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Commanders are dropping like flies this year

MDDieselPilot

By MDDieselPilot
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SuperWSO Flight Lead

SuperWSO

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Two months might be a record. It’s normally tough to go from rock star to “loss of confidence” that fast.  So what’s the word on the street?

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EvilEagle
EvilEagle

Jaysus... sick douche bag.   **break break** I'm grateful to say that I got through my sq/cc tour without a link being posted in this thread about me getting fired.  Today was my last d

Bigred
Bigred

Two points that have irked me. First, nothing in the letter he sent was classified information. Having spent 18 years in the Navy, I’m pretty familiar with what reporting requirements are classif

Hacker
Hacker

Well, this must be the first time that someone who reads Baseops.net has been the subject of a roiling speculative discussion about some publicly embarrassing, scandalous event that happened to them,

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di1630 Gray Beard

di1630

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Two months might be a record. It’s normally tough to go from rock star to “loss of confidence” that fast.  So what’s the word on the street?

Heard it was nothing mission related but possibly turning a blind eye to inappropriate relations before his command that are now just coming out. Rumor though


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pawnman Gray Beard

pawnman

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6 hours ago, Boomer6 said:

Word on the street is the Barnes Sq/CC was fired for letting one of his dudes do this. It was back in May, but I haven’t read any press releases about it. Anyone else hear the same?

 

Maybe we're just super conservative now, but that looked like a pretty normal airshow profile from the ones I was at a decade ago. 

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brabus Gray Beard

brabus

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4 hours ago, LookieRookie said:

I think the issue is the pilot was not a certified demo pilot and it was ad hoc.

That’s the issue; for better or worse, we live in an age where things like this make it to people with multiple stars on their shoulders…and the result will not be good for those with any direct involvement downhill of said stars.

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Biff_T Gray Beard

Biff_T

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/23/2023 at 7:35 AM, Boomer6 said:

Word on the street is the Barnes Sq/CC was fired for letting one of his dudes do this. It was back in May, but I haven’t read any press releases about it. Anyone else hear the same?

 

He should be promoted not fired.  Let the boys play!

Says the retired Captain (USAF not USN, no churching it up Biff).  lol

Edited by Biff_T
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Danger41 Gray Beard

Danger41

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Possibly unpopular take here but if the CC literally said “yeah, go have fun” after some guy said “let me go rip it around for a bit, it’ll be fine”, he’s an idiot. Those maneuvers are well within the capability of any Eagle Driver and the airplane but a demo is a very specific skill and a lot more too it than plugging the AB and going for it.

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uhhello Gray Beard

uhhello

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1 hour ago, Danger41 said:

Possibly unpopular take here but if the CC literally said “yeah, go have fun” after some guy said “let me go rip it around for a bit, it’ll be fine”, he’s an idiot. Those maneuvers are well within the capability of any Eagle Driver and the airplane but a demo is a very specific skill and a lot more too it than plugging the AB and going for it.

Yup.  Big difference between doing it out on the range or MOA versus doing it within 1/4 mile of a couple thousand people watching on the flightline.  

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DirkDiggler Gray Beard

DirkDiggler

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3 hours ago, Danger41 said:

Possibly unpopular take here but if the CC literally said “yeah, go have fun” after some guy said “let me go rip it around for a bit, it’ll be fine”, he’s an idiot. Those maneuvers are well within the capability of any Eagle Driver and the airplane but a demo is a very specific skill and a lot more too it than plugging the AB and going for it.

Checks 

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SocialD Gray Beard

SocialD

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12 hours ago, uhhello said:

Yup.  Big difference between doing it out on the range or MOA versus doing it within 1/4 mile of a couple thousand people watching on the flightline.  

 

Not to mention that there were several times during that "demo" that he appeared raggedy edge of departing the jet (I've never flown an Eagle, just fought them).  It looked badass and I loved it...we'd all love to do that, but if you're not a demo pilot, I can't imagine you'd think this would end well for all involved.  

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mcbush Flight Lead

mcbush

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3 hours ago, SocialD said:

Not to mention that there were several times during that "demo" that he appeared raggedy edge of departing the jet (I've never flown an Eagle, just fought them).  It looked badass and I loved it...we'd all love to do that, but if you're not a demo pilot, I can't imagine you'd think this would end well for all involved.  

