The Air Force's new top enlisted leader won't stand for any Facebook trolling

Ooh-Rah

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Oh for fucks sake. THIS is what the “top enlisted leader” in the Air Force is concerned about?

The Air Force's new top enlisted leader won't stand for any Facebook trolling

The drama began Saturday when an airman, Staff Sgt. Banks, asked Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass on Facebook whether her last name was pronounced like the species of fish or the musical instrument.

“Seems like you and a few of your friends enjoy trolling our Air Force sites,” Bass wrote. “Give me a call Monday … I’d like to chat about it.”

She later added: “My team has SSgt Banks’ info … as well his crew. I’m sure there’s a solid explanation. Right?!?”

The Air Force’s new top enlisted leader just wrecked an airman on Facebook


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On one hand I agree, the CMSgtAF seems a bit sensitive, but in this medium it can often be hard to tell sincerity from sarcasm...and while it's not like the SSgt dropped a round out of the impact area (I never have), wrecked a jeep or exceeded the charge limit on the demo range at Fort Devens (I have rights under Article 31), I think troops should be imbued with sufficient respect in senior personnel to be cautious when addressing them...I was somewhat casual with the formalities of military protocol, but will admit there were probably a dozen times in 22+ years (20+ as an NCO or officer) that I had to ask if I had heard a comment correctly, usually followed by the junior soldier explaining him/her self...
 
There's a difference between calling people out for trolling and implying the top NCO of a branch got a junior NCO's contact info so she can chew his ass out.

As my girlfriend put it:

"The first female to lead any service branch and she immediately pulls a Karen move like that? Imagine how much ammo that gives to all the guys who already don't like her because she's a woman leading something in the military."
 
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"The first female to lead any service branch and she immediately pulls a Karen move like that? Imagine how much ammo that gives to all the guys who already don't like her because she's a woman leading something in the military."
Yep.
 
"The first female to lead any service branch and she immediately pulls a Karen move like that? Imagine how much ammo that gives to all the guys who already don't like her because she's a woman leading something in the military."
I would contend that the type of guys that don't like her because of her gender would think that way regardless of what she did/said. I'm also certain that her goal is not to be "liked", but to perform the job for which she was selected.
I thought she did an excellent job of nipping that crap in the bud and the next online jokester that thinks a keyboard makes him anonymous will think twice before trying to get a few yuk-yuks at her expense.
 
Let's be real for a minute though. If someone was honestly asking for pronunciation of her name, you just ask "How do you pronounce your last name?" and it's either bās or bas in pronunciation. I've personally learned over the years that if I can't formulate a way to pronounce a name, it's reliably easier and more polite to just ask THEM to pronounce it, with them correcting if it's a non-english-centric name, than to have a 98% chance of fucking it up on your own and looking like an asshole.
 
Seems to me like the guy wanted to show off for “the Internets” and (along with several others) decided to publicly troll a senior Air Force leader, and got called out for it. Public jackassery calls for a public leader response. I think the response was appropriate; no Articles 15 were handed out, and no ARCOMs were awarded, and everything turned out OK in the end.
 
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