Air Force Leaders Take Off [UPDATE]

Day 1,759, 07:11 • Published in USA USA • by Avruch

Last night a number of of the higher Air Force officers quit the branch and the Armed Forces and formed a new MU. I'm not a member of the Defense Department, but I've been an active observer and there are a few things I want to make sure people know about what happened and what will happen. For the tl;dr version, start at the bottom.



First things first: No one will argue that people in this game (and it is a game, despite the grandiose statements that players sometimes make) are perfectly entitled to play in whatever unit and with whatever group of people they like.



Second, there's been some simmering discontent from the Air Force CO (Roper 70) for a couple of months. When the Armed Forces was restructured and Rogue Squadron and Flight Training were created, there were some big changes involved for the Air Force and its officers. Some people left the AF to join Rogue Squadron, and officers in the Air Force previously involved in Boot Camp felt left out as a new branch was established under Synesi as CO. As an observer, I don't think the restructuring was handled elegantly and communication could clearly have been better. So I can understand why Air Force leaders, confronting reduced responsibilities and a changed role in the Armed Forces, might have been upset.



The other issue, the proximate cause perhaps of the departure of these officers, was Slyk Willy. You might take a look at my last article for a little more information on that. Slyk is an outspoken guy, with contrary opinions and no filter. I understand over time he's done a lot of work for the Air Force, but in the first Israel Stevens term he was pretty close to being discharged over the disruption he was causing to Air Force and Rogue Squadron. In the brief Civil Anarchy term, Slyk was ultimately discharged for encouraging Air Force members and others to fight against government orders. Despite this discharge, Slyk was permitted to rejoin the Air Force about a week later. I believe this was a mistake on the part of the Secretary of Defense, Gnilraps. Gnilraps is a good guy and people make mistakes. Gnil hoped Slyk had "learned his lesson" and agreed with Roper 70's request to give him another chance. Within a couple of days, Slyk had made a few mildly disparaging comments about government policy that he posted in the Air Force IRC channel, the Air Force shout feed and his own shout feed.



Gnilraps believed this violated the conditions of Slyk's return (read Gnilraps article here), and Slyk was discharged again. Now, I don't think Slyk belongs in an Armed Forces branch. But I have a hard time getting behind discharging someone for expressing their opinions, even when I disagree with them. In this case, Slyk was pissed off about the policy of returning regions to reduce our bonuses. It's well known throughout the eUS community that there is a lot of disagreement on this policy, and many people both for and against it. So understandably, some Air Force officers were upset when it seemed like they weren't allowed to talk about an opinion many of them shared. I can even sort of understand why they decided to go do their own thing.



But they didn't just leave. They left all together, with no notice, with no plans to provide supplies or instruction to the 260 remaining members of the Air Force. They didn't turn over control of the IRC channel, or the bot. They didn't return any of the supplies until Israel Stevens personally requested it in the middle of the night.



More importantly, they left with all of the infrastructure companies that the government bought for the Air Force over the last few months. Repeatedly in the lead up to his resignation, Roper 70 asked the government to provide his branch with bags of cash to buy tank companies and raw material companies. Seven (7!!) of the officers who resigned got substantial amounts of money to buy companies and expand their storage. Some of the money was returned, but much remains in their hands. I hope they eventually decide to do the right thing. As much as we all respect and appreciate all the hard work they did for the Air Force, the government can't fund the creation of private, non-USAF military units.

Lastly, everyone in the Air Force and the USAF as a whole should know - we, the rest of the USAF, stand behind them. We'll help out as new leaders are promoted for the branch under the leadership of its commanding officer, Creitzell. The transition might take a few days to get back to smooth operations, but you'll get there and things will be normal again soon. Have fun, AIM HIGH, and enjoy serving in a great branch of the United States Armed Forces.

TL😉R: A bunch of officers in the Air Force quit because they were unhappy with a few decisions over the last few months, especially the creation of Rogue Squadron and the discharge of Slyk Willy. They're free to go of course, and we wish them well. The government had recently bought almost every single one of them commune companies and expanded storage; so far that stuff hasn't been returned, so let's encourage them to do the right thing.


UPDATE: The new "Black Sheep" show their true colors, perhaps?