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Photos Show the Brass and Troops are Worlds of Class Apart
August 21, 2008
While elements of the Air Force brass were bickering about color coordination for their new comfort capsules, troops have sat for hours on long flights in mangled seats and on netting inside cargo aircraft, POGO has learned. Last Friday, POGO revealed that numerous Air Force generals wasted time and taxpayer dollars on frivolous changes for new “world class” accommodations for themselves while they fly on cargo aircraft.
Photos of mangled seat pallets used for troop movement, taken at Al Udeid Airbase in Qatar, are below. Al Udeid is a major logistics hub for U.S. operations in Afghanistan, and is a command center for operations in Iraq. It is home to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing of the U.S. Air Force.
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See POGO’s prior press release and The Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071703161.html
Central to the effort was General Duncan McNabb, formerly the head of Air Mobility Command, whose Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. Transportation Command is tomorrow.
"No one disputes that senior Pentagon leaders need space, but contrast the time and money wasted bickering over the color of leather with what the troops go through," said Nick Schwellenbach, POGO's national security investigator.
Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government.
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