Gov't Saving Money

On Thursday Martha and I drove down to Hanscom AFB, so I could pick up some meds.

One of the things she noticed, immediately, was that the grass had not been cut and some tall weeds were growing up.  And, indeed such was the case.  Very unusual for a military base of any Service.

So, I called the Hanscom Air Force Base Public Affairs Office and talked to Kevin Gilmartin.  Mr Gilmartin explained to me that times are tough and budgets are tight and something had to give.  Rather than close the Recreational Sports Center or some like facility for the Air Force members, the decision was made to not cut the grass for a while.  Frankly, a good decision.

I have seen this before.  When we were at Eielson AFB, Alaska, outside of Fairbanks, one year, in response to President ClintonCarter telling us to cut fuel expenditures, we didn't plow the roads one winter.  It worked out just find, right up to the end, when "Breakup" came and the snow and ice started to melt.  It was a mess and the Base Civil Engineers had to run through the base, plowing and trucking the snow, but the crisis passed in a few days.

When I was at the USAFE Headquarters in 1984/85 I was the Chairman of the Budget Committee for the Command, which stretched from England to Turkey.  The USAFE Band was the hot button symbolic issue and at every level there was someone who wanted to kill it to save money.  In the end, it was going to say, since the four star wanted it.  But, the band aside, we worked hard to save money on the one hand, and to fund needed requirements on the other.  That was where I came to the conclusion that a person with an initiative and without an offset is a liar and a thief.

A little tall grass is fine with me if we are using that money to take care of the young (and older) airmen who find themselves at Hanscom AFB, perhaps a couple of thousand miles from home.

UPDATE:  Changed President Clinton to President Carter on the advice of a Commenter.

Regards  —  Cliff