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The Library => The SGA => Topic started by: Snaggletiger on April 15, 2016, 11:54:02 AM
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Foxynewsdot I am a gay twerker that has no balls!!!! I also have no idea how to use the quote function to post stories, so I annoy the piss out of others. I like male genatalia in and around my mouth.
Since 1775, the U.S. Marine Corps has prided itself on being “The Few" and "The Proud." But while the Corps takes pride in doing more with less, senior Marine officers are warning that the Corps' aviation service is being stretched to the breaking point.
Today, the vast majority of Marine Corps aircraft can’t fly. The reasons behind the grounding of these aircraft include the toll of long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the fight against ISIS and budget cuts precluding the purchase of the parts needed to fix an aging fleet, according to dozens of Marines interviewed by Fox News at two air stations in the Carolinas this week.
Out of 276 F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters in the Marine Corps inventory, only about 30% are ready to fly, according to statistics provided by the Corps. Similarly, only 42 of 147 heavy-lift CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters are airworthy.
U.S. military spending has dropped from $691 billion in 2010 to $560 billion in 2015. The cuts came just as the planes were returning from 15 years of war, suffering from overuse and extreme wear and tear. Many highly trained mechanics in the aviation depots left for jobs in the private sector.
“Quite honestly, it is coming on the backs of our young Marines,†Lt. Col. Matthew “Pablo†Brown, commanding officer of VMFA(AW)-533, a Hornet squadron based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. “They can do it, and they are doing it but it is certainly not easy.â€
Brown's squadron is due to deploy to the Middle East in the coming days.
Lack of funds has forced the Marines to go outside the normal supply chain to procure desperately needed parts. Cannibalization, or taking parts from one multi-million dollar aircraft to get other multi-million dollar aicraft airborne, has become the norm.
To get one Hornet flying again, Marines at Beaufort stripped a landing gear door off a mothballed museum jet. The door, found on the flight deck of the World War II-era USS Yorktown, was last manufactured over a decade ago.
“Imagine taking a 1995 Cadillac and trying to make it a Ferrari,†Sgt. Argentry Uebelhoer said days before embarking on his third deployment. “You're trying to make it faster, more efficient, but it's still an old airframe … [and] the aircraft is constantly breaking.â€
Maintaining the high-performance Hornets is a challenge with 30,000 fewer Marines, part of a downsizing that has been ongoing since 2010.
“We don't have enough of them to do the added work efficiently. We are making it a lot harder on the young marines who are fixing our aircraft,†said Maj. Michael Malone of Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 31.
Sometimes it takes the Marines 18 months to get parts for early model F-18 jets whose production was halted in 2001.
“We are an operational squadron. We are supposed to be flying jets, not building them,†said Lt. Col. Harry Thomas, Commanding Officer of VMFA-312, a Marine Corps F/A-18 squadron based at Beaufort.
The cuts include those made by the Obama administration as well as the sequestration cutbacks agreed to by Congress.
Lt. Col Thomas, call sign “Crash,†deployed to the Pacific with 10 jets last year. Only seven made it. A fuel leak caused his F/A-18 to catch fire in Guam. Instead of ejecting, he landed safely, saving taxpayers $29 million.
Thomas has deployed eight times in all, including six to Iraq and Afghanistan. Right now only two of his 14 Hornets can fly. His Marines deploy in three months.
“We are supposed to be doing the type of maintenance like you would take your car to Jiffy Lube for replacing fluids, doing minor inspections, changing tires, things of that nature, not building airplanes from the ground up,†he added.
The aircraft shortage means pilots spend less time in the air.
“This last 30 days our average flight time per pilot was just over 4 hours,†said Thomas.
Ten years ago, Marine Corps pilots averaged between 25 and 30 hours in the air each month, according to one pilot. “This is the worst I’ve seen it,†he added. Another pilot who asked to remain nameless told Fox News that Chinese and Russian pilots fly more hours each month than Marine Corps pilots.
Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets are supposed to have a shelf life of 6,000 hours, but they are being refurbished to extend the life to 8,000. There is talk that some aircraft might be pushed to 10,000 hours while the Marine Corps waits for the 5th-generation Joint Strike Fighter, which is slated to replace the F-18, but has been plagued by cost overruns.
“Our aviation readiness is really my No. 1 concern,†Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller told Congress last month. “We don’t have enough airplanes that we would call ‘ready basic aircraft."
Col. Sean Salene oversees nine helicopter squadrons at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina.
“Unlike previous wars, we did not have a period of time afterwards where we did not have tasking,†said Col. Salene. “There was no time to catch our breath.â€
Maj. Matt Gruba, executive officer of HMH-461, a Super Stallion squadron at New River took Fox News reporters inside one of the large helicopters, which has sent thousands of fully loaded Marines into combat over the past three decades.
Inside, hundreds of small wires cover every surface of the helicopter except the hard non-skid deck. It’s up to the Marine maintainers to inspect each one. One failure could be catastrophic, as happened in 2014 when a Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon crashed off the coast of Virginia after a fire engulfed the aircraft due to faulty fuel lines.
"It would be easy to miss some small minute detail, some small amount of wear [which] could potentially, eventually cause a fire,†Gruba said
Lt. Gen. Jon M. "Dog" Davis is the Marine Corps' deputy commandant for aviation, tasked with getting his aircraft back in the air.
Davis ordered the Corps to refurbish all of the old CH-53E helicopters to their pre-war condition, including fixing the chafing wires and jerryrigged fuel lines that were repaired in theater.
"The biggest thing is right now after 15 years of hard service, of hard fighting and deploying around the world, is we don't have enough airplanes on the flight line,†Davis said.
The cuts have not sat well within the military leadership. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Fox News’ Bret Baier in a recent interview that he felt betrayed when told to cut billions from the budget after having already done so.
“I guess I’d have to say I felt double-crossed. After all those years in Washington, I was naïve,†he said.
And last week, the Army’s top officer, Gen. Mark Milley, said cuts could mean more American troops could lose their lives.
“If one or more possible unforeseen contingencies happen, then the United States Army currently risks not having ready forces available to provide flexible options to our national leadership. ... And most importantly, we risk incurring significantly increased U.S. casualties,†Milley testified last week on Capitol Hill.
Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews
Jennifer Griffin currently serves as a national security correspondent for FOX News Channel . She joined FNC in October 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent. You can follow her on Twitter at @JenGriffinFNC.
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Fucking pitiful...You always expected to have shittier gear than the Army but this is absolutely ridiculous.
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Fucking pitiful...You always expected to have shittier gear than the Army but this is absolutely ridiculous.
Why Marines got planes anyway? Don't they walk everywhere?
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(https://morninmojo.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/obama-smug.jpg)
Sounds about right
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(http://www.sott.net/image/s4/87976/full/HILLARY_narrowweb_300x3750.jpg)
Lalalalala...what? More cuts? Sure!
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Why Marines got planes anyway? Don't they walk everywhere?
Until close air support is needed.
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Until close air support is needed.
I would say this is why the Navy is there, but we're usually off dicking around drinking beer and screwing hoors in some exotic foreign port.
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I would say this is why the Navy is there, but we're usually off dicking around drinking beer and screwing hoors in some exotic foreign port.
Calling a young Filipino boy a hoor is insensitive.
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Calling a young Filipino boy a hoor is insensitive.
True, but it's a turn on when he says he needs the money to buy rice to help feed his family.
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True, but it's a turn on when he says he needs the money to buy rice to help feed his family.
Tell me abou......wait, eeewww, that's gross.
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Tell me abou......wait, eeewww, that's gross.
That one even gave me the chills!
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Calling a young Filipino boy a hoor is insensitive.
LBFM used to be self explanatory!
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I would say this is why the Navy is there, but we're usually off dicking around drinking beer and screwing hoors in some exotic foreign port.
