View Full Version : Former Blue Angels Boss Reprimanded
NutLoose
4th Jun 2014, 11:14
Former Blue Angels commander found guilty in Navy probe, reprimanded - The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/former-blue-angels-commander-found-guilty-in-navy-probe-receives-reprimand/2014/06/03/8ee1bb02-eb42-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop)
A 63-page investigative report (http://www.cpf.navy.mil/foia/reading-room/2014/06/blue-angels.pdf) released by the Navy found that McWherter tolerated and encouraged a sex-obsessed environment in which Blue Angels pilots kept pornography in the cockpits of their jets and even painted a giant phallus on the roof of a trailer at their winter training home in El Centro, Calif.
The painting was rendered in blue and gold — the Blue Angels’ colors — and was so large that it was visible on satellite imagery available on Google Maps, according to the report. It has since been painted over.
Hazing used to be common, and new arrivals were forced to wear “foam penis” hats. Pilots kept binoculars in their jets to ogle bikini-wearing women in air show crowds.
Hahahahahaa
Sorry :p
The report is pretty damning.
Lonewolf_50
4th Jun 2014, 13:57
Pilots kept binoculars in their jets to ogle bikini-wearing women in air show crowds. That is called "good planning" where I come from.
This report makes me wonder what decade McWherter thought he was living in. 70's - 80's you get away with that. Before then, it was almost expected.
Since Tailhook, '91, not so much.
Well, their USNships certainly wouldn't like the young bankers' ethos in The City of London. :E
West Coast
4th Jun 2014, 15:37
Pilots kept binoculars in their jets to ogle bikini-wearing women in air show crowds.
We called it putting "glass on the ass"
It would be tough to be in the mil these days.
Dengue_Dude
4th Jun 2014, 16:06
Pilots ogling women . . . could have been FAR worse . . . .
Navy_Adversary
4th Jun 2014, 17:11
I guess this is a sign of the times we live in,
more on this matter is on cdr salamander
http://cdrsalamander.********.co.uk/
Sorry about the dodgy link but I am sure you can soon find it.
Brian Abraham
7th Jun 2014, 01:42
USN report
www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/blue-angels.php
Robert Cooper
7th Jun 2014, 03:31
We had the deglamorization of alcohol, and now we have the deglamorization of the warrior ethos.
Obama is an ass of the first order, and is neutering the military. Yes I spent my early air force years in the 50s/60s when the WWII guys were still around, and camaraderie was the glue holding squadrons together.
Bob C
"and camaraderie was the glue holding squadrons together."
Camaraderie holds all units together, regardless of the colour of the uniform.
Alcohol, mess, ready room, ward room, whatever you call it, camaraderie is formed there at the start.
Rick777
7th Jun 2014, 05:26
Obama had nothing to do with this. I saw some pretty bad things happen to guys involved in this sort of thing in the AF when Reagan was president.
Pretty bad as in 'Made to wear penis hats' or pretty bad as in 'Punished for making people wear penis hats'?
I'm sorry to see a good guy with a distinguished career sacrificed in the interests of political correctness.
It would have been much better if the matter had been dealt internally with a strongly worded warning about future conduct instead of the entirely unnecessary formal investigation and public humiliation.
Maybe personal grudges and jealousies played some part, as well as the obsession with political correctness.
Cows getting bigger
7th Jun 2014, 10:25
Surely the political correctness is partially due to the highly public (and one would presume desire for visible political correctness) nature of the particular squadron?
BEagle
7th Jun 2014, 12:07
One wonders what 'pornography literature in the Ready Room' actually constitutes these days....:confused:
Back in around 1982, we were at ACMI in Deci, along with some Jag mates :ooh: who were doing the usual air-to-mud stuff. They'd brought the SqIntO with them, who was actually a SqIntess. Delightful lady who looked after such things as making sure there was beer in the fridge and softies in the work fridge - without having been asked to do so. She was determined to look after her pilots' morale..... So one day she was at the Italian shop on base collecting the tinnies and spotted some copies of Mayfair, Men Only, Penthouse etc. She decided that the boys needed some 'suitable literature', so selected a number of magazines and gave her driver some cash to pay for them.... Which would have been fine, except that the sticker price didn't include tax, so when he got to the checkout, he called across to her "MA'AM, YOU HAVEN'T GIVEN ME ENOUGH MONEY FOR THE MAGZINES!!" Poor girl went bright red with embarrassment and the rest of the shop fell about with laughter.
But along came PC - not just 'girlie mags', but even pretty innocent things such as the Pilots' Pets calendar were banned from RAF crewrooms.
Having diverted into a USAF base, we needed to find somewhere to stay for the night. Easy solution was to look for the nearest Holiday Inn on the Base Ops Internet - then call it, book the rooms and get transport. Whilst waiting, someone wondered whether there was a Hooters nearby, so did a search. Only to be told by some goody-goody that Hooters was not considered to be an 'acceptable' website. WTF...:confused:, it's a restaurant! Yes, the waitresses were very pretty girls in those days (I gather that's no longer the case though....:rolleyes:), but so what?
