If one were to confine this topic to politics and politicians, there really is no such thing as “point of view” but only points of contention or disagreement. One only has to look at our present Congress to see the truth of this statement, which just happens to be my point of view on the subject of politics.
But leaving politics behind and moving to religion, a similar situation arises. Ephesians 4:5 states, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism …” but different Christian denominations baptize members using non-standardized methods and (in the case of children) at different ages. Some even claim that baptism is not even necessary. Wars have started over such points of contention.
So, leaving both politics and religion out of any further consideration I can limit my thoughts to points of view between common citizens. Obviously, disagreements between people can also escalate into confrontations which may or may not become violent. After all, points of view are dangerous in the wrong minds attached to uncontrollable mouths or a word processor. Therefore, I will continue to shrink the viewing of my points to the times I served in the U.S. Air Force.
I first served from December 1967 to September 1971 when I was released early to attend college as the Vietnam non-war was ending. I enjoyed my time in the service mostly because I was stationed in Florida after basic training and my Commander and First Sergeant were good and decent people who treated all the enlisted personnel under their authority very well. This I can contrast with my next period of service which began in May of 1978 when I graduated college.
The only thing I did not like about my enlisted time was being told where and when I could live somewhere. Between the end of my enlistment and my graduation, I had married and now where ever I lived my family would be with me so that particular peeve no longer applied. I returned to the Air Force as an officer in the Security Police career field. I spent the next 12-years supervising the enlisted force guarding nuclear missiles, nuclear armed bombers, and nuclear weapons in storage and the base law enforcement personnel, and also as a nuclear weapons convoy commander.
I was assigned to units of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). The military officer culture of SAC is tightly structured and controlled because SAC was always one-step closer to going to war than all other units of the Air Force. SAC’s official motto was “Peace is Our Profession.” The unofficial version was, “Peace is Our Profession—War is Our Hobby.” This is probably the last point where our points of view coincided.
POINT OF VIEW #1—Training – My View: Training activities are to be used to teach and improve performance of personnel. Their View: Any mistake in training is to be severely criticized and appropriate punishment inflicted. There are too many examples in my military life to even try to pick one, so I won’t.
POINT OF VIEW #2—Suggestions – My View: When a senior officer asks for comments, suggestions, or opinions, the person asking wants an answer, so respond. Their View: “I did not mean it. If you choose to answer, give me the answer I want to hear. Be a ‘Yes-man’.” (It took me way too long to realize this truth.)
I once reminded my colonel (the Security Police Group Commander) of a commitment he made to the personnel in my squadron. (I did this at the morning briefing with all the intermediate commanders in attendance. I was still a lieutenant.) He had told our personnel that he was going to visit each flight on the midnight-shift. I reminded him that he had done this for the other three flights but not my flight and the men had asked me about it. As a result, he came out and visited that very night. I took the opportunity to suggest that he ride with me and I gave him a tour of the nuclear weapons storage area and demonstrated a “starlight scope.”
The men had been complaining about the bag lunches delivered to them. The colonel just happened to be there when the lunches arrived and got to see them first hand. The men wanted to know why they could not have hot lunches delivered like the aircraft maintenance personnel who were brought hot lunches in specially insulated cabinets. Back-office personnel had known about this issue for over a year but had done nothing to make it happen. As a result of that visit and my suggestions, within a week hot meals were delivered and the starlight scopes were posted with the security patrols and not just kept locked up in the armory
Also, as a result, my commander and the back-office personnel took a strong dislike to me. My commander because in his point of view, I had jumped the chain-of-command and made him look bad or ineffective. The back-office personnel because in their point of view, I made them look lazy and uncaring. In my point of view, I had taken care of my men and enhanced the security of the base.
POINT OF VIEW #3—Disposition of Personnel – My View: The right person in the right position. Their View: Reward the “team-players” with positions on the day-shift.
In peace-time how do you evaluate the readiness and effectiveness of military personnel? There are perhaps several different methods, but the one I saw most often would be called dramaturgical behaviors—how well do personnel march; are their uniforms clean, starched, and shoes and metal parts shiny; is their military “bearing” above reproach; is all paperwork perfect in every way; and are their equipment or weapons clean and in good repair? In other words, does everything and everyone look good?
One variation of this concept I saw consistently throughout my career. The most knowledgeable and experienced officers and enlisted personnel were assigned to the day-shift where they could impress all commanders on base, who almost to the man, only worked day-shift hours. All the less knowledgeable officers and enlisted personnel worked the rotating swing and mid-shifts out of sight, while those who are responsible for training and observing performance sleep. My view point is that you should put the most experienced and knowledgeable personnel on shifts where they need little or no supervision while everyone else sleeps at night.
These are a few of the reasons why the Air Force decided we need to part company. Our points of view were never really compatible.
© 25 November 2013
About the Author
When united with my mother and stepfather two years later in 1958, I lived first at Emerald Bay and then at South Lake Tahoe, California, graduating from South Tahoe High School in 1966. After three tours of duty with the Air Force, I moved to Denver, Colorado where I lived with my wife and four children until her passing away from complications of breast cancer four days after the 9-11 terrorist attack.
I came out as a gay man in the summer of 2010. I find writing these memories to be therapeutic.
My story blog is TheTahoeBoy.Blogspot.com
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