White House Military Office Chief Resigns Over Plane Flyover Flap(Didn't Check Email for 3days)

FOX News ^ | May 8, 2009 | FOXNews.com

[fours]

White House Military Office Chief Resigns Over Plane Flyover Flap

Louis Caldera, the man who organized the low-flying Air Force One plane that panicked New York City, delivered his resignation Friday as the White House released a photo of the plane.

[fours]

Military Office Director Louis Caldera resigns because, according to the internal review, the director NEVER BOTHERED to check his email for three days and "doesn't recall" being briefed on it by his deputy. For all libertarians out there, it's a great tale (parable?) of bureaucratic incompetence as only huge institutions like the government and our military could ever pull off.

The report: http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/FlyoverReview.pdf

The Deputy Director then forwarded this information to the Director in an email time-stamped [April 24] 11:21 AM:

Sir: per our conversation about Scott Turner's plans to fly over the Statue of Liberty — it's scheduled for this Monday, April 27th. All has been coordinated. AF PA plan/statement is below and will be released only if asked. Will probably receive some local press, but WH shouldn't catch any questions about it. Provided in case you want to pass to Jim Messina or Robert Gibbs for awareness. This is an AF operation, in close coordination with FAA. Happy to discuss with you as necessary. v/r, -gm

The Director did not respond to the email. According to the Director, he did not read the email until the afternoon of Monday, April 27, after the flyover had concluded. He explained to us that he did not see the email because it was sent to his WHMO email account — the Director has two email accounts and he checks his White House Office account more frequently.

During our interview, the Director also offered another explanation for his failure to read the email. When he returned from Mexico, he was suffering from severe muscle spasms in his back. Doctors prescribed pain medications, he had difficulty walking around the office, and he went home early a couple days.

THEN, Caldera pretends he read the email when his Deputy asks him about it later!

... Colonel Turner sent another email to the Deputy Directory stating that final preparations for the flight were moving forward. ... he asked, "do you have have any issues/reservations whatsoever?" After reading Colonel Turner's email, the Deputy Director believes that he walked next door to the Director's office ... repeating the information in his 11:21 AM email, including a brief summary of the flight plan. He asked the Director if he had any issues, and the Director said no. He also told the Director that he should notify Messina and Gibbs, and the Director said "ok."

This guy is a joke. What kind of person, let alone someone's boss, can't be bothered to check their work email? I would be fired for ignoring stuff much smaller than this. What an incompetent!

[StandUpChuck]

Covering for Messina.

[yldstrk]

He got hung by the Bambi blamer — would you bother to check you friggin email working for les incompetents

[Brilliant]

I wonder if he paid his taxes?

[CedarDave]

King Bill will make room for him in his waning corrupt administration.

(NM list PING!)

[KarenMarie]

What REALLY, REALLY pisses me off is that it took ppl suing under FOI Act to get them to release a pic. And the pic they released is SOOOOOOO out of perspective.

grrrr!

[rocksblues]

When they release the passenger manifest I will then feel ok to judge him!

[Red Steel]

Doesn’t he carry a Blackberry aka Crackberry like Obama? He’s not on Obama’s fav 5 list.

[nufsed]

Computer error!

[NoPrisoners]

What kind of person, let alone someone's boss, can't be bothered to check their work email?

I agree about work e-mail, in fact I check it 4-5 times per day. Personal e-mail is something else though...

[Dan(9698)]

the pic they released is SOOOOOOO out of perspective.

Its a new administration and the one doing the Photoshop isn't that experienced.

[Venturer]

Somebody had to go. He got picked.

[AliVeritas]

Nobody believes this BS, can someone post the pic in front of the Statue of Liberty please?

[savedbygrace]

Here's the pic of the flyover:

I'd love to see a 'Shop showing a tighter shot of Lady Liberty with the middle finger of her upraised arm sticking up as she looks up at the plane.

[kromike]

If you zoom in, you can see AF1 emptying its toilet tanks at that moment. Kinda symbolic.

[bgill]

Sorry, I ain’t buying it for a minute. Hussien needed a fall guy. While I believe in the Peter Principle, there’s no way this guy got any rank with this work ethic and this is AF1 for goodness sake. Nope, this story is bs and so it the crappy picture. A 10 year old could take a better picture than that and it could have been taken any day within the last few years.

[Concho]

He got picked....but he will show up somewhere else at higher pay.

[rfp1234]

Obambi threw Caldera into the sacrificial volcano.

[Don Corleone]

That pic itself looks “Photoshopped”.

[Yaelle]

...because no one can read their email unless they are sitting at their desk in their office. Yeah, right.