Quote:
Originally Posted by HOLLiS
TS, Great story. I guess is points to a common said bias about the AF command, that unless it flys very fast, very high and cost a lot, they are not interested.
It was a good thing you were there to help them.
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Ok so I feel like I should speak up for your little blue "sister" service, I say that tounge and cheek because I'm often the first one to call the Air Force gay in many of it’s practices.
Hollis is correct, if it's not sexy and can't fly at 30k+ feet, real fast the AF brass for the most part don't care, partially because they are very slow to adapt to new situations, but mainly because 99% of our "leaders" wear pajamas with a full length zipper and if it doesn't have something to do with flying they don't care. They know stick back world gets smaller, stick forward, world gets bigger, and for the most part that’s about it. I’ve personally heard a fighter jock O-6 type seriously consider attacking a bus full of civilians with one guy armed with a 9mm, during a hostage exercise on a CONUS base. On the job we say “you can’t make this shit up!”
I will say another contributing factor is the brass are still trying to figure out that there is no real rear battle area, which historically is what we were responsible for, now the front edge of the battle area may very well be the perimeter of the base my guys must defend, hell that's why my beloved Air Force are saluting in Iraq right now, sexy and tactical right!
The other thing I've got to say is 85% of the AF will never need, nor could use a weapon if they had too, basically they're sheep, I'm not talking about my TACP, CCT, PJ, and of course my Defender brethren, just the rank and file, your Mission support troops, Med Group folks, and others etc . Now knowing they won't and couldn't use a weapon even if they had too, the AF policy (and I'm not defending it) is that there are different arming classes, the lowest of which don't fire that often. I'm not going to go into the specifics on the net but my troops get much more trigger time, still not as much as they should but enough to keep them competent.
Lastly all Security Forces Squadrons have converted to M-4s, with the M68 optic, and all the goodies, and we know how to use them, not nearly as well as a quiet professional I will be the first one to admit, but much better than any of the other AF types and I would bet better than most non combat Army troops.
Just my .02