Category Archives: Air Force

Showdown!

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Harry Reid, the Senate hand-puppet of Obama, refused to negotiate and voted down the last compromise on the CR.  The last few versions of that CR gave away all the gains, defunding Obamacare, and replaced defunding with some minuscule changes that really made no difference. But Obama Reid, refused to play and time ran out.

Good!

So what is the effect? Not all that much. I noticed my neighbor was home mowing his grass this morning. He’s a ‘secret squirrel’ working for the FAA. I don’t know if he has been furloughed or if it’s his day off. He’s on rotating shifts.

I saw a notice sent out by Whiteman AFB listing the functions that would continue and which ones were reduced or closed. Single enlisted Airmen were hit the worse. No Wi-Fi in the barrack’s common rooms and no cable-TV either. The base library is closed and the hours of the auto hobby shop have been reduced, but the Base Exchange is open as is all the usual military functions.

Whiteman AFB Status:

Available:
– Child Development Center and School Age Programs will operate as normal.
– Military Personnel Section (e.g. ID cards) will remain open; however, wait times may be affected.
– Base fire and emergency response services will operate as normal.
– Base Dining Facility will operate as normal.
– All emergency service calls (e.g. HVAC, plumbing, electricity, carpentry) will operate as normal, although response times may be affected.
– All law enforcement and security functions will operate as normal.
– All Non-appropriated (NAF) functions are exempted and will operate as normal including the Club, Golf Course, Lodging, Bowling Alley.
– All education and testing capability (PME/CDC testing, counseling and TA support) will be limited.
– Voicemail services will operate as normal.
– AAFES will remain open.
– Intramural sports games will continue; however, squadrons must provide volunteer officials

Unavailable:
– Airman and Family Readiness Center will have limited services.
– Dorm Residents postal delivery will cease. Residents will need to come to the Post Office to pick up their mail.
– Dorm common room internet services will cease.
– Cable TV service in military buildings will cease; family housing residents will not be affected.
– Grounds maintenance and litter patrol will cease; units must remove litter/debris from around their buildings and in common areas.
– Outdoor Recreation hours will be reduced to 20 hours/week; all trips/tours will be cancelled.
– Auto Hobby Hours will be reduced to 20 hours/week.
– Base Library will close.
– Community Activity Center will close.
– Information, Tickets and Tours (ITT) will close.
– Fitness Center exercise classes will be limited; a new schedule will be available at the Fitness Center.

I seem to remember when I was in the Air Force, Prez Nixon issued some wage and price freezes to control government costs and the runaway inflation created by Johnson’s Great Society and massive spending. I was assigned to Richards-Gebaur AFB and we had similar cutbacks. There was no internet, nor cable-TV then. The only noticeable impact was the closing of the base library, and the Airmen’s Club quit selling 3.2 beer. The NCO and O-clubs remained open as well as the commissary and BX. The on-base gas stations, run by the BX, kept the same hours, and no prices changed.  If you lived off-base, as I did, you really didn’t notice any change. The brunt of the impact was to the unmarried enlisted Airmen living on base.

But the real question is what will be the political impact. Obama Reid is counting on Boehner and the RINO-boys caving. That will probably happen. Boehner and his RINO buds have no spine. They don’t want to jeopardize their membership in the Ruling Class.

The column below appeared today in the National Journal. It mirrors the theme of my posts for the last several months. The writer and the publication aren’t conservative. They’re members of the liberal mainstream, but it is telling that they, too, see the dangers coming towards us.

The Beginning of the End for Washington

This impasse could be the breaking point for a political system that has gone from dysfunctional to nonfunctioning

Step back. Try for a moment to extrapolate what a government shutdown and discredited U.S. currency could do to the economy and the public’s faith in government. Think beyond next year’s congressional elections or even the 2016 presidential race. Factor in existing demographic and social trends. I did, and this is what I concluded:

1. The Republican Party is marginalizing itself to the brink of extinction.

2. President Obama can’t capitulate to GOP demands to unwind the fairly legislated and litigated Affordable Care Act. To do so would be political malpractice and a poor precedent for future presidents.