- signed Guadalcanal
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Fucking pitiful...You always expected to have shittier gear than the Army but this is absolutely ridiculous.
Our shit was no better in the 101st. We tried a Rapid deployment to overseas one time, alert went off, we did what we did, made it to the airport. Anywhere in world in 18 hours. 5 planes sitting there, 3 of them were no fly. They cancelled the alert.
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It's a clusterfuck. Marines are fighting men, sir. They shouldn't be sitting around on their sorry asses filling out request forms for equipment they should already have.
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It's a clusterfuck. Marines are fighting men, sir. They shouldn't be sitting around on their sorry asses filling out request forms for equipment they should already have.
Not under Democratic presidents.
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Not under Democratic presidents.
Such a heartbreak.
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Our shit was no better in the 101st. We tried a Rapid deployment to overseas one time, alert went off, we did what we did, made it to the airport. Anywhere in world in 18 hours. 5 planes sitting there, 3 of them were no fly. They cancelled the alert.
Geez.
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Such a heartbreak.
Heartbreak ridge
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Heartbreak ridge
Walking Cluster fuck.
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Let's update. Whoever gets in office, this shit has to stop. foxynewsdot I am a gay twerker that has no balls!!!! I also have no idea how to use the quote function to post stories, so I annoy the piss out of others. I like male genatalia in and around my mouth.
It was just a few years ago, in March 2011, when a pair of U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers – during a harsh winter storm – took off from their base in South Dakota to fly across the world to launch the air campaign in Libya, only 16 hours after given the order.
Today, many in the Air Force are questioning whether a similar mission could still be accomplished, after years of budget cuts that have taken an undeniable toll. The U.S. Air Force is now short 4,000 airmen to maintain its fleet, short 700 pilots to fly them and short vital spare parts necessary to keep their jets in the air. The shortage is so dire that some have even been forced to scrounge for parts in a remote desert scrapheap known as “The Boneyard.â€
“It's not only the personnel that are tired, it's the aircraft that are tired as well,†Master Sgt. Bruce Pfrommer, who has over two decades of experience in the Air Force working on B-1 bombers, told Fox News.
Fox News visited two U.S. Air Force bases – including South Dakota’s Ellsworth Air Force Base located 35 miles from Mount Rushmore, where Pfrommer is stationed – to see the resource problems first-hand, following an investigation into the state of U.S. Marine Corps aviation last month.
Many of the Airmen reported feeing “burnt out†and “exhausted†due to the current pace of operations, and limited resources to support them. During the visit to Ellsworth earlier this week, Fox News was told only about half of the 28th Bomb Wing’s fleet of bombers can fly.
“We have only 20 aircraft assigned on station currently. Out of those 20 only nine are flyable,†Pfrommer said.
“The [B-1] I worked on 20 years ago had 1,000 flight hours on it. Now we're looking at some of the airplanes out here that are pushing over 10,000 flight hours,†he said.
"In 10 years, we cut our flying program in half," said Capt. Elizabeth Jarding, a B-1 pilot at Ellsworth who returned home in January following a six-month deployment to the Middle East for the anti-ISIS campaign.
On an overcast day in the middle of May with temperatures hovering in the low 50’s, two B-1 bombers were supposed launch at 9:00 a.m. local time to fly nearly 1,000 miles south to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for a live-fire exercise.
On this day, though, only one of the two B-1s that taxied to the runway was able to take off and make the training mission on time. The other sat near the runway for two hours. It eventually took off but was unable to participate in the live-fire exercise and diverted to a different mission, its crew missing out on valuable training at White Sands.
A spare aircraft also was unable to get airborne.
When operating effectively, the B-1 can be one of the most lethal bombers in the U.S. military’s arsenal. Designed as a low-level deep strike penetrator to drop nuclear weapons on the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, the B-1 has evolved into a close-air support bomber. Flying for 10-12 hours at a time high above the battlefield, B-1’s can carry 50,000 pounds of weapons, mostly satellite-guided bombs.
