17D_guy

RUMINT//NON ATTRIBUTABLE In my discussions with the HPO-boss whose coat tails I was riding, this was spot on. As a Capt he worked for a "sponsored" Comm Colonel who was going places. That Col retired as a 3-star, but still has deep ties to our (now) Cyber community. That 3-star briefed a group of 17D's at a Friday Beer call that once he pinnned on his first star the MAJCOM/CV sat him down to ask if he was "in the game." My former HPO-boss retired because of a long-term family emergency. A very good dude, mentor and was doing good things about getting our culture changed. He had guys that he made sure got high profile assignments before he bounced to cashing fat checks. I did not work for him at the time, though we were in the same org and he looked out for me. My actual boss during that time was not a HPO, was "asked" to retire and didn't secure a strat on my OPR despite DoD level awards. Which...fine. However, they wouldn't even tell him why I didn't get one or what to improve on/feedback. Another Col I know said a lot of the same thing as the article, and also mentioned that I now needed to find another sponsor. When I was working Wing front office stuff this is what the execs would talk about and how when someone ducked out that was planned for higher position it put a 48 month ripple through the system. Apparently there's notional plans for all these HPO's and GO's that far out. JQP had a good article on it a few years ago. I'd like to note that the execs hated this whole thing and would have rather been flying. Having sat "fake exec" a couple times and talking with the real execs, the time GO's put in to grooming a not small, but not large, number of candidates for quick moves wasn't a surprise. Having spoken with a lot of Col's at my last job, and seen how much more of their life they give up to wear birds, and the same w/ GO's...I'm not sure it's a deal I'd make even if given the opportunity. I'm certain it's not a deal my wife would make. I will grant that I've been blessed with good Col's and GO's since May of last year, so perhaps they're doing more than some douchebags would instead of pushing things down to us. Also, for the tribal piece. I've heard this from every Col+ that I've talked with about promotion/assignment boards. They called it the knife fights, and Col's came in with the short list of people they wanted to protect/push. Sometimes they got all/some/none of their folks to where they wanted them. That part was very political, and there were serious/loud gripes when other communities would push around for prized positions (see - 11M pilot now taking cmd of 690 NOS). For Cyber there's also Cyber (Offense/defense), Mission Support and Combat Comm tribes, which are also distinct from Sq/Staff tribes.

So.. it's like their version of Trump.

And here I've never gotten the medal plates in Tx because I didn't want to do the extra paperwork... 3 years running...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/11/politics/us-navy-seals-alleged-sexual-misconduct/index.html And the hits keep on coming.

My favorite thing is the "innovation idea" taskers that come down urging us to :cut the cruft and think outside the box." Then require us to route it through the entire chain, brief Sq/Grp/Wg CC's for it to get out of the Wing.

Oh god, I got a call from the poor bro that they tasked with setting that up. He got my info and gave me a call asking all kinds of network questions--bad ones. Took me a sec and I asked if he was a comm/cyber guy and he said "no, I'm a pilot" but someone had just told him "get it set up." I commiserated with him and told him to call AETC A6 and get some frigging help. Random pilot dude ain't gonna be able to run that through solo at a location without any infrastructure.

Someone's trying to fix his legacy. What a absolute shit.

Wait...this can actually happen? Everything I've seen (non-pilot) when someone does that it's a quick out the door.

Perhaps I should break this into it's own thread, but is there a notable difference between USAA and AAFMAA? USAA's always seemed extremely competitive to me.

Damnit...I should have done that.

Oh yea. Wedge at 24 AF is pushing it hard. Youv'e got that in a lot of the no-kidding Cyber Ops Sq's. On the DODIN/Base Support side...not as much. They've jacked with the career-fields and capabilities for about a decade straight. Hard to keep that and build up a culture of excellence. Plus, you can go from a hard charging kill our enemies unit to a Comm Sq...because we're all 17D cores. Think about that one for awhile and how that plays in with the folks who don't want to hack, and then the folks who don't want to do mission support! It's very slow going as we've got a wide array of senior leaders who think that putting Amn on "crew rest" counts as making them operators, but not holding them accountable for not executing an order because they think (as a SrA) they've got a better idea. I'm off to a legit kill the bad guys unit soon, so I'll be dipping out of the Win10 upgrades and such for at least a couple of years! Hopefully I'll pin on Maj sometime during this stint.

