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The competent SNCOs are never the ones being a pain in the dick …

You're not new, you know this song and dance already. They have a retention self-created "problem" due to crap QOL post-UFT ADSC and people becoming older heads of household. By proxy that becomes a production problem, because they decided to fill the gaps with new accessions instead of addressing the original self-created problem, full stop. The real problem for them is that they also don't have the political capital to make undergraduate pilot training (an enterprise already scoffed at as scutwork by many within the combat coded echelons, ACC/11Fs in particular) a capitalization priority, but the Pharaoh demands more brick. Boeing being a malicious MIC grifter doesn't help matters on that effort. This thing should have been COTS solved 5 years ago (and it would have, both COTS solutions were plug and play and operational for DECADES). At any rate, in the absence of political capital, all you can do is kabuki dance. So in comes the sophistry: "CRAFT""VR""UPT NEXT""Innovate!". Then the secondary effort to strawman objective critics of the obvious, as anachronistic malcontents that are getting in the way of progress (that's yours truly and company btw). That's how you get the current status quo. An enterprise dead set in fixing a retention problem they created, by digging themselves into a production problem they can't control, via diluting the quality control of the product and insist you don't dare say publicly they are. Then wash their hands when the core competency and loss rate of the grey jets become too public for the senior management in the DC swamp to stomach. Since this COA exceeds the median VML cycle, it's plausibly deniable. None of this is conjecture, it's my lived experience since oh say, fiscal '18? Through all the jokes, the meme witchhunts on instagram, the non-judicial punishments, and all the banter on here about the leadership changes you highlight, they have been the most emphatic about never tolerating the utterance that these SGTO evolutions are a dilution of quality. Most RegAF just doesn't have that corporate memory because they PCS too frequently. But Pepperdige Farms (AFRC) remembers. The all-contractor wet dream they've always had is also DOA, because Congress won't let them touch the pork earmarked for the aforementioned localities. So we're stuck in this morass, and more young guys will end up dead for it, before somebody finally tells HAF to KIO and addresses the capitalization of this enterprise with the gravitas it deserves.

While I don't enjoy some of the theatrics, at times they do serve a purpose. Most of the bluster is to force negotiation and in the case of Canada it kinda worked. Interestingly Canada was already feeling the immigration pain and has tightened the requirements for immigration to their country drastically. As Trump pointed out there has been a huge spike in people coming across the northern border and a threatened 25% tariff forced Trudeau to get on a place and fly to Mar A Lago. And if you think it is wrong to punk the future Canadian governor, good look at some of the things he said about Trump in the past. His comments has the same impact with Mexico, since the election they have suddenly detained 500,000 immigrants heading for the U.S. border. Right or wrong, it worked with NATO in the past and while I don't favor walking away from that alliance, a great number of the members were delinquent or not meeting their obligations.

That thing is so huge that it's shadow has a RCS.

NIL and the crazy rules after the NCAA lost the court case are destroying the game. Cam quit at halftime, just like most of the Noles quit last year before they even got to their bowl game. Something has to change, tie NIL payments to FINISHING the season, but it won't. it is not just a football problem either. Jim Larranaga left the Miami Basketball program this week and his comments are very telling on the turning point for him towards retirement: "After we went to the 2023 Final Four, eight players wanted to transfer or seek better NIL deals. They told me they loved it at Miami, but wanted to seek a better deal."

Lack of quality training/holding students to a specified criteria, which sets them up for failure. I don’t think the younger generation is less capable to learn than previous ones or has a different mix of people on the spectrum of can’t fly worth shit to God’s gift to an aviation. The difference is the younger generations aren’t provided the learning/training experiences they need compared to previous generations, combined with not being held to standards. This enables them to go do things/gain quals that their older counterparts never would have been allowed to do/have at the same career point.

I like the Lions, but only if they get past The Pack. Dan the Man is ballsy. Respect. PS, 3 beers in among the relatives had a say in the previous rambling.

Might should've put this in the history thread but I'm drunk so I'll put it here. No doubt the Herk made it's mark in Viet Nam.

Listen to the whole Carmina Burana performance. With drinks. Here is the 2nd part of O Fortuna, Fortune Plango Vulnera.

