Ken Stallings
April 25th, 2010, 16:10
The USAF is promising to conduct Operational Readiness Inspections (ORI's) more frequently and make the grading tougher.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/04/airforce_inspections_042510w/
This sounds noble, and I would agree that for a unit which hasn't been in combat recently it is vital to measure the operational skills before they deploy.
However, to offer a countering view for balance sake, all of my previous squadrons in AFSOC have pretty much been in a constant state of war operations since late 2001. When I participated in ORI's during the Cold War, it was designed to measure your ability to perform a war time mission that you knew you were assigned to perform if the "balloon" went up. Moreover, you conducted peacetime training to prepare to execute that mission.
It made perfect sense.
However, contrast that situation with what is being faced today. Since 2001 we have been in a constant state of war. There is nothing cold about it. Further, some units have literally been at war execution for continuous years. My squadron before I retired has without an ounce of exaggeration been at war operations every single day for every single year for nearly six years!
I will say that again because at first glance it sounds preposterous. But, it is true. My previous squadron stood up in fall of 2005. Since then, it hasn't gone a single day without flying multiple combat sorties! Further, the entire squadron was flying those combat missions.
Shortly before my retirement, I was sitting in on a command-level discussion. The theme of that discussion was how would the squadron support an ORI without it destracting us from our daily combat missions!
Think about that for a moment! You talk about bizzare reasoning!
Part of an ORI is to measure your ability to support your war sorties with on time launches. Well, my previous squadron has an already measured record over 5.5 years of over 11,000 combat sorties, each of them having a fixed time for takeoff. Each sortie being scheduled for 22 hours! That's well over 250,000 combat hours flown by a single squadron!
The discussion we had came down to how can we ensure these inspectors all have the required security clearances to even sit in on the missions. And, what happens if something happens they don't like! We cannot cancel the sortie. It's actual combat!
Furthermore, what does one do if the inspectors decree that the squadron is failing? Do they take us out of combat? If so, it would be the first days my former squadron went without combat in nearly six years! When we have a plane crash in combat, we didn't even stand down for a safety day. We had a replacement aircraft readied within two hours and had to use a spare cockpit to support it. Our only concern was to ready the standby alert crew to replace the normal crew that had to report to the flight surgeon for required post accident blood and urine tests!
Again, how do you give an ORI to a unit on such an operational footing?
For people who find what I just described a bit bizzare, then I sympathize with your plight. I lived it for every single one of those days and yet looking back on it I find it bizzare as I type the description. Want another idea? In those nearly six years, I took only three total weeks of leave! That's why I had over 100 days of accumulated leave and even though I took 90 of them as terminal, I still have more left that the USAF will simply pay me for in my final active duty check!
Personally, from the time the unit's flag stood up on 11 September 2005 (yes, we deliberately selected that day to stand up my former squadron) until I retired on 30 April 2010 (yes, not yet here), I was the aircraft commander for 1,138 combat sorties for 2,516 combat hours. This captured 654 terrorists, including 62 commanders. I went on terminal leave on 1 February 2010, and my last sortie was flown on the third week of January 2010. This doesn't include the hours and sorties I flew for a previous two units while in AFSOC. I think that would bring the tally up to around 3,200 combat hours over 1,700 combat sorties. In case you wish to know, I consider my combat record in my former unit to be average given my seniority in the squadron!
I respectfully submit to the senior leadership of the USAF, that neither I nor my comrades in my current squadron need to have their operational readiness measured!
Cheers,
Ken
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/04/airforce_inspections_042510w/
This sounds noble, and I would agree that for a unit which hasn't been in combat recently it is vital to measure the operational skills before they deploy.
However, to offer a countering view for balance sake, all of my previous squadrons in AFSOC have pretty much been in a constant state of war operations since late 2001. When I participated in ORI's during the Cold War, it was designed to measure your ability to perform a war time mission that you knew you were assigned to perform if the "balloon" went up. Moreover, you conducted peacetime training to prepare to execute that mission.
It made perfect sense.
However, contrast that situation with what is being faced today. Since 2001 we have been in a constant state of war. There is nothing cold about it. Further, some units have literally been at war execution for continuous years. My squadron before I retired has without an ounce of exaggeration been at war operations every single day for every single year for nearly six years!
I will say that again because at first glance it sounds preposterous. But, it is true. My previous squadron stood up in fall of 2005. Since then, it hasn't gone a single day without flying multiple combat sorties! Further, the entire squadron was flying those combat missions.
Shortly before my retirement, I was sitting in on a command-level discussion. The theme of that discussion was how would the squadron support an ORI without it destracting us from our daily combat missions!
Think about that for a moment! You talk about bizzare reasoning!
Part of an ORI is to measure your ability to support your war sorties with on time launches. Well, my previous squadron has an already measured record over 5.5 years of over 11,000 combat sorties, each of them having a fixed time for takeoff. Each sortie being scheduled for 22 hours! That's well over 250,000 combat hours flown by a single squadron!
The discussion we had came down to how can we ensure these inspectors all have the required security clearances to even sit in on the missions. And, what happens if something happens they don't like! We cannot cancel the sortie. It's actual combat!
Furthermore, what does one do if the inspectors decree that the squadron is failing? Do they take us out of combat? If so, it would be the first days my former squadron went without combat in nearly six years! When we have a plane crash in combat, we didn't even stand down for a safety day. We had a replacement aircraft readied within two hours and had to use a spare cockpit to support it. Our only concern was to ready the standby alert crew to replace the normal crew that had to report to the flight surgeon for required post accident blood and urine tests!
Again, how do you give an ORI to a unit on such an operational footing?
For people who find what I just described a bit bizzare, then I sympathize with your plight. I lived it for every single one of those days and yet looking back on it I find it bizzare as I type the description. Want another idea? In those nearly six years, I took only three total weeks of leave! That's why I had over 100 days of accumulated leave and even though I took 90 of them as terminal, I still have more left that the USAF will simply pay me for in my final active duty check!
Personally, from the time the unit's flag stood up on 11 September 2005 (yes, we deliberately selected that day to stand up my former squadron) until I retired on 30 April 2010 (yes, not yet here), I was the aircraft commander for 1,138 combat sorties for 2,516 combat hours. This captured 654 terrorists, including 62 commanders. I went on terminal leave on 1 February 2010, and my last sortie was flown on the third week of January 2010. This doesn't include the hours and sorties I flew for a previous two units while in AFSOC. I think that would bring the tally up to around 3,200 combat hours over 1,700 combat sorties. In case you wish to know, I consider my combat record in my former unit to be average given my seniority in the squadron!
I respectfully submit to the senior leadership of the USAF, that neither I nor my comrades in my current squadron need to have their operational readiness measured!
Cheers,
Ken