Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in the military. What is the worst you have seen or heard of in your career?

CPT Jacob Swartout — Sat, 10 May 2014 14:39:21 -0400

What are your thoughts on this when you see or hear it happening? Example: Someone receives a new $6,000 cherry wood desk and office set and a $3,000 high back leather chair because the current desk is not good enough. It's not broken however, someone wants a better looking desk. Another example, buying everyone in the unit some expensive "cool dude" flashlight that they won't ever use on mission.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made May 11 at 2014 5:48 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 11 May 2014 17:48:31 -0400

Sir, I'm not going to say it publicly, but what I'm doing tomorrow. I know it's not my call and it's above my pay grade, but I feel it's a waste of money. That's my 2¢.

Response by 1SG Mike Case made May 11 at 2014 10:03 PM

1SG Mike Case — Sun, 11 May 2014 22:03:17 -0400

"Burning ammo" because they don't want to have to count rounds when they get back.

The Army should have some type of Craigslist where other units can list their excess equipment and can be signed for by other units.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 11 at 2014 10:29 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 11 May 2014 22:29:05 -0400

One of the best was a couple years ago when they drained lake Kyle out here at Campbell and found more discarded brass and ammo than you could fathom. I don't defend the actions of those who may have done it, but I will say that if it weren't an over-regulated and unnecessary PITA process to deal with ammo then it would be less likely that every unit doing training out there would give it to Chuck.

The biggest FWA I have witnessed, however controversial this may be, is in fact every combat utility uniform change since we wore BDU. I extend this to more branches than just Army, but specifically the ACU has got to be among the biggest in history. The money spent on equipping the Army with what was a known failed camouflage pattern could have been used to give every active duty Soldier a million dollar bonus and paid for every active duty spouse to attend a 4 year university, and still left enough to cover the DOD budget disparity, negating the need for ideas towards cutting benefits. Just saying.

Response by PO2 Rocky Kleeger made May 11 at 2014 11:58 PM

PO2 Rocky Kleeger — Sun, 11 May 2014 23:58:08 -0400

Sir, at this point in my military retirement...I still probably shouldn't say. My Momma used to tell me if you can't say anything nice, don't say it at all. I think I'll listen to her this time

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Jan 14 at 2015 10:58 PM

SFC Mark Merino — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:58:47 -0500

I accidentally spent $300,000 washing an aircraft.

Response by Sgt Packy Flickinger made Jan 14 at 2015 11:19 PM

Sgt Packy Flickinger — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 23:19:36 -0500

The Marine corps bought a bunch of cable testing boxes for aircraft. They were big and heavy not to mention ungodly expensive. The cables attached in back. Since they sat on small benches in the mobile facilities the were useless because we couldn't use them. We were unable to situate them to get to the front and back.

Some slick salesman talked someone out of millions for these stupid boxes.

Response by Sgt Packy Flickinger made Jan 14 at 2015 11:27 PM

Sgt Packy Flickinger — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 23:27:28 -0500

While in Italy, generals and other high ranks would fly from the states and take a 30 minute back seat ride in a Prowler over the edge of the combat zone to get combat and hazard pay. So they make an extra grand and it costs much more than that to fly him there.

One such general arrived on a C130 with an engine on fire upon landing The AF fixed it for us and the engine fell off on the return trip. Good job AF!

Response by CPO Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 14 at 2015 11:28 PM

CPO Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 23:28:28 -0500

using CDs to bring a copy of a document or image from one network to a legacy machine. oh you need to transfer that file? how big is it? 40KB? that's cool just use this 700MB disk...oh, never mind, that was the wrong file, hand me another disk... SMH

Response by SP5 Michael Rathbun made Jan 14 at 2015 11:57 PM

SP5 Michael Rathbun — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 23:57:34 -0500

Not quite the worst, but an appealing image. (Camp John F McDermott, Nha-Trang)

Response by SMSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 15 at 2015 9:28 AM

SMSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 09:28:38 -0500

March ARB, CA. I was the NCOIC of Combat Arms from 2008 to Jan 2014, they built a $10M indoor firing range and it was completed the middle of 2013. We still have not been able to fire inside of the facility as of this day. The air system inside that pushes the gasses to the rear of the building has never worked properly therefore the range has never been certified. I would guesstimate to fix it would cost about $200K. To this day there is no way ahead to get it fixed. I would say this is the worst use of $10M of tax payers money. We are still using a 70yr old delaptitaed range to qualify our personnel.

Response by CSM David Heidke made Jan 15 at 2015 9:29 AM

CSM David Heidke — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 09:29:34 -0500

The amount of money we spent on western style modern Afghan military posts and police stations that they have no idea how to operate.

I've seen them use kitchen sinks to build fires, and drain down the diesel tanks that generate the power for the post... just 'cause.

And why did we build these places with air conditioning?! ugh... And they still blow us up.

trillions wasted.

Response by CMSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 15 at 2015 9:39 AM

CMSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 09:39:16 -0500

During the onset of OIF, due to MASSIVE favoritism, I watched a Reservist get "mobilized" with all the funding (extra pay/allowances) that one gets for an in-theater deployment. Oh, but wait, there's more... She was at home, on a government laptop, doing a telecommute. You could never reach her, she seldom replied or actioned emails, and always seemed to be on Leave.

During one of her innumerable boondoggles, she came to visit us at HQ. She actually had the audacity to say in front of us and the leadership that knowingly approved her, "All this money I am making to go to the gym and get my hair done during the day is paying off my mortgage." And laughed... They.all.laughed.

((We filed IG complaints that fell flat. Le sigh))

Response by SGT Nathan Huff made May 15 at 2015 10:24 AM

SGT Nathan Huff — Fri, 15 May 2015 10:24:18 -0400

Here is one I found that I pray is not true, but it would not surprise me if it was.

http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/07/sergeant-major-uav/

A SGM routing a UAV to check for uniform violations, instead of over watch.

Sergeant Major Diverts Surveillance Drone To Check For Uniform Violations

“We got another one!”