Page 1 of 2

I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:27 am
by Vonz90

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:44 am
by Rich
No Vonz, they don't. :roll:

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:47 am
by Jericho941
Rich wrote:No Vonz, they don't. :roll:
Really, Vonz? You wanna throw shade when your branch of service has been busy losing at bumper cars all up and down the South China Sea?

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 3:31 am
by 308Mike
Jericho941 wrote:
Rich wrote:No Vonz, they don't. :roll:
Really, Vonz? You wanna throw shade when your branch of service has been busy losing at bumper cars all up and down the South China Sea?
Yeah, but at least they fired the 3-star in charge citing a "Failure of leadership at the highest levels" - hopefully bringing a screeching halt to Obama-like suck-heads in ALL the services, perhaps making the more PC and gutless of the upper-levels of leadership (YES, I SAID LEADERSHIP and NOT management) want to take early retirement and make room for some of the better MILITARY LEADERS, and certainly NOT like the ones running West Point for the last several years!!

Jericho, are you on Facebook? If so, perhaps you might want to follow the retired Commander/Skipper of the USS Cole at the time of the bombing (Commander Kirk Lippold - on Facebook), who's had some pretty harsh criticism of upper Navy leadership and how much things have slid backwards since he took his first deployment, and compared the training they used to get then to what they get now (get handed a CD and told to review it while underway in addition to all their required duties), verses the classroom training and tests they endured PRIOR to getting underway HIS FIRST TIME - WAY BACK THEN.

Here's one for ya' (Fox News video - Former USS Cole commander on the USS McCain crash)

Just search out Kirk Lippold's comments to the media regarding the failures of the Navy's leadership over the years.
______________________________________________________

FYI - Commander Lippold posted this to Facebook approx 15 hours ago:
Once again, it appears that the defense team and judges involved in the USS COLE case against al Nashiri in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are engaged in unethical legal tactics to delay justice.

It's been seventeen years without justice. The defense team should be compelled to stay on the case or have their licenses to practice law revoked throughout the United States. Enough is enough.

We are at war with terrorists and the Military Commissions process is a legal and internationally recognized forum to prosecute and convict these individuals. The lawyers and judges in this case treat it as more of an academic exercise in the practice of law instead of a timely act of justice. They don't seem to care about justice and what they are doing is tantamount to cruel and unusual torture for the crew and families.

Link to News Story (Miami Herald)

Image
The U.S. Navy released this view of damage sustained on the port side of the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Cole after a suspected terrorist bomb exploded during a refueling operation in the port of Aden, Yemen, on Oct. 12, 2000. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Doncha' just LOVE how they use the word SUSPECTED when describing the terrorist ASSHOLES who bombed the USS Cole????

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:45 pm
by Vonz90
Jericho941 wrote:
Rich wrote:No Vonz, they don't. :roll:
Really, Vonz? You wanna throw shade when your branch of service has been busy losing at bumper cars all up and down the South China Sea?
1. I am more than happy to criticize the Nav when warranted and do here all the time.

2. The AF does seem to have a ribbon for everything.

3. There is a significant anti religious strain in the AF for some reason- note the lawsuits at the AFA etc. I am not close enough to know why, but far from the only one to notice it. As an aside- the only practicing Satan worshiper I have ever met was as AF LtCol, he claimed there were lots of them in the AF but I would not count out lying from a Satan worshiper. If true though it could be related.

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:46 pm
by randy
Vonz90 wrote:2. The AF does seem to have a ribbon for everything.
I've been hearing this from Navy types since the 80's. So it's not just Vonz.

When I was at CINCPAC HQ at Camp Smith Hawaii, they observed Aloha Friday's (locals wore aloha shirts or mumus to work) by having everyone dress up their daily uniform (Navy wore whites, Army AF and Marines wore their ribbons on their normal office uniforms).

Now, this was already a bone of contention with the AF members as a general rule we didn't wear ribbons on anything other than the uniform blouse (Combination 1/Class A/whatever they are calling it today). And you pretty much never saw an officer wearing ribbons on a shirt unless they were prior-enlisted.

Then to add to the aggravation we caught flack from the Squids when we went along with this silliness about the number of ribbons we had. Part of that was the Navy had a "top 3" rule that they could just wear the top 3 highest precedence ribbons and just have one row on their uniforms. (Some of the senior personnel had just as much fruit salad as the AF types, they just didn't have to wear it all) The AF had no such rule (which we were constantly reminding them when they brought it up); wear them all or none of them. so we caught flack for pimping our uniforms doing something we didn't want to do because an Admiral had decreed that we do so.

