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Bet You Feel Safer Now, Yeah?
Inclusion study: I guess that’s a military thing now. But after seeing this from our Air Force brethren (I know, saying that is somehow mysogonist misoginyst misogynist), I kind of wanted to toss my cookies. Do you feel safer? You know, like your Air Force is ready to dominate the skies over any adversary stupid enough to pose a threat to these United States? Yeah, me neither.
The top kick of a four-star command just said “we have love for all of you.”
Senior NCOs down through the ages must just feel their ghostly chests (and breasts, I guess, not to be mysogonist misoginyst misogynist) swelling with pride.
Don’t sweat it, Sergeants Major, we’ve got NCOs out on the line that’ll keep this military rolling. Somehow.
Published in General
OK. As I am uncertain of the sensitivity of this information or whether you are citing examples of USAF transport or some other service, I’ll just refer to my previous replies.
Regarding the OP, I don’t think “we have love for you all” is something I would have heard (or that weird background music) while I was in the USAF (’83-’14). That’s pretty damn strange to my ears. But, my experience was that the Air Force as a whole always seemed to be struggling with cultural issues and that this added to divisions within that service between active and reserve components, between commands, and within commands (mainly between the operations functions and the support functions). Those are pretty sweeping generalizations, but I think I was not alone in this perspective. For a few years I participated in an forum call “baseops.net” which was very operator (aircrew) centric. That site grew tiresome as all discussions seemed to eventually lead to ridicule of the service leadership and/or the support functions.
There is little new about subordinate commanders having to perform as parrots, but a really good parrot can convey the new messaging with a tone the rank & file (more of a gaggle than rank & file in the USAF) can find acceptable as in at least remotely in some way keeping with “why we’re here” (i.e. blow s__t up, kill people). AMC needs better parrots.
Good old post Boss. Surprised I missed it. Rangers are tough, no doubt. The Chiefs I remembered wore yellow, red or purple sweatshirts bossing dozen of guys moving scores of jets on the flight deck while others landed. Looked plenty tough to me.
Or the soundtrack from Mission Impossible – love the face on that “jet”……..
I have to question this sentiment – I have a feeling that the military gained a lot of strength and support over the last four years – I don’t think one month of sleepy Joe is going to change their perspective – do you?
I threw up a little in my mouth. Ugh.
Why – because Biden and co have taken our military down a different path for the moment? Support the troops. They are in it for our country and the Constitution – they swear allegiance to it.
I’ll add my 2 cents: 1st cent: I’m confident this video is being well mocked in all the places we would hope. If I were still a commander I think “we have love for you all” delivered with a big grin and some expansive gesture would pretty much become a standard greeting.
2nd cent: We need good people to join and stay in. The oath and the allegiance means something (- and I think it means the most to the people who talk about it the least (personal opinion)). Plus, even though there is a ____-ton of crap up with which we must put, but I would not have traded those years for anything.
That’s fairly normal, but it would be better if the air force (and that absurdity space force) were reintegrated into the army where they belong.
Heh.
If the suggestion is that cultural conflicts would diminish (“be better”) if we eliminated the USAF and moved its mission sets into the Army, that strikes me as improbable. Our wing had a lot of former Army, but I never heard of an Airman leaving the USAF to join the Army except for one fellow who wanted to fly Apaches. It was kind of like that stretch of water between Cuba and Florida – seemed to be mostly one way.
But, there are mission sets within the USAF that were out of sync with the USAF leadership. Insofar as career pursuits go it was not an uncommon perspective that tactical airlift (where I ended after initial SAC/B52 career) and close air support were not paths to the top. Perhaps in those areas it could work within the Army – we had quite a few ex Army rotary wing types and no issues with their adjusting. I wouldn’t have necessarily objected to changing services, especially if we didn’t have to bring that AMC Commander and that guy who loves us along.