3. Despite the prior two points, Obama and his party won’t escape voters’ wrath. Democrats are less at fault but not blameless.

4. This may be the beginning of the end of Washington as we know it. A rising generation of pragmatic, non-ideological voters is appalled by the dysfunctional leadership of their parents and grandparents. History may consider October 2013 their breaking point. There will come a time when Millennials aren’t just mad as hell; they won’t take it anymore.

At this point, the writer had to revert to his liberal bias. He applauds ‘Pub Senators like Cole (R-OK), who supported Cruz, and Coburn (R-OK), who supported Harry Reid, calling both “conservatives.” The writer villainizes Ted Cruz, Lee and their supporters as “extremists” who oppose governing(!?).

The Republican Party may be splitting apart. The divide is between conservatives who want to limit government and extremists who oppose governing.

The latter sect is represented by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas who is misleading his supporters. He knows that the GOP can’t overturn Obamacare because Republicans only control one half of one branch of government. And yet, Cruz and other tea party Republicans pledge to do the impossible, presumably to build email lists, bank accounts, and fame.

…

The strange thing is that Obamacare could be a good issue for the GOP. It is an unpopular law freighted with complexity. Successful implementation requires precision from an Obama team that has proved itself weak on the nitty-gritty of governing. One could argue that the GOP is fighting Obamacare at its peak strength – prior to implementation. Why not wait for it to go into effect, seize on the flaws and, as Cole says, win some elections?

Obama can’t and won’t gut his bill. Even if you set aside his politics, capitulation would set a horrible precedent: The nation’s credit and the government itself cannot be taken hostage by the extreme wing of a minority party.

At the risk of being accused of “false equivalency” I need to state the obvious: Obama and his party won’t emerge from a shutdown or debt crisis unscathed. To suggest otherwise is a false purity. For starters, the president of the United States is the living symbol of our government and thus receives undue credit when things are going well and outsized blame when they’re not.

Second, voters want Obama to work with Republicans – or at least try. The president is seen by just half of Americans as trying to work with GOP lawmakers, according to the New York Times/CBS News poll. That is down from six of 10 Americans who said the same thing in January 2012 and three-quarters who said he would work with Republicans in 2010 and 2011.

Remember the central promise of Obama’s presidency: He will change the culture of Washington. What happened? Obama has not only been taken hostage by the worst of Washington, gridlock and pettiness, but he seems to be suffering from Stockholm syndrome. His criticism of the GOP last week was as petulant as any GOP talking point. While announcing historic negotiations with Iran, a regime that sponsors terrorism, Obama said he wouldn’t bargain with the GOP.

Reaching out to rivals doesn’t mean capitulating on Obamacare. It does mean swallowing his pride, listening and helping the GOP find a way out of the box they’ve built for themselves. If this was merely a leadership pageant, Obama would win by default because House Speaker John Boehner is performing so poorly. But it’s not. It’s about the country that Obama leads, and everybody gets hurt when he cloisters himself off from the dirty process.

Obama’s job approval numbers are already slipping. For the first time in months, more voters disapprove of his performance than approve. Two-thirds of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. The “wrong track” metric is one that often tracks the president’s popularity. A government cataclysm this month will heighten voters’ anxiety and Obama’s jeopardy.

The salt in voters’ wounds is that this fight does not directly address their biggest issue, jobs. It also not about the nation’s long-term, entitlement-fed debt, an existential issue both parties stopped trying to solve. — The National Journal.

The writer seems to place great faith in the “Millennials.” True, some are becoming politically active—as Tea Party members. Others, raised in the entitlement atmosphere of public education, are whining about the lack of “good paying” jobs, lack of diversity and the unfairness of their situation.

Some may come to realize that reality is not fair and become Tea Partiers. The remainder will be locked into a mold of waiting for Mom and Dad, or the government, to bail them out; not believing the days of bailouts are past.

