DirkDiggler

Do you really think the majority of the people who frequent these forums (a lot of whom make daily life or death decisions employing airpower in combat) don't have pride in what they do, know that they're part of the 0.5% that volunteered to serve, and recognize the responsibilities of their positions? Your "voice of optimism" comes across as real condescending, especially considering the amount of operational experience present among the guys on this forum. A lot of guys on here are bitter and disillusioned for good reason; toxic leadership, 13 years of deployments, constant instability, and, up until recently, a promotion system that didn't always focus on what's important. That doesn't mean they're out there actively poisoning the AF youth, on the contrary, most of the guys on here are pulling the serious weight in line squadrons. Dudes want their units to succeed, it's often difficult to believe that will happen when a lot of the O6-O7 level leadership comes across as careerist managers that actively resist the course the CSAF is trying to chart. AFPC's actions and messaging lately hasn't done anything to reinforce a sense that the AF knows what its doing with its people. If you truly have insight into the intricacies of the A1/personnel system, a lot of guys on here would be thrilled to listen. Your "voice of optimism" posts fall flat on an audience that deals with the difficult realism of non-stop ops with lessening personnel and resources.

The funniest thing about Chang's posts on here is that, at least at AF IDE (a program Chang talks up), the senior leader guest speakers specifically reject the kind of officer he presents himself as. Most of the 2-4 stars that come here to talk are very candid about the long list of problems and challenges the AF currently faces. Last week a senior leader asked the audience if they thought there was a serious lack of trust between senior leadership and the rest of force, to which almost the entire audience raised their hands affirmative. This 2 star thought that a lack of trust in the AF was one of the biggest leadership problems in the AF today. This week a 3 star briefed that many of the AF promotion and personnel practices were inefficient and out of date. He also mentioned that "yes men" were a serious problem in the force. Multiple four stars here have noted that, with the really tough fiscal times ahead, the AF needs no shit leadership; "yes men" and guys unable use brutal, honest assessments of the state of their units aren't going to cut it. The military studies courses here give numerous examples of how in combat (an experience that I suspect Chang knows very little about), guys like him get their people killed. Officers like him also contribute to an institutional rot (LtCol Tater Tots and the missile fields article comes to mind, followed by a blood bath of firings of leadership despite same leadership saying everything great, nothing to see here) that is dangerous for a lot of reasons. His contributions here aren't helpful and fly in the face of most of the guidance being put out by the leaders he holds in such high regard.

All the Marine and Army officers here at the wayward school by the river who already have their assignments (in some cases have had them for months) really seem to be envious of the dozens of AF officers who are still completely in the dark as to where they're going in 4 months.

FWIW, my community had several APZ guys get picked up on this last board, guys that had been passed over previously for not having their "boxes checked" in some form or fashion. I regarded this a positive sign, maybe the ship's course is moving the direction we want. Liquid posted a list of items that were proposed as discriminators to the CSAF several pages back in this thread I believe, that would probably be a good place to start.

Checks

I'll agree with the last part of your statement there, that being an exec gives you a different perspective. For the me the exec job was learning how the daily administrivia sausage making process of a unit functions, nothing more, nothing less. What it wasn't was leadership. Its been mentioned a lot in other threads but there's a serious trust issue between the rank and file and upper level leadership. A lot of people in the AF have a very difficult time differentiating between leadership and management and this is one of the sources, among others, of this mistrust. From my experience and the input of my bros, exec jobs show you the daily processes necessary for a unit to function. The exec job only offered snippets of true learning about true leadership. The higher level exec jobs will give guys exposure to higher level sausage making and those guys will get to see senior leaders make decisions, but those execs aren't deciding anything nor are they exercising leadership. The Marine exchange officers here at the wayward school by the river vary from bemused to saddened by AF efforts to define, describe, and discuss leadership. The Marines have a very focused and defined way of discussing leadership and leadership attributes. When the Marines talk about leadership and leadership case studies they never start inside the exec shop.

