Tag Archives: USAF

US Air Farce Academy

No, I did not misspell Farce, that’s what the academy has turned into. They are trying to be a civilian university, and that’s not what the academies are supposed to be doing. They are supposed to be training “warriors” not college snowflakes. They are getting a free education, albeit not the education they should be getting, and it’s at our cost. This commentary is sad, very sad. If you are a USAF person, this should wrinkle your brow. The sad thing is this same thing is going on in our schools and university only much more intense. Our younger aduklts know very little about our country’s history and more importantly our traditions laid done by our forefathers.

By L. Todd Wood:

It had been a long time since I had visited my Alma mater, the U.S. Air Force Academy, so I decided to bite the bullet and travel to my 30th reunion last October. I must admit, I did so with trepidation. I have a love/hate relationship with the place. Although I received a fantastic education and met some lifelong friends, it’s a nice place to visit, if you know what I mean.

I will say that I received top-notch military training and discipline when I went through three decades ago. In fact, the discipline that was drilled into me has served me well my entire life, giving me a leg up on my competition: once I start something, I just don’t quit, no matter the odds or barriers put in front of me. I credit USAFA for helping me to develop this ability. It is a learned skill acquired from four years of handling the academics and the professional military and athletic training.

During the Vietnam War, many prisoners of war shot down over North Vietnam credited their fourth class year at the Air Force Academy with giving them the fortitude to make it through years of confinement and torture. After all, isn’t that the basic skill of a warrior, to win against all odds?

Unfortunately, these skills are no longer being taught at USAFA. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and so have my classmates.

I realized something was horribly wrong when I arrived at the bottom of the ramp to the cadet area, which used to say “Bring Me Men” above the tunnel entrance. It was an iconic quote, and we were taught at the time that “men” meant the human race, not necessarily only the male sex of such. “I’ll meet you at the bottom of the ‘Bring Me Men’ ramp” was a routine line to girlfriends, boyfriends, parents, et cetera who came to visit their cadet at the academy. I never heard any animosity against this quote during the four years of my stay at the Blue Zoo.

Imagine my shock when I saw the quote had been changed to some PC gibberish about “Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence in All We Do.” Ten words! At first, I laughed at the thought of some cadet telling his civilian girlfriend to meet him at the bottom of the “Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence in All We Do” ramp. But after a quick laugh, I felt sadness at the loss of tradition and loss of the basic masculinity of warfare being taught at the academy. It was then I knew it was gone. I also felt alarm—if they changed this, what else have they changed? This can’t be good for the training of future Air Force warriors.

My next stop, and next horror, was walking around the cadet area with my fellow classmates from the Class of ‘86 and a few others. The place looked about the same. A monument or static aircraft display was changed here or there, and there was a strange-looking obelisk sticking out of the terrazzo near Arnold Hall, but overall, the place was the same. But there was something very, very wrong.

I couldn’t place it, but then it hit me. It was October. The fourth class cadets should not have been “recognized” yet. That meant being accepted in the ranks of the upper class and the associated privileges that come with it. This entailed walking at attention, squaring corners, greeting upperclassmen, and other general military training.

None of this was happening. They were walking at rest, not greeting anyone. Actually, they were ignoring the upperclassmen walking by. I stopped one of them and asked him, “Cadet, are you recognized yet?”

“No, we are not,” was his response. He kept walking. There was no “sir” in his response. He obviously knew I was an alumnus and former military officer. The problem was that he simply didn’t care. He didn’t care because he had been taught not to care. Military bearing was absent. Completely gone. Removed.

And then, the shock continued.

As the time started to get close to the Noon Meal Formation, where the cadets form up and march into Mitchell Hall for lunch, I again realized nothing was happening. Cadets were nonchalantly walking to the huge cafeteria where they are served all at once during the school week for lunch. I subsequently found out the formation had been cancelled due to high winds. I laughed to myself.  There wasn’t even a breeze. Wow, things really have changed.

Inside the noon meal, all former military decorum and training at the lunch table had been vaporized. There was nothing. The freshman cadets didn’t even have the civilian decency to serve their alumni guests first, not to mention any military bearing. They just took the food and ignored everyone else at the table.

It gets worse: after lunch, my colleagues walked into the academic building. Before my eyes, where there used to be formal lecture halls, was a Dunkin’ Donuts. My jaw hit the floor and I actually took a picture– I was that amazed. This was no longer a military academy; it was UCLA in uniforms.

We then visited the dorm rooms. We nonchalantly walked into one cadet’s room who had the door open, which was the custom. We asked them a few questions. They didn’t get up. They didn’t greet us formally. They just sat there. These were fourth classmen. I guarantee you that in the past, if an alum had walked into a fourth class room, the residents would be at attention within seconds and the “sirs” would be flying like birds on a high wire.

