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More on the F-22 Story
More on the F-22 Story: After we published “The F-22, Bagel and a Smear” on Monday, we had a conversation with R. Jeffrey Smith, the Washington Post reporter who wrote the story in question in that item. Mr. Smith vigorously disputed our statement that the Post did not contact the Air Force for comment before printing its July 10 story about the fighter. Mr. Smith, in a statement to us, said that “the newspaper had many contacts with the Air Force to discuss the F-22 program and maintenance issues prior to publication.” We won’t dispute that; Mr. Smith is right. The Air Force initially told us that it had been the one to approach Mr. Smith, upon hearing of his impending story from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. However, an Air Force spokesperson has now corrected that comment, saying that Mr. Smith did, in fact approach the Air Force directly, some time ago, about the F-22. We wish we had known that earlier, so we could have avoided the error.
7/15/2009
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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. |
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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.
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