Tag Archives: 911th

Chapter 62, “Numbers”

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I’m a math guy.  Not that I’m into numerology, but I find it interesting that certain numbers stick in our brains.  Numbers like 9/11, or 12/7/1941, or 411, or 8675309.  Like smells and songs they evoke vivid memories and remind us of things we don’t want to forget.  My mom can still rattle off my dad’s military service number (and it’s not his SSAN) even though it hasn’t had any useful purpose for nearly 60 years!  There’s a new number I’ve burned into my psyche and it’s 405.

405 is the number of days from the original FSA (Force Structure Announcement) last year to the announcement that the 911th Airlift Wing was not closing.  I know it doesn’t mean much to a lot of you, but to those who suffered through 405 days of uncertainty and stress it seemed like a lifetime.  Especially since it was generated by lies and incompetence.  There’s an old saying which I know you all have heard; “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.  Well, there’s a much more dangerous version; “Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat denied”.

What makes bureaucracies so dangerous, and the larger the more dangerous they are, is the inherent lack of accountability they offer to those imbedded in them.  You know what I mean.  Those of you in the military have seen it time after time.  Someone screws up in a way that, in the private sector, would get them escorted out the door but instead there’s, magically, a new “special assistant” at headquarters or they’re simply moved to another division.  Bureaucrats, like liberals, never think they’re wrong, they just think they’re smarter than the rest of us and we just haven’t embraced their brilliance and tried hard enough.  Sadly the power they yield, or they think they yield, can destroy lives and organizations and can waste millions of taxpayers dollars with no negative consequences to them.  Here’s an example.

Some years ago my church received a property tax bill in the mail from the City of Pittsburgh for $500.  I’ve been attending the same church since I was born and, since non-profits are tax exempt, we had never paid property taxes.  So I called the city and after an hour of the standard run around, I was finally transferred to someone who could answer my question.  I was told that the tax was being assessed on the value of every square foot of land around the building, including the parking lot, since only the building itself was being used for “religious purposes”.  I argued the point that we had outdoor events for kids and regularly used the parking lot for community outreach but, in the end, I was told, “Don’t bother fighting this, we have lots of lawyers and money and you can’t afford to fight this even though you’d probably win in the end” and then the line went dead.  We’ve been writing a check ever since.  Nameless and faceless, bureaucracies never shrink and have very little motivation to become more efficient.

The difference between the private sector and the government is that, in the government, there are no consequences for failure and failure often gets you a bigger budget.  A friend of mine ran an organization that did summer tutoring for thousands of inner city kids on a shoestring budget using college kids who stayed, for free, with local families.  When the City of Pittsburgh schools saw the enormous impact the program was having they tried to shut it down by denying access to city facilities. They then rented office space, bought  furniture and hired staff to duplicate the program.  After 2 years and millions of dollars spent they gave up.  They never tutored a single child.

And that brings us back to 405.  The Air Force was willing to throw away the 10s of millions of dollars the 911th saves the budget over other bases  because there are still bureaucrats in the system who, like petulant children,  are enraged that they can’t have their way.  Even in the face of the facts and the law they continue to waste time and resources on a failed, inaccurate paradigm.  Sadly, even with the announcement several weeks ago, they won’t let go.  A friend, whose name I won’t mention, was talking to a counterpart at HHQ after the announcement last week and was told, “Just because you escaped again doesn’t mean the crosshairs aren’t still on the 911th.  It just means we haven’t hit the target yet”.

“Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat denied”  Deep pockets, no accountability and a long memory.  Just wait until they control your healthcare.

Chapter 44, The Moral of the Story

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For those who are reading this without having read Chapter 43, you’ll need to go to scroll down to fully appreciate the context!

The gauntlet has been thrown!  Mark asked the question last week, “So, where’s the moral in the story?”.  That, my friend, is a good question.  I like to think there’s an object lesson in almost any story so, after much thought, here we go.

We’re given tasks every day.  Whether it’s from your boss, or your wife, or even your Dad.  We all have work to do and, usually, a limited time to do it in.  The confusion with difficult taskings come when it’s not clear how to accomplish the job or what the end results should be.  In the military we call it “commander’s intent”.  You need to know what the desired end result is.  For instance, if my Dad had said that we need to find some way to calm down the nasty goat then we might have come up with another solution.  Maybe we could have drugged the thing, or bought a female goat so that he would have an “outlet” for his goatly passions.  We might have just put a round in his head and served up some cabrito for dinner. But, we knew he wanted the goat to continue to be available for mowing duties.

The other half of a tasking is the method.  When there is something to be done there is often a preferred method or, at least, a limited number of options.  If my Dad had instructed us to remove the goat’s offending appendage we could have used a variety of more expedient techniques.  Pruning shearers, machete, chainsaw, or my Mom’s butcher knife, any would have adequately accomplished the job.  But the goat would have either bled out, died from shock, or ended up with a nasty infection.

The Air Force has been given a task.  Whether or not you agree with the national security objectives of the administration, we find ourselves in the position of trying to maintain the security of the country with an ever shrinking budget.  The goal is to maintain as much capability as possible at the lowest possible cost.  Sounds simple but, even with our nation’s future at stake, the Air Force has continued to play politics and failed to even try to apply any cost benefit analysis to its recommendations.  They were given an opportunity to go back to the drawing board after the utter failure of the Force Structure Announcement earlier this year but instead of working to meet the tasking professionally with data and common sense they have, again, attempted to apply a pure political solution to, what should be, an apolitical recommendation.  The states have a voice when it comes to the ANG but the Reserves finds itself in the position of the bastard stepchild.  For example, AFRC is saddled with three incredibly expensive wings on facilities fully owned and operated by the reserves yet the Air Force seems to be blind to their fiscal responsibility and continue to recommend the most cost effective units for closure.

Either senior Air Force leadership is executing a brilliantly conceived plan to convince Congress that they are incapable of doing their job and the BRAC process should be initiated so they can blame someone else, or someone has used the little rubber band on them and they care more about their own careers than the security, financial and military, of the country.

I do hope it’s the former.

As always, comments welcome, and feel free to link to your Facebook page.