Forum: F-16 News

Air Force Times wrote:

Col. Jeffrey Smiley’s record should be made public by Air Force, Guard
Posted : Thursday Feb 10, 2011 14:44:05 EST

When the Alabama Air National Guard commander flies an F-16 to visit his family and takes home nearly $96,000 for unauthorized compensatory time, taxpayers deserve to know how he was punished — if at all. So far, both the Guard and Air Force have refused to say.

Flying the Fighting Falcon and the extra pay are two of four Air Force policies violated by Col. Jeffrey Smiley of the 187th Fighter Wing, according to a Guard investigation. Smiley also pressured subordinates to join the National Guard Association of the United States and failed to conduct semiannual climate surveys.

A report of the investigation, released by the Air Force under a Freedom of Information Act request, does not address any action taken against Smiley. Another request for information, according to the Guard, will not be acted on until at least March.

The complaint that prompted the investigation was filed two years ago. An investigation by the Alabama Air National Guard found no substance to any of eight allegations. After a review of the investigation, the Air Force inspector general’s office ordered another one — and another one. The Guard officials substantiated three of the complaints. The inspector general found merit to a fourth.

Smiley is still going to work every day. Other wing commanders have lost their jobs for everything from bullying airmen to inadequate administrative oversight to playing favorites.

Right now, taxpayers have no idea if Smiley has been disciplined or if any safeguards were put in place to keep others from abusing their positions.

It’s long past time for answers to those questions.

source: http://www.airforcetimes.com/community/ ... c-021411w/

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Is there any more information on this COL?

discofishing wrote:

Is there any more information on this COL?

http://www.187fw.ang.af.mil/resources/b ... p?id=12138

As if this type of thing never happens... You how many sets of golf clubs I help load and unload from travel pods at Randolph. Or how many transit birds we got at Randolph just so the pilot could look at his own personnel folder before promotion boards.

tbarlow wrote:

As if this type of thing never happens... You how many sets of golf clubs I help load and unload from travel pods at Randolph. Or how many transit birds we got at Randolph just so the pilot could look at his own personnel folder before promotion boards.

Seen a Class A because of golf clubs with an A-10 ... might want to move all F-16's back west of the Mississippi?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q6G_WqLp1w

I thought the west coast was bad until I watched this movie Shocked

Wow, COL Smiley has an impressive dossier. I have to say even while in the Army, our pilots had to get a certain amount of cross country hours. My days at Fort Hood, TX saw plenty of our Apache pilots fly up to Dallas or down to Houston frequently. Its just something they have to train for. Many pilots had family at these locations. They would stop and go have lunch or dinner with them. Troops have to eat right? Why can't their family be a part of that? Besides, military aircraft stopping at local airports for fuel does help recruitment. What tax payers should take note of is the fact that the Navy sent 4 Hornets from VA to fly over the superbowl in TX. To make things worse, the dome to the stadium was closed. That's a waste right there if you ask me.

In some of the older fighters, golf clubs or cases of beer were often put in travel pods to adjust and maintain the CG within acceptable limits. This was usually done in cases where the pilot felt it was possible that he would get to his destination with very low fuel which created the potential for an uncompressed nose wheel strut and subsequent lack of nose wheel steering availability, thus making parking the aircraft in front of base ops near the red carpet challenging.

This CG adjustment was sometimes done on a day where it was possible to get two days military pay for two flights on the same day, while being on military leave and receiving civilian pay also. Often the first flight would be to deploy the aircraft to a distant base close to the stadium where the game flyover would be performed on the second very short flight, which allowed the pilots to get to a sports bar before game's end.

Post game celebrations would often dictate somewhat later takeoffs the next day. So even though two flights for two days pay while on military leave would be flown the next day also, very often the landing at home would be accomplished as darkness approached, which was undeniably risky. So two days military pay for one day of work was not totally unreasonable.

