Here is the paper for week 3 of the leadership discussion group.  This is one of my personal favorites, and I will be adding more works by Boyd as we go along.  Also, if anyone has any suggestions, I will take requests, and line them up accordingly.  I haven't seen a lot of discussion so far, but I have seen a lot of views on the postings. 

http://www.goalsys.com/books/docume...EATION.pdf

Entropy, or the ability to do work, is a very tough pill for an organization to follow since bureaucracies typically resist change.

Haha, fair point. But I am sure we need not get into in depth discussions about the fundamentals of thermodynamics Apologies for the delay on my responses for the last two articles, overloading this semester is killing me. I will try and get something together later today.

"Destruction and Creation" is a fantastic article that shows us how we make decisions to destroy and create concepts in a dynamic environment. The world is a dynamic place, and so is any organization that you will ever work in. Smaller organizations typically adapt much better than bureaucracies and global corporations, but there are ways to not be so reactive. Boyd says that the goal of most people is to "improve their capacity for independent action", which is not usually allowable in the USAF. In my opinion the only organization within the USAF which I can see this working is in AFSOC, where the mission is incredibly dynamic, and the doctrine is being written each day. Harrison (2007) says "We need to espouse our views of airpower, to include capabilities to operate in the air, space and cyberspace domains, in this type of fight," General Peck said. "We've proven airpower can effectively support other agencies combating counterinsurgency, but can also operate in a supported component role. It doesn't always have to be about having lots of 'boots on the ground." This is an example of newer tactics that will develop into doctrine in the long run.  As Boyd says in his presentation "airpower brings asymmetrical advantages to the fight that can be effectively leverage by joint force commanders in counterinsurgencies, support for insurgencies, and other forms of irregular warfare." So often, we get caught up in the mundane queep that fills our lives, and we often lose sight of the mission. In my limited experience, this mentality has taken the fun out of flying for quite a few members of the Armed Services as well.

The other portions of the article that I would like to discuss are entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, and this weeks assigned reading. Boyd states "confusion and disorder are also related to the notion of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics." Entropy represents the "ability to do work" in an organization, and there are two different types. There is high entropy "implies a low potential for doing work", and low entropy which "implies a high potential for doing work." There is an inverse relationship between these two concepts, and I often wonder if technology is the culprit. Often, I sit in my office surrounded by a cell phone, email, and myriad other things that tend to get in the way of actually accomplishing work. In my flight commander's offices, the central part of the room contains a high-definition television that is on all day at a very high volume. This environment has very high entropy "hence an increase in confusion and disorder." Mass confusion and chaos reign in my office, and it is quite common for no real work to get accomplished.

Boyd gives us a solution to these problems when he says "first, shatter the rigid conceptual pattern, or patterns, firmly established in our mind[s]." This is not an easy thing to do, and is often dangerous. This "shattering" is the destruction that Boyd talks about throughout the length of the article. Boyd then states "Next, we must find some common qualities, attributes, or operations to link isolated facts, perceptions, ideas, impressions, interactions, observations, etc. together as possible concepts to represent the real world. Finally, we must repeat this unstructuring and restructuring until we develop a concept that begins to match up with reality." Some would say this concept of creation is impossible for a large organization to comprehend and employ, but I disagree. It all depends on the leadership at the time, and how reactive they tend to be. Unfortunately, in my experience, the USAF has quite the problem with this, and the organization often remains stagnant. This structuring and unstructuring will continue to happen whether we like it or not, and it is imperative that we adapt. If we do not restructure, we will continue to mandate outdated practices that will negatively affect our organization.

In my experience, any organization that has strict adherence to certain plans, checklists, or courses of action cause their people and resources to delve into chaos. I am not saying that we should not follow our tech-data at all times, but that certain functions in a unit should be evaluated, and we can see what they actually do. Think of it in terms of an automobile. Since the day it is made and turned on; it is trying to destroy itself from within. Without restructuring things (i.e. transmission work, oil changes, new tires) the car will eventually break down for good (death). I could use many examples here, but the principle remains the same.

I have read "Destruction and Creation" about twenty different times, and I find something new every time I pick it up. I find it fascinating what an organization is capable of when it can be dynamic. The US military has experienced this dynamic nature at different times; WWII and Desert Storm stick out in my mind, because of how dynamic the war plans were. The War Department was purged during WWII by General Marshall, and Boyd's ideas were used in 1991. Both wars were over with relative efficiency, and they had an end goal in mind. I don't see this being the case for the current war we are in or back in Vietnam, but that is another discussion altogether.

