For Every Parent…

As a parent and a pilot I fail to see the heart warming side of this story. The father as a fighter pilot himself should have sat his son down and told him that he wasn’t going to be a fighter pilot and there was no shame in it. Imagine if the son had actually made it through fighter school because of his fathers interference and ended up killing himself and/or someone else.

I can understand a father wanting the best for his son, but the best in this case would have been helping the son come to grips that flying a tanker or cargo plane are more than honorable pursuits.

This guy washed out of OTS! His training reports indicated a lack of integrity. He doesn’t belong in uniform. And now that the whole sordid affair is public record, I’d love to hear if any of his fellow officers stick up for him, or avoid him completely.

If he had no business flying fighters, he had even LESS business flying transports or tankers.
.
You want to talk about having the potential for killing more people than in a fighter, think about it…
.
You’re right, there’s NOTHING heart-warming about this – especially since it took quite a while for the system to get the message.
.
I don’t blame the lower level officers that were doing their jobs. It’s the ones that thought they owed “Dad” a favor.
.
The constant flags about “integrity” SHOULD have been huge disqualifers.

I think at least the first two commenters may have misunderstood Alex. His point is that this thing was handled correctly by the Air Force — washing out the kid and getting the father out of uniform. The “abuse of power” was what the father did. Too often such abuses go uncorrected, says Alex; this time the Air Force got it right. That the Air Force managed to overcome improper command influence is the “largely heartwarming” aspect of the story.

Lets’ just agree that “heart-warming” probably wasn’t the BEST term to use.

No business flying fighters than no business flying tankers or cargo planes. Well this isn’t necessarily so. As the story clearly states transport school was offered up as an option.

Case in point. My brother made it through fighter school by the skin of his teeth. He just was a lousy fighter jock – he will even admit it :) It was recommended he go to helicopter training. He did and turned out to be a very good helicopter pilot.

Washing out of fighter school does not mean you won’t be a good cargo pilot. Fighter jocks have a unique skill set that makes them good. Not all very good pilots have this skill set.

I fly close formation in a former Russian trainer. A slow radial engine plane. I am good at it, I had good instructors and up close and personal to another plane doesn’t give the willies anymore. So I am a good pilot, but I would have probably not made it through fighter school. I am very good not great.

I should have added that yes the Air Force ended up doing exactly the right thing here. And as afguy said, heart warming was probably not the right phrase.

Too bad it took an IG complaint from the lower end of the rank spectrum to trigger what SHOULD have been obvious from the beginning by those “Dad” was trying to influence.
.
Suffice to say that I think that the AF was “forced” into FINALLY doing the right thing. The “old boys” network at the top ALMOST caused a failure.
.
There was still too much of their trying to find a rationale to pass him through a very comprehensive and redundant screening process.
.
It didn’t fail… but THEY almost did.

Sorry.. “anonymous” tip, but that’s what the IG Hotline is there for.
.
Registering complaints without danger of blowback from superiors.

“heartwarming for the rest of us”

I think nepotism is the warm, fuzzy word that is bringing the tears to our eyes.

bobell, I understand your point… I’m just disappointed it took as long as it did…once he washed out of OTS (and I believe he was still “recycyled” during his second stint) the OTS chain of command showed very poor leadership and decision-making. I’m an OTS grad myself, if you can’t make it the first time, there’s a compelling reason.

Huh? Air Force Times did a story on the history of the young John McCain?

Oh, sorry, wrong branch of the service.

HA this article could be talking about GWB!