BMT (RIP)
02-16-2007, 12:54
LET'S BE SPECIFIC
By Jimmy L. Cash, Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret.
Due to the thunderous applause that I received from the far-left over the
"I Am Tired" letter written by one of our troops in Iraq, I thought it
prudent to follow up with one last attempt to be very specific about what I
have observed and actually personally encountered during my 36 years of
service to this Great Country. Unlike Bob McClellan, I will not continue to
whine, twist and degrade our country's leaders on a weekly basis. Instead,
this will be a one time input attempting to reach some of those who are
confused by McClellan and his ilk's unethical rantings and give some insight
through my personal experience as a professional military officer over the
years. These examples are but a few. In real life there were many more
which space and time will not allow.
As a young fighter pilot, flying F-4s in Vietnam, I was stopped in my
tracks by the decisions made by Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara. I was
young and naive, but even then I knew their daily interference was wrong and
would not allow us to win this thing and go home. Decisions like not
allowing us to strike enemy aircraft while still on the ground, keeping real
targets off the target list, and allowing us to strike only rusted-out
trucks made us basically a toothpick factory. However, the big one for me
came the day I saw the President Lyndon Johnson on television, forcefully
lying to the American people. I'll never forget the language, "I want to
assure the American people that the United States of America has never, and
will never, bomb or use force inside the borders of Cambodia". On and on he
disavowed the reports that this was happening. I was amazed. Guess where I
had put several F-4 loads of 750 pound general purpose bombs every day for
the past five days. You guessed it, Cambodia!!! So much for Mr. Johnson. The
only question in my mind was simply, "Was it just Johnson or was it the
methodology of a particular political party?" I decided to delay answering
that question until more experience was gained.
Years passed, and I ignored politics as much as possible, as a good
military man should. Then came Jimmy Carter. Our young people don't
remember 18% interest rates and 18% inflation, but I'll bet someone in your
family does. That is one really bad thing Carter did for our country, but
it is not the worst. During this period, I was an F-15 Squadron Commander,
located at Langley AFB, VA. Jimmy Carter and his democratic party stopped
spare parts procurement for almost every weapon system in our military, and
diverted the funds to social programs. The F-15 was brand new at the time
with leading edge technology designed to provide air superiority anywhere in
the world on a moments notice. That was my job. I loved it, but guess what?
In a two year period from 1979 to 1981, there was not one day when more that
one-third of my assigned aircraft were flyable. It is amazing the lengths
we went to in those days, cannibalizing parts, expending twice the time and
energy to fix every little item, and still two-thirds of the birds were
always broken because of no spare parts. Had this country faced a really
serious military threat during that time frame, only Montana Hunters could
have saved us. The military had some equipment, but it was all broken. Do
you want to know the really bad part for me and the young fighter pilots
working for me? Our flying sortie rate was so low that pilot proficiency
dropped to dangerous levels. The accident rate tripled. That obviously was
totally unacceptable, as we were losing expensive airplanes and highly
trained young pilots at a rate comparable to losses seen in actual combat.
All of a sudden, even a Texas Aggie like me began to see a trend.
Forward a few years to 1986. I am an F-16 Wing Commander at MacDill AFB,
Florida, and Ronald Regan is president. His change in attitude and policy
toward the military had time to fix the spare parts problem. We were flying
26,000 flying sorties per year out of MacDill AFB, my aircraft fully mission
capable rate (FMC) was above 90%, the aircraft accident rate was below
1.75per hundred thousand flying hours, fighter pilots were flying and
proficiency levels were at an all time high. The United States Air Force
was ready to defend this Wonderful Country. Proof of the pudding is simple.
Look what the USAF, and the military in general, accomplished in Iraq during
Desert Storm. And, they did it in less than 100 hours. Yeah, at this point
I was starting to realize there was a difference in mentality between
Democrats and Republicans, or should I say, the Right and the Left.
By Jimmy L. Cash, Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret.
Due to the thunderous applause that I received from the far-left over the
"I Am Tired" letter written by one of our troops in Iraq, I thought it
prudent to follow up with one last attempt to be very specific about what I
have observed and actually personally encountered during my 36 years of
service to this Great Country. Unlike Bob McClellan, I will not continue to
whine, twist and degrade our country's leaders on a weekly basis. Instead,
this will be a one time input attempting to reach some of those who are
confused by McClellan and his ilk's unethical rantings and give some insight
through my personal experience as a professional military officer over the
years. These examples are but a few. In real life there were many more
which space and time will not allow.
As a young fighter pilot, flying F-4s in Vietnam, I was stopped in my
tracks by the decisions made by Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara. I was
young and naive, but even then I knew their daily interference was wrong and
would not allow us to win this thing and go home. Decisions like not
allowing us to strike enemy aircraft while still on the ground, keeping real
targets off the target list, and allowing us to strike only rusted-out
trucks made us basically a toothpick factory. However, the big one for me
came the day I saw the President Lyndon Johnson on television, forcefully
lying to the American people. I'll never forget the language, "I want to
assure the American people that the United States of America has never, and
will never, bomb or use force inside the borders of Cambodia". On and on he
disavowed the reports that this was happening. I was amazed. Guess where I
had put several F-4 loads of 750 pound general purpose bombs every day for
the past five days. You guessed it, Cambodia!!! So much for Mr. Johnson. The
only question in my mind was simply, "Was it just Johnson or was it the
methodology of a particular political party?" I decided to delay answering
that question until more experience was gained.
Years passed, and I ignored politics as much as possible, as a good
military man should. Then came Jimmy Carter. Our young people don't
remember 18% interest rates and 18% inflation, but I'll bet someone in your
family does. That is one really bad thing Carter did for our country, but
it is not the worst. During this period, I was an F-15 Squadron Commander,
located at Langley AFB, VA. Jimmy Carter and his democratic party stopped
spare parts procurement for almost every weapon system in our military, and
diverted the funds to social programs. The F-15 was brand new at the time
with leading edge technology designed to provide air superiority anywhere in
the world on a moments notice. That was my job. I loved it, but guess what?
In a two year period from 1979 to 1981, there was not one day when more that
one-third of my assigned aircraft were flyable. It is amazing the lengths
we went to in those days, cannibalizing parts, expending twice the time and
energy to fix every little item, and still two-thirds of the birds were
always broken because of no spare parts. Had this country faced a really
serious military threat during that time frame, only Montana Hunters could
have saved us. The military had some equipment, but it was all broken. Do
you want to know the really bad part for me and the young fighter pilots
working for me? Our flying sortie rate was so low that pilot proficiency
dropped to dangerous levels. The accident rate tripled. That obviously was
totally unacceptable, as we were losing expensive airplanes and highly
trained young pilots at a rate comparable to losses seen in actual combat.
All of a sudden, even a Texas Aggie like me began to see a trend.
Forward a few years to 1986. I am an F-16 Wing Commander at MacDill AFB,
Florida, and Ronald Regan is president. His change in attitude and policy
toward the military had time to fix the spare parts problem. We were flying
26,000 flying sorties per year out of MacDill AFB, my aircraft fully mission
capable rate (FMC) was above 90%, the aircraft accident rate was below
1.75per hundred thousand flying hours, fighter pilots were flying and
proficiency levels were at an all time high. The United States Air Force
was ready to defend this Wonderful Country. Proof of the pudding is simple.
Look what the USAF, and the military in general, accomplished in Iraq during
Desert Storm. And, they did it in less than 100 hours. Yeah, at this point
I was starting to realize there was a difference in mentality between
Democrats and Republicans, or should I say, the Right and the Left.