Sources:

Boyd, J.R. (1976). Destruction and Creation. Found 7 October 2008 from http://www.chetrichards.com/modern_...htm. 

Harrison, C. (2007). Doctrine Center 'jump starts' irregular warfare doctrine.  Retrieved from http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?st...=123043045

The first time I read "Destruction and Creation" was about a year ago, and I thought many of the same things that you did. I do think it is almost impossible to integrate certain concepts within each other to come out with a different, unintended product. I like your example of a charcoal grill and a computer monitor, because it takes two common elements that we use, and they still have nothing on common in the end. A great example of "Destruction and Creation" in the USAF is when James Burton tried to come up with a design for the "blitzfighter", an aircraft that we had all of the parts for, and would have minimal cost compared to other weapon systems. It would basically be a smaller A-10, that would provide CAS to armor and infantry units.

Burton (1993) says "Everything about my proposal [for the blitzfighter], including how the plane would be used, was diametrically opposed to the prevailing philosophy relating to the new wonder weapons of the Air Force [prophetically speaking of the F-22, F-35, and similar programs). I wanted an airplane in the 5,000 to 10,000-pound class (one-tenth the weight of the Enhanced Tactical Fighter), one smaller than any combat airplane in the inventory (one-fourth the size of the A-10), and one that costs less than $2 million. At this price, we could flood the battlefield with swarms of airplanes [prophetic of the number of predators that we could be getting, in my opinion].

One might ask how this is an example of destruction/creation, and I will show you. As I stated earlier, Burton took parts from different aircraft that we already had. His goal was to come up with a cheaper airplane that could potentially provide a great CAS vehicle for the future. I find it interesting that we are bringing back propeller aircraft like the AT-6, OV-10, U-28, and other NSA systems. Bringing these back would be an example of the "destruction" of old ideas, and "creating" new ones.

Source:

Burton, J.G. (1993). The Pentagon Wars: Reformers Challenge the Old Guard. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD.

Posted By Bobblehead on 29 May 2009 03:01 PM
The ultimate irony of Boyd's legacy is that its' inheritors understood it so poorly.

Even moreso, the out-of-context OODA loop taught in the doctrine misses the point. Destruction & Creation is the intellectual groundwork (with Christie's help) for everything from Specific Excess Energy to the loop.

The whole point of it is that war changes... which of course makes sense. Both sides play to win, so presumably theyre trying to counter each others' moves. Therefore, you only get one Desert Storm. We happened to be lucky and follow it up with two stupid adversaries who actually sat there and let us run ATOs on them, but planning for this is quite dangerous (as Gen Schwartz points out in his last two speeches.)

I was recently involved in a debate about the validity of the ATO and its 72 hour planning cycle.  I mentioned how in UAS and other communities it is routine to take off with a handful of possible CONOPs and then flex to multiple missions which may or may not be in the CONOPs.  Due to the technology it allows for up to the minute flexing and superior SA.  Although I'm no expert on the OODA loop I remember in Coram's book how Boyd talked about always wanting to go faster, faster, faster to confuse the enemy and get inside his loop.  And yet some defend the 72 hour planning process in an attempt, it seems to me, to slow down warfare to make up for the limitations of their pointy nosed aircraft.

Every time people talk about ODS like it's such a success I have to shake my head.  Conventional and weak enemy...invading another country....in a desert?  We couldn't have asked for an easier war.  And yet it gets so much air time like it was proof of the Air Force's power...and really it was just pure luck as you say.  It fostered this arrogance which has set us back light years now that we have a real war that requires JOINT effort.  But the recalcitrant FM threatens to tear apart the application of joint power as it does not play well with others.  The FM keeps chanting about how the Air Force is "strategic" and can win wars all on its own....blah blah blah.  We have some serious cultural issues that need to be changed.  Unfortunately, the backfill you speak of is lacking and not many people are experienced enough to see the big picture.

