Obama Nominates 1st NON-PILOT to Command Air Force in Pacific (BTW it's a Woman)

[rocsteady]

Lots of back and forth going on but in light of pretty close to 99.9% of the things done under the current administration being anything but good for the country, can you blame anyone who's paying attention for being skeptical?

[ramairthree]

Woof, woof.

This discussion is ALL about the nominee being a woman and has ZERO to do with her not being a pilot. If the nominee was a man, it wouldn't even be news.

A couple of members have actually known the officer in question or bothered to examine her service record. The rest are just raggin' on women and social engineering and the various and sundry delusions of fevered minds.

Actually, pretty much my whole post was about the quals.

You get bitching and moaning when a MAN, PILOT is put in command of, say, SOCOM.

There are also a ton of AF Intel personnel and various others groups that did not make it to being a pilot that are thrilled there is one less slot for the man to keep them down.

But those of you that think there is no social engineering involved in senior GO selections except for delusions...

I suspect some of the issues/slots are too subtle for some to really get it. The most blatant example I can pic is:


Do you truly think a female nurse that had to be doctored up a trip to a combat zone for a patch had the background/CV to get selected for surgeon general- aside from them not even being a doctor-
than the doc that jumped into combat with Rangers, was the on ground command surgeon for Somalia, division surgeon for the 82nd, and commanded hospitals and medical regions?

[Grand58742]

Actually, pretty much my whole post was about the quals.

You get bitching and moaning when a MAN, PILOT is put in command of, say, SOCOM.

There are also a ton of AF Intel personnel and various others groups that did not make it to being a pilot that are thrilled there is one less slot for the man to keep them down.

But those of you that think there is no social engineering involved in senior GO selections except for delusions...

I suspect some of the issues/slots are too subtle for some to really get it. The most blatant example I can pic is:


Do you truly think a female nurse that had to be doctored up a trip to a combat zone for a patch had the background/CV to get selected for surgeon general- aside from them not even being a doctor-
than the doc that jumped into combat with Rangers, was the on ground command surgeon for Somalia, division surgeon for the 82nd, and commanded hospitals and medical regions?

So can you say without a doubt this person is unqualified to hold that position?

Commanded a Wing tasked with control and dominance of airspace, commanded the Coalition Forces Air Component in an active combat theater. Vice Commander of the Major Command that is responsible for all fighter, tactical strike and close air support missions...obviously her qualifications are suspect.

This whole thing reeks of two items. First, the pilot mafia is going to scream and cry about it as I already noticed in the article. Second, the sexism is rampant.

I challenge anyone on here to give a valid reason why Lt Gen Robinson shouldn't be in that position. Other than "not a pilot" or "is a woman."

[montanadave]

Do you truly think a female nurse that had to be doctored up a trip to a combat zone for a patch had the background/CV to get selected for surgeon general- aside from them not even being a doctor-
than the doc that jumped into combat with Rangers, was the on ground command surgeon for Somalia, division surgeon for the 82nd, and commanded hospitals and medical regions?

I haven't looked into the records/qualifications of the individuals considered for the post of Surgeon General, so I cannot speak to their respective strengths or weaknesses. However, I fail to see why combat experience makes an individual more suited for managing the Public Health Service.

[3 AE]

That's crazy. Why would they make a nun the head of the FAA?

OMG! That is just plain funny! Now I got to wipe down my computer screen dripping with morning coffee.

[ramairthree]

I haven't looked into the records/qualifications of the individuals considered for the post of Surgeon General, so I cannot speak to their respective strengths or weaknesses. However, I fail to see why combat experience makes an individual more suited for managing the Public Health Service.

Surgeon General of The Army

[montanadave]

Surgeon General of The Army

Thanks for the correction. I misunderstood the reference in your previous post.

[KTR03]

having a general in charge of veterans administration's worked out really well for the veterans because he had combat experience. Oh wait ...

There seems to be a lot of the old boy, pilot focused culture raising hell about a qualified person being elevated to a high-level. See this more and more in the Air Force as pilots are going to become less and less relevant overtime.

[skydivr]

How about we start with the assumption that she is qualified, instead of the automatic assumption that she isn't because of her gender. Did Colin Powell benefit from being African American? Very probably. Was he still outstanding? Very probably. The two are not mutually exclusive. How many unqualified men have been promoted by the old boy network who were not qualified, simply because they were one of the guys? I know of many... Interesting that no outrage follows. The assumption that the status quo is a meritocracy devoid of bias and that seeking to actively promote highly qualified minorities and woman undermines that meritocracy doesn't hold much water. Additionally, given the role of senior leadership, being a brilliant pilot doesn't mean you can handle the larger organization any more than being a brilliant beat cop qualified you to be the director of the FBI.

I am not advocating diversity for the sake of diversity, but diversity is important to ensure broad decision making. I work in a company of over 100,000 people that has really suffered from group think. You put a the same bunch of super smart, white, straight, techie men between 30 and 50 in a room, guess what you get group think. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn't. Diverse opinions, diverse life experience, diverse educational backgrounds (as long as folks are qualified) is a source of strength, not a source of weakness.

Just the perspective of a straight, white, middle aged, middle of the road male that is as non diverse as they come.

If she'd had previous seat time (given that every other officer selected for this position had) I wouldn't have questioned it....it would seem, that up until now, this was a pre-requisite for the job....

[MountainRaven]

I, for one, do not believe that we should be pulling pilots out of cockpits and putting them in trailers with game controllers. However, knowing folks who are not pilots in the Air Force and folks who are pilots in the other branches: It seems that most pilots - fighter pilots, at least - have a god complex. And while it's pretty bad in, say, the Marines, it's down-right horrid in the Air Force.

So the idea that all of this rage coming out of the Air Force is just the pilots venting about a non-pilot getting a position... yeah, that tracks with me.

If she'd had previous seat time (given that every other officer selected for this position had) I wouldn't have questioned it....it would seem, that up until now, this was a pre-requisite for the job....

Why would you think that? That's like saying that given the fact that every PotUS in history has been at least half-white and male, that being at least 50% white and male are prerequisites to becoming PotUS.