Military Community, military installations, discussions, blogs, photos, videos - Military Times

Letters

I’m writing in response to an opinion expressed by Tech. Sgt. Matt Greene in the “Fitness for fighters” letter [Sept. 17]. I truly appreciate his opinion, but I ask that as a noncommissioned officer, he please try to be more positive about our system. When I read his letter, I felt as though he was convinced our fitness system is negative. Understand, as a nation, we are grossly out of shape and unhealthy. It’s been almost five years since the new fitness system was brought online, and I am so happy to see it in the performance evaluation system. Too many people didn’t get behind the real positive aspects of the fitness program, and too many “leaders” didn’t take it seriously, for themselves or their people. As a result, valuable airmen are facing disciplinary action and even separation.

He mentions people in certain jobs should be inherently more fit than others. He mentions nurses as though he thinks they don’t need to be as fit to get their job done. I used to work in a hospital, and I’m sure the professionals in the medical fields would beg to differ. I survived Hurricane Katrina, and I can say from experience that the hospital staff members who had to relocate the emergency room multiple times to evade the rising water were happy to be in better shape than we were 10 years ago. Talk to anyone who was there and had to relocate thousands of medical records from the basement to the first floor. Ask them if they take fitness seriously. I have many more examples of people (not necessarily “cops, aircrew, civil engineers or explosive ordinance disposal airmen”) who are proud of what they can do better because they are healthy and fit.

He is missing the point about fitness if he thinks it is only about running or part of a warrior culture. Today, I see unit camaraderie is high, countless pounds have been lost, health risks associated with poor eating habits and lack of exercise are drastically reduced, and the American public sees more people in uniform who fit the image of a military professional. When I first met my recruiter, he was eating a doughnut and had a cigarette in the ashtray. He was grossly overweight and buying a bigger uniform wouldn’t have helped the image he presented.

I respect Greene’s opinion. I just think it’s a little negative. Look around; if he is negative about fitness, I think he is in the minority. If you are a noncommissioned officer and have this opinion, you need to take a better look at AFI 36-2618. Keep in mind, the fitness program as we know it today wasn’t designed by generals; it was formulated by NCOs who cared about the future fitness and development of our force. Take a new look at the program, for yourself, for the airmen you have to lead and write reports on and for the future of our Air Force. The Air Force is changing. Change with it.

Tech. Sgt. Matt Greene must have been napping at his air-conditioned desk since Sept. 11, 2001, otherwise he would understand that we are engaged in World War III. He would understand that the enemy isn’t content to wait for us to take the battle to them — they are able, willing and determined to attack us where we sleep. He would understand that military service is a calling, a way of life, a sacrifice that guarantees the constitutional freedoms our forefathers have bestowed upon us.

It’s really too bad that he feels inconvenienced about having his future success in the Air Force tied to his fitness, and that others in uniform are more responsible for fighting than he is. It troubles me to think of the airmen around him who have to listen to his negative, defeatist attitude and may be influenced by his nonmentoring, air-conditioned style of leadership. Since he obviously can’t wait to become a civilian, I recommend he help the service through voluntary force-shaping. I want him out of the way when I run over his back to chase down and kill the enemy.

Wow, I couldn’t disagree more with Tech. Sgt. Greene and his views on fitness and the changes the Air Force is making.

He states that he should be in good enough shape only to walk from one air-conditioned tent to another. So what would happen if during that walk he comes under attack by mortar fire or any other enemy barrages? Would he just sit there and wait to be killed? Or would he rely on some of us who take fitness seriously to save him … kind of irresponsible, isn’t it? I have been in that kind of situation while deployed, where I walked from my air-conditioned tent to my air-conditioned office, come under enemy attack and had to run to the nearest shelter while mortars where landing less than 50 yards from me. My heart was racing, my adrenaline pumping, and if I wasn’t in shape, I could have had a heart attack right then. The guy with me would probably stop running to check on me and bring me to safety, risking his life, as well.

So, you see, fitness doesn’t just save your life, it can save others’. I know that I can be deployed anywhere, anytime and I am going to make sure I am well-prepared, because I want to make it home to my family and I will not put those deployed with me in danger because I am not fit enough to take care of myself during an attack.

I think the Air Force has finally gotten the promotion process where it should be, promoting people under the “whole airman” concept. There is no excuse why someone can’t score at least a 75 on his physical training test, and obviously our leaders feel the same way or they wouldn’t have made it the standard.

