Once again the Duffel Blog meets real life because this article almost seems like satire:
Lt. Col. Paul Goossen, shown at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, in December 2017, has been relieved as commander of the 69th Bomb Squadron at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Patrick Evenson)
A commander of a B-52 Stratofortress squadron at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, was recently relieved from duty after sexually explicit and phallic drawings were discovered inside the bomber’s cockpit screens during a recent deployment, Military.com has learned.
A command-directed investigation anticipated to be released by Air Force Global Strike Command in coming weeks will show that Lt. Col. Paul Goossen was removed from command of the 69th Bomb Squadron Nov. 27 because penis drawings were discovered on a moving map software displayed on the nuclear-capable B-52’s Combat Network Communication Technology (CONECT), according to a source familiar with the incident. [Military.com]
You can read more at the link, but if people are offended by this, they would be terrified by the things I have seen in porta-potties while deployed.
I bet they all thought this was a great idea at the time:
A screenshot from a video of an Air National Guard master sergeant using a dinosaur hand puppet while reciting the oath of re-enlistment.
A Tennessee Air National Guard colonel has been demoted and forced to retire for leading a re-enlistment ceremony during which a senior noncommissioned officer recited her oath using a dinosaur hand puppet.
Maj. Gen. Terry Haston, the Tennessee Air Guard’s adjutant general, announced the demotion on Facebook Wednesday in the wake of an online firestorm sparked by a video of the ceremony.
Haston said the NCO — who took the oath Friday while the head of a Tyrannosaurus rex on her right hand mouthed her words — has been removed from her full-time position with the Tennessee Joint Public Affairs Office and that other administrative actions were being taken. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but this was some pretty harsh punishment for the Colonel involved in this to be demoted and forced to retire.
Master Sgt. Zachary Parish emailed cadets that morning about a perceived decline in some cadets’ grooming, and reminding both male and female cadets about the rules governing their hair.
The first sergeant concluded his email by reminding them about former NBA superstar Michael Jordan’s habit of appearing at press conferences in a suit and tie, even without a dress code requiring it.
“He was never seen with a gaudy chain around his neck, his pants below his waistline, or with a backwards baseball hat on during public appearances,” Parish said. [Air Force Times]
There is apparently concern that the email was racist. However, if you read the whole email in context in my opinion it is not racist:
The email is fine until he gets to the final point portion about Michael Jordan. Clearly in this section of the email he is trying to make the point that Michael Jordan understood how a professional appearance increased his own creditability and thus his personal brand. He wants cadets to think the same way. If he would have left out the gaudy chain and sagging pants line there probably would not be anything to complain about.
However, here is what the USAFA Vice Commandant for Climate and Culture had to say in response:
Col. Julian Stephens, vice commandant of cadets for culture and climate, sent another email that afternoon apologizing for Parish’s email.
“These comments were very disrespectful, derogatory and unprofessional and in no way reflective of [cadet wing leadership] views,” Stephens wrote. “Microaggressions such as these are often blindspots/unintentional biases that are not often recognized, and if they are recognized they are not always addressed.”
First of all I can’t believe the USAFA has an O6 position for Climate and Culture? Isn’t climate and culture something commanders are supposed to set?
Anyway in my opinion this email is more troubling than the original email. The whole “microaggressions” line seems to me to paint the First Sergeant as being unknowingly racist in effort to appease the Daily Kos / Huffington Post social justice warrior crowd.
It seems to me that Colonel Stephens could have said that First Sergeant Parish’s email referencing grooming standards could have been worded differently and he has been counseled on proper email etiquette. However, the First Sergeant’s point about improving grooming standards in the Air Force Academy is still valid. Writing a response like this would have saved the creditability of the First Sergeant and reinforced his message. Instead he is made out to be unknowing racist and thus a pariah.
With that all said why does an email about grooming standards even need to be sent out? Isn’t there enough leaders at the USAFA to light up cadets not following the grooming standards? Do leaders now not want to hurt cadets’ feelings by telling them to get a haircut and instead send out emails to enforce standards?
It looks like if you are a Captain in the US Air Force and have not had any legal issues you will be promoted to Major regardless of performance:
Most Air Force captains can count on automatic promotion to major after Dec. 1, the service has announced.
