Originally Posted by
dtfl
IF THEY CAN.....yes...but in this day and age its not that easy. As a CC I know. I sort of disagree with your statement above...do you know what is involved in deploying a unit? Taking care of a 8-10 AC PAA unit? Probably not. Might want to re-word this.
I came from AFSOC..I understand special missions and I am CC of a flying unit that deploys quite often. I support my folks as much as I can but the needs of my unit come before the needs of a MC-12. (Whose mission, BTW is nowhere near as glamarous as people make it out to be)
I have had guys ask me about the RCs at Hurlburt and I told them I would allow it if it was not a conflict with our tasked deployments. But guess what...6 months of training and deploying IS a conflict with any unit these days
<Arrogant, pompous paragraph deleted... Sorry, W>
You're spot on... it's not easy today, especially for some units. That's why I put the qualifier - CCs worth their salt...
if they can. And also why I recommended getting the chain involved before they go VFR-direct to AFPC.
And you're right - the needs of your mission come first - that's what you've been tasked with. But for the dude/dudette who is a frustrated REMF seat-filler, I'd hope that if the CC can support it, he/she will. And being the world-class CC I hope you are, it sounds like you'd be all over that bandwagon also (or the myriad other bandwagons like the 'Died, C-27s, T-6s to Iraq, BACN, etc, etc, etc, etc) as long as you can keep the fires burning and tires turning.
And glamourous? Glamour/schlamour. Some folks just want to get in the fight a bit deeper than they can with an AFSO21 project. OF course, there's always the danger that you'll end up doing exactly that because someone has pulled their integrity circuit breaker and played the GWOT card to justify pulling in yet another rated staff officer into a "mission critical" billet more suitably filled by a Lt waiting for UPT. (Rant off).
Take your chances, and play whatever you get dealt.
BTW, they're not at Hurlburt yet - still Huntsville for training and only "based" downrange. W/aircraft and predeployment training it's more like 8-9 months away from the mission. Yes, it hurts.
Cheers,
W