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Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

AF Reserve general uses clout to advance oafish son, in the process he loses his job

This is not only an interesting article, I like how the reporter presents it: Allan Poulin Jr. dreamed of flying a fighter and landed a job interview with an F-16 reserve unit. The squadron leadership didn’t want him. The wing commander offered Poulin a job anyway. Poulin struggled at Officer Training School. The school commander ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
afhra.af.mil
afhra.af.mil
afhra.af.mil

This is not only an interesting article, I like how the reporter presents it:

Allan Poulin Jr. dreamed of flying a fighter and landed a job interview with an F-16 reserve unit. The squadron leadership didn’t want him. The wing commander offered Poulin a job anyway.

Poulin struggled at Officer Training School. The school commander signed off on his dismissal. A one-star ordered him reinstated.

Next came undergraduate pilot training. Poulin finished last in his class and was told to report to the squadron that trains cargo and tanker pilots. He reported to the fighter track.

How, I hear the little grasshoppers chatter, is this young individual so three-times lucky? The answer to this mystery is that his pop, one Allan Poulin Sr., was a heapum big major general and vice commander of the Air Force Reserve. Until the inspector general started asking some questions about the father intervening on behalf of the son.

The lesson today: Let them find their own way.

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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