Gato_Solo
Out-freaking-standing OTC member
War isn’t a pleasant thing, yet there is something to be said about being in the military in wartime. I’ve done ten years in the Air Force during peacetime conditions. Well, not really “peacetime” conditions. The nation itself was at peace, but we barely let up after the Gulf War. There was the Kurd Relief, Bosnia I, Hurricane Andrew Relief, Somalia, Mississippi Flood Relief, Haiti, Bosnia II, Kosovo, Operation Whack-A-Mole (throwing cruise missiles at Saddam whenever a President’s in political trouble) and a host of other operations running concurrently with each other and in addition to our normal peacetime tasking during the last decade. We’ve also been the targets of terrorist attacks ranging from truck bombings to kidnappings and assassinations. We’ve not been idle by any means, nor have we been out of harm’s way. Now it’s different. Terrorists have moved beyond blowing up embassy and military personnel overseas and have attacked Americans right here at home. Now the nation is at war. Well, that’s not really true. The military is currently involved in hostilities, but the country itself is chugging merrily along. There’s been no conversion of industry to wartime production, no rationing, no wartime economic steps and (most importantly) no draft. This probably accounts for the massive support the war and the President is receiving. When you’re not asked to sacrifice anything, it’s easy to support a war.
The military is currently involved in a sort of quasi-war. People have been deployed, FOB’s have been established, and we’re occasionally shooting and bombing people. Not much different than the last decade, except it’s greater in magnitude than past operations but not as great as the Gulf War build-up. So I amend my initial statement: There’s something, but not much, to be said about being in the military during quasi-sorta-not quite wartime. In this sort of environment, it’s better to be one of the deployed than one of those left behind working 12 + hour shifts with little time off. Being deployed may not seem to be that great, but I’ll explain to you why it is. There’s almost no Bullshit. All the crap you have to put up with during peacetime and at your duty station is virtually non-existent.
In wartime, all that matters is getting the job done. Just get it done. Here’s the mission, now accomplish as efficiently and as quickly as possible. Those that get in the way or are a detriment to the mission are gone. Certain rules and ways of doing things in peacetime can be ignored in the interests of mission accomplishment. In a nutshell, that’s how things are when you’re deployed. Peacetime, however, is a whole different ballgame. Since most people aren’t doing their wartime tasking, they have to do extra things to get decorations, receive good performance reports, and just get noticed period. War is a great crucible when it comes to bullshit. Those who are the best at accomplishing the mission are rewarded and recognized. Those who fail are cast out. All the unnecessary bullshit is burned away until all you are left are those things that are absolutely necessary to accomplish the mission.
It’s in peacetime that Bullshit is allowed to flourish because everyone is trying their damndest to justify their existence. Everyone’s doing the same job in support of bland, generic crap, so you have to go that extra mile in order to get noticed and get that bullet on your next EPR/OPR. Since there is no wartime tasking to prove yourself, you have to initiate a new program, re-organize an existing function or eliminate a working one. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be that grandiose. You can be the guy who just throws out ideas at the morning meeting to impress your bosses. You have to do whatever it takes to separate yourself from the rest of the pack. At the end of all this, you have a bloated and ridiculous system in place that’s inefficient and confusing as all hell. Right now, there’s an Airman out there in the world wondering why it has to be so damn hard to do “X”. Why? Because MSgt. Busybody needed that fifth bullet on his EPR to reduce “white space” about six or seven years ago. Now imagine the efforts of MSgt. Busybody increased by a factor of a 1000 over a period of years and you get a good idea of how screwed up working in peacetime can be. Being deployed is a great way to get away from all that. The only people around are those who actually need to be there, and things are set-up so everything proceeds as smoothly and efficiently as possible. For example, if you have an EPR due, you can hack one out and give it to your supervisor. He’ll revise it and give it to his supervisor who in turn will give it to the Commanding Officer. It might get sent back for minor changes, but the process is speedy and efficient. That EPR didn’t have to go through the hands of every Tom, Dick, and Harry in your squadron for their suggested revisions (there’s that “justify your existence” thing again). It didn’t get sent back five or six times for rewrite after rewrite before finally making its way to the Commander for his signature. That’s your bloated and inefficient bureaucracy at work right there. I can go on and on with a host of examples, but I think you catch my drift.
It sounds harsh to say this, but it’s too bad this war hasn’t taken over the nation like WWII did. It would go along way toward clearing out a lot of the deadwood and ineffiency currently in the system and would help us run things more smoothly for a few years before people started feeling the need to justify their existence once again. As it is, this sorta war is just another medium-sized deployment that won’t clean out and revolutionize anything. There’s no opportunity for risk takers everywhere to shine, rather it’s the risk averse back home that will continue to flourish and make decisions. The country deserves better than that.
I know what he's talking about when he says 'dead wood'. I'm in the middle of writing an EPR for one of my troops right now.
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