What's The Problem With The Air Force Culture?

Sir, honestly I think it's not just the Air Force struggeling with mindsets like this, how many times have we had topics like "toxic leadership", "cracking down on whatever it was that week", and others in the Army times.
I believe all branches are going thru some rough times at them moment after so many years of war and lowering the standards to keep the ranks filled. Now that the media coverage about Iraq/ Afghanistan is going down so attention shifts back to other things and what's better than a good old scandal in the military, after that it's easier to pass bills to cut pay and or benefits. But that is just my opinion.
So I don't necessarily see it as a shift in the cultural mind set of the Air Force, they have just had some rough times like the other branches too.

It's just never been the same since you guys left the Army back in the 40's ;-)

Not quite sure I understand the question. Great picture. I am a retired Army Reserve Officer; when I see a uniform of any branch, officer or enlisted, i feel a special brotherhood with that person. (especially these days when a smaller %age of the population has served. Some people may regard the Air Force and Coast Guard and maybe to a lesser extent the Navy as "less military" ie more casual . Not from what I have seen. I am a proud member of both the Civil Air Patrol and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. I see nothing but professionalism in those services. Perhaps a few from the Marine Corps and the Army may look down at those branches as being less "dangerous" The services have more joint operations than ever. USAF has been increasingly involved with more combat situations both on the ground and in the Air. CG people not only support other services but they are spread very thin and have real world missions every day in hazardous seas and weather. Also the support branches of the Army are not much different than support branches of other services. Every job in every branch is important. I salute anyone where has honorably served in any branch!

On a cross country hop from Oceana NAS (Virginia Beach, VA) to Fightertown USA (Miramar NAS, San Diego, CA) in the late 90s I filed a flight plan to RON @ Wightman AFB (Missouri). I was an 0-6 (CAPT United States Navy) and my RIO was a LCDR, USN. We were passed off from St. Louis Center to Wightman @ 1530 Local. My RIO let the Tower know that we were a Navy Bird (F-14) planning to RON and launch for Miramar in the early morning. Shot an uneventful approach and taxied to the Transient Line. Shut down after chocks and tie downs. Climbed out of the aircraft without any ground personnel assisting. Climbed into an AF Ramp Vehicle. The driver took us to a WW II wooden barracks. I asked him if this was the Senior Officer's RON QTRS. He responded that I was just a Captain (O-3) and thus not entitled to the AF premium RON QTRS. My RIO advised the USAF Airman to look at my nametag that clearly displayed CAPT, USN. To his credit, the Airman quickly drove us to a BOQ that was designated for visiting 0-6 and above personnel.

Maj. Hoiland,
First off, it is refreshing to see that others see the issue across many aspects of the Air Force. I will gladly share my experiece with my time in the Blue so far. The Air Force is a well oiled machine and a flying beast. The biggest problem starts at Basic Training. I had the opportunity to attend training at Lackland, the home of Basic Training, and was extremely embaressed. TI's are stripped of their power, before trainees get to their squadron they recieve a briefing telling them TI's cant yell at you, cuss at you, brim you, etc.... and if they step over the line fill out a critique. The critique is a good system for when wrong doing actually occurs, but is abused. Other tha training aspects, I have corrected many Airmen just to turn around and have my First Sgt. Tell me i was causing hardship by being too strict. Also, I made a Senior Airman buy a new uniform because he super glued his stripes on, just to have the First Sgt. Jump down my throat telling me i caused financia hardship. The next day thr same Airman went and bought a nee personal handgun, but couldnt afford a uniform. Needless to say the biggest shock I recieved is when I had a Senior NCO tell me "if you ain't cheatin you ain't trying."

As a veteran with 22 years of total service and four combat operations, I am proud of my Air Force. MAJ Holland, I take your question seriously as I currently oversee a joint service team while perorming the Airman's role. We all joke about perceived weaknesses in each others' services, but I can tell you Marines and Soldiers love our A-10, and all of us lament when one of our own makes the headlines for failing to maintain standards. I don't see this as Air Force-specific though there are several recent examples from missileers cheating on tests to General Officers abusing their people (incidentally I worked for one of those officers and the investigation got the tip of the iceberg). But then I read about Army Officers lying as a course of action and I see my service isn't alone with these issues. Or stories about Navy officers being prosecuted for getting kick backs for scheduling ports of call in order to make a foreign business man rich. We all face disciplinary lapses and I don't see us turning a blind eye to the issue - we go public with it and weather the public criticism. Outside the military you'll be hard-pressed to find another institution that has this much accountability. As for discipline within the ranks, my service needs appropriately educate and empower the officer corps on when it is appropriate and how to discipline someone not upholding standards. We have the most highly educated service statistically speaking, but sometimes the most questioning even when the Q&A period is long over. Any officer should have the ability to take a subordinate consistently failing to meet standards to their supervisor and inform them that they are taking appropriate disciplinary action. More often than not, Commanders want the ultimate say and this goes counter to solving the problem at the lowest level. In the long run, I think we'll resolve these issues and steadily retire/weed out those that are causing them. We're lucky that we've got one of the best CSAF's we've seen since General Jumper retired. He loves America, loves the Air Force, he's been inundated with serious problems and lapses of discipline on his watch, and yet he fights on and doesn't quit. Aim High and thanks for the professional opportunity to address your question MAJ Holland.

