Commanders are dropping like flies this year

[Danger41]

1 hour ago, Best-22 said:

What's the RUMINT on the new guy?

My only interaction with the current CC and the next one was when they were Wing and Ops Group CC’s at Hurlburt. The crazy part about it to me is that a vast majority of people that have opinions on these two never interacted with them and are drawing from that timeframe. The overwhelming negativity about opinions should tell you how that tenure went.

My perspective on that is that they both were hard asses that were  sticklers for the rules. However, a lot of their actions seem to have gone well beyond holding a hard line and well into malicious territory. I’m sure stories will pour in but I’ve heard many well down the grapevine and they are awful.

[Lord Ratner]

2 hours ago, BrightNeptune said:

I'm surprised no one brought up that Laughlin fired another squadron commander a few weeks ago...

For what?

[DuckHunter]

4 hours ago, BrightNeptune said:

I'm surprised no one brought up that Laughlin fired another squadron commander a few weeks ago...

I’ve noticed the AF has been a little more hush hush the last few years in regards to firings.

[BrightNeptune]

8 minutes ago, DuckHunter said:

I’ve noticed the AF has been a little more hush hush the last few years in regards to firings.

I noticed that it didn't make the news anywhere. If there is nothing publicly available, I have nothing to add.

[DuckHunter]

2 hours ago, BrightNeptune said:

I noticed that it didn't make the news anywhere. If there is nothing publicly available, I have nothing to add.

Same here.  I know of a few others that happened as well with nothing being said from the AF.  I have nothing to add either, just a curious observation.

[hindsight2020]

5 hours ago, Lord Ratner said:

For what?

Apparently, yet again, "PC" related issues wrt a naming. Well, that was the over-the-hump moment, the firing I'm sure deals with a more at-large command climate ("Al Capone" twofer type of thing). Just another week in the island of misfit toys we collectively know as Team XL. I should have got short tour credit, or a campaign medal at least, for enduring 8 years of that place lol. Oh well. 😄 

 

At least this time the shenanigans didn't occur in the presence of an O-8, but I'll digress on disturbing the corpses of the past....(not a great choice of words either, given the guilty party of that episode,  committed suicide a couple months ago). 

[HeloDude]

8 hours ago, BrightNeptune said:

I'm surprised no one brought up that Laughlin fired another squadron commander a few weeks ago...

What squadron? 

[08Dawg]

12 hours ago, Muscle2002 said:

The White House just announced the President's nominations for the next USSTRATCOM/CC, USAFE/CC, and AFSOC/CC.

 

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3056641/general-officer-announcements/

Geez…Cotton’s been AFGSC/CC less than a year 

[DuckHunter]

10 hours ago, HeloDude said:

What squadron? 

87th I believe.

[MexicanHouseRULZ]

19 hours ago, Best-22 said:

What's the RUMINT on the new guy?

Nothing special about AF Special Operations.

Showed up as a squadron commander after schoolhouse and staff-weaseling without a single Air Medal. Tried to make up for this by counting every leg he flew in AFG as a day to get one.  A now-retired two-star (that should have had this job) reminded him of the rules, and had him count 20 days like everyone else.  

 

[BeefBears]

8 hours ago, MexicanHouseRULZ said:

Nothing special about AF Special Operations.

Showed up as a squadron commander after schoolhouse and staff-weaseling without a single Air Medal. Tried to make up for this by counting every leg he flew in AFG as a day to get one.  A now-retired two-star (that should have had this job) reminded him of the rules, and had him count 20 days like everyone else.  

 

I looked it up, he has TWO air medals thank you very much.  I just hope he continues the tradition of his predecessor and focuses on social justice issues within AFSOC.

[DirkDiggler]

1 hour ago, BeefBears said:

I looked it up, he has TWO air medals thank you very much.  I just hope he continues the tradition of his predecessor and focuses on social justice issues within AFSOC.

One of those (the 1st one) is a single mission that he put himself and a crew in for, had denied at the ESOG level, then subsequently resubmitted himself for/approved when he was the ESOG/CC a year later.

[SurelySerious]

21 hours ago, DirkDiggler said:

One of those (the 1st one) is a single mission that he put himself and a crew in for, had denied at the ESOG level, then subsequently resubmitted himself for/approved when he was the ESOG/CC a year later.

Edit: it, can’t load the gif, but going to assume everyone knows exactly what that clip would be.

Mod Edit:  Luckily, you're ever-helpful Mods do know how to embed an animated GIF! 😎

[pawnman]

1 hour ago, DirkDiggler said:

One of those (the 1st one) is a single mission that he put himself and a crew in for, had denied at the ESOG level, then subsequently resubmitted himself for/approved when he was the ESOG/CC a year later.

 

[Guardian]

Hahaha

[BashiChuni]

12 hours ago, MexicanHouseRULZ said:

Nothing special about AF Special Operations.

Showed up as a squadron commander after schoolhouse and staff-weaseling without a single Air Medal. Tried to make up for this by counting every leg he flew in AFG as a day to get one.  A now-retired two-star (that should have had this job) reminded him of the rules, and had him count 20 days like everyone else.  

