Bisbomian, we've talked on these pages enough to know that we have a similar life experience from our time pushing heavy metal all over the world. I have no doubt that you like me have served under good, maybe even great leaders, as well as those we would only follow out of morbid curiosity. I had the privilege to serve as a T-37 IP and later as a flight commander under a wing commander at an Air Training Command base from 1979-81. This man had been the base commander at the same base when I had been a student pilot in '74-5. I did not know him then other than by name. Later I came to know him well enough that he called me by my first name and permitted me to call him sir or colonel. I also had several contacts with him later in '82-84 at Randolph when I was at PIT when he was a new BG at HQATC. I came to deeply respect the man and the leader beginning with the story I'm about to tell.

Fall 1980 and I'm standing in line to renew my TX drivers license. I'd been up very early since it was early week (what else?), had completed an unusually short 11 hour duty day, and had barely made it to DMV before it closed. Two people in the line next to mine were talking about the aircraft accident out at the base that they'd just heard about on the car radio. I finished my business and headed home. The local radio had little else but by the time I crawled into bed before another pre-dawn drive to work that a T-37 had crashed coming off the auxiliary field enroute to the MOAs. The solo student on board was reported to have died in the crash.

I learned a whole lot more the next day and during the coming weeks as the accident investigation was underway. The investigators crawled all over the squadron, E Flight which had been the student's home for the T-37 phase of UPT, and all of the support and command organizations that make flight training possible. The wing commander held a wing commander's call for all of the permanent party members of the squadron some time later. I seem to remember it was about a week after the crash. He updated us on the still early investigation, told us what he could about the facts that were known and publicly releasable, and made an extraordinary statement. He said that at that moment this crash looked like a simple loss of control for unknown reasons and that nothing about the jet, the student's training, or how the wing conducted its primary function of producing pilots for the USAF appeared to be suspect. An aircraft accident almost always resulted in repercussions for someone in those days. A wing commander's, as well as subordinates', job and career were always on the line if there were causes found attributable to them. Way too often the simple fact a jet went down equaled heads rolling. He continued by saying that he would resign rather than allow any consequences to be levied anyone in his chain of command as long as the people involved in this student's training had done their jobs. He was ready to fall on his sword instead of accept his people being punished for doing their jobs correctly. He went on to say that as far as he could see the wing and it's organizations were performing admirably under an incredibly heavy load and that we should continue doing business as usual rather than worry about this tragic accident.

I was in my seventh year of service but had never heard a senior officer go so far out on a limb before. Many of us thought he'd taken a huge risk while others were sure that when push from the four star came to shove he'd tuck tail and do what he was told. Still, his stock soared and respect for him grew beyond anything I'd seen in my time in service. Everyone got back to business.

You might imagine my surprise when several weeks later I got a call on Sunday night from my squadron commander. That was unusual. He told me that there would be some very hard to swallow news related to the crash breaking over the wing on Monday morning. He would say nothing more than that the flight commander, his assistant, and the dead student's IP had all been fired. The new flight commander was the recent past E Flight commander who had agreed that I should be his new assistant. Did I want the job? I told him that I couldn't say no if that was where they wanted me. I was supposed to start another early week but E Flight was on late week so I should report to E Flight in the morning. He said Frank, my new boss, was expecting my call. He also said there was a wing commanders call during what would have been the second section's morning briefing. The squadron was standing down for that period to hear what the wing CC had to say.

Frank had more for me than I expected so I was ready for the uproar and chaos well underway on my arrival near noon. Everyone knew what had happened to the three members of E Flight. The commander was already packing up his house to return to his previous assignment flying B-52s. His assistant had been given a non-job job in the section commander's office while he ran out the rest of his ATC tour. The previously up and coming young 1LT IP golden boy was preparing to start B-52 school ASAP. We never again saw either the major or LT.

The anger around the squadron was incredible. Motherfucker and the wing CC's name were interchangeable. It really looked like there were going to be more than a few careers thrown away at the commander's call.

