There's nothing offensive or wrong or oppressive of freedom about this missive sent to AFROTC cadets and cadre. It's full of commonsense policy guidance that isn't overly restrictive. I have no objection to the content of the memo. Yet I still find it jarring and at the same time revealing. What's this document tell you?
Rather than tell you what immediately caught my attention, I'm just going to post it and let you tell me what you see.
Then I'll weigh in.
But I'm pretty sure you'll see it too.
Rather than tell you what immediately caught my attention, I'm just going to post it and let you tell me what you see.
Then I'll weigh in.
But I'm pretty sure you'll see it too.
21 April 2009MEMORANDUM FOR ALL AFROTC PERSONNELFROM: AFROTC/CC
SUBJECT: ARMS-AFROTC-09-076 Cadet Professional Conduct
1. Use of the internet and internet technology continues to expand at a remarkable rate, providing the capability to communicate rapidly and globally with the push of a button. What seemed like incredible technology just a few years ago (email) is surpassed by leaps and bounds with internet chat rooms, web pages like “My Space” and “Face Book” among myriad other venues.
2. As members of the AFROTC team, whether cadre, civilians, or cadets, as you choose to participate in internet activities I expect you to present a professional image at all times. For example, there is tremendous value in proper and professional use of Detachment web pages to share information, instill pride and communicate what AFROTC has to offer. Conversely, posting of inappropriate pictures, videos or comments on public web pages can be very detrimental to the proud traditions of our Air Force, AFROTC and our mission of producing quality leaders for the Air Force.
3. If you are considering posting material on websites or participating in blogs and are unsure about the content of the material or how it may be perceived by others as it relates to the USAF or AFROTC, ask your Detachment leadership to review it. The internet is an incredibly powerful tool that is now a part of everyday life. Use it wisely and always ensure that your actions are honorable and uphold the highest standards of professional conduct.
//signed/jmm/21 Apr 09//
JOHN M. McCAIN, Colonel, USAF
Commander, AFROTC
" ... ask your Detachment leadership to review it ..."
Sounds too much like censorship and potential invasion of privacy.
Emphasis mine. It basically just says, "What you do and say reflects on the whole organization. Keep that in mind."
I don't see anything wrong with that. If it said "before you post material on websites or participate in blogs, ask your Detachment leadership to review it" there would be an issue.
I assume this is the same McCain that ran for President?
That would lead me to believe that Cunnel McCain either thinks certain of his cadets lack sufficient maturity to conduct themselves in a professional manner *or* certain of his cadets have already proven themselves to lack said sufficient maturity.
Since it's pretty late in the collitch season for him to be proactively posting a warning in the case of the former reason, I'm guessing it's the latter...
John, I don't have any problem with a warning to cadets to act more professionally and to be cognizant of the fact that anything they post may be perceived adversely by civilians and others, expecting "conduct becoming officers and gentlemen/ladies" and all that.
But I think a better way would have been to phrase it as "when in doubt, just don't do it", rather than the conditional "if you have doubts, then let us review/approve it".
Certainly, there are definitely photos and content that can legitimately be deemed "unbecoming", "embarrassing", and "detrimental" to the individuals involved and to the service itself, and these should not be done in any circumstance.
But I see a vague grey area when we talk about the perceptions of various beholders ... especially certain (liberal) civilians who already have misunderstandings and ignorance about - even animus against - the military, who will always find some reason to find fault.
Which might only mean I need to have my meds adjusted.
In some respects, you all are dancing around what struck me when I first read it last night.
I do understand why "barracks chatter" being made public is an issue of concern but I am wondering what has motivated this memo.
It goes with what I tell people in the IO and PAO business when we chat - "First thing we do, is fire all the Colonels."
Because soooo many of them are simply clueless to not only how the web has changed nearly everything to do with content delivery, it's changing so fast they'll likely not catch up. The Majors, Captains, Lieutenants now... And there are Colonels and Generals who do get it - but unlike the visionaries who established naval aviation, the Battleship Colonels are slow learners.
The kids are sprinting past them with this stuff - and a paragraph like that just demonstrates the point.
Like I said - I just find the first paragraph to be... an interesting display of the differerence between us Auld Pharts (and I am one, I'm almost certainly older than the Colonel) and the Kidz.
Just in case that wasn't clear.
However Colonel Not Run for President is probably in the position for skills and abilities he does have, not ones he does not. One could perhaps wake him up to this side of things though.
It was simply a vignette of culture.
