• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

Wow! An Air Force BGEN unloads in his going away speech!!!!

SteveG75

Retired and starting that second career
None
reading his bio and looking at his picture, I am glad to see that he still wears his NUC, Sea Service and Navy Pistol Qual. What is really interesting is the six (6) AF awards that rank lower than a Navy Pistol qual. Now those must be some serious awards, LOL.
 

OnTopTime

ROBO TACCO
None
reading his bio and looking at his picture, I am glad to see that he still wears his NUC, Sea Service and Navy Pistol Qual. What is really interesting is the six (6) AF awards that rank lower than a Navy Pistol qual. Now those must be some serious awards, LOL.

I think that they are Arizona state awards.
 

NavAir42

I'm not dead yet....
pilot
I wholly agree with the above sentiments. I'm constantly appalled by the words that are thrown about by the Navy as a whole because they are indicative of the greater problem the General is referring to. Warrior is one word that is far too over used. We are using those words to describe people who do jobs that have next to nothing to do with killing the enemy. I'm sorry, if you're a YN you aren't a warrior, you're a YN. I have nothing against yeomen and when they do their jobs well they're worth their weight in gold but we spend so much time blowing smoke up everyone's ass so they feel good that the words used in said blowing begin to lose all meaning. Warriors kill the enemy, everyone else is just support. I make no bones that patrol aviation is just support until it's time to go kill people and submarines. I'm ok with that and I don't need to be called a warrior to have any self respect. I'm an aviator and I'm fine with just being that.

Unfortunately the problem is greater than just how we speak. Unfortunately it has a lot more to do with how people think, which is much harder to change.
 

bunk22

Super *********
pilot
Super Moderator
I wholly agree with the above sentiments. I'm constantly appalled by the words that are thrown about by the Navy as a whole because they are indicative of the greater problem the General is referring to. Warrior is one word that is far too over used. We are using those words to describe people who do jobs that have next to nothing to do with killing the enemy. I'm sorry, if you're a YN you aren't a warrior, you're a YN. I have nothing against yeomen and when they do their jobs well they're worth their weight in gold but we spend so much time blowing smoke up everyone's ass so they feel good that the words used in said blowing begin to lose all meaning. Warriors kill the enemy, everyone else is just support. I make no bones that patrol aviation is just support until it's time to go kill people and submarines. I'm ok with that and I don't need to be called a warrior to have any self respect. I'm an aviator and I'm fine with just being that.

Unfortunately the problem is greater than just how we speak. Unfortunately it has a lot more to do with how people think, which is much harder to change.

Funny in that the Skipper of VRC-30 when I first arrived as a nugget pilot back in 98 used to call us warriors. He would walk into the ready room for the AOM and practically yell, good morning warriors. I would look over my shoulder trying to find those warriors as we were a ready room full of COD pilots. They must have been in the building next door or something.
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
You know it's a good speech when a one-star actually took time to put pen to paper and include an "MFer".
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
You know it's a good speech when a one-star actually took time to put pen to paper and include an "MFer".

Actually I don't believe he retired as a Brigadier General since he was only promoted in May of last year and retired in December, unless there was an exception made to the rule (an act of Congress would be necessary I believe to be federally recognized) he would retire as a Colonel since he lacked enough time in grade as a one-star.
 

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
He restates why I and most of my Amigos got out, post Vietnam, Carter years ... dying years for the culture of Naval Aviation w/only the prospect of more to come.

Perhaps a different time ... and different 'details' ... but the same basics applied.
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
Col Stroud sounds like a whiny little bitch. While he beats his fighter pilot chest, denouncing all the other pussies in the military, to include RPA operators and non-rated officers, he forgets to include one other group that he should blame: his own fighter pilot culture. There are hundreds of examples of the his brethren that have been an embarrassment to the USAF… just like there are in the bomber, cargo, and ISR communities. I certainly agree with some of his points, and I’m sure I’ve vented on this forum about some of them. But for him to throw this parting cheap shot for the public to see is pretty low brow. He needs to grow up.
I’ve got news for him: fighter pilots aren’t the only ones willing to die for “cheap gas” and “shopping at the mall”. Go talk to the Special Forces guys, or the bomber guys in JTAC roles, the COD guy landing on a carrier with no ejection seat, Phrog pilots (never been on a Phrog, but y'all make it sound pretty dicey) or a myriad of other non-fighter pilots in DoD.
And while I like a wild party as much as the next guy, it sounds like he needs to understand self control. Banging a bunch of strippers in the hotel pool is bad form when kids are walking by. There are limits. And if he thinks he has carte blanche to do anything he wants “ ‘cause he flies a fighter”, then he probably lacks the self-discipline to do his job well.
And they need to be “aggressive assholes”? Really? That may come as big news to the likes of Bud Anderson, Kevin Chilton, Robert Scott, George Bush Sr, and many more.
You need to love to “fight and drink” to meet his standard? I love a rowdy environment on Friday at the bar too: a rough game of Crud, stealing golf carts and driving them through the club, doing things that often result in glasses getting broken, etc…. But I don’t like bar brawls or fighting. I guess the fact that I like to drink is my saving grace in his eyes, since I’m such a non-fighting pussy… but I know plenty of great military pilots that don’t drink.
And finally, does he honestly think that the non-rated folks,… logisticians and other support personnel,… are crappy leaders? He needs to get a grip.

Personally, I’m glad this officer is gone. He suffers from professional myopia and an over-developed sense of what bravado is. Good riddance.
 

dilbert123

Active Member
pilot
Funny in that the Skipper of VRC-30 when I first arrived as a nugget pilot back in 98 used to call us warriors. He would walk into the ready room for the AOM and practically yell, good morning warriors. I would look over my shoulder trying to find those warriors as we were a ready room full of COD pilots. They must have been in the building next door or something.

Going through AOCS in the mid-60's, my class was in formation about to go somewhere. Our DI brought us to attention, was silent a couple of minutes, looked around rather thoughtfully at all of us, this Viet Nam veteran, and a smirk formed on his face. He then said, "All right, all you hired killers, parade rest." Here we were, a bunch of baby-faced kids just out of college with no military experience and little clue what we were doing. I think it was the funniest thing that happened to me in AOCS.
 
Top