Air Force Academy Cadet Expresses Displeasure with USAF CoS

Post by **RogueIce** » 2003-06-17 12:21am

C4C Rober Walsh wrote:From: Walsh Robert C4C CS21
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 10:30 AM
To: Jumper John Gen AF/CC
Subject: Removal of Academy Leader

Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force,
General John P. Jumper,
Sir, I am a fourth Class Cadet at the United States Air Force Academy. I do not agree with your idea for removal of all top officials at the United States Air Force Academy. I do not believe it is necessary for all four of them to be removed, and replaced. I especially have a problem with the replacement of Col. Bob Eskeridge. The person who is supposed to replace Col. Eskeridge, is not qualified for the position. Her only qualifications are that she is a female, and an Academy Graduate. She has never been a group commander, while Col. Eskeridge has been a group commander twice. Furthermore, this woman has been working at the Academy during the same period as all these cases. She has been in the position of the 34th Training Group, serving as the Deputy Group Commander. By allowing her to take over Col. Eskeridge's position, it seems as though you are promoting her. Also, the person who will be filling the job she is moving from, will be her superior, having also served as a group commander, but because of the hierarchy at the Academy, she will instead be his superior. I would like to see Col. Eskeridge retain his current position. I do not believe he is a problem, in any way. He is a role model for all Cadets, as a military officer. I have not heard a single complaint or bad word spoken about Col. Eskeridge. Please reconsider your decision to remove Col. Eskeridge from his position.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Very Respectfully,
Cadet Fourth Class Robert M. Walsh
Cadet Squadron 21 "Blackjacks"
United States Air Force Academy

To anybody in the military, this would be quite the breach of protocol. And, not surprisingly, here's the Chief of Staff's reply:

GEN John Jumper, USAF wrote:From: Jumper John Gen AF/CC
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 12:33 PM
To: Walsh Robert C4C CS21
Subject: RE: Removal of Academy Leader

Cadet Walsh, I sincerely hope that this is a hoax of some type because I would hate to think a Cadet Fourth Class would presume to instruct me on Air Force leaders I have known and served with for longer than you have been alive. I strongly suggest you devote your energy toward being the best possible 3-degree that you can be, to be a part of the solution that the new leadership is being sent there to oversee, and to keep yourself and your attitude off my radar scope.

JJ.

Short and to the point. Even if he is in the Air Force, I like him.

This impudent young cadet also recieved a response from the Secretay of the Air Force. It was somewhat kinder in tone (damn civilians

), but still a dressing down nonetheless:

Dr Roche wrote:From: Roche James Dr SAF/OS
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 10:11 AM
To: Walsh Robert C4C CS21
Subject: Re: Removal of Academy Leaders

Bob, good to hear from you. Colonel Eskeridge is a highly regarded officer and I have no animus toward him. He will be reassigned without any adverse consequence. In fact, we are working to minimize the impact on his family. However, Gen Jumper and I want a new leadership team in place, and we will do so. Your comments about Colonel Gray are not only wrong, they don't reflect particularly well on you. Assignment of leaders in military organizations is not a popularity contest. Rather, it reflects the vision of the senior leadership of the Service. I know Colonel Gray, Gen Jumper knows Colonel Gray, and you don't. Now, say again all after who is and who is not qualified to make assignment decisions? While I admire your loyalty to Colonel Eskeridge, and I enjoy a challenge-up, or "briefing room rules" environment, one of us is responsible to the President, the Congress, and the American people for the Academy -- and, it's not you (at least not for a few years). Gen Jumper and I have made our decisions. We expect all concerned now to implement them cheerfully, as is the long-standing expectation for military professionals.

And, Bob, that includes you.

Respectfully,
JGR

Dr. James G. Roche
Secretary of The Air Force

That last sentence is pretty good, IMO.

I wonder how many heart attacks his Squadron Leader (or whatever the proper term is at the USAFA) went through. And how many people working in the CoS' office got a kick out of it (after recovering from the sheer impudence and gall of this rather large breach of the Chain of Command).

As an added note, I posed the question about the SL and heart attacks to my former Senior NJROTC Instructor (SNSI), a retired Navy Commander who spent 21 years in, and got this reply:

My SNSI wrote:Too many to count, but I dare say, he'll have an interesting summer and fall.

