Who will admit to "losing" a couple million in military equipment?

Cpl Dennis F. — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 17:45:42 -0400

Having been responsible for a M48a3 and seeing a number of clips and photos of ejected pilots from expensive fighters, I wondered, "What must that be like" to watch $30 million dollars crash and burn. I know at least a few have ridden them to the ground rather than give up. Will anyone here step up and tell us? No blame. I'd just really like to know from the horses mouth.

Response by CSM Charles Hayden made Oct 31 at 2015 5:57 PM

CSM Charles Hayden — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 17:57:41 -0400

Cpl Dennis F. Four years ago I chatted w/ a USMC Finance COL at Camp Pendleton. He spoke of signing for a pallet load of $100 bills (Like $3,000,000), being offloaded from a C-130 in Afghanistan. He said, "Until I disbursed that money; where the pallet went, I went. If an IED exploded near that pallet, I wanted to be there. That would be easier than trying to explain what happened to the $!"

Response by PO3 Michael James made Oct 31 at 2015 6:07 PM

PO3 Michael James — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 18:07:11 -0400

Cpl Fresch, Well, Sir, I have no idea.. I appreciate your responsibility to inventory, and to be accountable for Equip. Especially costing that amount of money.. All I can say sir, is that when leaving Nam, with Vietnamese refugees, and watching our Marines and Navy physically push Helicopters overboard to rot and rust at the bottom of the So. China Sea was appalling.. But it was done.. Therefore allowing more refugees to be brought on board and taken to safety.. Definitely, I do not understand.. but if our pilots are safe ... so be it.. and I DO Appreciate your Concern...

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Oct 31 at 2015 6:11 PM

CAPT Kevin B. — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 18:11:56 -0400

I'm sure many will say they tossed millions to run their equipment into the ground for lack of parts, lube, downtime, etc. It's the nature of the beast. Even with maintenance, we basically flew the wings off the 141s and C-5s. Those air frames had to be written off sooner due to the OPTEMPO. On the construction side, lots of stuff built in SW Asia that wasn't ever needed.

The construction office I ran on Adak put about $80M worth of housing in that was written off a few years later due to BRAC. It was then given to the Aleut Corporation who then charged high prices for Feds to live in while they got their Environmental work done. Another BRAC brain fart not thinking about the long game.