I'm in school now, didn't do my exec job till after I was a select so I don't think that statement is accurate across all communities

I gained more "leadership" experience from leading a crew in combat and MSN/CCing TDY ops in multiple countries than I ever did in my exec job. To each his own I guess.

It continues to amaze me that anyone on this board cares what Chang thinks

Checks

I'm here now. I can answer most questions you probably have, let me know your specifics and I'll pass along as much as I can

Thanks for the info, sounds like its a solid tech advancement for you guys.

Honest question for any boomers out there. What does this new digital, 3D boom system on the -46 give advantage wise over the -10 and -135?

Just watched the movie, thought it was pretty funny....America!!!

He was a nav in slick C-130s before going to pilot training, tracked F-15Es out of there and ended up having some sort of med issue/loss of ejection seat qual leading him back to pilot -130s.

Seemed alright/fairly down to earth when I went through the 62nd as a stud, only interacted with him twice though

Basically what 11F said above. He (the general) was didn't really answer most of the questions posed to him directly so I don't have any other info to offer.

Chang is trolling people here, nothing more, nothing less. General Cox came and spoke at our wayward school by the river; he wasn't nearly as chipper about how the FY14 force management programs unfolded. The personnelist in my flight openly espouses that the planning, messaging, and execution of these programs was a complete goat rope. On the positive side, it seems like the involuntary drama is done and a decent amount of people that wanted to try a different path outside the AF are getting the chance.

This scenario is taking the question out of context. I don't think anyone on this board would resolutely condemn an individual for, in the heat of the moment based on intensely personal emotions, attempting to protect their children. This directly translates into heat of battle decisions In any war, you'd have to be completely naive to believe that prisoners are going to to be treated with kid gloves by the soldiers that initially capture them. Field interrogations discussed by other members of this board aka my buddy just got blown up by an IED, where's the next one or I'm kicking the shit out of you are going to happen with any military regardless of the level of discipline. Its a consequence of war and I'm not gonna judge guys for actions like that taken in the heat of battle. The difference here is that these enhanced interrogation techniques, torture, ass play, whatever you want to call it aren't being conducted by operators and soldiers in the field. They're being conducted by three letter agency personnel far removed from the battle field and combat. That's the equivalent, in Hannity's example above, of you capturing the guy who has your kids and then turning them over to the cops to get tortured. The government has screwed up my pay, travel arrangements and countless other things in my short 11 years in the military. Do you really want them given the authority to conduct these sort of actions, mostly without oversight from other parts of the government? I don't know about anybody else, but I sure as shit don't want to live in a country that officially sanctions shit like that. There's lots of countries across the globe where the government and police forces routinely torture and abuse both their own citizens and citizens from other countries. Countries like that make me glad I was born in America. There's a recent article on stripes that I'm too lazy to link that shows all the military JAGs that were consulted about enhanced interrogations had serious reservations or were downright against their use. McCrystal in Iraq was vehemently against stuff like that as well. If you want to say that terrorists aren't afforded the protections of the Geneva Convention that's fine, I'll buy your argument even though I strongly believe in continuing to kill them where we find them. Then we treat them like criminals and prosecute them. The last time I checked, even the worst criminals in our prison system aren't tortured. If these activities were so acceptable then why didn't we bring captured terrorists to Leavenworth and string them up by their arms there instead of doing it in countries like Poland, Romania, etc? The simple pendulum swings both ways. After 9/11, there was a lot of fear and a lot of uncertainty; I personally believe some mistakes were made. I think we're good enough as a people and a country to admit when we've ed up. Continuing to argue that torture is a viable and justifiable method to get information is only going to hurt us as a country.

Just like the Katoy bathrooms in Thailand

The SAW selects at Maxwell have been notified, don't have any info on any of the others

Rest easy bro.

That lines up with what we're being told at Maxwell, supposedly first week of December.

Who is McDew, I'm not familiar?