“Beginning December 2017, the pool of line officers considered for promotion to major will have a 100 percent promotion opportunity,” said a statement issued last month.
The move addresses a shortage of 1,555 pilots and manning shortages in other jobs usually filled by majors that have ballooned in recent years as officers opt for commercial aviation jobs, Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson said earlier this year.
Just under one in 10 Air Force jobs for field-grade line officers, whose main job involves commanding troops, are vacant while about one in four nonrated field-grade officer jobs are unfilled, the statement said. [Stars & Stripes]
It sounds like this chaplain needs to find another line of work even if the IG finds he did nothing against regulations:
Air Force Reserve Chaplain Capt. Sonny Hernandez.
After initially denying an investigation, the Air Force said Friday that its inspector general’s office is reviewing complaints against reserve chaplain Capt. Sonny Hernandez, who proclaimed that Christian servicemembers are wrong to support the rights of other faiths to practice their religion, actions that he said will lead them to hell.
“I can confirm that the Air Force is reviewing IG complaints made against Chaplain Hernandez that were referred to the Air Force Inspector General’s office,” Air Force spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder said Friday. “At this time it would be inappropriate to comment on the nature of those complaints or speculate on potential outcomes.” [Stars & Stripes]
This is a pretty interesting read by an Air Force Academy alumnus who recently saw the changes the academy has gone through to train officers for today’s Air Force:
None of this was happening. They were walking at rest, not greeting anyone. Actually, they were ignoring the upperclassmen walking by. I stopped one of them and asked him, “Cadet, are you recognized yet?”
“No, we are not,” was his response. He kept walking. There was no “sir” in his response. He obviously knew I was an alumnus and former military officer. The problem was that he simply didn’t care. He didn’t care because he had been taught not to care. Military bearing was absent. Completely gone. Removed.
And then, the shock continued.
As the time started to get close to the Noon Meal Formation, where the cadets form up and march into Mitchell Hall for lunch, I again realized nothing was happening. Cadets were nonchalantly walking to the huge cafeteria where they are served all at once during the school week for lunch. I subsequently found out the formation had been cancelled due to high winds. I laughed to myself. There wasn’t even a breeze. Wow, things really have changed.
Inside the noon meal, all former military decorum and training at the lunch table had been vaporized. There was nothing. The freshman cadets didn’t even have the civilian decency to serve their alumni guests first, not to mention any military bearing. They just took the food and ignored everyone else at the table.
It gets worse: after lunch, my colleagues walked into the academic building. Before my eyes, where there used to be formal lecture halls, was a Dunkin’ Donuts. My jaw hit the floor and I actually took a picture– I was that amazed. This was no longer a military academy; it was UCLA in uniforms. [Ops Lens]
Here is the most profound thing he realized from his visit to the US Air Force Academy:
Not once did I hear the word warrior. In a flash, I got it. The academy was no longer training cadets to be Air Force warriors. They were no longer training to fight for our country and win wars. They were being trained to function in the bureaucracy. The academy was all about competing with civilian institutions in a variety of ways.
You can read much more at the link, but I am curious if anyone agrees with this former cadet’s assessment of the current state of the US Air Force Academy.
I would hope there was more to this story because if his leadership actually thought not wearing a helmet on a hoverboard was worthy of an investigation then something is really wrong in today’s Air Force ROTC:
Chris Delzell (right) was commissioned Friday. (Photo by John Carroll)
A Baylor graduate whose Air Force career was in jeopardy after he was seen riding a hoverboard without a helmet received his commission as a second lieutenant after all on Friday.
Chris Delzell, 23, of China Spring, passed a physical fitness test on Friday and then was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
“I hope to help the Air Force get ready for the war that we’re fighting and the next war or any threat down the line to our country’s freedom,” he said.
The commissioning ceremony almost didn’t happen.
Delzell graduated in May from Baylor University with a degree in computer engineering,
The four-and-a-half year Air Force ROTC student says he was expecting to report on June 30 to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to “start building weapons for our country to fight the enemy.”
But a week before finals last month an AFROTC captain spotted him riding his hoverboard to and from school without a helmet and wrote him up.
The report says Delzell used “poor judgment” and that while riding the hoverboard in the department’s offices, he damaged Baylor property.
