Had a commander many many moons ago who used to hammer his subordinate officers on the critical importance of the concept of “Loyalty-down.” Stories like this make me want to call him up and say thank you.

Short notice taskers for theatre level reconnaisance assets are not being generated by some random dude somewhere. Your mission was likely the result of the Secretary of State casually suggesting to the Pres that this whole “genocide” argument would go easier with proof, and The Pres mentions casually that that would be nice while chatting with the SecDef.

SecDef says “hey general dude, make with the pictures, the President is kinda interested” and the world stops at the Pentagon. An hour later, Airman Howell is rudely awoken.

The idea that your idiot CO denied your medal because you solved a problem and delivered on time and on mission in a fashion that caused some PR issues makes me want to scream.

“When bad officers happen to good enlisted.” You should write a book.

Love the site, love the tips and really enjoy the AF stories (once I stop foaming at the mouth)

Thanks for all your work.

This is the kind of story that I love to hear. That’s using your noggin! Toob ad you didn’t get your medal, but you did what you had to do under the circumstances to get the job done.

Well done!

im sure this went deeper than you be cos if you could get in to a secure place that easy you would think they would look at the security….

i will say i have never been in the military but i have a great respect for those that are and have been and would like to say thanks….

Adrus

Seems to me your CO buckled under pressure and failed to fairly represent the situation.

Any crypto gear is always touchy, but damn, what was the alternative?

By the way, I don’t know they Air Force billet, but how was your OIC involved? Who was the senior individual present?

Oh well. Failure to make rational decisions was one of the reasons I felt let down by the military (I was both enlisted and an officer). This makes a good story, but really just serves to highlight the less than stellar leadership that one can encounter (there are good ones).

So no more stories…you are hurting the recruiting effort!

After all the initial chaos, we opened up our gates to national media. A few days later I was escorting Stone Phillips around base so he could use one of our ported subs as a backdrop for hit hot topic Dateline story.

My PAO couldn’t be there, so he tasked me with the babysitting job.

By the time the settled on a back drop, the sun was going down and the cameraman informed Stone that they were losing light - it had to be a 1-shot 1-kill performance. Stone couldn’t afford to mess up a line because they might not have time to finish.

Stoner gave one flawless dry-run before they started rolling.

As soon as the camera was on, Stone hit his stride. His delivery was eloquent and precise. He never stumbled over a syllable and all the military jargon, which would confuse most people, was nailed by Stone Cold Phillips.

It was like poetry. And then, as he neared the latter half of his delivery, my cell phone rang. And it was loud. It ruined his stand up. The cameraman dropped his head and sneered.

The talking stopped. Stone’s head, like a device fighting against rusty gears, jerkily swiveled in my direction.

Then he, with an icy straight-jowled visage, stared directly in to my eyes. With one glance I was reduced to a stammering uniformed pile of goo.

“I… am… soooo… sorry Mr. Phillips. I’ll turn this off now.”

I was mortified, but also a bit amused. After the initial shock of being stared down by The Stoner, I found it hard to contain my laughter. It was my boss who called me, so I called him back to share the happening expecting to be scathed, or at least given him some level of disappointment.

I came to find out that the PAO community as an aggregate didn’t care much for Stone. He was demanding and condescending.

My boss bought me a beer. His boss chewed my ass.

But lets make the guy who didn’t make the key available responsible for the mess. None of it would of happened if it weren’t for him.

(RAF and USAF are like rivals in that we would be just as inclined to get a RAF member in trouble)

Ahh, it’s an epeen thing.. got it. Nuff said.

There are good reasons (security-wise) for all these steps. People-wise, if a bunch of people have to be awakened because of one key, everybody downhill will get splashed with the anger. Even SGT Howell, who was NOT the reason the key wasn’t available, will take splash. Not least, because that paperwork accompanying will come back to bite the rears of everybody who (in official minds) should have been ensuring it wasn’t necessary to get the extra key from the safe.

You do what you need to do, and eat the consequences when they’re served.