GTFO to lets make everyone happy and bid on jobs.

In the 90's pilot retention was very low they and the "take the assignment or GTFO" approach was not working so they opened a bid system.  AFPC had a webpage where they posted the open jobs and you could bid on them, once you hit bid it would spit out a sheet for your commander to sign.  If the losing CC didn't reclama within 7 days they assignment was yours.  I know seven dudes who departed Moody for Hurlburt in two months using that system.

The system swung hard the other way at the O-6 level back around 2014 when there was a mass exodus.  USAF assumed every O-6 wanted to be a GO so everyone was screened for OG/CC and WG/CC.  Then O-6's started writing letters declining command and asking not to be considered.  As I recall in 2014 timeframe on the order of 40% of the identified HPO O-6's declined command.  Rather than address the issues causing the declination and exodus, CSAF issued a dictum, EVERYONE will meet the command screening board, if selected and you decline...GTFO, I think that lasted two years.  In that period AFSOC alone lost 63 O-6's in one year, which is a LOT for a small command.

Break Break

The cud chewing herbivore running USAF is telling everyone what is most important to him as we refocus on being warfighters.  Air Force Tells Commanders to Hold Standards Reviews Every Quarter  CSAF has determined that one of the best ways to determine your ability to thrash the enemy is to hold four "reviews"....read - stand in formation and be inspected every quarter, at least one of these reviews MUST be in your service dress.  I am so glad I am out of this clown car.

 

 

 

Holy shit, I forgot about the 2014 O6 debacle. Thanks for that call back. I was just musing with the wife about the RIF where too many people signed up, so they closed it and said your volunteering won't impact your career.

That was a lie.

I also don't have a problem with the open ranks inspections...but then I was enlisted for 10 years so maybe that's why? I kinda view that as being a "innate military" thing. Couching it as leading to warfighting success is...stupid. I realize I'm the way outlier on this one.

[disgruntledemployee]

Can someone post these dudes email addresses?  Maybe some counseling from the retired is in order.

[arg]

The standards I worked on. I was in Stan/Eval so standards were in there somewhere.

If dude on the ground wanted a round of 105 he better get it. Right where and when he wanted it. And another

If the gunners mustache was too long, I didn't give a shit.

If the nav had the wrong color purse,  I didn't give a shit.

If the eng had his hat on backwards,  I didn't give a shit.

If the pilot had the wrong socks,  I didn't give a shit.

 

[nsplayr]

7 hours ago, Boomer6 said:

Anyone have serious ideas on why we're doing uniform inspections? I have trouble believing the general's actually believe they're is a connection to uniform inspections and defeating china.

Impotent dicklessness.

They can’t figure out how to get us where we need to be to deter/defeat China (if the current admin even plans to contest a potential takeover of Taiwan…that’s a whole other new can of worms…), so they focus on this.

They don’t know how to improve retention, reform & accelerate the acquisition of new and more weapons, or how to leverage America’s built in advantages against our adversaries. They are yes-men who are now tripping over themselves to show dutiful compliance.

But they can do this. They can make me and my airmen stand out in the parking lot every 3 months literally navel gazing. I’m assuming during drill, where I should be spending my time training and taking care of those same airmen rather than policing morale patches or moostaches.

They can’t do the hard thing so they will do this thing.

[nsplayr]

Also wanted to add that if/when I am asked to actually conduct one of these inspections, I will not make a single comment or note about an airman’s uniform. I plan to only ask questions about how they are doing, how’s their family doing, what can the command do better to take care of them, do you have everything you need to accomplish the mission, etc.

If the dickless Bobs are gonna piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining, pretending to make this about “readiness and resiliency,” I am more than happy to very specifically focus on that intent and have zero notes about bullshit stuff that IDGAF about.

Do the same. You have to salute and follow lawful orders, but you don’t have to play their bullshit games.

Focus on the airmen and the mission and I promise you you’ll never have enough time in the day to care about anything else that is rightfully ancillary.

Edited February 6 by nsplayr

[busdriver]

9 hours ago, ClearedHot said:

The pendulum constantly swings back and forth

Quoted for truth.

From blues is the normal office uniform, to everyone is a warrior in BDUs, to blues Mondays.  Masters, no master, masters, no masters.  Uniform inspections, OREs/ORIs, etc. etc. etc.

A wise man once said, "learn to notch" and focus on the actually important shit.

[Swizzle]

20 hours ago, Boomer6 said:

It's the classic Jurassic Park illusion of control.

You use a shitty website to search job listings that you have the quals/year grp/knee pads for, and rank your top choices. If the CC who posted the listings also swipes right on you then you get a match. 

AFPC takes this match and does the following:

 

On assignments/dreamsheets/pipe-dreams: 

Defense Resources Management Institute in Monterrey, CA and myself each marked each other number one/matched, after I was interviewed by their hiring/screening panel which went very well (having a Master's in Finance and university teaching certificate helped). Then when the wait was over, AFPC gave me orders to FTU not DRMI. At the time was coming non-current/unqualified from 30 months non-flying AU Fellowship. They said needed IP ASAP to pacing unit, to make the 'sausage'. So end up at FTU to secondary method requal which wasn't yet approved, then when approved took six month to get RQ ride one scheduled and complete first attempt. Said F-it send me to check in ride two, passed. That's was 25% of the assignment time before departing. #AFPC+FTUwinning

[dream big]

8 hours ago, SocialD said:

 

 

Of course they are all in on, it's a survival instinct.  I remember back in UPT a crusty reservist talking about how you see pilots get into whatever the new boss is into.  If he's a big church person, everyone finds Jesus.  If they're into biking, everyone gets bikes, etc....  At our UPT base, the WG/CC loved biking, so there were lots of bikers.  When I showed up to Luke, the WG/CC was into crossfit (or his wife was) and so suddenly crossfit was the thing to do.  He even made the studs do it during academics.  

And if your boss is into dudes? 

[SocialD]

22 minutes ago, dream big said:

And if your boss is into dudes? 

 

 

That's mostly an Eagle problem.  

Edited February 7 by SocialD

[Lord Ratner]

2 hours ago, SocialD said:

 

 

That's mostly an Eagle problem.  

Beat me to it!

[ClearedHot]

16 hours ago, nsplayr said:

Also wanted to add that if/when I am asked to actually conduct one of these inspections, I will not make a single comment or note about an airman’s uniform. I plan to only ask questions about how they are doing, how’s their family doing, what can the command do better to take care of them, do you have everything you need to accomplish the mission, etc.

If the dickless Bobs are gonna piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining, pretending to make this about “readiness and resiliency,” I am more than happy to very specifically focus on that intent and have zero notes about bullshit stuff that IDGAF about.

Do the same. You have to salute and follow lawful orders, but you don’t have to play their bullshit games.

Focus on the airmen and the mission and I promise you you’ll never have enough time in the day to care about anything else that is rightfully ancillary.

 

[GKinnear]

[HuggyU2]

I was at an event recently with Canadian military personnel, and they appeared to have eliminated "traditional grooming standards".  I asked a Canadian I was with and he said they had pretty much done away with traditional grooming standards in an effort to get more recruits.  Don't know if he was 100% accurate, but the face piercings, partially shaven heads, and colored hair seemed to indicate he was.  Don't get me wrong:  everyone I saw looked well put together... it's just a departure from what most of us have seen.  Much like beards in the AF:  the vast majority I've seen are very well kept.  I mean, spectacularly GQ-nice.  

So how does DoD go forward?  Do we adapt a standard that is more in line with perceived societal grooming norms, and is more "big picture", and less about gig lines?

[brabus]

Have not validated this, but heard yesterday CSAF says long term shaving waivers are dead and if people have actual skin irritation problems, they should learn to shave better/use steroid cream. I DGAF about all the guys who are probably total BS artist regarding the waiver, but I’m sure there are dudes with real skin issues - sucks for them.