History, Politics And Current Affairs

And in other news...my prospective relief just showed up.

Colonel (Promotable) Rachel Delaney, she pins BGen on next month. ICBM launch control officer in Minuteman, Peacekeeper Rail Garrison, and Midgetman, MS in Computer Science and Information Assurance, she's been a communications officer, and we just got her from the Rail Garrison Wing at Walker Air Force Base. Before that, she was the Program Manager for Strategic C2 Systems at Hanscom, so she's also a certified Level III Defense Acquisition Specialist (which I have just achieved this month in a little over two years of busting my butt).

We had an outstanding discussion of the issues facing 20AF in the cyber end of planning, with more to come tomorrow. In the meantime, she's officially my acting deputy (good thing, too; the deputy left last month to attend the School for Advanced Air and Space Studies, and the billet is gapped pending arrival of the permanent assignee at the end of September).

Also, my wife just sent the first "clean draft" of her study of Frank Lloyd Wright's works, built and otherwise, to her editor at The MIT Press, who has been awaiting its arrival with bated breath. (If you ever find yourself awaiting something with baited breath, you might want to go easy on the anchovies.)

Tonight, I am grilling steaks and vegetables on the patio, and Roberta has made a key lime pie, and we're drinking a 2005 Hanzell Pinot Noir. Music is AOR from our misspent youth. We don't always listen to Queen, Styx, Foreigner, and Kansas, but when we do...

SO DO THE NEIGHBORS!

Life is good.

Am I wrong or didn't graduates from School for Advanced Air and Space Studies cause some issues with the 10th AF during the war, mostly in targeting?

jemhouston wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 1:58 am Am I wrong or didn't graduates from School for Advanced Air and Space Studies cause some issues with the 10th AF during the war, mostly in targeting?

I’ve heard those rumors myself…

jemhouston wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 1:58 am Am I wrong or didn't graduates from School for Advanced Air and Space Studies cause some issues with the 10th AF during the war, mostly in targeting?

Mostly because they were from the category "They're never sitting in a cockpit again, for whatever reason, but we gotta put them somewhere."

SAASS, after the war, did a lot of internal reflection on that (to the point that they shut down for two years), and they had some hard policies from when they reopened in 1991:

1. SAASS is no longer a dumping ground for questionable personnel decisions. They insisted on reviewing OERs of all applicants, and they also require endorsement from squadron CC to NAF.

2. Part of the application process includes addressing a hypothetical theater commander's request for courses of action. They are looking less for the ones that can vomit up doctrine on command, or who come up with utterly original out-of-the-box solutions; what they are looking for is incisive operational thought. Whether doctrinal or not, the solution needs evidence-based analysis and needs to be focused on the commander's actual needs (which are, BTW, NOT explicitly and fully stated; you have to figure out what's really needed).

3. Following the theater commander COA request, there's an interview with the SAASS Commandant. The first thing you get hit with is "Why didn't the theater commander tell you his real problem?" Yes, each scenario has a specific reason the theater commander didn't give you the full scoop, they're different in each case, and if you didn't take time to figure out why, that was the end of the interview right there.

4. The instructor cadre then reviews the applicants who survived the process, and they must unanimously agree on each candidate. They're looking for a good blending of personality types; a couple of the problem children from during the war apparently carried Steve Jobs-level Reality Distortion Fields, and they try to keep those people out. One no vote on an applicant and s/he's blackballed.

What they're looking for is very intelligent, widely respected, and inquisitive officers who Play Well With Others.

Sophie had me apply to SAASS as part of my professional development, and I bombed the interview (didn't think through why the theater commander was cagey about his real problem).

Poohbah wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 2:57 am

jemhouston wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 1:58 am Am I wrong or didn't graduates from School for Advanced Air and Space Studies cause some issues with the 10th AF during the war, mostly in targeting?

Mostly because they were from the category "They're never sitting in a cockpit again, for whatever reason, but we gotta put them somewhere."

Is it that, or was it more a case of failure to properly assess and support them, thus having them go sour? It reads more like they were sort of left on their own and so whatever took them away from flying curdled and turned in them.

Johnnie Lyle wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 3:16 am

Poohbah wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 2:57 am

jemhouston wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 1:58 am Am I wrong or didn't graduates from School for Advanced Air and Space Studies cause some issues with the 10th AF during the war, mostly in targeting?

Mostly because they were from the category "They're never sitting in a cockpit again, for whatever reason, but we gotta put them somewhere."

Is it that, or was it more a case of failure to properly assess and support them, thus having them go sour? It reads more like they were sort of left on their own and so whatever took them away from flying curdled and turned in them.

For some, it was, and for some, it was "we know this guy is marginal at best...let's stick him in a school for a year and put him on staff duty." There was a LOT of pressure to keep marginal people on ration count to free up an effective body for more important things. Oddly enough, it worked often enough that we didn't quite notice when it wasn't.

