Leaderboard

If the military in general has one overriding tradition, probably back to Roman times, it's bitching. It's our heritage. Overheard in 1776: "@*#$%& Washington, getting us up on @*#$%& Christmas night and here we are floating across some &@%#& icy river. Could be *@%@&$ sleeping rather than in this &@%&# leaky boat. Wish he'd just *$%@&! fall in..."

Meanwhile, Jill Metzger walks around with her career intact.

or "That !$@# Hannibal, got us taking a $*!#% circus over these #$#%! mountains. " Edit: and there's this gem... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aynjd00np2I

I think the previous 6+ pages might have mentioned this.

I guess they didn't lead them that much...

The media got to Mr Rast only a week after he was told his son was killed; needless to say his emotions were surely running high. Hopefully, given time, Mr Rast will see things the way Mr Smith apparently does. Also, the articles are have very different tones, so who knows what else Mr Rast said that was not published. Those few comments may have been cherry-picked from an hour long interview to give the story the reporter wanted to tell. Either way, they died while running towards the sound of gunfire to help their fellow soldiers. Their families should be proud.

I wouldn't be surprised if the plan WAS vetted through leadership before the left; however, I'd be willing to bet "well boss, I intend to shine my ass in front of tens of thousands of people and millions more on youtube, costing myself everything I've worked 20 years for" came up in the briefing.

While I certainly understand his grief, anger, and desire to understand what happened, I have to shake my head at his ideas on how he is going to do that, e.g.: No, I don't think you're 'entitled' to that, sir, and knowing that information won't add to your understanding, other than to give you a person's name to direct your rage. The military can do a far better job of analyzing the error chain and helping prevent it from reoccurring than you can. Trust that they will.

"I guarantee you if he was standing in front of me, he'd be asking for forgiveness, and I would give it to him." Holy shit, I can only hope to be half the man this guy is given the situation. What a serious warrior the father is. RIP for the fallen.

Like this is some kind of new thing? Go grab a doofer book from Desert Storm, or Vietnam, or Korea, and see what kind of world-class sport bitching there is in there. There's no more bitching and whining today than there was at any other point in USAF history; there are just more public outlets for it.

Supposedly, one of our own baseops dudes got hisself elected to congress, and has told us to "stby on Metzger" , and "were gonna look into it" in a couple of threads....I have decided I'll be patient and wait to see what comes of that effort. Back on this subject: It's been said many times but the only good result nowadays from statics and flybys is that you get to keep your wings...unless you don't. I did find it interesting that lead got grounded telephonically and told to drive home. That his bosses texted him he flew "too low"--where were these guys in mission planning? Did no one in supervision even ask lead about his plan? In our community, any high-vis sortie gets a once-over from a DO or ADO...usually on the form of a quick brief from the mission CC to the boss, or a boss will attend the actual crew/pilot briefing. Find it interesting that no one thought to ask Lead what the plan was...

It is no news that AF leadership these days is a joke. But this never ending continual posting of comments like whinny little bitches kinda gets old. Wouldn't y'all agree with me? Even the newbies, wet around the ears have their little $0.2 to add. If there is this much whining, who then is running the place amok? Most of you whinny little bitches wouldn't have enough sack to make changes when you finally get into a position to do so. Rather than mentoring a generation of quiet professionals, we have a generation of whiners. Guess what, you have only added to the problem - Mediocre whiners! Would the leadership on here step up and clean house. It is a culture that needs to be changed. The US Air Force is here to stay.