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Show Friday. July The Herald Comments VlEVEFOUNDAVlAV ttn rnjrAi c tuc Shoddy Materials, Latest Military Scandal continuing efforts to root out fraud and corruption in the military budget. In recent months, opponents of a strong military have taken comfort in a series of revelations uncovering $500 hammers, $600 toilet sets and ashtrays. Some of the nation's biggest, most prestigious contractors have now been publicly humili- ated by revelations of deliberate overcharges. The latest revelations don't involve big business and simple overcharges. As serious as these have been, the latest scams being uncovered involve life threatening fraud. Various businessmen have been delivering shoddy, inferior "junk" that in some cases could jeapordize the lives of military personnel. These include: One small contractor delivered valves that could have caused ejection seats in F-- 4 jets to fail. A firm delivered cracked pins that could have caused the bombers to fall wings of 2 off. The company fabricated lab reports declaring the integrity B-5- of the critical pins. Defective bearing assemblies forced the USS Preble out of operation when a turbine was damaged. A company is now being investigated for delivering brittle bolts that snapped off in a jet engine test. Sleeping bags minus the requisite amount of filling have been found. Inferior steel plate was delivered for use in Navy warships. Some corroded and were detected on the USS Foster before it was launched, but it is not known whether other defec- - tive plates were used in submarine hulls before they were discovered. Taxpayers have paid millions as the Navy has tried to track down and replace the defective plates. So much illegal substitution of substandard equipment is going on worldwide that the Pentagon admits that our military readiness is now at threat. According to Maj. Gen. Lawrence D. Garrison, who commands a Columbus, Ohio, defense supply center: "With such a large amount of defective replacement parts filtering into the military's machinery, the effectiveness of our armed forces has to be Why doesn't he know what it is? Mainly it isn't played much anymore. because "America the Beautiful" is being used as the background music to sell some stupid product on TV. Why? Parents spend a lot of money for band instruments and uniforms only to have the kids in the band show their marching skills. I think in the last five years about the only music I hear in a parade comes from the dancing groups or bag pipes. Why don't the bands play anymore in parades? In the Lehi parade only the Provo band played. It was beautiful. It was the "Stars and Stripes Forever." American Fork Band, as the rest of the bands, has Editor, Herald: event! What a gigantic performance, a program of this proportion anyone giving a moment of thought to surely should recognize the hours spent in preparing, planning, correlating, following through on each and every minute detail. The Osmond Brothers certainly know their work. I for one am very grateful that there are men of this high caliber and all American in our area, to put on and bring it about with the high standards of excellency. The Wasatch Front people and especially the Provo and Orem people should feel willi a sense of proudness and appreciation that they have men of that high caliber of dedication amongest them. And then what a bitter after taste was given us at the Provo 4th of July Parade. No question here. The Osmond Brothers did not plan, prepare, organize, correlate this event. I wonder if anyone did. It had all the indications that the night of the 3rd someone said, "We should have a parade," and tried to put it together then. Or maybe an idea hit the parade committeemen and they said, "H we space the floats and bands 30 minutes apart, our parade will last as long as Salt Lake's 24th of July 17 Kill ...AMD RUIN WHAT'S LEFT t In. OF THEIR ECONOMY... l 50IET5' WllHUUl HWNU MIUTARV... A SINGLE 5H0T. ALL mm if ty vi ', mi. ivv fi 3 A A Jl ft SOUNDS LIKE GET THEM TO USE OUR A WINNER... WHAT DO WE DEFENSE CONTRACTORS. DO? Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger calls the effect on military readiness "devastat-ing- . Criminal prosecutions in many of these and other cases are underway. Recently, one man was sentence to 10 years in prison after being caught for a second time in perpetrating a fraud on the military. As Pentagon auditors weed out the unscrupulous and dishonest, it is important to keep in mind who the villains are. The people in the Reagan administration who are uncovering all of the waste, fraud and outright crooked behavior deserve praise. The problem is in a history of naive, lax, even criminally neg- ligent military procurement practices and in the activities of larcenous businessmen. For years, it has been popular to engage in defense contractor bashing, to complain of and finally waste and fraud the Reagan people are doing something about it. marching down to perfection. Too bad they can't play. But of course neither can any other band. It's too bad K.J. Bird isn't here today. The bands in his time marched and played all the way through the parades. They took trophies and many top honors. You used to be able to get up early and hear the band playing all over American Fork. Now if you live in the area of the high school, you get a sound of the drum beating out what sounds more like a death march. Please bring back the true spirit of a parade, the sound of the bands playing at least a tune or two. I realize with the hot uniforms some of them wear it isn't feasible to play all along the route but a march or two won't hurt. Carroll Adams 278 W. 400 N. American Fork Osmonds Should Organize Parade On July 3 I attended the Freedom Festival at BYU Cougar Stadium. What a colossal - Page reduced, thereby threatening Bands: Please Play and March, Too song?" C ftah. our national defense." Feedback Editor, Herald: We're here watching and listening to the Boston Pops play John Philip Sousa's most famous march, "Stars and Stripes Forever." My son asks, "Isn't that a carnival THE HERALD. Provo, The Herald, its readers, syndicated columnists and cartoonists discuss vital issues Opinions The Reagan administration should be commended for its 12. 