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tac airlifter

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Posts posted by tac airlifter

    Shut down Air War College

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    missing the point again. Of course you want the best commander. The question is, how do you get to be a good one? In a flying squadron, it begins by being credible in the jet. Maybe not the best pilot in the world, but definitely credible or folks simply won't follow you. After that, the traits of a great unit commander are mostly intangible....good with people, fair, involved, etc. Exactly zero traits of a good unit commander require a masters degree to obtain.

    Bingo, why is it so hard to grasp the concept we're putting forth? My CC doesn't have to be the best in the squadron, in fact, most likely he won't be as his attention rightfully should be focused elsewhere. But he shouldn't be UNQUALIFIED to fly the aircraft, which has been the case. And I expect that his FEF would show he was at least a decent stick as a younger fellow, otherwise how can he lead experts if he never was one? A good CC, like mine now, should make the guys under him want to be better and not damper their fighting spirit by downplaying its importance.

    Additionally, that question is a tangent from the discussion at hand OverTQ, which is about why a line flyer and mid-career CGO needs to shift his focus onto the 'bigger picture.' You present a false dichotomy, the AF is not forced to choose between CC's who are great at being the boss vs great in the aircraft. Do you really think all the box checking we're lamenting makes a good CC? Excellence at queep means only one thing-- that person has spent a lot of time worrying about how to obtain the right move for their own career. This attribute does not turn you into the selfless warrior willing to hang it all on the line to support a soldier in need. I'd be doing a disservice to my guys if I didn't tell them to acknowledge the queep, I don't want my people to be passed over captains. But I encourgae guys to do the same 10 month joke masters program I did, and focus the majority of their effort on the skills that will allow them to save and take lives in combat.

    My point is that guys on the line fighting the daily grind of the war need to be focused on that task and judged accordingly. Currently big blue seems more worried about ensuring captains check all the right boxes (not just AAD & PME, but also flt/CC, shop chief, volunteer shit, exercises, etc.... it's really a ton of shit on top of upgrades, TDYs and deployments) than ensuring captains bring their A-game when it's time to crush and destroy.

    Shut down Air War College

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm sure we've all heard the phrase "if the minimum wasn't good enough, why is it the minimum?" I've said it myself. However, the more I think about it, I come to the conclusion...do you really want people who just do the minimum?

    I don't want to be rude, however, your post fills me with an overwhelming urge to murder a baby seal, step on a kitten, shake a baby, or untuck my PT shirt in front of a Chief. Instead of induldging those options, I'll simply tell you that I totally disagree. I DO want people working for me who do the absolute minimum amount of queep to get by. Why? Because I want to fly into combat with dudes who are in the vault, know their systems cold, understand capabilities of every platform they'll work with, know CDE, understand the LTA process, have the confidence to assault a target in any weather, and most importantly: are filled with a burning desire to hunt and kill the enemy. Because at the end of the day, battles are won by a handful of dudes with the diligence, persistance and passion to fight despite the myraid of obstacles they face.

    Maybe you don't have this kind of job, I don't know what you fly. But I'll tell you point blank there are terrorists alive today because the people persuing them were young captains focused on their masters whose minds weren't in the game the night an opportunity presented itself. 100%. We are smothering our combat forces with bullshit. The majority of guys around me have accepted we'll likely burn out as career Majors or LtCols for the chance to be on the line in the fight. And people like you question their place because they've only done "the minimum?" See why I want to step on a kitten? The AF recently retired a guy who logged the most combat hours of anyone in any service. He retired as a Major after 17+ deployments. That should tell you the system is fucking broken; instead you ask if I really want to fly with someone like him who only did "the minimum." The answer is yes, he was a warrior and I'd fly with him into the worst.

    • Upvote 12

    Where have all the Giant Reports Gone?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Rant off....I suppose if it only bothers me then so-be-it.....but I think it's f'd up. DONE.

    No, it's not just you. I'm an AFSOC dude as well and this was a terrible decision by AMC. Especially absurd since our regs are written that we have to check GIANT reports that we now can't get access to. Definitely a decision with negative impact on the mission.

    • Upvote 1

    U-28/PC-12/NSA

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    They also lead us to believe that you had a little more freedom to fly in and out of places you wanted to go as long as the overall mission got done, but I don't know much about the extent of that statement.

    I don't even know what that statement is supposed to mean.

    Little Rock info

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Was DD there as Sq/CC when you were there? If so, then that's a lie.

    Yes he was, but I chose to have a good attitude; isn't that always the key to having a good assignment? If you're waiting for the AF to give you a perfect boss to start enjoying your job you'll be waiting a long time. I had fun, enjoyed the mission, and moved on to something else that I enjoy even more.

