AF to end leadership training for LTs
Sure, that makes sense, why would lieutenants need leadership training? I mean they’re already the smartest people on the planet…if you don’t believe me ask one. The Air Force plans on saving $12 million a year by dropping leadership training for the already least-prepared leaders on the planet;
The decision to consolidate the schools came down from the four-stars last month at their summer Corona meeting, held this year at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Cost cutting and course duplication were the primary reasons behind closing [Air and Space Basic Course for lieutenants], according to Col. Terrance McCaffrey, who oversees both programs as commandant of Squadron Officer College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
WTF are the services thinking when they decide that cutting core courses is fiscally sound policy? So their leaders are going to be really just Joes with a college education – they might as well issue them a each case of hand grenades, too. There are millions of things that can be cut out of the budget without shooting retention and performance in the head with this kind of four-star logic. Finding another way to cut 12 million bucks out of their budget – like making four-stars drive themselves to work in the morning.
Category: Military issues
The Navy used to rely on the goat locker to train and develop junior officers. If the AF were moving towards a similar policy, it could be a good thing. But, I doubt it.
Because, by God, they’re OFFICERS. They need NOTHING from lowly enlisted pukes.
Then again, what else do you expect from a branch that has anyone Captain and under fetching coffee and scrubbing shitters?
As a former AF Lt…and later Captain (1988-1995, plus a year in the Reserves) I say “meh”. The Air and Space Basic course wasnt much of a leadership course and it was a lot of redundant info already taught in other courses. Also, not all of the courses were offered to all LTs–it depends on your AFSC.
I think this makes for a snazzy headline, but it is hyperbole and a bit mis-leading.
Also, as an Air Force officer, if the job required me to scrub a toilet or mop a floor that’s what I did. The enlisted men under knew I’d never ask them to do things I wouldn’t do myself. Then again, that had nothing to do with being in the Air Force, but just what basic leadership was about. Something I learned from my enlisted father.
Did the USAF have prima-donna officers who were shitheads? Yep, just like the Navy, Army and Marine Corps does as well. Guess what? I served with some truly outstanding enlisted troops I’d follow into war regardless of rank. There were also pretty shitty enlisted troops I wouldn’t trust to clean a shitter without adult supervision and a helmet.
Good people are good people regardless of rank. Training can help, but it isn’t going to make a crappy leader into a good one.
“see this” *points to butter bar* “what does that tell you?”
“that you don’t know what you’re doing?”
actual interaction at Ft Sam Houston when I was at AIT.
[…] This Ain’t Hell – AF to cut leadership training for LTs. It’s a cost cutting move. In related news Army and Marines are too no longer issue those expensive rifles. […]
As Faith+1 said “Good people are good people regardless of rank. Training can help, but it isn’t going ot make a crappy leader into a good one.”
Granted the good ones are few and far between lately. Could just be because of my career field and they merged the officer AFSC into a big pile of mess. The one’s that are great leaders learn from watching great enlisted and other officers from the beginning anyways.
I had a new Lt come to my platoon as leader, back when. The first thing he did was ignore all of the preaching from the XO, who was an asshole, pull the NCO’s aside, and tell us to teach him how to be an effective officer. Granted, he and one other Lt were the only good leaders we had, the XO, being a ring knocker, knew it all before he got to us, and never failed to tell us that.
Chairborne, blue-suit-wearing corporate civilian pukes… shows where their priorities are.
We had a second lieutenant like that when I was in 2nd Radio Battalion. Talked through clenched teeth all the time as was typical of people from the great white liberal north. He says to me once, “I understand you know a little about weapons. I have some surface rust on my .45 pistol. How do I get it off?” I told him to draw the weapon on Friday, coat it in naval jelly, and turn it in. On Monday there would be no rust present on that weapon. He did as suggested, and sure enough on Monday that weapon had not a speck of rust on it. No parkerizing either. He didn’t get augmented, both for screwing up a weapon, and for trying to blame a Lance Corporal for telling him to do it. I saw that officer later, and told him not to fuck with people who are smarter than him.
re:”As a former AF Lt…and later Captain (1988-1995, plus a year in the Reserves) I say “meh”.”
I second this “meh”. I went through this program which I viewed as primarily a box checking exercise. We sat in a conference room & watchied power point slides about total quality management & then, seemingly apropos of nothing, watched a video of “Dead Poets Society”.
Additionally, since the AF is, relatively speaking, rather officer heavy, LTs & CGOs typcially get assigned minion jobs that are foisted upon enlisted personnel in the Army & Navy, such as gate duty when the MPs are deployed overseas. Hence, they don’t really have an opportunity to lead anyone. My impression is that AF officers typically aren’t given any real authority until they reach field grade level.
As a graduate of ASBC I’m glad they did it finally. Day 1 of the course we were given a “pre-test”–I scored in the 90s. On the last day of class, we took the same exact test. I scored higher, but wish I could have ‘tested out’ of the course. I lost 6-7 wks time with my troops (I was pushing midnight night shift–100 AF & Army Guard). I learned more about leadership from 1 week with my 2 AF and 3 Army Shift Sergeants (3x E-6, 2x E-7, and an amazingly respected E-8) that I learned from the death by powerpoint, morale kill by lesson plan fluster cluck. We basically spent 6 weeks in-figting, drinking and chasing tail in Montgomery (yikes) while re-teaching ROTC/Academy/OTS lessons to a few of the jackasses that got their commission from a crackerjack box. Good riddance to a crappy program.
If the program was crap, then cut it because it is crap OR reform the program to help instill and reinforce leadership skills (i.e. practical exercises). Do not cut a leadership course to save money. There is plenty of bloat in the services that only benefit a small majority at the top that could be cut with no retention backlash.
Can’t they jsut go through “community organizer” training to gain leadership skillz? Worked for the CinC.
*ducks*
“The Air Force plans on saving $12 million a year by dropping leadership training for the already least-prepared leaders on the planet”
Umm… Alcohol & Sex Basic Course ain’t leadership training. All my fellow CGOs who went either came back with hangovers or engaged in falcon love.
And though I may be the “least-prepared leader on the planet” of them all (I skipped it in order to enjoy sooner the great Fairchild view this summer, iykwimaittyd), but at least I’m smart enough to know fraud, waste, and abuse.