“It can put a 2,000 pound weapon on a doorknob from 15 miles away in the dark of night, in the worst weather,†said Col. Gentry Boswell, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth.
But only half of these supersonic bombers can actually fly right now.
“The jet is breaking more today than it did 20 years ago,†Pfrommer said.
The B-1 issues are a symptom of a broader resource decline. Since the end of the Gulf War, the U.S. Air Force has 30 percent fewer airmen, 40 percent fewer aircraft and 60 percent fewer fighter squadrons. In 1991, the force had 134 fighter squadrons; today, only 55. The average U.S. Air Force plane is 27 years old.
After 25 years of non-stop deployments to the Middle East, airmen are tired.
“Our retention rates are pretty low. Airman are tired and burnt out,†said Staff Sgt. Tyler Miller, with the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron based at Ellsworth.
“When I first came in seven years ago, we had six people per aircraft and the lowest man had six or seven years of experience,†he continued. “Today, you have three-man teams and each averages only three years of experience.â€
Across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration that began three years ago forced the Air Force to fire people, meaning those who stayed had to work extra shifts. And instead of flying, pilots are having to do more administrative jobs once taken care of by civilians, who were let go.
"Honestly, from the perspective of an air crew member, the squadron is wiped out," said Jarding.
Then there is the shortage of parts, which is pushing the Air Force to get creative in order to keep these planes airborne. They have had to cannibalize out-of-service planes from what is known as "The Boneyard," a graveyard in the Arizona desert for jets that are no longer flying.
They strip old planes of parts, but now there aren't many left -- posing an obvious problem.
Like their counterparts in the Marine Corps, they even cannibalize museum aircraft to find the parts they need to get planes back into combat.
Capt. Travis Lytton, who works to keep his squadron of B-1’s airborne, showed Fox News a museum aircraft where his maintainers stripped a part in order to make sure one of his B-1s could steer properly on the ground.
“We also pulled it off of six other museum jets throughout the U.S.,†Lytton said.
On the heels of the Fox News reports on budget cuts impacting Marine Corps aviation, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook was asked last week if Defense Secretary Ash Carter thought the problems were more widespread.
“No, I do not think,†Cook replied. “I think this is a particular issue that's been discussed at length and this is an issue we're working to address.â€
But the airmen’s concerns suggest the problem is broader than the Pentagon would like to admit.
Similar issues can be witnessed for the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force base in South Carolina, home to three squadrons of F-16 fighter jets.
Out of 79 F-16’s based at Shaw, only 42 percent can actually deploy right now, according to the commander of the wing, Col. Stephen F. Jost.
That's because they, too, are missing parts. One F-16 squadron that recently returned last month from a deployment to the Middle East had a host of maintenance issues.
“Our first aircraft downrange this deployment, we were short 41 parts,†Chief Master Sgt. Jamie Jordan said. To get the parts, the airmen had to take parts from another jet that deployed, leaving one less F-16 to fight ISIS. At one point, Jordan said they were taking parts from three separate aircraft.
When asked about the efficiency of taking parts from expensive fighter jets, Jordan said the costs were not just in dollars: “From a man-hour perspective, it's very labor intensive and it really takes a toll.â€
The airmen’s concerns boil down to more than just the hassle on the airstrip: It’s whether the U.S., which for decades has dominated the skies, would be ready for a conventional war with another major world power. Jost warned if one broke out soon, the U.S. would “take losses.â€
Said Boswell: “The gap is closing and that worries all of us.â€
Jennifer Griffin currently serves as a national security correspondent for FOX News Channel . She joined FNC in October 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent. You can follow her on Twitter at @JenGriffinFNC.
Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews
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The struggle is real....
(http://www.navymemes.com/uploads/posts/t/l-1126.jpg)
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:popcorn:
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(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ea/3d/35/ea3d35963a458a670cf44269ab22a8e9.jpg)
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foxynewsdot I am a gay twerker that has no balls!!!! I also have no idea how to use the quote function to post stories, so I annoy the piss out of others. I like male genatalia in and around my mouth.
