RECIPE FOR DISASTER?

  • Published
  • By Maj. L. Sims
Via e-mail --  In reference to the story "Officials Concerned with Alarming Number of Aircraft Crashes, Fatalities" (May/June 2008 issue, page 24), has anyone stopped to think what might be the root cause? I can't give you facts or figures, but I can tell you that we have a stressed out force. I witness it every day.

We keep cutting people and sending members on longer and longer deployments, and the people left behind keep having the extra work piled on higher and higher. People are stressed out, tired, distracted and, to a certain degree, unhappier than they have been in the past. Does that sound like a recipe for disaster? ... Prepare for it to get worse.

The secretary of defense just basically fired the Air Force's top two leaders (Air Force secretary and chief of staff) for other breakdowns in the service. But that's not gonna solve anything. It's not their fault Air Force members are spread so thin these days. Bottom line, you can't keep cutting people without cutting duties/tasks.