This story is really...two stories in one with one story having 3 minor small parts.

My dad was a Senior NCO in the Air Force and we had a disagreement with his CO. My dad was going give an airman of his a very good evaluation. Now there's some back story to this

This Airman's teenage son got into a relationship with this CO daughter. The daughter and the son where of the same age, the relationship became sexual and this airman's teenage son got caught cheating on his girlfriend. As a result this teenage and the CO daughter broke up and the CO daughter was fairly upset over this.

My dad personally felt this was not a reflection of this airman's performance at work. After all teenagers are going be teenagers and shit happens, you can't hold a teenager's conduct aganist his father's performance evaluation can you? Yall already knows where this is going.

So my dad is writing up this Airmans evaluation, and this Airman had actually done a really good job and my dad rated his performance as such. The CO disagreed with my dad's evaluation and essentially said when evaluating an Airman his whole as a person needs to be considered, to which apparently my dad said "He did consider the whole". The Airman had excellent volutneer work, was a great leader, was a great mentor to younger airman, had no disciplinary actions of any kind, and was all around a great airman. To which the CO said that he feels this Airman doesn't deserve this high of an evaluation because of the whole person concept. Essentially the CO wanted to ding this Airman because this Airman son broke this CO daughter's heart.

My dad refused, and submitted the evaluation. The CO was obviously annoyed by this and the consqueses started flowing in almost immediately.

Shortly after the evaluation the CO had the entire shop inspected. Another Airman in my dad's shop had a pornographic magazine in his locker...it was a playboy. My dad was given a "strike" for this. Essentially for allowing an Airman, a grown man, to have a playboy...in a backpack in his locker. Think of the horror.

A few weeks later an Airman in my dads shop got his finger stuck in a bed of pick up truck. My dad was given another "strike" for failure to maintain a safe working enviorment. Also not that it matters, but my dad was not present when this incident happened and the Airman even admitted he was the idiot that slammed his thumb into the bed of the pick up.

New Years Eve comes...an airman in my dads shop was involved in an alcohol related incident in which he got into a physical fight with his girlfriend's ex boyfriend. The details are light on this but as I understand it this Airman's Girlfriend ex boyfriend ran across them in a bar, the ex tried to get the girl back, the girl rejected him, the Airman told the ex to move on there are plently of fish in the sea and a fight broke out. Also...obviously my dad was not present. He was also sober as every new years eve he was a DD driver for his shop

That was my dad's third...and final strike. He was "fired" essentially his commander felt that my dad lacked the leadership to instill discipline in his airman. Keep in mind my dad had quite a few airman under his shop. So lets summarize all the horribile things that happened under my dads supervisor

• An Airman had a playboy in his locker
• Another Airman busted his thumb up pretty good
• Another Airman got into a fist fight with his girlfriends ex boyfriend

No DUIs, no arrests, he was well liked by his guys, he got the mission done on time, and he was fired.

The day he was fired I remember it...I was 17 at the time. I came home and my dad was home early. This shocked me, he was having a few beers and was clearly pissed. I asked him "What happened" he said " I got fired"

And I thought "What? Your getting kicked out of the Air Force" he explains that he's not getting kicked out, but he's been relieved as NCOIC of his shop and he described his new job as a "glorified janitor" so I asked him the following questions

• Are you getting demoted? No
• Will you still be able to retire? Yes
• Will you still get all your retirement benefits? Yes
• Will we be able to finish out our tour? Yes
• Will you need to work late all the time? No

So I said "So your going make the same money you always have been, work less, and get to coast until you retire" he said "Yea" and I said "Sounds pretty good to me" then he fires back "You don't get it, I got fired" to which I reminded him that because of his career field and his rank he wasn't going get promoted, so he essentially got rewarded...he can coast out his retirement. Then my mom who was listening gave him a suggestion. She said "Why don't you finish up your bachelors?" he goes "cause i'm busy" and my mom said "Not anymore you aren't" he thought about it.

Next day he came home and said he came up with a game plan, he'll knock out his bachelors before he retires, and when he gets out use his GI Bill to get his MBA.

He now has a MBA, is a GS13, and is preparing to retire in a few years for the 2nd time...so it all worked out.