Belushi TD wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 1:20 pm
What in the hell is in the water in North Dakota that makes people commit career suicide?
Belushi TD
Not a damn thing. My Dad is retired Air Force, then worked Civil Service until a few years back. He's talked about cultural changes in the Air Force over the years. There is a lot of stuff that was perfectly acceptable behavior in the 1970s and 1980s, that is just not acceptable today. And there is a lot of stuff that used to get a blind eye turned to it as long as you were good at your job or people liked you, that no longer gets a blind eye.
MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 1:48 pmI'll be damned if I know. When I was in, it was very much considered a punitive tour - the weather is hideous, and I knew folks who did Iceland and Alaska, then Minot, and they swore they'd get out before they went back - but the locals are good people, there is a surprising amount to do within a short drive of the base, and the base facilities are extremely good. On reflection, I'm wondering if part of it isn't the fact that the B-52 specific AFSCs can only go to Barksdale or Minot, and even the missile specific fields have a limited number of bases to go to...which means in a 20 year career, you're looking at multiple tours there. that can't be a pleasant prospect, but on the other hand, tough.
You go where you're sent and make the best of it.
Mike
To the bold part. My Dad tells a story about when he was a newly minted Second Lieutenant and was sitting in an orientation briefing of some sort. One of the speakers was a crusty old Colonel who told the group that Uncle Sam would send them many places, and that he'd seen people miserable in Hawaii and blissfully happy in North Dakota - it's all what you make of it.
In the late 1990s, something was very right at Minot. My Dad went up there for a conference, and when he got back he was talking about how many people were requesting PCS to Minot. Seems for a time, morale and esprit de corps were very high there and it was a base people wanted to go.
One idea that was mooted in the late 70s, and maybe needs to be looked at again, is giving people who volunteer there credit for a overseas short (unaccompanied) or overseas long (accompanied).
Yea, but a fair number of bases were still in the middle of nowhere in the 1970s. I'd say in most cases, the towns near those bases have grown significantly. Most of them aren't the wastelands they once were.
