Send a Surrogate to Prison
R. Jeffrey Smith’s follow-up article in the Washington Post about the Inspector General's Report on the Boeing tanker scandal within the Air Force, brings to mind how often we are satisfied with slivers of justice.
In what the Pentagon hoped was closure, Darlene Druyun went to the slammer on the Air Force side and Michael Sears was the Boeing fall-guy. But the list of those who ought to be making license-plates somehow excludes members of Congress, a Cabinet Secretary, the presidential Chief of Staff, the then top Air Force acquisition official (Marvin Sambur) and several levels of Boeing executives and Air Force brass. Lots of people off the hook. Much covering of tracks.
According to the IG, Air Force secretary James Roche and two-star general Paul Essex outright lied to congress about ‘unexpected corrosion’ necessitating immediate replacement of its tanker fleet. The Defense Science Board has since said that the tankers were usable for another 35 years. So, essentially $30 billio…