{"id":12846,"date":"2011-09-09T02:00:34","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T07:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=12846"},"modified":"2011-09-08T23:54:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T04:54:28","slug":"the-dear-boss-letter-2009-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/09\/the-dear-boss-letter-2009-version\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dear Boss Letter, 2009 Version"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people are familiar with the “Dear Boss” letter from a fighter pilot in the Air Force to his “leaders,” decrying the loss of focus (or downfall) of the traditional Air Force.\u00a0 It was a response to a survey on fighter pilot retention in the late 1970s.\u00a0 The letter has circulated so long because it resounded with so many people.\u00a0 (It was also published in the October 1978 Armed Forces Journal<\/em>.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently the letter was “updated” in 2009.\u00a0 Though some of the terminology changed, the concepts behind it remain essentially the same.\u00a0 The letter is at times cynical and negative, at others pensive and truthful.\u00a0 It is certainly a perspective on life in the Air Force (as a fighter pilot).\u00a0 One worth joining?\u00a0 That’s another debate.<\/p>\n

This letter was actually revived by the Air Force itself.\u00a0 It was sent out in an email from the USAFE Commander in a plea for feedback as to why fighter pilots aren’t staying in the Air Force (even in a down economy, including turning down the bonus<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The full text of “the letter” is below.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n

Dear Boss,
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, I quit.\u00a0 I\u2019ve finally run out of drive or devotion or rationalization or whatever it was that kept me in the Air Force this long.\u00a0 I used to believe that we were the finest organization in the world\u2014that combat effectiveness was the only thing that really mattered, and that no one on earth was as effective at anything as we were at air combat.\u00a0 But I cannot keep faith any longer.\u00a0 The light at the end of my tunnel went out. \u201cWhy?\u201d you ask.\u00a0 Why leave flying jets and a \u201cpromising\u201d career?\u00a0 Funny you should ask\u2014mainly I\u2019m resigning because I\u2019m tired.\u00a0 Fourteen years and 2,300 hours in the fast jet business and all the time I\u2019ve been doing more with less\u2014and I\u2019m tired of it.\u00a0 Fourteen years of 12-hour days and long deployments and it turns out that most people around here don\u2019t actually care if we\u2019re any good!\u00a0 They only care if we look good.\u00a0 And there is a difference.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t mind the duty or the hours.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I signed up for.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been all around the world and been shot at by the bad guys.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had buddies who died in fireballs and watched their widows and children cry their eyes out\u2014I understand\u2014it comes with the territory.\u00a0 I can do it.\u00a0 I did it.\u00a0 I can still do it\u2014but I won\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019m too tired, not of the job, just the Air Force.\u00a0 I\u2019m tired of the poor leadership and micromanagement of our senior staffers and commanders.\u00a0 All those Masters and PME grads and not a true leadership trait in sight! Once you get past your squadron commander, people can\u2019t even pronounce esprit de corps.\u00a0 Even a few squadron commanders stumble over it.\u00a0 And let me clue you in\u2014in the fighter business, when you\u2019re out of esprit, you\u2019re out of corps.\u00a0 We\u2019ve come to value political correctness and feel-good slogans above aggressiveness and warrior spirit.\u00a0 We\u2019ve completely forgotten out roots and what traits made us good in the first place.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Air Force is in a constant identity crisis.\u00a0 Since I first put on a uniform, we\u2019re on our third Air Force emblem, third different flight suit, second battle dress uniform (third if you include the Velcro nametag debacle), and working on our fourth service dress!\u00a0 We\u2019ve had so many mission statements, vision statements, and core values statements that I can\u2019t keep up.