Thought I might also post this excerpt from David Hackworth's email newsletter. He often requests individual service members to spout off about the abuses they see everyday in the military that result in our being less war-ready.
Here is one those letters:
********************
Sir, good morning from Montgomery, Alabama as I stumble through the USAFs Air
Command and Staff College (aka Air Command and Golf) - three months of work
crammed into a year to appease the local chamber of commerce. I have
been a USAF fighter pilot for 14 years with the last 8 years overseas in the
Pacific and Europe.
As every military member under the current administration, I
have performed my fair share of goofy political military operations: Boring
holes in the airspace over Iraq to keep our foot in the door in defense of
lower gas prices (we used to call it Provide Comfort until we realized how
cynical it was to advertise protection for the same people the Turks were
bombing - not much comfort there). Boring holes over Bosnia to appease the
world that we were serious about ethnic cleansing (we called that one Deny
Flight - the pilots thought it was because the Serbs were doing all the
flying and we were doing all the denying).
In 1995, we finally grew a pair and started bombing in Bosnia - I was in
F15E's and we were fragged with some targets that although insignificant to
the effort - were too hard for the Navy to hit therefore we were performing a
USAF political airshow while
risking the lives of aircrews to look good to congress.
While we were
wearing out planes, parts and pilots in these contingency operations, those
pilots wishing to log the sorties as combat time were allowed to -
resulting in an Air medal every 20 times the landing gear successfully
retracted.
Most did, but some of us only logged a combat sortie when we employed ordnance
or performed a threat reaction to Iraqi fire. The result was that the true
swordswingers ended up with fewer merit badges but retained their dignity
while the careerists (who were scared shitless anyway) rode these fake
accomplishments to stardom.
These practices drove the best and the brightest to United Airlines, and
after 11 years in the USAF I came close to the same. I then stole a page
from your book and cashed in all my blue chips by turning down school, aide
jobs, joint jobs, etc. and volunteered for a real career killer - an exchange
job in Australia flying F/A-18's for the RAAF at their Fighter Weapons School
- best move I could have made to
regain my sanity.
The RAAF has avoided the political correctness wave, the female social combat
experiment, and has retained a culture that emphasizes war fighting over
politics - how refreshing. It was interesting to watch the convicts from
down under absolutely pummel visiting US fighter squadrons with their Ivy
league commanders, their low morale, poor proficiency from contigency ops and
low retention.
I chuckle at the USAFs bloated self press of "the most respected air and
space force in the world" - funny, with all these billion dollar sattelites,
platinum toys and ray guns, these bumpkins from down under treat us the same
way the North Vietnamese Air Force treated us 35 years ago - they are kicking
our platinum ass with 20mm gunshots from 2000' back like the Red Baron.
I wrote all this in my last station report which I am sure was lost at PACAF
somewhere. But nevertheless, after 2.5 years in the tropics, I had purged
all the vinegar for political hate from my veins. The Aussies were very
appreciative of my efforts to their fighter force and pressed the highest
levels of the USAF to reinstate my slot at staff college - here I am.
After arriving at ACSC, I began hearing what a cluster the whole Kosovo air
war had been from my buddies from Europe with targets being selected at 1600
Penn Ave, D.C., only after approval from the French only to be missed by
incompetent aircrews due to all the cuts in training and all the contingency
flying. Anyway, none of this could upset my newly found "no worries"
attitude and I just chalked it up the crazy
political times.
Then some of my close fighter brethren relayed to me the medal frenzy - it
went something like this: If you supported the operation from Missouri,
England or Aviano and you're a LtCol - you get a Bronze Star.
If you saw a Surface to Air missile in flight - you apply for a DFC. If
you threat reacted - you're a shoe-in. Each wing gets a Silver Star to
distribute - What, a fucking lottery for a Silver Star? My buds told me it
became fighter wing versus fighter wing versus bomber wing to see which
wing commander could win the most Kosovo Olympic Gold. You either jumped on
the team bandwagon or you were considered against it.
It further inbred worse since it was primarily an Air Force show - therefore
our LtCols with their Bronze Stars could outperform the other services when
competing for those
hallowed joint jobs - You Gotta Be Shitting Me! The service with the motto
"Integrity in all we do" is mortaging its dignity to promote its manufactured
self image.
Sorry this litany is so long - I'd love to see an article comparing all the
sorties of WWII - pilot KIA in WWII - to the DFC ratio of WWII and then
compared to the Kosovo debacle.
As a closing note, there is an Army Ranger in my ACSC class who lost his
kneecap and another chunk of his leg in Somalia - I don't know what
decorations he received along with his Purple Heart from that event, but I am
embarrassed to look him in the eye as we pass in the hallway thinking of the
medal charade we paraded out of our
last demonstration of impotence and the real sacrifice he and his brothers
made on the ground.
Thanks for your ears - you should send me a therapy bill for just having an
address for me to type to. As dedicated as a whitehouse intern. |
