Leaderboard

Many senior leaders value the wrong things. We overvalue entertainment, image, compliance and control. We undervalue combat, results, creativity and trust.

Tonight we honored a fallen soldier during a ramp ceremony at BAF. As his team unloaded the flag draped casket from the HMMWV and walked him up the C-17 ramp, five soldiers from the 10th Mountain Band played Amazing Grace and another somber and respectful song. Soldiers in the 10th Mountain Band carry weapons, can pull guard duty and are capable of killing the enemy. They also have unique musical skills and equipment to honor the dead and comfort the grieving in combat. Their primary purpose is combat and ceremonial duties while entertaining is a collateral duty. Our Air Force bands primarily entertain and should be cut to the level where they only support ceremonial events in the DC area. We can contract the entertainment if we decide we can afford entertainment for a fraction of the cost. Cutting our AF bands (not including TIB) by 75% would save $180M in personnel and O&M costs over the FYDP. Cutting AF bands and eliminating their AFSCs are easy decisions that should have been made years ago.

I left a wing a year ago where, from the WG/CC on down, nobody cared about deviations. Therefore, there was no arguing over MX dev versus Ops dev. It was a really amazing thing.... The stat we cared about was through-put.

It's so stupid simple. One only needs to look at deployment rates to see what happens when stats take a back burner. I know we get a parts boost but it's infuriating to see a well oiled machine of ops working with mx and vice versa resort back to the stupid fuck fuck numbers games at home.

They keep getting promoted.

WHAT!?

Negative. It's a culture we've allowed to build up over time in all communities. I can't tell you how many Comm guys I get to re-educate about how the aircraft flying is more important than patching their systems, or doing some nerd work. Look at the ESD, you think anyone educated about providing air power had a hand in deciding to roll-out.. and then kill that atrocity? But.. you think only support guys were involved in that decision? No, it's a failure of Support and the Rated officers who run stuff in the Air Force. I imagine some of the same problems persist with our MX brethren as well. Cyber can't get anyone but Space Generals running. Good thing they know what the local Comm Sq. is going through. I'm very thankful for this board because it's helped me realize the Ops side of the house. The Amn in my Flight don't even know the aircraft at my base. I'm trying to think of ways to fix that.

I swear some of the airmen in the MSG have to be deaf and blind as it is.... Doubt we will see much difference in job performance.

Tell the fiancé to read the AF Times list of best bases... I'm sure she'll cheer right up.

If you take the view that the AF trained you to see the big picture, calmly make quick decisions under pressure, occasionally tactfully convince higher ranking folks that they're wrong, and get the job done with not enough resources or time, then the AF trained you quite well for the outside world. Yeah...being a civilian nav...WTF? Ironically, I was offered a job as a civilian F-15 WSO in the St Louis area, but turned it down....