Today's Air Force
 

What's y'alls opinion on what is going on in today's Air Force.
Sex scandal, after sex scandal.
On base drug raids that stumbles upon a cheating ring.
Firing of 18k enlist, and 4k officers. Which include a 50% reduction of security forces. "Cops".

Any current enlist/officers here?

They've all changed.
Damn kids. They'd have never survived the Army I was in. We had Korea/Vietnam era equipment, and had to do lots of chicken-sh#% duty.
They whine too much, and it's tolerated by their leadership. After all, they're kids too...
Carter

I agree. I spent four years in Europe as a TAC maintenance officer in the Air Force during the heart of the Cold War, in the Reagan years. Trying to keep Vietnam era F4-E's and F4-C's in the air was no easy task. Once a week we had to spend 24 hours in a gas mask and charcoal suit building drop tanks and practicing decon.

My friend's son is in the AF now. He's in an overstaffed NDI shop and spends most of his day playing video games and ping pong. ..and they can take "stress leave"???

In my honest opinion it will continue to degrade as long as they continually lower the standards and discipline in the boot camps. Rest assured though it is not coincidence, it is by design.

This......it's amazing how much they're pansying **** up for these jerkoffs. ...i couldn't believe the difference in BCT between when I went in and when I ETSd

The AF have always been candy asses......undisciplined candy asses.
Figures, only one in a hundred (or so) has to lay his nuts on the block. That doesn't rub off on most of em'.

That said, when my son was thinking of going in the service, I told him to get on the gravy train & go AF......he did.

No S#!T. We got up at 4:30 to do PT, then ran a couple miles in combat boots. Now, they get up at 5:00, do 20 minutes of stretching, a few jumping jacks, and run a mile...All in track shoes. Track shoes?

I'm sure the Army and marines are a little tougher, but the Air Force is like six weeks in summer camp.

I was on an aircraft carrier stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin during Nam. We used to have AF weenie pilots attempt to land/takeoff the carrier deck when we were off line. What a joke, they got waved off so frequently, that the deck officer sent them back to DaNang. I was told by a grunt friend of mine who was in country that they preferred Navy or Marine jet fighters drop ordanance on the NVA as AF pilots dropped ordanance on americans instead of NVA troops..Navy and Marine pilots back then, had solid brass balls. Would fly/land on the deck in any kind of weather, night ops, blinding wind and rain. In my 3 years on the carrier, never saw a Navy pilot miss the tail hook or go off the angle deck into the sea. AF pilots on the other hand....

meh, they will all soon be replaced by an iForce. (batteries included)

That's actually kinda funny you mention that, I know af pilots that are wanting all of the manuals and maps on ipads, instead of carrying hard copies in plane.

With all due respect (and plenty is due) to the Navy pilots who land on carriers....I can't imagine any Air Force pilot would be capable of doing that without months of training- the same way the Navy pilots learned. Not to mention I wasn't aware AF aircraft had arresting hooks.

One uncle of mine flew AF fighters throughout the 50s and 60s- was one of the first to go supersonic in an F100. The other uncle was a bombardier in the 8th Air Force 30 plus missions. There are plenty of balls and ability in every line of the service.

I managed a squadron of AF F5's and F4's at Alconbury RAF, UK. They all had hooks.

I do agree that the AF pilots are not short on balls. Give them a couple months on carrier landing simulators and they'd be just as good.

This. A former boss of mine was an ex-F18 driver. They do some pretty intensive training to qualify for a live carrier landing. It's a choreographed dance of dozens of multimillion dollar airplanes traveling at hundreds of miles per hour, carrying live ordnance, sometimes low on fuel, and occurring 24/7/365 regardless of weather. Oh yeah, and with complete radio silence. Not something that you just pick up overnight. Despite being a combat pilot and a test pilot with 20+ years experience, he stated that a night carrier landing was the most challenging and terrifying thing that he ever did.

Regardless of the scandal of the hour, we have some damn fine men and women in every line of service. Many of them suffering through some hellish conditions as we speak. I've worked with some incredible professionals in our armed forces, and am incredibly grateful for their service.

JP, I might be a candy ass...but I did manage to be a candy ass all over the globe for 20 yrs. You might be better off to insult someone other than service members. And as far as undisciplined, you are way off base with that as well.

I love the Air Force, always have, always will. They are a tad different than my old tribe, the Navy, but they bring a big bat to the fight, and wield it well.

Every service has a personality: The AF has a job which they do well, but it isn't THE job, except for Predators. The other services also fly and provide all the other, essential services at the point of the fight: The Army and Navy provide boots and boats and air power, the essential elements of warfare, at the point.

But in a big fight, please give me some AF.

RE: Sex scandals... put a bunch of hormone raging 18 year olds boys and girls together on their first time away from home and a bunch of them are having sex... who would thunk it?

I've been in Naval Aviation for 24 years and couting. Although I am aware that some AF aircraft have arresting hooks, I don't know if (I actually doubt) they are rated for carrier landings. Not unlike Aircraft Carriers, Military Airfields are equipped with Field Arrestment gear which would require a tail hook (such as on an AF F-16) to be used during certain emergency situations. Field arrestment systems and carrier arresment systems operate on the same principle, however, a carrier landing is accomplished in a much shorter distance - hence, putting alot more stress on the airframe; an airframe designed to land on a carrier. So I guess my point is that just because an AF aircraft has a tailhook, doesn't necessarily mean it is meant to be landing on an aircraft carrier.

One of my former co-workers was a Army grunt in Nam. He said he loved the Air Force guys that flew Puff the Magic Dragon more than his own mother. He never talked much about his service over there but he did mention that.

The F5 was not rated for carrier landings, not sure on the F4 since it was originally a Navy plane anyway.

I am sure a lot of the troops are professional but you will always hear about the bad ones when it comes to reporting.

I imagine the hog drivers are a slightly different breed aside from the OV-10 or Birddog pilots.