[RIRedinPA]

I have no idea of the validity of this, I stumbled across it looking for something else on Craig's List. Anyone on active duty/reserve want to comment? Sounds like there are budgeting issues which are leading to maintenance issues which are leading to accidents.

As I sit here I am still shaking. I can't take much more of this ****. I am a Marine Pilot. Not that it means anything anymore. Today was another safety stand down put on by the mother ****ers in DOSS. Why? Cause another one of my friends is dead and gone. Why? Cause he flew his **** into the water that's why. Why'd he do that? Cause the mother ****ers that "be" i.e. the boys at the top have lost their ****ing minds and can't say no.
"Sir the aircraft are at 13% readiness, we don't have anything up."
"That's not my problem, we got a FRAG, get it done."
"Sir, none of our pilots are current to do this."
"Currency? Currency is for pussies. Just do some pattern work before you go, you'll be fine."
"Sir, the maintainers have been working non-stop 12 on 12 off for weeks now, we can't keep this pace up?
"Rest, Marines don't need rest, they are tough. Tell them to drink some coffee and get these planes up."
"Sir, I've been in the tube for the last 10 hours, the weather was ****, and I haven't seen my wife in 2 weeks, can I work on this tomorrow?"
"No, I am going on leave Captain, I need that power point done by tomorrow, oh wait your on the schedule. Well, I guess you better get working."
"Sir I don't have the crew rest to fly this."
"Crew rest? What's crew rest. Your day doesn't start until the engines do, never mind that I had you in here this morning doing mindless ********."

I hate you Marine Corps. I hate you. You push us and push us and ask us to do more. But there is no more. You can take your $18,000 dollar bonus and shove it up your ass! I am not staying. I am not flying this **** anymore. I am not going to go and break the rules for you anymore. Iam not going to turn motors when I know the maint. log books aren't worth the paper they are written on. I am not doing your ****ing log run in this weather when you can't even get me the bare minimum flight time to keep my skills up. I am not going to anymore safety stand downs about leadership and seatbelt use. I am not going to listen to another ****ing Major who has lost his soul and cares more about the taste of his coffee in the morning than if his people had time to even eat chow today. I will not do this. I will not get another phone call about a friend of mine who is now dead, because you bend the rules to make mission, because you can't say NO to anyone.

We are broke damn it. We don't have the people, we don't have the parts. Hell, what kind of ****ing military organization has the commanding officer tell his officers they need to go out and buy toilet paper for the head because we ran out? **** this. I am out.

Berger, you were the best man, you shouldn't have died like that. Kerns, you were a funny dude. I am sorry I couldn’t see you buried, or have the courage to write your Mom and Dad about what nice guy you were. Murphy, why would you sign up for that ****! Your kids will never get to know what an awesome guy you were.

I am in tears I am so frustrated. I wish you were still around, but I won't die like you. I won’t be some number on CNN's death 'o meter. I won’t contribute to this madness of telling the Wing we can do it when we are so far on our ass we can’t see the light of day. You Generals are ****ing cowards. You know it’s broke, but you won’t say no will you. I did my part, and that's all I can do. **** you Marine Corps. I am not the only one that feels this way. Let's see where your retention is when the planes are so broke dick nobody can fly them, no matter how many rules you break to keep them up. **** You!

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/wdc/118782492.html

[Face Ache]

Someone's a little tetchy today.

[Millennium]

All this, with the government supposedly spending more on defense than it ever has, and more than anyone else in the world.

Where is all of that money going? People make accusations that it's going into the pockets of Halliburton and the oil companies, and some of it probably does, but even that can't account for all of it. With so much being spent on defense, why is the Marine Corps -or at least this guy's division- so broke?

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally Posted by Millennium

All this, with . . .

All this with . . . what, exactly? All I see is an anonymous post on a swap meet site. Is there really any point in speculating about such a thing? Let alone drawing any conclusions from it?

[Sky Captain]

I want to know what aircraft he is flying for which division and wing he's with.
I haven't flown a military bird in 11 years. But our maintenance crew was top notch.

[RIRedinPA]

Originally Posted by Sky Captain

I want to know what aircraft he is flying for which division and wing he's with.
I haven't flown a military bird in 11 years. But our maintenance crew was top notch.

