It's Time To Go..........

[Norm]

Close relative is about to pull the plug, has had enough. After almost 30 years of Army service, he said he's got to go, will retire at end of this year.
0-4 Blackhawk pilot, he's not happy where the service is heading.

After a sit down with his superiors discussing advancement and where he would fit in in the future.....relayed his feelings to me, and I can understand. In part..........

Though the meeting went well, I’ve decided to retire when eligible. The odds of the cards falling in my (and the Army’s) favor is low. Even if I could get the desired assignments, they would be plagued with bureaucracy.

I’ve spoken to enough senior (and expected senior) leaders and determined the future of our organization should not include me. The values and principles which kept our Army (and NG) strong are eroding at an alarming rate.

We have hiring freezes and numerous openings at the same time. Turn-over rates are at record levels. Few can perform their jobs to standard. No one is accountable. Budgets are not followed. The minority trying to improve their organization are dismissed. The few I would trust to build a staff have left or are leaving.

The effort required to get people to do their jobs is not reasonable - this includes superiors, adjacent agencies, and civilians. People openly brag about their percentage of disability and other ways they’re gaming the system to include avoiding deployments and exercises. Déjà vu of my time at GM/UAW.

A few weeks ago an E6 lied to me about his participation in an upcoming exercise. I asked his chain of command (E7-E8-O5) to address. All three made excuses for him and themselves. This is not a one-off occurrence. Last week I went to a few aviation unit drills. The units were doing next to nothing. Their training calendars are not genuine. Excuses were rampant. It appeared no one was in charge - leaders were absent.

A very junior captain was recently hired (AGR - 01Feb) and temporarily assigned to our unit. This was a workaround to the current hiring freeze as our unit is congressionally mandated to be manned. She cannot perform the job as she is untrained and pregnant. She also has one year old twins at home. She is 20 years my junior and her only experiences are tracking NG COVID operations. Leaders at the top directed this action. All new-hires have to be counseled. I usually perform this task and did for her. Her biggest concern was advancement. She’s already looking for promotion. Though she is pleasant and respectful, she has no idea of what is expected of a military officer. I noted the same characteristics of numerous field-grade officers in my last military education course.

Masquerading as Soldiers and leaders will produce promotions, awards, and excellent photographs, but will result in catastrophic failure at the worse time. Our current civilian and military leaders are on record boasting how strong the Iraqi and Afghani militaries were…
[/I]

Some wording redacted ref. unit and location.

[mrvette]

X 10,000........nuff said.....

X 50 million........nuff said......

[ratflinger]

Well, the next war will weed out some of these losers. Probably some of us too!

[Dan47]

Crazy, crazy times but not surprising in the least. Very easy, especially with 20/20 hindsight, to see the incremental changes made over the last century that have brought our Nation to this point in time. Our Military is a Federal Government agency and our federal government is wholly ****ed up.

“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you. . . you may know that your society is doomed.” -Rand

[ZipZap]

Originally Posted by Norm

Close relative is about to pull the plug, has had enough. After almost 30 years of Army service, he said he's got to go, will retire at end of this year.
0-4 Blackhawk pilot, he's not happy where the service is heading.

After a sit down with his superiors discussing advancement and where he would fit in in the future.....relayed his feelings to me, and I can understand. In part..........

Though the meeting went well, I’ve decided to retire when eligible. The odds of the cards falling in my (and the Army’s) favor is low. Even if I could get the desired assignments, they would be plagued with bureaucracy.

I’ve spoken to enough senior (and expected senior) leaders and determined the future of our organization should not include me. The values and principles which kept our Army (and NG) strong are eroding at an alarming rate.

We have hiring freezes and numerous openings at the same time. Turn-over rates are at record levels. Few can perform their jobs to standard. No one is accountable. Budgets are not followed. The minority trying to improve their organization are dismissed. The few I would trust to build a staff have left or are leaving.

The effort required to get people to do their jobs is not reasonable - this includes superiors, adjacent agencies, and civilians. People openly brag about their percentage of disability and other ways they’re gaming the system to include avoiding deployments and exercises. Déjà vu of my time at GM/UAW.

A few weeks ago an E6 lied to me about his participation in an upcoming exercise. I asked his chain of command (E7-E8-O5) to address. All three made excuses for him and themselves. This is not a one-off occurrence. Last week I went to a few aviation unit drills. The units were doing next to nothing. Their training calendars are not genuine. Excuses were rampant. It appeared no one was in charge - leaders were absent.

A very junior captain was recently hired (AGR - 01Feb) and temporarily assigned to our unit. This was a workaround to the current hiring freeze as our unit is congressionally mandated to be manned. She cannot perform the job as she is untrained and pregnant. She also has one year old twins at home. She is 20 years my junior and her only experiences are tracking NG COVID operations. Leaders at the top directed this action. All new-hires have to be counseled. I usually perform this task and did for her. Her biggest concern was advancement. She’s already looking for promotion. Though she is pleasant and respectful, she has no idea of what is expected of a military officer. I noted the same characteristics of numerous field-grade officers in my last military education course.

