That's insane. In fairness though, you can't blame the E-1s, it's a service culture of spineless officers that allows that behavior to exist.
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Officer Dynamics in a Flying Squadron
- Thread starter ZomboNation
- Start date
That's insane. In fairness though, you can't blame the E-1s, it's a service culture of spineless officers that allows that behavior to exist.
Air Force customs mostly involve red lines on the tarmac and a total absence of common sense.
Don't forget your glow belt!
Interesting story - I worked with the USAF 2-star who apparently instituted the whole glow belt thing at AUAB when he was the head honcho there some years ago. When the topic came up in casual conversation in the J5 front office, I openly mocked the glow belt and recounted my efforts to completely avoid wearing it while I was there - even while running... at night... while wearing my earbuds! The horror! This guy became visibly agitated, got all serious, and had to leave the room. The fact that the guy still took it so seriously tells you everything you need to know about... the USAF guy who brought us the glow belt. Pretty sure he's the ECJ5/8 now.
Without a glow belt, how would you know that all the people walking around the deid in civilian workout clothes are actually in the military? Otherwise it looks like spring break in a shitty destination.
Well, there is a pool and 3 drinks/night......which sounds a lot like spring break in a much better destination than spring break on the boat
USAF guys are so fun (and easy) to mess with. Just say "box", "head", "walking", and "Fighting Falcon"around F-16 guys and watch their heads explode. The worst of those I've heard was during a 2010 NWSEP detachment where an F-16 Fighting Falcon guy actually used the term "skulling" instead of "heading" when referring to the compass direction to fly when transiting from the operating area to the initial during the course rules brief. The look on the skipper's face was hilarious. Their insistence on not using regular common English words actually became a flight safety issue several times during that detachment. But they always wore their reflector belts during PT. USAF for the win!
It was also a $5 fine to the mess for a Navy guy to use Air Force fighter lingo.
This post could spin itself off into an entirely different conversation about what we now call the Command Triad, and how we have all bought in on the billy-badass/deckplate leader/skull and cross bone/F-250 propaganda. You can probably see where I'm going with this...especially as we begin to see younger and younger CMCs.
Yeah, but except under very limited circumstances can one directly join the Navy Reserves. We have to spend some time active before going reserve. I flew a few times with a reserve P-3 unit, I agree with you. But folks can join an ANG/AF Reserve unit right out of bootcamp/OCS, so they never see an active duty culture.
From his official bio he wasn't there until long after the glow belt silliness started, he did do a stint in Manas earlier though and it may have spread from there. Of note, he has more ribbons than the Marine Colonel I worked for who was a veteran of Vietnam, the Gulf War, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan who had a few decorations for valor. The USAF guy is a veteran of Kosovo and Afghanistan but still, it is an absurd amount of ribbons for a lot less of a 'combat' career.
I get the premise behind it but they have taken it to absurd extremes, quite a few of the folks over at Baseops even regularly put "(sts)" in their posts.
I saw that earlier about the very young CMC and had to scratch my head, I don't think I ever saw one with less than 20-22 years. I haven't seen the CSM silliness cross over too much to the Navy yet and hope that CO's and JO's would put a stop to it before they took it as far as the Army.
Friend of mine got that in Nellis, by freaking ATC of all groups of people. "Turn left skulling XXX." Huh? Kid was obviously emulating the officers. The crew did not even understand what he said and ECMO 1 had to "say again," at which point the kid used "heading," they turned, and then the lightbulb went off about what he said on the first call.
ATC?? Talk about potential safety of flight issues for no discernible reason.
I laughed so hard I sprayed coffee.
The enlisted can join the Reserves off the street. At my last command, I had a Chief that hadn't spent a day in the Active Component. While she was her own special needs case, she still understood that there was a line drawn. I actually had several SELRES-only people that still generally understood the Navy's pecking order while at work.
Childish game to be sure, and many take it too far. Never seen an E-1 call an officer by first name though. Had an E-2 call me by first name, after a second of the evil eye he corrected himself.