 

Didn’t he crash an osprey while he was the 1 SOW group/cc? I might be mixing up memories but I thought it was him

[BashiChuni]

On 6/9/2022 at 9:33 PM, hindsight2020 said:

Apparently, yet again, "PC" related issues wrt a naming. Well, that was the over-the-hump moment, the firing I'm sure deals with a more at-large command climate ("Al Capone" twofer type of thing). Just another week in the island of misfit toys we collectively know as Team XL. I should have got short tour credit, or a campaign medal at least, for enduring 8 years of that place lol. Oh well. 😄 

 

At least this time the shenanigans didn't occur in the presence of an O-8, but I'll digress on disturbing the corpses of the past....(not a great choice of words either, given the guilty party of that episode,  committed suicide a couple months ago). 

8 years JFC you better claim that as PTSD on your VA disability

[Danger41]

The Air Medal thing amongst AFSOC aircrew is a huge red flag to me in the GWOT era. The amount of deploying the entire command did in the last 20 years and people weren’t able to get Air Medals via doing combat missions really says a lot about priorities, IMHO. 
 

I’m sure I’m showing my bias here but I’m not impressed/inspired by GO’s and Commanders that did all the prestigious schools and selective assignments for years and years. I can’t relate to a dude that was a multiple time exec, IDE in res, SAASS/SAMS, DARPA fellow etc. PME is important but the line dudes and dudettes out jobbing 1:1 (or less in certain career fields like AC gunners) don’t exactly connect with “this one time at Harvard”.
 

 

[dream big]

On 6/9/2022 at 4:28 PM, Muscle2002 said:

The White House just announced the President's nominations for the next USSTRATCOM/CC, USAFE/CC, and AFSOC/CC.

 

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3056641/general-officer-announcements/

Is the new AFSOC CC the infamous “CAT 5” or something? 

[tac airlifter]

6 hours ago, Danger41 said:

I’m not impressed/inspired by GO’s and Commanders that did all the prestigious schools and selective assignments for years and years. I can’t relate to a dude that was a multiple time exec, IDE in res, SAASS/SAMS, DARPA fellow etc. PME is important but the line dudes and dudettes out jobbing 1:1 (or less in certain career fields like AC gunners) don’t exactly connect with “this one time at Harvard”.

I don’t even think it’s important.  The GWOT invalidated those schools and the officers they produced.  None of their advanced education brought anything worthwhile to the GWOT.  Our successes were tactical, and produced by guys & gals in the trenches flying the daily line figuring out a new way to expedite authorities, move stuff, pass gas, engage high speed cars, track squirters, etc.  Guys like you.  Making the only thing close to a win by pure grit & attrition. 

Whereas our numerous GWOT failures were produced (militarily at least, I’ll sidestep political finger-pointing) by inexperienced commanders overthinking relatively simple problems.  

Attendance at these prestigious schools and their prerequisite Exec/ADC jobs is a time demand incompatible with double digit line flying deployments. When these graduates finally showed up down range, it was always in a leadership position however their lack of operational experience and credibility resulted in leading without confidence or operational context; their knowledge of war was theoretical.  

They didn’t trust their captains to provide that experience, were crippled by a lack of confidence, did not understand how to intelligently take calculated risk, were fixated on irrelevancies while mischaracterizing captains who prioritize mission and ignored irrelevancies as undisciplined, and stuck to poor command decisions out of pride.  You couldn’t talk to these people.  They just wanted to make it to the end of their tour without anything happening. They despised initiative. 

The elite IDE/SDE schools and fellowships are no longer prestigious. They produced graduates who simply cannot win, and stifled those who could.  

 

[DirkDiggler]

6 hours ago, dream big said:

Is the new AFSOC CC the infamous “CAT 5” or something? 

Yes

[DirkDiggler]

11 hours ago, BashiChuni said:

Didn’t he crash an osprey while he was the 1 SOW group/cc? I might be mixing up memories but I thought it was him

That was him.

[BashiChuni]

1 hour ago, DirkDiggler said:

That was him.

I thought so. Don’t remember any safety report being filed for that one either…..

At a deployed change of command in 2010-2012 timeframe, he told all the forced attendees he was a big dinosaur, but he was proud of all the “little mammals”. Everyone was literally whispering “what the fuck”

[LookieRookie]

1 hour ago, BashiChuni said:

I thought so. Don’t remember any safety report being filed for that one either…..

At a deployed change of command in 2010-2012 timeframe, he told all the forced attendees he was a big dinosaur, but he was proud of all the “little mammals”. Everyone was literally whispering “what the fuck”

Did he say that because he washed out of F-15 RTU and thinks himself a “carnivore?”

[Muscle2002]

1 hour ago, LookieRookie said:

Did he say that because he washed out of F-15 RTU and thinks himself a “carnivore?”

It's notable that he doesn't list the F-15 as an aircraft flown in his biography but lists his 6-9 month stint at the RTU.