OL

I think all of the pilots should get their hours in one way or another. If they are just putzing around the base burning gas then why is that any different waste than flying cross country?

Long history of this kind of "Traing Flights" I helped load a pilots shotgun into a travel pod at Cubi Point , so he could go phesant hunting in Korea!

I would much rather pay for his fuel than for ANY congressional trip. But that's just me.
fisk

Congressmen (state and local) probably do this to more of an extent than fighter pilots. Hell, I remember the Dallas school district wanted to have a retreat in Aspen, CO. Bureaucrats, politicians, administrators are horrible about wasting funds. Some people don't realize that when you point the finger at someone, you have 3 fingers from your own hand pointing right back at you.

Normally this type of stuff isn’t a foul … get a X-country sortie in for recur training or whatever. If you abuse the system, then you are going to get fucked! I think that has happened in this case.
Last rumor I heard was $10K+ for “ONE” F-16 sortie ... More if you go off station. Buy an airline ticket or drive unless you need a cross country flight to remain current?
Remember the AF Core Values? This kind of crap pisses people off that dwell within the lower food chain.
That is exactly what happened in Egypt!!!!!!!!

outlaw162 wrote:

This CG adjustment was sometimes done on a day where it was possible to get two days military pay for two flights on the same day, while being on military leave and receiving civilian pay also. Often the first flight would be to deploy the aircraft to a distant base close to the stadium where the game flyover would be performed on the second very short flight, which allowed the pilots to get to a sports bar before game's end.

Post game celebrations would often dictate somewhat later takeoffs the next day. So even though two flights for two days pay while on military leave would be flown the next day also, very often the landing at home would be accomplished as darkness approached, which was undeniably risky. So two days military pay for one day of work was not totally unreasonable.

OL

I have to defend the two days pay for 2 flights thing. You obviously are talking about getting 2 flying AFTP's in 1 day for 2 sorties. However an AFTP is only worth 1 day of base pay plus flight pay, you do not get BAS or BAH, so for me if I get 2 AFTP's in 1 day it's 31 dollars more than 1 day's pay when I am on Active duty orders. When I first started flying back in 1997 a single AFTP was worth about 50 bucks take home for me, so unless I could get 2 in 1 day it was not worth me taking vacation or mil leave from my civilian job and driving the extra 30 miles round trip to the base. By the time I would show up, plan, fly, debrief and drive home I was clearing about 9 bucks and hour if I did a single AFTP, and about 12 bucks and hour if I hung around a couple extra hours and did 2 AFTP's.

Commuters who traveled some distance were always encouraged to maximize their availability. Two productive flights in one day, that is two flights which allowed the commuter to accomplish requirements required to maintain a Mission Ready (MR) status (or whatever they call it now), were an excellent way for someone with a “real job” to update and maintain required currencies. The requirement for performing 48 AFTP’s per year certainly allowed for two AFTP’s to be accomplished in one day. No problem.

All joking aside, I certainly agree with you that this aspect of the system is important when it comes to maintaining the required number of MR aircrews in a Guard or Reserve unit. You earn your pay.

What is questionable is the value of flying a fighter from point A to point B at 40,000 feet and logging an AFTP or accruing comp time without addressing any MR tasks or requirements. This is not say there are not occasionally legitimate requirements to fly a fighter from point A to point B just to get the aircraft or the driver there.

The T in AFTP stands for training. I guess it’s open to interpretation, but the people on the command level are entrusted with the stewardship position when it comes to how they optimize flight training and how they spend your money.

OL

Outlaw, all very true statements, which is why in our unit we have tightened up the requirements for logging 2 AFTP's in 1 day. We used to be able to fly a normal sortie, full stop, taxi back to the EOR, takeoff do 1 radar pattern to a full stop and log another sortie. Now we have to get approval from the SOF before multiple full stop's, and there has to be a need for both pilots to get an initial takeoff to justify the extra sortie.

Forum: F-16 News

Alabama ANG Commander uses F-16 for personal trips