Dollar-wise Deployment

Last May, when the United Nations appealed for help in reinforcing its peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, the United States offered a military aircraft to carry the troops. Problem was, the Pentagon wanted to charge $17 to $21 million, three times as much as a commercial airline or private charter company. As Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon ...

Last May, when the United Nations appealed for help in reinforcing its peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, the United States offered a military aircraft to carry the troops. Problem was, the Pentagon wanted to charge $17 to $21 million, three times as much as a commercial airline or private charter company. As Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon noted in response to complaints by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. law requires the Pentagon to recover its costs, as it calculates them, for any transportation provided to the United Nations or other organizations outside the Department of Defense.

Last May, when the United Nations appealed for help in reinforcing its peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, the United States offered a military aircraft to carry the troops. Problem was, the Pentagon wanted to charge $17 to $21 million, three times as much as a commercial airline or private charter company. As Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon noted in response to complaints by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. law requires the Pentagon to recover its costs, as it calculates them, for any transportation provided to the United Nations or other organizations outside the Department of Defense.

Within the department, however, other cost considerations seem to hold sway. Consider the case of Gen. Joseph Ashy. In 1994, a C-141B aircraft (which can carry up to 200 troops) was sent empty from New Jersey to Italy, to pick up Ashy, his cat Nellie, and an aide and carry them to Ashy’s new post in Colorado. The cost of the flight: approximately $116,000. The cost of a seat on a commercial flight: $650. The cost to Ashy, who was neither reprimanded nor asked to reimburse Uncle Sam for the trip: $0. More recently, an April 2000 General Accounting Office report found insufficient justification for a fleet of 364 aircraft that the Pentagon maintains to ferry military officials. The next time the U.N. needs a lift, why not save some bucks and send a few U.S. generals?

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