An Armed Force That Has More PC Types Than Warriors

[thedrifter]

An Armed Force That Has More PC Types Than Warriors



We had two people in the same jobfield in my squadron. One was a man, who was an E6 with less than ten years (this is no easy task). The other was a woman who was an E6 with about eighteen years.

Making E7(chief) in the Navy is no simple task. Both of these people were up for it at the same time. The man was absolutely outstanding at what he did. His appearance was always spotless, he knew his job inside out, and would always help out anyone who needed it. His evals and test scores reflected this. The woman was practically useless, always looked terrible, would help out no one, and had a job that didn't require hardly any skill and kept her away from everyone(she was a problem to get along with). When the test results came out, SHE was the one who made it, with lower test and evals than the man. She was also over body fat and failed her physical readiness tests, which at that time would keep you from getting promoted. She got promoted anyway, and on the next cycle, the guy I discussed above did make E7. There are only a certain number of people who can make any given rank in any jobfield, so it's not like you can promote more than you need.

I was in the Airframe shop, and in this shop we had a supervisor who had almost no knowledge of anything whatsoever, except who's butt he should be kissing. He couldn't make E6, so our command capped him to E6 (made him one anyway because he couldn't do it on his own). Our shop members were horrified of this because we knew that there were many people who were better and more deserving than him. He later did make E7 after I got out, but never would have had he not been capped to E6, and still did not make E7 on his leadership or technical knowledge. He made it because he was putting his nose in the right place, and always telling the leadership waht they wanted to hear.

We had a woman in my shop, who found out that she didn't like being a mechanic very much, which was her chosen jobfield. She got a job doing paperwork, and very rarely touched the plane. In today's military, you need all the manpower you can get because you don't have what you need in the first place. So losing an able bodied mechanic because she doesn't like getting dirty is a big deal, as it puts more weight on the rest of us. From what I saw, her case was the rule and not the exception, as every shop had a woman, and they all did paperwork, and didn't do anything mechanical, or if they did, it was very,very rare.

Now let's talk about pregnancy. The minute a woman is found to be pregnant, they are immediately placed in a job that has no contact with chemicals of any kind.

So working on jets is out, as you can't even fuel one. After so long a woman is only allowed to work half days. Yes, you read that right. They still get full pay.

And if a cruise or deployment is coming up, they're automatically ineligible.

I had a Chief get a hit and run DUI, and was only forced to retire without punishment. We had a case of another guy(E5), who was also a pretty boy butt kisser. He had gotten his SECOND DUI right as I got to the squadron, and got no punishment. He got out of it because he was another guy who was always saying the right thing to the right person, and didn't have much technical knowledge. He later got his third DUI(DUI is one of the worst things you can do in the military today), and they finally did kick him out.

I saw a lot of things when I was in, and I'm glad I did it. I made better friends that I've ever had in my life, and still have these friends. However, examples such as the ones I've given above are extremely disheartening to the people who are very good workers and do the right thing, even if it's not what the leadership wants to hear. Out of all the people I worked with, most of the ones who were the good workers got out. It didn't really matter how many years they had, I saw one guy with fifteen years say he'd had enough and refuse to reenlist. The sad part is, what you're left with is not anywhere near the quality of the ones that quit due to the fact that they didn't like what they were seeing. I saw people who were really good at what they did get promoted, also. But sadly, they were the exception and not the rule.


http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/...6.4742716338139


Sempers,

Roger