Gen. Petraeus p*sses off the AF

[DaveGriffin]

Unfortunately I hear what you're saying - but it's not the ROOT of the issue. The real issue is the fact that Dave Griffin is a loser, knows zero about tactics or airpower, and constantly spews faux garbage on here targeting AF fighter guys. One, the guy has never been in or around a fighter in his life and two (and more importantly), I doubt this guy has probably ever served.

As far as giving each other crap - it's all in good fun. I had the UNfortunate oppurtunity to work in a JAOC for a week (yes joint - the pretty purple color) where an army LTC was breifing us on the battle rythm (I still roll my eyes at that gay term) for some of his trucks deployed and he needed the AF to send down a decon team to decon the trucks before he could ship them back. I asked him how they were contaminated and he said it was sewage water up to the axles. I then asked him instead of spending 250 grand on sending a decon team - couldn't we just spend about $20 to wash them with soap and water (since all it was was just some poop water and after all these are mil spec trucks). He paused and said -"hmmm, good point - disregard." So much for being the intellect huh? But hey, when you need someone to storm a hill, I'll pick the army any day.

Scrapdog,

The AF fighter guys should thank their lucky stars every day that precision guidance and imaging technology came along to allow AF legacy air supremacy platforms to deliver ‘above 15,000 ft’ accurate strike capability.

My comments are directed at the senior leadership of the AF, not former AF fighter guys now ferrying grandma to Disney World or delivering pallets of Amazon.com packages. Those guys spend too much time worrying about their pilot union issues.

The AF leadership perpetuates a culture where executing effective COIN plays second fiddle to their true higher calling – an air centric model for all engagements where, due to their self proclaimed superior intellect, training and war fighting capabilities, the AF runs the whole show. This is the attitude that makes the AF an underperforming team player in the current war.

The AF’s core commitment to supporting COIN is the issue. The Generals are far more focused on protecting their budgets for what they view are more important strategic goals.They would much rather spend all their time and budget to engage the MIG 1.44 or a quadruple digit SAM site. The senior fighter guys’ hearts just aren’t in COIN.

But they are slowly getting better as they get dragged along kicking and screaming.

The SecDef didn’t fire your top two guys for nothing; it wasn’t just the multiple nuke cluster f***.

 

[Oh-ryan]

None of you guys know squat about air support. You'll never know the deep sense of pride associated with spending countless hours circling over a cold pattern, drinking metallic tasting coffee culminating with the dumping of a few gallons of urine on the ramp as soon as the ladder hits the pavement.

Nothing else compares. I think only UAV pilots can claim bigger bragging rights- though we got more per diem.

 

[DaveGriffin]

Here is an article from 19 Sep 2009 including an interesting interview with a USAF Major who believes the AF is slowly on its way to reforming it’s old fighter pilot centric culture into to a culture more focused on successfully fighting smaller, asymmetric counter-insurgencies.

http://www.offiziere.ch/?p=1930

This quote sums it up:

But more money isn’t going to fix that, Ward insisted. “More money is our problem,” he declared. “We’re over-funded.” The Air Force Ward described is one that suffers such deep cultural weaknesses that extra money would only sustain failing institutions and prolong the service’s suffering. What the Air Force needs, he said, is less money, because that would force officials to think creatively and fund only programs that deliver what’s needed, in time.

Fundamentally, the Air Force’s problems reflect a “failure of imagination,” Ward said.

Major Ward is exactly correct. With the support of a new generation of AF officers such as Maj. Ward, Sec Gates may yet succeed in turning the AF around.

 

[skyward80]

As a USAFR Gucci Driver, I always say "If you can't fight a war in style, why fight at all?!"

I love flipping my long luscious locks of hair around while I dig into a 20-lb box of food and play cards on the center console.

My hat goes off to the guys/gals on the ground. We all work very hard while deployed, but they truly carry more than their own weight. If somebody wants to make a funny about that, that's fine by me. It's just a joke. If you're in the USAF, you need to know it happens a lot more often than just in Gen P's speech.

Try working with the Navy for a while... cuz if I hear one more joke about landing on land vs a boat (wouldn't this be called "boating" or "shipping"?), I might just lose it.

Skyward80

 

[Huggyu2]

Back to the subject of Gen Patraeus: as a career USAF officer, I found his comments to be humorous and in the spirit of the comraderie I'd expect to hear from him.

 

[QOL_is_great:)]

I always loved the ribbin' each service gives the other. It's always in good fun and the guys that couldn't take were always wound so tight. Those guys you'd tell them to relax and or they'd pop a gasket.

I just now that we all had a job due to the foot soldier. With them around then none of us would have had a job. The foot soldier takes and holds ground. The same ground that we put Army and Marine bases, Naval ports, Air Force golf courses; I mean airfields. There goes that joking thing again. I dig all military golf coures too.

I raise my glass to ALL of our foot soldiers who take and hold ground so I didn't have to do it. :beer: