Forum: Air Force Life

There are still a few good guys out there. Sadly they are an extreme minority. Oh for the good old days of the crusty old DCM. We had safer planes and better morale. Now that the pilots drive the mx show life pretty much sucks in that regard. Pilots are the experts when it comes to flying but for some reason they think it makes them an expert in fixing and maintaining them. I won't tell you how to fly the jet if you don't tell me how to fix it. Yes I'm stereotyping but in my experience it's true. Wonder how they would take it if I started critiquing their missions?

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I still remember a letter to the editor of Airman magazine during Desert Storm. Some stupid female medical officer wrote in complaining that the crew chief pictured on the cover (in the middle of Desert Storm combat ops) had his hands in his pockets and was wearing non-regulation sunglasses. She also wanted the guys supervisor raked over the coals. I left active duty because of stupid crap like that. But mostly because bosses of stupid people like her don't correct the stupidity and even encourage it. What they should have done was stuck her on a 141 and sent her directly to that unit and made her work with that crew chief as an augmentee.

Active Member Joined: Nov 29, 2004 - 01:40 PM Posts: 146

Colonel Smith is indeed a great guy as well as a terrific leader.

As for pilots driving the Maintenance show, I have to disagree. With the re-org that happened a few years back, a whole lot of things changed(like the return of Ammo as an officer career field of its own, 21m!). Presently the Maintenance Group is commanded by an O-6 who is a career Maintainer. Everyone on the Maintenance chain of command is a Maintainer, from the boss (Group Commander) right on down to the Flight Chiefs of Commanders.

In a way, Ops does drive the Maintenance tempo through the flying schedule, but its not a bag wearer who says that the wrench turners have to stay an extra three hours or come in on the weekend. Ops and Maintenance are very closely related and have a great synergy now, a trend which I hope to see continue. Ops should stay Ops, and Maintenance should stay Maintenance. Neither can do the other's job better.

But thats just my one cent.

AmmoCapt wrote:

Colonel Smith is indeed a great guy as well as a terrific leader.

As for pilots driving the Maintenance show, I have to disagree. With the re-org that happened a few years back, a whole lot of things changed(like the return of Ammo as an officer career field of its own, 21m!). Presently the Maintenance Group is commanded by an O-6 who is a career Maintainer. Everyone on the Maintenance chain of command is a Maintainer, from the boss (Group Commander) right on down to the Flight Chiefs of Commanders.

In a way, Ops does drive the Maintenance tempo through the flying schedule, but its not a bag wearer who says that the wrench turners have to stay an extra three hours or come in on the weekend. Ops and Maintenance are very closely related and have a great synergy now, a trend which I hope to see continue. Ops should stay Ops, and Maintenance should stay Maintenance. Neither can do the other's job better.

But thats just my one cent.

You sorta made my point for me. Try being an E-8 who wants to make E-9 telling an O-6 that he can't have eight turn eight for the day. See how many of those E-8's cave to the O-6 "requests" so that they can make E-9. With all due respect, officers live in the comfy little fake world that higher ranking enlisted and lower ranking officers create for them. Sadly most people won't tell you what I've just said. Everyone is afraid for their next promotion. Don't rock the boat and be a team player. The McAirForce was a supreme example of that.

Just my one cent but if people were honest you'd hear the true story. Don't get me wrong - we still have a great Air Force. But it could be so much better and effective without the politics and blinders.

AmmoCapt wrote:

In a way, Ops does drive the Maintenance tempo through the flying schedule, but its not a bag wearer who says that the wrench turners have to stay an extra three hours or come in on the weekend. Ops and Maintenance are very closely related and have a great synergy now, a trend which I hope to see continue. Ops should stay Ops, and Maintenance should stay Maintenance. Neither can do the other's job better.

But thats just my one cent.

I beg to differ...True that Ops isn't the one making the maintenance guys work 12 hours on the weekend, it's the MSgt. pro-supers that want to make SMSgt., the SMSgt. maintenance super that want to make Chief and the AMU Chiefs that want to be Senior enlisted advisors that drive the long hours. Ops will never say, "You have tooo many FMC jets!"; they will fly the crap out of as many jets that maintenance can give them. I think there should be more dialouge between the two. If combining maint./ops under one squadron is not feasible, things like this message board and having a pilot "walk a mile" in a crew chief's boots and having a avionics guy hang out with pilot should happen more. How can I be expected to deliver a superior product when I don't know 100% what my customer wants/needs? Also, when deployed (in the AMC world anyway), the aircraft commander is responsible for the aircraft and entire aircrew, to include the flying crew chiefs/specialists. It helps explaining the status of the aircraft to an officer that has some experince around military aircraft maintenance.

Forum: Air Force Life

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