Joint Basing Provision Raises McCain Ire

Joint Basing Provision Raises McCain Ire: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), frequent Air Force critic and now presumed Republican candidate for President has instigated an investigation over whether senior Air Force officials had inappropriately assisted Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in crafting a provision in the 2008 war supplemental that would outflank BRAC 2005 on the creation of joint bases, reports The Hill. The newspaper quotes a letter McCain sent Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England last month: "I believe it is inappropriate for senior Air Force officials to lobby legislators to delay or overturn BRAC decisions." To which England replied that DOD does not condone such actions and furthermore the Pentagon "strongly opposes" the provision. A spokesman for Inouye told The Hill that the two Senators want the Pentagon to "slow down and rethink the joint basing approach" because it may "create more problems than provide for military efficiency." The Air Force has the lead for six and is involved in 10 of the 12 joint bases identified in BRAC 2005. And, according to testimony last month before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee by Kathleen Ferguson, the Air Force's deputy assistant secretary for installations, the service has "expressed concern" over the proposed "execution strategy" that it feels might "impact mission." (Indeed, Air Force officials complained to Congress last year that the service needed more time to assess the impact.) However, she asserted that USAF "is not advocating any position that would inhibit carrying out any BRAC recommendations." Meanwhile, the Air Force is investigating the matter.

6/27/2008

Verbatim

Preemptive Action
"Since the [Defense] Department's acceptance of the independent estimates last fall, we've been, in just about every respect, acting as if the program were in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. ... We've been taking all of the mitigating and corrective action that we would take as if there were a Nunn-McCurdy breach."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, discussing with reporters the restructure of the F-35 strike fighter program announced in February 2010 and the probability that the program will soon exceed Nunn-McCurdy cost-monitoring thresholds that would necessitate, per US law, a program review and corrective steps, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010.

Verbatim

Message for Grandma
"She has working for her as a citizen in the United States an Air Force Reserve that has some very talented, capable, patriotic, and willing individuals doing the business to keep this nation free. Just like her generation—the 'Greatest Generation'—was, I am very proud of the folks that we have got. If not the second greatest, then they are an extension of the greatest generation and they are ready, willing, and able to do the things that she would want them to do to make sure we keep our freedoms."
—Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Air Force Reserve chief, responding to a reporter's question on what the reporter should tell his 85-year-old grandmother to convey to her the importance of Air Force Reservists to the nation's security, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 19, 2010.