Forum: General F-16 forum

Alrighth folks, i am sick of this sh*t. I LOVE!!! flying/being around/workin the f-16. But where is our leadership taking us? In a time of fiscal constraints we have an air force more worried about what color boots we wear than the fact that our ENTIRE viper fleet is none survivable in a modern combat arena. Where is the new G-suit? Where is the new Aesa which was proven to actually be more cost effective within 3 years than maintaining the apg-68. think about it!! you could put an aesa in every USAF viper and within 3 years they would break even for cost. Where the hell is an effective ECM pod???? But NOOOO, we worry about what the fighter pilots are wearing!! those damn fighter pilots and thier black boots and squadron t-shirts. God forbide we have some ****** pride in our units and we act like individuals because you know what? When I am up there, I am a god damn single seat raging viper pilot who's mom is the only one that my cc will have to write too If i get killed!! I earned the goddman right to where my squadron colors with ****** pride....Polticis suck , and all the LTC's who sold thier souls to make colonel you can suck it, and choke yourself.

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Dude! Someone needs to lay off the Wild Turkey. That $hit's fightin whiskey.

I second that Brother Seal,

No squadron hats,
No squadron T-shirts,
They want unit pride, but don't want us to show it.

Wear these boots, no, now these, but if you're in maintenance wear those?

No M65 field jackets w/liners, we now have crappy gortex with 2nd rate NorthFace fleece liners that look like they're from 'old navy' (Not to mention the whole combination is 3x more expensive than the M65s were.

Oh how about ANOTHER uniform change.
OD (had to love short sleeve shirts and no blousing)
BDUs
'Chocolate Chips' but can't wear those at home (waste of $$ not being able to use them outside the AOR)
DCUs (again waste of $$ replacing previous 5-tone with 3-tone, then only wearing them in AOR)
ABUs (version 1 was a joke, so we'll start over and still come up with something that is crap and non-deployable; and in 157 different sizes and 3 different colors that don't match)
PT uniforms!?! you freakin' kidding? When I joined the USAF (decades ago) our PT consisted of 9-18 holes of golf, or making a 'beer run' (Just keeping up with the Army on joint installations)
Now Multi-Cam? (Guess the Army boys don't want to be shot at standing next to our tiger-stripe gray, non-matching uniforms?)

Don't get me started on the 'flight attendant' blue's uniforms we now wear, and then they want to 'add heritage' when the previous commanders wanted modernization? LEAVE IT ALONE a few decades if you want heritage!

Fit to Fight? Didn't we kick aerospace @$$ over the last few engagements!?! More like keeping face with the Army cause they point and laugh? Who cares? With the maintenance going in the crapper, and nuke inspections being failed, who cares if we're >39". The standards NOW are tighter than they were when I joined; WTF? I'm not 18 anymore... but I have a few hundred-thousands of $$ worth of training, and experience. Isn't that what we're after to accomplish the mission?
(Besides the 'skinny-kids' always go down in the heat first! LMAO

)
Not like the military micro-manages our lives enough? What's next NO-smoking at all? 100% ban and start testing for it? Then NO-booze? Jeez, isn't this going to be a fun place?

Now one that may be a little more sensitive is all the 'sensitivity' training I need to accomplish. I won't get into details on the specific 'groups of people' that we shouldn't discriminate, or harras, or give special treatment, but isn't that special treatment? Who takes the 'don't piss off the non-fit-SNCO' training? Come on.....

CBTs? If it's important enough we're required to take a 2.4 hour, 283 slide w/final exam CBT every YEAR, think it's important enough to have a class and an actual instructor? No? then it's not THAT damn important! That's why we have initial and refresher training too. One big class so every one learns it, then a little reminder every year or two. I think we loose 10-15% of our productivity per year now on CBTs. Hell we don't even go to the firing range as often as we do CBRNE training; what's more likely to occur!?

Maybe we could save $$ for the next uniform change if the pilots started wearing fleece jackets with squadron patches on them? Leather is expensive and is non-renewable... Poke

Anyone else want to continue?

Doh

TEG

It's political correctness creeping its way into the military Sad

The first example (only because it was personal) I can think of was the new rule that all US Army personnel (that did not already have a beret) would wear the Black Beret.

Factoid: US Armor units were authorized in 1973 (but rescinded in 1979) to wear them BEFORE Rangers began officially using them in 1975.
http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/a ... bere.shtml

We all may very well be doomed. Does this evolution in a government and military look similar to events in the past 25 years? Do we look like the USSR? How did we become this way? How will it play out?

