The Air Force Went Woke, Its Planes Won’t Fly

At least we have diversity in fighter aircraft. Some fly and some don't.

Just imagine ACM Sir Hugh Dowding enforcing race, 'gender' and sexual orientation goals ahead of fighter readiness in the summer of 1940. We'd all be speaking German!

Sorry to say this, but every thing woke, states, cities and now the Air Force are being run into the ground by the same type of people. Some folks just aren’t cut out to lead successfully - Obama proved that.

I would be the first to acknowledge that I don't know the "exact" qualifications of these men, Gen. Austin, Gen. Brown, Sgt. Wright, and others . . . but I would offer up the idea that they were picked because of their skin color. Much so, as the anticipated selection of a Supreme Court nominee . . . color and gender reign supreme, qualification(s) be damned. I may be completely wrong, but . . . I'm jes. sayin', being "woke" in this current world goes a long way in some people's mind. That would include our Senators!

An airplane that won’t fly is a great weapon against global warming. Plus an airplane that flies is racist. And sexist. Gender fluid airplanes would not be fixed wing.

Don't even get me started on blacks in the military. I've probably met two good ones in my career.

But, we need more planes, ships and vehicles that we can't keep in service. Maybe that's the reason we left all that loot behind for the Taliban.

The Chicoms are going to give our "armed forces" one hell of a wakeup call.

First, airplanes that don't fly break faster than aircraft that do. Second, lack of spare parts results in cannibalization of broke aircraft and increases the workload on mechanics, increases the need for even more spare parts because removing and replacing parts results in breaking the cannibalized parts when removing or when replacing them. Third, stress builds up in units that must resort to cannibalization and effects everyone from the line mechanic to the commander. Sometimes it isn't the mechanic that can't keep aircraft mission ready, but rather the inferiority of the parts in the aircraft. I remember a rather sophisticated aircraft with a rather essential part that kept failing. The manufacturer was contractually obligated to supply the part to have a "mean time between failure" of 250 hours. The Air Force bought spares based on that MTBF. The parts failed regularly at around 45 minutes. The manufacturer's answer - it's not our fault AF mechanics aren't capable of maintaining the part. That wasn't true, spares weren't available, and mission ready rates were around 45%. When the AF contracted with the manufacturer for on-site mechanics the MTBF failed to improve very much. The lesson learned was sophistication sometimes looks good on paper and sounds good during briefings but the costs are far too great. Unfortunately, generals become generals on the backs of their troops. When they reach a certain number of stars they get caught up in the politics of Washington and lose sight of the troops and their welfare. They need something to make their mark so in the old days they fiddled with the uniforms, but today they fiddle with common sense and morale. New uniforms can be purchased, but once they've torn the fabric of unit cohesion it's over.

When merit in promotions and hiring are gone, which is what 'diversity' actually means, you have incompetents in critical positions. And then nothing works any more. Enjoy your 'diversity'. Let's hope that a wing doesn't fall off if you manage to get the aircraft into the air. That 'diverse' person might not think that he/she/it had time to spend checking those wing attach bolts - too busy with hating the white folks.

Kaleth Wright was the CMSAF under prior CSAF David Goldfein. He posted an angry black man manifesto in the wake of the miscreant George Floyd's death--in an official capacity, mind you. This dental admin NCO had a history of spouting off, totally out of line, in public with a LOTS of incendiary racial comments. And he got away with it. Guess why? The current CMSAF, Jo Ann Bass, is no better. The Air Force touts her bona fides as the first female CMSAF and she cannot help herself playing the identity politics game...as well as the gall to call J6 an "insurrection". If these pieces of work are typical of the Air Force's senior enlisted corps, we are in serious trouble.

This should cause heads to roll--but today's leaders are not so much. In my day as a USAF aircraft maintenance officer, mission readiness rates for our aircraft were in the +90% range and that was on 30+ year old C-130 aircraft. If we ever dipped below even 85%, you would have seen a major overhaul in personnel. Today's Air Force is a total W-O-K-E J-O-K-E...and the ChiComs know it.

Back in rhe day, we maintained OR rates of 90%.

Oops ... back in the day....

But, but . . . we can hit our enemies with the "diversity" "weapon" when war breaks out. There, take that, China!!

This article make me incredibly sad. I think of all of the bright eyed, enthusiastic, patriotic kids that show up every year to attend West Point or Annapolis or the United States Air Force Academy. They are committed to a career that could, in the end, demand the ultimate sacrifice. My admiration for them is unbounded. Then I think of the Generals in the Pentagon that are selling them out.

my dad who gave his youth, two wars and 30 years to the USAF would be so unbelievably sad over what it has become.

I have faith in our men.

Chickens have finally come home to roost with this lousy diversity and wokeness BS.