There’s at least one KC-135 should have never been in the boneyard. Ted Kennedy came to Wright Patterson in the 2005 timeframe. I wondered why is this POS here. At the time I was supporting a KC-135 SatCom flying testbed that had a very recent digital cockpit upgrade and had some very unique capabilities. He got it sent to the boneyard. Seems a certain Massachusetts Laboratory didn’t like having to interface with Wright Patterson because they wanted their own plane. Most galling, they tried to strip certain unique parts off that bird to be supplied to the lab after the fact. One wonders where General “Speedy” Martin is today, the one traitor Ted visited at WPAFB that day.
In 2004, Martin was nominated to succeed Admiral Thomas B. Fargo as combatant commander of U.S. Pacific Command, the first non-Navy nominee for this prestigious post. However, he suffered collateral damage from the Darleen Druyun procurement scandal. During his October 6 confirmation hearing for the Pacific Command post before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCain asked how Druyun’s deceit had gone unnoticed. Martin, who had worked closely with Druyun in 1998-99 while he held the position of Principal Deputy in acquisition said in response “I’m not an expert in contracting,” and “I saw nothing that she was doing that was inappropriate or in any way illegal, and if I had, I would have immediately raised a Red Flag!.” McCain replied, “Now I question whether you have the quality to command”. McCain called the Boeing deal “a national disgrace”, and vowed to hold Martin’s nomination in the Senate Armed Services Committee “until we get all of the e-mails and all of the answers.” Committee Chairman John W. Warner supported McCain, and Martin withdrew his name the same day and returned to his duties as the Commander of the Air Force Materiel Command until his scheduled retirement in August 2005. Seven months later, Senator McCain completed his review of the e-mails and there were no indications that General Martin had any knowledge of Druyun’s improprieties. Prior to this setback, Martin had been considered the likely successor to Air Force Chief of Staff John P. Jumper. Martin retired from the Air Force on September 1, 2005. He is currently a chair of the National Academies Air Force Studies Board, has served as an unaligned advisor to John Edwards’ presidential campaign, is on the advisory board of a consultancy firm The Four Star Group, is board member and retired chairman of the Durango Group, and has served in other Pentagon capacities and been a consultant to “many defense sector firms.”