The destruction of the greatest military on earth

A Patriot's Opinion

By: Jim Snyder

Now, looking at the title, you may be asking, which one of our enemies is doing this to us? That, my friends, is the problem. It is not any of our enemies that are doing this, it is our own government. Fox News did an exclusive report on this topic the first week in September. Now when I say an exclusive report that means that no other major network ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, or MSNBC bothered to report on this. One would think that information pertaining to the degrading of our military capabilities would be a major story. Well not so much, it seems. So let’s look at the details of this story.

Since 2009, military spending has been cut by $130 billion dollars. When it comes to our Navy, Air Force and Marine aircraft, these reductions have caused major issues. The reduction in funding has resulted in cuts in training hours, maintenance, and purchasing of spare parts. Our current force of F-18 fighters has been in service for many years, beginning service in the Navy in 1978. Many of these planes are simply too old to fly. Of our current fleet of older model F-18 A thru D models, only 21% are able to be flown. Of the newer versions of the F-18 E & F models, only 50% of those are capable of being flown. In simpler terms, out of 273 planes only 91 can be flown. What would happen if we had to respond to a major terror attack? The F-18 was designed to fly 6,000 flight hours but that figure has been upped to 8,000 flight hours while we wait on the new Joint Strike Fighter to be approved and purchased. The military would love to have these new fighters to replace the current aging fleet of F-18’s, but the money to buy them is simply not there. Training time in the cockpit has been drastically reduced as well as a result of the cuts. Normal flight training hours per month 10 years ago was 25 hours per month. That has been reduced to 4 to 6 hours per month. So our pilots are not getting the needed time in the aircraft in order to stay sharp. Many of the grounded F-18’s are being cannibalized for their parts in order to get other aircraft into the air due to the shortage of replacement parts.

While federal budgets have been increased for many other government operations, military dollars have been drastically reduced. In 2010, the military budget was $691 billion dollars. That figure was reduced to $560 billion by 2015. The Marine Corps Commander testified before congress that right now he needs an additional 366 airplanes in order to be 25% mission ready. But the money is not available to purchase them. Cost overruns on the new fighter to replace the F-18 are adding to the problem.

The Marines fleet of CH-53 Helicopters are suffering the same fate. These are the work horses of the Marine Corp that carry troops and equipment. Out of 147 of these helicopters, only 42 are flyable due to maintenance issues. It was also reported that the Marines have seen a reduction of 30,000 marines in recent years. This has reduced the number of maintenance personnel as well as pilots and support personnel. Many of them are leaving the military for jobs in the private sector as well.

This intentional reduction in our military capabilities is a national disgrace. One of the reasons Ronald Reagan was so successful in carrying out his foreign policy was due to his belief in a strong military. He always preached peace through strength as a means of negotiation. His exact words were; “A truly successful army is one that because of its strength, ability, and dedication will not be called upon to fight for no one will dare to provoke it”.

Sadly we do not have that luxury anymore. Our enemies and our allies know we have been weakened. I hate to even think what we would do if an attack on our homeland would occur with our current levels of readiness and the fractional percentage of serviceable airplanes. God help us.