I'm Comfortable How About You? - Counterterrorism Dollars at Work

[Anonymous]

I’m Comfortable. How About You?
Published: July 24, 2008, Source New York Times

After the secretary of defense, Robert Gates, fired the Air Force’s top civilian and top general last month, reform and accountability have become the service’s new bywords. Congress was rightly skeptical this week as the replacement nominees pledged to repair the reputation of the Air Force — tattered by misplaced nuclear weapons, costly contract miscues and more.
One revealing symptom of the ongoing leadership drift was revealed by The Washington Post last week. The paper reported that at least four ranking generals have been deeply involved in designing airborne “comfort capsules.” These two-room luxury pods, with all the amenities of sports arena skyboxes, would be inserted into the fuselage of military aircraft to carry top brass and their V.I.P. guests.
The most offensive part of this project is that the Air Force has been pressing Congress for the last three years for permission to tap $16 million in counterterrorism funds to pay for this indulgence.

Congress never envisioned comfort-class counterterrorism, particularly with beds affording “no more than 50 percent compression of the mattress material” for a general’s comfort, according to one specification. It rebuffed the generals, yet the service still diverted $331,000 in counterterrorism money to cover last-minute design changes ordered up as the brass waxed stylistic over the color of seat belts, carpets and swivel executive chairs. (Apparently everyone was happy with the drapes and the full-length capsule mirror.) The chic pods would be in addition to the Air Force’s existing fleet of 100 planes meant for V.I.P. travel.

The Air Force began to scale back its ambitions for Project SLICC, or Senior Leader Intransit Comfort Capsules, as soon as it was uncovered by a private watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight. But it has already stoked deep resentment among lower-ranking officers concerned about plummeting morale and other serious problems.

Those include what Mr. Gates described as a “pattern of poor performance” in securing sensitive military components. Last year a B-52, carrying six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, flew across the country without anyone realizing the weapons were missing. In another dangerous mix up, the Air Force shipped four nose-cone fuses for Minuteman nuclear warheads to Taiwan. Most recently, the Air Force bungled the bidding on a $35 billion contract for refueling tankers.

Mr. Gates is right to demand a lot more accountability from the Air Force. We recommend that the new leaders start by questioning at least four generals about how comfort capsules, with Air Force blue leather seats, will help defeat Al Qaeda.

[Anonymous]

You know, when the brightest young people are going to Wall Street to work for hedge funds where they will make literally millions more than they would in government service, this doesn't bother me so much. I bet those "capsules" are far less luxurious than the private planes these "masters of the universe" fly around in. We should probably offer those in government service a lot more money than they are currently being paid. As soon as someone gets a bit of seniority on Capitol Hill, they are immediately off to work for a lobbying firm, because the most they can make on the Hill is about $150,000, and there's no security.

[Anonymous]

If public servants want comfort, than they need to do it on their own dime, not tax payer funds earmarked for "fighting the war on terror.
Wall Street financiers earn and spend their own money according to their level of comfort and extravagance. It's their dime not mine.

[Anonymous]

Agreed that public servants should not use funds earmarked for other uses. I guess I feel like public servants should be paid more, and that we should be much better about closing the gap between the staggeringly rich and the rest of us. There is not such a huge economic divide in most countries.