Masquerading as Soldiers and leaders will produce promotions, awards, and excellent photographs, but will result in catastrophic failure at the worse time. Our current civilian and military leaders are on record boasting how strong the Iraqi and Afghani militaries were…
[/I]

Some wording redacted ref. unit and location.

After serving, and then supporting the AF for almost 40 years, I'll offer the following:

I was lucky enough to serve with the forerunner of a "specialized" AF organization. At that time, as a junior officer, they gave me a boatload of responsibility. If you screwed up, you could expect a major chewing out from your chain. However, they allowed you to learn from your mistakes to come back and be a better officer and leader.

Fast forward to the latter part of my career supporting the AF and you basically had O-6's that had zero mistakes on their record. If not, they would not be O-6's, as absolutely clean records were the goal. Problem was that when the SHTF, they had no idea how to handle it as nobody had taught them those lessons in the past.

So this experience does not surprise me at all when I bounce it off of my own career. The senior NCO's have also gone down this path and seem to be afraid of "counseling" their troops because it might reflect poorly on their own abilities due to them not stopping any issues before they even happen.

As long as perfection is the goal, from E-1 to O-10, and nothing less is tolerated, folks will continue to ensure that mistakes and shortcomings are not addressed.

[Aerovette]

A woke military is a dangerous military.

For US !

[69camfrk]

Having retired in 2016, I concur with everything he said. I still work for the Air Force as a civilian, and bet I get 5 emails a week about diversity, equity, and inclusion. The woke military stifled the voices that gave a shit (me included), and has stuffed the ranks with people that make little to no contribution. I see the same thing on the civilian side also. They only hold accountable those they want to. Believe me, I have stories. That said, I will retire completely in 34 months if the world doesn't blow up in our faces by then. Someone else can deal with this shit show.

[Grey Ghost]

I have wondered the thoughts of modern service people.

How can you take orders from the lunatics running our country today. Even a Gen. that gives China a HJ because he didn't like Trump.

China is just waiting to pounce someday. Politicians have destroyed what made us strong. They have promoted division for decades just to get votes. They will walk in and take over one day without firing a bullet. Maybe not in our lifetime. But, one day in the future without a doubt.

[ZipZap]

Originally Posted by Grey Ghost

I have wondered the thoughts of modern service people.

How can you take orders from the lunatics running our country today. Even a Gen. that gives China a HJ because he didn't like Trump.

China is just waiting to pounce someday. Politicians have destroyed what made us strong. They have promoted division for decades just to get votes. They will walk in and take over one day without firing a bullet. Maybe not in our lifetime. But, one day in the future without a doubt.

It's not even politics any more. Independent of who was in charge, their whole purpose seemed to be covering their own ass. Get to a clean 20 years and stamp your passport. March in the hometown parade and act like a hero. Get your 10% at Home Depot and a little stiffy when they thank you for your service.

For all those that served and busted ass, including being in harms' way, I apologize. I just really got jaded in my later career with the character not displayed by some of these people.

[NCC-1701]

Originally Posted by Grey Ghost

I have wondered the thoughts of modern service people.

How can you take orders from the lunatics running our country today. Even a Gen. that gives China a HJ because he didn't like Trump.

China is just waiting to pounce someday. Politicians have destroyed what made us strong. They have promoted division for decades just to get votes. They will walk in and take over one day without firing a bullet. Maybe not in our lifetime. But, one day in the future without a doubt.

He should be court martialed and brought up on treason charges lose his pension and spend the rest of his treasonous ass in levinworth.

[VITE1]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

It's not even politics any more. Independent of who was in charge, their whole purpose seemed to be covering their own ass. Get to a clean 20 years and stamp your passport. March in the hometown parade and act like a hero. Get your 10% at Home Depot and a little stiffy when they thank you for your service.

For all those that served and busted ass, including being in harms' way, I apologize. I just really got jaded in my later career with the character not displayed by some of these people.

When listening to my Father and godfather( Both retired 2 war Marines) during and after Vietnam they lamented the fact that the military was being run by MBA assholes who were more concerned about covering their ass than being good leaders.

It's been going downhill a long time and , unless we demand meritoricsy to rule in the military, it will continue.

[Dan47]

We have evolved into a banana republic. Our military is simply a reflection of such.

We cannot demand changes to supply while a small minority have a monopoly on demand (the money / currency supply).

[DJ_Critterus]

the upper echelons of the military have all been about politics, but when the Obidiot came into office and gutted all the leadership who wouldn't simply be yes-men, we lost a lot of experience, competence, and gained nothing of value to replace them.

My brother is still in the AF. I have freinds who are still active duty. They all say there is more and more emphasis on race, gender, not offending people, etc... than training to do their damn jobs, but there's hell to pay when the job isn't done right.

I, for one, am glad I was medical retired in 2011. It was bad back then, but worse now.