Thoughts on a Commissioned Officer Corp?

[Spike]

I never meant to say, or infer, that "officers don't work."  They do.  Their main, though not exclusive, role, is in formulating plans, strategies, etc.

Pick your service.  The main role of USAF officers is pulling the trigger and killing the enemy.  The number of USAF NCOs directly involved in conducting offensive operations and pulling the trigger is very small compared to the USAF Officers directly involved in pulling the trigger.  Check out the manning in a typical fighter squadron and compare the number of officers to enlisted.  US Army and USMC officers lead men into combat - but they are not the primary trigger pullers, their enlisted troops are the primary trigger pullers. 

The main role of CAP officers is doing everything that needs doing since there really is no NCO corps.  Or are you trying to discuss CADET NCOs and Officers roles in a topic concerning Senior Members?

How many actually Air Force Officers are trigger pullers?  Do you have a number compared with the number of AF Chaplains   Doctors   Logistics   Management Officers?  I think there are are more "noncombatant" Air Force Officers than Combatant Officers.  I know the force breakdown, there are more Airman supporting a "fighter squadron" than there are Officers.

Are you telling me Army and Marine Officers are not "trigger pullers"??  There are more Combat Officers in the Army that "pull the trigger" than in the Air Force, Marines and Navy put together.  That is just how it is. 

The Air Force has way too many Officers as it is.   

[OldSalt]

However, I will apologize.

Apology accepted.

It's funny how far off the responses go from the original topic. Then there's Ned the "post stat keeper" to set you straight on how well you're doing on the forum.    Thanks Ned, I better hurry up and post more in the other categories so I can earn your respect.

Anyway, for my part, I think I'm done with this thread now, especially in light of not even agreeing with my own initial premise of the commissioned officer corps.    Thanks everyone for your participation.

[Ned]

. Then there's Ned the "post stat keeper" to set you straight on how well you're doing on the forum.    Thanks Ned, I better hurry up and post more in the other categories so I can earn your respect.

I prefer to think of myself as a "troll avoider."

You're not the first or last guy to come aboard with strong opinions about uniforms and things like commissions.  Usually they are honorable volunteers like yourself who have been waiting for a while to say something.

But sometimes people come to CT or CS to provoke discussion for the sake of discussion rather than to teach, learn, or improve the organization through dialogue.  When I see contraversial postions taken by folks relatively new on the boards, I usually take a peek at their past posts.  If every single one of their posts is about uniforms, for instance, that allows me to make some inferences and understand where the poster is "coming from", so to speak.

Because as others have pointed out, uniforms (and commissions for that matter) are just tools that let us perform our missions more effectively.  If a uniform change would help us get our job done better, we can and should discuss it.

But all too often members get more excited about the clothes they are wearing than the mission they are performing.  It is almost like uniforms become and end to themselves for some of us.  That can be problematic when we spend more time arguing about who can wear what color of pants than we do about things that actually matter to our stakeholders, training and mentoring cadets, or training to perform actual emergency services.

So yes, if you care about earning my respect, consider posting on other topics and contributing to moving the ball forward.

(But as you have undoubtedly noticed, few if any posters seem to care much about earning my respect.   And they may well be right.)

Ned Lee

[Short Field]

The Air Force has way too many Officers as it is.   

Thank you for your well thought out and documented comments.

[Dracosbane]

But all too often members get more excited about the clothes they are wearing than the mission they are performing.  It is almost like uniforms become and end to themselves for some of us.  That can be problematic when we spend more time arguing about who can wear what color of pants than we do about things that actually matter to our stakeholders, training and mentoring cadets, or training to perform actual emergency services.

Ned, my thinking on this is to agree with whomever said earlier in this thread that not everything discussed on CAP Talk is discussed IRL.  I don't normally go discussing the latest uniform controversies and gossip regularly while doing my job at my unit.  Generally I'm focused on what's going on at that point.  I'm guessing that that's the case most of the time, and that CAP Talk is used exactly for what it turns out to be, people griping and postulating and whatnot on the things they don't discuss while getting the mission done.

YMMV

[tdepp]

I never meant to say, or infer, that "officers don't work."  They do.

Thank you. I will buy you a Coke the first time we meet! 

My thought on the topic at hand is: It is what it is. Rank in CAP means what rank in CAP means.

v/r

But, but, but Lt. Col., we want EVERYONE to RESPECT OUR AUTHORITY like a bunch of Senior Member Eric Cartmans.   

[Eclipse]

But all too often members get more excited about the clothes they are wearing than the mission they are performing.  It is almost like uniforms become and end to themselves for some of us.  That can be problematic when we spend more time arguing about who can wear what color of pants than we do about things that actually matter to our stakeholders, training and mentoring cadets, or training to perform actual emergency services.

This is because the baseline is a moving target, is enforced without uniformity, trained inconsistently, and in the end everything
is on our nickel.

Fix any one of those and the grossing is reduced, fix all and it goes away.

Lock down and/or limit the styles, and it becomes easier to figure things out.

Enforce all the rules in the same way for all, and we're in the same boat.

Make sure unit CC's and their designates are held responsible with consequences for being knowledgeable about uniforms and acting as a mentor to new members.

...or simply issue us our uniforms and then change whatever you want, whenever you want because we'd have nothing to complain about...

Most of our members want to present a professional image for both themselves and the corporation, and have clothing options that fit the mission without looking like goobers or security guards.  The other 1%'ers that just can't be bothered would pop up no matter what we do and the military and civilian agencies have the same issues there.

[tdepp]

On a more serious note, we join because we want to serve. And as others have mentioned, the uniform discussion is rather a distraction.

Yesterday, I was a MS and aerial photographer for flooding sorties we're doing for the State of SD.  We worked our tails off: Up early, took photos, landed to upload and tag, up in the air again, repeat, home at 2000.  Lunch was a gobbled down stale gas station sandwich while I was uploading photos to ARGUS from an FBO on a laptop.  We were redirected a couple of times to view and photograph critical flooding situations that suddenly arose. 

It was a stressful, difficult, long, fun, and satisfying day helping my state and its citizens, if only just a bit.

And our crew?  Our pilot is our former wing commander.  He's an older gentleman but still extremely fit and former military  What did he wear? CAP polo shirt, gray slacks, black shoes, civilian coat.  Our MS? Our new squadron CC, former ANG, a member for just a few years, like me, in his 50s, but could still kick guys' butts half his age.  He wore the sage green flight suit and flight cap with matching flight jacket. 

And me?  Fatboy that I am, wore my blue CAP flight suit and CAP ballcap and matching flight jacket. 

Did each of us wearing a different uniform get in the way of the mission?  No.  As a new aircrew member, I like all the pockets in the flight suit for all my stuff.  Were people confused?  Not as far as I can tell.  The folks we met either understood we were CAP--my CC and I had our names and CAP on our flight suit badges--or thought we might be ANG or USAF.  We just told them who we were and what we were doing and they were appreciative that we were doing it.

No big deal.

It's function over form, fellow babies.  Get the job done.  Serve our communities and nation.  Get trained and get to work!  That's the most satisfying thing about CAP in my opinion.