Posted on 05/30/2024 11:27:34 AM PDT by MtnClimber
During their final year at the Air Force Academy (AFA), cadets choose the specific jobs they will be assigned while on active duty. This crucial decision, made in the nascence of one’s career, has far reaching implications with regard to career advancement. The Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) links available jobs with an alphanumeric designation, and not surprisingly, pilot training represents the most popular AFSC for graduating cadets at the AFA. But the second choice is astonishing for cadets who have received a four year education worth $416,000 at an institution that is tasked to train career Air Force officers.
The minimum commitment for an AFA education is five years of active duty service, and the AFSCs that obligate cadets for the least amount of payback time represent the second most popular job selections in the aggregate. The act is known among cadets as “dive in five,” and it is borne of disillusionment and the realization that DEI entrenched military leadership, quota-based promotions, and falling standards are not what they signed up for.
DEI’s nonsensical, unsupported claims that phenotype and sexual identity are indispensable components of superior military performance and the intimidating effect of DEI political officers embedded within the cadet wing breed cynicism and psychological fatigue. Recent undercover investigative reporting that exposes blatant corruption within Air Force DEI programs and an admission of DEI’s lack of benefit, affirms the negative view of DEI held by most cadets. If the real Air Force is at all similar to the academy experience, then why devote a career to an organization with priorities more in line with Cloward-Piven than the Constitution?
DEI receives unabated, effusive praise in the AFA Association of Graduates (AOG) magazine Checkpoints, the primary information source by which graduates receive news about their alma mater. Other than an occasional, truncated letter to the editor, the settled science of DEI is treated like a godsend. The editors promote an embellished, one-sided narrative of DEI’s dubious benefits, but fail to sound the alarm that cadets are subjected to attend mandatory indoctrination sessions on gender identity. Delving deeply into the murky world of pseudoscience, civilian professors, who constitute 42% of the faculty, proclaim the proven existence of fifty-odd gender types—the validity of which cadets cannot contest in the classroom.
The ideological direction of the academy provokes escalating concerns from the graduate community, and as a result, their financial contributions to the AFA Foundation have plummeted. Corporate donations compensate for the shortfall, but as in the case of the United Services Automobile Association’s sponsorship of a DEI Reading Room at the academy’s McDermott Library, there is a risk of further polarization to the institution. Dependence on large contributions from entities committed to corporatism and stakeholder capitalism disenfranchises individual donors whose commitments are based on loyalty and commitment rather than politics.
Most graduates and cadets understand that DEI leads to detrimental repercussions and these problems will not be solved in the absence an open, non-censored forum. Too little free speech once again embroils a noble institution in a quagmire of its own making, and as a consequence, cadets are diving in five.
Thanks. I stand corrected.
I suspect many are disappointed they didn't make the cut for pilot. I know the Naval Academy selects only a fraction of those graduates that want to be pilots.
Any "career" field that doesn't require more than a 5 year commitment if you couldn't get a pilot slot, and that has better opportunities as a civilian. I knew a few who picked career fields that allowed them to get their master's degree at a decent school before separating (no deployments, no crazy ops tempo, no remote locations).
Going into a career field that's being outsourced, if it was what you wanted to do, would be an incredible learning experience to prepare you for your civilian career.
Absolutely. It's eye-opening to see what he was subjected to while trying to actually improve things dramatically.
Worked out great, I was assigned to a battalion whose primary mission was air base defense. My last year, I was the Battalion S-4, the perfect job for me.
Yes and ironic the marines built a statue to Boyd!
As they outsource more and more functions to civilians, the administrator positions that remain don't translate well to civilian life. For example, a munitions officer, like an Army artillery officer, has almost zero carry-over to a civilian job.
Which is exactly what? What is its name?
The author did not elaborate on the “second choice” in the article. I don’t know.
My enlisted AFSC has long since been abolished and replaced two or three times. At least some still call it Tech Control.
It was probably a force reduction early out with full retirement at the 20 year mark.
That's what my younger brother did in the 1990s.
Good point. I recall those early outs. I hope that’s what it was.
Bump
I have been retired for 32 years now, and to be honest, I don't keep up with the day-to-day activities of the Army any longer. We do have the Alabama National Guard out here at part of what used to be Fort McClellan, Alabama. The Guard took over the part that used to be the Chemical School and areas behind that. Homeland Security took over parts of the Chem School and the old hospital and also build a huge complex on the back side part of the old fort. Still known as McClellan as they gave it to the city and the city is still after over 20+ years trying to redevelop the lands.
Knowing what I do about the US government, politics, the running of the military now, when approached by any teens about entering the military, I tell them to have a PLAN. Why are you going in? What is your objective? Maybe enlisting for a job specialty so you can get training in a particular field? Serve the Republic? Adventure? WHAT? But I also tell them to know what you are getting into. Do you know what is going on in the military now? Can you live with what is being pushed on you in there? All this you have to love the WXYZKLMNOP+++---!!/%$# mob wants you crammed down your throat? Etc, etc. I do not recommend it as a career any longer UNLESS you are absolutely sure, absolutely 100% sure you want to proceed after a first hitch. That's about the way I see it from this part of the planet! Have a good one.
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