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That you've summarily dismissed the efficacy of planning for which you know precisely zero of is baffling. That you presume to parade your decision making as s

That you've summarily dismissed the efficacy of planning for which you know precisely zero of is baffling. That you presume to parade your decision making as superior to the dozens of career field officers and senior enlisted members with real skin in the game--let alone the hundreds preceeding them who have earned their keep--is even more baffling. That you continually insist $1bil in F-22 assets was lost to this hurricane is quite telling of both blatant ignorance and inexperience in matters relating to military aircraft maintenance operations. Admittedly, I'm rather insulted by the magnitude of sheer narcissism and narrow-minded hubris in your remarks.

JohnBooty 8y ago
Let me back up a step. I angrily said "these idiots" as if everybody involved was an idiot. What I should have acknowledged is that the folks on that base are insanely talented (I know enough about the military to know that the folks trusted with these aircraft are very elite) and in all likelihood pulled off a freaking miracle to save as much hardware as they did with (more importantly) zero loss of life. I have no doubt that they spent 72 hours stretched to their limits and performed admirably. Whatever else we disagree on, at least we agree on that. What I am angry at is the design of a base that had inadequate structures and/or procedures in place to enable those assets to be fully protected and/or evacuated in the event of a hurricane. Clearly those (or the budget allocated) were not adequate to fully handle the situation. The results attest to that.
- mulmen 8y ago
  This was the most powerful hurricane to hit the Florida panhandle in recorded history. The base has withstood previous hurricanes and storms. So yeah, the structures were inadequate to protect some of the planes from the storm of the century (or two?) but should we expect or desire the base to withstand that? Of the dozen planes left behind so far only four are suspected to have been destroyed and even that isn't actually known yet. It is still possible the base did protect the planes at least in part from this extreme outlier event. The lifespan of the planes is only ~30 years. Losing a few of them to a total freak storm doesn't seem as outrageous as you are making it out to be, especially when much more of the fleet was evacuated than should be expected based on typical readiness. You're acting like the USAF had no hurricane plan at all when in reality they obviously did. Not all the F-22s were lost and a bunch of the other assets made it out too.

JohnBooty 8y ago

Let me back up a step. I angrily said "these idiots" as if everybody involved was an idiot. What I should have acknowledged is that the folks on that base are insanely talented (I know enough about the military to know that the folks trusted with these aircraft are very elite) and in all likelihood pulled off a freaking miracle to save as much hardware as they did with (more importantly) zero loss of life. I have no doubt that they spent 72 hours stretched to their limits and performed admirably. Whatever else we disagree on, at least we agree on that. What I am angry at is the design of a base that had inadequate structures and/or procedures in place to enable those assets to be fully protected and/or evacuated in the event of a hurricane. Clearly those (or the budget allocated) were not adequate to fully handle the situation. The results attest to that.

mulmen 8y ago
This was the most powerful hurricane to hit the Florida panhandle in recorded history. The base has withstood previous hurricanes and storms. So yeah, the structures were inadequate to protect some of the planes from the storm of the century (or two?) but should we expect or desire the base to withstand that? Of the dozen planes left behind so far only four are suspected to have been destroyed and even that isn't actually known yet. It is still possible the base did protect the planes at least in part from this extreme outlier event. The lifespan of the planes is only ~30 years. Losing a few of them to a total freak storm doesn't seem as outrageous as you are making it out to be, especially when much more of the fleet was evacuated than should be expected based on typical readiness. You're acting like the USAF had no hurricane plan at all when in reality they obviously did. Not all the F-22s were lost and a bunch of the other assets made it out too.