Pansies

I sincerely apologize for not posting in so long. I've had a lot of work to do at work, which has been going late a lot, and to be honest, I've just been a bit lazy here at home with all the extra work and stress going on.

Let's see, what's happened since my last post? We had another "exercise," and then had the actual Inspection, called an ORI (Operational Readiness Inspection). We got an outstanding on that inspection, which is the highest rating you can get. According to the base newspaper, it was the first outstanding in Air Combat Command (my MAJCOM) in 4 years, and according to my flight commander, it was the first in over 12 years. I don't know which one is right, and I don't really care to be honest, I'm just glad its over.

Also spent a lot of time on training and preparation for the upcoming deployment. You wouldn't believe all the red tape BS and hoops we have to jump through just to get our orders, let alone the actual departure. We can't pack everything up until the last minute because they wan't us to wear the uniforms we are taking, or they want us to take other equipment in for inspection to make sure the stuff is ready to go because they don't believe us when we say it is.

It's amazing the way the Air Force treats its people. I went in to zero out my M-16 the other day (that is to make sure the sights are alinged properly so I can actually hit what I'm aiming at) and instead of treating us like adults, they treat us like babies. If they trust us to shoot these rifles, and to carry them and all that, why do they act like we have no idea what the heck we're doing. If no one is down range, what does it matter if I step up to my weapon to make sure my safety is on? But I got corrected for doing so. In the Air Force, anytime your weapon jams, the instructors want to watch you fix the problem in case you need help. If I were in the Army or the Marines and I raised my hand to ask for help, I'd get told to fix the dang thing myself. After all, if I were in the field, and my weapon jammed, is it really smart to raise my hand and call out to my CO that my weapon is jammed? No, I'd have the enemy on my in a heartbeat.

The Air Force babies us a lot. It's my primary complaint about this branch. For example, We are expected to be able to withstand sub human living conditions, fight wars, and survive the possible capture by enemy soldiers, but we can be severely punished for doing something as simple as telling a joke that someone might be offended by. I garuntee you that if I can't handle a few racial, sexual, religious, or otherwise discriminatory jokes, then I stand no chance of withstanding the pressures of war and deployment. It's no wonder the other branches laugh at us, we have all these rules and regulations that require to be treated like pansies, as well as treat others as if they're pansies too. It's really rediculous.

In any case, My deployment draws close. In fact, the next time I post to this blog, which won't be anywhere near as long as this last amount of time, I shall be in Iraq.

Well, I'll be off for now.