Maybe not so much in the Air Guard but the Air Force Reserves it is easy to do! Just get yourself in the door in an opening that is hard to fill. Volunteer for all sorts of crap duties and soon you will be a treasure because apathy is rampant. In the Air Reserves, 20% of the people or less do 80% of the work. Become one of these 20% and you are golden. We have plenty of guys who are pretty much dead weight....bent airplanes, got DUIs and more and they become ARTs Many others rose to senior leadership doing what I mentioned above. Like turds in the toilet.....they float to the top.

 

This doesn't fly in the Air Guard, are you kidding??? The promotions in the Air Guard are ALL about politics, just get your buddy to put you in a billet and you get the rank. Even if someone in the Air Guard is on the out, a regime change is all it takes to get back on the fast track. The AD AF is not much better. The last O-6 board had a 45% or so promotion rate.

This isn't about the fact that the reserves let him get ahead, because his reserve performance measured independently is probably above average. The big Navy let him get away from this incident with no formal punishment; NJP, an Article 15, or not even a FNAEB (we don't even know if it made his FITREP); so it was completely legit from the reserve point of view to hire and promote him. Why should the reserves punish him after the fact if his chain of command at the time did not? Had there been any of these, he likely would't have been promoted, even in the reserves since they use a board system (unlike the Air Guard).

For the record, I don't think he should have gone unscathed, but put the blame where it belongs; his command at the time of the incident.

 

Look, everything is who you know....I don't care what industry, or branch of service. I just know of officers in the ANG who have been whacked for lesser offenses. If I am not mistaken, a general officer within the last few years as well. A near fratricide in peacetime just getting swept under the rug, though?? But we must also think in terms of context.. I know the ANG has has changed a lot since the 80's, and I am sure all services have. So the attitudes of senior leadership and the application of punishment in the Navy is very likely be different than it was thirty years ago.

Again not meant to be a service battle, I am just not in the other services.

 

Those ANG scenarios such as Fresno, etc only occurred because of external pressures, not because that stuff doesn't fly in the Guard. Because of the hesitation of NGB to get involved in state matters, that stuff is quite prevalent even in the Guard - just ask around to those who have seen all of the services.

Across the board, there is a lack of holding people accountable. I don't think everything requires a hammer, but most leadership does nothing unless it becomes a political hot potato and then they over-react in order to protect themselves. There are plenty of squadrons that have people that shouldn't be there because they skated on the inaction of weak leadership in the past. Usually, no one takes note until the person screws up again and everyone is amazed at the accumulated history of bad performance or the person is extraordinarily successful and everyone wonders how they made it. It does happen everywhere including the active duty which is full of people who reinvented their careers after a staff or training command tour because their leadership sent them packing rather than write that referral OPR or Q3 them on the upgrade.

 

I can personally vouch for this happening, at least in my small part of the active duty world. However, the skeletons will usually come out of the closet after a checkride/deployment or two once they are back in a line unit especially in a really small community like my own. The sad thing is that even though you realize you've been stuck with a real tool that slipped through the cracks, often it's too late to fix. Some people are afraid to call a spade a spade and do the right thing because the "tool" that we are dealing with is above E-7 or O-4 in pay grade. It just proves my personal theroy that even though you can polish a turd, it doesn't change the fact that you are dealing with a piece of poop.

 

I was flying the F-4 in Europe when the result of this incident's investigation went public. Here's what I remember from what was published in Air Force Times or Stars and Stripes:

The incident airplane was from Zweibrucken AB, Germany (not far from my base). They were tasked as Red Air to do a high-speed pass and get photos and skeedaddle. Their real purpose was to see how the battle group would react to a high-speed aircraft headed towards the flag ship. As I recall, it was a pretty big exercise; the Recce bird was just a small part of the "attack."

Dorsey was either an O-2 or O-3. He was still pretty new to the F-14. His RIO was an O-4 and fairly experienced. I believe an E-2C gave the call "Bandit, bandit" (or other "hostile" declaration). Dorsey was quoted as saying "Do they really want me to splash this guy?" The RIO was quoted as saying "Yeah, whatever."

Dorsey tried to fire a first Sidewinder that either failed to give a tracking tone or failed to launch. Incredibly, he stepped to a second AIM-9 (Lima, I think in 1987) which came off the rail and did what it was designed to do. Not sure why the more-experienced RIO didn't intercede and try to get him to stop.

The Recce crew stated they felt a bang, got a fire light, and then the jet pitched-down violently---they punched-out. They splashed down and were picked up by a Navy helo within about 15 minutes. Getting on-board the ship, they thanked the Navy repeatedly for saving them. Shortly thereafter, someone (probably the CAG) had to say "Uh, actually, we're sorry, it's our fault you are here!"

Quite a bit was made at the time of the fact that his Dad was an Admiral, and it was suspected he used his influence to prevent him from losing his wings. However, he was not allowed to fly again.

Incidentally, a similar thing happened at Elmendorf around 1992. Two F-15Cs were rotating from the alert base at King Salmon back to Elmendorf. One airplane carried a mix of live AIM-9s and a CATM. They were doing a heat-to-guns cine-track exercise while droning on a hum-drum IFR flight back to Elmendorf. Unfortunately, the incident airplane accidentally stepped to a live missile.

Better outcome: the airplane that got hit still made it back to Elmendorf. The right nozzle and right vertical fin were a mess, though.

(The Air Force banned the carry of mixed live and CATMs shortly after that).

 

Just so everyone who hasn't flown in the CAF is aware, during training exercises the C2 DOES declare red air as hostile. EVERYTHING in training is exactly like it is in the real world EXCEPT for the actual employment of weapons. Training with live weapons is allowed, but the fighter is not allowed to go Master Arm hot (with training weapons, the Master Arm switch does go hot).

So, in training, when someone says "should I shoot him?", everyone is still of the mindset that he really means "should I simulate shooting him?". As far as the 2nd attempt, I can't speak for the RIO's actions as I was never a F-14 guy.

 

Only if someone makes sure he is aware of it.


I'd sooner serve on the Gabby Giffords than the John P. Murtha!!!

 

Two wrongs don't make a right or provide a lesser of two evils.

 

What's the problem with the Gabby Giffords?

She was shot while in service to her country. Plus, she is a military spouse shot while in service to her country.

I have no problem with this.

Ferd, USAF, ret