Leaderboard

Young young crew chief uhhello was at PSAB for start of OIF. Waiting on pilot to show up and was surprised to see the WG CC's SUV pull up to spot. Was surprised and asked ignorantly what he was doing. "I'm leading the package in".

I've had both pilot and WSO Commanders, and there were good and bad out of both camps. I consider it a good thing that there are some who I'd really have to sit down and stretch my brain to remember if they were front seaters or back seaters. That being said, I remember being at SOS and having one of those "senior leader seminars" with my flight. The guy who led the seminar for my flight was one of the original CROs, a big burly dude who was emphatic that any "leader" could command any unit, regardless of specialty. I offered that such a thing would not work in a fighter unit, to which he scoffed and told me I just wasn't evolved enough in my thinking about leadership to understand that I was wrong. I said, "in my community, our Squadron Commander generally is the lead pilot of the first formation to cross into badguy territory on the first night of the war. How are you going to inspire your warriors if on the first night of the war you're sending them into the IADS while you're going to watch them all take off into the night, then stay behind in the office and watch it on CNN?" His only response was, "that's not a fair question."

Leadership traits can span many groups/organizations, but it’s ignorant to think there is a one-size-fits-all leadership know-how that can effectively lead any organization. Yeah MSG guy, you did supervisor/lead 100 airmen…now stand up front and lead this MPC and tomorrow’s 80v30 mission vs. a peer level threat. I’ll wait…

I’ll take that feedback with a HUGE GRAIN OF SALT

The only thing that stops this is when we collectively say we’ve had enough.

Feedback was first person direct to me, a T-6 ip who trained them, so I could make changes for subsequent classes. Still tiny sample sizes, but so far, they are certainly no worse than what we put through before

No, Hacker was making the point that if you lead a squadron tasked with going into combat, or a wing, etc. you better be qualified in the primary mission otherwise you lack credibility. WSO leading a strike Eagle unit, absolutely. SOC douche leading a unit that constantly needs IP supervision? That’s what Hacker is talking about.

It took a while to find it because the book was buried in my HHG but maybe they're looking to bring back the glory days of the O-Club. The Minot AFB Officer's Club from Jack Broughton's Rupert Red Two:

I’m pro getting the Covid vax, but I’m still not convinced these shenanigans end just because we hit the targeted vaccine milestone. LA County is the reason why I believe that. LA County has 70% of residents with at least one dose and 62% fully vaccinated, one of the highest rates in the nation. Cases have risen though in the past few weeks and the county leadership immediately shit its pants and reinstated a mask mandate for both vax’d and unvax’d, even though the overwhelming majority of cases are among the unvaccinated. Also, when asked what they would do if cases kept rising, the county responded that all options were on the table, including lockdown again. So no, I’m not convinced that hitting a vaccine milestone will cause this bullshit to stop. There is always going to be another crisis for the nanny state to step in and try and manage, and we have certainly given lots of power to the nanny state in the last year and a half. I would honestly not even be shocked if places like LA County mandate masks during flu seasons in the future.

Amazing how many Trump supporters want to shit on what was probably his greatest achievement as a president. Operation Warp Speed is a triumph of modern scientific research and biomedical engineering, funded and supported by Trump...and it's mostly Trump supporters who won't take it because "I don't trust Fauci" and "I don't trust Biden". I wonder how many of those Trumpers would be vaccinated if Trump had been re-elected then tweeted non-stop about how awesome Warp Speed turned out to be and what a genius he was for finding the "cure to Covid".

Why on earth would you believe that? This far into the pandemic no amount of capitulation to public health demands has resulted in decreased demands. And since “everyone” includes immunocompromised and day old infants who can’t get the shot, your new demand is impossible.

Turn off the Newsmax.

All righty. Going to breakup the monotony of this thread and just say. I survived command on a 365. One of the best experiences in my life probably because I wasn’t a shiny penny. There may be some wrong in the USAF but not in the deployed environment where the mission hackers make it happen. There are a lot of eager and aggressive Airmen out there who are only limited by the system they exist in. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Two of the absolute worst commanders I’ve had were pilots. Two of the very best were navs. The radiator shield does not automatically qualify one to be a good commander.

I saw the data and UPT 2.5 looks fine. Winging after the T-6…whatever. “But that’s not how I did it!!” I was a UPT IP when fix to fixes went away…the uproar…but we survived. And for data, I have 2x relatives who got wings after original 169kt T-6’s and went on to fly 10,000k hours in everything from prop and jet bombers to Mach 2 fighters.

This is why you don’t let non-pilots run flying organizations