Grumble

Awesome. Better yet why isn't he wearing it?

Phenomenal speech. "if you fail them, I will hurt you.". I nominate him for President. I was wondering if there were any warriors left out there wearing stars.

asupilot

Grumble,

Gen Welsh is the real deal. I hope you guys in Naval Aviation, too, have a beacon of hope.

Smashmouth

olkev

THIS! - Sounds like a good choice

USMCFLYR

I'm betting on a few.
The current Marine Corps Commandant among them.
In my opinion.

USMCFLYR

CaptainCarl

Amazing. If he said, "Jump," I wouldn't hesitate.

Deuce130

Very good speech.

BDGERJMN

I spent last evening watching the Carrier Classic NCAA BB game on the flight deck of USS Carl Vinson where I watched our leader, our commander in chief turn a Veteran's Day pre-game address to the teams, fans and nation into a campaign speech. I spent the next 50 minutes watching this address to the cadets at USAFA and was left just saying, "Wow". Thanks for sharing!

UAL T38 Phlyer

Many years ago (I think right after Gulf War 1), a letter made the rounds titled "Boss, I quit." It was an anonymous letter written by a fighter guy who explained why the joys of yanking and banking the best fighters ever seen, in the best Air Force ever seen, was not enough to keep him in past the 10-14 year point. Fighter retention was at an all-time low; it ended up so bad that the Air Force allowed Reservists to start instructing UPT (which was a good thing for me).

Last year, the same trend started again, especially in Europe. Welsh is the Commander of USAFE, or Air Forces in Europe.

What impressed me: Someone sent him an updated 2010-version of the original letter. He responded, and included the new and old versions of the letter, in an email to all aircrew in Europe.

He asked them to tell him, without retribution, what the Air Force was doing wrong, and what it would take to get them to stay....because he needed them.

I've never seen a General Officer do anything like that in 30+ years.

If he retires, I hope he becomes the CEO of United.....or the United States.

Boss, I quit... - Baseops Forums

Hacker15e

There have been three "Dear Boss" letters that I know of. The famous one was written by Ron Keys (when he was a Capt) to Bill Creech in the late 70s or early 80s.

Another one (kind of a lame one, IMHO) was written in the 90s.

The one that Welsh latched on to was written circa 2009.

Dragon7

Sure there is somebody out there, but budget and Flag politics makes it very hard to stand up for Naval Aviation. Many, many times in last few years was pulled aside and told how I needed to forget about my Wings and move on and up.