B-1B, Ellsworth, all eject

Trying to stay flying as a commissioned RA Army Officer, I reverted to Warrant Officer for five years and then reverted back to a Reserve Commission officer. Later I declined promotion twice to stay in Aviation Units and flying positions…some think I made a mistake retiring as an O-4 , but I was in flying jobs for 20 years and never staff positions except for my last year as Corp Level G3 with promotion on the horizon and a another deployment as a contracting officer in Afghanistan…as far away from Aviation as possible…stop loss was lifted for a few months and I retired. Even pushing the aviation envelope and compromising promotion, I had a little over 2500 hrs of military flight time as a MTP that was always in the Attack side of Army Aviation. Last week spending some time with my kids, I watched my son in law who flies F-35s and going through a FLUG upgrade flying five or six sorties a week and time in the simulator…so optempo and competence is really situational depending on airframe and location. The failure has been well briefed along with a F22 incident where a crew chief was cut in half by ammo bay doors closing on the ground…they are aware of the problems at the user level but what is happening who knows.
 
Warlock said:
…some think I made a mistake retiring as an O-4
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You did the right thing. O-4 to O-5 is slightly under 500/mo take home delta, depending on tax brackets in post .mil life (second career income, working spouse, et al). It's not game changing money. To wit, social security is still a bigger inflection point for retirement income, at least it will be for me.

I'm slightly regretful of my decision to chase the promotion in present circumstances. The commute/geobaching is significantly eroding my enjoyment of the job. Between the 2nd housing costs eating away the raise down to a net paycut, and the wife having to go part-time at the hospital until I can come back home full-time, financially it was a self-imposed hardship. Granted, the math was pre-known and rationalized under the notion I'd make it up in lifetime pension payments. I just didn't expect the QoL hit to be so rough less than 6 months in to make me waiver on it. oops. username checks.

Self-depracation aside, I was gonna cook internally over how the whole crony thing at the old unit went down. So even knowing what I'm dealing with right now, I'm probably too fired up to have done anything different. Heck, the wife was happy to take a paycut just to leroy jenkins the thing with me, so much so she's the one who brought up the whole pivot/stunt in the first place.

Kids, Never listen to yourself when you're mad, never listen to your wife when she'd mad... and for sure never listen to your wife when she's mad on your behalf! Did I mention my username checks?
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:D
 
It's likely he'll get sacked too, as should also the SQ/DO.

I find that angle of the AIB weird. Normally, it's the purview of the squadron commander to assign people to the Assistant Director of Operations role (ADO). The OG/CC wouldn't normally be principally involved in such low-level admin qweepery, beyond maybe plucking shiny pennies from said squadron to fulfill by-name-request roles at the Group or Wing level. If the sq/cc and sq/do were truly that swamped with the day to day, it was the sq/cc job to handle his unit's business and delegate/staff appropriately. Absent more inside baseball info, I don't see how the report would pin the lack of ADOs on the OG office.

From the read of it and what I heard from my RUMINT network, the place was known as trying to be push it up (bomber bois, always overcompensating....). That's prob where criticism of patches and weapons and tactics shop comes from in the report. Basically for those who don't speak blue koolaid, what the report is insinuating is that leadership at the Group and below level was filling the weapons and tactics shop to the brim while bereft of FGO (field grade officer) bodies in the aggregate. So while they were all shooting their watches in the SCIF, the day to day motherhood roles like DO and ADO were bereft of adult manning.

The OSS's role in this accident, and subsequent criticism on the AIB, that one is frankly par for the course. Those squadrons are the worst. In fairness to them, it's a perennial penal colony/terminal jobs where they put the broken/unwanted toys. Usually a thankless job few care for, and riddled with ROAD salty O-5s/passed over O-4s waiting out their terminal leave date. It's a breeding ground for apathy and lack of supervision by proxy. That isn't unique to Ellsworth though. As such, by default, they should sack the OSS/CC, given the expendability of that role, it's frankly the easiest call to make.
 
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I don't know anything about AF command structure. But I'm reminded of a Deming quote - "no bank every went under because the tellers counted the money wrong". So if it's as bad a culture as it sounds, it would seem the problem is at the top.
 
hindsight2020 said:
You did the right thing. O-4 to O-5 is slightly under 500/mo take home delta, depending on tax brackets in post .mil life (second career income, working spouse, et al). It's not game changing money. To wit, social security is still a bigger inflection point for retirement income, at least it will be for me.

I'm slightly regretful of my decision to chase the promotion in present circumstances.
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Come on in, the water is warm :)
 
Crash a multi-million dollar bomber, your employer finds you responsible for the mishap, and in the aftermath it's discovered you failed to adhere to training and physical standards set by the service.

What happens next?

That's easily answered. You have your mother-in-law write the governor, congressional representatives, and the press to claim it's all unfair and that you're the victim of "hatred and disrespect."

www.businessinsider.com

Family of an airman who survived a B-1B crash accused investigators of 'hatred and disrespect' by blaming crew in a scathing crash report

A pilot who survived a B-1B crash in January was singled out for exceeding the ejector seat weight limit, which could result in disciplinary action.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com

Thanks, Mom. You know it was someone else's fault, and those people are just mean bullies.
 
