The Inspection

So, I'm in the Air Force now. Ta-da! A fresh 2nd Lt, young officer with bright ideas out to save America. Or something like that.

The reality is, since I'm the new guy, I get all the jobs and duties that no one else wants. Which wouldn't really bother me if they were jobs and duties that really needed doing. But so much government paperwork is simply stuff that we might as well not do. Period.

If you look really hard, sometimes you can see the shadow of reasoning behind why this particular program may have been started, but the military likes to break everything down into the most simple, basic steps. And you have to follow those steps exactly. There are countless AFIs (Air Force Instructions), OIs (Operational Instructions) AFMANs (Air Force Manuals) TOs (Technical Orders) and DoD (Department of Defense) Regulations ... all of which are numbered by chapter, by section, by paragraph. And one line, which for all we know may have been a typo or someone just tossing something out on a whim, will change the ENTIRE way everyone does business.

The thing is, nearly everyone thinks it is stupid. Though there are some people who strangely get off on these technical manuals, most people agree that they are silly. So, frequently, they will cherry pick the ones that they like, or the ones that there are no avoiding, and comply with those. The rest fall by the wayside.

But life goes on. No one dies, no one gets hurt, money isn't lost, planes still fly.

Until the inspection. 

These guys show up, the IG (Inspector General) to make sure that we are following every single little rule every issued completely and totally. Oh and AFSPC is Air Force Space Command. Patrick AFB, where I am stationed, primarily launches rockets into space. It is where "I Dream of Genie" takes place.

Love that AF uniform he's got!

So anyway, in preparing for this inspection, it comes out that there are multiple programs that no one has complied with. In years. We've got maybe a month to fix this issue. So what is the big decision? 

Give these programs to 2nd Lt Gonnsen. Of course.

So I've spent the past month digging through regulations manuals, writing orders for the commander to sign. Since no one really wanted to deal with this stuff, it is left more or less up to me how I want to handle it, so I do get to write the orders, I just don't get to sign them. I would feel proud that several of my ideas have been adopted by the Wing (Wing = whole base) ... but I don't.

If you sit down and think about this stuff, it is usually easy enough to comply without too much pain. And if something is truly dumb (a lot is truly dumb), I make a bunch of phone calls or write a bunch of e-mails to see if I can either get the rule changed or find some other way of handling it. I also make a note, to myself, to change this when I am high enough in rank to do so.

I have tons of notes about shit that we just won't do if I ever get to call the shots. 

So the IG team is here. They arrived yesterday to a small amount of pomp and circumstance, and today they began looking at the base.

Bright and early, at 0700, a small light flickers on someone's screen. The e-mail client has encountered a fatal error and is down base wide. Well. We're off to a great start.

A trend?

      I've flirted with online blogs many times before, and when I was in high school, they were very popular. I imagine they are still rather popular amongst high school students today, unless they are all using twitter or some other web service we don't know about. At the same time I always kept a journal, where I kept my private thoughts. For a brief period of time, I merged the two, putting my private thoughts online for the world to comment on, and amazingly, I led an interesting enough life such that many wanted to read it. Or at least I had dedicated enough friends that would read my blog.
     I must admit that my life now is much less interesting, or at least, less interesting on a day to day basis. And then, on the occasions that it IS interesting (when I am living abroad) I often find that I would rather be living the moment than writing about it.
    So what shall I do with this blog? Well, despite my having changed a bit since my last entry in 2009 (quite a bit, it would seem) I like the idea of answering philosophical questions as they come to me, or at least opening them for discussion. This of course requires participation. So I solicit all of you, fellow bloggers, to get in on the philosophical question train. Let's examine life, shall we?
  Every entry from now on will examine a topic or question. I'll pick a few, and maybe we'll stick to a topic for several questions. Also... this may die out if there is little or no interest. 
  I'm interested in the topic of getting older and changing lifestyles. Any interest there?

A slight bit more serious

I am creating this thing in order to organize my thoughts and statements on questions and events so that I might respond in the best manner possible. Two of my friends get drunk and bang? I'll most likely have "no comment" but you'll be able to read the "no comment" here first.

We'll take one topic at a time, and this may work or it may crash. But the idea is simple. Questions I might have to answer in conversation that ... if I answered off the cuff could be dangerous... I'll write out here and avoid hurting anyone's feelings, saying the wrong thing, or just plain looking stupid.

Here's to hoping it works. First question of the series:

"How is Ryan McCurdy's hair?"

ANSWER: Excellent.

Ryan McCurdy Has Excellent Hair

Ryan McCurdy has excellent hair.

I have no reason to dispute this statement. So we will go with: TRUTH!

Also, he states that his biceps are bigger. Bigger than what, I am not sure.

Fin.