The event began with the wing safety officer giving a brief synopsis of the soon to be released accident report. The accident board had determined that there was an 80-85% probability the perfectly good jet had been intentionally flown into the ground. The student was the son of a two star AF general who was personal friends with the ATC four star. He had been a very weak student constantly on the edge of being eliminated from the program and felt intense pressure to please/not disappoint his father. There was another student at the same base during this time, a captain and former missile maintenance office, who was of the same caliber of student. He'd become a master at the tactical DNIF, Duty Not Involving Flying for medical reasons, whenever he stopped progressing and elimination loomed. He'd get a review ride or two when he was returned to flight status which was usually enough to get him through a block of training. The accident student had been one of several acolytes but he was running out of rope faster than he could tie on more. The student had been careful to use a different flight surgeon every time he needed to be DNIF and the system in place at the hospital had failed to catch the doctor shopping. Nobody supervising the student had caught on to his suicidal intentions despite many unstated indicators.

His IP, also the flight standardization officer, was carrying him. Documentation showed that he passed the student on weekly tests that he should have failed. Things he'd told the flight leadership and fellow instructors indicated that he'd let the student progress on several occasions when he clearly should have graded him unsatisfactory. The special monitoring status (SMS) program required by the syllabus was poorly managed and was failing to ensure proper standards and practices were followed. They found a syllabus deviation which was about the worst error possible. In general people up and down the chain of command were not doing their jobs.

The wing king took over. He started out restating the board's conclusion and the four star's intention to concur indicated to him that there had been failures in the way we did business as well as failures of supervision up and down the chain of command. He said that every one of the officer's in the chain from him down to the IP had received some level of non-judicial punishment ranging from Article 15 down to a letter of reprimand from the four star. The flight commander and IP were no longer members of the wing and had received four star directed new assignments, both to B-52s. He went on to state that he had made a promise to fall on his sword rather than allow his people to be unfairly judged and punishment. He said that he had been fully intending to do just that until he read the full accident report and been formally briefed on the investigators' findings. He said that he could not disagree on any point that showed we had all, him included, failed to do our jobs. He said he had decided that he could live up to his deal and resign but then someone else would have to clean up his mess. His mess. He'd take his lumps and lead the wing back to being the outstanding organization he knew us to be.

Then he did something extraordinary to the quiet murmur of enraged officers. He dismissed all field grade officers, major and above, and ordered the door to be closed and locked. He pulled out a chair to the front of the briefing room and sat down. He took off the eagles from his dress blues and put them on the floor. He said "Have at me. I know you're angry as hell. Whatever any of you says will stay in this room until I put those eagles back on and we leave this room. Nothing you say will ever go beyond this room and there will be no repercussions. You have the floor." He caught hell. It was both raucous and respectful. The session ended about an hour and a half later. There were some who refused to be swayed at by his answers and explanations. A promise is a promise arguments mostly. They couldn't see the discrepancy in that position. Even those who would not be swayed had respect for him sitting there taking all the anger thrown at him when he sure as hell didn't have to. In the end we put together the best wing in ATC.

I know, cool story bro. WTF does this have to do with Bernie? Bernie stuck to what he told the DNC what he'd do if he didn't win after the DNC screwed him over with lies, deceit, and rat fucking. How can he live up to a promise when the other DNC violated their duty to treat all candidates fairly and alike? Your colonel had every right to break a promise that depended on people having done their job. WTF? Doesn't Bernie have the same right? Yeah, I suppose he does.

My pointless is that Bernie makes his first commitment to us to do whatever he thinks is best to further the interests of the 99%. The election possibilities for him are gone. His commitment is now to his revolution and stopping Trump, a second promise he made. His judgment is that continuing to work from within the system to change it, maintaining his connections there, and promoting revolution on the outside is the path for him to be most effective. It is his style and his long practice and I think he's being true to who he is and not what we want him to be. That's leadership. It may go against everything most of us consider righteous but I doubt he cares about much of anything other than doing all he can for people in need. He's going to eat massive quantities of shit from his formerly faithful followers, the Clinton campaign, and from the DNC over this decision. If there's one guy who will eat a shit sandwich while smiling because it helps people it's Bernie. That's sacrifice, that's leadership at it's best. I for one have no problem throwing bread his way if it looks like I'm reading this right.