Comments on: Senate Confirms Hayden as CIA Director

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Sat, 27 May 2006 21:26:23 +0000

McGehee, the pilot mafia is trying to stave off the revolution in military technologies by insistence on expensive manned aircraft. Already, their planes are being marginalized by the UAV, UCAV, and unmanned space systems. The need for a man in the cockpit combat platform is close to being obsolete. The USAF might as well be called the Air and SPACE Force, as its space operations mission is as great, if not greater, then its air warfare mission.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Sat, 27 May 2006 14:00:39 +0000

This is just part of the pilot mafia bias of the service.

Heh. I was wondering why they don't call it the Ground Force...

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Fri, 26 May 2006 20:56:35 +0000

AF rated officers are the pilots and navigators. The navigators today are EWOs or Radar Navigators (on B-52s), basically bombardiers or weapons officers. They are "rated" because they have to go through evaluation checks every so often to be qualified to fly. Missiliers are non-rated according to this logic, even though they too have to be evaluated on a continual basis. Basically, when AF officers talk about "rated" and "non-rated," they are talking about first and second class citizens in the pecking order. This is just part of the pilot mafia bias of the service.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Fri, 26 May 2006 18:42:18 +0000

Thank God he got confirmed! At least the democrats are not total idiots. (wow, I just said something nice about democrats!)

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Fri, 26 May 2006 18:42:14 +0000

Jem: That's just another one for my "the Air Force is barely military" files! I'm just looking for a Service-neutral term equivalent to the Army's "combat arms." I've always thought "rated officer" was a synonym for "pilot."

By: Jem

Jem — Fri, 26 May 2006 18:27:12 +0000

It's probably the first time someone has been director of both, though Adm Bobby Ray Inman was NSA Director and CIA Deputy Director.

Also, James, in the Air Force, Intelligence officers are line officers--I believe the term you want to use is "non-rated" officer.

By: B. Minich, PI

B. Minich, PI — Fri, 26 May 2006 16:07:07 +0000

I believe this is the first time one man has been both the Director of the NSA and the CIA director.

By: Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator

Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator — Fri, 26 May 2006 15:52:12 +0000

Senate Panel Approves Hayden...

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted 12-3 to favorably report the nomination of General...