Female Afghan Pilot

[killbilly]

Oh you'll love this. Total Fraud/Waste/Abuse.

.... As well as translated maintenance manuals, ground support, and contract logistics and maintenance training for Afghan AF crews and flight training for pilots. Two years later, the planes were all grounded at Kabul airport, due to inadequate maintenance as the contractor began to transition to all-Afghan AF Mx, and the planes one by one ended up grounded. By 2013, the USAF cancelled the contract, and sold the planes to an Afghan construction company to be scrapped for ~6 cents on the dollar.......about $32,000 in total.

$468 million invested, for a $32,000 return.

This is a topic that probably deserves its own thread, but it's in context so I think it's okay here.

The GAO as well as members of HASC and SASC have looked really hard at this kind of problem. There is zero maintenance culture in Afghanistan. They'll use something until it breaks and then toss it aside - the idea of repairing or even doing preventive maintenance has to be taught and hammered in as a separate discipline.

The US had considered equipping the Afghans with a CAS-type of aircraft they could operate themselves - even something like a Super Tucano was ruled out because it was believed the Afghans would simply kill themselves trying to operate and maintain it. Someone posited that something like a deHavilland Beaver would be about as complex as they could handle and even that wouldn't last long. Not because they're not intelligent or stupid or somehow mentally deficient, but because there simply isn't an idea of maintaining/fixing things - they just don't do that. Boggles the mind, yeah?

 

[KLB]

I honestly can't blame her at all. I believe that until you've had a walk in her shoes, you can't really judge her on this. Bravo to her for getting this far!

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

I can't believe that many of you on here have glazed over the fact the @Cherokee_Cruiser, is saying that this girl is better off going back home and getting honor killed by her family. All for the supposed glory of becoming a frickin' shaheed. SERIOUSLY???

Why am I the only one just now taking issue with what he said?

WTF, BRO!?

 

[Pépé le Pilot]

I flown in Ariana's 727 back in 2005. With chickens, pax, the works. Guys were super cool and very proud of their 727's, they were lovingly maintained, albeit with remanned parts and all. Good pilots too, not too crazy. I've kept some very good and close friends there and got to visit them a few times, and yeah, she shouldn't go back. Don't reduce an individual at a country. Many of my afghan friends were educated, refined people who were waiting to GTFO there.


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

I can't believe that many of you on here have glazed over the fact the @Cherokee_Cruiser, is saying that this girl is better off going back home and getting honor killed by her family. All for the supposed glory of becoming a frickin' shaheed. SERIOUSLY???

Why am I the only one just now taking issue with what he said?

WTF, BRO!?

Dude where'd I say get honor killed? That's not only a misunderstanding of what I wrote, but also what honor killing is. That usually almost always deals with an unwed affair, e.g., BF or relations with a married man, or if you try to be a Kaedashian type. I highly doubt someone in her family would kill her just for being a pilot. The family has relocated several times in Afghanistan for their own safety.

 

[CatchyScreenName]

I can't believe that many of you on here have glazed over the fact the @Cherokee_Cruiser, is saying that this girl is better off going back home and getting honor killed by her family. All for the supposed glory of becoming a frickin' shaheed. SERIOUSLY???

Why am I the only one just now taking issue with what he said?

WTF, BRO!?

uh, because you took it completely out of context ?

for the purpose of being a role model she would be better off.

eh, I see CC responded already....

 

[CatchyScreenName]

She volunteered to go fight and die for her country...which is not the same as getting intentionally killed by somebody who is "on her side."

then they wouldn't be on her side would they ? /EndLogicFail

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

I don't blame this girl one bit for requesting asylum.

Pretty sure if any Americans spent much time in Afghanistan, they wouldn't either.

Meh, still have to vet them somehow first. Sounds like an awful convenient way for an extremist to get in.

I don't blame any woman for doing anything they have to do to escape Afghanistan. If I was in their position I certainly can't say I wouldn't do anything to get out. Do I wish I didn't have to pay for it as a taxpayer? Preferably. But at least we paid for her to have a skill that could make her a productive member of our society.

Problem is that we have no shortage of American people who could sure use that money to better themselves educationally/technically just as well.

I honestly can't blame her at all. I believe that until you've had a walk in her shoes, you can't really judge her on this. Bravo to her for getting this far!

The fix starts with eradicating religion from the ruling government form, and all of society would have to be onboard that idea. Without it, they're doomed to their Stone Age lifestyle - which is an insult to Stone Age people because they weren't killing over religious sect differences.

 

[dustoff17]

then they wouldn't be on her side would they ? /EndLogicFail

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

Dude where'd I say get honor killed? That's not only a misunderstanding of what I wrote, but also what honor killing is. That usually almost always deals with an unwed affair, e.g., BF or relations with a married man, or if you try to be a Kaedashian type. I highly doubt someone in her family would kill her just for being a pilot. The family has relocated several times in Afghanistan for their own safety.

Maybe you didn't read where it said that she has been getting threats from her extended family back home...

Either way if not killed by her extend family. Or the boys club in the Afghan military, or an angry mob going home is a for sure death sentence for her. And you're saying that she should go, and be a shaheed.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

uh, because you took it completely out of context ?

for the purpose of being a role model she would be better off.

eh, I see CC responded already....

A DEAD ROLE MODEL!!!

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

A DEAD ROLE MODEL!!!

