In the September 10th, 2012 issue of Air Force Times, a magazine dedicated to news and events related to the United States Air Force (USAF), there were several letters posted condemning the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for applying double standards to retired officers who were publicly supporting political candidates, knowing very well that many well-known flag officers (Colin Powell and Wes Clark among them) have blatantly done the same exact thing, but on a much grander scale. I agreed with many of the people who wrote to the publication and am not surprised by the double standard imposed by the chairman, because flag officers are routinely held to a different, far more lenient standard than their lower ranking subordinates. Now that is leadership, leadership by example ... or is it?
I was also appalled by another article describing Air Mobility Command's (AMC) "contract" with a Carolina pro hockey team. AMC and the author apparently believed it was "OK" to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to one sports team while ignoring dozens of others in several different sports in the process. Why did AMC, whose headquarters is in Illinois, think they needed to support a team, under the guise of public relations, in another state and a thousand miles away, spending unreported sums on "an 18-person luxury box" among other things? Saint Louis, Missouri has several pro sports teams and is less than 25 miles from Scott Air Force Base, so why did the Saint Louis teams not get the contract or even a chance to bid on it?
Besides showing favoritism in contracting, WASTE clearly and quickly comes to mind when the Department of Defense (DoD) in general and the Air Force in particular are cutting people and benefits rather than tightening the belt on such extravagant items as LUXURY SUITES. We also do not know if the contract was open to bids from other sports teams or if it was a "SOLE SOURCE" contract, one which excludes other bidders normally because what the government is contracting for can ONLY COME FROM ONE SOURCE, the contractee in question, in this case the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team.
Finally, and on a similar note, their was a photo of General Edward Rice, Commander of Air Education and Training Command (AETC) in San Antonio, Texas, throwing out the first pitch at an August 18th New York Yankees game (published in the September 17th, 2012 issue of Air Force Times) which also seemed inappropriate on more than one level. I understand that the Air Force has to reach out to the public in terms of positive public relations, but why select the Yankees when General Rice's closest Major League Baseball franchise would be the Houston Astros or Texas Rangers? One would think that General Rice, being commander of AETC, which last time I checked, was located on Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, would support a local team over one thousands of miles away. The Yankees were not even playing a Texas team for crying out loud ... they were playing the Boston Red Sox!
That article and the accompanying photo (similar to the one above) lead me to a couple questions: First, why was General Rice in New York and what genius thought it would be a good idea to show support for a team whose closest Air Force base is in New Jersey? And second, why was General Rice out of uniform, wearing a NY Yankees hat with his Air Force "blues"? If General Rice saw another airman in uniform at the game wearing a Yankees hat (or any team's hat for that matter), that airman would surely get a good old fashioned butt-chewing AT THE VERY LEAST.
So why, I ask, are there double standards depending on the rank of the individual? Why the "in your face" waste when good, hard working, patriotic airmen are being drummed out in thousands while major commands and generals live the high life? I have not even mentioned Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's $800,000+ bill for government plane rides home every weekend, but that is a different story ... or is it?
Chris Sorrentino, LtCol, USAF (Ret)
CombatCongressman
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