Reading the account of the Blues' reprimand, you have to wonder why their boss let things get into such a state and didn't just have a Commander's Call and remind them about what was and wasn't acceptable. But as for the puerile 'hazing' events, that thinly-disguised bullying seems to be something uniquely American.....and utterly ridiculous in 2014!
Wander00
7th Jun 2014, 12:42
When we visited C Springs in 65 it was clear that hazing, especially of the junior entry (Plebs?) was common. there was assort of "official" bullying too, or a dehumanisation process which included not only having to walk/march fro A to B in a series of right angles, but that principle applied to the use of cutlery at meal times too.
Two's in
7th Jun 2014, 13:41
Surely the political correctness is partially due to the highly public (and one would presume desire for visible political correctness) nature of the particular squadron?
✓ Very Good GCB.
Not only is the display squadron highly public, but there have been a slew of high profile cases across the DOD over the last few years including rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and other "hazing". The DOD has made it clear that those behaviors are unacceptable and illegal, particularly at the Military Service Academies. As these behaviors are insidious and deeply ingrained, the charge has been to educate all military commanders of the scale and nature of the problem and fix it from the top. If you have been in any type of leadership position for the last 5 years and were not aware of this high profile and very public DOD campaign to fix the problem, you were either asleep, hiding in a cave, or a committed misogynist.
This particular individual appears to have been the victim of his own ignorance of understanding the difference between popularity and leadership, now he's probably reflecting on it in some depth.
To hurl the counter-accusation of "political correctness" back in the face of unacceptable behavior is very popular these days, but given the military serve at the direction of the politicians, everything they do by its very definition will be politically correct to some degree, or you can expect to face the consequences.
Rick777
7th Jun 2014, 23:04
Orca, pretty bad as the commanding colonel ordered of the base in 24 hours. In 1983 I was at AAFB Guam when the majors list came out. As was the custom the new selectees paid for several hours of open bat at the O club. One of the guys there ( not new selectee) was dating a stripper who was at the party. Can anybody see where this is going? Somebody decided it would be really cool if she did her act and suggested it to her. She said sure for $200. The hat was passed, an announcement as to what was coming up was made, and she did her thing. Some colonel's wife was there and ignored the announcement and was mightily offended. She called the commanding general in California and complained. The wing commander was fired and ordered off the island in in 24 hours. There was a huge inquisition as to who was there who did what. Several guys had their promotions red lined for a while which didn't do their careers any good. This was probably the most bull**** thin I saw in 20 in the AF.
SpazSinbad
9th Jun 2014, 20:43
Why no female Blue Angels pilots? - Association of Naval Aviation in Virginia Beach, Virginia - Hampton Roads Squadron (http://hrana.org/news/2014/06/why-no-female-blue-angels-pilots/)
NutLoose
9th Jun 2014, 21:11
Orca, pretty bad as the commanding colonel ordered of the base in 24 hours. In 1983 I was at AAFB Guam when the majors list came out. As was the custom the new selectees paid for several hours of open bat at the O club. One of the guys there ( not new selectee) was dating a stripper who was at the party. Can anybody see where this is going? Somebody decided it would be really cool if she did her act and suggested it to her. She said sure for $200. The hat was passed, an announcement as to what was coming up was made, and she did her thing. Some colonel's wife was there and ignored the announcement and was mightily offended. She called the commanding general in California and complained. The wing commander was fired and ordered off the island in in 24 hours. There was a huge inquisition as to who was there who did what. Several guys had their promotions red lined for a while which didn't do their careers any good. This was probably the most bull**** thin I saw in 20 in the AF.
I can remember couple of similar incidents during my career too
TBM-Legend
10th Jun 2014, 01:55
Shades of the Tailhook event of years ago. The CO was fired then too....
brickhistory
10th Jun 2014, 02:03
"But as for the puerile 'hazing' events, that thinly-disguised bullying seems to be something uniquely American.....and utterly ridiculous in 2014!"
I believe the stereotype is called "a public school boy" in your neck of the woods?
Or the many, many threads about RAF days past.
Must be faulty memory on my part.
Surely such couldn't have occurred because you've stated it is 'uniquely American.'
Not "'uniquely American.'", very much part of Aussie military life (ADFA, Duntroon, Recruit courses) in the past which they have gone to great lengths to stamp out.
West Coast
10th Jun 2014, 02:33
American.....and utterly ridiculous in 2014!
First your aircraft (and ship) identification skills are shown to be lacking, now your reading skills are suspect. The events leading to the letter revolved around his tenure in 2010-12.
Research Beags, it's the cure to what ails you.
SpazSinbad
10th Jun 2014, 05:06
'TBM-Leg End' said:
"...Shades of the Tailhook event of years ago. The CO was fired then too...."
Yes the CO of the Blues was fired at that time - incorrectly as it was determined later. One would have thought this injustice would be better known by now - I guess not.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-08/news/mn-43590_1_blue-angels
India Four Two
10th Jun 2014, 05:22
But as for the puerile 'hazing' events, that thinly-disguised bullying seems to be something uniquely American.....and utterly ridiculous in 2014!
According to a friend of mine who was at Sleaford Tech in the late 60s, it certainly went on there.