I would like to point out an omission in Air Force Times’ fine timeline commemorating the Air Force’s 60th anniversary [Sept. 24].

The paper was on the ball with putting in many first flights of our various airframes, but two were conspicuously missing. While such obscure aircraft as the B-58 Hustler were not only mentioned but given a photograph, the F-15 and the F-16 — absolute workhorses of the current Air Force — were ignored. These aircraft were the brainchildren of an obscure but nonetheless pivotal officer in the Air Force, Col. John Boyd.

Col. Boyd was an absolute black sheep in the Air Force who never made it past colonel because of his delight in antagonizing superior officers. Despite his lack of social graces, Boyd was a gifted thinker who was able to teach himself why fighter aircraft performed the way they did. His pioneering work into the mathematics of aircraft performance has blazed the trail for the design of all fighter aircraft since the F-16 and F-15, two aircraft he helped design using his own mathematical models.

Despite his clumsiness in other circles, the Air Force owes this officer a debt of gratitude that I suspect it will never acknowledge. For more information on this singular thinker and aviator, I refer your readers to the volume titled “Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War,” by Robert Coram.

I retired from the Air Force more than 10 years ago and, since I don’t live near a base, I don’t often visit the exchange. I did last week and purchased Air Force Times. I used to think of it as an informative newspaper that provides news and information for Air Force members while highlighting the positive and mentioning the negative. But today, Air Force Times seems to highlight the negatives of military careers while mentioning the positives.

The cover of the Sept. 10 issue is a case in point. The paper highlights the atrocity of “Staff Sgt. Sellout” while only mentioning the “Air Force hero’s harrowing rescue.” Granted, it is my opinion, but I would have put Maj. Peterson on the cover. He was the real hero with a great story. Unfortunately, many stories in this issue reflected this mind-set that the Air Force is full of criminals.

I found Robert F. Dorr’s “Touch of reality” column even more disconcerting. His prejudice is evident in the disparagement of Gen. David Petraeus before he even testified before Congress. Dorr’s attempt to cast Petraeus as an unknown general not of the same caliber as Washington, Marshall and Lee is a blatant attempt to discredit his testimony beforehand. As a historian, Dorr should know that the measure of greatness does not come from the reflections of recent history but more from reflections over a longer term.

Dorr’s use of a USA Today poll to support his theory that Gen. Petraeus is an unknown does not reflect so much on the general as it does on the apathy of the American people. Dorr, like so many, sees the cost of failure in Iraq but not the rewards of success. Like or despise the Petraeus report, it stands on its own as an honest assessment from an honorable officer. His view is his reality.

With Air Force assets employed worldwide, I am sure there are many more great news stories of airmen engaged in admirable efforts than there are criminals who wear the uniform. I certainly would like to hear about them.

This article [“Charges dropped against airman who said she was raped,” Sept. 24] and others like it disgust me. Those young men deserve to be tarred and feathered for such callous behavior toward another human being, regardless of gender. Rape or not, their actions blatantly defy in the crudest manner every one of our core values. That the Air Force is allowing these embarrassments to continue to disgrace our uniform by allowing them to remain a part of us should be insulting to all military members.

That said, I should also ask this question of all women (including myself) in uniform: How have we as women fallen so low that our young sister Airman 1st Class Cassandra Hernandez would think it acceptable to use such awful judgment? Scarlett O’Hara may have always depended on the kindness of strangers, but in today’s world that rationale can get us killed. When did it stop being an unspoken rule for us to look out for each other and, more importantly, observe the “chicks stick together” mantra?

It never used to matter if a woman was a part of our social circle. Stranger, friend, co-worker — it should not matter. This young lady should not have been put through this soul-wrenching experience in the first place. This lesson should not have to come down to being taught as an Air Force directive. This should just be a part of our collective unconscious; it should be like breathing.

As women in uniform, we are better than this. We are self-aware, American military women. We are feared more than our men are in some parts of the world for our strength of will. This should never have happened.

I view what has happened to Hernandez as a crime by these men as well as the system. I look at this and also see criminal indifference on the part of the women in her life, her female superiors, peers and subordinates. Situations such as this affect us all.

She shouldn’t be (and should never view herself as) a “victim.” That would evince pity. For Hernandez, that’s the last thing she needs. She needs resolve, ambition and motivation to successfully complete this chapter in her life. I hope she has them.