Posted By Rynizzle on 29 May 2009 04:00 PM

I was recently involved in a debate about the validity of the ATO and its 72 hour planning cycle.  I mentioned how in UAS and other communities it is routine to take off with a handful of possible CONOPs and then flex to multiple missions which may or may not be in the CONOPs.  Due to the technology it allows for up to the minute flexing and superior SA.  Although I'm no expert on the OODA loop I remember in Coram's book how Boyd talked about always wanting to go faster, faster, faster to confuse the enemy and get inside his loop.  And yet some defend the 72 hour planning process in an attempt, it seems to me, to slow down warfare to make up for the limitations of their pointy nosed aircraft.

Just as an aside/counter, this is the same thing the pointy nosed fighters do, too.  When we take off, often we're fragged against a specific JTAR or killbox, but the mission could be armed recce, ISR, CAS, DT, or any number of possibilities -- all of which we flex to when tasked.

In my experience in both the "Shock and Awe" part of OIF and OEF, the ATO has very little to do with what is actually executed in flight.  During Shock and Awe, I probably only went to my ATO-assigned killbox and performed my ATO-assigned mission 50% or less of the time.  This is because between the CAOC, CRC, and the ASOC, they real-time managed airborne assets as the battle unfolded.  This was especially true when the Army and Marines were making their dash for Baghdad, and the ATO had sorties fragged for areas well behind the FSCL where there wasn't a need today...but there was one yesterday, because that was near/beyond the FSCL at that time.

So, I don't agree with your last statement at all.

Posted By Bobblehead on 29 May 2009 03:01 PM
The whole point of it is that war changes... which of course makes sense. Both sides play to win, so presumably theyre trying to counter each others' moves. Therefore, you only get one Desert Storm. We happened to be lucky and follow it up with two stupid adversaries who actually sat there and let us run ATOs on them, but planning for this is quite dangerous (as Gen Schwartz points out in his last two speeches.) All OODA loop is about is change management. The F-22 program has defied change from the beginning, and as such is emblematic of the community of its origin. This is the moral of the story: when you dig your heels in, you're betting against entropy. Generally speaking, this isn't a smart bet, especially in the long run.

I really like the points that you make here.  The OODA loop is not really taught that well in SOS, and I think a lot of people miss the point of its purpose.  It is an adaptable thought process that allows you to turn your adversary inside out.  Good examples of this would be in an aerial dog fight, or in a spectator sport.  In either event, pilots and teams are constantly adapting to each other's moves. In ODS, we broke out of our tradional mindset of "Attrition Warfare", and used maneuver warfare instead.  The enemy was not expecting this, and we waxed them where they stood (literally). 

I agree with your assessment of of the F-22, and it seems to be a political engine rather than a military one.  The fact that the aircraft is built in 48 states is not by accident, and many will argue that we need this fifth generation fighter now.  It is gold-plated to the extreme, and I bet John Boyd is turning over in his grave as we speak. 

Posted By beast05 on 31 May 2009 12:17 AM
I think he would be as well, but when he investigated the procurement process, his head would explode.

Very valid point...in the same way that most of the founders of the USAF would be disgusted with Big Blue as it exists today in so many of its facets.

I often like to imagine Curt LeMay being brought back from the dead and inserted right back in as a 4-Star somewhere in the command structure.

I'm sure you guys have seen this little ditty before...

Last night I had a dream. It was the flying dream; we've all had that one, and it's generally a pleasant subconscious experience. This time, however, a P-40 with shark's teeth painted over the engine cowling snuck up on me from behind and shot me down. I crashed clumsily into a Quonset hut, and patiently waited for consciousness to return. When I awoke, I saw the Ghosts of Air Forces Past towering above me. General of the Air Force "Hap" Arnold looked at me curiously, a highball glass in his hand and a cigar clenched between his molars. America's leading ace of all time, Richard Bong, and his Marine counterpart Pappy Boyington were laughing their asses off. WWI's greatest air hero Eddie Rickenbacker smirked and shook his head in a bemused, drunken sort of way. Former chief of staff and strategic bombing wizard Curtis LeMay was passed out at the bar. There were others, too, others that I hadn't expected: the famed British inflictor of Death from Above, "Bomber" Harris; German super-ace Adolf Galland; Japan's aviator supreme Saburo Sakai; the scourge of the Luftwaffe and People's Hero, Soviet ace extraordinaire Ivan Kozedub; the "Red Baron" Manfred von Ricthofen; and Vietnam's Colonel Tomb, who took down 13 American aircraft from his own "primitive" MiG-17. In through the door ran Claire Chennault, commander of the legendary Flying Tigers, who stopped to look at the destroyed roof of his officers' club, then at me, and screamed "Shit! You mean he's still alive? Christ on a plate, fellahs, get this guy a drink!" They threw a gallon of hooch down my throat, slapping me on the back with each swallow and stuffing stogies in my mouth, each trying to outshout the other about his latest aerial exploit, which in Chennault's case was me.

