Posted on 05/14/2016 5:08:16 PM PDT by Kaslin
EXCLUSIVE: It was just a few years ago, in March 2011, when a pair of U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers during a harsh winter storm took off from their base in South Dakota to fly across the world to launch the air campaign in Libya, only 16 hours after given the order.
Today, many in the Air Force are questioning whether a similar mission could still be accomplished, after years of budget cuts that have taken an undeniable toll. The U.S. Air Force is now short 4,000 airmen to maintain its fleet, short 700 pilots to fly them and short vital spare parts necessary to keep their jets in the air. The shortage is so dire that some have even been forced to scrounge for parts in a remote desert scrapheap known as The Boneyard.
It's not only the personnel that are tired, it's the aircraft that are tired as well, Master Sgt. Bruce Pfrommer, who has over two decades of experience in the Air Force working on B-1 bombers, told Fox News.
Fox News visited two U.S. Air Force bases including South Dakotas Ellsworth Air Force Base located 35 miles from Mount Rushmore, where Pfrommer is stationed to see the resource problems first-hand, following an investigation into the state of U.S. Marine Corps aviation last month.
Many of the Airmen reported feeing burnt out and exhausted due to the current pace of operations, and limited resources to support them. During the visit to Ellsworth earlier this week, Fox News was told only about half of the 28th Bomb Wings fleet of bombers can fly.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
All a part of the greater program to diminish America. Disarm, Destroy, bankrupt- financially and morally Demoralize ..... while empowering Islam.
The government subsidies of consumer spending are more important than ANY military program to ALL the media including Fox.
They don’t get a cut from military spending.
But no economy can maintain “Bread and Circus”, including us.
I’m sure the FOX journalists who wrote this piece was proud to that ‘investigative piece.’ I hope President TRUMP pulls the plug on this kind of reporting.
Aiding and abetting our enemies has got to stop.
They are short all those pilots due to diversity level requirements. Not enough people of color and woman making it through flight school. The Air Force hopes with an intense recruiting drive for the remainder of the year they will be able to get those numbers turned around and we will be back in the war fighting business by 2020. //sarcasm off//
Deja vu all over again. Commies love to spend our budget on their social engineering.
Carter, Redeaux, cept Carter did it in 4 years.
I witnessed it, allot of Planes were not Ready.
Just part of Obama's FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION.
Trump! Trump! Trump!
Trust me, the Sovs and PRC knew this long before this story was published. Kodos to FOX for reporting it. It’s time everyone knew.
There’s a bumper sticker that’s popular among teachers. It says “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need, and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.”
Well, the US has the highest education spending per-student of any country except Switzerland, and the Air Force is scrounging for parts. Somehow, I don’t consider this to be a “great day”.
after WW2 the forces stationed in Japan sent ships to the war islands to scrounge parts from wrecks.
But we have Trillions for Gibsmedat takers and Illegal Invaders.
Along with border security, rebuilding our military will be priority one for Trump...The Army is smallest since WWII...The Navy spends way too much time on eco sh*t for the Pentagon...The Air Force...Well, you read it here...Marine Corps is fighting trying to keep combat units from becoming coed...
It’s a total mess...
GO TRUMP!!!!! VOTE TRUMP!!!!!!!
The only people that didn’t know what was in this article were the American people. Our enemies knew this long ago - why do you think Putin and everyone else is doing what they want and ignoring us?
I witnessed it, allot of Planes were not Ready.
You should have seen how we kept the 54 Titan II ICBMs on Alert. We used chewing gum and bailing wire to fix non-critical items that, when added together, made bad things happen. The A/C systems were allowed to get so bad that we would watch the tank pressures (the Titan II was liquid fuel and oxidizer) get to the point of having to call the bird off Alert because the liquids were starting to boil inside the airframe.
On base was just as bad. Carter ordered that all A/C systems in the Summer and heating in the Winter be turned off after business hours. The WH ruled that our dorms were under that rule so during the Summers in Wichita, Kansas (100+ degrees every day in the Summer) we had no cooling in our barracks. The inside temps were normally about 110+ degrees even at night. They never turned the systems on during the day because the Base Commander said we should all be at work and that all of us who were off for "crew rest" or night shifts didn't matter.
I detested Carter then and still do today.
It hasn't mattered who was SML or SOH since the days of Bush and Sec of Def Cheney because the results have been the same. Bill Clinton's damage occurred under a two house GOP majority for six of his eight years especially after Boehner ousted Newt.
Until Congress is disciplined by lifetime Term Limits many issues will not be addressed no matter who is POTUS, SML, or SOH. Who will be blamed? Ones at mid officer ranks of 05 & 06 pay grades just as they were blamed for the post 9/11 incident where two of our carriers failed to get underway due to readiness issues. You can't fix what ain't funded to be fixed. Congress should have taken Poppy Bush, Clinton, W, and Obama to the woodshed on readiness issues and the secretaries along with JCOS should have had the guts to say hey we need funding and went public if necessary.
Getting involved in useless wars in the Middle East hasn’t helped.
For the most part I agree with a few exceptions. We should have left Iran and Iraq fighting. They left us alone and Israel took care of the threats in a matter of hours by themselves. Yemen and Somalia should be in smoldering ruins for their attacks upon the U.S. and the Sauds we should have shook free from several decades ago. However our ring kissing hand holding presidents had other plans same with our dealings with China.
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