Those chumps at Tenth AF looked good on paper, and they did have to be used somewhere. I don't think they ever realized just how resented (the most polite term I'll use-others use 'Despised", 'Loathed," and "WTF are these guys" at the very least) they were. It wasn't just taking the mission concepts of others and juicing them up on steroids-it was also this "Hit target X with Ordnance Y to get Result Z" male bovine scat that they were pushing. Come on, guys, forty-eight Mark-82s on a target worth only an eighth of that number? No wonder we pulled quite a few UNODIR strikes where we took off what the ATO assigned and threw on a Pave Tack or Pave Spike pod and a pair of GBU-10s instead. As we said to the brass when the BOLO II OpPlan was approved, "I want to send a hate-filled candygram, not a five-hundred page political tract. Sir."

I trust at SASS these days those examples are held up as a way NOT to do it.

Poohbah wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 3:27 am

Johnnie Lyle wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 3:16 am

Poohbah wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 2:57 am

Mostly because they were from the category "They're never sitting in a cockpit again, for whatever reason, but we gotta put them somewhere."

Is it that, or was it more a case of failure to properly assess and support them, thus having them go sour? It reads more like they were sort of left on their own and so whatever took them away from flying curdled and turned in them.

For some, it was, and for some, it was "we know this guy is marginal at best...let's stick him in a school for a year and put him on staff duty." There was a LOT of pressure to keep marginal people on ration count to free up an effective body for more important things. Oddly enough, it worked often enough that we didn't quite notice when it wasn't.

Which sounds a lot like just leaving people to sink or swim, rather than a well thought out process to patch broken people back up.

With all their flaws coming out through the cracks.

Matt Wiser wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 3:47 am Those chumps at Tenth AF looked good on paper, and they did have to be used somewhere. I don't think they ever realized just how resented (the most polite term I'll use-others use 'Despised", 'Loathed," and "WTF are these guys" at the very least) they were. It wasn't just taking the mission concepts of others and juicing them up on steroids-it was also this "Hit target X with Ordnance Y to get Result Z" male bovine scat that they were pushing. Come on, guys, forty-eight Mark-82s on a target worth only an eighth of that number? No wonder we pulled quite a few UNODIR strikes where we took off what the ATO assigned and threw on a Pave Tack or Pave Spike pod and a pair of GBU-10s instead. As we said to the brass when the BOLO II OpPlan was approved, "I want to send a hate-filled candygram, not a five-hundred page political tract. Sir."

I trust at SASS these days those examples are held up as a way NOT to do it.

Pretty much. Again, SAASS is looking for people who can mesh effectively with a team, understand strategy and operational art, are known and respected beyond the squadron and wing level, and can ask the crucial questions without alienating subordinates, peers, and senior.

My wife put it this way:

"Cross-targeting 2 Midgetman missiles at a time-urgent target is making a statement.

"Salvoing an entire Peacekeeper squadron at the same time-urgent target is posting a 2,000 page screed on how antique shops cause internalized misogyny and are the ultimate manifestation of the patriarchy."

Me: "Why does that last sound familiar?"

"That was my women's studies professor's doctoral thesis."

Poohbah wrote: ↑Wed Aug 23, 2023 12:50 am My wife put it this way:

"Cross-targeting 2 Midgetman missiles at a time-urgent target is making a statement.

"Salvoing an entire Peacekeeper squadron at the same time-urgent target is posting a 2,000 page screed on how antique shops cause internalized misogyny and are the ultimate manifestation of the patriarchy."

Me: "Why does that last sound familiar?"

"That was my women's studies professor's doctoral thesis."

What's she doing now, running Starbucks?

jemhouston wrote: ↑Wed Aug 23, 2023 1:46 am

Poohbah wrote: ↑Wed Aug 23, 2023 12:50 am My wife put it this way:

"Cross-targeting 2 Midgetman missiles at a time-urgent target is making a statement.

"Salvoing an entire Peacekeeper squadron at the same time-urgent target is posting a 2,000 page screed on how antique shops cause internalized misogyny and are the ultimate manifestation of the patriarchy."

Me: "Why does that last sound familiar?"

"That was my women's studies professor's doctoral thesis."

What's she doing now, running Starbucks?

Only if they have one in the max security wing at Timpanogos Women's Prison in Utah. She got detained for the duration because her girlfriend turned up in Texas with the PSD (and said girlfriend was regarded by none other than Deputy PSD Director Caroline Bell, who went to the gallows after the war for some thoroughly heinous shit, as "a goddamn psychopath").

(They'd both been in and out of the Orange County lockup for domestic violence against each other. The only reason Roberta had this nut as her women's studies professor is that (a) it was a mandatory course and (b) her fall frosh registration was misrouted.)

After the war, she . . . well, I'm not entirely sure she belongs in a prison. She never was especially stable, and she just cracked completely when she found out her girlfriend got the Mussolini Special at a Flying J. Demanded her job back, demanded damages from the State of California for not enforcing the Unruh Act against the Tri-County Military Authority, and spiraled into, I shit thee not, sovereign citizen stupidity. Her writings grew ever more incoherent. Whoever invented copy and paste needs to atone for what this woman did to county clerks from California to Montana with his invention. 10,000 page filings, etc.