Where does all this lead beyond the next election cycle or two? Nobody knows, but the best place to look for answers is within the Millennial Generation, the nation’s rising leaders and voters. Last month, in a lengthy essay on Millennials [ The Outsiders: How Can Millennials Change Washington If They Hate It?], I concluded that their revolutionary view of government and politics points toward two possible outcomes. One is that they might opt out of Washington, which leads us to some dark places. The second and more likely outcome is they will blow up Washington (“disruption” is the tech-inspired term they use), and build something better outside the current two-party dysfunction.

Millennials don’t fit neatly into either the Democratic or Republican parties. They are highly empowered, impatient, and disgusted with politics today.

“This tension – two parties thinking they are in the trenches dueling it out, and a burgeoning generation who reject trench warfare altogether – is, for me, the key,” said Michelle Diggles a senior policy adviser at the Democratic think-tank Third Way and an expert in demographics and generational politics. “Washington doesn’t get that change isn’t just a slogan. It’s about to become a reality,”

“Neither party,” she said, “gets what’s coming down the pike.”

What happens in Washington this month might make a Millennial Revolution all the more likely. — The National Journal.

When the writer mentions “Millennials,” I see him really referring to the conservative base that is supporting Cruz, Lee and others. Those conservative supporters are washing their hands of the two party, business-as-usual Washington environment and demand change. If you change “Millennial” above to “grassroot conservatives,” I think he is right.

The “Shutdown”, will disrupt some in the short-run. In the long-run, it really won’t make much difference if Boehner and McConnell caves as Obama Reid expects. But! If the real conservatives in Congress apply pressure, and pressure is applied as well from the electorate, perhaps it will be Obama Reid, who ends up failing…to the betterment of us all.

Once a Marine, uhhh, Legionnaire…

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The American Legion

The American Legion

The Obama administration fears veterans, it appears. First they deny benefits to returning and discharged veterans, then they cut funds to the Veterans Administration. Now, they are attacking veteran support organizations like the American Legion.

There were veteran organizations prior to the Legion, many from the Civil War, but none of those elder organizations survive.  The three largest today are the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Amvets. These three are the most recognizable, but there are many, many more.

The Obama administration is attempting to curb opposition using the IRS as its tool of choice. Their attacks against conservative and Christian organizations have been exposed. Now they are focusing on Veterans.

A very bad choice for them. Veterans have survived privation, stress and warfare. If pushed, does anyone think government bureaucrats can do worse than what these veterans have already experienced? I doubt it.

Rogue IRS Shamefully Targets Nation’s Veterans

 Posted 08/26/2013 07:01 PM ET

 Scandals: One of the nation’s largest veterans groups is being required to provide proof of membership eligibility. Posts that can’t or won’t comply face heavy fines. Your government thanks you for your service.

…

“The American Legion has recently learned of the so-called IRS ‘audit manual’ and is concerned that portions of it attempt to amend statutes passed by Congress and approved by the president,” American Legion legal counsel Philip Onderdonk Jr. told The Daily Caller.

“The IRS now requires American Legion posts to maintain dates of service and character of service records for all members. …The penalty for not having the required proof of eligibility is, apparently, $1,000 per day,” the American Legion stated.

‘Unconscionable’ is an overused word in describing the abuses of power and the continual overstepping of legal and constitutional boundaries by this administration. But it certainly applies in this case. The American Legion is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit veterans organization chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919, and now has more than 2.4 million members in 14,000 posts worldwide, according to its website. It has never had to deal with such a requirement until now.

The American Legion will take up the issue during its national convention in Houston this week and decide whether to pursue the matter through the courts or Congress, where at least one lawmaker has already come to the organization’s defense.

“On the heels of Americans’ anger over revelations that the IRS intentionally targeted certain groups, it has been brought to my attention that the IRS is now turning their sights toward our nation’s veterans,” Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran rightly says.

“The IRS seems to be auditing veteran service organizations by requiring private member military service forms.”

We are aware that some individuals, including some politicians, have invented or embellished their service records. But what the IRS is suggesting here is that American Legion posts, as organizations, may be enjoying tax-exempt status under false pretenses.

The Obama administration, which has already dishonored survivors of the Fort Hood terrorist massacre by calling the attack “workplace violence,” causing them to lose needed benefits, now is telling those who have honorably served their country and risked their lives in its defense, “show us your papers.”

