[Infowarrior] - Terrorism Funds May Let Brass Fly in Style

[Richard Forno]

Terrorism Funds May Let Brass Fly in Style
Luxury Pods for Air Force Debated

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071703161_pf.html

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 18, 2008; A01

The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend  
counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" to be installed on  
military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around  
the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details  
such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs,  
according to internal e-mails and budget documents.

Production of the first capsule -- consisting of two sealed rooms that  
can fit into the fuselage of a large military aircraft -- has already  
begun.

Air Force officials say the government needs the new capsules to  
ensure that leaders can talk, work and rest comfortably in the air.  
But the top brass's preoccupation with creating new luxury in wartime  
has alienated lower-ranking Air Force officers familiar with the  
effort, as well as congressional staff members and a nonprofit group  
that calls the program a waste of money.

Air Force documents spell out how each of the capsules is to be  
"aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the  
senior leaders using the capsule," with beds, a couch, a table, a 37- 
inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers, and a full-length mirror.

The effort has been slowed, however, by congressional resistance to  
using counterterrorism funds for the project and by lengthy internal  
deliberations about a series of demands for modifications by Air Force  
generals. One request was that the color of the leather for the seats  
and seat belts in the mobile pallets be changed from brown to Air  
Force blue and that seat pockets be added; another was that the color  
of the table's wood be darkened.

Changing the seat color and pockets alone was estimated in a March 12  
internal document to cost at least $68,240.

In all, for the past three years the service has asked to divert $16.2  
million to the effort from what the military calls the GWOT, or global  
war on terrorism. Congress has twice told the service that it cannot,  
including an August 2007 letter from Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) to  
the Pentagon ordering that the money be spent on a "higher priority"  
need.

Officials say the Air Force nonetheless decided last year to take  
$331,000 from counterterrorism funds to cover a cost overrun, partly  
stemming from the design changes, although a senior officer said  
yesterday in response to inquiries that it will reverse that decision.

The internal Air Force e-mails, provided to The Washington Post by the  
Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a nonprofit Washington group,  
and independently authenticated, make it clear that lower-ranking  
officers involved in the project have been pressured to create what  
one described as "world class" accommodations exceeding the standards  
of a regular business-class flight.

"I was asked by Gen. [Robert H.] McMahon what it would take to make  
the [capsule] . . . a 'world class' piece of equipment," an officer at  
the service's Air Mobility Command said in a March 2007 e-mail to a  
colleague, referring to the mobility command's top officer then. "He  
said he wanted an assurance . . . that we would be getting a world  
class item this week."

Air Force officials say the program dates from a 2006 decision by Air  
Force Gen. Duncan J. McNabb that existing seats on transport planes,  
including some that match those on commercial airliners, may be fine  
for airmen and troops but inadequate for the top brass. McNabb was  
then the Air Mobility commander; he is now the Air Force's vice chief  
of staff, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates nominated him in June  
to become head of the military's Transportation Command.

In a letter of complaint sent yesterday to Gates, POGO asserted that  
the new capsules will provide no special communications or work  
capabilities beyond those already available for top officials on Air  
Force transport aircraft. It is "a gross misuse of millions of  
taxpayer dollars that could otherwise be used to train and equip  
soldiers," wrote Danielle Brian, the group's executive director.

She added that "in a time of war, it is critical for senior officials  
to visibly prioritize the needs of the men and women on the  
frontline." The Air Force program, she said, represents an "egregious  
failure of leadership."

A military officer familiar with the program, speaking on the  
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about  
it, likewise said that its extravagance has provoked widespread  
contempt among lower-ranking Air Force personnel. "This whole program  
is an embarrassment," the officer said, particularly because transport  
seating for troops en route to the battlefield is in his view  
generally shoddy.

The criticism is the latest in a series of volleys to hit the Air  
Force over the past year, stemming from an inadvertent flight of  
nuclear warheads over the continental United States, the mistaken  
transfer of secret nuclear-related materials to Taiwan, and a corrupt  
$50 million contract for a Thunderbirds air show. Gates fired the top  
two Air Force military and civilian leaders last month, citing defects  
in their stewardship of nuclear arms.

The Air Force already has two trailers, known as Silver Bullets, that  
can be loaded aboard large transports for use by top military and  
civilian officers, plus a fleet of about 100 planes specifically meant  
for VIP travel. But McMahon, who is now the Air Force's deputy chief  
of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, said the  
new program was started because the service ferried more "senior  
travelers" to distant regions after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and  
identified a "gap" in its capability.

It initially planned to build 10 of the capsules, he said, for use by  
four-star generals, fleet admirals and federal officials at the level  
of assistant secretary and above. "It is not opulent and it is not a  
box," McMahon said, but meant to match the comfort level of the VIP  
fleet.

Explaining his instructions to subordinates, McMahon said he used the  
term world class "in just about everything I discuss. . . . That  
represents an attitude." He said he wanted to "create an environment  
that whoever was riding in that would be proud of," the government  
would be proud of and "the people of the United States" would be proud  
of.

Construction of what the Air Force initially termed the new Senior  
Leader Intransit Comfort Capsules, or SLICC, has already begun, under  
a contract paid from general Air Force funds. One of the 18-by-9-foot  
capsules has been partly completed. But McMahon said the program has  
recently been downsized from 10 capsules to three, plus the four  
pallets fitted with swiveling leather chairs, known as Senior Leader  
Intransit Pallets, or SLIP.

The reason, he said, is that the Air Force has upgraded the VIP fleet  
by adding new air defenses to the planes, reducing its need for new  
capsules. All four pallets will be finished this year, McMahon said,  
but he added that building them is much more complicated than "going  
down to your neighborhood store and buying a recliner and slapping it"  
onto a platform.

Because of the cutback in the number of capsules and pallets, the  
program is currently estimated to cost $7.6 million.

Air Force documents about the SLICC, dated June 8, 2006, emphasize the  
need to install "aesthetically pleasing wall treatments/coverings" --  
in addition to the monitor, footrests and a DVD player. The beds,  
according to one document, must be able to support a man with "no more  
than 50% compression of the mattress material." The seats are to  
swivel such that "the longitudinal axis of the seat is parallel to the  
longitudinal axis of the aircraft" regardless of where the capsules  
are facing, the document specified.

In a draft document dated Nov. 15, 2006, that spelled out the  
requirements for the SLICC, the word "Comfort" was repeatedly crossed  
out with a horizontal line and replaced by a less cushy-sounding  
alternative, "Conference." McMahon said he thinks the term "comfort"  
was dropped from the name to distinguish it from pallets of latrines  
that could be loaded aboard military aircraft.

Although the program's estimated $20 million cost is nearly equivalent  
to what the Pentagon spends in about 20 minutes, the e-mails show that  
small details have so far received the attention of many high-ranking  
officers, including McMahon; Gen. Arthur J. Lichte, the current Air  
Mobility commander; and Brig. Gen. Kenneth D. Merchant, the mobility  
command's logistics director.

The leather and carpet color choices were made by McNabb, according to  
several of the e-mails exchanged by lower-ranking officers, although a  
spokesman for the general said those selections were McMahon's  
responsibility. The e-mails state that McMahon ordered that the seats  
be re-covered, and one e-mail complains that the contractor "would not  
swap out the brown seat belts for replacement blue seat belts." The  
changes delayed the project by months and added to its cost.

McMahon said he does not recall intervening on the leather color  
change, but said he was sure it was unrelated to the Air Force's  
color. He said that it was probably because blue would not show dirt  
as much as tan or brown would.