Finally, before the football game and other class-specific events, we headed to Arnold Hall to listen to a briefing from the Superintendent on what was going on at the academy. Literally, one of the first things we heard was, “Things are not as tough as they used to be.”

Really? Ya think? was my immediate reaction.

We were presented with an hour-long briefing about how cadets were being trained to be able to “function” within the bureaucracy of the regular Air Force. We heard all about the statistics of the institution—how many awards it had won, where it stood in the rankings against other colleges, how well the sports teams had done, et cetera, et cetera.

Not once did I hear the word warrior. In a flash, I got it. The academy was no longer training cadets to be Air Force warriors. They were no longer training to fight for our country and win wars. They were being trained to function in the bureaucracy. The academy was all about competing with civilian institutions in a variety of ways.

We heard about the new facilities that had been built. We heard all about the new honor chamber to discuss ethics. That happened to be the strange object poking out of the terrazzo.

When the briefing was over, I raised my hand. I had to ask the question. I simply said, “The discipline here no longer exists. Not once did I hear the word ‘warrior’ in your briefing. It seems the mission has changed. Were we no longer about ‘Fly, Fight, and Win?’”

The response I got was laced with derision at my wrong-headed thinking. “We are not here to haze people. They go to the lunch meal to eat, not get trained,” said the Superintendent, who was, by the way, in the first class of females to graduate from the academy. “We have theme rooms to talk about war,” said the commandant of cadets. Yes, he really said that. “We have mock funerals to talk about war.”

Excuse me, but what right do these new leaders of the institution have to throw away decades of training that had worked so splendidly to create warriors like Medal of Honor winner Lance Sijan, who crawled through a rock-filled landscape after being shot down in Vietnam for 46 days with compound fractures throughout his broken body until his bones protruded through his skin, only to escape twice before being killed by the enemy, all the while never giving up any classified information under torture? Do you think he learned that from a theme room? No, he learned that from a full year of military training and discipline, learning attention to detail, how not to quit, how to perform under pressure, day after day after day. That’s where he learned that.

It is obvious the Air Force Academy is no longer training warriors to lead men, or women, into battle. They are no longer into the type of training that created the greatest air force ever known to man. In fact, they are more interested in a military version of safe spaces and trigger warnings, so it seems.

As far as the other academies are concerned, I can’t speak for them. However, I have seen evidence of the same with pictures of black female cadets giving the black power salute, images of female cadets on their cell phone while marching, et cetera, et cetera.

President Obama did a very good job of weakening the institutions that made our military and country great. Military academies are not made to “compete” with other civilian universities. They have a special purpose. I very much hope President-Elect Trump and his appointees can reverse this pathetic trend. Our children’s future depends on it.

Todd Wood is an OpsLens contributor, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, flew special operations helicopters supporting SEAL Team 6, Delta Force and others. After leaving the military, he pursued his other passion, finance, spending 18 years on Wall Street trading emerging market debt, and later, writing. The first of his many thrillers is “Currency.” Todd is a national security columnist for The Washington Times and has contributed to Fox Business, Newsmax TV, Moscow Times, the New York Post, the National Review, Zero Hedge, The Jerusalem Post, and others. For more information about L. Todd Wood, visitLToddWood.com.

Originally posted 2017-02-04 15:08:42.

In The Navy

If you have kids, grandkids, or friends who have some and they want their children to perhaps follow in some distant relative’s’ footsteps and join the U.S. Navy, they need to watch this. It’s a hoot!  You don’t have to watch it all since it’s about 7 minutes long as it won’t take you long to get the idea as to where the Navy’s priorities are today. Aren’t they or shouldn’t they  be defense oriented; I mean they come under the Department of “Defense” right? I don’t think so. And you can be sure the other services are going in the same direction, and yes even our once beloved Corps since our leader supported pride month Folks this is really hard to watch if you are cut from the same cloth as me. I could not stop laughing at these two idiots. I can only imagine what our potential enemies are thinking when they see where our military’s priorities are right now.

Lord, please help us.

Spaced Out!

Okay, over the years I have usually accepted some of  the BS our guys in blue say and do, but this is over the top. They want me to pay for this fellow to live in a $1,800,000.00 house because he is responsible for what — rallying the ranks and growing the morale of 8,000 airmen? The audacity of those Space folks to even put something like this in their budget tells they are already spaced out.  Send this guy to the space station in orbit so he can get the feel of what space is like and come back and tell war stories.