\u00a0 Then we heard the Chief of Staff talk about how he wants to instill a sense of our heritage.\u00a0 What heritage?\u00a0 We don\u2019t even have a uniform on long enough to become heritage!\u00a0 We are just a constantly changing set of buzzwords, clothes, and fads.\u00a0 After the last CSAF left, what was the very first thing the new boss did to supposedly re-focus us on the mission and instill some Air Force pride?\u00a0 He changed our clothes and made us wear blues.\u00a0 Talk about missing the mark!\u00a0 It used to be that our pride came from simply being the best.\u00a0 I guess not anymore.\u00a0 And then there are the buzzwords.\u00a0 I can\u2019t go to a commander\u2019s call without hearing \u201cwingmen,\u201d \u201cmutual support,\u201d and \u201ccore values\u201d awkwardly thrown around until I\u2019m nauseous.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, they are fine concepts.\u00a0 But they are just words, over-used and infrequently backed up by the actions of our leaders.\u00a0 They have been watered down to the point where they lost all meaning.\u00a0 Not long ago, Quality Air Force was all the rage.\u00a0 We did surveys and made graphs and nothing got better. Now we have AFSO 21 and we have working groups and stop light charts and nothing has gotten better.\u00a0 We tag on to civilian business management techniques that we don\u2019t truly understand, then think we can simply apply a 10-step flow chart process to every problem and come up with the right solution.\u00a0 What happened to leadership, creativity and innovation?\u00a0 Give me a bar napkin, a pen, and a bottle of whiskey and I\u2019ll solve your problems in one night.\u00a0 And I won\u2019t have to remember what step number 7 was in the computer based training slides to be able to apply common sense.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what about career?\u00a0 Get serious!\u00a0 Progression has little to do with leadership ability and actual performance, but rather filling a series of squares.\u00a0 A couple years back, we had the \u201cno practice bleeding\u201d policy\u2014if you needed a masters degree, the Air Force would send you.\u00a0 Don\u2019t do PME in correspondence unless you don\u2019t get picked up to go in-residence.\u00a0 It only made too much sense.\u00a0 But this is the Air Force, so the pendulum had to swing back, and now it\u2019s swung so far you can hardly see it anymore!\u00a0 They changed the ACSC program so that it doubles as a masters program\u2014but you can\u2019t realistically get selected to go in-residence unless you already have a masters degree.\u00a0 What sense does that make?\u00a0 So now you have guys simply finding the easiest, most useless on-line masters degree program they can find, just to fill the square. And the Air Force is stuck paying the bill!\u00a0 Everyone loses in that battle.\u00a0 The Air Force is out of the money with no real benefit and its people spend their few free hours reading books and writing papers on subjects that are unrelated to what we really do.\u00a0\u00a0 To paraphrase our former Chief of Staff, the Air Force treats a masters in basket weaving in the same exact light as a masters in quantum physics from MIT.\u00a0 Do we want officers who are truly educated in relevant subjects or do we just want to be able to flaunt our statistics on how educated we appear?\u00a0 I had a general officer literally tell me that we do this to sift out those who are truly dedicated to their career.\u00a0 I guess 60-70 hour weeks spent trying to do well at my actual duties don\u2019t show enough devotion.\u00a0 And now my favorite: you also can\u2019t realistically get selected for ACSC in-residence unless you\u2019ve completed it in-correspondence first.\u00a0 So you can\u2019t take the course until you\u2019ve taken the course?\u00a0 Huh?\u00a0 We have lost our minds!\u00a0\u00a0 What happened to family time?\u00a0 I work 12 hours or more every day, yet I\u2019m expected to come home and work on classes at night and on the weekends just so I can be competitive to re-cover that same material at Maxwell?\u00a0 Just when exactly am I supposed to spend time with my wife and kids and re-charge my batteries?\u00a0 I hardly see my kids as it is.\u00a0 Something has to give.\u00a0 It\u2019s either my job, my coursework, or my family.\u00a0 I can\u2019t do all of that well.\u00a0 Does anyone really wonder anymore why our folks face pressure from home to get out?\u00a0 Does anyone really wonder why our folks are completely burned out?
