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She is most certainly not who the PC leadership is pandering to. They are more likely pandering to some non-existent politically correct standard monster that leadership is afraid is going to come gobble them up and get them fired. Asking a bunch of enlisted folks who are entirely unrelated to the events being discussed, about how they feel about actions that don't pertain to them in any way and which they didn't experience, is a nice touch and a great way to evaluate behavior, though.

I know it's still a few days away, but I want to wish everyone a very happy Christmas, and all the best in 2019! Cheers! M2

I never took the T-6 naming as a serious naming but more like an introduction or indoctrination into the culture. Alcohol was apart of ours but none of the names actually stuck. It wasn't nearly as outrageous or as fun as the naming I had been to later in the CAF. But it was a great dip into being AF aircrew.

These crusades always hurt the normal women the most.

Once again why anyone would strive to become a commander in this environment baffles me

My thought: $1.2B for 12 old airplanes...what a steal. If only we had purchased more Raptors when they were $140M a copy.

You simply schedule with for the 67% that are there. Same way we do it in the U-2, where the 99 RS been deployed non-stop to the Arabian Peninsula since Saddam invaded in 1990; Osan for over 40 years; and our other location for over 40 years. Yes, continually to all three locations, simultaneously. If an event like a Naming is well done, people will show up and have a great time. As alluded to, "namings" may not fit a particular squadron or mission culture. And one thing to note is that, in my conversations with U-2 pilots older than me, they didn't have callsigns... much less "naming ceremonies"... in earlier years. This includes guys that came out of pointy-nosed jets in the Vietnam era. To digress into a historical context... I went through UPT in '85-'86, there was definitely no naming ceremony at Laughlin back then and very few IP's had a callsign. I was an exception since "Huggy" had been what people called me since middle school. One example, the current AF Vice Chief of Staff General Steve 'Seve' Wilson was a young FAIP in the squadron then, and I'm guessing he got his callsign after he went to the B-1. I only recall a handful of MWS guys coming back to ATC/AETC with a callsign during my FAIP years (86-89). One of the few I recall was a guy named "Buc" due to using the BUC Start on an F-16 that lit off at less than 100' AGL. Cowboy Keck (F-4, F-15) was another... but those that know Cowboy can probably assume he was given that callsign in the womb. When I arrived at RAF Alconbury in 1990, there were two A-10 squadrons there and a fair number of those guys had callsigns. I have no idea if they had big naming ceremonies (I've posed the question to a couple of old A-10 guys I know), but callsigns were certainly established. I would guess that actual naming ceremonies in fighter squadrons began to occur a little before my time (circa 1982)... but that's just my impression from talking to old-heads. The bottom line is that "naming ceremonies" are a relatively recent addition to the USAF pilot culture. Personally, I think they are a great thing and I've had a great time participating in them during my time. There's probably a great story about "the history of namings" that some academic at Air University should write a paper on, using lots of taxpayer dollars to research it.

Which is unfortunate and IMO part of what’s wrong with the MAF “community”. I’ve been in both and like aspects of each one, but naming and roll calls would bring some much needed camaraderie and morale to a MAF community that needs it badly.

Saw this on Imgur in a dump of random memes

Reading that news coverage of the CDI makes me incredibly glad I am off that sinking ship. Warrior monks everywhere, pandering to the feelings of the lowest common emotional denominator.

Remind me, how much time did Obama give Mattis when he relieved him of command in CENTCOM?

^ Found the school select!

Maybe if MAF leadership weren’t risk adverse managers.

Don’t ever remember it happening in Tweets Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

The trick is to spend a few extra minutes after having a few drinks to ensure we use all of the words we intend to make our point. Leaving out words, in general, hurts our credibility. Trust me, I know about these things. ~Bendy

We had namings in T-6s at the solo party. No families were invited, just IPs and the students. It was a great party and IIRC the OG/CC showed up for it, at least for awhile.

You don't name a student that, you don't name anybody that. Me thinks VBF would be more tame than what they did.

Almost as good as the article shitting on a piano burning, because God forbid anyone be memorialized in a traditional fashion...

Toeing. Not towing.

Seems like the AETC/CC wants another star.

Ya, I don't compare myself to other industries because it's a massively different dynamic and set of nuances. I guess if I were going to look at another industry I would also look at the Maritime industry and see how that has worked out for the American worker. In their case, only the Jones act has saved what is left, and even that is under attack. But again, lots of different dynamics. I don't disagree about our inability to change between airlines, but I don't see that changing if unions were eliminated because you'd still have to contend with seniority issues wrt to basing and upgrade. F/As have no union, yet have the same issues and get treated infinitely worse than us. How do we decide on schedules, upgrades, etc....merit, the pilot willing to fly more overtime for single pay, the pilot who has the biggest kneepads? That seems to be working out well for the AF right now. I'm certain of one thing, DAL management would be salivating over the idea of no union on property. They've already stated that if they could, DAL pilots would be flying about half as much of our current international flying. If that were to happen, I'm guessing our hiring woes would be solved overnight for at least the next decade. Along with slashing our section 1, I can see them dismantling many of our QOL items yet still be able to make it bearable. IMHO (which isn't worth much), we'd lose big on QOL and pay and only potentially gain the ability to move between airlines. By chance, did you go to B school? Either way, interesting discussion. Openly is a relative term. Fighting to force us into shittier rest facilities. Building trips in the quest to cut credit, with zero regard to fatigue. Attempting to completely disregard the contract. Trying to readjust profit sharing rules so they can take management bonus money from the PS pool, also lets me know how they feel. Many have been squashed by then union, while some still need work. Imagine if we weren't governed by an archaic and extremely employer friendly law called the Railway Labor act and we could more freely exercise even the most basic form of self help. Many places do have protections over and above FAR 117, just because APA is faltering doesn't mean unions are useless. Protecting WB CA spots is huge with respect to jobs and will always be a fight worth fighting. That said, the work rules need to be good for the entire work group. Remember that WB CA spots at AAL make up < 10% of the pilot group...you can easily out vote that demographic. If your union isn't listening to the majority, it's time for a change. I don't disagree with you there, I briefly worked for AAL and saw that act when they wouldn't adjust our pay dates to align with the USAir hired guys that were in our very own indoc class. However, the union does so much more than just the bullshit politics you see. If you want change, start a grass roots effort. You're airline is about to go through a massive transformation in age demographics over the next decade with LOTS of young blood. Reach out to IPA for some lessons...while their contract isn't perfect, those dudes have a good idea of what it means to run a union. Again, we're cut off at the knees by the Railway Labor Act. It's a relic that needs some serious updating to allow some basic forms of self-help, short of a full blown strike. As it's written now, we're hamstrung by this employer friendly law. Our effort should be more focused on changing the law, not getting rid of the union. UPDATE: Just learned about another employer friendly section of the RLA. We must file a grievance within 120 days of the issue, but the company has no requirement on their response time...Awesome!

We have camaraderie. We get our families together for squadron activities and parties all the time. It's just that Monday-Friday after work I like to go home to, you know, my family and stuff. Nobody wants to hang out at a bar drinking after work for no good reason. Not having stupid drinking games in the squadron is definitely not what is wrong with the MAF.