It was real PITA to maintain 2 ribbon racks, the mandatory one for my Blouse, and the Aloha Friday rack (cause you just know if you didn't you'd have some occasion to wear dress blues on Aloha Friday and have to swap one rack back and forth).

Now, I did stir the pot somewhat as, since I was at a Joint Command, I found out that if I scored appropriately in the regular Navy Ribbon shoots held on the island, I could wear the Navy ribbons and have them in my AF records. So in addition to the regular "excessive" fruit salad of a Zoomie I had Navy Expert Rifle and Pistol ribbons. Which annoyed several of my favorite squids because 1. they had never been able to score expert, and 2. being "other service" ribbons, were at the bottom of precedence on my rack, below the AF Training Ribbon*. :mrgreen:

(* The Air Force Training Ribbon, issued to everyone graduating from Basic or Commissioning training. The same relation to an actual award as a training bra has to the real thing).

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:25 pm
by Rich
Vonz, nothing personal, just snark for snark.

During my boat ride on Yankee Station (67-68). I (and 24 other Air Farce pukes) were awarded a Navy ribbon for outstanding service (as were all the Navy pukes too). When we got back to the realm of dry land and runways, at every yearly records review the mention of that award would have disappeared and I would have to drag out my (badly) mimeographed copy of my notification of the award and make them re-insert it. Yeah, it wasn't really that important, just a "I was there" award, but it was a bit unusual, and it was mine.

Awards for enlisted Air Force in the field aren't that plentiful. Unless you work in a headquarters or are aircrew. I've seen both some retiring senior enlisted and officers who spent their entire careers in headquarters duty with ribbons that didn't quit until they were over the shoulder and down the back (just kidding.). Anyhow, awards are just like promotions were in the pre Cuban Crises Air Force (and Navy, Army and Marines).

I'll shut up now.

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:59 pm
by TheArmsman
randy wrote:
Vonz90 wrote:2. The AF does seem to have a ribbon for everything.
I've been hearing this from Navy types since the 80's. So it's not just Vonz.

When I was at CINCPAC HQ at Camp Smith Hawaii, they observed Aloha Friday's (locals wore aloha shirts or mumus to work) by having everyone dress up their daily uniform (Navy wore whites, Army AF and Marines wore their ribbons on their normal office uniforms).

Now, this was already a bone of contention with the AF members as a general rule we didn't wear ribbons on anything other than the uniform blouse (Combination 1/Class A/whatever they are calling it today). And you pretty much never saw an officer wearing ribbons on a shirt unless they were prior-enlisted.
When were you at Camp Smith? I was there at CG FMFPAC communication center 88 - 89.

For the Marines, the uniform you are talking about are known as "Charlies." Vast majority of the time the are worn with ribbons only. And if are in a service uniform, you always wore ribbons. Rarely would we wear ribbons and badges on the Charlie uniform.

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 8:41 pm
by randy
TheArmsman wrote:When were you at Camp Smith? I was there at CG FMFPAC communication center 88 - 89.
I was at IPAC (dual hatted as part of CINCPAC J2) 89-90. My shop moved to Hickam in late 90 as part of standing up a BDA cell during DESERT SHIELD and merged with several other units to become JICPAC in 91.

Re: I bet the Air Farce has a ribbon for this

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 8:53 pm
by randy
My ribbon count was boosted by having had moved around quite a bit (CINCPAC was my longest tour, 3 years) with the mandatory (if you wanted to be competitive at the promotion board) "Didn't screw up" AF Commendation medal at the end of each tour, coupled with various "there I was" ribbons (Overseas tour, longevity (4 years active duty), NDSM, one for so long on active duty with a reserve commission, a couple of unit awards and the aforementioned training ribbon

The only ones that I really felt were accomplishments that I would brag about were the AF Commendation I got for my work in Korea, the Joint Service Commendation for my work at CINCPAC, my Air Medal, and the AF and Navy shooting awards. And to be fair the Commendation and Air Medals had more to do with the quality and accomplishments of my troops than anything I did.

Just for grins here's what I had when I left active duty (which I realize may well be playing right into validating Vonz's original snark) :D :
Ribbon Rack.jpg