I copied this from another thread so as not to hjact the thread.

When I was if the AF at the squadron level, I never wanted to go to the staff. There were a few guys who managed to dodge the staff and still get promoted, they were looked upon as hero's.

Then I went to the staff and saw the utter lack of operational experience. Those that were there, with operational experience, were working their butts off.

What amazed me the most, was when I returned to flying how those that had never experience a staff tour, complained constantly about how incompetent the HQ/NAF/MAFCOMs were. All the while looking at those good competent pilots who dodged the staff as hero's.

Something to think about the next time you see "that guy" who made it all the way through the ranks without the staff tour, and you call the HQ and can't figure out why they are so screwed up.

 

Boy how timely this is, we have been having this very discussion for awhile now about TACC/AMC. There seems to be this disconnect between reality and what they sometimes believe. The sad part is, that this history lesson is telling us, that the Air Force has had this problem for quiet some time and nothing has been done about it.

Thing is, its time that some of us bite the bullet and do it. We like to stand around and complain, but we are ultimately also at fault.

 

The same goes for any liaison job. When I left the cockpit (by choice), and entered an ALO assignment I thought I was doomed. But now I know that I can contribute just as much to the effort working with the Army and educating them what Big Blue can bring to the fight.

 

I joined the navy to operate, and loved operating, but I'm to old for that now. I grit my teeth and gut out the staff jobs because somebody has to do it and the navy has loaded 20+ years of experience into me...I'd feel wrong hanging it up when there is an obvious need for what I can do. I can't believe I'm thinking that way, I expected to be long gone by now. The first 15 years was not so much doing my duty as having a blast (usually). Now I understand the duty part...

 

MD10PLT

You bring up a good topic. I recently went through an AOC school, and at times, I was shocked as to how much the "subject matter experts" ... aka SMEs ... had no freaking clue. It took me a while to learn that I just had to agree with them and shake my head yes instead of trying to change something that I wasn't going to be able to change.

But there's a much bigger problem boiling in the Air Force. I really don't know how to express it here in written form. The AF isn't focused on the mission ... that is, operations. There are empires being built in every core area of the AF except for Operations. Additionally, in many AFSCs, the AF has become a jobs program, where people come to work, sit on their butt, and do absolutely nothing all day.

Have you noticed how you have to be a finance expert now, and how every time you show to work there's a new computer based ancillary training or some required material that's been shoved down by some office somewhere in the AF? And at a moments notice, those outside offices can render your squadron not fit for operations with the click of an email.

I used to love the AF, but I hate it now because it resembles to me everything that is wrong with our government. It is broken, seriously broken. It amazes me that we don't have aircraft falling out of the skies. I chalk that up to the crews who are scared to death and who are trying to self preserve their lives and or their jobs.

 

Amen.

Gotta love going to the desert and have some Shoe-Clerk Chief yell at an officer because his PT gear came untucked. All the while, they're allowing their young airmen to sit on broken airplanes and watch movies on their IPods instead of fix airplanes. I have a real problem with people who actively try to hinder my efforts to conduct a safe flight.

I wonder what LeMay and Billy Mitchell would think.

 

Well, these are all symptoms of a peacetime Air Force and the first cadre of "staff generals" who are taking the helm of this ship having grown up in the era of the CBT and "mission support IS the mission". WWIII breaks out tomorrow and we would get a big black eye as we're behind the power curve, but the wartime leadership would quickly rise up from the woodworks and take the controls from the froze-in-combat "staff generals"; just like gravity, it settles itself.

I'm not saying one should naively expect that and click one's heels for it, but to suggest the peacetime chair force is going to change into a USMC-type dogmatic organization during peacetime (our current involvement is not war, it's just rent seeking) is just fantasy. The AF is one big self-licking ice cream cone nowadays, and just simply blaming it on a couple of operators that would rather stay 'technicians' (i.e. experts in the craft without a desire to attain higher leadership) is a copout. They still stand post a whole ADSC more than 97% of this country does day to day; so sue me 'cause I want to serve in a flying capacity.

Hell, having that very healthy skepticism for the rent-seeking machine makes one unfit for staff to begin with. That palace is staffed by people who can only articulate their necks around the lateral axis. People always talk about changing the system from within, but that's disingenuous. The machine is bigger than one or two contrarians, you'll just get stonewalled while attempting to change the world, and not get to do what you love in the process. As such, people pass. Only one life to live and the like.

That's standard RegAF though. If you see a satisfied Airman who's performing at its peak, change his circumstances for the worse. Then all is good in the RegAF...pass. The bosses surely didn't get punchline about the beatings continuing until morale improves. You can't get more juice out of an orange already gone sour. As such, they'll chase their tails in reflective belts until the wartime leadership is needed and they get the Wii controler taken away from them in due order. That is more a function of timing than an individual operator not wanting to go to staf, IMO.

 

Called maturity with duty <g>. I feel the same way. Unfortunately, the Navy is working hard to catch up to the USAF way, we are even developing a community of restricted line officers to run the staffing and training of all our communities. i.e. take the operational expertise out of the detailing and training design. Empire building at its worst.

 

Peacetime Air Force ???

We've been at war dropping bombs on people in Afghanistan longer than we did in WWII.

 

This right here is the root of the problem.