Wednesday, May 29, 2019

#ThanksJohnBoehner for Ruining USA Military Readiness


I defended the air force at the time because I assumed, incorrectly, that they had redeployed state of the art fighters out of path of the hurricane 😒













From a "Full Measure" report aired Sunday 26 May 2019, apparently originally aired in November 2018:















Attkisson: When Hurricane Michael hit Florida, Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City was in the direct line of fire. The base was home to several dozen of our top military jets, the F22 Stealth Fighters. Lisa Fletcher recently spoke to   National security strategist, Rebecca Grant, and found out 17 of those planes were hit hard by the storm.
























Fletcher: What is your understanding as to why all of the F22s were not flown out of Tyndall before Hurricane Michael hit?




















Grant: The F22s at Tyndall were suffering from a shortage of spare parts so the F22s that were left behind were unflyable, mainly because of spare parts issues. This [maintenance] was an underfunded program. If you have an auto repair shop and you lay off half the people and don't parts, you can't fix cars.  This happened with the F22















Grant: The US Air Force had to cut maintenance personnel a few years ago and the long sequester [thanks RINO John Boehner ] defense budgets meant that we haven't bought enough parts for the F22 replacement parts.















Fletcher: Almost all of the damaged F22s were kept in aircraft hangars.

















Fletcher: Planes that can no longer fly are sometimes referred to as "hangar queens."



Grant: You can refer to any aircraft that a squadron has decided has so many parts missing that they'll go ahead and take another part off of that to fix an airplane that's more flyable

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Cannibalizing one plane for parts for other planes is a common suboptimal work-around during combat operations when logistical lines have been compromised.

The creative requisitioning antics of the supply sergeant was a comedic relief schtick in the 1951 film "Flying Leathernecks"














MSgt. Clancy: Major, I "found" a couple of tents. Three of them, to be exact. We sure can use them.  Where do you want them rigged, sir? 

Maj. Kirby: Any place in the area.  

MSgt. Clancy: Uh, you'll find there's a small hole in the side.  Them artillery gyrenes came claiming they were their tents.  They claimed that where the hole is the serial number should have been.  So I said, "Prove it. Otherwise, knock it off." 

Maj Kirby: Very intelligent attitude, Clancy. Thanks.

MSGT Clancy: Yeah, there's officers....Then again, there's officers.




MP: Sergeant! 


MSGT Clancy: Yeah?

MP:  There was a supply truck parked over there about an hour ago.  10 Coleman lanterns are missing out of it.  Got any ideas that might help?

MSGT Clancy: Don't quote me, you understand,  but I saw some of them seabees over there this afternoon.  They're down in that area.  

MP: Thanks!

MSGT Clancy: You're welcome.....copper....




























MSGT Clancy: We don't have to gas by hand no more, Major. I rigged up a pump from a dishwashing machine. 


Maj. Kirby: A dishwashing machine?

MSGT Clancy: Yeah. Imagine them seabees over in the mobile field kitchen having a dishwashing machine!  What's the Navy coming to? Can't wash dishes with their hands?

MAJ Kirby: At the rate we're going, Clancy, we'll be able to refuel with an eyedropper.  Can't you put a few more in the air? 

MSGT Clancy: My conscience even bothers me about a couple of these you're taking on this mission. 



















Seabee: Hey, you fly guys. Major. You fly guys got your own galley?

MSGT Clancy: No. We eat with the mud Marines. Why?

Seabee: I'm checking all the galleys. Some joker stole my dishwasher. 

















MSGT Clancy: Somebody stole his dishwasher. Maybe he just goofed off.  What's the guy look like?

Seabee: It ain't a guy.  It's a machine.


MSGT Clancy[feigning ignorance]: A machine? For washing dishes?  Has everybody gone nuts?  Have you ever heard anything so crazy, Major?

MAJ Kirby: Never did

Seabee: I have.  It's part of a mobile kitchen unit that's checked out to me, and if I find the guy ...


MSGT Clancy: Did you look in the artillery mess?  Them artillery men steal.  No ethics.  They're over in that area. 

Seabee: All right. Thanks. 


















MAJ Kirby: Clancy! I'm beginning to worry about your chances in the hereafter.

MSGT Clancy: Does the Major mean the Major approves of the use of dishwashing machines with amphibious assault groups?

MAJ Kirby: The Major means that the Major approves of line chiefs who can improvise. 




















MSGT Clancy adjusts engine.

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You do that five or six times and you have a hangar queen which means that it's likely to be in that hangar for a long time.














Grant: The sad thing is to see that happen to a rare asset like the F22 where it really is just a matter of funding more spare parts for the aircraft. There are even problems, sometimes, getting spare parts for the F22 that are deployed overseas in the counter terrorism operation.  So, hangar queens happen but we don't want to see that happen with a premiere new asset like the F22.








Fletcher: What is the extent of the damage of the F22s left behind?


















Grant: We're still waiting to learn the extent of the damage. We know that at least five of the aircraft left behind have been brought out of the damaged hangar and have flown away to Langley Air Force Base which is another F22 base.  It looks like those will only have minor damage.  There are others that we're still waiting to see what the extent of the damage is.



Fletcher: And it isn't just the F22s at Tyndall. Last year, most F22s were grounded.

Grant: In 2017,  the F22 fleet as a whole reached a new low where it was only 49% mission capable.

Fletcher: Some might argue that it's not worth it that these planes as highly advanced as they are, they are already becoming obsolete and there are other planes that are being built for far less money


Grant: I would repair every single F22.  In fact the Air Force just repaired an older F22 that had been used in tests and they brought it back after six years of not flying it.  The F22 is still the world's number one fighter.  The Chinese and Russians have nothing like it [that's touches on another story of communist Chinese espionage].  The Air Force needs to fix every single F22.

Fletcher: So a reasonable person may ask, what are these incredibly expensive and valuable aircraft doing in a part of the country where they could be hit by a hurricane? Why not move them out prior to a crisis? [that's optimally the plan]






















Grant: That makes a lot of sense.  What no one realized how deep the readiness hole was in this case and how long it's taking the Air Force and the Navy to recover from the readiness under funding [under a supposedly pro military Republican Congress during the Obama administration].


Attkisson: The Air Force estimates that fixing all those planes could cost up to a billion tax dollars.





Posted by adagioforstrings at 2:34:00 PM
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