WASHINGTON – The Republican-led House voted convincingly Wednesday to approve a $602 billion defense policy bill after rejecting attempts by Democrats to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to repeal the war powers President Barack Obama relies on to fight the Islamic State (ISIS).
The legislation, which authorizes military spending for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, seeks to halt a decline in the combat readiness of the U.S. armed forces by purchasing more weapons and prohibiting further cuts in troop levels. But in a 17-page statement on the policy bill, the White House detailed its opposition to numerous provisions and said Obama would veto the legislation if it reached his desk.
The bill, approved 277-147, must be reconciled with a version the Senate is expected to consider by month's end.
Republicans shot down an amendment by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to strike parts of the bill that renew a longstanding ban on moving Guantanamo detainees to the United States. The embargo has kept Obama from fulfilling a campaign pledge to shutter the facility. The White House said the restrictions interfere with the executive branch's authority to decide when and where to prosecute prisoners.
The House soundly defeated an amendment authored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., to revoke a 2001 authorization that Congress gave President George W. Bush to attack any countries or groups involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Obama is relying on that nearly 15-year-old authority to send U.S. troops into combat against ISIS.
Lee argued it's long past time for Congress to grant new war powers that specifically approve the nearly two-year-old campaign. "I am extremely disappointed that my colleagues left a blank check for endless war on the books," she said.
But opponents of her amendment said no new authorization should be granted until Obama produces a coherent strategy for defeating the extremist group. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Obama has all the authority he needs and Lee's amendment would "unilaterally end the fight" against ISIS.
The bill included a provision that Democrats said would overturn an executive order issued by Obama that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, called the measure "taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBT individuals" and cited it as one the reasons he refused to support the bill.
But Republicans said the measure is primarily a restatement of part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. "It's one paragraph. That's it," said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "I just get this feeling personally that there may be those who are just looking for an excuse to vote against the bill."
Smith also said Republicans used a "procedural trick" to strip a provision that would have be required women to sign up for a potential military draft. They replaced it with a measure to study whether the Selective Service is even needed at a time when the armed forces get plenty of qualified volunteers, making the possibility of a draft remote.
The Obama administration objected to a Republican plan to shift $18 billion in wartime spending to add additional ships, jet fighters, helicopters and other equipment the Pentagon didn't request.
To make up for the shortfall in the wartime account, Obama's successor would submit a supplemental budget to Congress in early 2017, according to Thornberry, the plan's architect. He and other proponents of the spending increase say it is essential to halt a decline in the military's ability to respond to global threats -- which, they say, has worsened on Obama's watch.
But Defense Secretary Ash Carter has called the strategy a "road to nowhere" that actually degrades combat readiness by retaining troops and buying equipment that can't be sustained, effectively creating a hollowed-out force. In a speech Tuesday, Carter said Thornberry's plan "risks stability and gambles with war funding, jeopardizes readiness, and rejects key judgments of the (Defense) Department."
The House bill would block reductions in the number of active-duty troops by prohibiting the Army from falling below 480,000 active-duty soldiers and by adding 7,000 service members to the Air Force and Marine Corps. The legislation also approves a 2.1 percent pay raise for the troops -- a half-percentage point higher than the Pentagon asked for in its budget submission.
The bill also includes a provision authored by Thornberry to curb what Republicans say is micromanagement of military operations by National Security Council staff. Thornberry said he has personally heard from troops in combat who have received intimidating calls from junior White House staffers even though their role is to coordinate policy and advise the president.
To increase oversight and accountability, Senate confirmation of the president's national security adviser would be required if the size of the National Security Council staff exceeds 100 employees, according to the bill.
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You let the beast get elected and the dems increase their lead in either chamber and you will see defense cuts like never before. The military won't be able to stop a women's right group protesting.