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What am I supposed to tell young lieutenants and captains who come to me asking if they should spend their spare time working on their masters degree or instead start work on their flight lead upgrade briefs? They don\u2019t have time to do both well, and anyone who tells them they need to just manage their time better is so far out of touch I can\u2019t take it.\u00a0 By all common sense, young guys should be focusing on being tactical experts and knowing everything they can about the weapons system they are tasked to employ.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t tell them to prioritize that anymore if they plan to stay in the Air Force.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell them to commit career suicide because the fact is that the Air Force doesn\u2019t care if they are tactical experts.\u00a0 It only cares if they have their squares filled.\u00a0 The Air Force has decided that the 4-star grooming process begins on day one, and that seems to be our focus.\u00a0 We need to have experts at the tactical level\u2014we cannot afford to be generalists at the company grade operator level.\u00a0 We were told by a senior officer the other day that we now need to be experts in space and cyberspace in addition to being experts in the air–this to an audience of mostly junior officers.\u00a0 Are you kidding me?\u00a0 We hardly have enough time or training to be true experts in our own lane, but now we\u2019re supposed to be experts in everyone else\u2019s?\u00a0 The theory seems to be so that we need to have a better understanding of those things work if we become \u201csenior leaders.\u201d\u00a0 But we\u2019ve put the cart before the horse once again.\u00a0 When our operators are also our officers, we cannot afford to focus only on officer development and senior leader grooming when guys are lieutenants and captains.\u00a0 Well, we can, but it\u2019s at the expense of effective operations.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t that what\u2019s it\u2019s really all about?\u00a0 I guess not.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And if that isn\u2019t enough, the Air Force chooses to select its finest not based on actual Air Force work, but on how much ancillary stuff a guy does.\u00a0 To be selected as a quarterly company grade officer award winner in any wing, the write-up needs to include bullets for 1) \u201cLeadership and Job Performance in Primary Duty\u201d\u00a0 2) \u201cSignificant Self Improvement\u201d and 3) \u201cBase and Community Involvement.\u201d\u00a0 So what happens to the guy who is the best in the world at his actual duty and a natural born leader, but doesn\u2019t coach a kid\u2019s soccer team or tutor underprivileged students in his spare time (what spare time)?\u00a0 Answer:\u00a0 he can\u2019t be competitive for the quarterly award above the squadron level since he isn\u2019t involved enough in the community.\u00a0 Which means he isn\u2019t competitive for the annual award.\u00a0 Which means he doesn\u2019t look as strong on paper, even though he may be the very best officer and tactician we have.\u00a0 As we know, it doesn\u2019t matter how good you are, it only matters how you look on paper.\u00a0 Why on earth do we prioritize non-Air Force work to identify our standout officers?\u00a0 The write-up should end at \u201cLeadership and Job Performance in Primary Duty.\u201d\u00a0 Period, dot.\u00a0 Anything else means that we are using the wrong measuring stick.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And there are no more carrots left to keep guys motivated, only bad deal after bad deal, and hardly a \u201cthank you\u201d for any of it.\u00a0 If I have to listen to another colonel or general officer tell me how they understand what it\u2019s like now\u00a0 since they had a bad deal once too–then proceed to describe how much fun they actually had on that \u201cbad deal\u201d ALO tour in Germany in the late 1980s–I\u2019m going to lose it.\u00a0 If I have to listen to another commander say that they can\u2019t understand why anyone would want to get out of this great Air Force when the worst deal they ever had in their whole career was as a T-38 IP at Willie back in the day, I\u2019m going to scream.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s always the lecture about how there really aren\u2019t any \u201cbad deals.\u201d\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Come on.\u00a0 We all know better and it just fuels bitterness when our leaders don\u2019t even acknowledge that.\u00a0 I\u2019m tired of watching my buddies dive under desks every time the commander walks down the hall for fear that he\u2019s going to drop a 179- or even a 365-day deployment on them with three weeks\u2019 notice.\u00a0 Really now, do we have a rash of guys slitting their wrists right before they go to the AOR or are we that poor at managing? But at least it will come with a pep talk about how it\u2019s good for your \u201ccareer\u201d to get a little war stink on you, even if it\u2019s just the smell of a desk in some rear echelon office.\u00a0 Another square checked.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ll even earn a medal for updating those power point slides over there, or whatever worthless job we\u2019ve invented to inflate our numbers and make it look like the Air Force is pulling its weight in theater.\u00a0 Oh, and after you get back from that little vacation, you\u2019d better be ready for a remote three months later.\u00a0 Sorry, no credit for time served.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the wife will understand.\u00a0 She\u2019ll be comforted by the mere three hour wait and rude desk clerks at the base medical clinic when the kids inevitably get sick the day after you leave.\u00a0 We\u2019re at war\u2014I get it, I really do.\u00a0 But how on earth can anyone be expected to deal with such constant instability in their lives over such a long period of time and take it with a smile?