I’ve not heard if the VFW, the AMVETS or other veteran organizations have been targeted like the Legion…yet. But, if the IRS attacks one, why would they hesitate from attacking others? And, why attack these organizations? Is it, perhaps, because they are conservative, critical of liberals and the Obama administration, because of their vocal support of veterans against the VA?

I do have a personal stake in this attack on the Legion. I was once a member. I’m not now, but my reasons for not renewing my membership had nothing to do with the parent organization. If I were still a member, I, like the other members, would have to be heading for our lock boxes to get our DD-214s or other documents to prove our active service. Documents that contain much, much more than just our periods of active service.

When I joined, I filled out a form on-line. When I went to my first Legion meeting, I met a couple of my peers from my Air Force days. They, like me, stayed in our local area after we left active service. I hadn’t seen some of them for over thirty years.

The Marines have a saying, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” I think that motto applies to veterans from all the services. In this case, for me, “Once a Legionnaire, always a Legionnaire.”

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George McGovern—then and now

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I haven’t heard much about this on the broadcast and print news…George McGovern died. Many of the younger folk won’t know who he was. He was the socialist…democrat candidate for President in 1972 running against Nixon. Nixon was up for his second term after beating Hubert Humphrey in 1968.

He was beaten by Nixon in a landslide. The democrats blamed the fiasco over VP candidate Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-MO). The real reason was not Eagleton’s issues, but the fact that McGovern wanted to appease the Russians and the North Vietnamese. His plan would be an effective disassembly of our military—cutting it in half in the case of the Navy and Air Force. The plan would be a withdrawal of the US forces opposing the Soviet Union, Communist China and the other dictatorships in eastern Europe and around the world.

I remember seeing a chart in Time magazine with the comparative size of our military compared to the Soviets before and after McGovern. It’s my belief that chart destroyed McGovern’s chances for the Presidency.

The before chart was bad. The US Army was 1/4th the size of the Soviet army, The long-range US Air Force bombers was on par with the Soviets. But it was our Navy—a true three ocean Navy that outclassed the Soviets. Except for submarines. There, we had a clear advantage in nuclear subs. The Soviets had many more diesel-electric subs that we did. In fact, at that time, most US diesel-subs were being decommissioned.

The after McGovern chart was horrible. The ground forces situation was worse. The US bomber force was cut in half as well as our land-based ICBMs. The Navy was reduced to nine fleets, if I remember correctly, and the Navy ballistic subs were cut as well. All this at a time the Soviets were pushing all around the world.

McGovern lost handily as he deserved.

Now that you’ve had a history lesson, compare McGovern’s plan with Obama’s. Our armed forces are in disarray and demoralized. The Navy is smaller than our Navy before WW I. We no longer have a long range bomber force. Most of our remaining long-range bombers—the B-52s and B-1bs have been converted to carry conventional bombs. Only a few remain in their original nuclear configuration. Few, if any, are on ramp alert.

And what is happening on the other side of the world? China is preparing to seize the oil and gas rich South China Sea, a territory also claimed by Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippine Islands. Putin just completed an exercise of their nuclear forces and is deploying a new-generation of mobile ICBMs. We, on the other hand, decommissioned our last ICBM upgrade, the Peace-Keeper ICBM, as part of the S.T.A.R.T. treaty. Putin is ignoring the treaty when it suits him.

There are reports that Putin is placing MRBM missile in Cuba as Khrushchev attempted to do 50 years ago. He’s also rebuilding Russian bases around the world.

The world is not a safe place. As our ability to extend a military presence around the world declines, those who oppose us will fill in the gaps left by our withdrawal. The result will endanger us all.

After the debate last night, focus groups said Obama had a better handle in foreign policy than Romney. We are truly in danger if half the country really believes that.

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Old Stories

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I haven’t written a personal story for awhile. I was over at Daddy Bear’s blog reading about his time visiting an artillery battalion and it sorta triggered a memory.

