Skip to main content

Why this blog?


Last Saturday I posted a factual account of an incident that I believed was unethical treatment by a commander against personnel I was responsible for.

I removed the blog because I was concerned the information would pile onto someone who could be already stressed the their limits. I  wasn't willing to kick someone while they are down. I might re-post it in the future, but some names might be removed or changed. I haven't decided yet.

However, that decision led me to a greater discussion with my significant other about what exactly is the purpose of this blog.

So let me start by explaining what it is, and why I am doing it. I'd also like to address things I don't want this blog to be. More on that later.

This blog is a weekly [so far, I might run out of stories] event where I tell a story from my career. I try to explain it as objectively as possible but I might include some humor or take a shot and people here or there [assume I'll take a shot at Fraley whenever I can]. In these stories I will explain my reasoning or moral dilemma and what I did to resolve it.

My hope is that decisions I've made that were difficult will provide someone else a frame of reference if they find themselves in a similar situation. It may be 'he really screwed that up' or 'he should've handled it more low-key', or it could be 'I understand why this is important, and I've seen what will happen if I stick to my guns.'

The reason these stories couldn't be told until now is that I lacked the freedom to tell them candidly. Being under the scrutiny of the military precluded me from being forthright.

My career has been rocky over the years. But never worse than my last 3 spent at Holloman. I imagine many wondered what happened? I see this blog as a chance to fill-in the gaps for those that saw my chaotic duty title changes, especially in the last 2 years.

It's not going to be all doom and gloom or shit talking. I plan to write about the positive influences I've experienced.

If anything this will give my kids an idea of what I was going through when I was at work or in another state. A poor man's shitty memoir as it were.

What I don't want is a virtue signalling ego stroke. It's difficult to articulate how I came to decisions in these moral scenarios without virtue signalling. The best I can do is objectively explain why I chose a path and hope I'm not too full of myself.

I've allowed anonymous comments on all of my blogs. If you would like to discuss or counter any points I've made in the blog absolutely feel free. I've never been afraid of a good discussion.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Smoke doesn't always mean fire Part I

This is the first post in the long final story that I will tell from my career in the Air Force. All the other stories up to this point were told so you, the reader, could understand how I was guided in my career to be prepared for the moment in this story. The main character in this story has had his name changed to protect his identity as he is still active duty. He has given me permission [read: excitedly asked when I will write this] to tell this story. In the summer of 2015 I was the specialist section chief in the 311th AMU at Holloman AFB. We had a few new arrivals to the section. Most of them were new avionics airmen, which we desperately needed. However, we did have an E&E SrA arrive who had a line number for Staff Sergeant. His name was SrA Tyler Perkie. He was respectful, polite and hard working. It was rare to not see him covered in aircraft filth, which is quite the compliment for the working sector of the Air Force. He was tireless at the job and his positive at
Post a Comment
Read more

An opaque response to a request for transparency

  This article will be published at the same time as a podcast addressing the exchange on the CMSAF's Facebook page. For a complete analysis I encourage you to continue reading then listen to Episode 17 of the 20 Years Done Podcast. The podcast can be found on typical podcast mediums as well as the RSS feed in the top right of this website. On October 17th at 6:32 PM the  Facebook page for the CMSAF posted a photo of a few deployed Airmen that she had a video conference with. Then one person made a comment. This blog isn't going to analyze that exchange, that's what the podcast episode is for. However, in the course of preparing and recording the podcast I heard rumors that the CMSAF herself didn't actually make that post. So, I did what anyone would do. I tracked down contact information for her Public Affairs team and asked them some questions. But before we get to those questions, I think it's important to first provide some context. First, the CMSAF's Faceb
Post a Comment
Read more

So what's with the 7 levels?

I recently asked in a  Facebook post what are some subjects you the readers wanted me to write about. I received quite a few great suggestions, but one stood out as a topic that I haven't quite addressed and I believe its time is due: inexperienced 7 levels. [I will apologize in advance, this one has quite a bit of acronyms.] Before I dive into the topic I think it's important to explain my own journey to a 7 level, and it goes all the way back to MEPS. You see, like many aspiring Airmen I didn't know what job I would get when I joined the Air Force; I came in open mechanical. Which to me seemed strange, because mechanical was my lowest ASVAB score. My recruiter assured me that my score would allow me many mechanical jobs to pick from. I tried to explain that the ASVAB was an aptitude test, and I should be selected for a job that matched my highest category. He seemed apathetic, obviously meeting his quota was his motivator, not me aligning my career to my aptitude.
7 comments
Read more