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But the real problem is much bigger than all of that–we have lost the drive to be good.\u00a0 We were good for so long that we forgot just what exactly it was that made us that way. We have forgotten all of the lessons learned in blood from our predecessors, and focus only on looking good.\u00a0 We held an advantage in both technology and training for a long time and we became complacent.\u00a0 Technology is vital, but if we aren\u2019t experts at using it, what good are we?\u00a0 And now any technological edge we had is being minimized by any third-world country with a checkbook, as cheap electronic attack and air defense systems proliferate.\u00a0 So now we\u2019re down to training and experience to carry us through.\u00a0 Not long ago, we used to laugh in our intelligence briefs when we heard how little enemy pilots flew per year.\u00a0 It\u2019s not so funny anymore, as we struggle to get in the air ourselves.\u00a0 We\u2019ve even resorted to using simulator time to make us appear more experienced on paper, but that is only a mirage.\u00a0 Sims can be decent training, but they are no substitute for flying, no matter how much the bean counters and desk jockeys wish they were!\u00a0 Pilots spend entire assignments training and studying for upgrades, only to get shipped off to a non-fighter assignment just as they start to \u201cget it.\u201d\u00a0 That makes no sense!\u00a0 Why not extend assignments for an extra year and let our guys actually put their obscenely expensive training and newly gained experience to use for even just a little while?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Instead we move them on to a non-fighter assignment to make room for more newbies\u2026after all, the Air Force is short on pilots so we need to keep training new ones.\u00a0 But what good is it to have a ton of fighter pilots, few of whom have much actual experience flying fighters?\u00a0 We have prioritized having \u201cfighter experience\u201d in jobs all across the Air Force\u2026everywhere, that is, except actually in fighters.\u00a0 When we do get an experienced guy in the door, they are always fresh out of the TX course instead of current in the jet. Only one time in the last three years have I seen a guy show up who was mission ready—that was the new weapons officer.\u00a0 We have to re-train all of our \u201cexperienced\u201d guys again from mission qualification training on up, so our schedule is one constant upgrade train.\u00a0 Why doesn\u2019t someone do one of those AFSO 21 group hugs and analyze how much money we waste constantly re-training guys from the ground up every couple of years?\u00a0 All to the tune of fifteen grand per flight hour, I might add.\u00a0 Maybe we could use the money saved to buy a new plasma TV to display the schedule or another round of new office furniture.\u00a0 Almost never do we get to just go out and practice advanced CT scenarios, so we spend all of our time just trying to stay afloat instead of actually getting better.\u00a0 And the same story is true throughout the CAF.\u00a0 Result:\u00a0 Most operational squadrons are not worth a damn.\u00a0\u00a0 And no one seems to care.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fourteen years in the Air Force, and I\u2019ve yet to have an OG or Wing Commander ask us what our true combat capability is–I mean our true skills, not how we look on our SORTS report.\u00a0 Lots of questions on dirty boots, low zippers, and crooked patches.\u00a0 Lots of questions about why I landed five minutes past my scheduled window on my once-a-year fight-tank-fight blue air DCA sortie.\u00a0 We\u2019ve gotta make the statistics look good, even if they are meaningless, or else someone might have to actually explain to the Wing Commander why I used common sense to get that extra setup while we had the airspace and gas.\u00a0 Even our former crown jewel, RED FLAG, has become a joke.\u00a0 Instead of getting some folks good training, we decided to be all-inclusive and try to get everyone some training.\u00a0 We wouldn\u2019t want anyone to feel left out in today\u2019s Air Force, so once again real combat capability suffers.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And then there is queep.\u00a0 Oh, the queep.\u00a0 We have no support staff anymore, so we spend our time supporting ourselves administratively instead of improving ourselves tactically.\u00a0 On top of that, pilot jobs that used to be manned two or three deep are now single deep at best.\u00a0 So instead of young pilots spending their time studying and learning the ropes underneath someone\u2019s wing, they are now chiefs of a shop.\u00a0 Yet, rather than the chain of command recognizing that fact and re-focusing just on what\u2019s actually important, the demands on ridiculous queep have only risen.\u00a0 Case in point:\u00a0 have you seen an OPR from 20 years ago? They are full of white space and sub-bullets and all sorts of things that are forbidden now.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t seem to hold back all of today\u2019s generals much.\u00a0 Now, we have all of these unwritten rules on how to fill out that form that it has become a voo doo art.\u00a0 For what?\u00a0 Are we better able to evaluate someone who doesn\u2019t have any white space at the end of a line on his performance report?