Juan,
Last time I checked, the AF was trying to replace you with a couple of shitty web programs. Admittedly, you have attempted to defend a very unpopular program to a very biased community, but to do so in such a classless way is disturbing. The thought that there are people who operators and maintainers depend on to help pay the bills for their families (who are home alone without them 50% of the time) actively trying to screw them is terrifying.
Have you ever been shot at? Have you ever driven a convoy and been blown up? Have you ever been shot down? Ejected? Put your weapon on fire and thought about the fact that you will never see your loved ones again? Have you ever had to sit on a C130 with broken air-condition for 16 hours in the middle of Baghdad in august?
We whine because we hope and pray that this is the toughest part of our job. That coming home and filing a voucher might not take three days and triplicate copies. That we might actually get paid correctly the first time we try, and wouldn't have to waste four more days going back to a building on the other side of base because you are closed for training. Last time I checked, doing your job was pretty good practice at doing your job. We whine because you think wearing reflective belts in a combat zone is a good thing. We whine because at the end of the day, no one suffers except us if you screw your job up. We still have to drop the bombs or haul the flag covered coffins out of danger. Even when we are on hour 16, even when we lie about not being on hour 19. Do you think the maintainers can just shut down the flightline because they all need to do a team-building exersize? Airman snuffy doesn't get paid correctly, or worse, at all, but he is still expected to push that pallet onto the ramp, to load that bomb, or change a tire on a c-17 on a ramp that is 140 degrees in the shade. The only morale we get is knowing that the guy sweating or bleeding next to you has your back. Who's back do you have?
When the war, when the killing and surviving, are the easy parts, and getting your 30 day post deployment health assessment done on the same day your 30 day predeployment health assessment is due is the part that takes the most work and the most energy, it takes the fun out of being on your team.
And to cap it all off, we have it easy compared to the poor bastards in the Army and the Marines.
When you can do your job right the first time without the ego-trip; and replace the operators and maintainers with a shitty web program (Vairlift or Vmedevac), then you can call us whiny bitches, and I will not complain about mandatory attendance of the AF glee club.
Unless you are a MoH winner, then I apologize, and am out of line.