And what’s with this “Guardians” BS? They aren’t regular air force people? OMG

Space Force’s Top Enlisted Leader Would Get $1.8 Million Home in 2023 Budget Request

The Department of the Air Force‘s 2023 budget proposal includes a request to build a $1.8 million home at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to house the Space Force‘s top enlisted leader.

The request for a brand-new, 3,500-square-foot home for the chief master sergeant of the Space Force is tucked away in the more than $230 million requested to fix and improve privatized base housing for families.

“A home meeting or exceeding the housing standards for the referenced grade/position is not available, and it’s not a viable option to renovate an existing home in the base inventory to house the chief,” budget documents justifying the project that were filed last week, said.

Read Next: Air Force Wants Big Increase for 2023 Budget to Improve On-Base Housing for Military Families

Roger Towberman currently holds the position for which the house would be built; he assumed the office in April 2020. As the top enlisted leader for the new military branch, he is tasked with rallying the ranks, growing morale, and helping implement and shape policies among the more than 8,000 Space Force Guardians.

Towberman would be the first resident of the new home at Andrews, but there is no projected completion date for the project. For now, he lives in existing military housing at Andrews, according to Capt. Annabel G. Monroe, an Air Force spokeswoman.

“This home will be the designated home of Chief Master Sergeant of Space Force, current and future,” Monroe said in an email.

It’s common for the services’ top military leaders to have homes on military bases.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond’s home is at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., and is named “Space House,” according to Pentagon photos of the residence.

Space House, the residence of Chief of Space Operations.
Space House, the residence of Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. Raymond, is seen before a holiday event on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich)

The proposed $1.8 million residence at Andrews is just one of numerous projects mentioned in the Department of the Air Force’s $230 million construction improvement budget that is also meant to improve some of the Air Force’s more than 50,000 homes at 63 military installations run by privatized housing companies.

Military housing has come under intense scrutiny since 2018, when Reuters revealed examples of lead-based paint, widespread mold and shoddy workmanship in base homes managed by private companies.

Under the 2023 proposal, privatized military housing would be improved at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware; Scott Air Force Base, Illinois; Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Luke Air Force Base, Arizona; Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas; and Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.

While the department made no request for construction funds for brand-new housing at Air Force bases, it did ask for $68 million to build a new three-story dormitory to house 84 Guardians at Clear Space Force Station in Denali, Alaska — which the department considers “one of the most strategically important installations in the United States,” according to budget documents.

For airmen and Guardians who choose to live off base, the 2023 budget offers a 4.3% increase in the Basic Allowance for Housing, a 3.4% jump in the Basic Allowance for Subsistence designed to offset the cost of groceries, and a 4.6% pay raise in response to a wounded economy and rising inflation caused by the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

— Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

Postscript: Holy Cow! Did you happen to notice (how could you not) the number of ribbons this guy is wearing? As best as I can count he has well over 40 ribbons.  This fellow’s a hero, ya think?

The NYT

While the news of the day seems to be the 22 generals who have come out from under their rocks and spoke out against King Berger’s changes to my Corps. I’m sick of it. Yeah, I know they had to try diplomacy first and when Berger continued to march, they finally had to say something. Only three spoke out in favor of my “Open Letter to CMC Berger”; which to date has garnered >6,ooo hits and still going strong. The plea now is to write your elected criminals, as most are, and mirror their comments Hmm, I did that several months ago. Now even the liberal; Jim Webb spoke out; I was waiting for that one. It was a good, concise, on the mark article. Maybe some of his liberal friends in Congress will now pay attention since one of their own has spoke out. But I digress as that’s not what this post is about.

Once again, my friend and Marine brother hits the mark concerning this scumbag we all love to hate – Hunter Biden, and of course his beloved father. Both of whom are criminals and deserve to be in jail serving life. I fear once again that nothing, absolutely nothing will come about from the newest and greatest investigation. It’s a laugh. Our justice system is a system catered to the guilty, not you and me.

How about the latest nomination for the Supreme Court who was unable to define a woman when questioned by a Congresswoman.

I’m amazed that the infamous NYT is still publishing a newspaper. Who the hell buys it, do you? I love Greg’s comment about “All the news that fits.” LOL And how about Twitter and  Facebook? Does anyone still have accounts with those communist, socialist social medias? I do have a FB page where I only go to in order to add my posts; I’m amazed they have yet to censor me. And I sure as hell do not have a Twitter account, albeit they “think” I do as I get emails from them, which I reply to telling them where to go. In sum we are feed nothing but BS from the media, including the social media. I love Greg’s closing comment about the comparisons between Russia’s and our medias. Read and enjoy if you can.

