WTF is going on in the US Air Force?

What the hell is going on in the Air Force? Loose nukes, breakdown of military discipline, top leadership firings, and now they are trying to spend millions because their top generals don't fly with enough comfort already?

Did these dumbasses forget that they work for a branch of the military instead of a Fortune 50 company?

And worse, even after they are told not to do it, they still keep on pushing? What about a half-dozen generals wasting valuable time bickering over the right color shade for the leather in their flying Lazy boy chairs? I flew across the god damn Atlantic Ocean in a C-141 in seats made with canvas or nylon strips. It's funny because this was also the flight where I had the most leg room anywhere, since we were sitting in the cargo bay, and our baggage was strapped down on the floor in the middle of the cargo hold. I had at least one yard from my feet to the closest object.

I flew in the opposite direction in a C-5 Galaxy, the biggest cargo plane that we have. I actually had an airliner-type seat, which faced backwards and was slightly tilted down. It was a miserable flight.

And it was free, since it was a space available flight.

Why are the US Air Force Generals burning taxpayer money in flight accommodations that are even more luxurious than one of our DoD owned small executive jets? And why not keep using the silver bullets?

The silver bullets are small trailers that fit inside most of our cargo jets. A VIP, say Jack Ryan, can sneak into a cargo plane with a silver bullet, where he can work for most of a transatlantic trip and still have a chance to take a quick nap and a shower. The end result is that the VIP gets to use most of that idle time for work purposes, and is mostly ready for action once he lands.

They could have probably bought a few more of those trailers and keep them low profile. The emphasis on this approach is comfort and convenience, not luxurious excess. I am sure the mattress probably sucks, but sleeping in one has to beat the hell out of sleeping upright in a god damn parachutist jumper seat.

If your VIP can remember the specific shade of the color of the leather seats, then he is the wrong guy for the job.

Another thing that is bothering me: why in the fuck are we ferrying around top USAF brass? What is it that they need to do that can't be done with a secure video link? We are not building new strategic Air bases out of the US, so it is not like they need to inspect these (what you need for that is a good civilian engineer). The Air Force is fighting their wars with strategic bombers dropping non-nuclear ordinance, and UAVs that can be piloted from across the world. So, why do they need to go outside of the US? Any why aren't the Army and Marine generals being treated with the same kind of concern about their comfort?

Do you remember the last time a Marine general complained that he did not like the shade of the leather in his Lazy boy chair?

And for the record, I would rather fly in the cargo hold of a C-141 than in a MATS charter jet that feels like it is about to disintegrate as soon as it takes off. The C-141 was louder, but it felt rock solid, while the charter jet felt like it was falling apart.

Bosses Nuked, Some Air Force Missileers Cheer | Danger Room from Wired.com

Defense Secretary Robert Gates didn't just kick the Air Force's two top leaders to the curb yesterday. When he fired chief of Staff General "Buzz" Moseley and Secretary Michael Wynne, he was telling the service that the long, slow decline of its nuclear corps is officially over.

Hallelujah, says one Air Force nuclear missileer.

[From Bosses Nuked, Some Air Force Missileers Cheer | Danger Room from Wired.com]

This is probably the less cryptic article about this subject that I have found over the last couple of days. The infighting between the fighter and nuke camps is interesting, it almost reminds me of what the US Navy went through right before the Pearl Harbor attack.

Back in the day there were two camps: the Battleship Admirals (the establishment) and the Aircraft Carrier Admirals (the newcomers). The Battleship Admirals saw the political dangers of the aircraft carrier, it would eventually become the center of the standard Navy battle group arrangement, instead of battleships. So their solution? They fought it like hell.

Pearl Harbor came, and most of the battleships were sunk. The aircraft carriers were away, so WWII in the Pacific was an aircraft carrier war. The end of WWII saw the rise to power of the Aircraft Carrier Admirals.

Now we are going to see a showdown between a camp that is holding weapons they can't use (the nukes), and a camp flying jets that have no real adversary, so many question why we need to buy so many.

Air Force officials ousted over nuclear gaffes - CNN.com

The top military and civilian leaders of the U.S. Air Force were forced out Thursday over the handling of nuclear weapons, the Defense Department secretary said.

Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael W. Wynne resigned over the department's concern over two incidents, including the August flight of a B-52 bomber that flew across the country with nuclear weapons.

"Focus of the Air Force leadership has drifted" in terms of handling nuclear weapons and equipment, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.

In August, a B-52 bomber flew from North Dakota to Louisiana with the crew unaware that six nuclear-tipped missiles were on board. Four officers were relieved of duty afterward, including three colonels.

Gates also cited this year's discovery that components designed to arm and fuse nuclear warheads were accidentally shipped to Taiwan in 2006.

[From Air Force officials ousted over nuclear gaffes - CNN.com]

And here I was worried about airmen and pilots pounding the ground with the Army and the Marines.

What we have here is an exercise of politics as usual. Fire the top guy(s) as a way to tell the people that actually run the show to get their act together and fix whatever needs to be fixed.

The bigger question here is why, after all those very public fuckups, did the USAF "drifted" in their focus? There was a tradition of hardcore paranoia (in all services) when it came to nuclear accountability. Now we are flying nukes without knowing, we are shipping restricted components to an enemy country and there are security guards playing video games in their cell phones instead of paying attention to their god damn jobs.

How come we never hear of a Marine pulling that kind of stunt during guard duty? Training. I have no clue how the Navy and the Air Force do it, but both the Marines and the Army burn into your head guard duty as one of the more basic soldiering skills.

Top two Air Force officials resigning - Military- msnbc.com

WASHINGTON - The nation's top two Air Force officials are resigning, and military sources told NBC News Thursday that they were being forced out.

At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino said President Bush knew about the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, but that the White House “has not played any role” in the shake-up.

Moseley, a general, is the Air Force's top uniformed officer. Wynne is the top civilian official.

[From Top two Air Force officials resigning - Military- msnbc.com]

Oops.

The article later claims that they were given the choice between resigning or be fired.

So here we are, six months before a major leadership change, with all of those soldiers and Marines killed on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are shaking off the USAF leadership? What the hell was so wrong that they had to push out the top uniformed and top civilian officials of the service? It's not like they were asked to give their pilots rifles and rucksacks and send them to ride resupply convoys in Iraq.

It isn't about axing the F-117 as an excuse to free up funds and ask for even more funding for the F-22. So what else is left?