June 18, 2014
Dear Gen. Welsh,
I won’t patronize you by starting this out with a “Dear Boss, I quit,” although I still believe the 2009 letter was right on the money and I was heartened by your response to it. Mainly, you’re not my boss; I was out of the Air Force about a year before you took over, but you are my spouse’s boss, so in a way your decisions/opinions/inputs constantly influence family dynamics.
Also, I already did “quit”. You see, I left the Air Force because while I trusted my immediate commanders, I felt that Big Blue had allowed the mission to take the place of personnel in its priority list. I totally get the whole “service before self” thing and that we’re at a nation in a perpetual state of war these days, but let’s face it: The Year of the Air Force Family and the whole Month of the Air Force Child is really kind of a farce, isn’t it? The Air Force can pay lip service to that all it wants, but at the end of the day with ops tempos that border on insanity and constant pressure on commanders to be RAP complete, military families are suffering under the weight of it all.
I left the Air Force because with two flyers in the family, no matter how much I wanted to be the best at everything, something had to give, and one of us had to make the adult decision to be there for our child. I could be the best flyer in my career field, be CGO of the year, finish my grad school, be SOS complete and bust a 90 on my PT test OR I could be there for my child’s first steps. Quite frankly, as much as I loved my career and my squadron, it wasn’t much of a choice.
I know it’s been a few years since you were a CGO in an operational line squadron, so please allow me to give you the unfiltered truth on what’s going on these days. Big Blue says, “We realize you guys spent 180+ days deployed last year and a handful of TDYs, BUT we’re adapting the deployment cycle, so now you’re headed back out the door for another 180 day. ALSO, we’re going to use money we don’t have for an exercise we don’t need that will be completely ineffective and have no training value whatsoever because we’re not bringing in outside observers, which means there can be no real grade. So you’ll need to work a federal holiday AND the next two weekends AND expect 12+hour shifts, even if you’re sitting in your office doing some ‘mentoring’. Oh, and also, because your commander might need this to make O6.”
I want to believe this isn’t systemic through the Air Force, that the commanders charged with the morale and welfare of their airmen (and, by extension, their families) would never so callously disregard this for the sake of an OPR bullet, but, alas, I fear that this is so. Especially now that even you have deemed the information in AFI 1-2 necessary to be consolidated into document form, not passed down through mentoring and the examples of “good” commanders any longer. Those of us who appreciate good commanders are especially concerned regarding the curious case of Lt. Col. Craig Perry and his wife, Caroline, going on down at Lackland, and wonder just who can be trusted in command if this is the way a man who was—by all appearances—a great commander will be treated.
The FY2014 RIF has been a black eye on the Air Force—airmen have watched as AFPC repeatedly moved goalposts and changed standards, and some are stuck out in the desert on deployments as dates of separation creep closer and closer. You and I both know that there are many things military families can accomplish. Most spouses wouldn’t even blink at helping their service member write resumes, or find housing, or even pack up the house to move—but please advise them, sir, how do they go to job interviews for their transitioning active-duty spouses? I realize you have stated your intent regarding VSP/TERA and transitioning service members multiple times, but there appears to be a breakdown in communication between what you want and what is happening in the field, especially with field commanders insisting that separating members are too necessary to the mission to return home with enough time to transition successfully.
Now, perhaps this sounds like whining to you. Our nation is (nominally) at war, after all, and the Air Force has a mission to execute while it sees its budget get cut more and more. I would agree with that with one caveat: shouldn’t we give those separating the best chance possible, while working to retain the best personnel possible, instead of those personnel who are capable of simply succeeding at a version of Air Force Survivor and telling the right people what they want to hear? Yet in order to support the mission, we expect those remaining to shoulder ever increasing burdens instead of simply saying, “No. No, we can’t support this with the current manning shortfalls we have.” I shudder to think of what would have happened had we tasked our Air Force to intervene in Syria given the bureaucratic nightmares and hindrances on training going on right now.
Sir, I truly believe that there is a command climate so entrenched in the Air Force that a modern day Robin Olds would have quit as a junior captain rather than deal with it. I’m not saying every O5 or O6 is culpable; indeed, I worked for some stellar ones and there are a couple that if they called tomorrow and said they needed me, I’d cheerfully contribute however I could. However, for the most part, they also aren’t the ones promoting. The ones promoting are the ones who find a way to fulfill the mission at any cost to their subordinates so it reflects well on them. This is proving detrimental to military families of every branch, but especially the Air Force.
Is it any wonder we’re losing good operators? Their families are tired of the constant turmoil, of the constant need to check this box and that box, and of the constant nonsense required for their airman to look good to their commander when they really just want their spouses and parents home. How do you explain to a three-year old that their parent won’t be home this weekend because of an exercise or TDY when you know good and well that there’s no real point to it? That for another year, there will be an empty spot at the table for a birthday? It’s getting harder and harder to keep drinking the blue Kool-Aid, much less to pass it down to the next generation.
A native Texan currently living it up in Utah, Michelle served five years in the Air Force as an Air Battle Manager, attaining the rank of captain. These days, she's pursuing a MA Public Policy at Liberty University, learning the ropes as a military spouse, chasing two little ones around, staying caught up on the news, and trying not to meddle in her husband's career. She's a firm believer in states' rights, the Second Amendment and individual
http://clashdaily.com/2014/06/dear-general-time-rethink-things-airforce/#03836IZQOLw7M6Zf.99
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