Leaderboard

OK, so I missed the anniversary by one day (technically it was released yesterday, 29 Jan); but raise your glasses for one of the best and most accurate military movies of all time! 7 Strange but True Facts About 'Dr. Strangelove' at 50 Cheers! M2

The AFCENT spokesman is Maj Faggard? High school must have been rough on that guy.

I wonder who the guy was that decided we needed that flap on the sleeve pocket and knows what he created.

Good leadership can fix management problems. Good management can fix management problems. Good management cannot fix leadership problems. Sadly, I cannot think of many aspects of this job where leadership is at play. I can think of a few, maybe two commanders that I have worked for have been true leaders and managers. They managed efficiently enough to make time to lead. I would follow these guys anywhere. The other commanders I've seen don't truly have a chance to lead, they are too busy managing the shit that is rolling down hill. Heck, for half the time I've been in AFSOC either the CC or the DO have been deployed at the same time with 50% of the squadron home, and 50% gone. I'm not saying that all of these guys wouldn't be excellent leaders, they just aren't set up for success. If World War III kicked off tomorrow no one would care what ADLS course you didn't complete. No one would care that you missed your semi annual training by one ILS and those going overdue would get a waiver instead of paperwork. The commander and others would actually lead and manage the fighting force. The mission and not the queep would take priority. I know of a guy who went overdue on the chamber while deployed. The solution was rapid airlift to the nearest chamber to complete training. You have to be kidding me; what is the intent behind the time limit? It's to make sure that we all get that training within a predetermined timeframe because symptoms of hypoxia change over time. It's not to cause the situation I just described. Queep: When the time/resources/difficulty of accomplishing a given task is disproportionate to the value gained. I don't care if it is congressionally mandated training, if it is queep and congressionally mandated it is probably CYA reactionary BS. I guess my point if any of all of this rambling diatribe it would be this: there is way to much bull to manage to even identify who is an effective leader for the average officer. So we continue with the system we have. We have awesome leaders and we have shitty leaders. We don't place a premium on leadership in the active duty operational world. The proof of that is flushing every bit of doctrine we learn in PME when it is convenient to do so. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and I love the things I have done, I still have more love for it than to leave it, but that's just me. What can I say, I grew up in a dysfunctional family, so the Air Force fits me like a glove.

Considering the committee hearing was 3 hours long with 6 different witnesses and 60 pages of written statements, I think I was somewhat brief.

