I agree with Cooter. No issue with the idea of Enlisted folks flying planes, unmanned or otherwise. But I have also seen how their evals (the only thing that can be used to rack and stack a group of applicants) and career milestones go. Not their fault in any way, but it is a complete joke. Things like "well this guy/gal has been here for a year, it is probably time for a NAM" have been uttered in Enlisted ranking and awards boards I have been part of. If you can fog a mirror, and most importantly, have participated in a bunch of "extracurricular" activities at the detriment of your actual job, you will likely make CPO. Those who don't have the time to do such activities because they are in a mission critical job such as maintenance are not competitive. If I had a dollar for every time a fantastic maintenance shop Sailor of mine was overlooked in favor of some YN/IT/IS assclown who can't be bothered to even shave or adhere to military customs and courtesies, much less actually do their job, I'd have a mansion in Tahoe. Across the board, Enlisted or Officer alike, this system rewards a bunch of no talent assclowns who want to be called "warfighter", yet do nothing of the sort, and are too lazy to actually support those who do. That is why we are all leaving. That and the E9's who enable this to continue. All the bonus money in the world wouldn't convince me to stay. If we started literally keel hauling ****ty leadership, O and E alike, I'd consider it. Instead, we have a small group of people who would have no other option outside the military, who get promoted because they are the only ones left. There are good ones left, don't get me wrong, but they are evenly mixed with the worst. My old man retired as a post squadron command O-5, my grandpa as a post wing command O-6. G-pa is long dead, but my dad completely "gets it" when he hears the kind of BS that is going on these days. And I am not talking the commonly reported cries of "political correctness", or "social agendas"……those things are minor annoyances. The real issue is when you realize how horribly we are managing personnel, and how out of touch the O-6+ crowd generally is. Quite literally, it is more worth it to me to inconvenience the bureau of personnel, than it is to collect the ~$2 million (bonuses and tax-free money included) that I would make over the course of the next 10 years before full retirement, let alone the post active-duty retirement pay I'd collect for the rest of my life. I can make many more times that in another job, where I don't have to deal with such a reactive group of leaders, nor do I have to placate no-load subordinates for the sake of not hurting feelings and building "retention".