Delzell says he nicked a wall, leaving a one-inch gash that he immediately offered to pay to repair.
Delzell said that was informed of the investigation, he was stunned. [KWTX]
You can read the rest at the link, but the Army would never have conducted an investigation like this. That is unless he wasn’t wearing his reflective belt then all bets are off. 😉
That is what the popular Air Force blog JQ Public believes:
Last year, commanders at Osan Air Base in Korea decided to install high-definition, 24/7 surveillance cameras in the common areas of dormitories housing some 3,000 airmen. The rationale stated at the time was, generically, the safety of those airmen. Not litigated at the time was whether the cost of the new capability would be offset by the marginal gain in safety, but such debates are rarely entertained in such an authoritarian system. Ideas are presumed valid, good, and lawful the instant they gain command sponsorship.
Fast forward a year and the system has predictably loosed from its “safety” moorings and morphed into a tool for the control and criminalization of the base’s junior airmen. Over the past few weeks, we’ve received several reports that commanders are not using video footage merely to aid in criminal investigations after a report of wrongdoing, but are proactively reviewing all footage to scan for unreported wrongdoing.
For many, the new policy feels like pre-emptive criminalization — demonstrating that the chain of command is not genuinely concerned about safety or well-being so much as it cares about nailing airmen for innocuous or minor transgressions that would normally fall well below the threshold of official notice. [JQ Public Blog]
You can read much more at the link and it is an interesting debate. However, overall I like the cameras in regards to being a tool that can be used to collect evidence if a crime in the dorms was to occur. However, I don’t think the cameras should be used as a substitute for leadership presence in the dorms. Instead reviewing hours of video tape leaders should instead be walking in the dorms and communicating with their troops instead.
Alicia Watkins who has more than received her 15 minutes of fame over the past few years claiming to be a wounded warrior from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. However, she has now been officially outed as having lied about her background. The Air Force Times was able to get a copy of her DD-214 that shows she was not a recipient of the Purple Heart and never deployed to Iraq:
Official military records contradict several claims made by an Air Force veteran whose story of surviving the 9/11 terror attacks and battling severe combat injuries gained her access to prestigious events and captivated celebrities, most recently Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump.
Alicia Watkins, who retired from the Air Force in 2008 for undisclosed medical reasons, has since appeared on multiple mainstream news and TV programs, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the TLC reality series “Say Yes to the Dress,” to discuss her struggles after sustaining a career-ending back injury from an improvised explosive attack in Afghanistan. However, there is nothing in the list of awards and decorations contained in Watkins’ military personnel file indicating she was ever involved in an enemy attack. A spokesman for the Air Force Personnel Center in San Antonio, Texas, Mike Dickerson, provided Air Force Times with Watkins’ decorations, awards and deployments, as noted on her DD-214 discharge form. [Air Force Times]
I recommend reading the entire article at the link, but the Air Force Times piece has still left some questions unanswered. For example she was assigned to the Pentagon during the timeframe of the 9/11 attack. However, was she there the day the attack happened like she claims? The fact she was not awarded a Purple Heart directly contradicts the claim she has made that she was injured during the attack. This also proves she was not wounded by an IED in Afghanistan as well. The other part of her narrative that has yet to be resolved is if she really knew the Army soldier who died during the 9/11 attack that she supposedly started a charity for.
Then her personnel records show she was only awarded 8 awards, but she has been seen wearing 19 awards to include the Purple Heart. Then there is the fact that she was not awarded an Afghanistan Campaign Medal. The Air Force Times says she deployed to Afghanistan, but if she did not receive the campaign medal that means she was not in theater long enough to receive it. Personnel receive the medal after 30 consecutive days in theater or 60 non-consecutive. So she may not have even been in Afghanistan longer than 30 days. I am also amazed that after nearly 10 years in the Air Force she did not receive an Air Force Achievement Medal. This really makes me wonder about her performance if as an E-5 she did not receive at least an achievement medal.
Anyway this should close the book on her, but I am sure she will defend herself by saying the Air Force screwed up her records like many other people caught inflating their service tend to do. It will be interesting to see if any legal action is pursued because she has profited from her wartime injury claims which is against the law.