Below are my somewhat brief interpretations of the recent Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing on military retirement ( http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/recent-changes-to-the-us-military-retirement-system ). 25:30 - Chairman Levin appears fairly determined to repeal the COLA cut. 28:15 - Sen Inhofe is also dedicated to at least pursuing grandfathering if not repeal. 40:30 - ADM Winnefeld encourages grandfathering existing benefits at this time, and then pursuing curtailment/adjustments later after more study (COLA-cuts remaining an option). Essentially, he recommends not increasing any benefits for the indefinite future because our current compensation is well above the absolute minimum and money saved would be much better spent on equipment and training, because we're so darn good at spending that money efficiently. 47:30 - Dep SECDEF Fox also prefers essentially freezing benefits at current levels and then considering fundamental, radical changes. She recommends viewing AD compensation and retirement benefits as two separate halves that can have somewhat independent solutions. Changes to retirement benefits likely won't be pursued by the DoD until after the MCRM report is published. 52:00 - Conjecture of where to pay for repeal of COLA, which costs about $6B. Are you serious? Congress pulled benefits to pay for non-DoD programs and spending goals. Why do retirees need to find the money that Congress spent? Pull from DoD totals, but not other retiree programs. 1:00:00 - Dep SECDEF Fox nearly repeats the sentiments of ADM Winnefeld at 40:30. 1:03:00 Sen Manchin recommends actually performing the audit the DoD before cutting retirement benefits. The DoD has been required to perform an annual audit for the last decade, but it has never actually done one. We have no genuine, verified report of exactly how money is spent despite the congressional mandate to do it. Apparently the Marine Corps passed an audit recently, but they are the only ones to ever do it, and only just now. The DoD Comptroller actually doesn't anticipate we can complete an audit until 2017. Sen Manchin apparently is a fucking genious and deserves a damn medal. 1:05:00 - Dep SECDEF Fox & ADM winnefild cite Sen Inhofe's graphic that auditing and spending corrections would be a small portion of total spending and are dwarfed by personnel costs. I'm gonna call that bullshit, as the later testimonies by the lobbying groups prove. Also, nearly every contracting program in existence is specifically designed to bilk the budget. Until contracting is fixed, this is wasted time, which Sen Manchin also addresses. Christ, Sen Manchin is a goddamn brainiac. Lastly, Sen Manchin recommends further usage of the Guard to reduce AD budgeting. 1:10:00 - Sen McCain heavily stresses and promotes grandfathering existing personnel. God-bless that crotchety, old man. 1:15:00 - Putting it all together, TriCare will probably the main pressure point and will get some major cuts at some point in the future. 1:20:00 Sen Wicker correctly emphasizes the negative impact of COLA-cuts. He also does a good job at not getting more support from the DoD for not pushing for repealing the cuts for all personnel (not just medical-retirees, survivors, other exempt, etc.). This guy gets it and remembers the lies that were part of the sequestration and Affordable Care Act promises. 1:27:30 Sen Kaine again agrees to repeal COLA-cuts, then defends the BBA because its the first real budget weve had in four years. I see both sides of the argument, but it was still a bad rush job, and its fairly indefensible. He has some good bi-partisanship approaches, in that its really spineless rhetoric. 1:35:15 Sen Ayotte repeats that nobody in DoD, SASC, HASC, etc. were consulted, and totally disagrees with Sen Kaine. Shes usually pretty opinionated (remember the A-10 and SECAF James confirmation?), but I at least agree with her here. She then hammers the effect of a highly mobile military career and the difficulty in the post-service work career. Shes pretty on-point with the differences in retirement against a normal civilian life and why military benefits are justified. Also, she briefly mentions the O-7+ retirement plans that are astoundingly generous, but doesnt elaborate too much. GO pay should really be heavily scrutinized (and cut) in my opinion. 1:44:00 Sen Reed is pretty boring and doesnt say anything new or interesting. 1:52:15 Sen Fischer asks if the DoD has consulted any lobbying / consulting groups. ADM Winnefeld states they havent coordinated anything yet. Sen Fischer recommends coordination first. 1:56:00 - Dep SECDEF Fox states AD compensation freezes will be a part of FY2015. 2:04:00 - Sen Hagan favors grandfathering. 2:06:30 Sen Graham mirrors Sen Kaines sentiments of getting a budget done. He then pushes for coordination with interest groups. He keeps assuming personnel costs account for half of the total DoD Budget (something many groups dispute). 2:11:00 Sen Graham wants an assessment what percent of GDP is spent on DoD. He believes we need some version of heavy cost-cutting to DoD budget continue for the next 10 years (or so). His approach is not terribly friendly to the DoD. 2:14:15 - Sen Blumenthal also supports immediate repeal. 2:21:45 - Sen Vitter highlights that only the military retirees had a cut to benefits and no other federal retirees (namely civilians) had any cuts. Good point. 2:23:30 - Sen King is split on whether the undebated budget was a good idea, as he opposes the COLA cuts, but is also surprised that a budget was indeed passed. 2:57:00 - The woman sitting behind Dr. Chu is astoundingly unattractive. I just needed to comment on that. 2:59:15 Sen Levin again urges for repeal. 3:00:00 - The interest groups state that they each have met with the MCRM at least once and are pleased with the membership of the commission. Sen Levin encourages that any organization which hasnt yet meet with the commission be given that chance. 3:06:00 - Sen Inhofe brings a quick unique discussion about prioritization of retirement pay/benefits and national defense priorities. I wont try to summarize it here, but if you are considering watching it, it is certainly worth a few minutes of your time. 3:15:30 - Sen Ayotte opens with the same comment as Sen Vitter, how only the military gets the cut and nobody else. The witnesses comment on the numerous other past and proposed cuts to benefits, primarily in medical care/TriCare. Good comments by Sen Ayotte. 3:26:00 - God, that woman is ugly. 3:28:00 Sen Graham comments on the value of e-mails and other communication to Congressmen heavily sways focus and opinions of those congressmen. He then defends the existing retirement benefits as a fair and that it should not be cut. He lastly asks the groups to meet with Senators not on the SASC to discuss the impacts of sequestration on personnel readiness. Continuation of above: The written statements below are heavily abridged as many of the arguments are repeated multiple times through other statements and testimony. You can read the full statements via the links below, but know that most are pretty long. http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Fox-Winnefeld_01-28-141.pdf http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Tilelli_01-28-14.pdf Holy shit, this is a great testimony. Anybody AD officer who isnt an MOAA isnt a member should be. This guy has certainly earned the support.

Oh yea, it's pretty easy to go from C-17's to F-22's....that's like monday morning water-cooler stuff. All that T-38 track and IFF doesn't really have much to do with anything once you get to hawaii. Good luck! see you there!

You guys carry a shit ton more flares than we do?

I'm sure he's not the only one saying stupid shit...doubt there's a lot of them saying 'this' kind of stupid shit on twitter, as well as having their main photograph be in their uniform, but what do I know. Let me ask you this: If I'm downtown and at a bar (not even in uniform) and I'm with my buddies saying a bunch of stuff that is promoting assault, sexual assault, using racist remarks, etc, and a coworker (maybe a female?) somehow overhears me acting this way (without me even know that the coworker is there)...should anything happen? If she mentions something to the boss, does the boss just shrug their shoulders and tell the coworker "Oh well...it wasn't on base". Or does the boss/supervisor take this guy aside and at the minimum tell them to stop acting like an ass-clown when in public and for saying such stupid things? I'm not at all suggesting they toss this dude out, what I'm saying is to give him an ass chewing to let him know that when he does this on social media (with his picture and/or name available) that he not only makes himself look bad, but that he makes the Air Force look bad. This then gives him the feedback that he needs, since he obviously sees nothing wrong with what he is doing, and allows him to correct his behavior without a negative mark on his record. Tell him to take down his pictures and use a ghost name if he feels he just has to act like a thug. Damn, we get in trouble if we say 69 or have a picture of our wife in a bikini at work, but this shit is allowed? Maybe I'm just getting old. Get off my lawn!

WhenTF did they start serving liquor at Bagram????

"Even the Air Force’s devilishly complex F-22 stealth fighter—another Lockheed product—is ready 69 percent of the time." Alright...which one of you wrote this article....?

“Robby [may be] a member of...the Air Force family”, however AF family members "seen purchasing large amounts of alcohol" (read: a 6-pack +) when they are actually supposed to be at work cause they learned to use LeaveWeb from Gen Schmidt get fooked. It was a good run, Robbie. You don't strike me a much of a marathon runner, so good luck to you. This is not going to go well for you. Bendy

Just like any other software related venture by the military, the specs got all fucked up between the customer and the engineer (thanks, Bob). It doesn't have the automatic ability to sort submitted shit by date, however it does have the ability to download the batch file of all submissions in the database when the client requests it. As such, since it does not sort them for the human, and the human is too lazy to sort them on their own, it cannot be considered perfectly first come, first served. We keep thinking that this statement means it in no way reflects "first come, first served", when in actuality it is a legalese statement (fairly required as the iceberg is in sight and course correction is not taking very rapidly here) that it is not perfectly "first come, first served". Even if you get it into batch #1, if it's on the bottom of the pile...you could still be fooked. Shit, if your an 11x and it's on the top of the pile...your probably fooked. It's a flawed system, but that's how we do things here in the Air Force. If you don't like it, apply for VSP already....damn it. Bendy

This is the shit we talk about all the time. The shit the AF thinks is important for a future leader (I won't spell them out...again) only gets you so far...eventually you have to learn to connect with people to REALLY lead them! That means more than just managing spreadsheets and virtual commanders calls via e-mail. Connect with your people so that you don't have to yell at them to motivate them to work for you. I think this is only the beginning...we have 10 years of promoting douchebags with no character or personality, and they keep continuing to rise through the ranks. I don't know the guy, but I know his type. These kinds of guys are power hungry and just don't know how to use it once they get there. They have no character so they lead by fear knowing that most everyone will at least respect their rank if not the person. How do we keep promoting these guys? On the other hand, we are bringing in a new batch of "Generation ME" people who don't respect rank as much, so now not only do they not respect the person or the rank, they are also sensitive and easily offended. This means future leaders are going to have to be charismatic, have personalities, and actually connect with their people beyond the spreadsheet. MOST GOs I've met are very charismatic and are generally easy to talk to, especially while they're playing politics to get that next star....but somehow we sometimes let douchebags with no personality get through. I'll say it again, there are some great managers out there who are smart and know how to work politics and get things to help the organization. We need those people in senior positions...we just need to keep them behind the scenes and don't let the attempt to lead or interact with people. All my opinion of course...with a little malt beverage spin...

FIFY Who didn't see that one coming...

Hey guys, I just heard some stuff in an important meeting that directly impacts all of your futures. However, I am not allowed to tell you anything about it. Sorry.

I read the report. All allegations substantiated. This GO sounds like a complete asshole. DoD will show they are serious about fixing this unacceptable culture of toxic, entitled and morally bankrupt GOFOs only when they start firing their bosses for not knowing how shitty they really are. 360 degree feedback can't start soon enough.

At least they have weed, tater tots, and the answers to the test.

Looks like morale Mon-Thur nametags are a go.

Maryland Shooter Identified: And the liberal media is bummed that this didn't fit the narrative they'd rather report: - A minority - Used a shotgun (Joe Biden's favorite) and not an AR-15 - Doesn't appear to be associated with the evil Tea Party - In a State like Maryland with some of the strictest gun control laws - Shooting occurred in a 'gun free zone' mall I know we were discussing Baltimore earlier, but since I despise Maryland, I thought I would post this as well.

Danny....I got it-- commenting on sh%t you know nothing about is second nature for you. Check. SF-squared, Captain.

"Somewhat" brief?