Finally, he turned to me and said, "I never got to meet any of my kills before; I guess that's why we call them 'kills.' So how did you survive that, especially without a parachute, or a plane for that matter? And why are you naked?"

"Well," I said, "it's my dream, so if I die in it, I die in real life. Which would suck. And, uh, I was hoping no one would notice that I forgot my put on my clothes before I came to school..."

"Yeah, I've had that dream too," Hap Arnold mused. His fellow aviators began laughing wildly, called him a goddammed faggot, and beat the shit out of him. Then they saluted him, for he was their superior. Then they called me a goddammed faggot, beat the shit out of me-but in a comradely way, which made me proud-and poured another quart of aviation fuel down my throat.
"So what's your story?" someone asked in a semi-lucid laugh.

"I'm not sure," I said. "One minute, I'm in the Air Force, then..."

"A PILOT?" they all shouted as one.

"Well, no..."

"THEN YOU AIN'T SHIT," they all shouted as one. Again, I was subjected to a barrage of backslaps, friendly insults, and firewater.

"This is the old Air Force," Richard Bong said at last, waving his unsteady hand around the room. "Even those who weren't in our Air Force. But same-same, anyway. Pilots all. Warriors! Real warriors, or so we thought when we were alive. But you, ahhhhh...if you're not a pilot, then you must be one of those missiliers, right? Megadeath by remote control at your fingertips? The lives of millions at the mercy of your whim!?

"Uh...hmm...uh, no..."

"Ah!" 'Hap' Arnold shouted, snapping his mighty calloused fingers. "He's enlisted, a crew chief. A god, if he's good. Sure, he can tell us the most intimate details of those fantastic machines of DEATH they're flying today!"

"Ummm... not exactly..." I stammered.

"Airborne commando!" Saburo Sakai shouted excitedly. "Avenging angel of death on silken wings!"
"A loadmaster!"
"Bombardier!"
"Navigator!"
"Flight engineer!"

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" I shouted. "It's not like that anymore. Planes are expensive now, you know? We can't afford as many as we used to. It takes more people to keep them flying, more people to...you know..."

The gods of aviation history fell mute for a moment, staring into their glasses. It was Pappy Boyington, commander of the legendary Black Sheep, who broke the silence. "F*cking p*ssy," he said.

"Desk jockey!" Chennault shouted.
"Paper-pusher!"
"Ground-pounder!"
"Political officer!" That was the Russian Kozedub, and everyone looked at him like he was an idiot.

"Wait a minute," I managed. "Now, I don't much care for this desk-pusher, or ground-paper-jockey talk. Why, I'll have you know that cut my teeth in a combat operation...yeah, that's right! A combat operation! All the visiting VIPs said so!"

The assembled ghosts leaned forward with interest now, eager to hear tell of a new martial adventure. "Tell us, tell us!" they entreated.

"OK," I said. "Well, there's this place in Europe, in Yugoslavia..."

"A pushover!" General der Jagdflierger Galland insisted. "We took it in two weeks!"

"And spent four years wishing you hadn't," Hap Arnold snickered.

"Shut up! Yugoslavia is...how you say...a pie-walk! Easy as cake! Not like fighting zee English, or Americans, or...wait! Perhaps is zee Russians are trying to take it from you, and you stood up to fight zem off!" Everyone cheered at this, pouring their glasses on Kozedub and lighting him on fire.

"Well...actually," I said, rather hesitantly, "there was sort of a civil war going on..."

"Like Spain, then!" Galland again. "Great powers testing new weapons and tactics on foreign ground before coming head to head in a magnificent confrontation!"

"Well...no, ah...it was more a matter of, sort of, actually, stopping the war," I replied.

"You mean winning the war," General Arnold ordered.

"Um…no, not really…just stopping it," I admitted sheepishly.

"There's only two ways to stop a war, son," LeMay spoke up. "You win it, or you lose it. No, wait, there's three ways: you could nuke each other to oblivion. Yeah, that would be cool..."

