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To: Maximum Leader
According to my prof., living conditions in the Air Force are much better as a consequence.

Generally, that's true. In most cases when an airman has to serve with the Army he is given a stipend to make up for the substandard conditions. There are a few exceptions, like the air controllers who live with the Army all the time.

We had some air controllers, and a combat weather guy, at our camp. The wx guy got the squalor money, and the air controllers (next bunk over) got bupkus. It was almost like being in the Army for them -- heck, you could even get killed.

Like your prof, I also recommend the Air Force to young men and women. The Army simply doesn't value its people, especially enlisted people. And that is based on 8 years active, 8 Reserve, and 8 Guard -- and counting.

That said, did anybody else think it's weird that the report talks about a squalid barracks and quotes two senior NCOs? (E-7 and E-8). WTF, over? Whose exact responsibility....

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

89 posted on 10/17/2003 5:00:44 PM PDT by Criminal Number 18F (The essence of life, I concluded, did not lie in the material. -- Charles A. Lindbergh)
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To: Criminal Number 18F
Man, I really should have joined the Air Force...I missed out...LOL
91 posted on 10/17/2003 5:03:38 PM PDT by judicial meanz (Fry Arafat....baste him in Pig grease...and bury him upside down in a a manure pile)
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To: Criminal Number 18F
Like your prof, I also recommend the Air Force to young men and women. The Army simply doesn't value its people, especially enlisted people. And that is based on 8 years active, 8 Reserve, and 8 Guard -- and counting.

Not to turn this into an AF vs Army argument, but I've often believed that the AF valued its people much higher than the Army (especially its enlisted).

Part of it maybe that we required longer commitments upon enlistment or commission, and part of it maybe that we have a larger ration of very technical/skilled people (hence the longer enlistments).

A lot of enlisted jobs in the AF, they could require a lot of education, hence a large investment and not as easy to replace as quickly, while (according to relatives) the Army saw a lot of more of its people as being, for lack of a better phrase, easily replaced.

You can't just replace somebody that works on and with nuclear weapons, and when you have weapons systems that are around 50 years old (B-52s, etc.) you sure as hell do not want to lose the institutional knowledge that senior NCOs accumulate.

104 posted on 10/17/2003 5:34:33 PM PDT by af_vet_rr
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To: Criminal Number 18F
Thanks for your comments.

Airman attached to army units get squalor pay (I'm sure the bureaucratic name for it isn't that honest). That is depressing to hear!

I know some folks deride the "Chair Force" because their basic training is the shortest and they can run slower than the other services, but if we put soldiers and marines in mortal combat, the least we can do is let them live as well as airmen when they're home.
118 posted on 10/17/2003 7:25:29 PM PDT by Maximum Leader (run from a knife, close on a gun)
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