I have a new roommate as of three days ago. He is the new pilot that is here to replace our commander who is heading back to Ft. Lewis to take care of our move over to McChord. The new guy is a just promoted CW2 who went straight into fixed wing out of flight school and to a National Guard unit on top of that. In addition this is a second career for him. He finished his Masters and was working on his Doctorate in archeology when he told his wife he wanted to do something different so he put in a Warrant officer application and here he is. Needless to say his experience as an Active Duty pilot in the Army is a little unusual so far. I think we will get along fine – he likes to read and I like someone who sleeps a normal amount at the normal times. Having someone new is always nice because even if they are not replacing you it’s still a passage of time marker. Having our commander leave shouldn’t be much of a change because things are running pretty smoothly over here. The new command is going to be split in that Rutledge will take over as commander of the pilot side and one of the 1LT EWOs will handle the administration details.
Last night the LTC from Division who is in charge of tasking us flew a mission with us. We stayed busy dodging thunderstorms and dealing with the effects of the agency that controls the airspace losing their radios for four hours. In between that it was interesting talking to him and seeing how this program fits into the bigger EW (electronic warfare) picture. Even though this program is small the idea behind it is big and there is a lot of flux in the EW community. It has traditionally been an Air Force and Navy roll but with the push to get it into the ground commander’s hands there are a lot of force structure questions that need to be answered. Especially in light of the budget constraints and downsizing who is going to own what capabilities and how is it going to be paid for? Even with our program everyone likes what we do and wants the capability but so far no one has stepped and agreed to take the program on. It is still being funded through the development phase but there is a good chance the technology will be put on a shelf once this is over.
Clear H94 L70
The more I listen to you the more I realize how complicated my Dad's job was and how good he was at it. I regret that I hadn't asked him more questions but questions on my level of understand would have been pretty pointless. So I thank you for your insights and patience.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure you should compare my insights to your Dad's - he was many levels above me and I just get the occasional glimpse into what he delt with :). It is fascinating though and you can see how easy it is for people to point to situations after the fact and bemoan the waste when at the time and given the conditions there was consensus that it was a good program.
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