CNN: Defense secretary scolds Air Force for war effort

[Redskins Diehard]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/21/gates.air.force.ap/index.html

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Someone should tell them they have AC in the tents over there now. Maybe that will convince them to play. Next stop.....a Navy base.

Sarge, can't believe you missed this one;)

[Larry]

Sarge, can't believe you missed this one;)

Dibs on "It's Klinton's Fault".

[ZoEd]

Tents? A/C? In my trailer w/cable we maintained a brisk 65 degrees while others roasted their balls off in tents. Come on now, if you're going to trash us at least be accurate.

As for the AF not wanting to play, that's a little misleading. We want to play but just like all branches we like to play politics as well. You see, the pilots have had their panties in a bunch for a long time about the UAV's. Do you blame them? It's called job security; could you imagine if device X threatened to replace you at work? You'd get a little pissy too. It's hard for these gungho fly boys to accept being replaced by cheaper less risky pieces of equipment. They lose their elite status to a remote control plane. We don't want to send more UAV's because it takes away from their glory and makes it harder to justify the millions we spend keeping our birds in the air.

For example, when I was TDY in the late 90's the operation I was supporting spent upwards of $30M a month to keep two birds in the air and that's a low estimate. Funny thing was the birds we were launching only about once a week if they were lucky due to high winds. $30M! Why? First of all we wanted to rebuild a shaky relationship with the French military and second we wanted to justify keeping these birds and pilots employed. It's a numbers game. Funny thing is the enlisted folks pay the highest price while they manipulate the system to keep the fly boys employed.

For the record, I've seen the Predator and the new MQ9 Reaper in action and they are simply amazing pieces of equipment. Best thing is we control them here at Nellis in nice air conditioned boxes without risking the life of a pilot. Also, the enlisted sensor operators that interpret the images and identify targets are becoming the stars of the show. They sit right beside the pilot and work hand in hand with them putting warheads on foreheads. :applause:

[RabidFan]

"warheads on foreheads"....sounds like right out of a movie

[ZoEd]

"warheads on foreheads"....sounds like right out of a movie

It's a Huffism, you can use it if you like.

It's actually just like watching a video game, pretty amazing what they can do with these UAV's.