I agree... Norty seems to be a pretty smart guy. I would call him "level-headed"... if it weren't for that rebel boy-band haircut of his.

"'Everyone contributes...no one has greater value to our collective mission than another.''

That statement just begs the question "how do you then select somebody for promotion or command?" Oddly enough, in my experience, I compeletely agree with Norty's statement in light of promotion and definitely in light of command; many of those filling commander positions I've noticed have no greater value to our collective mission. A bunch of non-commbatant careerists not wanting to get involved in that whole "war thing", scandal after scandal for abusing power and resources, and high ranking officials arguing "we shouldn't go unmanned because it will take the human risk out of war." I digress but can you imagine if a GO had said "No, we don't want the AWACS and the F-15C because BVR capability takes the risk out of war and we want our boys to risk their lives...this technology is too much of an advantage." My God LeMay would be rolling in his grave! And yet we have that kind of "leadership" in the Air Force (with no combat experience mind you) making the same "argument" with respect to UAV technology.

Everyday I see another poor example of leadership in a command position and it just piles on and on... I know Norty is trying to get back to basics and I think he's dead on but unless he purges some of these "leaders" from our Air Force the machine will continue to elevate idiots and cowards through the ranks.

Figured I'd bump this thread and put a Wired magazine link in here to get Hacker's panties in a bunch....

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/budget/

Is it too much to ask to also have some quality journalism from Penthouse or something like that?