Hunter’s Pandora’s Laptop

By: G. Maresca

The New York Times’ time-honored maxim: “All the news that is fit to print” finally conceded that Hunter Biden’s laptop’s emails are newsworthy as first reported by the New York Post in October 2020 – 16 months after the presidential election.

The conservative New York Post founded by Alexander Hamilton deserved a Pulitzer but will never see it.

The Times has relished their bloated reputation for decades while perfecting the art of falsehood and being left-wing. Some 90 years ago, their Moscow correspondent was Walter Duranty. While Stalin was executing his political opponents and starving millions of Ukrainians, Duranty’s dispatches rendered Stalin’s homeland a worker’s paradise. Duranty was double-dipping collecting from the Times and Stalin, who bribed him with money, booze, drugs, and prostitutes while being awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1932.

Sounds like Duranty was Hunter Biden’s prototype.

When it was finally revealed that Duranty had lied, the Times refused to surrender the Pulitzer.

In Laurel Leff’s 2005 book: “Buried by The Times,” during World War II “the paper of record” suppressed news of Nazi atrocities against Jews because publisher Arthur Sulzberger was a Jewish assimilationist. The paper referred to the Jews as “refugees” to assuage how the Nazis were targeting a pogrom of European Jewry.

The difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth is nearly a year and a half provided you consider the Times an arbiter of truth. The Times must believe Biden is toast giving the paper nearly three years to bolster the next Democrat nominee.

If that wasn’t enough and despite no evidence, 50 government sleuths claimed that Hunter’s laptop was part of a Russian disinformation plot published in a Times op-ed piece. What remains unanswered is do these fabulous 50 maintain their employment and security clearances? You bet your bippy nothing will happen to these scum.

All the Times offered was an unconvincing admission buried deep inside their broadsheet. The Times did not just conceal the facts about Hunter Biden’s illicit dealings and his father’s 10% kickback, they bungled, beat, and buried the story with Jimmy Hoffa.

Hunter’s emails underscored how he was profiting from his father’s connections including being a board member of a Ukrainian gas company. According to the Wall Street Journal, Biden’s former business partner admitted the laptop’s contents had Biden profiting from a Shanghai company directly tied to the Chinese communists.

The Times was living their true creed: “All the news that fits – their agenda.” Twitter jumped on the suppression train by censoring their New York Post account, while Facebook algorithmically did their leftist duty in killing the story as Hunter’s laptop conveniently met the journalistic abyss on the cusp of Election Day. Censorship and abject lying are the core tenets of the left’s strategy, as there is no substance to their socialist agenda.

Rather than investigate, the mainstream media dismissed it or claimed Hunter Biden’s debauched escapades were fake news – case closed – until now.

A post-election survey of Biden voters said 10% would not have voted for him provided they aware of the illicit dealings of his son. Imagine what the Times would publish provided one of Donald Trump’s sons had impregnated a stripper like Hunter? How many articles about Joe’s grand baby in Arkansas have you read?

The news’ profession is infiltrated with plenty of bias editors who have no issue about using deliberate omission as suppression. News and its ensuing opinion pieces are affected as much by what is omitted as by what is covered. This column is just one example. And provided it disappears for a week or two, you know the deal.

When will the IRS investigate the Biden’s dealings? Indictments would open a Pandora’s box exposing Biden as the corrupt, incompetent lifetime politico he is. Biden is compromised, while his son possesses no shame after being captured on video snorting cocaine naked with a prostitute.

The complicit media was promoting false narratives to take down a sitting president, in Donald Trump, is the biggest story.

Corrupt politicians and their mainstream media cohorts are the rust corroding our liberties. The difference between the state media in Russia and what passes for news in the U.S. is the eight-hour time difference between the two nations.

If these stories don’t grow legs, the nation’s fourth estate is failing everyone.

I just have to post the following pictures about how far our military has gone in order to “positively impact diversity, equity, and inclusion.” –  both from our combat ready Air Farce.

Oh, and don’t forget about our Corps’ endeavor to impact the goals as well.

Isn’t this a great country or what? 

We Are Screwed!

First it was gays and lesbians,, then it was the transgenders, and now the nonbinary. Had to stop and think about that one . I mean I knew , or at least I thought I knew, what binary meant, but just in case I went to old Man Webster. He says the noun binary means: ” a system of two stars that revolve around each other under their mutual gravitation.” Got that? 

Pentagon Quietly Looking into How Nonbinary Troops Could Serve Openly

The Defense Department has quietly begun looking into how it can allow troops whose gender identity is nonbinary to serve openly in the military, three advocates familiar with the situation told Military.com.

