{"id":20537,"date":"2012-12-13T02:03:16","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T05:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=20537"},"modified":"2012-12-13T02:43:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T05:43:19","slug":"federal-lawsuit-threatened-over-fighter-pilot-songs-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/13\/federal-lawsuit-threatened-over-fighter-pilot-songs-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Lawsuit Threatened over Fighter Pilot Songs, Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most recent articles on the high visibility sexual scandals in the Air Force have focused on charges of sexual assault, largely with reference to the Lackland basic training incidents.\u00a0 Despite a fairly thorough article at the <\/a>New York Times<\/a> <\/em>(which included that topic), almost no one has been talking about Air Force\u00a0Technical Sergeant Jennifer Smith — who is threatening to sue the US Air Force over the sexually-charged atmosphere in the fighter pilot world.\u00a0 (The Air Force Times <\/em>picked up on the story just days ago.)<\/p>\n

This is particularly notable in light of the recent “health and welfare inspection<\/a>” ordered by Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen Mark Welsh, since the inspection seems to precisely <\/em>target some of TSgt’s Smith’s allegations (yet the media continues to connect it to other <\/em>accusations).\u00a0\u00a0 Notably, there are reports Shaw AFB — where TSgt Smith reportedly lodged the complaint —\u00a0did a “health and welfare” inspection weeks before Gen Welsh ordered it Air Force wide.\u00a0 The organization representing TSgt Smith, “Protecting our Defenders<\/a>,” certainly made the connection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As noted in the New York Times <\/em>more than a month ago, TSgt Smith has filed an “administrative complaint” (PDF<\/a>, with attachments<\/a>)\u00a0that reads much like a primer on the vices of the fighter pilot world.\u00a0 She seeks\u00a0 <\/p>\n

a remedy for systemic and intentional sexual discrimination<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

during her service.\u00a0 She has apparently served in administrative positions in fighter squadrons, giving her, as an outsider, both unique exposure and access to a swath of the fighter pilot culture.\u00a0 The filing notes she is willing to pursue “remedies” in federal court if her complaint is not adequately addressed.<\/p>\n

TSgt Smith’s complaint brings to light some legitimately questionable “cultural traditions” within the fighter pilot community, as has previously been discussed here in many places and many times.\u00a0 For example, her complaint specifically cites fighter pilot songs<\/a> (in great detail, thanks to a photocopy of a lyric book) and Doofer Books<\/a>.\u00a0 Dos Gringos <\/em>even gets called out by name (sort of).<\/p>\n

In that respect, it will be fascinating to see if her complaint gets more direct response (beyond General Welsh’s inspection order).\u00a0 If so, it could have a significant impact on the overall culture of the Air Force fighter pilot — potentially for the better.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the format of the complaint suffers from a flaw common to similar lawsuits: the “while I’ve got your attention, let me say…” theme.\u00a0 For example, she takes issue with fighter pilot bars, but there is no real connection between the bars and\u00a0her\u00a0discrimination complaint.\u00a0 That disconnected tone, combined with a lack of detail in\u00a0some\u00a0legitimate complaints, makes her filing seem\u00a0more an\u00a0indictment of\u00a0fighter pilot behavior in general than anything else.\u00a0 In other words, her complaint places more emphasis on fighter pilots behaving badly than it does her claims she was the victim of any specific sexual discrimination.<\/p>\n

Again,\u00a0the behavior of fighter pilots with respect to some “traditions” is certainly <\/em>a legitimate issue, but the seemingly unrelated ‘blanket indictments’ detract from her claims of discrimination by becoming the focal point, rather than supporting documentation.<\/p>\n

The issues described in the complaint\u00a0are offensive to a great many <\/em>people.\u00a0In a similar vein, nothing in the complaint\u00a0about fighter pilots is “new.”\u00a0 A reasonable question, then, is why no one has complained before\u00a0— including\u00a0female fighter pilots,\u00a0Christians, or others of a moral belief that found such activities offensive.\u00a0 To conclude that no one<\/em> has complained is unfounded, of course; certainly, people have, though it\u00a0likely stayed local.\u00a0 On the whole, it seems most have been willing to “live and let live,” thinking that their fellow fighter pilots are free to participate in their “debauchery” so long as they keep it to themselves.\u00a0 For the most part, they do.<\/p>\n

As noted, it will be interesting to see all the effects this may ultimately have.\u00a0 After all, General Welsh’s inspection order may eliminate dirty songs from the squadron computer network, but does that mean pilots can’t shut the door on Friday afternoon and sing them anyway?\u00a0 Is the concern that fighter pilot songbooks are on the squadron network, or that fighter pilots sing those songs at all?\u00a0 In other words, is the fighter pilot culture <\/em>(the Air Force culture?) the target, or simply the public observations <\/em>of it?<\/p>\n

For what its worth, it is unlikely General Welsh ordered his inspection in a vacuum.\u00a0 It is also worth noting that he is likely very <\/em>aware of what the fighter pilot culture contains.\u00a0 After all, Gen Welsh was an A-10 and F-16 pilot, has a callsign<\/a> (“Boomer<\/a>“), and served as the commander<\/a> of F-16 fighter units, including a squadron at Hill AFB and the wing at Kunsan Air Base, Korea — which, due to its remote assignment<\/a> and history, is probably the Mecca of fighter pilot traditions.<\/p>\n

In fact, TSgt Smith was assigned to Kunsan (which generated a complaint in her filing) just three years after Gen Welsh was the wing commander there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most recent articles on the high visibility sexual scandals in the Air Force have focused on charges of sexual assault, largely with reference to the Lackland basic training incidents.\u00a0 Despite a fairly thorough article at the New York Times (which included that topic), almost no one has been talking about Air Force\u00a0Technical Sergeant Jennifer Smith — who is threatening to […]<\/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":[134,3739,2695,4,428,3738,5285,1583,1092,3736,89,2696,1433,2284,2,3737,1970,1701,40],"class_list":["post-20537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fighter-pilot","tag-air-force","tag-boomer","tag-chief-of-staff","tag-churchandstate","tag-doofer-book","tag-dos-gringos","tag-fighter-pilot","tag-fighter-pilot-song","tag-hill-air-force-base","tag-jennifer-smith","tag-korea","tag-kunsan-air-base","tag-lackland-afb","tag-mark-welsh","tag-military","tag-protecting-our-defenders","tag-sexual-assault","tag-shaw-air-force-base","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20537","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=20537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}