She ended up shooting a man in Green River, Utah, "just to watch him die." Now she's a lifer. Still filing crazy shit. Whoever invented electronic dockets needs to atone...

(By the way, she never got the doctorate. The filings against the UC Board of Regents over that were "only" 4,000 pages or so.)

I know the mental health reforms of the 60s undid some of the harms the system did. It was an over correction that needs to be correcting.

jemhouston wrote: ↑Wed Aug 23, 2023 10:18 am I know the mental health reforms of the 60s undid some of the harms the system did. It was an over correction that needs to be correcting.

Yup. And the post-WW3 reforms to deal with millions of cases of PTSD made some things better and some things worse.

So it goes.

Well, things were great fun at Thunder Over Gowen this weekend. Static displays, flybys (including Heritage Flights from all four branches) . . .

. . . And the first all-general officer AFSOC display. We had GoPros on our helmets and we were streaming live to the bleachers, pick your POV, and people got to see us move out as special operators would, tactical hand signals, formations, you name it.

Finished up in front of the main bleachers, and we gave a presentation on what AFSOC does. I got to play the designated jerk; my part of the presentation was to say, "Yeah, I don't know of any of you youngsters can do this stuff. It's really hard, and it's not likely any of you have what it takes to earn the beret."

I'm pretty sure maybe a few dozen youngsters are going to try to prove me wrong, and I will be prouder than all get-out of every one who succeeds in showing me up. . . or who even makes the attempt.

You did notice an SEA-painted F-4E next to MAJ Wolfe's F-24, I take it?

Next weekend is Mountain Home proper.

And those Red lawyers and their pals were outside the perimeter fence (again). Boise PD and the 124th SPS no doubt told them "One foot over that fence and you are in a heap of trouble."

Matt Wiser wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 2:40 am You did notice an SEA-painted F-4E next to MAJ Wolfe's F-24, I take it?

Next weekend is Mountain Home proper.

And those Red lawyers and their pals were outside the perimeter fence (again). Boise PD and the 124th SPS no doubt told them "One foot over that fence and you are in a heap of trouble."

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to take in the rest of the airshow; we were manning several booths. Word is Senator Celeste Markham wasn't happy with USAF outreach in the Gem State, and we were stumping hard for SAC, AFSOC, and AFCYBER.

I was the curmudgeon at AFSOC on Saturday, saying, "Don't tell me you have it in you to do this. Show me, and I will accept you as a brother or sister in arms."

Sunday, I was repping SAC, and my theme was that the mission is the same, but the tools and techniques are a-changin', and a young man or woman can be a part of that.

One of our enlisted guys said, "SAC is America's Fool Around and Find Out Force."

With about a second or so on the first F...

And we had a LIVE one today out by Wendover.

Utah State Police were on a armed robbery pursuit north of I-80, and the driver decides to go onto BLM land. Pursuit continues on dirt roads until the state cops see the "PUBLIC LAND ACCESS CLOSED FOR NATIONAL SECURITY -- USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED BEYOND THIS POINT" signs on the shoulder.

They called the Wing Command Post at Wendover and let them know the score.

In the meantime, the armed robber manages to get thoroughly lost, and ends up driving straight into a Midgetman convoy box. Without getting into classified stuff, suffice to say that the new tools for convoy security allowed us to ensure the missile TELs stayed secure and allowed a LAV-AD to flank the idiot.

25mm Gatling, they used the training ammo magazine. Buzzsawed the truck in half behind the cab. Guy got about fifty yards on the front wheels...

I have suggested naming the LAV-AD involved "Blue Thunder."

Ready for Sunday and Mountain Home's Air Show. Went down last night and picked up 512 from the SLC airport, and had one of the AFROTC Cadets from Boise State with me; gave him a taste of tacair on the flight back to Mountain Home. And yes, he did use his airsickness bag.

Goalie picked me up, and as we left the base headed home, we noticed the Red Lawyers and some of their.....disciples picketing at the turnoff from SR 167 to the base. And already, there were a couple of SO cruisers keeping an eye on 'em.

Poohbah wrote: ↑Sat Sep 02, 2023 2:56 am And we had a LIVE one today out by Wendover.

Utah State Police were on a armed robbery pursuit north of I-80, and the driver decides to go onto BLM land. Pursuit continues on dirt roads until the state cops see the "PUBLIC LAND ACCESS CLOSED FOR NATIONAL SECURITY -- USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED BEYOND THIS POINT" signs on the shoulder.

They called the Wing Command Post at Wendover and let them know the score.

In the meantime, the armed robber manages to get thoroughly lost, and ends up driving straight into a Midgetman convoy box. Without getting into classified stuff, suffice to say that the new tools for convoy security allowed us to ensure the missile TELs stayed secure and allowed a LAV-AD to flank the idiot.

25mm Gatling, they used the training ammo magazine. Buzzsawed the truck in half behind the cab. Guy got about fifty yards on the front wheels...

I have suggested naming the LAV-AD involved "Blue Thunder."

Does that count as being arrescued?