The Pentagon has asked the Institute for Defense Analyses, or IDA, which operates federally funded research centers, to study the issue, said the advocates, one of whom requested anonymity to disclose a sensitive topic.

Someone who is nonbinary identifies as neither male nor female, often using “they” and “them” as their pronouns and marking their gender as “X” on forms that have that option.

It is unclear exactly how long the research has been going on, but SPARTA, an advocacy group for transgender troops, put researchers in touch with several nonbinary service members this month.

SPARTA President Bree Fram, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, likened the effort to the study the Pentagon asked Rand Corp. to conduct in 2015 before lifting the ban on transgender people serving in the military. Bet this LtCol was fun to work for.

“Speaking with non-binary troops and defense officials to understand what regulation changes may be necessary is a great first step,” Fram said in a statement to Military.com. “We are hopeful this will allow non-binary individuals to serve authentically and realize their full potential in the military.” Why should they, do we need them? 

Jennifer Dane, executive director of LGBTQ military advocacy group Modern Military Association of America, said members of her organization have also spoken with IDA and believes initial conversations about open service by nonbinary troops began last year.

Asked for comment, IDA referred Military.com to the Pentagon, which declined to comment “at this time as we do not provide information that may or may not be part of the Department’s research efforts.”

There is no explicit ban on nonbinary service members, but there is also no official recognition of their existence or guidance about how they should adhere to gendered policies, such as what uniform to wear or where to shower.

Advocates say policies allowing transgender troops to serve openly have made it somewhat easier for nonbinary service members, but add they still face hurdles because there is no official recognition of nonbinary gender identities.

If policies are changed to allow nonbinary troops to serve openly, it would be the latest move to make the military more inclusive for LGBTQ people. Again, why? Do we need them or do they need us to forward their agenda?

It’s been just over a decade since the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the law that banned open service by gay, lesbian and bisexual troops.

In 2016, the Obama administration lifted a ban on transgender troops. Former President Donald Trump reinstated the ban in 2019, but President Joe Biden lifted it last year shortly after taking office.

Dane said she is hopeful the research on nonbinary troops will lead to policy changes, but expressed concern that “there’s going to be a lot of hurdles, more so than transgender, I think, because there’s no binary on it.”

But as more people in younger generations identify as nonbinary, including in official documentation such as passports and driver’s licenses, Dane said an open service policy will be crucial to recruitment and retention. A 2021 study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found about 1.2 million U.S. adults identify as nonbinary 76% of whom are under age 29. Don’t you just love it when they spout figures like this? How did they determine these numbers? Certainly one has to trust them, I mean look from where they came. Ha!

“To get the talent, obviously, you’ve got to kind of get with the times,” Dane said. What talent are we talking about. You mean men and women to find, close with, and destroy the enemy?

Dane also pointed to a recent Air Force decision to allow email signatures to include someone’s pronouns, including they and them, as “opening the door to further conversation” about nonbinary troops. “Aim High”

The Biden administration has taken steps to be inclusive to nonbinary people at agencies besides the Pentagon.

The State Department last year issued a passport with an “X” gender marker for the first time.

The Department of Veterans Affairs also recently announced that transgender and nonbinary veterans can identify as such in their official department medical records.

While stressing that he could not speak to the military’s current research efforts, Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, which researches issues of gender and sexuality in the military, said he believes there are three categories of policies the military might have to consider as it looks into open nonbinary service.

The first are policies that likely won’t need to change at all, such as nondiscrimination policies that already ban discrimination based on gender identity.

The second are policies that could be made gender neutral, such as some uniform standards – changes Belkin said would benefit not just nonbinary troops but also female troops.

The third category are policies the military can’t or won’t make gender neutral, such as where to shower. In those cases, Belkin said, commanders could consult with the individual nonbinary service member about which gender’s standards would be more appropriate to follow. Oh, that’s nice, As a Nonbinary I get to choose with whom I shower.

“The opponents to nonbinary service, just like they did for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and just like they did for Obama’s transgender policy, they’re going to insist that implementation is so complicated and so hard, in fact it’s so complicated that it can’t be done. That’s complete bull—-,” Belkin said. “Implementation is not complicated. Period, full stop. The military could easily pull this off tomorrow. It would not be a big deal.”

Aaron Belkin himself. Of course it would not be a big deal says Belkin. He knows this as a fact because he has experience in what military service? NONE!

 

Finally, you MUST watch this short video as it deals with the reality of the question, what is the DOD doing. Preparing the militaries for war or developing a national social club for the minority groups? Surely that will help with recruitments and retention. Watch and you decide. I believe we’re screwed.

Yes, I believe we are certainly screwed folks.