I'm sure he will...

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-06-17 12:28am

I would hate to be on the receiving end of the completely justified wrath of Col. Gray, as this boy certainly deserves to be. What a fucktard.

Rubberanvil · Post by **Rubberanvil** » 2003-06-17 12:35am

Durran Korr wrote:wrath of Col. Gray,

Who???

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-06-17 12:38am

Rubberanvil wrote:
Durran Korr wrote:wrath of Col. Gray,
Who???

I'm assuming that she is the Colonel that Bob here was bitching about, given that the Secretary of the Air Force referred to a Colonel Gray in this regard.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-06-17 12:42am

Talk about shooting your career in the foot.

Rubberanvil · Post by **Rubberanvil** » 2003-06-17 01:30am

Vympel wrote:Talk about shooting your career in the foot.

Seems more "Shooting your career in the nuts."

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-06-17 01:32am

Haha

Burned

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-06-17 01:59am

That guy may graduate, but he's going to be a second lieutenant for the rest of his life if he does. *snickers*

Post by **AdmiralKanos** » 2003-06-17 02:30am

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:That guy may graduate, but he's going to be a second lieutenant for the rest of his life if he does. *snickers*

He probably derived his concept of the chain of command from watching "Star Trek: Voyager".

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-06-17 02:52am

You've got to be fucking kidding me. Christ, I can't imagine writing a letter like that to the company president if a manager I liked got replaced at some shitty retail job, let along being a FIRST YEAR midshipman who breaches chain-of-command to criticize an INCOMING SUPERIOR OFFICER. Jesus, it's a good thing Air Force bomber pilots aren't this stupid, or somebody would have put a JDAM on the Washington Monumen by now.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-06-17 03:03am

If he wanted to irritate his superiors, he should have gone the distance:

C4C Rober Walsh wrote:From: Walsh Robert C4C CS21
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 10:30 AM
To: Jumper John Gen AF/CC
Subject: All your leaders are belong to us

Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force,
General John P. Humper,
sir, r u gay........................
lol

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Love,
Cadet Fourth Class Robert M. Walsh
Cadet Squadron 21 "Cockjocks"
United States Air Force Academy

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-06-17 03:05am

A cadet going all the way up to the Chief of Staff is simply mind-boggling. "Breaching the chain of command" is really quite a huge understatement in this case.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-06-17 03:06am

Rubberanvil wrote:
Vympel wrote:Talk about shooting your career in the foot.
Seems more "Shooting your career in the nuts."

I suspect he's going to get something more like a slow crushing

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-06-17 03:51am

Addendum: I knew quite a few Naval ROTC people while I was at school, and had one of them done something like this, there would have been a giant shitstorm up and down the local chain of command. His squad leader and probably his company commander would be getting reamed by the batallion commander personally (who'd be cranky because his superiors would be on his back wondering what the hell kind of outfit he was running where first year midshipmen complain to the chief of staff) for allowing a fuckup like this to happen, and they'd take it out on the midshipman in question. Interesting summer indeed.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-06-17 04:14am

True or not that is funny.

I love the responses.

I have a little experience with people jumping way over their chain of command like that. Let's say that it never went well for them.

The only time that went decently was when the mother of a guy in my division wrote to an admiral that used to be the captain of our ship. She complained about how he and his family qualified for food stamps etc... I'm not sure if the admiral replied to her directly but you should have seen all the officers in department and division hopping around trying to get this guy into an offcier's commissioning program so he could make some more money.

Some of the officers who weren't directly impacted did think it was rather funny that this E-4's mother had written an admiral and it had trickled back down from there.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-06-17 05:45am

OMFG!

Worst case of hybris ever!

That fool might as well drop out and take up an career as parking attendant.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-06-17 07:28am

Faram wrote:OMFG!

Worst case of hybris ever!

That fool might as well drop out and take up an career as parking attendant.

I think you mean hubris?

Kind of the wrong word- you see hubris means "the arrogance of power"- this guy doesn't have the power. So it's all ego

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-06-17 07:31am

Vympel wrote:I think you mean hubris?

Kind of the wrong word- you see hubris means "the arrogance of power"- this guy doesn't have the power. So it's all ego

Perhaps a spelling error or sumthing

Tjis is what I mean:

In Greek mythology, Hybris is the personification of a lack of restraint and of insolence. He was a not very powerful and spent much of his time among mortals.

