"Your Airmen see everything you do. As soon as a 2Lt does not salute a 1Lt, their brain will think why should a Airman salute a 2Lt, after all the only difference between the two is that the Airman has been promoted once...right? I mean, where do the cool, "we are all cool together" unwritten rules start to trump the written guidance? If it's not in a yellow checklist it does not matter I suppose".
- I forgot... our squadrons are overrun by airmen. In fact, I think we may have one in our squadron... yep one out of 100 people is an airmen. I love that argument. Since sometimes I didnt salute a 1Lt as a 2Lt, that probably means I'm skipping checklist steps also.
This whole thing is summed up by two words... SITUATIONAL AWARNESS. Something we, as aircrew, should have. Have I busted AFIs before... yes, because it was the right decision based on a couple thousand hours of airmanship to safely recover a jet. When I was a 2Lt did I salute all 1Lts? Yes, at first, then I gained SA as to when it was/was not appropriate. For Gods sake, you're a college graduate, use some of the $100,000 of SA (plus whatever AF training you have) and do what is appropriate for the situation. Maybe then we can fix real problems instead of changing uniforms and upping our reflectivity. I mean, do you honestly think the enlisted crew in WWII saluted their pilots as they were taking off for a one-way bomber mission over Germany? I don't know how the AF survived with all these bad examples going back in time!
