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

[Art]

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.

I haven't chimed in on this but what the heck. The loss, waste, givaways of web gear and uniforms along with the constant "updating" of uniforms is one of the biggest areas of waste. It existed when I was in and continues today except, apparently, for the above mentioned Marine Corps.

By the way, the single biggest "waste fraud and abuse" I saw was in Korea. My favorite example was the Cummins generator that was "loaned" to the local villiage to provide free electricity to the assorted merchants, whores and bartenders who provided assorted services to the G.I.s at the battery I was attached to. Oh yeah, we gave 'em the diesel to run it too.

[Weasel]

I know this isn't what happen years a go but seeing how this thread is about the military wasting money here is a good example of it. Just think how much this is going to cost because they will have to retrofit the old ones also. You know they want get away with just doing this modification on the new ones.

http://www.military.com/news/article...for-women.html

[Griff Murphey]

Bidets in the heads?

[RCK]

While at Knox in 1962 just of Basic we were training for small engine repair. All range generators were sent in for replacement of the fire extinguishers mounted on the frame. We mounted the new extinguishers and stacked the old "unused" ones in a pile. We checked what to do with the old ones and were told to lay them out on the pavement in a liong line. Later that day a tank was driven back and forth over the old extinguishers. Lots of flat scrap metal!

[Guamsst]

The annual budget is the biggest example of "fraud waste and abuse" I have seen in the military. It's not the amount, but how they work it that gets me. If they give your unit $2mil and you spend $1.5mil then next year they cut the budget by $.5 mil. Which almost makes sense. But next year you may need the whole $2mil so to protect yourself at the end of the year you waste $.5mil to make sure you don't lose it next year. There is no real reward for being thrifty. It is even called "end of year money"
And that's where the majority of your $400 trashcans and $900 hammers come from.

[Maury Krupp]

...It's not the amount, but how they work it that gets me. If they give your unit $2mil and you spend $1.5mil then next year they cut the budget by $.5 mil...

It's called "zero based budgeting" and was brought to you by jimmy carter. The thinking(?) is if you need "X" amount of O&M funds to run an organization this year you'll only need "X" amount next year.

Of course that doesn't account for inflation, normal wear and tear (including the increased need and cost of replacement parts as equipment gets older), increased ops tempo, and all the other unplanned things that can eat up O&M funds in a hurry.

Nor can you set aside or save up any funds; even if you know you're going to need it next year. If it's not spent by the end of the FY it's gone.

...that's where the majority of your $400 trashcans and $900 hammers come from.

I think those are the result of either milspecs run amok, contractors making proprietary items when off-the-shelf would do, or comparing apples to oranges.

I recall once our supply guy filed a FW&A on the price of what he thought was a plain sheet of plexiglass. Turns out it was special stuff for submarines that didn't gas off any carcinogenic chemicals into the atmosphere.

Maury

[John Sukey]

OK, just for the heck of it some joker in supply ordered a TANK! Not what the Air guard was gonna do with a tank is a mystery. They stopped it before it went through.

Oh by the way, did you know there is a federal stock number for KILTS and BAGPIPES? The Air force has a pipe band!

[Dieppe42]

OK, just for the heck of it some joker in supply ordered a TANK! Not what the Air guard was gonna do with a tank is a mystery. They stopped it before it went through.

Oh by the way, did you know there is a federal stock number for KILTS and BAGPIPES? The Air force has a pipe band!

It's the USAR Pipe Band and they are very good, they volunteer on top of their normal duties.

Philip
Piper
Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Pipes and Drums.

[101VooDoo]

Well, it wasn't the worse abuse I saw in 30 years of AD, but it was the most fun. When we arrived in Bahrain for Desert Shield, we loaded up 4x30rd M-16 magazines for each of our airmen, 132 of us, rounded up to 150 for good measure. When Desert Storm was over, and we were getting ready to rotate home, it was decided that it was far to much work to de-mag, count and turn in the ammo, so we spent a day on the beach firing off 20,000 rounds of 5.56 - even let some of the MAG 11 guys help out.

Jim

[cwartyman]

voodoo,
Were you at Sheik Isa AB? I was at Sheik Isa from Aug 21,1990 to March 13, 1991 we didnt even have enough ammo to sight in our M-16's as all the training ammo we went with got shipped up to the 82 AB after they blew away a huge herd of camels one night not too long after we got there and there wasnt much ammo in country at that time. I went over with MAG 70 originally but we then became MAG 11 which was our usual MAG