I am again watching a cable show decrying the virtues of the F-104 Starfighter. But wait a minute… Weren’t it’s records for top speed, time-to-speed. and time-to-altitude, eclipsed first by the F-106 Delta Dart, and then the F-4 Phantom?
First, lets get the formalities out of the way:
This is a chain interviewing game for blogs. Here are its rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.” The first five commenters will be the participants.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions.
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)
Here are Stryker’s Questions and my answers:
Were you a “4 and Out” guy who stayed in or have you always planned to make a career of it?
I was very much a “4 and out” guy. No one was more suprised than me that the AF and I got along so well.What was your best assignment (or shop) and why?
Three years as part of the Commander’s 24-hour Watch at USPACOM. It was a feast or famine job. Either there was nothing going on and we watched a lot of TV and built boring briefs or we were slammin’ and jammin’ for our 12 hour shift while trying to build informative briefs. Extremely tiring, sometimes extremely stressfull, but very rewarding. Also…Oahu is a great place to have downtime.What’s the best single piece of advice you would give an Airman?
Take care of your family. That includes the people you work with, that work for you, that you work for. Take care of each other. Be aware of each other. Become a positive part of the lives of the people you interact with everyday. The root word of Sergeant means “to serve.” Be of service to those around you and you won’t go home at night wondering what the hell you’re doing. It’s not easy and I haven’t always done a great job of it, but when I keep that in mind, I have better days. There is no shame and certainly a great deal of satisfaction in being of service to those around you.What is the single worst thing to happen in the AF during your career?
That’s hard. At the risk of mugging it up for the audience I’d have to say that we’re still recovering from Gen McPeak and I don’t know if we’ll ever get out of that tailspin. There’s an entire generation of folks that believe that their goal is to get enough training and experience to become a contractor.What major talent do you possess that has nothing to do with the AF?
I’m a competent character actor.
I just posted a story about my week’s flying – funny I hope! at my personal blog here
Enjoy!
Joe Comer
Because as she was adjusting my crutches and showing me how to use them for post-surgery tomorrow, she said something like this:
You want to make sure you have about a 30 degree bend in your elbow so your triceps take all the weight and my…you do have some triceps don’t you?
Why yes…yes I do.
She’s a wonderful human being…a fine young American…and she knows how to make an anxious older guy feel damn good. That’s natural talent dammit and it deserves respect.
when there was a rent-a-cop at the gate of my base checking ID Cards.
I don’t like it one bit.
I know there was talk about this, but who thought it was actually a good idea?
Everyone I’ve talked to, including contractors, thinks that this is just going too damn far.
Discuss.
Got this one from a friend of mine, thought I’d share.
For those of you stationed in or above the snow belt, nothing is much stranger than “SnowCall.” We’re the military right? We’re the ones defending our country? Yet, sometimes 6 inches of blowing snow can shut down a base to all but “essential” personnel. Why? Because somewhere at sometime in the past, some uniformed person from Florida tried to drive to work in the snow with their ultra-light but 4 wheel drive pickup and took out a civilian family and thus…all of us are not allowed to drive in “X” amount of snow any longer.
That’s part of the equation.
Once upon a time delayed reporting meant, “You have three extra hours to come in to work but don’t push it okay? Take the time you need but get here.” These days, mostly because we don’t have guys in uniforms behind the wheels in the plows any longer. We have civilians. Who may or may not show up when they’re told to work. Who can tell you, “No thanks, I don’t want no stinking overtime.” Who can suddenly say, “Hey, the city needs extra drivers and they’re paying BIG money because they shorted their contract.” and they can bail on us. These days delayed reporting for snow means, “Don’t even think of trying to get here before the 3+ hour mark because neither the streets nor the parking lots will be cleared yet.” Once upon a time “Don’t come in.” meant that Odin himself had taken a special interest in our part of the world and dumped FEET of snow on us. Now it’s an indication that our “civilian partners” couldn’t handle 3-5 inches of new snow over about 30 acres in any less than 18 hours.
Yes folks, privatization is saving us lots and lots of money and making the military more efficient. You betcha.
But hey, Boyo doesn’t have school today either and I get to roll around in the snow with him so…who am I to complain?
Exertional Compartment Syndrome is what I’ve got. Been thinking about it and decided that if I’m going to do the First Sergeant thing, I should be running with my folks and not wimpin’ out on the sidelines doing the bike. Yes the bike is harder than it was…but no, I still don’t feel like it’s a real test.
So…sometime in the next month or two I’ll have my lower legs cut open from the knee to the ankle, but not very deep, just skin, fat, and then the facia slit on the tibialis anterior muscle of both legs and then the legs will be closed up again. I’ll be home the same day. Takes anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks before I can start really working them again…I’ll be able to walk the same day although not far.
I’m very happy my Doctor did what he did. He made me run on a treadmill until my legs hurt like hell and then sat me down and felt up and down the shin and around and said…”Nah, don’t have to stick a needle in that…it’s pretty obvious that thing’s gonna blow at any minute.” Funny guy.
I wasn’t going to post this…I was going to save it and wait for it to break via the Air Force Times or some other medium and then giggle about how “I knew that.” The problem is…the story isn’t breaking. It’s the end of the year. Supposedly everyone has either passed their PT test or they’re in classes to get their scores where they need to be. That’s what should have happened. That’s the way the system works. You either passed, or you’re working on passing. That’s the deal. Having my leg give me fits and having to work on trying to run and then realizing that I can’t run and it not being my fault and watching all the folks I was in class with bust their asses to get their run times down or get their bike test where it needs to be was a great experience. I’m proud of my score. I earned it. I’m proud of the folks I was in class with. So for the folks who haven’t passed and who aren’t in class trying to pass, I have little to no sympathy. There was a gal in my PT Class who was in a freaking CAM Walker (removable walking cast). I really don’t want to hear any sob stories, ‘k?