Post by **Rob Wilson** » 2003-06-17 07:54am

How to destroy your career in the military in one easy step by allowing your mysogynism and lack of intellect to shine through for your superiors to see.

Maybe he thought it was a Web board and he could say what he liked to who he liked with few consequences.

Post by **Edi** » 2003-06-17 08:12am

RedImperator wrote:Addendum: I knew quite a few Naval ROTC people while I was at school, and had one of them done something like this, there would have been a giant shitstorm up and down the local chain of command. His squad leader and probably his company commander would be getting reamed by the batallion commander personally (who'd be cranky because his superiors would be on his back wondering what the hell kind of outfit he was running where first year midshipmen complain to the chief of staff) for allowing a fuckup like this to happen, and they'd take it out on the midshipman in question. Interesting summer indeed.

When somebody fucks something up and the results are felt in the higher tiers of the command chain, it results in large amounts of shit starting to roll downwards from the highest point of impact, and the accepted rule of thumb at least in the Finnish army is that the amount of shit roughly doubles or triples every time it goes one tier downward. From the chief of staff and the SoAF down to Cadet 4th class is... how many steps was that again?

Edi

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-06-17 11:29am

He's a fucking cadet! A fucking freshmen cadet! He wants to give policy to the most senior officer in the Air Force? He can't even tell an Airman Basic what to do. This Walsh character needs the most serious smack down of smack downs. I can guarantee you this, this little puke is gonna get the hazing of a lifetime. If he ever comes to my unit, well I don't know what I'm gonna do yet, but I have at least three years to think of something.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-06-17 12:02pm

Wicked Pilot wrote:He's a fucking cadet! A fucking freshmen cadet! He wants to give policy to the most senior officer in the Air Force? He can't even tell an Airman Basic what to do. This Walsh character needs to most serious smack down of smack downs. I can guarantee you this, this little puke is gonna get the hazing of a lifetime. If he ever comes to my unit, well I don't know what I'm gonna do yet, but I have at least three years to think of something.

How young would he be? We've all had brain farts, after all- he just had a giga-brain fart.

It sounds like the CoS just wanted him to keep his atittude to himself. With any luck, this won't have much of an effect on his career- by the time he's left the AF Academy, the CoS would've hopefully left.

Hopefully for him, I mena.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-06-17 12:08pm

Vympel wrote:How young would he be? We've all had brain farts, after all- he just had a giga-brain fart.

Probably 18.

It sounds like the CoS just wanted him to keep his atittude to himself. With any luck, this won't have much of an effect on his career- by the time he's left the AF Academy, the CoS would've hopefully left.

Can you imagine if you're a Colonel with over twenty years in service, and have this little 18 year old cadet e-mail the chief of staff telling him you are unqualified? If I were her, this little punk would spend his remaining years as a cadet in the front leaning rest positon. And if he did graduate, he'd spend his four years of active duty as a services officer, shaking crabs out of bed sheets.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2003-06-17 02:39pm

Wicked Pilot wrote:He's a fucking cadet! A fucking freshmen cadet! He wants to give policy to the most senior officer in the Air Force? He can't even tell an Airman Basic what to do. This Walsh character needs the most serious smack down of smack downs. I can guarantee you this, this little puke is gonna get the hazing of a lifetime. If he ever comes to my unit, well I don't know what I'm gonna do yet, but I have at least three years to think of something.

Hopefully, if he survives those three years, he'll have learned his lesson.

THough his career is gonna be Hell! For this little missive has managed to find it's way onto the Internet for all to see! I wouldn't be surprised if some future member of a promotion board rememebered this...

Hey, maybe you'll be on his promotion board when it comes time...

Actually, come to think of it, when do those thigns start for officers? O-2, O-3, or higher?

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-06-17 04:04pm

RogueIce wrote:Actually, come to think of it, when do those thigns start for officers? O-2, O-3, or higher?

Promotion to O-2 and O-3 is fully qualified. O-4 and beyond is most qualified. Needless to say, everyone makes Captain in four years unless they do something really stupid.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Air Force Academy Cadet Expresses Displeasure with USAF CoS

Air Force Academy Cadet Expresses Displeasure with USAF CoS

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