Please fasten your seat belts, put up your tray tables and make sure your seat backs are in their full upright and locked positions...unless of course you are an Air Force general traveling in one of their newly designed and reupholstered 'comfort cabins.' Then you can just recline in your leather lazy-boy and marvel at the flat screen television before your eyes.
In the midst of the most expensive war in U.S. history, Air Force generals are busy primping and pimping their rides. Yesterday, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), a non-profit Washington-based government watchdog group, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that raises questions about two little-known programs to build "world-class" luxury aircraft accommodations for the military and senior civilian leadership.
The accommodations-called SLICC (Senior Leader In-transit Conference Capsule) and SLIP (Senior Leader In-transit Pallet)-were justified as filling a "deficiency gap," but emails obtained by POGO show that there was significant internal dissent within the Air Force over this extravagant waste of taxpayers' funds.
Air Force documents obtained by POGO and authenticated by the Washington Post 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." These lavish "necessities" included business class seating, beds, a couch, a table, a flat-screen TV of "at least 37 inches" with stereo speakers, a full-length mirror, "aesthetically pleasing wall-to-wall carpeting, wall treatments, and ceiling treatments," self-adjusting lighting, and universal remote controls.
The Air Force originally requested $16 million to fund the new SLICCs, but the estimated cost of the first prototype SLICC is currently up 64 percent over original estimates at $2.735 million. The reason? The colors were just all wrong.
In an action eerily similar to hit reality-TV makeover shows, General Robert McMahon expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the color of the seat leather and type of wood used, following procurement of the first SLIP. He then directed that the leather be reupholstered from brown to Air Force blue leather and to replace the wood originally used to "cherry."
Cost to the Air Force: $21,000 for the first slip, $113,000 for the first four slips, and $493,000 for all other retrofits and additional after-market customizations. Joy from a General embracing his metrosexuality: priceless.
In one email between Air Force personnel, it states, "Gen McMahon's concern is so significant that we need assurance by the end of the week from AFRL [Air Force Research Laboratory] that the SLICC will be ‘World class' inside. While we know the requirements document says ‘business class', we all know there are levels of that."
The cost was so appalling to General Kenneth Merchant that he wrote, "How'd we get to $113K for 4 pallets? Please tell me this is for all 4 pallets...I could carpet and upholster a couple of houses for $113K..."
Those who optimistically believe that the design changes were all necessary for nationality security, secure communications, etc, should read the following statement from POGO's press release: "Contract documents obtained by POGO reveal that these accommodations do not provide any additional operational capabilities (e.g. communications advantages) beyond those currently existing."
The good news is that if the President wants to throw an airborne party and Air Force One is in the shop, there's a backup fleet for P.Diddy's entourage.
Now that's news that makes you want to say, OhMyGov!
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