Exactly. When Reagan defeated Carter, he called in Tom Moorer and Mark Hill and asked what he should do to repair the damage done the military. The first thing Admiral Moorer growled was “Fill up the bins, fill up the bins!” The first failure of these kinds of idiots is to allow the parts and supply chain to go bad while they have their man preen for power. What happened to the thread by the old Jewish guy who was bemooaning that he had not seen the One on TV for a whole six hours? That hilariously nailed it.
I was there. I saw those bins fill. It was dramatic.
I was in the Air force, flight-line maintenance with the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing in the early to mid 80's. When I first got to base it was littered with "Hanger Queens," jet fighters that had been cannibalized for parts.
Probably only two thirds to three quarters of the F-15s in the wing could be made ready to fly at any given time. This was in spite of the fact that this was a headquarters base, was near D.C., AND was a designated "Rapid Deployment Force" unit (i.e. would be the first stateside unit to deploy to the Middle East in the event of a crisis). I shudder to think what state lower priority units were in.
The Reagan buildup started hitting just about the time I arrived. Within a matter of months the hangers were cleared of their "queens" and the entire Wing was deployable.