Apparently the Services in general, have a few things to worry about. This video has been making the rounds on the interwebs and shows a 10th Mountain Div Shoot house exercise with some serious safety issues. Shoot houses were not my thing when I was serving (as a tanker our version of shoot house was to SHOOT the house, which is a whole different thing…)or maybe just run it over with the tank, which could be fun) but there does seem to be a fair bit of muzzleing going on. Seem like all the Services may need to focus a bit more on the primary mission of breaking s**t and killing the enemies of the Country(and training effectively for the same) instead of lectures (or pep talks) on fuzzy feeling things. Just my two cents worth and your mileage may vary…
Nah, I just have always thought it was a huge mistake to make the air force a separate service and I take every opportunity to point that out. Eventually it will catch on. :)
Yes, but for the AFA, it is just wishful thinking.
I had a notional tasking for manpower to deploy. The person had to deploy with an M-16 , locked in a hard case for the flight.
Announcer: “They don’t have rifles. Or handguns.”
And if you cross your fingers while saying it, the oath is null, right?
Because, I think we are in 6th grade now….
Or the leadership has acquiesced to a fully revised protocol for training, that will enable the CCP even more.
Interesting comment – now I’m thinking that the video was a check off the box moment to keep the new rulers happy, but in essence, from the actual military leadership, it was also a Reagan signal to our adversaries – we speak softly, but carry a big stick……(?)
But you don’t have to salute and say, yes, sir/ma’am!
Yes, but this video displays a lack of moral and practical seriousness that has no place in a volunteer military that wants to remain on top. That these individuals are saying this crap, willingly, says to me there is a lot about which to be concerned. They are the tip of the iceberg, not the tip of the spear. The PC BS started to really take root during the Obama years. This video, combined with the new SecDef (that a man who reached those heights would willingly engage in this crap is a big warning), and a Pentagon willing to go along with this crap, shows there are too many senior officers who agree, or at least will not push back. PC/Woke/whatever, reaches a critical mass in an institution, and then it quickly takes over and destroys everything else. It is by nature an extremely aggressive ideology. That this video exists strongly signals that PC/Woke is reaching critical mass within the officer corps. These two will be promoted further and have more sway over true warriors. This is a decades-long trend, now bearing bitter, poisoned fruit. These are trends that take many years to repair, as we saw post-Viet Nam.
and here is a link to the video I referenced: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/02/video-army-slammed-over-unsafe-live-fire-training-video-too-worried-about-inclusivity-and-not-winning-wars/?utm_campaign=DailyEmails&utm_source=AM_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Master_List&utm_campaign=f64d100a4e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_02_23_11_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9c4ef113e0-f64d100a4e-62491422&mc_cid=f64d100a4e
To his credit the CSM of the 10th accepts responsibility.
Are the civilian ways of enforcement more gentle and forgiving?
Yes. You can find another job. And the civilian job’s failures don’t cause a threat to our entire way of life.
Benjamin Franklin weighed in on this subject too ….
What the holy hell? Why is a sergeant major making official statements of this nature for the command? Why isn’t the commanding general taking responsibility? Why isn’t the chief of staff for operations taking responsibility? Why aren’t the regimental and battalion commanders taking responsibility? What the heck is wrong in the 10th Mountain Division?
To me it is WORSE that a sergeant major is taking the role of the commander than that a training session wasn’t very safe. The latter is always going to happen from time to time. The training failure is serious and very dangerous and needs to be corrected, but these things happen and that’s why they have to train constantly.
The bigger concern is, why is a statement being made by an E9? He is not in charge. He’s not even an officer. Who the heck does he think he is? And who the heck does the commanding general not think he is?
That’s just flat out unacceptable.
There will be no escaping this if we don’t push back vigorously. The military needs to concentrate on its mission.
Statement given by expendable asset
Easier to address, especially as I’m senior management
while they try to remove his name from a school in California! By the way, Benjamin Franklin started the first library in the country in Franklin MA where we used to live. It houses the first books that he donated and a pair of his glasses under a glass display. It’s a beautiful old library with polished wood and wonderful maps and pictures on the walls. You almost feel like you are walking on sacred ground when you go in. Can you imagine? To share knowledge – that was just one of his great legacies and now his history is being smeared!