Theres no proof she would be killed by friendly fire. She signed up to be a military pilot so she should go do some military piloting. Anyone and everyone knows the potential consequences of being a military pilot in Afghanistan.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Maybe you didn't read where it said that she has been getting threats from her extended family back home...

Either way if not killed by her extend family. Or the boys club in the Afghan military, or an angry mob going home is a for sure death sentence for her. And you're saying that she should go, and be a shaheed.

No it isn't, that's her and her lawyer speaking to justify the asylum petition.

 

[MikeD]

This is a topic that probably deserves its own thread, but it's in context so I think it's okay here.

The GAO as well as members of HASC and SASC have looked really hard at this kind of problem. There is zero maintenance culture in Afghanistan. They'll use something until it breaks and then toss it aside - the idea of repairing or even doing preventive maintenance has to be taught and hammered in as a separate discipline.

The US had considered equipping the Afghans with a CAS-type of aircraft they could operate themselves - even something like a Super Tucano was ruled out because it was believed the Afghans would simply kill themselves trying to operate and maintain it. Someone posited that something like a deHavilland Beaver would be about as complex as they could handle and even that wouldn't last long. Not because they're not intelligent or stupid or somehow mentally deficient, but because there simply isn't an idea of maintaining/fixing things - they just don't do that. Boggles the mind, yeah?

We had some of the same problem with the VNAF back in the day, in fact almost identical. Many of the Vietnamese in the military hadn't grown up with a mechanical background......tinkering with cars or other things that required preventative maintenance. At least with the ARVN, doing some preventative maintenance, or even heavier maintenance, on a jeep/deuce and a half/113/or tank, was easier to accomplish and not as complex as having to do it on things like an A-1 Skyraider, C-130 Herk, or F-5A Freedom Fighter. Even after we largely drew down in 1973, many of their planes were grounded by 1974 for not just fuel/parts shortages due to Congress cutting off funding, but also for basic maintenance not being performed.

 

[KLB]

The fix starts with eradicating religion from the ruling government form, and all of society would have to be onboard that idea. Without it, they're doomed to their Stone Age lifestyle - which is an insult to Stone Age people because they weren't killing over religious sect differences.

The problem with this is determining whose responsibility it is to fix their society.

 

[bike21]

The fix starts with eradicating religion from the ruling government form, and all of society would have to be onboard that idea. Without it, they're doomed to their Stone Age lifestyle - which is an insult to Stone Age people because they weren't killing over religious sect differences.

Now this we can agree on!

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

Theres no proof she would be killed by friendly fire. She signed up to be a military pilot so she should go do some military piloting. Anyone and everyone knows the potential consequences of being a military pilot in Afghanistan.

Are you serious right now? This is the place where young girls elementary age are raped, shot and killed for just wanting to go to school. But yeah, they're just gonna give her a pass.

She would never have the opportunity to be KIA, because they would never let her serve. Dangerous precedent. But more importantly because she would probably be already dead, as an example for daring to think that she could ever escape her low station as a female.

We have two twenty something Afghan guys on my psych unit currently, from jail for observation and a competency evaluation. They were both granted citizenship for assisting/translating for US troops while over there. Both of them are there for crimes against women, namely their wives. One beat shat out of his wife, for not wanting to have sex. So he beat her and raped her. The other is there for trying to stab his wife for threatening to file divorce.

Both dudes are very disrespectful to our female nurses staff and have no boundaries with women. One asked a female tech to help him with something in his room. When she got in there he was naked and had an erection and he ordered her to her knees, to give him head. He felt she should do it because he was a man, and he was entitled to it as a result. Both of their ideas of women are disgusting and not repeatable here. One said that family dog was held to higher respect than his wife.

 

[deadstick]

then they wouldn't be on her side would they ? /EndLogicFail

We call it "fragging." That's a no-no.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

Theres no proof she would be killed by friendly fire. She signed up to be a military pilot so she should go do some military piloting. Anyone and everyone knows the potential consequences of being a military pilot in Afghanistan.

No it isn't, that's her and her lawyer speaking to justify the asylum petition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/17/world/asia/afghanistan-kandahar-women-in-the-work-force.html

These women were killed just for going to work. The official reply was that they'd still be alive, if they were at home. Get real dude.

 

[bike21]

Are you serious right now? This is the place where young girls elementary age are raped, shot and killed for just wanting to go to school. But yeah, they're just gonna give her a pass.

She would never have the opportunity to be KIA, because they would never let her serve. Dangerous precedent. But more importantly because she would probably be already dead, as an example for daring to think that she could ever escape her low station as a female.

We have two twenty something Afghan guys on my psych unit currently, from jail for observation and a competency evaluation. They were both granted citizenship for assisting/translating for US troops while over there. Both of them are there for crimes against women, namely their wives. One beat shat out of his wife, for not wanting to have sex. So he beat her and raped her. The other is there for trying to stab his wife for threatening to file divorce.

Both dudes are very disrespectful to our female nurses staff and have no boundaries with women. One asked a female tech to help him with something in his room. When she got in there he was naked and had an erection and he ordered her to her knees, to give him head. He felt she should do it because he was a man, and he was entitled to it as a result. Both of their ideas of women are disgusting and not repeatable here. One said that family dog was held to higher respect than his wife.

And that is indeed why she should stay here. There are honorable men among Afghans but they need change on a societal level for sure. Same in Pakistan with honor killings and blasphemy laws.