Monday, March 10, 2014

Underworked

From Military.com:

Air Force Lt. Doubles as NFL Cheerleader

Apparently, some people are saying that Lt Quaco’s extra-military avocation is not “representative of [Air Force] standards”, but what I want to focus on is that while some enlistees sometimes have after-hours employment delivering pizzas and such, I’m not aware of any precedent where an officer holds two full-time paid positions simultaneously.   Mormons cadets in the Service Academies are allowed to resign without prejudice to fulfill their mission obligations and return, and newly commissioned Academy graduates have been given leaves-of-absence to pursue NFL careers before returning to serve their military obligations.  But in these instances, the officers did one thing at a time.  I’m pretty sure that the Air Force is giving Lt Quaco low-demand make-work to allow her cheerleading time.

8 comments:

Elusive Wapiti said...

I've heard of the "World Class Athlete" program, where members who are competitive in Olympic sports get liberal permissive TDY to travel and compete. Perhaps Lt Quaco enjoys the same sort of accomodation.

Not that I like it, mind you. In days of budget cutbacks et cet, it strikes me as wasteful to pay someone to be not available in their primary occupation.

Then there's also the dissonance involved when, in today's anti-sex-assault culture, a military member flaunts and objectifies her own sexuality. Self and Cosmo magazines aren't allowed in workspaces anymore--probably a picture of her toting pom-poms would also be prohibited--yet images of her grooving and shaking on TV are somehow okay to the new Puritanism. Gag.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I think a great many jobs in both civilian and military sectors are make-work.

Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds.

We don't have to let people starve.

We could give people a living wage for less than 40 hours of work per week.

But well-fed idle people might start a revolt, or many revolts, and thus there is no tolerance for free time.

Anonymous said...

Two points:
1. She isn't a pilot.
2. She is a cheerleader, even when she is in uniform.

No one in the Air force is going to take her seriously so she may as well shake her pom poms.

World class athlete does not include being paid to participate in paid sports teams. It is a way for the military to transfer national defense dollars to support the Olympics, on par with what the Eastern Bloc used to do by making all of their athletes "pro" but still technically not.

Dr. Φ said...

I'm with Hale on this one. The services fields sports teams in everything from b-ball to skeet, and the athletes' formally assigned units make considerable accommodation to those pursuits. But at least they compete under their service colors and draw a single paycheck.

EW: don't make the mistake of trying to hold the government to any standard of consistency. Cheerleading doesn't count for Title IX purposes, because feminists-want-equal-sports. But if a woman can cheerlead at government expense then it can count. But, yeah, it's hard to predict in advance how these points will be scored.

Dexter said...

Why is she standing in front of a B-25?

What is her supposed job in the Air Force? Stand in front of antique planes and look pretty?

heresolong said...

I don't see the problem. She is in the Air Force, which means she shows up at 9 and leaves at 3. Cheerleader training is presumably late afternoon and evenings and all the games are on weekends so she finishes up at Joint Base Lewis McChord, about a half hour drive from Seattle, and heads for practice. The only thing she might need some leeway for is the sixteen games a year (do cheerleaders travel or just do home games?) and she could easily trade duty with someone.

Dr. Φ said...

The hours are 0730 to 1630, but there's usually a two-hour gym-and-lunch break in there for those that want it.

heresolong said...

Sure thing Doc. Never tire of hearing from the air force about how they have "real" jobs.

:-)