Barksdale is the nearest AF base. Don’t know for sure, but I can assume that it did not fare well from the hurricane.
Of course, McCain did not mention that the nearest AF base may have been far removed from Louisiana due to the bad weather.
Didn’t some of the guys on the Forrestall say that landing was not one of McCains strong suits?
Actually, Keesler AFB MS is the closest Air Force base to N.O., and we got our collective butts handed to us by Katrina which came ashore on the MS/LA border and tracked our way. Barksdale suffered very little to no damage from the storm as far as I have heard.
That being said, there isn't a damned thing McCain could have done by landing here or there other than get in the way and cause even more problems. President Bush came down here within a very few days and even then it was possibly too soon since most of us were more worried about picking up the peices (if any were left) than a desire to see any politician, even the President.
As for N.O. ... well, don't get me started.
IIRC, the AF was flying everthing they could to get OUT of the path of the hurricane. Presumably those displaced aircraft would have been in the process of returning & supporting the cleanup. Having AirForce One in the pattern would not have helped.
"Barksdale is the nearest AF base. Don’t know for sure, but I can assume that it did not fare well from the hurricane."
Barksdale is near Shreveport which is in northern Louisiana. It was not impacted by the storm because it's so far away. It's also the only Air Force base in the state.
Keesler in Biloxi is pretty close, but I don't know how they fared in the storm.