"Well, look guys," I slurred, feeling somewhat exhilarated by my own exploits and two gallons of homemade Everclear. "It was a noble cause, first of all, and second of all, it was no pushover! Why, it was hard work, and the largest air campaign in NATO's history!" That got their attention; several of the late aviators had served in NATO after the war.

"So there were Bolsheviks to repulse!" Galland shouted. They lit Kozedub on fire again.

"Not really," I replied. "The Russians had troops on the ground there, but they were sorta on our side." But still nobody extinguished the Russian fighter ace.

"Then you bombed your enemies to oblivion, whoever they were!" LeMay cried out with glee. "Laid everything to waste! YES!"

"Actually, no," I countered. "There were only a few carefully selected targets. We were mostly interested in crippling their command and control..."

"Strafed the leaders' homes!" shouted Major Bong. "Kill them in their beds! Love it, love it!"

"Not exactly," stammered I. "We took out some radars and bunkers...maybe a few tanks…we think..."

"So long as it did the trick," General Arnold boomed, "what's good enough is good enough." I looked at the floor, embarassed. "It... did do the trick, right?" Arnold demanded. "RIGHT?" he demanded again, this time an inch away from my face.

"Well...we think so...sir..."

"THINK SO!??" the five-star general bellowed, knocking me against the dirt floor. "Didn't you even wait for their unconditional surrender before you stopped bombing? Didn't you...oh, no," he said, burying his face into his hands. "I knew it. I knew this was coming. It was only a matter of time, I said, but did they listen to me? No, no, ol' Hap's holding on too tight, they said, he can't let go..." In despair he pounded another half-gallon of hooch, passed out on the bar, and started choking on his own vomit-not that anyone was worried about it, since he was already dead. Instead, the other aviators simply stared at me with that "you-bastard-look-what-you've-done" expression on their faces.

"Hey, it's not my fault," I said. "He drinks way too much. He should get help."

"I think he drinks well enough on his own," the Red Baron, Ricthofen, replied.

"No, I mean help for his condition. After all, alcoholism is a disease, and..."

"What was that?" Chennault demanded.

"What? I said, it's a disease, and..."

"No no, the big word that had something to do with booze."

"Oh, 'alcoholism'? You see, it's..."

"Al-co-hol-ism," Claire Chennault mused, letting each syllable roll off his tongue with obvious relish. "Gentlemen, I've heard of communism, Catholicism, socialism, capitalism, fascism, Judaism...at last, I think I've found an ideology I can be comfortable with."

"HEAR, HEAR," the other aviators responded, lifting their glasses with him.

"Wait a minute!" I shouted as they took advantage of this latest excuse for a toast. "Alcoholism isn't an ideology! It's a disease, and a killer! But, with proper treatment..."

"A DISEASE?" they shouted angrily.

"Well...yeah..."

"Oh, I see," 'Bomber' Harris began. "Bit by a mosquito then, was he?"

"Maybe some wino sneezed on him," LeMay chuckled.

"Perhaps he let a turkey defrost too long...tell me, O Combat Warrior, how does one contract this marvelous disease?"

"Hey, I'm not a doctor, all I know is that...well, it's obvious you have no grasp of the modern military. Your ways have been discarded and discredited. Everyone knows your kind of thinking is detrimental to the well-being of a modern fighting force."

"Our 'detrimental' ways knocked the Japs and Krauts from the top o' the world!" a recently-awakened Hap Arnold exclaimed proudly. "We 'detrimented' their collective asses back to the dirt age! And had a whole mess o' fun doing it, too. No offense, guys."

"None taken," Adolf Galland and Saburo Sakai replied before knocking him unconscious again.

"Yeah, maybe," I said. "But it wasn't very people-friendly, was it?"

"Is there a nice way to drop fire on people?" LeMay asked.

"No, that's not what I mean! I mean taking care of your own people, improving their quality of life and..."

"Their what?"

"Their quality of life. And ensuring human dignity, and equal opportunity, and..."

"They want their 'warriors' to be nice to each other," Saburo Sakai laughed.

"And no name-calling, guys," Bong joined in. "You might hurt someone's feelings on your way out to slaughter the enemy."

