Article

2018-04-09 Government

Leadership: American Fighter Pilots Give Up

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Posted by 3dc 2018-04-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#1 Oh, I thought by the title the John McCain tradition was back.

Posted by Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 2018-04-09 00:44|| 2018-04-09 00:44|| Front Page Top

#2 ...Every single word was truthful, and the commentary exactly what I expect from StrategyPage. Direct, to the point, and honest.

And it tore my heart out.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2018-04-09 04:33|| 2018-04-09 04:33|| Front Page Top

#3 "While the first wave of air force leaders (until the 1970s) were bomber pilots, and the next wave were fighter pilots by the 1990s the next wave consisted of technocrats and bureaucrats."
Anyone who has followed the Air Force Academy soap opera over the last quarter century knows that there was something radically wrong with the Air Force itself.

Posted by Clurong Peacock9529 2018-04-09 09:15|| 2018-04-09 09:15|| Front Page Top

#4 ....something radically wrong with the Air Force itself.

Yes, the symptom began to appear in 1947.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-04-09 10:12|| 2018-04-09 10:12|| Front Page Top

#5 Yes, the symptom began to appear in 1947.
Posted by Besoeker

What happened in 1947? Alien spacecraft crashing in New Mexico?

Posted by jpal 2018-04-09 11:14|| 2018-04-09 11:14|| Front Page Top

#6 ...Air Force separated from the Army under the National Security Act of 1947.

Posted by Procopius2k 2018-04-09 11:46|| 2018-04-09 11:46|| Front Page Top

#7 They removed the warrior ethos from the AF. High rise hotels and golf courses. They need to work to get out of the ego and into the fight.

Posted by 49 Pan 2018-04-09 11:48|| 2018-04-09 11:48|| Front Page Top

#8 They need to work to get out of the ego and into the fight.
"But the ascots? Can't we at least keep the ascots? Pretty please???"

Posted by USN, Ret. 2018-04-09 14:21|| 2018-04-09 14:21|| Front Page Top

#9 They seem to want to not want to get their hands dirty.

They don't want to fly close air support.
They don't want guns in their fighters
They want to launch missiles from a zillion miles away.

Dang, what are they good for anyway? Just a bunch of pampered techies with expensive toys and no killer instinct

Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2018-04-09 15:02|| 2018-04-09 15:02|| Front Page Top

#10 SPOD, they might as well be a Navy ship the way you describe it! HAHA

Posted by 49 Pan 2018-04-09 16:39|| 2018-04-09 16:39|| Front Page Top

#11 a Navy ship

Speaking of that, check the satellite views of the Mobile AL shipyard on the Mobile River between I10 and Government St. Pointy nose boats! Drove right past'em.

Posted by Skidmark 2018-04-09 16:56|| 2018-04-09 16:56|| Front Page Top

#12 It is a pity that the USAF has a purpose other than providing careers for REMFs isn't it? Complicates things when you actually have to fly the planes, right? Much less paperwork if they just sit there and get polished when they start looking dirty.

Posted by magpie 2018-04-09 17:16|| 2018-04-09 17:16|| Front Page Top

#13 ...And like #2) Mike, this just makes me sad.
My family were US Navy vets and my Dad worked as a civilian at OCAMA, Tinker AFB, his last project was helping to get the AWAC program into production.
So, like looking at a crumbling mansion, sad...

Posted by magpie 2018-04-09 17:24|| 2018-04-09 17:24|| Front Page Top

#14 At some point they are going to have to remove the redundancy between the branches. It made sense when money was super-available because of the cold war but now? Do we need air arms in the Army, Navy, Airforce and Marines?

Posted by ruprecht 2018-04-09 23:05|| 2018-04-09 23:05|| Front Page Top

23:05 ruprecht
23:04 ruprecht
21:11 Skidmark
20:22 Anomalous Sources
19:35 3dc
19:16 Glenmore
19:05 Omeger Gray6606
19:04 NoMoreBS
18:51 Besoeker
18:39 charger
18:33 Zhang Fei
18:31 Zhang Fei
18:19 DarthVader
18:11 JohnQC
18:08 trailing wife
18:08 Procopius2k
18:07 Procopius2k
18:05 Procopius2k
17:51 Omeger Gray6606
17:38 rjschwarz
17:24 magpie
17:21 Besoeker
17:18 M. Murcek
17:16 magpie