New Air Force Leaders Acknowledge Tough Road Ahead After Missteps

"We lost focus?" WTF? They're handling a NUCLEAR ARSONAL, and they LOST FOCUS?!

New Air Force Leaders Acknowledge Tough Road Ahead After Missteps

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

WASHINGTON — The new leaders of the Air Force acknowledged Tuesday that the service lost its focus and must work to mend fences after a slew of contracting and nuclear-related missteps.

Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, the new chief of staff, told Pentagon reporters that he plans to use the reinstatement of about 14,000 jobs in the service to bolster its nuclear staffing and beef up intelligence and surveillance.

"I think the bottom line is we lost focus. We did. And that focus is coming back," said Schwartz, who was formally sworn in during a ceremony Tuesday morning. "I think fundamentally our service is sound. It doesn't mean we're perfect, and we certainly have work to do, things to fix, fences to mend."

In June, Defense Secretary Robert Gates sacked the Air Force secretary and the chief of staff, blaming them for failing to fully address a series of nuclear-related mishaps.

His decisions were triggered largely by two major nuclear-related blunders by the Air Force. The first was the mistaken shipment to Taiwan of four electrical fuses for ballistic missile warheads. Then last August, an Air Force B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La. At the time, the pilot and crew were unaware they had nuclear arms aboard.

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The Air Force still thinks war is a fucking video game. Until they change that attitude, the Air Force will continue to be a service "without focus."

King Leonidas wrote:The Air Force still thinks war is a fucking video game. Until they change that attitude, the Air Force will continue to be a service "without focus."

Ya know... I spent EIGHT YEARS in the Air Force, and I loved every minute of it. I did see my share of incompetence, especially coming from higher ranked NCO's. They'd gotten their rank by eating, sleeping, and living Air Force every second of every day, but that did NOT make them good leaders or more worthy of their position. All it was, was someone who was a zealot, and although they'd crossed all the T's and jumped though all the hoops, they were still idiots... IN CHARGE! Pissed me off. Made me want to stay in although my career was over. I had made rank as fast as it could be sewn on though, because of the reasons I mentioned above. I HATED being told what to do by people I considered to be IDIOTS! I had a line number for Master Sergeant but got out before it came up, so I got out a Tech Sergeant. If I had it to do over again, I would DEFINITELY be an officer. Fuck being enlisted.

I iritates the shit out if me hear this bad shit about my beloved Air Force.