Posted on 06/05/2008 4:44:25 PM PDT by SandRat
If only our political ‘leaders’ had the integrity to go away for the idiocy and treason that they continually inflict on America.
We should insist on the same values for Congress, even if we have to fire every swinging one.
I am pleased the blame moved up to where it should have been ...at the top. The handling of nuclear weapons should never have been allowed to become so slipshod.
This is just the official excuse. There are a lot of reasons:
1) Interfering with getting Predators and Reapers to the front, because they wanted manned aircraft.
2) The tanker deal. Giving the contract to Northrop/Grumman-EAD instead of Boeing made a heck of a lot of powerful enemies.
3) Other contract disputes, where they were on one side, and the SecDef and the administration were on the other side.
I’m not a Gates fan, but I have to agree it was time to fire the CSAF. The CSAF has focused on the wrong things. The cut of 40,000 (sometimes discussed as 60,000) active duty USAF personnel without a change in the mission was badly done. And if you do the same with a lot less, and drive it on $$ rather than efficiency - you get lower standards.
And while the Predator problem is as much Gates’ fault as the CSAF, it reflects a lack of concern for our current fighting.
Same one we had in the Army.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Air Force has problems. When an entire branch of the military is run by pilots, you get a very unbalanced approach. What should happen in this instance is the highest ranking AF specops officer should be made CSAF. There needs to be a serious shift in the way the AF thinks and it needs to start both at the top and bottom. The pipeline kids coming out of basic training that I went to tech school with were a joke. They got ONE day of training on the M-16!
Let me write that again to emphasize my point. They got ONE day of training on the M16 in basic! In a professional military that becomes smaller and smaller, where Air Force and even Navy personnel are being cross-tasked into potential combat duties, that is unacceptable!
Now don’t get me wrong, AF spec ops guys are just as high speed as their counterparts. AF security forces get just plain awesome weapons training compared to what I saw in the Army. When I was shooting competetively with the NG the majority of really good pistol guys at the nationals were the AF security forces. That being said, the rest of the AF has no freakin’ clue about defending themselves.
I’m beginning to think that the military needs to go to a “comprehensive boot camp” mentality where all of the services new recruits go through the same blocks of training to include hand to hand fighting, bayonet training, BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) based on the USMC model, and all the other stuff like first aid/combat lifesaving etc...
The USMC model of “Everyone is a Rifleman first” should be every single services way of thinking. Yes, that means you too AF and Navy.
I also think that potential officers should go through the same exact boot camp as everyone else. I don’t care if you spent 4 years in ROTC or got an appointment to an academy. If GI Joe can do it, then you can do it also. (probably) Such a policy would prevent uncomfortable situations like an Air National Guard General having to be shown how to eat an MRE. (yes I really saw that happen)
That cuts out most females...
What in the world makes you think M-16 training is a critical skill for the USAF?
If we have someone deploying in a role where the M-16 is needed, we train them. Before going to Afghanistan, I qualified on the Army course at Ft Sill.
However, the M-16 is irrelevant for the vast majority of our people. We don’t DO hand-to-hand fighting. You cannot launch aircraft that way!
As a WSO/EWO, I’ve taken my fair share of shots at pilots, but pilots are not what is wrong with the USAF. Too many reductions leading to a one-mistake Air Force (unless you are senior, in which case you can screw up ALMOST as often as you want), too many data-links leading to the stifling of initiative, and too many GOs who got their rank because Daddy was a GO before them - that is where our problem lies.
It is a lack of leadership at the top - yes, and a lack of seriousness about the war we are in. But it isn’t just the USAF - the Army ran Afghanistan, and I saw little or no sign of intelligence or efficiency in the senior ranks there, either.
For a variety of reasons their leadership elite managed to force through the idea that human assets in foreign countries could be eliminated without risk simply through total reliance on Air Force and CIA spy satellite systems.
That's why we end up not knowing where and when the Iraqis shipped out their WMMD.
I'd suggest the people allowed to resign today probably ought to be recalled to service for later punishment by an Administration interested in holding them accountable for bad intelligence.
Maybe, it’s just a “military” thing (LOL). I do not think it’s a concept that most civilians understand...
You mean like
You manage accountable property items, but you Lead People?
You have no idea how right you are. I was considered to be a "fast burner," a "fire-breathing" maintenance officer...then I went to a munitions depot unit, commanded by a guy whose prior assignment was the Pentagon, who was followed by another Pentagon flunkie. Two people, both at least 3 years away from the REAL Air Force...who were used to saying "I'm from General So-and-so's office..." and would get their way, ALWAYS.
They were not pleased with my emphasis on "Our Mission First, Our People ALWAYS," to the point that I was continuously demeaned in front of our people, followed by less-than-glowing evaluations.
Needless to say, I did NOT make my next rank, and suddenly became a complete pariah, getting awful assignment offers...leading me to leave active duty for the Reserves, even though I had been offered to stay in until retirement. BAD move...I didn't get promoted in the Reserves either (remember I still had the awful evals written by people who had worked for big GOs in the Pentagon...) and now I am completely out of the Air Force.
Contrast my situation with that of a few guys I knew in my Year Group (1992) who were caught sleeping with the enlisted girls or driving drunk, and are now entering the promotion zone for Lieutenant Colonel.
You stupid sack of crap - what part of AIR FORCE do you not understand? How in the hell do you do a bayonet charge in an airplane?
Pull your head out of your land-bound butt and understand that not everyone in the military works on the ground. Sailors on boats don’t need to do hand-to-hand combat. The only time I would be exposed to hand-to-hand combat would be if I went down behind enemy lines - which I never did, and none of those who did that I’ve talked to ever needed to fight hand-to-hand either.
It will be a long time before UAVs can replace manned aircraft. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand enough to take part in an intelligent discussion.
Those going to Iraq are thoroughly drilled in how to use an M-16. Many enlisted are trained regularly in it anyways. But it is not even close to being a primary weapon for the USAF. If it were, we would be called the USMC.
I’m at a NAF now. Trying to get someone to make a decision is like pulling teeth. I can’t get someone to take responsibility to order a chair or software, let alone make any real decisions. The attitude seems to be, “If you don’t decide, you can’t be blamed!”
However, I’ve spent enough time with the Army to know they can be just as bad. One of my last meetings in Afghanistan was 2 hours long, discussing when the next BDE staff meeting should be held.
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