- SAN ANTONIO, Texas
(UPI) - A panel of four House Armed Services Committee members Friday wrapped
up a tour of 20 active and reserve military facilities in 12 states and
pronounced the condition of America's military bases "outrageous."
-
- "It is sad, and it is disappointing," Rep.
Curt Weldon, R-Pa., told reporters at Lackland Air Force Base. "I
don't know how we ever allowed things to get so bad."
-
- Weldon and Reps. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas; Silvestre Reyes,
D-Texas, and Edward Schrock, R-Va., cited "major infrastructure systems"
that affect base housing, base facilities and availability of parts and
supplies for multimillion-dollar weapons systems.
-
- "At one base we saw a dorm where the smell was bad
because raw sewage was filtering down, some of it into the showers on the
first floor while people were trying to clean themselves after a day out
in the field," said Weldon, the chairman of the panel.
-
- He said he saw mechanics on $2 billion B-1 aircraft trying
to install spare parts from another plane, because no B-1 parts were available.
Ortiz said conditions he has seen on American military bases reminded him
of "Third World countries."
-
- "This reminds me of 10 or 12 years ago when we were
listening to what was happening to Russia, how their infrastructure was
breaking down," he said. "Now the same thing is happening to
our infrastructure."
-
- Ortiz said in one hangar where multimillion-dollar planes
were housed, chunks of concrete from the leaking hangar roof were crashing
down onto the aircraft.
-
- Weldon said while the American people are demanding "tax
cuts and prescription drug benefits and education measures," there
is no outrage that America's military has deteriorated to the point that
the U.S. "could not do a Desert-Storm-level mission today."
-
- He said he and the other members of the Armed Services
Committee would "demand" a meeting next week with President Bush
and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and call for an immediate $5 billion
infusion into the military's infrastructure programs.
-
- Weldon said civilian leadership - Democrats and Republicans
- have "failed" the U.S. military.
-
- "We need this money now," he stressed. "Not
next year, but now."
-
- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights
reserved.
|
