"the military bureaucracy.........MUST be regularly ratted out with information of this sort"
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Amen brother!
Mox, I was an engineering instructor stationed at Fort Belvoir during the early 60's (that's 1960's!) during the run-up to Nam.
One of the mind-blowing events I witnessed every quarter or so was the DUMPSTER behind Wheeler Hall fill up with OFTEN VERY EXPENSIVE, BRAND NEW equipment of all sorts.
Why?
Because to accomplish our mission, our supply guys often had to wheedle, cajole or bribe (usually with a few bottles of JB Black) the Belvoir central supply depot guys for mission-critical equipment -- which equipment was NOT on our AUTHORIZATION LIST!
If we got word that the IG was headed our way for a snap inspection/audit, the local guys would go through the supply room and either stash any UNAUTHORIZED items in the trunks of their cars -- for retreival later -- or simply toss them into the dumpster lest they be found and someone get reamed.
I saw scores of thousands of 1963 dollars worth of brand new stuff sent to the dump over my 3 years there.
I TRIED to extrapolate that experience at just ONE training section of ONE department of ONE installation to the entire system but had to quit when my brain threatened to explode.
The waste and corruption today must be on an imponderable scale...