Jonny Kim solos the T-6

[Griz882]

I don’t think anyone is saying you shouldn’t admire Kim, he has had a remarkable run and done some astounding things, I think the point is that 99.9% of the rest of humanity who enter the military will be required to follow a more normal career path and those typically don’t include as many unique accomplishments.

 

[Hopeful Hoya]

Sure, no one is saying that every SN entering the Navy is going to end up as an Astronaut, but I think LCDR Kim is an excellent example of how you can use the myriad of benefits that the military offers (and generally does a very poor job of communicating said opportunities to Sailors) to better your life whether that's inside the military or not. I wish more of my hard-charging Sailors would pursue things like higher education, commissioning programs, etc. because keeping even 1/4 of those people in the Navy will pay huge dividends down the line.

I have a young ATAN who is trying to go back to school for Astrophysics, become a NA, and ultimately go into the test community and apply for NASA. One of the former JOs in my squadron was a former MM3 who is now going to USAF TPS and will probably drop a NASA app at some point. If having someone like Jonny Kim to aspire to gets more Sailors to work hard and try to go down that path then I'm all for it.

(And I say this as a humble Econ major who has no shot at such programs )

 

[insanebikerboy]

I’m incredulous that there are haters on Kim’s career. He has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order effects as a result of what he’s done, and has had greater impact on the Navy and US government, writ large, than all of us on AirWarriors combined.

Saying he should’ve stayed longer in one community is akin to telling the gas station cashier they shouldn’t go to night school because they need to stick it out to improve the fuel pumps. God forbid someone improves their station in life.

To be clear, I am a fanboy of no one, ever, but I will give credit where it’s due.

 

[Brett327]

I’m incredulous that there are haters on Kim’s career. He has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order effects as a result of what he’s done, and has had greater impact on the Navy and US government, writ large, than all of us on AirWarriors combined.

Saying he should’ve stayed longer in one community is akin to telling the gas station cashier they shouldn’t go to night school because they need to stick it out to improve the fuel pumps. God forbid someone improves their station in life.

To be clear, I am a fanboy of no one, ever, but I will give credit where it’s due.

I’m not hating on him, just reminding people that our own model of war fighting experience, I.E. ACTC, depends on people sticking around in the same community to build expertise in a very specific set of skills… something that certain folks on this site have argued that we should do even more of. While I certainly admire his accomplishment, if everyone did what Kim did, that would have a negative impact. Kim, with his many talents, would have had a greater impact on the NSW community had he stuck around to serve as a SEAL for 20 years.

 

[insanebikerboy]

I’m not hating on him, just reminding people that our own model of war fighting experience, I.E. ACTC, depends on people sticking around in the same community to build expertise in a very specific set of skills… something that certain folks on this site have argued that we should do even more of. While I certainly admire his accomplishment, if everyone did what Kim did, that would have a negative impact. Kim, with his many talents, would have had a greater impact on the NSW community had he stuck around to serve as a SEAL for 20 years.

Ok, I see your point now and that makes sense what you were saying. The beauty is almost no one can do what he did, but he has those trickle down effects that draws people into the service.

 

[Brett327]

Ok, I see your point now and that makes sense what you were saying. The beauty is almost no one can do what he did, but he has those trickle down effects that draws people into the service.

I’m not sure how you quantify that though, even though that intuitively feels right.

 

[croakerfish]

I’m not hating on him, just reminding people that our own model of war fighting experience, I.E. ACTC, depends on people sticking around in the same community to build expertise in a very specific set of skills… something that certain folks on this site have argued that we should do even more of. While I certainly admire his accomplishment, if everyone did what Kim did, that would have a negative impact. Kim, with his many talents, would have had a greater impact on the NSW community had he stuck around to serve as a SEAL for 20 years.

I suspect becoming an astronaut was his end goal all along so critiquing his professional contributions to the advancement of the art in NSW or medicine is kind of off the mark.

 

[Brett327]

I suspect becoming an astronaut was his end goal all along so critiquing his professional contributions to the advancement of the art in NSW or medicine is kind of off the mark.

His individual goals are not relevant to my critique.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

How in the name of all that is good did this turn into ‘is Jonny Kim worth admiring or not?’ thread? Like what the actual fuck? The dude is a Navy SEAL, an astronaut, and a Harvard med school graduate. We can probably just sit back and appreciate that’s pretty cool, and that’s a guy who’s clearly very talented and has a great work ethic, right?

Sometimes this place amazes me haha…

Because Brett can’t handle anyone slobbing on anyone else’s knob on this site except for his…duh

 

[wink]

Because Brett can’t handle anyone slobbing on anyone else’s knob on this site except for his…duh

From someone who's profile expounds "Be polite, be professional..."

 

[croakerfish]

His individual goals are not relevant to my critique.

I disagree and I think you are taking a very narrow view of what constitutes a career path that benefits the enterprise. It’s not like there’s a typical career path to becoming an astronaut that he didn’t follow. If you want astronauts you need people doing unusual things to become astronaut candidates.

 

[Brett327]

I’m talking about what’s best for the Navy, not what’s best for NASA. Last time I checked, they weren’t hurting for qualified applicants.

 

[Mirage]

I’m talking about what’s best for the Navy, not what’s best for NASA. Last time I checked, they weren’t hurting for qualified applicants.

Last time I checked, neither are the SEALs, yet you're trying to say it would have been better if he stayed a SEAL forever. His career as a SEAL alone was more impressive than almost everyone on here, and he's accomplished more in his life than any of us on here ever will. Why try to take something away from him, or discourage others from admiring his accomplishments? Should we disparage Blue Angel guys because it'd be better if they just stuck to tactics?

 

[HSMPBR]

Should we disparage Blue Angel guys because it'd be better if they just stuck to tactics?

 

[Brett327]

Last time I checked, neither are the SEALs, yet you're trying to say it would have been better if he stayed a SEAL forever. His career as a SEAL alone was more impressive than almost everyone on here, and he's accomplished more in his life than any of us on here ever will. Why try to take something away from him, or discourage others from admiring his accomplishments? Should we disparage Blue Angel guys because it'd be better if they just stuck to tactics?

There’s a possibility, however slight, that you may have missed my point.