From my experience as a young army soldier that did 12 months on Lower AFB. I would say politics. From what I could discern from friend that I had made, the politics start from the get go.

I served in the Air Force for 22 years--16 years in operations as a pilot. I also worked as a Department of the Army Civilian (DAC) and as a government contractor. In the contractor job I worked with Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard members. I saw dedicated professionals from every service.

One thing makes the Air Force much different from the other Services--although the aviation branches of the Army and Department of the Navy have similarities. The Air Force front line combat personnel are mostly officers. In all the other services, they are mostly junior enlisted. It takes a different force structure and leadership style to lead a combat force composed almost entirely of college educated, technically proficient, critical thinking, young men and women. I'm not discounting the value of the Soldiers, Marines, and Sailors. They are the essential fight forces of their Services and have my eternal respect. Additionally, air combat isn't up close and personal--you might never actually see the enemy you kill. The types of weapons and training necessary to be a good fighter pilot and that necessary to be a good infantry or armor soldier are very different. This fundamental difference explains many of the differences in the Services. It effects leadership, doctrine, historical perspective, weapons, and personnel programs.

In Afjrotc the instructors and military curriculum talked about the mission of the Air Force is to Maintain Air superiority and maintain its technologically advanced warfare edge over the enemy. As cadets they taught us to also treat each rank as an equal in respect and that the rank has its privlages not that the Air Force is easy and nice they want to maintain a professional respect towards all ranks and not look down an airmen just because he is an E-1 And yes not all Airmen are army infantry fit but all the airmen I've met in my life are in regulation on their regulation their job also is to maintain electronic superiority and air superiority not infantry killing machines. All branches have their culture and the air force has developed a strict and professional culture and every branch will have its own identity to get the job done for its sole purpose.

Air Force culture, I have been a member of the Air Force and Reserves for over 27 years and I am here to tell you we do not have a “culture” issue in as much as we have an identity issue. This has really begun to show its evil head in the Joint Operations realm. The Air Force top leadership operating in the joint environment in my opinion continually getting “beat up” by their big brother counterparts at the table, your force isn’t “fit, lacks discipline”. The response to this is “I’ll show you who isn’t disciplined or fit”. They then focus valuable and limited resources into programs that are “thrown together”. The misunderstood part of the process is based in operational differences. The Air Force primary function is to fly aircraft, the base and all its personnel work together to “keep aircraft flying”. This is much different than the Army and Marines who have a majority of their personnel assigned to infantry or field units. Those of you in the Army and Marines will understand when you look at the air units within your branches. If you ever worked closely with the air your air wings you call them undisciplined “milk drinkers” as well. Why you may ask? Its mission focus, in the aviation world we want our personnel focused on flight safety. If a tank or vehicle mechanic misses a step in a technical data during a repair the equipment will break down and have to pull over to the side of the road. If an aircraft mechanic doesn’t follow technical data a plane falls from the sky and we lose human life and a very expensive asset. Army and Marines discipline focuses on life and limb of soldiers and Marines in the field. Life and limb of our brother and sisters in arms is our collective bonding point, which is where our focus must be. You get your discipline through rigorous physicality and never question authority attitude. The Air Force must maintain culture to safely and effectively launch and recover aircraft.
The Air Force in the last 15 years has pushed fitness into their culture, not a bad thing. However, it’s not a high fitness standard as compared to their big brothers. The leadership still can’t standup to big brother. Air Force fitness is enough to keep our members at just enough of fitness level as to not be a danger to themselves or others when deployed to these hot spots around the World and allow us the time to keep our aircraft flying; are we Soldier or Marine fit? No, however, our special operators are. A unit where fitness and discipline is required is maintained at the level required, just as in your branches. As I said before you all look down on your “air units” as not up to the general standard. I was deployed to a large air operations base during Desert Storm; we had Naval, Air Force and Marine air units on one base. They brought Army and Marine field units in for “R and R” and the fights started when the field troops witnessed the conditions their air wing counterparts were living in as compared to the field conditions they were living in. The Air Force leadership needs to stop trying to impress their big brother and focus on their mission and accomplishing it safely, technical discipline and attention to detail is Air Force culture. The next time you see sloppy Air Force member remember grease doesn’t wash out of a uniform as easily as dirt. Our stresses are different as they are unique. I don’t look up to my joint partners as I don’t expect to be looked down upon from my “big brother”. We are all in the same fight, we just do it differently! Respect each other and stop the bickering or maybe the next time I arrive at your unit to load you and your shit into my C-17 to transport you to the “fight” I will close my door and tell you to march there to increase your fitness and discipline! I love and respect the contributions of any man or woman wearing our nation’s uniform, let’s just respect our differences and KILL the enemy!!