\u00a0 Does it really make a difference if I spell out numbers or use digits?\u00a0 Does it really matter if I abbreviate the word \u201csquadron\u201d as \u201csq\u201d and \u201csqdn\u201d in the same section?\u00a0 Does that somehow change the meaning?\u00a0 The real question should be: does it make us more combat capable?\u00a0 Of course not!\u00a0 But, we grind away for hours trying to figure out how to wordsmith in our secret OPR code so that even the bottom feeders look like heroes, but it takes a Little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin to figure out what we\u2019re really trying to say.\u00a0 We had a report kicked back from the wing the other day to make us change the abbreviation \u201c2nd\u201d to \u201c2d.\u201d\u00a0 What on earth was the point of that?\u00a0 It\u2019s death by paper cuts, and I don\u2019t have the energy to spend on such ridiculous nonsense anymore.\u00a0 Not when I\u2019m saddled with forty other \u201curgent\u201d non-issues, each of which I need to solve right now, yet none of which are actually important.\u00a0 I even heard this little gem:\u00a0 \u201cif we could only get our queep perfect, the tactical stuff will follow naturally.\u201d\u00a0 What?\u00a0 We\u2019ve got it all backwards!\u00a0 We worry about the stuff that doesn\u2019t matter at the expense of what truly does.\u00a0 And the unimportant stuff is all I ever hear about from leadership.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if we can execute our increasingly complex tactics, handle EA, or even find our sort\u2026as long as the statistics look good and our queep is done right, the bosses are happy.\u00a0 After all, if the minimum training wasn\u2019t good enough, it wouldn\u2019t be the minimum, right?\u00a0 Well we\u2019re going to find out.\u00a0 We\u2019re min-running the entire Air Force.\u00a0 God help us if we ever have an all-out air war.\u00a0 We are going to pay the price in blood on the backs of the minimally trained and inexperienced.\u00a0 We have learned these lessons before.\u00a0 We have been the hollow force.\u00a0 We have seen what blind faith in technology with minimal training does to combat success.\u00a0 Have we forgotten everything we learned in Vietnam?
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not long ago, I had a general tell me that he wasn\u2019t worried about retention because the airline industry had gone down the toilet.\u00a0 Well I\u2019ve got news for him\u2014that doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 Because, you see, I\u2019m not the only one that feels this way.\u00a0 Every guy I know is looking for the door and counting the days until their contract is up.\u00a0 Not a single one of them wants an airline job, either.\u00a0 Not one.\u00a0 If they can\u2019t get hired by the Guard, then they\u2019ll just go get an MBA with the new GI Bill and get a regular job.\u00a0 Anything with a bit of stability will do.\u00a0 It turns out we\u2019ve picked up a few non-flying skills along the way, and those are in demand, bad economy or not.\u00a0 It\u2019s never been about the money for us, so the bonus isn\u2019t the driver.\u00a0 It\u2019s been about the mission.\u00a0 Our rewards are purely in the satisfaction that we\u2019ve done a good job, earned the respect of our peers, and made a difference.\u00a0 But it\u2019s just too difficult to see how to make a real difference here anymore. Not in this climate of yes men and party lines and square filling and image-over-substance.\u00a0 We are watching an organization that we once worked so hard to be a part of veer off into insignificance as it focuses so frequently on the unimportant, all while it kicks us square in the junk and expects us to smile.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I\u2019m resigning\u2026long hours with little support, no stability or predictability to life, zero career progression, and senior commanders evidently totally missing the point.\u00a0 Our only real heritage\u2014an unfailing drive for excellence\u2014has gone by the wayside in favor of a culture of square filling.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had it\u2014life\u2019s too short to fight an uphill battle for commanders and staffs who won\u2019t listen or don\u2019t believe or maybe don\u2019t even care.\u00a0 So thanks for the memories, it\u2019s been a real slice of life\u2026But I\u2019ve been to the mountain and looked over and I\u2019ve seen the big picture.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t all green.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t Air Force blue either.<\/p>\n

Via FighterPilotUniversity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people are familiar with the “Dear Boss” letter from a fighter pilot in the Air Force to his “leaders,” decrying the loss of focus (or downfall) of the traditional Air Force.\u00a0 It was a response to a survey on fighter pilot retention in the late 1970s.\u00a0 The letter has circulated so long because it resounded with so many people.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[134,2142,5285,2],"class_list":["post-12846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fighter-pilot","tag-air-force","tag-dear-boss-letter","tag-fighter-pilot","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}