People are people

I’m going to not talk negatively about people in my blog… My mom pointed out that’s not a good idea… so here are the people I can talk positively about.

The 2 enlisted folks I work with in my office make me laugh and obviously know their stuff… I’ve always operated on the fact that the Air Force is built on its enlisted corps and we would be best served if we trust their judgment and listen to their advice. They can make or break an officer by how they work and if we want to make life hard for them, they can make life exponentially harder for us. Isn’t it just easier to listen to them in the first place since they are the ones doing the actual work? I don’t know if others around me don’t feel the same way, or just fail to remember that fact… but it is obvious that people don’t pay attention much to these particular people.

John, the guy I replaced is an excellent officer with a lot of potential. I feel bad he had such a horrible deployment, but he spun the negatives into positive lessons on how not to act. He’s one of those guys I know I’ll see again in the career and won’t mind grabbing a drink with.

This morning, I had my base inprocessing appointment… 2 hours of mandatory briefings about the chapel, equal opportunity, safety and all that other crap that is practically the same at every base you go to, but they have to tell you again because god forbid somebody commits suicide or wrecks their car or falls in a trash can drunk – and the Air Force didn’t tell them to not commit suicide, drive safely or stay sober. These briefings are the Air Force’s scapegoat. They do marginal to no good and benefit few, but take up such an amount of time. I would so much rather be sent an email with various services available and let me choose to go to AA because my 3 beers a day I’m allotted are causing me to drive our office vehicle through the BX front doors.

At any rate, there was one benefit to this morning’s mass briefing… and that was to hear the Command Chief… talk about a character. He was probably the most motivational person I’ve ever heard speak… he got his message across, he was funny in ways that a lot of people would avoid because of that military equal opportunity crap without overstepping bounds, but still not exactly being PC… it was great. I’m glad to see there are people like that here  to take care of the young troops…

Breakfast: burritos (ick… never again), bacon and fruit loops

Lunch: chicken salad (they take the grilled chickens for the sandwiches and chop them up for those of us who like the salad bar… yum!)

Dinner: Swedish Meatballs, green beans and rice.