Deployment, ...finally leaving Options

[old bad bird]

[start of rant]

Hey Psyko, I don't know if you remember my rant (here) about the stuff we have to go through on our jobs, but (even though I didn't think they could top the last one) the same bunch, at the same private contractor on base, under the watchful eye and guidance of the same company manager of said contractor, has managed to outdo themselves this time. I'll try to keep it brief;

The AF has finally decided to try and do away with the tons of paper technical orders (for the laypersons, that's like an owner's manual for every piece of equipment the military owns- complete with diagrams, photos and detailed instructions on everything from how to remove a part to how to repair it and reinstall it) and go to an electronic digital TO system. Where before, with paper TOs, the worker doing maintenance had to have the paper TO book open to the page that specifically applies to the stage of the work they are doing at the time, now with electronic TOs, the workers have to have the TO software page loaded, on a computer workstation or laptop screen, that applies to the work they are doing. Now for the crazy part...
We get our digital TOs on CDROM through the same channels we get the paper tech orders that haven't been converted to digital yet. The software is USAF issued software and we are required by regulation to treat those CDs and the information on them just as we do paper TOs. Now we have to load the TO software on to workstations and laptops in our maintenance complex because, once digital TOs are issued, no more paper copies are printed. They are now electronic only.

I got an email today from the same bunch of folks I had the run-in with in my previous message (rant), saying that on one of their endless and resource hogging bug-hunts through the base computers for illegal and/or unauthorized software, they had detected a proprietary software file on 80 of our systems that is owned by a private company. They are demanding that we furnish them with documentation showing the Air Force is authorized to use the file on the TO CDs that we get.
I tried to explain to the person wanting the documentation that we don't manage the software at the command level, and that we are required by USAF regulations to run it on our systems and our personnel are required by regulations to use it. I even forwarded copies of letters and emails from AETC command offices authorizing the use of the software and the TOs on the USAF computer network, but it didn't help.

Now I, a nobody from a training base in the sticks in MS, have phone calls and emails in to three different offices at command to try and solve this problem. Not 14 FTW Wing command, but AETC Command level. I've asked personnel at three offices at AETC Headquarters to help me track down the software engineers who worked on the electronic digital tech order system and see if they have any documentation allowing the USAF to use one single software file, less than 400K in size. One of the letters allowing the use of the software on the USAF computer network was signed by a Brigadier General at AETC and I have emails and phone calls in to his staff office trying to get these people the documents they want. I'm not sure how its all going to go over at Command HQ, esp. in the General's office, but I personally think this is a colossal waste of time and energy, given the authorization letter signed by the General and the fact that the CDs come in a sleeve with the words "Issued under authority of the Secretary of the Air Force" on the front of them. This is what happens when people get too big for their positions and things go sideways. I don't fault the person who sent me the email wanting the documentation, I fault the manager of the place, the same one who pulled the last grandstanding stunt, for running a work environment so dysfunctional that people are scared to think for themselves.

I don't know if there's going to be any fallout about this at the local command level, but I think something needs to be done. This is my tax money too that's being wasted with pointless exercises of authority by people who seriously need to rethink their career paths.

[end of rant]

Thom

I'll try to keep it brief

[Thom Geiger]

Come on bird, you know good and well I can spit out three full pages on a bad day. That WAS one of my short ones.

Thom

[Psykottik]

Sounds like you're having fun, Thom. Just find a way to put it off on the manager causing the trouble. And don't PUNCH anyone IN THE FACE. If you were to PUNCH someone IN THE FACE, it could be bad. I wish I had a SUGGESTION for you...lol...

[Thom Geiger]

I wanted to print out and hand carry the network authorization emails I have over to the guy's office, but my manager expressly ordered me no to. He said I am too 'unpredictable". Hahhaha. That's the same company manager (mine) who went off the hook two days ago when I had his blood pressure up so high I thought his head was going to explode. I can't stand inefficiency and stupidity. I don't like the dinosaur caveman philosophy that, because something's been done a certain way for a hundred years, that it must be the only way to do something.

Thom

[Psykottik]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Thom. The only way to get out of THAT rut is to work as far away from anything military as you can. The military always does it the way it's always been done. It's......tradition.