If you follow the link I think you can email the original poster. Like I originally said I don't account for the validity of it just thought it would be interesting and that there would probably be people on here who would have more insight on his comments.

I debated about posting it for two reasons - it's anonymous which always makes me cringe and I haven't seen anything recently in the main stream media or the partisan media or the blogs to indicate that there is a supply/maintenance problem with the military.

My guess is he's a reservists (he says he hasn't seen his wife in 2 weeks) and the deaths he's alluding to are from training accidents. He's blaming the command but that is a common thing - when I was in if I got a cold it was the COs fault.

[ghporter]

It sounds 100% bogus to me. The USMC has always pushed the envelope-they trust the Harrier far more than almost anyone-but they are not likely to suggest flying a mission with non-ready aircraft, using unqualified pilots, and consistently breaking crew rest. There's this thing called the Inspector General, and NOBODY scoffs at the IG. And there's a hotline to DoD's own, "super IG" that ANYONE can use at any time if they feel that all other options have been exhausted or are not to be trusted.

In the Air Force, you will NOT find an aircraft flown unless the PILOT believes it flightworthy, and most pilots trust their crewchiefs' opinions on the maintenance status of the bird as much as they trust their tongues to find their teeth. Crew rest is almost sancrosanct; it's broken only in case of direst emergency. A frag without resources is a problem, not a mission.

No commander in any service can seriously believe that he can send out missions without properly dealing with maintenance, personnel and support issues; it's suicide for HIM. Congress watches this sort of thing pretty closely; there are factions there that want to find even the merest hint of such behavior and use it for drastic cutbacks (so the defense dollars can go toward hometown pork, of course). This is BS without facts anyway, and the content stinks.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by RIRedinPA

My guess is he's a reservists (he says he hasn't seen his wife in 2 weeks) and the deaths he's alluding to are from training accidents. He's blaming the command but that is a common thing - when I was in if I got a cold it was the COs fault.

That could actually be the case...or it could be that the guy's overgeneralizing, thinking he's an expert on stuff he's not, and so on.

It is NOT a myth that some pilots will write up the IFF system as "inoperative in the OFF position." They get kind of goofy sometimes...

[Sky Captain]

Then again I was a CO over reservista during the last of my comission.
My sargents never let on if there was any bitching. Officers knew better.

[ThinkInsane]

I'm calling BS on this. I've been running the names mentioned to match them up with USMC crashes, and the only one I can find is a guy named Murphy that died in an Osprey crash in 2000. This is just tripe.

[porieux]

...

[Sky Captain]

Originally Posted by ghporter

It sounds 100% bogus to me. The USMC has always pushed the envelope-they trust the Harrier far more than almost anyone-but they are not likely to suggest flying a mission with non-ready aircraft, using unqualified pilots, and consistently breaking crew rest. There's this thing called the Inspector General, and NOBODY scoffs at the IG. And there's a hotline to DoD's own, "super IG" that ANYONE can use at any time if they feel that all other options have been exhausted or are not to be trusted.

In the Air Force, you will NOT find an aircraft flown unless the PILOT believes it flightworthy, and most pilots trust their crewchiefs' opinions on the maintenance status of the bird as much as they trust their tongues to find their teeth. Crew rest is almost sancrosanct; it's broken only in case of direst emergency. A frag without resources is a problem, not a mission.

No commander in any service can seriously believe that he can send out missions without properly dealing with maintenance, personnel and support issues; it's suicide for HIM. Congress watches this sort of thing pretty closely; there are factions there that want to find even the merest hint of such behavior and use it for drastic cutbacks (so the defense dollars can go toward hometown pork, of course). This is BS without facts anyway, and the content stinks.

Bingo. I listened to my crewchief/loadmaster. I was in command but not stupid.

[Matius]

Originally Posted by porieux

Keep dreaming, **** rolls downhill, and there is nothing but **** at the top of this country.

Sounds like we have **** at the bottom too. Don't worry though, I have an idea for you...get the f**k out.

Due to time constraints this is a post and run...enjoy.

[olePigeon]

Smells like BS to me. Probably some liberal nutjob looked up military phrases on the internet.

[Shaddim]

Originally Posted by porieux

and there is nothing but **** at the top of this country.

Canada?!?