I woke up one morning and realized the young officers and airman in the Air Force thought completely differently then me. It was on that morning I realized I had little to offer those whose values were shaped by something other than the traditions and legacy of those who went before us.
I was reminded of that this morning when I looked at a patch for an organization and read the description of what these young airmen thought the patch represents, and how the modern young mind works.
So, let’s look at what this organization is to accomplish. First, some history -- when our Presidents decided to down size our military (to save money) and then fight wars that would never end (to end terrorism) they put those who remained in the military between a rock and a very hard place. The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has wrestled with this problem, perhaps with more thought and concern than other conventional commands or the services. They developed a program, which has grown through trial and error into something called Preservation Of The Force and Families. From its earliest days special operations has recognized the value of the human over the technology they use. For the Air Force component this was a real paradigm shift, but with our battlefield airman even the Air Force recognized the need for a holistic approach to helping our people deal with the stress of war where they will be sent back time and time again.
USSOCOM says “The mission of the Preservation of the Force and Family (POTFF) is to optimize and sustain Special Operations Forces (SOF) mission readiness, longevity, and performance through integrated and holistic human performance programs designed to strengthen the Force and Family.” They go on to describe five “domains” POTFF will address: physical, psychological, cognitive, social & family, and spiritual. The Command has hired experts in the various fields to help develop the programs that will strengthen our service members and hopefully their families to deal with the stresses of a never-ending war.
As a part of this effort the 58 Special Operations Wing now has a human performance and leadership center. I think that is a potentially great idea, although the potential for stigma and abuse is still possible, if it helps teach young men and women to deal with the stresses, they’ve been protected all their life from it would be great.
My observations of the patch on the other hand leads me to chuckle.
If you look at their own description let’s walk through the actual symbology.
The 5 stars for the 5 domains of POTFF – okay… pillars may have been better but that’s probably just me.
“The bison and lightening represent how bison run into a storm.” – actually, this is most likely an urban myth originated by someone who wanted to inspire depressed people to face their difficulty. I can find no evidence, other than in the inspiration meme class that shows bison have historically run into the storm because they know it will shorten the time, they are in it. I would point out that stampeding Bison have been known to run off a cliff so from a herd mentality they are not the sharpest bovines in the lot. I’m not sure how that would be taken as a critique. PBS did a show called Facing the Storm: The Story of the American Bison, but that was more about how we have killed off most them, rather than their weather habits. I will grant that based on its hide and thick fur it will face into the wind and may walk forward as it faces that wind, but the idea they instinctively know it will shorten their exposure is pure millennial-think.
The skull (a punisher symbol) on top of the sword represents the SOF Truth – humans are more important hardware. Just two simple points. First, IT’S A SKULL (skulls represent dead humans, a desire to punish them, maybe steal their stuff like pirates, or as Mitchell and Webb point out with the Nazi’s who used skulls weren’t they the baddies?). Second, it’s not a sword, it’s a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife made famous in WW2 when used by British and American commandos. People who don’t know our heritage/history should learn to look things up, but I think that is old school. Today’s millennials know so much more then we old curmudgeons.
Are we the Baddies?' Mitchell and Webb Funny Nazi Scetch
No comments:
Post a Comment