Not just the mom complaining. It sounds like current and former group airman not liking the results of the report. Part of me gets it. I made the comment on the IP’s experience. Sounds like the whole lot is barely staying current. Combine that with a challenging airframe and the results are predictable.

Reminds me of the crash below. Pilots getting single digit hours a month and one with 2.8 hrs NVD in the last 30 days. At some point, the responsibility lies higher than the group/battalion level. The individual services need to take ownership.

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/ne...n-preceded-marines-deadliest-crash-this-year/
 
Such a good quote. Consider it nicked.

Albany Tom said:
But I'm reminded of a Deming quote - "no bank every went under because the tellers counted the money wrong". So if it's as bad a culture as it sounds, it would seem the problem is at the top.
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oof, planned relocation to Grand Forko in 2025 to prep Ellsworth for the B-21. Talk about morale killer. The black hills to essentially Minot East. hoo boi, them 7-day opts are gonna sky rocket.
 
Red herring in the aggregate. That guy's a shoe[clerk]. His scope of responsibility is largely immaterial to Ops, beyond support for dependents and member pay et al. They didn't crash because Air Force finance, travel pay and other associated offices under the force support squadron umbrella, perennially suck at their jobs.

These mickey mouse 'ground kerfuffle' firings are also not uncommon. They fired another one right here for shenanigans I will not go into. This stuff is just another Tuesday in Big Blue anymore.
 
hindsight2020 said:
oof, planned relocation to Grand Forko in 2025 to prep Ellsworth for the B-21. Talk about morale killer. The black hills to essentially Minot East. hoo boi, them 7-day opts are gonna sky rocket.
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I wonder how much of the B-1 infrastructure Grand Forks AFB still has, in working condition or otherwise. I remember seeing the row of tails over the fence when we would drive to Grand Forks in the 80s and 90s. My grandfather was an Army engineer whose career took him to Europe (I think he got to plan part of D-Day, something small like lunch, but mostly he talked about his time rebuilding Europe) and eventually to work on building Grand Forks AFB, where he ultimately retired as an O-6. My mom grew up in Grand Forks, where grandpa remained employed by the USAF as a civilian and lived off-base.

I was too young to have any memories of B-52s at the base, but I kind of remember the base suddenly growing an opaque perimeter fence that might have coincided with the change. Or it could have been due to a lunatic shooting at parked planes. I think dad mentioned that a time or two over the years.

My grandparents moved away around the time the B-1 fleet did, and by the time I started driving to Grand Forks again for college in 2000 the scenery had changed to KC-135s on short final or departure, depending on which direction the insane winds were blowing that day. I go back from time to time, mostly to watch hockey and gorge on Red Pepper. I haven't seen any Global Hawks in motion.

What I'm getting at is, if they have the infrastructure and get enough funding to actually fly the Lancers while they're visiting Grand Forks, US-2 will be a fun place to park and watch planes. Bring your hearing protection.
 
“An unhealthy organizational culture that permitted the degradation of airmanship skills.” Again, this more about commanders not getting the support they need from higher. This is lack of resources and the challenges in trying to maintain an aging airframe. I seriously doubt aircrews were actively trying to get out of training.
 
Velocity173 said:
“An unhealthy organizational culture that permitted the degradation of airmanship skills.” Again, this more about commanders not getting the support they need from higher. This is lack of resources and the challenges in trying to maintain an aging airframe. I seriously doubt aircrews were actively trying to get out of training.
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I don't know anything about the B-1 stuff, but if you take that quote and drop it into the context of old NASA or current Boeing, it applies to the very top, not the lower levels. So as an outsider I have to wonder if it means the USAF, in general, has a bad culture and poor airmanship, and that the exceptions don't outnumber the norm. Guessing/speculating.
 
Albany Tom said:
I don't know anything about the B-1 stuff, but if you take that quote and drop it into the context of old NASA or current Boeing, it applies to the very top, not the lower levels. So as an outsider I have to wonder if it means the USAF, in general, has a bad culture and poor airmanship, and that the exceptions don't outnumber the norm. Guessing/speculating.
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I don’t think it has anything to do with culture. I think they’re trying to do the best with what they’ve got.

There are the typical stories you read about where a new CO comes in and the unit is poorly trained and equipped. They turn it around and next thing you know they’re winning proficiency awards. There are some resourceful commanders out there but you can only push your people and equipment so far. I just can’t see this as a local squadron / wing / group issue but a budgeting problem. Simply boils down to lack of funding.

www.airandspaceforces.com

Air Force Flying Hours Decline Again After Brief Recovery | Air & Space Forces Magazine

Active-duty Air Force largely flew fewer hours in 2021 than it did in 2020, after making gains in most categories of flying from the year before.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com
 
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