Leaderboard

The only way to do that is to re-mask PME and AAD. Trying to tell a guy that he needs to focus on flying and that should be priority will always fall on deaf ears when so long as you pass your annual checkride (and don't hook a no-no) flying has ZERO bearing on your career progression. It's like the battle against firewall 5 EPRs-- nobody is willing to do it because nobody wants to take that first step and risk burning their people, and understandably so. I look like shit on paper because I flew the line and deployed my ass off for the first 3 years on station. Aside from some faster-than-normal positional upgrades, I've really got nothing to hang my hat on when it comes to shoe centered stuff. I haven't won CGO of the quarter, I haven't planned the christmas party, I haven't been an exec or any of that stuff. I'd be ok with it, if I didn't know that shitty pilots are in a better position because they have checked all the shoe boxes. It doesn't matter that they can't even tell you which section of the TO covers emergency procedures, they're the CGO of the quarter! The fact of the matter is that everyone is assumed to be a good pilot (even though that is clearly not the case) and commanders have come to rely on what should be tiebreakers to break ties that are FAR from existing. Thinking that PME and AAD are going to be masked is a pipe dream though-- the shoes will never allow it to happen. If the promotion board rack-and-stack were actually based on the contributions of the individual to actually accomplishing the AF mission, the shoes know they will continually be eating the table scraps of guys who have forgotten what the color green looks like. PME and AAD and bullshit meaningless awards are the only way shoes have a chance of competing with guys who make their living doing what they were actually hired and trained to do, and doing it DAMN well. Part of the "overmanned" fallacy is that all those dudes out flying the MC-12 are still on YOUR books. So if your unit is allocated 20 pilots, and 5 are out flying MC-12s, you are showing 100% manned on the books, while in reality you only have 75% of bodies on hand, before you even start to count DNIF, R&R, leave, etc. It's bad, and I doubt it's going to get anything but worse as the years progress.

Nuff said

You might want to back off. Dude has four, count em, four Commendation medals.

George Carlin summed this up years ago:

I listened to Clark's video. This talk was given in 2007 during near the height of anti-Iraq sentiment leading up to the 2008 election, pimping for a book, and an absolutely ardent anti-Bush democrat. SACEUR and 4-stars be damned; it helps that he was a college student (Rhodes) with Clinton. I give him respect for his junior-ish officer record. Brave guy. That said, he is completely a political animal trying to keep his bread buttered. I'll refrain on the Jordan article.

Not just taking leave to finish a Master's paper, but failing tests in initial qual training because they were more focused on their Master's paper. Yes, Lieutenants in initial qual training. As in the kind of Lieutenants who finished Undergraduate Pilot Training less than 6-9 months ago. What's it going to take, another Class A. Excuse me Mr. Emperor, but you have no clothes.

Maybe its just the Raider fan in me, but I can't stand the guy. He's finding a way to win for now, but I don't see him having long term success. I think Daniel Tosh sums Tebow up best...

I will see your Steve Hutchinson and raise you a Desean Jackson: And I am pretty sure if I search through Vikings and Seahawks plays, I can find Steve Hutchinson acting like a douche. Ha. Really?

Not really religious myself, but I'd rather see what Tebow is doing than to see so many other players who seem to worship - and want nothing more than to convert others to - the "First International Church of Themselves".

I think he is a genuinely religious person and that's fine. More power to him. What I do not think I like is how he uses his influence among young people to push his religious beliefs. He and his mother were stupid to make that anti-abortion commercial. Your job is to play football, not peddle whatever personal opinions you have. There are many kids that idolize these guys who will get behind anything they say or do. I also feel this way about the guys that act like morons on the field. What was Suh thinking when he stomped on that guard's arm? What kind of message does James Harrison send when he makes a late hit on a quarterback, intending to knock the QB out of the game? You are teaching kids how to tackle charging with their helmet, not going around the waist like they should. They want to learn how to play like the professionals. Anyways, back to the Tebow hatred- I do not personally hate him. I'm getting annoyed with ESPN slobbering all over his holy nuts though. He is not a good quarterback. In fact, his completion percentage is like counting down on New Year's Eve. Why do I hear more about Tebow than I do about Rodgers or Brees? Why does Tebow get more attention than Tom Brady? Do people think they are making a pact with their god by talking about Tebow's "ability" to make fourth quarter drives? He is no John Elway!!!!

There can only be one Triple Nickel.

Not sure why the media and everyone is keying in on his sideline prayers - pro athletes have been praying after touchdowns for many years, yet Tebow is the first to actually be seen in a negative light for praying? Maybe if he had multiple DUIs and illegal firearm charges like most of the stars he'd be more warmly received.

Why is being wholesome wrong? I'm not saying you said that, but it seems more people deride Tebow for his values than they deride genuinely deserving players like Roethlisberger (accused of sexual assault), Ray Lewis (implicated in a murder), or the many self-aggrandizing players just to name a few. Sure he's vocal about his beliefs, but the actions (or alleged actions) of the aforementioned others speak just as loudly of their values without the accompanying vocal cacophony. Edited: Grammar

I hate to keep bringing up my Navy past, but some people are rewarded for their "dangerous" behavior. I had a buddy, Lt Pete "Maverick" Mitchell who was a great stick, but notorious for being dangerous....lost his qualifications as section leader three times, he was put in hack by the XO twice with a history of high-speed passes, 7 unauthorized tower flybys, and I think he even banged the WG/CC Adm Benjamin's daughter...I think her name was Peggy or something like that. This guy was "dangerous." Anyway, he ended up going to Navy FWIC and put one in the water (even though the flying footage had him flying in the mountains with no water in sight...but thats another story) and killed his RIO. While it was ruled an accident, his history of dangerous flying put him in the hotseat during the abnormally short AIB. Anyway, it took him a while to bounce back but he ended up graduating and they made him a FWIC IP after all that...and he was banging one of the instructors as a student. Talk about dangerous AND a rule violator! He is pretty cocky and doesn't think rules apply to him...and in our business that....is dangerous..(click)....dangerous! Another guy in his class was just as cocky and that too can be dangerous. Like it was said before, it is one thing in a fighter, but this guy retired and took that dangerous cockiness with him to the airlines! Not the kind of guy I want to be flying with in the military, let alone with 200+ passengers and 5 hot flight attendants I'm trying to bang on board. Dangerous There are some lessons to be learned here!