I was in the Air Force in the late 60s and early 70s. My last base was at Richards-Gebaur AFB (now closed) and the base housed a reserve MAC wing. At that time they flew Korean War vintage C-119s and C-124s. They later transitioned to C-130s but that hadn’t happened at the time of this story.Anyway, it was in December. I don’t remember which year but I do remember it was COLD! My wife had gone back to Illinois for Christmas and New Years. I would join her later but I had on-base duty and couldn’t leave until Christmas Eve.

My plan was to hitch a ride on one of the reserve transports to Scott AFB, IL where my in-laws would pick me up. My wife and I would drive back to R-G AFB after New Years.Now many service veterans have, from time-to-time, caught rides on military transports on a space-available basis. The R-G reserve unit flew a circuit each Friday to a number of bases picking up Reservists who would do their monthly weekend duty at R-G. My plan was to go down to Flight Ops and get on the manifest for a ride to Scott AFB.

When I arrived, I noticed I wasn’t the only one who planned to hitch a ride. Fortunately, a C-124 is big and had plenty of room and as Reservists got on board, there were passengers getting off so the number of bodies never exceeded the maximum for the C-124.

One pair was an Army captain and his son who appeared to be six or seven years old. Before boarding I overheard him say he was stationed at Ft. Leavenworth was taking his son to join the rest of the family.We finally boarded but headed for Offut AFB in Nebraska first to let a front clear Scott. Reservists hate having to flush out the cargo bay after a bunch of travelers have been airsick.

The C-124, known as “Old Shaky,” isn’t pressurized—at least in the cargo bay where the passengers sat. In the picture above you can see the tube and strap “bucket seats” we sat in for takeoff and landing. On the tarmac, I could see numerous streams of lights crossing the bay from all the cracks and missing rivets in the fuselage.

Once we were aloft, the crew chief passed around some thermos bottles of coffee and some sandwiches. The flight deck contained a small galley and while the crew may have had to fly on their weekend, they didn’t plan of eating poorly. Someone made a deal with the mess-hall and had gotten a bunch of beef, turkey and ham sandwiches plus some egg and potato salad on the side.An hour or so after take-off, we all began to feel those normal bodily urges that comes from chugging down coffee and other liquids. The C-124 did not have latrines/rest rooms like airliners. No, they were strictly spartan. If you got the trots or were female, there was a honey-bucket. The men, and boys, used a “piss-tube.” For the uninitiated, a piss tube is an aluminum tube about an inch or so in diameter rising from the floor to waist height. It was high to facilitate your “aim.” When you needed to whizz, you walked back to the tube, unbuttoned your fly (yes, our wool winter uniforms had buttoned flies in those days,) took careful aim and let fly. The passage of the aircraft through the air also created a small “vacuum” in the tube that helped to improve your aim. 

Just about all of us had made a least one trip to the tube when the boy just couldn’t wait any longer. His dad told him what to do and off he went to the rear to take his turn.

Did I say it was cold? Yes it was COLD! Those of us in the Air Force wore our arctic parkas. The temp was in the low 30s when we took off and it didn’t get any warmer as we reached our max altitude of 10,000 feet.

A few minutes after the boy departed for the rear we heard him squeal! The height of the tube was a bit low for us adults, but not for the boy. In fact, he had to tip-toe a bit to make sure he hit the tube and he got a bit too close.

Need I repeat what happens to warm moist flesh that touches sub-freezing metal? I thought not.

Off went the Dad only to quickly return seeking the crew chief. Off went the crew chief only to quickly return and ascend to the galley and return with a thermos. A few more squeals erupted then silence. In a moment the crew chief returned barely holding a grin and ascended to the flight deck. A couple of minutes later the dad and boy returned, both red-faced. The boy’s pants were still unzipped and his dad’s bloody handkerchief protruded. Obviously he’d lost some skin. They both sat and remained there until they left at our next stop. I heard the crew chief say later that the boy was now circumcised whether he wanted to be or not.

I do have to give the boy credit. After he returned to his seat, he never cried again although it was apparent that he had while in the back. It was also a lesson to the rest of us to be very careful whenever we had to made that trip back to the dark rear of the bay to answer nature’s call.

It also made a great story to tell when at the Club.