The new Air Force PT Test consists of three parts:
Aerobics: which consists of either the 1.5 mile run or the new, harder, bike test. That’s worth up to 50 points right there. That’s the big kahuna. You don’t score in the upper 30s there…you aren’t passing.
Body Composition (Your Waist Size): Worth up to 30 points. If your waist is over 40″, you’re going to class to learn how to cut some of that goo off of you. No, Stryker, they don’t recommend liposuction.
Muscle Fitness:
Pushups. Worth up to 10 points.
Situps. Worth up to 10 points.For a possible total of 100 points.
A score of 90 or above is considered “Excellent.” You-da-man. If you score here, you don’t have to be tested again for two years. You’re in shape…we get it.
Now, you need a score of 75 or greater to be considered “Good.” Good means that you test again in another year.
If you score 70 to 74.9, that’s considered “Marginal.” You should have to take a class that encourages a healthier lifestyle and will test again in 6 months.
Under 70 is poor. You not only have to spend some time in a classroom to encourage you to get thy shit together, you’re being handed over to “them.” You know who I’m talking about, they were the gym teachers when we were back in school. I’m sure they’re called something like “Physical Lifestyle Enhancement Facilitators” or something equally as smarmy, but I just call them (shudder) “Trainers.” My Trainers were young, in very good shape, and just plain mean. I owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
So where exactly is the system broke? You take the test, you get your score, you know right away whether or not you’re participating in “mandatory fun” at the gym for the next couple months or not. How could the system be broke?
As most of you know…in this day and age…no event in the military really takes place until you enter the results into a computer. And depending on the size of an Air Force Unit, the folks who are giving the test, may not be the folks who are putting the data into that computer. The folks doing data entry may have up to 10 different folks feeding them score sheets.
Take another look at the block up above and notice where I say that each area is “worth” up to “X” amount of points. Say a 43 year old guy runs the mile and a half in 12:10. That’s worth 40.5 points. It’s entered into the computer as 12:10…the computer does it’s thing…it computes 12:10 for a 43 year old male as being worth 40.5 points. How would a 43 year old guy score the full 50 points? He’d run the mile and a half in 10:24 or better.
You know what you score if you walk off the track or fail to complete the mile and a half? You score a zero. Or, I should say, it’s “worth” zero. However, that’s not what the computer is looking for…the computer isn’t looking for you to feed it the score…it’s looking for the time. And because the folks who built the database weren’t thinking everything through and because no one was double checking the results the computer was coming up with as they put in score sheet after score sheet…as far as the computer is concerned, 0:0 is just another time under 10:24 that’s worth 50 points.
How do I know this? Because when I went to have my real passing score of 75 put into the computer in my Orderly Room, they had to remove the score of 89 that was in there from back when I failed my PT Test in October.
So…if you’re Air Force and you KNOW you didn’t do as well on the PT Test as you should have and you’re still waiting for your unit to contact you, perhaps…just maybe…you might want to log onto the Air Force Portal and take a look at your score.
‘Cuz I KNOW my unit is working on fixing this thing but what I don’t know is what they’re going to do to the folks who have been sliding since they failed. See, our PT Managers told each and every person who failed to contact them or the Orderly Room if they hadn’t heard back from them in 10 Duty Days. I don’t know what your folks told you but I’m thinkin’, “Hey, they never contacted me after I failed.” isn’t going to fly…especially if you’re still a tub of goo who can’t wobble around the track in the right amount of time or ride the bike with a decent heart rate.
AFI 10-248 is the prescribing directive for the Air Force Fitness Program.
Any of yous guys ever had something called, “Exercise Induced Compressed Compartment Syndrome?” I’m looking for folks who have had it and had the surgery to correct it. I’m going to have to make a decision next month on whether or not to let the Air Force cut my leg open. The other option is a semi-permanent waiver from running, which, with my knees, sounds very attractive. I save a surgery and my knees.
To the makers of those wonderful gel paks that you put in the freezer and then put on painful spots on your body…you have my undying gratitude.
Phil Carter has the Army’s new professional reading list up at his site, so I thought I’d share the CSAF’s professional reading list here. Unlike the Army’s list, the Air Force list isn’t divided between ranks, with different books recommended for different ranks. Instead, the list is broken into categories. Everyone is encouraged to read the listed books.
Category I
History of the Air Force from its beginning through its major transformations as an Institution.
Frank M. Andrews: Marshall’s Airman – DeWitt S. Copp and the Air Force History and Museums Program
Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the United States Air Force, 1947-1997 – Walter J. Boyne
The Transformation of American Air Power – Benjamin S. Lambeth
Winged Victory: The Army Air Forces in World War II – Geoffrey Perret
Category II
Insight into ongoing conflicts and the frictions that can produce conflicts in the future.
The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror – Bernard Lewis
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order – Samuel P. Huntington
Age of Sacred Terror – Steven Simon and Dan Benjamin
Of Paradise and Power – Robert Kagan
Category III
Organization, leadership and success stories holding lessons for the present and future.
The Five Pillars of TQM (Guidelines for Organizational Greatness) – Bill Creech
An Army at Dawn – Rick Atkinson
American Generalship: Character is Everything: The Art of Command – Edgar F. Puryear
Category IV
Lessons emerging from recent conflicts – and the preparation for them.
Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime – Eliot Cohen
Prodigal Soldiers – James Kitfield