$3,500,000,000,000 is a.
big number. A really big number.
The Army housing privatization effort hit a
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x6116">few
speed bumps in Little Rock, AR. Unfortunately, no one
told Major General Del Eulberg before he glorified privatized military housing. Then those nosy senators got into the
act.
In other headlines, the Marines
want out of Iraq. I guess there’s some sort of a
sock problem - maybe KBR’s washing machines broke down or something. Colorado ranchers are pissed at
the Army. The Minot-Barksdale nuke flight is
still generating news stories and
questions. The Army was getting shit scores on the new language tests, so they used the traditional republican tactic
and changed the test. Lastly, the head of the American Legion
finally visited Walter Reed. No shit – it only took him six years.
The Veterans Administration and DoD are supposedly working on health care. The first
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x6127">baby steps were taken on November 1. Jack Cafferty
chimed in on November 2. That
single exam agreement between the VA and DoD was looking pretty good until
November 9 when somebody pointed out that the VA & DoD has already agreed on this in 1998 and 2004. Then things started turning to
shit.
Really ugly,
bad,
stinky shit. But the military sez
no problem! Except that little matter of dunning soldiers injured in the line of duty for a portion of their re-up
bonuses, all’s well that ends well. The DoD announced
“Bonuses are not recouped simply for one’s inability to complete an enlistment or re-enlistment agreement through no fault of the military member” .
Lots of recruiting enlistment stories this month. Black
recruits are up 49% in 2007, but recruiters are having a hard time making their
numbers.. Apparently moms and dads are against having their kids killed or maimed. The military is coming after kids in a
big way. But the
services are
making their numbers. Get ‘em
young. Outside of a few minor
glitches like enlisting
murderers, things are going swimingly. Congress took note of the
lowered standards and called them ‘unwise’. The Army’s thinking about
new rules.
There were lots of articles about stress, TBI and PTSD. Landstuhl hopes to start a TBI
center. Honeywell International's working on a way to track
brain waves. The bad news is
at least 6% of veterans have TBIs.
PTSD is just bad news.
There’s http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x6858">no
getting around it. I’m
sure Justin Faulkner http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x7245">agrees. Is help
actually on the way? If only we could get rid of
those damn facts. One problem that may cause future progress on these injuries is that service members either
cheat or don’t take the
tests.
The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program hit a few
snags this month. The GAO pointed out you
don’t need to spend money on systems for something that isn’t ready-for-prime-time.
November was a
good month for
MRAP manufacturers. Well, how about
kinda good, maybe. The bucks
are there. Soldiers
dig ‘em. There were some
seriesly happy days in Baghdad. Of course an MRAP is a bit too large for a ship, so
guess how we’re sending them to Iraq. Apparently the C-5 is over taxed, so we needed
a bit of help from our friends. Before you know it, the numbers
changed. Then the Marine Corps
started asking questions. I guess they didn’t like the answers they were getting, so they said
”I don’t want all those.”Raptors and F-15s were big on the radar screen this month.
The $330,000,000 F-22 Raptor is deployed and has some problems. The Air Force proudly announced a new squadron of Raptors in
Alaska. It appears an aircraft sucked in a piece
o something. Some known design flaws
surfaced. Lockeed Martin scored some big bucks with a new
contract before we had to send them all
to the shop for repairs.
Lots of F-15s doings this month. I guess a F-15C fell out the sky
in Missouri. The next day the Air Force grounded the entire fleet of
F-15s. The French were running missions for us in
Afghanistan.
Hornets were called in. Uncle assured us we could do the deed
with other aircraft. By the
middle of the month we got word they would be flying soon. I get the impression the Montana Guard is less than happy
about replacing their F-16s with F-15s. On the 14th F-15s were flying in
Afghanistan, but they were still grounded in
Kadina. On the 20th, the Air Force cleared all F-15s
to fly. On the 28th, the AF
grounded them all again. All this is leading up to an interesting question: What happens when the money spigot
runs out and those spiffy new $330,000,000 airplanes aren’t available?
Oh yea, there was an Osprey
‘oops’ this month.
Part duex coming later this weekend.