Replies

Let me get this straight. The Air Force is in the process of standing up four manpower requirements squadrons to help determine the current and future needs of the Air Force. Right?

Can you say combat feather bedding at its best?

If you want to determine where the manpower is needed just get the central personnel troops to run a simple program - sort by Air Force Specialty Codes the duties which have the most number of days TDY outside the United States fighting the on-going war on terrorism. Then divide the total number of days by the number of people AT THE SQUADRON level to see who is doing what.

Then compare the average number of days TDY outside the United States to the Department of Defense guidelines. Results:

Air Force Special Operations Command, the smallest, is doing, and has been doing, most of the work. Note that they didn’t get a manpower requirements squadron to help them figure out what has to be done.

If the Air Staff was serious about fighting the war on terrorism these manpower slots would be given over to the security forces duty codes and those new people would be pulling convoy security duties in country.

“Whether the Air Force is supporting war efforts or disaster-relief operations, we want these squadrons to have the necessary tools and be flexible enough to support the AEF construct,” Colonel Keskel said. “It’s all about giving our senior leaders the tools and information they need to address our future threats -- these squadrons are going to help us do that.”

“Tools and information” are not bombs and bullets on target. Colonel Keskel’s knowledge of combat and fighting is “PowerPoint deep” at best.