    Little Rock info

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I just dropped C-130E/Hs to LR and I was wondering where are some good places to live, all I have been seeing are temp places while people are going through initial qual

    LRAFB is only 12 miles north of the city, so there are tons of good spots. I lived in apartments in N little rock for a while before moving on base, although I don't recommend the second option unless you've got some family issues like I had. It's a good place and a good assignment, hopefully you lucked out and got the 50th; I left about 2.5 years ago, great group of dudes & tons of good TDYs. If you want any better info PM me and I can put you in touch with bro's at the squadron.

    I Hate Reflective Belts

    in Squadron Bar

    Posted

    Flipping the safety on after each shot is a poor technique that would get most people killed. The carbine courses have so many different techniques, and some sound totally crazy but happen to work for one guy one time. Great training all, but I think that particular technique would get the majority of people killed. Sky cops fall squarely in the average majority. Bottom line is this guys is a total idiot, whether or not this particular technique is valid and used by someone at Magpul.

    The conceptual idea that one absolutely must get the uniform standard right all the time or you simply aren't qualified to fight the war is fundamentally flawed. The true professional puts everything on a hierarchy of importance, a hierarchy that changes depending on many variables. As operators we're very comfortable living like this, and we usually call it SA. Sometimes your gas state is the most important thing, sometimes it's the weather, sometimes it's the mission then the icing on your wings, and when the critical part of the mission is over you RTB the area because now the icing is most important. The hierarchy is always changing, and a good flyer stays aware of what's at the top and the handful of items under it. This idea of juggling a group of variables which all slide up and down the priority list used to confuse the shit out of me in pilot training, resulting in my average performance. But with a few thousand hours it's natural to all of us.

    And I think this is why we all know his argument is bullshit, but an articulate response is hard because the concept is so simple. We think "of course my mission planning is more important than having my sleeves rolled down." Or "of course I put my sunglasses on my head, I'm doing shit with my hands."

    And that's the issue with this guy, and this entire school of thought with non-operators that if you can't get the uniform right how can you fly an airplane? They think "how can you possibly do the important things when you can't get this thing right?" And we think "how can you possibly worry about the unimportant things when there are so many others that matter?" Of course our perspective is right and theirs is wrong. We prove that by flying successful missions everyday wearing baseball hats with a dip in our mouth; and if they understood priorities they wouldn't correct an officer about a minor uniform violation by yelling at him in public-- a customs and courtesies breach that manifests their inability to differentiate importance levels between issues.

    The only possible fix to our plight (two incompatible schools of thought) is leadership. Leadership must set the standard and leadership must judge what is most important when. And of course, leadership is what we are mostly lacking. Approaching the end of my commitment, this is a pretty strong argument for me to stay and try to fix it.

    • Upvote 32

    Military Commission Recommends Changes on Women in Combat

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I hope we can all agree that the PFT standards are a joke...really, a waist measurement? Nothing to measure power, only muscular and aerobic endurance?

    Anyways, if women want to play in the big leagues of ground combat there should be one standard that's a true measure of what's needed in combat. For the other 99.5% of women who want to be in the military but not in the infantry, they can have whatever standards they want.

    Bingo.

    Military Commission Recommends Changes on Women in Combat

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    PFT measures your medical FITNESS, not your capabilities.

    Noted. However, the fact that fitness standards in training are different with respect to gender is an institutional recognition that capabilities (and consequently, physical expectations) are different. And the PFT measures your physical fitness, not your medical fitness; you know what the "P" stands for. Furthermore, males are expected to far exceed the simple PFT standards as a prerequisite to even beginning training for most of the front line door kicker types. I just took my PFT with some TACPs and the one dude who didn't get a 100 was mercilessly mocked by the others and given remedial physical training and made to retake the test in a month! And the guy got a 97!

    My point is, equality means one standard and that standard should be tested CONUS before it's implemented in Logar. Before we begin talking about which girls can play with the big boys in combat, we need to at least have a common standard in training. The teams are not a misogynistic boys club, they are a meritocracy and if chicks can truly hack a 20 mile ruck march in full combat load followed by a compound assault and carrying a 220 lbs. wounded dude to safety on zero sleep at high altitude in the snow..... Ok. But it might be smarter to see if she can compete using our PFT scores before she gets to that point.

    Promotion and PRF Information

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    It varies by size of year each year group, but the numbers I've seen show a 25% in-residence rate for IDE over the past 10 years.

    Thanks for the explanation of ASG, it's good info which I was totally unaware of. Related question: some people who are selected for IDE go to a course at Monterey, CA. What exactly is that school and how does it compare to the other options? Am I more likely to attend IDE somewhere other than Maxwell (assuming I'm selected for that) if I've completed ACSC by correspondence? Thanks.

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