UPT and PIT as a whole are complicit in 'fixing' the AF's retention problem with new accessions. The result of this complicity is realized in what we all know is UPT/PIT studs making it through that shouldn't. B-Courses and Ops squadrons see this as a failure of IPs to hold the line, which at best leads to a reduction in lethality, and at worst an increase in mishaps. I'm not saying IPs at UPT/PIT are solely responsible, but the enterprise as a whole owns part of the problem and it's 2nd/3rd order effects. PIT pushes some ppl through that are unsafe. They pass ppl that are staying at PIT and then spend months getting them through MQT before they're safe enough to fly with PIT students. This bends the squadron over even more, but their other option is to wash out/FEB a pilot that didnt have an issue in their previous airframe. This isn't 100% of studs, but there is enough of it at PIT/UPT that the increased scoffing from the CAF is, to some extent, earned. I'm not saying all UPT/PIT DOs/CCs for the last x years should be burned at the stake. The decline has been insidious and the external pressures play a huge factor. On the -38 side IPs know there's a better chance they'll get a 5th gen follow-on than a stud getting washed out. If they hook him, the timeline is going to suffer, if the timeline gets any worse they're going to have to go back to flying local weekend sorties in 100 deg heat, and none of it matters because the stud in question is gonna drop a KC-135 anyways. The stud is gonna drop KC-135s because B-Courses can't keep up with the increased production, to include the extra sorties required for the lower quality product from UPT/IFF. Yeah that's right, IFF owns this too. The IPs showing up at UPT/IFF now were a product of the lowered standards caused by increased production pressure. They saw their bros/possibly themselves skate by and think that's how the sausage is supposed to be made. If anyone figures out a way to get the entire AETC enterprise to grade IAW the CTS, and find some bobs that will back their IPs up, maybe the icecream cone gets cleaned. TL;Dr version:

I disagree with most of this rambling, but I had to downvote for the last 6 words. disgusting... Go Lions.

Clearly it is NATO’s fault.

A lot of officer perspective here. I’m not in any way excusing the behavior of out of control SNCOs. I can’t stand it either and I have to work constantly to squash it in my orbit. I would add context though. SNCOs are stuck in the middle. On one hand, they have to deal with immature, hard to communicate with, uneducated and honestly weird junior airmen. They are doing their best to motivate them, lead them and accomplish the mission. Correcting the small stuff is often necessary to keep younger troops in line. If you don’t, they will take advantage of you. It’s like parenting. It is extremely challenging. On the other hand, they must answer to officers. Some officers have fun getting under the skin of SNCOs. See @HossHarris post above. That is literally the worst advice I’ve ever read in dealing with a SNCO. Especially, a competent one. Relationships are built on trust and respect. It goes both ways. If you want to have success dealing with someone who is correcting your socks or asking where your reflective belt is, then sit down privately and talk to them. Ask them why they perceive whatever they’re doing as a priority. You may be surprised by their answer. And you’ll be able to speak to your perspective as well. You’ll probably find there was no reason to “not be afraid to be an officer” or “pretend you didn’t know a rule existed”. You just didn’t have the complete story. If you find that a NCO or SNCO was directed to prioritize something ridiculous, then chase that lead down and have a convo with commanders or other senior leaders to get their perspective. That is how blind spots are exposed allowing them to be corrected. Just the thoughts of an old crusty SNCO.

Ouch

Where have you been the last four years?

Opinions of lower-ranking troops could soon be considered in officer promotions "The pilot would include anonymous peer and subordinate feedback to be submitted as part of command selection for O-5 and O-6 ranks." Our Air Force leadership would look COMPLETELY different. Douche nozzles like Slife and Cat 5 would be busting rocks in the gulag.

Doomed is a great way to describe year 3 of a 3 day operation where your handlers' country can't even capture a major Ukrainian city (Kharkiv) less than 40km away from the border. Lick those boots harder, it's not working.

Are you ok, dude? That's a high grade crazy kind of claim. Global thermonuclear war isn't in anyone's best interest.

What's the math? Ukraine is killing six for every one they lose. The math of Russia's economy is also very telling.

I’d put more money on it gets him out of that district in Florida since all he did was impede legislation and prevent any coalition. His only skill is causing chaos, not representing anyone. Without him in the House, might actually be able to make something happen. The tried and true Air Force way of firing by promoting.

