So about those expensive Air Force planes that got damaged in Hurricane Michael... I think in the future our military might want to consider whether there is some way to move airplanes from one place to another, in case of natural disasters, rather than just letting them be destroyed. Oh sure, it might cost a lot of money to put the airplanes on big trucks and drive them across country, but there's really no other way to move an airplane, right? barfo
There so fucking hard to repair because the parts are so damn unique and expensive to make. Plus, military contractors charge you 50 bucks an hour to pick up a hammer. My dad had a choice of working for Boeing or Precision Cast Parts when he got out of the service, he chose Precision because investment casting had much less hassle. Can't say I blame him.
When I was living in Panama City, I was only a couple of miles away from that base. It was just part of the daily routine to see, and more importantly, hear F-22's every day on training exercises. Based on the article linked here, they moved the aircraft that were flight capable to another base. Not worth risking the lives of airmen to fly malfunctioning or non-optimal craft out. With that said, if there was enough time for people to evacuate out of their homes and find a new place to relocate to on the fly (there was enough time), then there is no excuse for the government failing to relocate very expensive aircraft ahead of time. They have a full fleet of vehicles in that region capable of moving aircraft by land. Talk about a waste of taxpayer's money.
Plus, is 40% of the fleet being non-operational really normal? I assume they'd require lots of maintenance, but 40% not being able to be made flight-worthy with a couple of days notice seems pretty high. Makes the ordinary citizen wonder about military readiness. barfo
The military is just big business. People complain about a few bucks going to fund scientific research or social programs but all that money is dwarfed a by the nonsensical gobs of cash America spends on the military. If we cut the funds in half it would still be far and away the best funded military in the world.
Now the base has only 60% of their planes. Multiply by the 1/1,000,000th possiblility that any country attacks the base, and you can see why I'm worried. (That's defense, what about offense. Now the U.S. can't start unprovoked wars again. Now I'm even more worried.)
Now the base has 60% of their planes, but based on past performance, 40% of those remaining will soon be non-operational, so then they'll have only 36% of their original fleet. No doubt our enemies will be aware of this and will make landfall on our valuable and strategic Florida panhandle territory. From there it's only a step to seizing Alabama. barfo
I imagine some of those technically could have flown. But, without the proper maintenance and scheduled tests, the hazard of flying a non-optimal craft is not worth the human risk. There are a lot of liabilities involved. But, both Eglin AF base and Hurlburt Field are just north of Tyndall and were out of the direct path of this hurricane. Fucking shitty management of things that WE paid for.
Those guys used to show up in droves at my aunt's Go Go night clubs and spend a fortune. In 1967, I took the weeks cash and receipts to the bank for my aunt and it came to about $500,000.00. That's $26 Million a year in 1967. She lived well off those guys at Eglin AF Base. Of course, she had a few big spender gangster customers, also. This was all at Ft. Walton Beach. I hadn't heard about the damage to aircraft. After she moved to Pensacola and then later passed away, I don't keep up with that area any more.
