Talk:Duncan McNabb

Standard
This is your basic USAF biography, put out by the air force. Every flag officer has one. They're written by air force staff, generally not family members. I don't detect any agenda or advertisement, it's just a listing of his assignments and education. Very dry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dzhastin (talk • contribs) 13:44, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

presentation of topic
Now, while this is a very thorough input on the life and times of one Duncan McNabb, I am left with a question regarding the presentation...that being: who wrote this, his mother?

I lack the rhetoric to clearly define my problem with this article, so forgive my blunt writing. From the "Humanitarian" edicts of his job description to the listing of various correspondance courses he has taken for part of his education process this smacks of biasness. Not directly, but in the sense that this is directly copied from a PR booklet or as I stated, his mother wrote it. this article borders on agenda advertisement. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Fortidude (talk • contribs) 19:05, 8 August 2006.

Misunderstanding
The text mentions McNabb was the commander of the 41st Military Airlift Squadron, a C-141 unit then assigned to Charleston AFB, SC, and part of the 437th Military Airlift Wing. This links to an article about the 41st Airlift Squadron, a unit presently flying C-130J aircraft at Little Rock AFB, AR; however, the article about the 41st Airlift Squadron contains no mention of a history as the 41 MAS at Charleston AFB.

What is forgotten is that, during this period, C-141 and C-5 flying units were designed as "Military Airlift" and C-130 units were "Tactical Airlift." In late 1991 and early 1992 the Air Force did away with the Military and Tactical designations and simply called all such "Airlift" units.

In the case of the 41st, there were two such units: the 41st Military Airlift Squadron at Charleston AFB, SC, with the 437th Military Airlift Wing (now 437th Airlift Wing) and the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron a few hours driving time up the road at Pope AFB, NC, part of the 317th Tactical Airlift Wing, along with two sister units, the 39 and 40 TASs. The 41 TAS had a lineage going back to a WW II troop carrier squadron while the 41 MAS lineage (if I recall correctly) had been a ferrying squadron with the same number. I'm not sure what became of the lineage of the 41 MAS (it may have been simply inactivated or merged with that of the 41 TAS) but the unit described in the 41st Airlift Squadron is clearly the former 41 TAS, not the unit at Charleston AFB. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the MASs under the 437 MAW at Charleston AFB were the 17th (formed to be the first to bed down with the then-new C-17 aircraft), 20th, 41st and 76th. Later, when the USAF was reflagging its flying squadrons to lower numbers, the flying units of the wing were the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th. When the wing's flying units were reduced from four to three, the 17th was inactivated at Charleston AFB. Note that the 437th's WW II units were the 83d, 84th, 85th and 86th, an indication that the USAF does not necessarily tend to keep squadrons historically associated with a particular group or wing, but instead reflags them according to modern preferences, such as low-numbered squadrons which may have longer histories and therefore seniority for retention purposes.VilePig (talk)