What's the Worst Example of Government Waste You Saw in the Service?

[Griff Murphey]

I can remember seeing the 50th anniversary of the Army Aviation Branch at Fort San Houston, 1967; during Vietnam. They had various flight demos with a Curtiss Pusher replica and even the Confederate A.F.'s B-17. The highlight of the show was a flock of Hueys air assaulting in some grunts with BFA-equipped M-14s, The troops advanced in rushes, firing blanks as they went. As they emptied their mags they tossed them. After the "battle" was over the "public" swooped in and grabbed up all of the mags.

Another example of M-14 mag wastage, my ROTC unit at Trinity University went out to Camp Bullis, annually, to fam-fire the Junior Class on the M-14 Trainfire course before they were to go to Fort Sill for their Summer Camp. We fired our relays between thunderstorm bursts; I had the ammo detail loading up mags which at that time had to be loaded in 8 and 16 rd. increments for different parts of the course of fire, which was M-1 friendly. The result when it was all over was a footlocker full of wet M-14 magazines, some loaded, some not, allowed to sit for several days in the armory. The supply sergeant, I think, made off with the loose rounds; the mags just rusted. I was told they would be "surveyed." Too much trouble to disassemble, dry, and oil, I guess.

[5MadFarmers]

I see more waste in government than I ever saw in the military.

[Rick]

When I was on the Cat Crew we replaced a Vickers hydraulic pump on the Cat. The Navy leased them from the Vickers Corporation. Sticker price was around five to ten thousand dollars. Anyway we got the old pump out and on the flight deck elevator and passed it off to supply. Supply had trouble with the fork lift and went inside the island to call for some help. When he came back out the pump was gone. Some officer gave orders to throw it over the side because he didn't want it cluttering up his flight deck. At the time the cost of the pump was a new Corvette and enough money left over to pay the officers salary for a couple years.

[Art]

I see more waste in government than I ever saw in the military.

The military is part of the government. I've worked for both and didn't see a dime's worth of difference as far as waste goes. The military just has less to waste.

[Dan Shapiro]

Don't know about 'waste' - but 'stupidity' ran at least a close second.

For some reason the Army got on the "suggestion box" kick. With some success. Nobody knows how to do a better job cheaper than the person doing it. So the Army naturally ran it into the ground. "Suggestions" were no longer voluntary (as in requiring some thinking). At least one "suggestion" a month became mandatory.

So we played the game. One month it was suggested that the government buy plastic extensions for pencils. Because everyone knew that you threw the pencil away as it got shorter and shorter and harder to hold onto. Another time, it was suggested that the duffel bag be capable of being opened at either end - "because what you want is always at the bottom". After several months of similar suggestions, the brass finally got the message and suggestions were no longer mandatory.

[Michael Tompkins]

I never saw waste on a grand scale, but it was waste just the same. At both the large training areas in Graf and Hohenfels in the FRG, while on MP patrol we would sometimes kick around in the dumps. I was always amazed at the amount of ammunition, both blank and live that was tossed. A lot of it belted M60 stuff. There were also cases of C-rats...not all the time, but occasionally. At night, especially in the winter, we would set the dump on fire to get the wild boar to show up. We always had to keep our distance though, because some of the ammo and canned C-rats would start to cook-off. Also, if the mamma boars had young ones, they didn't take too kindly to us getting too close. Mike

[High Plaines Doug r]

I don't know if it was a threat to national security at the time but When I came back (late) from R&R in 1970 I was assigned as punishment (along with KP) to police the flight line at FB Snuffy from one end to the other and pick up all the un-expended ordnance. We had no containers to put the stuff into so we threw all we found into the various craters along the airstrip. "The stuff" consisted of just about everything imaginable: .50 cal belts, M-60 belts, M-16 magazines, Smoke grenades, Incendiary grenades, Fragmentation grenades, Concussion grenades. I didn't see any mortar rounds.
Anyway, I didn't see any profit in collecting all this stuff and leaving it out there for the Gooks, so I threw a willy-pete or incendiary grenade into any of the bomb craters we threw the ordnance into.
Well, that caused a big commotion. Big enough for me and the other guys on police call to sneak back into the firebase and disappear for awhile. One hole burned/exploded pretty much all night.
I missed chow call that evening but got to re-join my company on the next morning log ship, so all was good save the article 15 for coming back late from R&R (one week's Spec 4 pay deduction).

[Ron James]

At one time the Military ( Army ) had no provision for turning in excess items, Tools. equipment or what ever. In Korea in 1961 Prior to a IG inspection I watched them bury a large batch of hand tools that had been erroneously ordered. This was brand new ( I equipped my truck toolbox very well ) and never used, heavy duty, hand tools. No other way to dispose of it with out a PITA Report of Survey. It was only later ( mid to late 60's? ) that you were allowed to turn in any excess as " found on post " with out question. I have heard of even Trucks and Jeeps being buried.

[cwartyman]

When we were deploying for Desert Shield our unit ordered new medium Alice packs as the ones we were issued were in dubious condition. After 7 months in the desert we deployed back to our home base. After being home 2 months a truck pulls up to our s-4 section and unloads boxes of Alice packs OIC of s-4 shop is called and is told that you ordered them they are here and they are yours. The OIC makes some phone calls because as an F-18 unit attached to a MAG we do not keep our own supply of 782 gear it is drawn from MAG , the OIC is told that those items do not exist as when the first shot was fired they were written off as combat lost. They were combat lost before we ever got them. Well now s-4 is sitting with 200 brand new medium Camo Alice packs that we have no use for so he bucks it up to the C.O. who tells the Warrant Officer to give them out to the troops. So everyone in the unit was given one and MAG was still issuing the ratty type we went overseas with. All the 782 gear we went overseas with was written off as combat lost. I dont believe it was even brought back as all they cared about was the weapons, I watched supply take razor blades to brand new unopened MOPP suits.

[Griff Murphey]

When people talk about the USMC keeping stuff until it wears ALL THE WAY OUT I do not think they are kidding. Most of my 782 gear issued to me in 3rd Mar Div, 1975, was dated 1940's. The only "new" stuff was the pistol belt, flak jacket, and clip-on canteen cover/plastic canteen. I had previously had the new nylon stuff in Army ROTC. The basic USMC antitank weapon was still the 3.5" rocket launcher fired by "D" cell batteries, and the Army had had the 90mm recoilless rifle for 10 years. Marine officers had never heard of it... "Nawww, doc, you mean the 106!"

Maybe this is more a criticism of the Naval Dental Corps than the USMC, but we had lots of old stuff there as well. I had to get dental school classmates stateside in other branches of the service to cumshaw tooth colored filling material and send it to me, as for many months, we had NONE in the 3rd Marine Division. I heard one story about a dentist who put a bunch of silver amalgams in some Colonel's front teeth and the guy complained... well, that was all we had... We were always injecting people with local anesthetic out of date by many years, because it was (once again) all we had. Then there were the power outages, nothing like it when you are in the middle of a procedure....