"Equal in combat means you and your enemy both go home alive, out of ammo and on fumes," Claire Chennault spoke in a single, uninterrupted belch-most impressive. "And as for 'opportunity'...hell, if you got the opportunity, take it and shoot the other guy. But if you aren't equal, or you're not taking that opportunity, you're going down. And then...well, I guess you won't be around to get offended by whatever I call you at the club, will you?"

"What a bunch of troglodytes," I sighed. "Why, in today's Air Force, I'd report you all for violating human dignity standards."

"What?"

"Why, human dignity standards, of course!" I lectured. "Basic precepts of tolerance and…"
"There ain't nothin' dignified or tolerant about this business, son," Curtis LeMay opined. "'Tolerance' means living in peace and harmony and good manners. But 'war' means killing each other, sometimes in very nasty ways. If you're not ready for that-and I don't care what window-dressing you put on it-you're in the wrong line of work, sure as shit."

"Does this mean we can't paint tits on our planes anymore?" Richard Bong asked.

"Well...yeah, some women might find that degrading," I replied.

"What if they were nice, big, round, firm tits? I figure that'd be more like a compliment."

"Look, you're missing the point," I stammered. "I mean, how would you feel if our female fighter pilots painted penises on their planes?"

A few seconds of awkward, confused silence-or maybe it was paralysis-overcame the group, until someone finally screamed, "WHAT female fighter pilots??"

"You've got to be sh*tting me!" another shouted.
"Oh quick, somebody kill him, kill him!"
"He's the Beast, and he must be destroyed!"

"Whoa, WHOA, it wasn't my idea!" I screamed-alas, to no avail. The scent of blood wafted gently on the breeze, and the legendary aviators craved it. Lucky for me they all passed out before task fulfillment.

That thought hit me as I lay there, gasping for breath and prying six sets of unconscious hands from my throat. Clearly, these gentlemen could use some improvements in their processes. And, having no place else to go, I figured I'd endear myself to them through a little enlightenment.
LeMay awoke first, to see me jotting furiously on a cocktail napkin. "What the hell is this crap?" he asked.

"Your paradigms are flawed," I told him.

He looked at his crotch. "Ain't nothin' wrong with my pair, boy," he growled.

"No, no, your paradigms," I repeated. "The way you look at things. How you go about your...ah, your processes."

"Normally I just sit down, drop my processes in the f*ckin' bowl, and make sure I wipe at least twice. Sometimes I even flush," the newly-awakened Major Bong added. "Ooh...the bowl...good idea," he said in a sweat, and stumbled off for the bathroom to pay homage to his porcelain god.

"Either I'm still drunk or this idiot is talking some serious nonsense," a revived Rickenbacker chimed in. "What's this para-process sh*t all about?"

"OK, listen," I began. Apparently they'd forgotten about the female fighter pilot thing, which made me all the more eager to continue. "There's something else I learned during my time in the Air Force: Quality."

"What?"

"Quality."

"So, you're saying in our day we just went shitty about things on purpose?" Chennault snarled.

"No no, not at all," I insisted. "But I learned that it should be a continuous, focused process. With metrics and everything! See, you have to identify who your customer is, and what product you provide. Then you look at every step in the system, objectively measure how well you're producing that product, and implement ways to improve the process. See? Isn't that simple?"

"Who do you think you are, Ma f*ckin' Bell?" LeMay demanded.

"Hey Saburo," Pappy Boyington said, laughing. "I guess your squadron was my customer. What do you think of my product?"

"F*ck you, man," the Japanese ace retorted.

"No, really-can you think of any improvements I can apply to my processes? Customer feedback is very important, you know."

"I said shut the f*ck up, round-eye!"

"Ooooohhhh!" the Caucasians intoned in chorus.
"I'm offended by this insensitive nip's racial slur!" Boyington said to me. "What can I do?"

"Well," I suggested, "you could go to the Equal Opportunity Office and file a complaint..."

"A complaint? What the hell good will that do?" Then they turned on Saburo Sakai, beating him senseless and hooking him up to a 100 proof IV by way of apology.

"I'm telling you guys," I lectured, "that kind of alcohol abuse isn't healthy."

"Abuse? Hey, yeah, it is kinda coming back out through his mouth and nose. What a waste," Chennault observed.

"Why should we care about healthy?" Hap Arnold asked. "We're sorta dead, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Yes," I replied, "but you might have lived longer if you'd taken care of yourselves."