Never flown Eagles either, and my experience in fighting them consists solely of popping flares and praying, but as a fatty driver formerly based at JBER for a long time, pushing it up during a demo is a sore subject for me.

As everyone knows, C-17 pilots have famously fvcked it up many times over the last 30 years. Multiple gear-up landings, multiple departures from the end of the runway, accidently landing at Peter O. Knight instead of MacDill, the four engine flameout in Pakistan... not to mention the missions involving actual battle damage like the crew that took a SAM up the ass in Baghdad in 2003. Some amount of incidents are more or less inevitable after flying thousands and thousands of sorties over the course of decades, but obviously some of these risks are exacerbated by putting young crews in tight spots. Of course, that's ultimately the CC's call, and risk is a fact of life in the military and aviation, especially in combat.

But you know what? Every single one of those guys made it home. After almost five million flight hours across the program, our only hull loss remains the 2010 crash at JBER, where some of our most experienced crew members (an EP, two IPs, and an EL) pushed it up a little too hard at about 850' AGL during airshow practice and put a jet in the dirt. Now every year on July 28, the AD and ANG C-17 squadrons at Elmo go out into the woods and sit around this clearing where there used to be trees, drinking and remembering four of our friends. I'm glad we do it, but I wish we didn't have to.

Full disclosure, I didn't watch the whole video that got posted, but I bet I know what it looks like - it's probably freaking awesome. I was just out at Oshkosh this summer because I love a good airshow... who doesn't? But there's a different calculus and a different set of risks in decision making when one is trying to put on a good show. I can absolutely think of times in my past where someone was watching who I wanted to impress, and I pushed it a little too far and probably made some decisions that I shouldn't have. 

No doubt the guy/gal flying this show is a great stick and a damn good pilot. But if we're going to take arguably unnecessary risks in peacetime, we've got to take reasonable measures to mitigate that risk when possible. I've never been a demo pilot, so I don't know what proportion of the AF demo regs are well-thought out vs. pointless bureaucracy, but I do know that the answer isn't to just ignore them all and do nothing, and if that's what happened here, I've got no problem with sacking the person responsible for providing that oversight.

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Boomer6 Flight Lead

Boomer6

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I wonder how many high level bobs approved the demo gameplan. I highly doubt this dude just went, “F it, we’ll do it live!” I’d guess there was a practice prior to the airshow, which was witnessed by said bobs/minions, and I suspect a list of planned maneuvers was submitted as well. Hopefully this dude stuck to the approved gameplan.

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HuggyU2 Gray Beard

HuggyU2

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I'm amazed that in this day and age, someone would think this is ok to do outside of a Demo Team. 
I'd be equally surprised if other airshow performers there didn't question it after they saw it. 
Any word what happened to the pilot?

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Biff_T Gray Beard

Biff_T

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/24/2023 at 3:13 PM, uhhello said:

Yup.  Big difference between doing it out on the range or MOA versus doing it within 1/4 mile of a couple thousand people watching on the flightline.  

But who's gonna flash their tits in the MOA?   Lol

Edit: If you’re gonna do something like this, keep the CC out of the loop.   This is a dumb thing to ask a CC permission for.   You know the rules, if you're gonna break them, don't bring down your CC or even put your CC in a position that would comprimise him/her.   That's Busch League.   "You are always on parade" - some dude, especially when flying a fighter jet in 2023.  There are cameras everywhere.   Another thing, sometimes you're not as good of a pilot as you think (cough, cough first assignment dudes) and you crash.  

@Danger41 is right. No CC should approve such a request. 

 

Edited by Biff_T
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dream big Gray Beard

dream big

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2 hours ago, DirkDiggler said:

I’m a pretty firm believer that 30% of the problems in the AF could be avoided by people not putting their genitals where they don’t belong and not getting shitfaced at the wrong time.

True, but how did a dipshit like this make it this far in the Air Force? There are so many other “shinny penny” types who get away with some shady things under the surface. 
 

We really need to institute the Army’s BCAP program for AF squadron commanders.

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