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USAF Counter-Terror Funds Buy "Comfort Capsules"
An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post reports, 'The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world ... Air Force documents spell out how each of the capsules is to be "aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule," with beds, a couch, a table, a 37-inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers, and a full-length mirror.' Congress told the USAF twice that they could not spend the money on this frivolous project, but they did it anyway."
In Pelosi's House, it results in a sternly-worded letter.
Bullshit, the USAF does NOT build golf courses first. They build the O-Club first then whatever money is left goes to the golf course. They delay the runway and other necessary ops till the Army has to have them and pays for 'em.
some military types have no respect even for the constitution or their own rules of conduct ( http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/08/atheist.soldier/index.html ), so what makes you think they'll listen to congress when it comes to spending money on luxuries for themselves?
I read the article yesterday and was disgusted. I suspect that we are going to see more than a few careers end over it. Every military promotion above a certain level has to be ratified by the Senate. Once the generals behind this boondoggle are identified they are going to find they don't see another promotion.
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I find it kind of odd that congress told the Air Force that when a four star general flies to the AOR they cannot make use of a higher class accommodation on board a military aircraft but whenever a member of congress flies their they get their own personal high class commercial aircraft. I'm not saying that the Air Force is right here, I don't think any of our public servants should be getting first class rides at taxpayer expense.
We're talking about high-level military executives here. Guys who have to make Really Big Decisions.
Now let's say you have one of these Generals in Washington, and they need to go to Iraq.
How do you get them there?
Do they fly commercial? Probably not very regular commercial service from DC to Baghdad.
So you fly them military.
Now, do you fly them in the jump seat of a cargo plane?
That might work for your average soldier, but do you really want the guy in command of all your forces arriving somewhere absolutely tired? Do you want to provide them with a work area for the 12-24 hours they're going to be in the air?
Regular troops have the luxary of not having to go straight from getting off the plane to directly into the battlefield. Generals are high-level decision-making executives who have to be effective all the time.
Capsules give those personnel a work-area where they can be productive on planes, and a sleep area so that when they do get wherever they're going, they're not running on a day of no or crappy sleep. There's a reason that in the commercial sector businesses pay thousands of dollars for business class seats that employees have a chance to sleep in isntead of hundreds of dollars on a coach seat. If they're flying their staff to someplace, it's important, and they don't want their staff operating on poor rest when they arrive.
So, what makes more sense: Spending millions of dollars on aircraft for moving around top military personnel, or spending tens or hundreds of thousands on some pods that can convert any standard-issue cargo plane into a flying office?
Give the guy in charge of keeping 150,000 people in Iraq alive a bed and a desk when he's got to spend 20 hours in the air. That's not a waste of money. And it sounds like building pods might actually be the least expensive way to provide those facilities.
paintball
"...to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule..."
It always bugs me how the military treats the 'senior military officials' better than the soldiers even though the soldiers are the ones putting their lives on the line. Pay increase for going from soldier to non-soldier should be only a lower risk of life, nothing else. What makes it worse is all these 'support our troops' and 'spend money on the military' types don't even realize that the troops are getting shit on.
Maybe, but I have to think that Generals tend to be in their 50s and 60s rather than late teens and early twenties. I'm only approaching 30, but I find that my body isn't quite as good at bouncing back after a bad flight or short night's sleep as it used to be. In twenty more years... I say give the guy his comfortable quarters.
The thing I *Don't* like is that they're using funds that they were explicitly forbidden to use.
I also question how much terrorism danger this country is really in if they figure the counter-terrorism funds can be better used on window dressing. That's why Congress is mad (other than because they were ignored): The military is shooting the cash cow.