Leaderboard

I like this change. I've asked for crew rest waivers and been denied. If the SQ/CC and AC want it and judge the mission benefit worth the risk, it's dumb that someone disconnected from the mission can deny it. I guess every corner of the AF is different but our waiver authority is MAJCOM A3 who is not tracking daily missions and will always say no, even for TIC support. So to me, this is a good change because it removes obstacles to the mission. If you're worried your leadership will now bully you into accepting missions you aren't safe to execute, well that sucks. Say no, that's always your right.

I interviewed both of the widows of the two pilots killed in the Constant Peg programme. Their stories are heart wrenching and their emotions were raw even after the passage of so many years. It took 30 years for one of them to find out how, where and what her husband was doing when he died. The other had a pretty good idea what her husband was doing, as I suspect the Schultz family does, but that's not the same as knowing for sure, and it's not the same as getting real answers. "Doc" Schultz may have made the ultimate sacrifice, and I doff my hat to him, but his wife and five children are the ones who must live with the consequences. In my mind, they are the real heroes. My thoughts go out to them.

and now it won't stop you from making major!

Steve, After reading your book "Red Eagles", I was visiting a neighbor and discussing your book. His eyes got kind of big and he took me into his "I love me" room with all of his memorabilia from his military career. There was a Red Hat patch on the wall along with a variety of instruments like altimeters, airspeed indicators of Russian extraction along with a couple MiG models on his desk. I hope Doc's family will eventually hear the story of how unique and important his job was to our nation and to the survival of his fellow aviators who may have to face those threats.

It seems to me that there is a problem with the understanding the definition of the terms here. To get a clearance, you first have to have a completed security investigation. Certain types of investigations are necessary for different levels of clearances, and the type of investigation is determined by the anticipated clearance level of the projected duty . For instance a NACLE will allow up to Secret, while an SSBI will allow up to TS and above (i.e. SCI accesses). The investigation type is determined by the sponsor depending on level needed for your anticipated future job. A completed investigation does not give you a clearance, only the eligibility (assuming adjudication is favorable) After the investigation, the report is sent to an adjudication authority, who evaluates the report and decides if the results warrant giving you a clearance (i.e., decides whether or not you are a security risk or not). If the adjudication is positive, you become eligible for a clearance. Eligible doesn't mean you have a clearance, only that you are allowed to get one if needed. For rated officer entry selects, an SSBI investigation is normally done, although in today's backlogged system, for OTS people it is sometimes not completed prior to graduating. For ROTC it depends on timing but the investigation should be complete by graduation and commissioning. But, you still don't have a clearance, only the eligibility for one. Somewhere down the road you arrive at your first duty station. There, you will be placed in a specific position on the unit's manning document, and each position has a clearance level associated with it. For a UPT student, the positions are coded for a Secret clearance (or used to be) so upon arrival you will be given a Secret clearance. The fact that your SSBI investigation makes you eligible for TS does not matter if the manpower position only requires a Secret clearance. By the way, an IP coming in from another unit where he/she held a TS, will be downgraded to a Secret in most cases because an IP has no need for TS clearance in an IP slot (unless he/she will also be doing some addition duty for the Wing that has a higher clearance requirement, which is probably fairly uncommon). That may be different for CSO or ABM training if their syllabus works with more classified content. For the rest of your career, your clearance may go back and forth as you move from job to job, even within the same unit on occasion.. As for the "inactive" comment, if you move to a job where no clearance is needed (get out of the service, for instance, or leave ROTC (commission, but do not go directly onto active duty) your clearance would be suspended (inactive), but can be regained quickly when you return to active duty as long as you are within the period of your investigation's validity (i.e., if the SSBI requires a re-investigation every five years, and you've been off active duty/ROTC training status for only a year, the original SSBI would still be valid and allow for your unit to re-establish a clearance when you process in...no additional investigation required.

So at what point prior to the next board is the AF going to provide CC's the spine to truly mentor and state an individuals worth in the squadron to their face? This is a novel concept by the Secretary, but I posit that it will not happen in the next 4 years. CC's typically let someone else do their dirty work or have become all too accustomed to utilizing PRF subtleties to eliminate an individual.

Well said Mr. Brown. “I’m going to give you the real deal: I’m an American,” Brown said. “I don’t desecrate my flag and my national anthem. I’m not gonna do anything against the flag and national anthem. I’m going to work within those situations. But this is my country, and I’ll work out the problems, but I’ll do it in an intelligent manner.” http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/25/jim-brown-criticizes-kaepernick-style-protests-dont-desecrate-my-flag.html