,,,that was obvious to anyone who uses the internet extensively and we are all here in netterland
Yet, it *wasn't obvious to the bulk of people who commented here, now was it?
And Colonel McCain makes *policy.* So, when you look at policy (not in this instance, admittedly) and you scratch your head, you start to understand. There's a reason the Air Force is three terrain features behind the other services in their approach to, and understanding of, the 'net and especially social media. Mind you - they lead the way when it comes to locking it down and protecting it - but they positively blow at exploiting it.
And part of why is reflected, in a small way, in this memo.
That's my point. Sorry to have disappointed you. Snerk.
I remember plotting my biorhythms on a college computer back in 1980. To me, it was a big calculator with a screen so you could see how it was thinking.
FADAC was the first 'lectric calculating machine I ever saw. And I can still figure an in-flight holding pattern correction for time and heading faster with an E6B than a kid can with a calculator.
Plus it never needs batteries.
1980's? Mizz Cricket has been spending 'way too much bleary-eye time with Euclid. She obviously meant 1990's...
Well, it's possible you are correct John but as I see it was so obvious it was unnoticed. People notice what is different and unexpected.
Actually I think I see the thrust of your argument now and I very much agree with it. I see before me a kind of internal battle with the military trying to keep relevant even as it ossifies. To keep on the more robust side of the balance means a significant edge to the military over a similar one which might have let it all go a bit.
Perhaps half the battle in peace times is staying fresh and ready at maximum potential without the driving threat.
Then came that horror, TACFIRE. Ick ick ick. And I was an Honor Grad of the long course in TACFIRE and I hated it. Hated it because, as its worse sin, it required us to change our approach to match the limitations of the machine, rather than the machine free us from drudgery.
Throw in BCS for battery-level fire directiion, and we managed to raise almost a generation of field artillerymen who knew what FM/RFAF meant but couldn't explain interior, exterior, and terminal ballistics, nor apply that knowledge to troubleshoot a fire mission.
Feh.
Of course, someone once told me what TACFIRE was all about, and my only comment was indecipherable due to uncontrollable laughter...
FORTRAN.
And a stack of punchcards created by you that would tell the room full of computer to tell the next guy who came along that 2 + 2 + 4.
I told everybody back then that his computer stuff would never fly..............
And playing Star Trek late at night.
Is that how it happened that I know for sure I typed 2 + 2 = 4.........and it came out the way it posted?
Couldn't have been my mistake..........Somebody has inserted one of those "punches" somewhere in my hard drive.
A couple observations -
1. The USAF in general: struggling mightily to come to grips with this series of tubes thingy. It's likely no one in this Det ever posted anything inappropriate anywhere, at least not where the admin discovered it. However, some USAF kidz have gained some senior attention by posting facebook/myspace photos of the "tossing cookies in the middle of the street on all fours with clothes half off" variety (and other things of which their dear mothers might not approve) along with acknowledgement that they are proud wearers of the ABU. There are suddenly a bazillion similarly worded documents floating up and down various chains of command, making the suspicious sort of person wonder if some higher level being waved his hand a certain way in a staff meeting and achieved a result. There's also a cohesive USAF "policy" now published and about to hit the streets. Interestingly, it's not a Reg (or as the USAF now calls them, "AFI") or a manual or anything else, just "guidance". I saw a copy on a recent trip to the Pentagon, he said, by way of transiting to point number
2. "The generation thing": On that trip a group of us - at least one of whom proudly held the Argghhh banner high - were entertained by the various skillz of department/branch level PAOs - many of whom acknowledged the "generation gap between you bloggers and us stodgy old folks on high who must be forgiven for moving in seeming slow motion, being of Precambrian mind set and arthritic knees and all..." Not sure how many others in our bright young whippersnapper crowd noticed, but I didn't need to whip out my slide rule to calculate that our median, mean, average (take your pick) age exceeded that of our hosts by a significant margin (and that's even with Maggie and Mrs G keeping our numbers low...). They imagined "bloggers" as a bunch of 20-somethings, prepared remarks accordingly, and the evidence before their eyes was insufficient to get them to adjust their comments on the fly.
My mother bought her first computer a couple years ago because her son had a web log. She's 80 now. (Don't tell her I said that). These young f&#*ks at that dang Pentygone place have no excuse, sez I.
Talk about punch cards! To the Batcave, Robin! Batman and his punchcards were a source of great hilarity because of the programmability of probables and statistics, which was why Batman was never wrong. Even the Engineer worked for EDS for a couple of years...when they had the old magnetic tapes that had to be mounted. Too funny.