We don't call it weaponized Autism for nothing. Sure. Having walked the halls of Ops Sq's the culture is in the air. The expectation is worn on your patches on the pajamas all us non-air-breathing-operators crave. Everyone knows that the aircrew have spent X years training, flying, fighting. You guys have Sq bars, you're segregated from the rest of the AF by sheer pinnacle of your achievement. As I think you should be, you've earned it. I don't have that in a normal Comm Sq. I've got Airmen who never touched a computer besides MS Office for school that are working the core servers, all the way up to the guy who failed a credit short of a CS degree because he almost went pro in Fortnite. I've got officers who are geology/english majors who got Cyber because "needs of the Air Force." This is on par with the bros who signed up for real flying and got RPA's...but they have to "lead" Amn that are about the same age. How many officers in a Ops sq you know that can't get to work on time? I've had to separate 3 Amn for that. I had to deal with 4 sexual assault cases at the same time, when those finally wrapped up 3 pissed hot. So, the 17D that @HarleyQuinn mentions comes off as a douche from that single statement. I don't agree with ordering it...but it's nice to not get blindsided by some idiot failing at the last minute and having to report it to a douche Wing CC who thinks PT's the pinnacle of leadership. Which is where we been for about a decade. 1 story to kinda illustrate - Airman shithead was late to duty on a Saturday. Boss found him asleep in his car...suspicion of drinking. On Monday we (Super and I) pull him in for a conversation. I order him to stay silent (not self-incriminate), and tell him our suspicions and run him through the consequences. I tell him about the options to driving while intoxicated, and ask him to be a professional, he's a needed team member, etc. I release him to his supervisor and superintendent. 2 weeks later DUI.

13 hours was fantastic. Recently watched Wild Country on Netflix. Was pretty amazing.

Hold up...2009 hasn't even been announced for promotion

It's funny because the previous Manager E9s took all the shit offices tried to get rid of (ex. Practice Bleeding) and put it on top of a stretched Force...

Another good one from Enlisted Jesus is the removal of practice bleeding via Course 14/15 for our NCO/SCNOs. Don't know if you zipper-suited-sun-gods care that much, but over on the support side it's a big deal. I had good folks get screwed because of the stupidity this caused when implemented. CMSAF Wright has almost wiped out anything close to a legacy the idiot before him put in place. Hope it burns.

And said asshole is now crying about how he didn't mean it that way, and everyone else over-reacted. "All these places contacted me for comments, or sharing the video...I had no idea it would blow up so big." King Blue Falcon acts like he's the arbiter of public Air Force outrage, a Mikey Weintsein of secular "honor" infraction. A machine of his own making ruined 3 people's lives, and he's attempting to distance himself from it. What a cowardly villain, inept in his own power - https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/04/29/military-page-admin-i-wish-id-handled-dino-puppet-video-differently.html

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/20472/retired-general-says-f-22-production-was-killed-so-that-a-new-bomber-could-live Fuck those guys. So much faulty logic in the decision to even offer up the F-22 as a sacrificial lamb...

I saw it sober.

3!

Watching that makes me think that Welch and James didn't seem to get along as well as Fingers and Wilson.

"circulated to Air Force enthusiast group pages" Not the words I'd use for those assholes.

Good stuff, but did he in effect the last round? The one where our (awesome) UN Ambassador came back with the, "I'm not confused."

I like how '09 got fucked every-single-way for any promotion outside Lt. Also...what's the difference between opportunity now...and opportunity for '08s and previous if they're going to cull at SAF level?

Ugh.. that made me throw up in my mouth.