Everyone must strive to discern fact from bs, mission from politics, and right from wrong and then take a stand. It will be much better retiring as an O-5 doing the right thing than an O-6 who is a wannabee torn apart by forces he/she can't manage or begin to understand.

Ironically, deadseal and all the rest on this thread will be asked "why are you so upset at the little stuff?" And of course it is not about the little stuff. It is about obfuscation of what makes us a great fighting force through these petty and meaningless uniform changes, people training, and a good PT score makes a good leader bullsh**.

God Bless the warriors. May God give them the blessing of not accepting that there are things they cannot change, courage to change the things they can, and the wisdom to know the difference between the political bastards that corrupt and the leaders to follow.

I agree with all....think the AF is too concerned about dress & appearance and other BS then getting the right equipment to take the fight to the front line.....Cut backs should start from the top, why we need so many deputy secretaries, under secretaries, ETC.....I am sure they are enjoying alot of perks that shoul dbe wiped clean....Hold your head up high maintainer's......your doing a great job in my eyes.

WWROD?

What Would Robin Olds Do?

Amen brother seal...I'm fed up as well...secretly hoping they change the retirement rules so I can retire from this idiot-cracy sooner...

GE

Come on folks … RELAX
Times have changed and so have priorities!!!! You know, from LGBUs to LGBTs

Quote:

The first example (only because it was personal) I can think of was the new rule that all US Army personnel (that did not already have a beret) would wear the Black Beret.

There might be hope for you Air Force types. Army soldiers bitched and wined enough and now they're not wearing that stupid a$$ black beret anymore. It's reserved for special occasions and the dress uniform. So, we're back to wearing the soft cap.

Ya know, we have a new generation of military veterans leaving the military and heading into the civilian world. It is my hope they do as their grandfathers do and become industry leaders and direct us back to values, ethics and prosperity.

discofishing wrote:

There might be hope for you Air Force types. Army soldiers bitched and wined enough and now they're not wearing that stupid a$$ black beret anymore. It's reserved for special occasions and the dress uniform. So, we're back to wearing the soft cap.

DAMN! I hated that thing (except with the Class A uniform). Of course, there's also the issue of replacing the green Class A and everything else formal with a universal blue dressup uniform. WHAT THE HELL! It's the goddamned Army for crying out loud! Everything is supposed to be GREEN. Some gaywad must have had a case of Marine-uniform-envy.

Quote:

DAMN! I hated that thing (except with the Class A uniform). Of course, there's also the issue of replacing the green Class A and everything else formal with a universal blue dressup uniform. WHAT THE HELL! It's the goddamned Army for crying out loud! Everything is supposed to be GREEN. Some gaywad must have had a case of Marine-uniform-envy.

Its funny, we actually pay senior officers and NCOs to come up with this bullshit. All that money we pay for this dog and pony crap would be better spent on taking care of the troops, like training, gear, better quality of life, etc.

USAF culture is dead and buried. Look at the logo, for christ's sake.

I got your back Laughing

golden_eagle wrote:

WWROD?

What Would Robin Olds Do?

Maybe we should all have bumper-stickers with this slogan printed on it; drive them on every AFB in the world. See if anyone actually noticed?

EDIT: Start 'tagging' all our equipment too, like squadron stickers...

Thumb

TEG

Respects to D Seal, sir... sincere thanks for your service and that of your unit.

I'll have to also concur with Varkvet here with his general perception of things. If both sets of individual convictions can coincide?

To 1st503rd, c'mon bro, lol, a slight below the belt insinuation - close to being libel - there on the wild turkey comment? Man, that could have been one of those posted and then deleted in a post-edit? Smile

Seriously, in respects to dead seal and others in his camp within the USAF tactical service and this sort of comment, it absolutely reflects on the current state of the ship and where things are heading... and as a full blooded civilian with the right to speak his mind freely, I feel this is not only warranted, but even more so a healthy check up for any top brass or civilian leadership who might catch on to such a sentiment. More power to everyone.

With regard to specific points made in the original post, many 'critics' could not agree more and have in fact been making this a primary focal point of things needing corrective prioritization - rather than the seemingly perpetual mega-game-changing focus at potential expense of current day deterrence and force structural needs, etc. Sure, an easy trap to fall in perhaps - in fairness, one cannot necessarily blame those in policymaking who have been on board various well-intentioned decision making processes.

Although on the same level, if I could add any civilian voice into this advocacy directed at elected leaders in the meanwhile - be it G-suits, radar modernization, self-protection modernization, systems, etc, let me know anonymously if you wish, I'll contribute whatever effort I can voice to the relevant parties.

God speed

Forum: General F-16 forum

Where is the air force heading?