So that's why I'm resigning - long hours with little support, entitlements eroded, integrity a mockery, zero visible career progression and senior commanders evidently totally missing the point (and everyone afraid or forbidden to inform them.)

I've had it - life's too short to fight an uphill battle for Commanders and Staffs who won't listen or don't believe, or maybe don't even care. So thanks for the memories, it's been a real slice of life but I've been to the mountain and looked over and I've seen the big picture - and it wasn't of the Air Force.

"This is your Captain speaking... on your left you should be able to see Denver, Colorado, the mile high... "

Main Footnote: This imaginary letter was written some twenty years ago by an anonymous fighter pilot who was venting his frustration over what he saw was a severe morale problem in the USAF's fighter community. The letter somehow made it into the light of day and was quickly passed hand to hand around the world to all fighter units. We loved it. It hit the nail squarely on the head...there was not a word in it that we had all not seen first hand in our careers.

The sad fact is that the exact same conditions and frustrations exist in today's military. In spite of this, the courage, determination, and plain old patriotism of today's fighter pilots..men and women..are why we can all sleep peacefully at night.

Andy Bush

Dear Boss Footnotes

1. CBPO - Base personnel office. Support function that handles all assignment, transfer, promotion records keeping. 2. MPC - Military Personnel Center. Main location for all of the USAF's personnel records storage and handling. All assignments are determined here. 3. Randolph - Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. Location of MPC. 4. DOC - An operational commitment assigned to a fighter unit by higher headquarters. Once assigned, the squadron is expected to complete the task. 5. TDY - Temporary Duty. A short duration assignment to a location other than a pilot's home base. Can be up to six months long. 6. PME - Professional Military Education. In addition to a regular post-graduate Masters Degree, today's pilot is expected to complete "in-house" USAF schools either by correspondence or by actual attendance. To be competitive for promotion, a pilot should complete at least the three main PME courses.

7. CO - Commanding Officer.

8. DO - Deputy Commander for Operations. The next level of command above the squadron commander. The DO works directly for the overall unit commander.

9. pops - slang for pop up attacks. The reference is to how much time the typical pilot is taking to fly the pop up from initiation of the pull up to weapon release. Long exposure times negate the effectiveness of the pop up as a tactic.

Click to continue . . .

10. nine-fours and ones. Numerical ratings system for a pilot's annual performance report. A 9-4 or 1 was the best rating possible.

11. remote. A PCS assignment to a location in which the pilot was not allowed to take his family with him. Usually, remotes were just that...off in the boondocks somewhere.

12. face to face, no change brief. Refers to a pilot going to MPC and meeting with the office responsible for making his assignment. In this instance, the pilot is assured that he is not up for re-assignment.

13. PCS. Permanent Change of Station. An assignment to a new location. Usually for a minimum of two to three years.

14. RTU. Replacement Training Unit. The flight training school a pilot attends when upgrading to a new aircraft. Each type of fighter has a main RTU base.

15. staff. Higher headquarters desk job. The Pentagon, for example. Almost always a non-flying four year or more assignment. The absolute dead last thing a fighter pilot wants to do. Also absolutely necessary if a pilot wants to continue to get promoted past the rank of Major. There are some interesting staff jobs, but not many.

16. TAC. Tactical Air Command. The old designation of the "tactical" part of the USAF. All stateside fighter units were in TAC.

17. experience ratio problem. Squadron pilots are categorized as "experienced" or inexperienced". This was strictly a function of total flying time and hours in the specific type of fighter. In order for a pilot to upgrade to flight lead status for example, he had to have a set minimum of time. He was then placed in the "experienced" category. The reference is to the situation that developed where too many experienced pilots were leaving the service.

This left vacancies in flight lead and instructor positions that the remaining junior pilots had to fill. Since the junior pilot did not have the minimum flight time to meet the definition of "experienced pilot", the definition of "experienced" was then reduced...for example, the minimum for flight lead upgrade may have been reduced from 1000 hours to 500 hours. This "dumbing down" of a squadron's experience level only made the bean counters happy...it didn't do anything for the unit's actual capability. This reduction in capability did not set well with the remaining senior pilots.

18. FWS. Fighter Weapons School. The USAF equivalent of the Navy's TOPGUN school. A three month TDY assignment that gave the student pilot essentially a Ph.D. in fighter knowledge. The best it can get in fighter flying. FWS instructors were truly the cream of the crop. The 414 FWS was the F-4 weapons school.