Bah. I'm grumpy about this, no sense of humor at all, because I've had to deal with a couple of sarcastic NCOs recently as well as a bunch of airmen who were apparently not taught to call anyone "sir" in official correspondence. I don't know what they're teaching in basic training, but every one of my senior NCOs knows that you call a Major or Lt Col "sir" even in email, yet I keep seeing official email from junior enlisted troops that are as casual as if they were speaking to their roommate. I know we can afford to not be too uptight about customs and courtesies, but the basic courtesies do not change, and have not changed since the inception of the US Air Force. In the Army or Marines, they teach this in basic training. When I was in basic, I was taught this. I counted last week and 5 out of 7 official exchanges I witnessed between officers in my flight and SrA or younger troops were somewhere between friday-night casual and outright disrespect.
It's a growing problem because apparently nobody has the time to sit down with these kids and explain what is expected of them. As the simplest example, there are customary guidelines for the formatting of official email, including using rank and name of the recipient at the begining, rank and name at the end, and an official signature block in a format specified by AFI. Instead, what I typically get is a response like:
"yea I can do that"
with no name, often no subject line, etc. When I need to send the exact same message to anyone senior to me, it goes something like this:
Col Smith,
Sir, I will take care of this issue and report the results.
Respectfully
Maj Long
//Signed//
Full name, rank, USAF
Office symbol
Duty phone
The O6 uses this format when corresponding with the O7, and he even uses a similiar format when writing to others of equal or lower rank, out of simple military courtesy. This simple form of courtesy is NOT BEING TAUGHT to our troops, and it reduces morale and effectiveness because they grow up thinking that obeying orders and following military customs and courtesies are optional based on what they think of whoever they're dealing with. The UCMJ does not have a chapter on how to obey orders from someone you think is a jerk, overbearing, or stuck-up. It's pretty clear that the rules apply across the board.
So that's why I'm touchy about this sort of thing, because yea I could just let it slide and not say anything, but people not saying anything just perpetuates the problem and creates an atmosphere of disrespect and distrust in the ranks and in the workplace. Any good officer or NCO knows that true respect is earned, but obedience and a duty to not show disrespect to your superiors comes with the uniform.