As reticent as I am to do someone's homework for them, I'll move the ball down the field...so, yes. Watch for one minute; up until about the 3:30 mark. And no, I don't think she's a Russian agent. She characterizes the Iraq war as a war for "financial reasons" that was sold on lies. Now, I was a naysayer (at the time - like in 2003 when I was a cadet) about Iraq part 2. Put another way: I was against the Iraq war before Tulsi was. I didn't think we should have gone in for the reasons we did and I have posts on this site that go back years which indicate that - I'm no Iraq '03 apologist. That being said, there are only two ways you can fairly approach an understanding of our decision for going into Iraq the second time. The first is a fear-based reaction that is grounded in our assumption or lack of knowledge into what Saddam Hussein was up to in the aftermath of 9/11. I thought there were smarter ways to handle that fear and I think in different times and under different circumstances we would have done better. That said, it's a perfectly acceptable response to the "why" behind our decision to go in. The second (fair) way to approach the decision is to acknowledge that we "went in for the oil." Though that one requires you to grapple with the fact that we're going to trade blood for oil. I am a blood for oil guy because I'm a realist. We are not going to allow a dictator on the other side of the world put a stranglehold on the global economy. We fight over natural resources. We always have and we always will. Decrying "no blood for oil" is absolutely ignorant, hippy-coded nonsense. If you want to be a realpolitik type, you can lean on this one. If you want to be a hippy pacifist, you can lean on it as well. It works for both groups. So yes, I agree, if you want to characterize it as "we went in for financial reasons," then yeah, sure we did, but then again, everything we do has a financial dimension, so it's really not a very illustrative way to view the world...but I digress. The problem I have with her, however, is her characterization of the "why" surrounding going in for oil. She posits some sinister, financial, get-rich-quick, evil motivation that led the likes of Dick Cheney to use 9/11 as a pretext to get Halliburton into Iraq - which was always his master plan...it was closer to the view I had when I was 20...but I was 20. I'm now a grown up. Zip ahead to 4:45 when she goes into "just like we wouldn't want Venezuela to come to our country..." to over throw our government, we shouldn't go into theirs...blah, blah, blah. It underscores this neo liberal idea(l) that all country's are equal and get to have an equal say in the way the world works. Nah. No thanks. Venezuela's merry-go-round of dictators don't get to have an equal say in the way the world works because they're a so-called country with borders on the map. There are other examples available, but I'm not going to trouble myself more tonight by expounding anymore on them at length. The bottom line is that her world-view is conspiratorial, and that one which has no place in a position as serious as the DNI. So no, what I'm doing is not name-calling. I am looking fairly at the implications of her worldview and it concerns me. I haven't written her off. Like I said, I hope she's a fast learner with an open mind. On a somewhat related note to help characterize how I approach the world, I also think the regime in Iran must be toppled. October 7th has necessitated it, and it's only a matter of time before it becomes a reality. I'm not a war-monger, though. I'm just taking an honest look at who's who in the world, and "countries" that engage others in that manner have to be transformed. That usually takes force.

It's not sarcastic. She possesses a high-school-debate-club-level understanding of politics, war, the Middle East, and our role in the world. I hope she wises up quick if she is confirmed to that role. I don't want someone in that role who thinks we're up to no good at a fundamental level, or someone who thinks we can all get along. I want a stone-cold killer as the DNI. She doesn't seem to fit that description to me.

He isn't. Stack his resume up against any former SecDef and it is laughable. But anyone who makes the argument that a boot-licking FoxNews host is qualified because he was a CGO in the Army will tell you all you need to know about their ability to think clearly about the next administration.

Am I missing something? How is this guy remotely qualified to be SECDEF?

at least 25% to make even a tiny dent. I'd shoot for 50%. So much dead weight hanging around this place. And wasted money. I'd nominate @Biff_T for SecDef. Not some indoctrinated general who has played the game for 30 years. Someone who gives a shit about killing bad dudes efficiently and genuinely cares about the people that are tasked with that objective. And somehow I think dirndls would make it into an official uniform.

The DOD could use a 10% budget cut across the board. Generals included.

Don't let anyone walk in on you watching this. They will question your manhood. However, dont be afraid to shed man tears 😢 while alone and wasted.

not plain and simple. ukraine is and has been losing for awhile now. i'm glad trump will put a end to this foolish ukraine money laundering adventure

Yes to Theatrics. Like the bootlickers are backstabbing each other. Loomer and Bannon going after battery-boy Musk. Musk writing opinion that a labeled extremist entity, Alternative for GE, is the solution to issues in Germany. Trump has been mostly quiet. Maybe he's finally figured it out. As for executive level action, so far I have him following Musk's lead on funding the govt asshattery (Congressional theatrics). Will Trump be his own man or be manipulated by the likes of Musk? Once he takes power, we'll have more events to banter. Happy Holidays, may Oregon stomp OH St (although I'm Big 10), and God bless the Green Bay Packers.