Air Force colonel tells crew they failed America because they nixed an unsafe training mission

It is always up to the direct leader to make the assessment of his/her people. In this case, the aircraft commander assessing that his people were dangerously fatigued and cancelling the op was probably a good call.


It's also important as leaders to ensure your people and equipment are mission ready. The battle doesn't stop because people are tired and hungry, or because your truck has a flat tire.
From the article:
"In a statement, Col. Keven “Hitch” Coyle, commander of the 552nd Air Control Wing, said a miscommunication occurred during Donovan’s meeting with his subordinates on July 14. The crews in question had been augmented with two additional flight deck crews per jet who could have flown while the fatigued pilots slept in the jet’s crew rest area, Coyle said. “During the briefing the Operations Group commander was trying to convey to the crew to use this option, however, this was not communicated properly.”

Crew/Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) is an excellent tool to look at here to keep your people flying and overcome some hurdles. Assessing that a portion of your crew is fatigued allows you to tweak the schedule a little and allow them to get rest and take a safe shift on the flight deck later in your operation.

I'm not a pilot or an Air/Space Force Officer, though (not yet, anyways, hint-hint Space Force Selection Board), so this is just from an Army perspective of convoy and route clearance operations and keeping your vehicle crews rested enough to drive.

At the end of the day, that direct leader's assessment maybe saved 25-30 lives and $275 Million worth of airplane. Don't berate your subordinates for making a conservative call, especially in something as serious as flight operations. Let the men and women who lead those teams assess their status and give you a go or no-go.
Do, however, push them to utilize their resources effectively, think outside the box, and drive their people to be better.

Just my thoughts on it.

ARE we going to vote on which orders we obey? Who determined safe/unsafe?

So hed rather them fly and die on a training mission?