Originally Posted by Elevation

Maybe we're being a little hard on this guy (McFadden)? I think his intentions are pure, in that he wants the best for our pilots. His actions are in line with some older guidance that C17 and others describe. McFadden isn't bad or malicious. He's helpful but misguided.

He's not providing honest answers to questions, but this is a legacy of some old efforts. Those older efforts were rogue but rogue elements included some folk who were in some positions of authority, and they were coordinated. The goal was to affect staffing without crossing certain legal bounds. Of course secrecy is never as secure as anyone imagines. Secrets leak in hours, days or weeks. Months if you're lucky. So rogue efforts feel like they do things, but they usually just lead an organization into a bunch of liabilities at inopportune times.

People become personally invested in rogue efforts. His friends, his mentors, etc. all probably swam in these circles. So turning away from this old effort comes with some costs. I get it. We've all been someplace in our careers where changing course comes with costs. So even when things don't work and create damage, incentives are to hold course into failure.

Our goal ("Us" means people who think like me. I'm not leading or representing any group or organization.) is to bring people like these back into the fold and back online as assets for some potential action in the future. That starts with understanding them. They think they're doing the right thing. People have called out the misinformation campaign. I'd like to point out that this person is trying to help. He's not a jerk; he's been jerked around.