
Pilot Sidelined after Criticizing F-22 System - smacktoward
http://m.military.com/daily-news/2014/04/20/pilots-career-stalls-after-criticizing-oxygen-system.html
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chrissnell
It's important to understand that there is no such thing as a _binding_
"doctor's note" in the military. You may have an allergy to the charcoal
filters (...or you may have a sprained ankle...or the flu...) and your doctor
can write a note for you but this is just a recommendation from the doctor to
the commander. Ultimately, it is entirely up to your commander whether you
will be excused from duty, excused from using the filter, etc. A commander
holds immense power in the U.S. military and there is good historical reason
for this but that's out of scope for my comment. This is what Capt. Wilson ran
up against. Ultimately, he can either choose to obey his commander or he can
resign his commission and leave the military.

That said, as a military officer myself, I am disgusted with the words that
this article claims were used on his evaluation report. Sarcasm has no place
in an evaluation and to use language like that is unprofessional. He should
fight that evaluation and it sounds like he is.

Still, there are better ways to fight the system than to go on "60 Minutes" in
your uniform. There are professional journals for the various military
occupations where such a complaint might be raised without going straight to
national news. When you pull that big of a fire alarm, you really have to be
prepared to toss your career down the drain because it's a strong possibility.

~~~
ww520
Can you transfer to another unit under a different commander? Or you are
forever tainted as the "trouble maker" and unwelcomed everywhere?

He's in a hard place for doing the right thing.

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Nrsolis
The military (in particular the US military) is not set up to accommodate the
job satisfaction you might expect in a civilian job. If you somehow find
yourself under a bad leader (and lots of soldiers/sailors/marines/airmen do)
then you basically just ride it out until that person either rotates out to a
new duty station or you do.

Generally speaking though, the quality of leadership in the military is higher
than it is in the civilian world. Most officers are basically middle-
management and I was blessed by some really outstanding company commanders
while I was in.

That said, there are no guarantees of that and if you find yourself in a bad
command, you have few options as an officer (besides resigning your
commission) and fewer as an enlisted guy.

If there is any upside to this, it's that good commanders will earn the
loyalty and respect of their people and those people will literally give their
lives to the mission for him. Bad commanders don't get that kind of honor and
as such their mission readiness and reputation often suffers.

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Bahamut
This is one of the flaws you get with leadership in the military - while
enlisted and officers alike are encouraged to be a leader and speak out about
issues when no one else does so or is able to, the reality is that if you do,
you almost certainly will face reprisal.

The leadership principles preached by the US military are rock solid, but the
execution can be incredibly flawed unfortunately, and good men & women get
screwed by it for doing the right thing.

* I do not know if he went to his chain of command with the issues first, but this is just a general observation from serving in the military myself.

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yeukhon
He did.

He sent a memo to the then commander, did a confidential survey, sent the
survey result to the commander, and sent few more memos to other senior
officers. None were interested in his work. They dismissed his questions and
concerns.

Search the phrase "After about 40 hours of flying with the filter."

I have to say in a disciplined organization like military, it's always a bad
idea to speak on behalf of your organization without approval. There are all
kinds of gotchas in these organizations. But if these officers dismiss his
concerns, I really think he has the right to ask for help in public. In the
end, he's a human being.

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seesomesense
Whistleblowing is an amazingly foolish activity for the whistleblower. It
might help society, but the consequences tend to destroy the whistleblower. I
saw what it did to a close family member who blew the whistle on activities
that caused the death of at least one patient.

Retaliation against Whistle-Blowers: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
[http://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2012/10/24/whistle-
bl...](http://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2012/10/24/whistle-blowing-no-
good-deed-goes-unpunished/) " the results of a 2011 National Business Ethics
Survey titled “Retaliation: When Whistleblowers Become Victims.” The report
contains some shocking statistics:

45% of US workers observed wrongdoing; 65% of those who witnessed wrongdoing
reported it; 22% of those who reported wrongdoing said they experienced
retaliation (an increase of 46% from 2009); and 46% of those who observed
wrongdoing but chose not to report it, cited fear of retaliation as the
reason."

The professional consequences of whistleblowing by nurses
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11125963](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11125963)
"Abstract When nurses encounter misconduct in the workplace, their ethical
codes of conduct bind them to the role of patient advocacy and compel them to
safeguard the patient from harm. However, reporting misconduct can be
personally and professionally risky. The aim of the research was to examine
the professional consequences of whistleblowing and nonwhistleblowing in
nursing. A descriptive survey design was used to examine the professional
effect of reporting misconduct (whistleblowing) and not reporting misconduct
(nonwhistleblowing). Ninety-five respondents were included in the study; 70
were self-identified as whistleblowers and 25 were self-identified as
nonwhistleblowers. Results indicated that there were severe professional
reprisals if the nurse reported misconduct, but there were few professional
consequences if the nurse remained silent. Official reprisals included
demotion (4%), reprimand (11%), and referral to a psychiatrist (9%).
Whistleblowers also reported that they received professional reprisals in the
form of threats (16%), rejection by peers (14%), pressure to resign (7%), and
being treated as a traitor (14%). Ten per cent reported that they felt their
career had been halted. These findings suggest that when nurses identify and
report misconduct in the workplace, they may experience serious professional
consequences. "

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Spooky23
I knew someone who was a nurse who blew the whistle on a life and death
situation in a hospital. Her reward? Transfer to the night shift, and somehow
her skills weren't needed by other hospitals in the area.

~~~
busterarm
Yep. My mom is a nurse too.

Blew the whistle on issues both in the OR (surgeon with poor hygiene & safety;
not washing hands, habitually leaving sponges and tools in patients) and in
nursing homes (neglect that was literally killing residents). Retaliation each
time. At least my mom was good at fighting it - she always managed to come out
ahead somehow with a different job or a nice severance.

Retaliation for all sorts of things is huge in that profession.

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hereonbusiness
Seems like some higher ups at the air force got mad at him because he made
them look incompetent of solving or even ignoring a serious problem with the
jet.

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yason
There should be a law that gives immunity to whistleblowers. We can already,
to some extent, make it more difficult to discriminate based on sex or color
or pregnancy -- a similar thing would be good for whistleblowers.

Of course, there are ways and there are ways, but in the general case if
organisations knew that the matter of things will still be observed two years
after blowing the whistle and that it can't look bad, there would be an
incentive to treat these people right.

~~~
yeukhon
There should be an independent committee outside of the military handling
complaints that have been ignored (you need to provide evidences you've done
all you could to raise the issue to your superiors.)

I wonder if there is one right now.

~~~
chrissnell
There is. There are Inspectors General (IG) at many levels in the armed forces
and in the Department of Defense as a whole. Outside of this, there is your
congressman which it sounds like Capt. Wilson went to. Starting a
"congressional", as they're called, is like pulling the fire alarm in an
office building with 15,000 people in it: it had better be a real fire and not
just a lunch that smoked up the break room microwave.

~~~
spiritplumber
A problem that can incapacitate the pilot of a billion-dollar fighter jet
seems like it belongs in the "real fire" category.

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cafard
About 45 years ago, there was a captain in the US Navy who answered candidly
in a congressional hearing about the F-111's potential for use on aircraft
carriers. He was greatly admired by his fellow officers for doing this, but he
killed his career along with the naval F-111.

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zhte415
Sounds less like an oxygen problem, and more like a carbon-monoxide problem.
Which are somewhat similar.

~~~
neurotech1
Not really.

The problem was traced to a faulty Breathing Regulator/Anti-G (BRAG) valve.
The value issue, combined with breathing technique issues caused the problems.

