FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 28, 2003
Contact: Eric Miller (202) 347-1122 or defense@pogo.org
Chuck Spinney to Receive
POGO's "Good Government Award" May 29
The nonprofit Project On Government Oversight (POGO) will honor retiring Pentagon analyst Franklin C. "Chuck" Spinney with its "Good Government Award" on Thursday, May 29, 2003. Spinney, who is retiring after a distinguished career in the military and as a civilian Pentagon employee, has played a role in the analysis of virtually every tactical air weapons system proposed by the Air Force and Navy.
The award will be given at a special event, sponsored by POGO and the Fund for Constitutional Government, from 5-8 p.m., Thursday at Mott House, 122 Maryland Avenue, N.E.
"Chuck Spinney has served not only his country, but also the nation's fighting men and women and the taxpayers," said POGO's Executive Director, Danielle Brian. "He has a lifetime of telling the truth about weapons development and their costs, even when it was uncomfortable for his bosses."
POGO's "Good Government Award" was created to recognize outstanding leaders who have succeeded in making government more open and accountable to the citizenry, and less beholden to special interests.
Spinney began his military career in 1967 as a second lieutenant engineer in the U.S. Air Force, working on aircraft vulnerability at the USAF Flight Dynamics Laboratory. He left the Air Force in 1975, and by 1977 was working for the late famed fighter pilot, Colonel John R. Boyd, in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E).
At PA&E, Spinney has worked on tactical air weapons systems from the TR-1 and F-111D in the late 1970s to the F/A-22 and Joint Strike Fighter today, and has for decades been a prolific author and outspoken advocate of transparency and accountability within the Department of Defense. Featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1983 as a whistleblower fighting waste, fraud and abuse inside the Pentagon, Spinney also has been the subject of articles in the National Journal, Baltimore Sun, The New York Times and untold other publications.
Spinney holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University, an MBA degree from the University of Central Florida, and has completed all requirements except for the dissertation for a Ph.D. in econometrics and statistics from George Washington University.
POGO investigates, exposes, and seeks to remedy systemic abuses of power, mismanagement, and subservience by the federal government to powerful special interests. Founded in 1981, POGO is a politically-independent, nonprofit watchdog that strives to promote a government that is accountable to the citizenry.