"Hear that, Tomb?" LeMay laughed. "You oughta take better care of yourself. Next time, check your six."

"Next time, win the war," the Vietnamese ace replied.

"Touché."

"I dunno, fellahs," Hap Arnold mused. "I myself was so looking forward to the adult diaper years. Why, if only I'd avoided anything fun, I might have lived longer."

"I could never live that way," Adolf Galland mused. "Come to think of it, I didn't live that way. I guess you don't worry about it much when you know, every time you fly, today you might end up with one more takeoff than landing."

"Some of us did," Colonel Tomb added.

"What, clean living?" Rickenbacker chortled.

"No, one more takeoff than landing. Well, clean living too. Nothing but rice and water every day. Goddamn. Gimme another drink."

"Well, say what you want about the ways of the new Air Force, but they work," I lectured the former aces, aviation pioneers, and air force generals. "All these improvements have really helped the 21st Century Air Force. We proved that in Iraqi Freedom."

"Iraqi what?" LeMay demanded, a quizzical scowl on his face.

"Iraqi Freedom. The war against…well, you know, Iraq."

"Iraq?"

"Iraq."

"And who else?"

"No one. Just Iraq."

"Iraq? " Pappy Boyington shouted. "Ahab the Arab's Iraq? Little piece-of-Third-World-shit Iraq? What was this, newcomer orientation day?"

"Look bud, that's the lynchpin of the 'Axis of Evil' you're talking about!" I insisted. "OK, so they didn't really fight back...no, wait, we didn't let them! Three thousand aircraft flying around the clock, yeah, we got 'em good!"

"I'll bet," Hap Arnold chuckled. "And you're actually proud of defeating... Iraq? That's the showpiece for your new, improved Air Force?"

"Well... yeah... Yes," I said, doing my best to sound proud. "Yes it was."

"I suppose it could be worse," LeMay spat, shaking his head. "Like, being proud of whomping on Afghanistan, or some shit like that."

And then I woke up, feeling very small.

Cute. Cute but revisionist. I understand it's artistic license but no doubt there was some element of truth attempting to be conveyed. Probably the biggest being that our current Air Force is too pussified, too limp dick, too politically correct, and yet charged with taking lives. I absolutely agree with this point. My wife's grandfather (a racist, atheist, brilliant southerner who flew B-17s in Word War II, squadron commander) had OPRs that said something along the lines of (according to family stories...I can't vouch for the accuracy), "He drinks too much and his off duty behavior is questionable." Today that kind of honesty is unheard of in a performance report. In my experience, when people have a "problem" with another person they don't go to that person directly. No. They go to the bar or some social circle jerk somewhere and they spread their stupid gossip so the person has to find out second hand if at all. It "filters" down to the person. I've seen a bunch of cowards that comport themselves this way whispering in the hallway over who gets to be the next exec or whatever they're talking about. So I agree with the article the Air Force has lost touch with the basic art of communication and the most basic courage and thick skin required.

I think it's interesting that women flying is the only discrimination brought up in that ditty. That group no doubt had a lot more.

The part I find just out and out stupid (and was probably added recently) was the part about Iraqi Freedom. Probably inserted by some fighter pilot with no combat time...part of the "this war isn't good enough for us to fight" country club crowd. I would think many if not most of the ghosts would have been professional and would have seen their call to defend this nation against ALL enemies foreign and domestic as a solemn duty. Oh, just terrorists who might now actually arm themselves with nuclear materials from North Korea...oh what worthless venture. I doubt any would have said that. So to answer the fictional Hap Arnold (very fictional - as it's really some bitch ass fighter pilot who got a B- in creative writing) "and you're actually proud of defeating Iraq" the answer would be "fuck yes I am." That's what my nation called me to do. I don't pick and choose my wars or my enemy. I adapt and defeat them all. I don't do "showpieces." It's not about show. This isn't some F-15C guy's lingerie party.

On a side note, why do so many F-16 guys fall into step with these retarded pussy F-15C cookie cutter diatribes? You'd think guys with an air to ground mission (even if they've never deployed) would at least have some independent thought. Is there an F-15C read file that all fighter pilots must sign off on every day?  I hear the same stupid arguments almost verbatim whether it be from a bitch two star C model guy to some mid-level Viper guy that has never deployed.  It's strange how the messages are almost rehearsed.  Maybe they all have subscriptions to the AFA's rag.

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.