So what you are saying is once you have become a leader then you no longer are required to practice it? Or are you saying that DI's are not leaders?
I'm not trying to be difficult, but I am having trouble following your logic.
I'm also not sure what this entire thread has to do with anything. Has the Air Force Academy been putting out bad leaders? Worse than the USMA or USNA?
If so, based on what?
If not, what's the point?
I guess I'm just a simple man.....
I suppose that depends on your opinion of "good leaders" and your level of exposure to them. I've met some pretty piss poor leaders in the AF, especially on the pilot side. But I've met them in the Army and Navy, too. I have to admit that the Marines tend to be better than most, at least in my experience. MemberLG hit the nail on the head. It's easy to say and suppose we've been producing an outstanding product at USAFA and the other academies. It's also easy to point to a number of incidents which regularly give us reason to worry about the product across the services.
The question about drill instructors is an interesting one. Drill NCOs are responsible first and foremost for all aspects of indoctrinating new service members into the military. It is their sole professional function for the time they're on the trail. I don't know if a drill instructor now stays with his troops in the field. And I can't say why they didn't back in the 80s. Perhaps in the intervening time, some good leaders intervened and made it clear that a leader is with his troops.
Should they be with their troops overnight? Yes, I think so. Does being responsible for the myriad aspects of those soldiers' lives 24/7 absolve him or her of the imperative for good leadership in a situation like that? No.
There is, however, a different construct and echelon of leadership between a drill NCO responsible for a large formation and a first-line leader (like a cadet squad leader) who is not yet a true member of the military and is in still in the formative stages of "knowing what right looks like." Drill NCOs have families and other job duties that may require that from time to time they spend time away from their formation.
Again, having never been a drill NCO and being unwilling to speak as an expert from a position of ignorance on the subject, I can't surmise too much further than that. However, based on experience in various school scenarios, that is often the case with instructors/trainers (half are training the formation and the other half of maybe third are setting up the next training).
So again, I can't say what the practice is now. And it may vary between the harder BCT locations like Benning or Sill versus the more "relaxed" places like Jackson. It shouldn't, but it may. Nonetheless, there is a difference between a cadet who is being taught what how to lead a small unit and a drill instructor in the "real" military. Perhaps the biggest difference is that we trust senior NCOs to know when not being with the formation is necessary.
The personal attacks get pretty amusing on this subject. Plenty of compensating going on. Rank does indeed have its privileges. It has the privileges of pay, benefits, and interesting jobs. Anyone who's had the honor of actually leading servicemembers in our armed forces knows that those privileges are far outweighed by the responsibilities of rank.
One huge responsibility of rank is to set the example at all times. That means big things--grand, life-altering moral things like not getting a DUI and choosing the harder right at a time in combat when a "blind eye" might seem expedient--as well as little things, like scoring a 300 on your PT test (or service equivalent) and making sure your troops have food before you go through the chow line, or not asking them to do things you wouldn't do. As the old NCO saying goes, "anytime you do the wrong thing or pass a mistake without making a correction, you've set a new standard."
Once upon a time I had a SCO who used to use his NTV to drive his gear and himself to the flight line in Baghdad, right up to the aircraft, enjoying the AC. The rest of us humped our gear there and back like pack mules. For a lot of guys, that's the biggest thing they remember about their commander. He wasn't willing to be in the suck like his troops. He took all the privileges he could.
If I recall, Rocko, isn't your son at USMA? I am sure he'd have an opinion on this.