1985 Parade." I sat at the intersection of 3rd North on University Ave. and there were five intervals where there was neither float, band or horse on University Avenue down to Center Street. Many floats and bands does not necessarily a good parade make. A parade lasting for hours does not necessarily make a good parade. Steady flow of the entries at controlled proper intervals at a pace of speed like that of the Scottish Bag Pipe Bands makes a good parade, be it five entries or 50 entries. The patriotic American citizens of Provo should march on City Hall and demand scalps after that colossal failure. And they should demand from the Provo City fathers that next year if the Osmond Brothers come forth with another Freedom Festival that the mayor and the city council pledges to make certain that the Provo 4th of July Parade Committee gets its act together and comes up at least to a par of 3 to that of the Freedom Festival. Even if it has only five floats and three bands they can still pull off a smart peppy parade if n it and then follow through on they these plans. Paul L. Young pre-pla- 119 E. Street Helper i The Teenage House Sitters s The best time for parents of is when they can get away and take a short vacation by themselves. The worst time is when they call home to find out if everything is going all right. "Hello, Alfred, this is Mummy. Well, we just arrived at the beach. Where's Grandma? ... Why did she go home? She said she would stay for the week .... What's that music in the background? ... How many friends? ... You're not sure? ... How many did you invite? ... You only asked 10 but 40 showed up? ... Alfred, we told you you couldn't have parties while we were gone .... If it's not a party what is it? ... A high school reunion? ... But you don't graduate from high school until next year .... It's a reunion of the kids who have Alfred, why the police are al our house? ... You'd prefer to put the sorgc.it on. "Yes, sergeant, this is Sam Savage. I know something is wrong so we better get to it right away .... I see. There have been teen-ager- already graduated from the school? Where do you come off entertaining college freshmen? ... They're not freshmen, they're rugby players from Detroit? ... That does it. Put your sister Grace on .... How can she be out? She promised to stay home and guard the house while we were gone .... Alfred, you gave us your solemn word you would not fight with your sister .... What was that crashing noise? ... Where are you talking from? ... It does make a difference. If you're speaking from the kitchen it means someone has just broken my china - and if you're speaking from the upstairs bedroom it means someone just smashed my perfume bottles. I'm going to put your father on." "Hello, son, how goes it? I hear you're throwing a little party? ... It sounds like everyone is having a lot of fun .... Seems complaints from the neighbors about Art limhuald to me we had a deal in exchange for your using my car that when we went away you'd kinda keep people out of the house. Isn't that what we agreed on? ... I tell you what, son. Why don't you just ask everyone to leave the house quietly, and if they don't want to go tell them you'll kick their butts in for them .... No, I must admit I have never asked a Detroit rugby team to leave my house. At the same time, since you let them in, you're going to have to figure a way of getting them out .... Alfred, are those sirens? ... Out of curiosity, are they police sirens or fire sirens? ... Police sirens. Well, at least that means the house isn't burning down. Any idea, screaming, shouting of obscenities, breaking windows, beer cans on the lawn and some nudity in the bushes. "Yes, there is a possibility that our son could be hosting such a party. 11 his head comes to a point and if he strikes you as a first-clas- s idiot who can't say no when his parents go out of town, then that has to be our Alfred .... Sergeant, how much damage do you estimate has been done? ... Yes, include the bottle of red wine that was spilled on the sofa .... Two or three thousand dollars? ... Well it seems Mrs. Savage and I got off cheap .... What do I want you to do? I'm not in a position to say. Are you people into police brutality? I'll tell you what, sarge, any way you could clear out the house would be very much appreciated. I'll see that your men get a commendation medal for each kid they throw out in the street. Let me speak to my son again. "Alfred, the sergeant has offered to persuade the Detroit rugby team to leave the premises. Tell them not to take it personally. I've asked him to bounce everyone whether they're involved in sports or not. It has nothing to do with your friends. It has to do with your mother's and my dream of spending a few more years in the house, alter we get home from vacation. Waste Linked to Procurement By JACK ANDERSON And JOSEPH SPEAR Will wonders never WASHINGTON bag full of - cease? Someone at the Pentagon has finally identified the cause of all those scandalously high costs charged by defense contractors: It's "The System." While this has been obvious to any reasonably sentient observer of the Pentawe've been shouting it gon panjandrums from every rooftop for years it's encouraging when the truth finally penetrates the concrete walls of the spending factory on the Potomac. Maybe the next step will be to actually do something about it. The refreshing revelation is contained in a bluntly worded memorandum being circulated at top levels in the Air Force. Our associate Indy Badhwar got a copy. The heart of the Pentagon's system is or, more accurately, its Achilles heel the uniformed procurement officer, who is invariably innocent of either experience or expertise. The memo points out that they "are not technically trained, do not know contract law and procurement procedures, and are no match for the contractors' engineers and lawyers." The memo adds: "It's like sending a lamb to slaughter." These innocents typically stay in their unglamorous procurement jobs two or three years, "hoping to get out so that the cost overruns or technical disasters don't happen on their watch," the memo notes. "At China Lake," the memo continues, center in referring to the weapons-testinCalifornia, "we found it took several years for a good engineer to develop to the point that we could trust him to manage a some never could. Yet we program bring in officers with no technical or specialized training, send them to a short course at Fort Belvoir, and put them in charge of programs." Venality and corruption aren't the problem, the memo explains: "The incentives five-side- 10 pounds of stuff." It also urges "generous awards'" to managers who control costs, schedules and quality, and special bonuses to someone who will look at a program and say: "Look, in spite of all the hype, this program is a turkey and is never going to get us decent equipment. Let's terminate tr f1,v 7i d " III III! l Jack Anderson it." CONSUMER REPORT: "Smokeless'' tobacco's free ride may be over. The Federal Trade Commission has begun an study of consumer knowledge about the health risks of snuff and chewing tobacco, which should lead to an educational campaign on the dangers There is a widespread belief, especially among teenagers, that smokeless tobacco is free of the health risks of cigarette smoking. This erroneous belief is reinThe average age of an officer at retire- forced by the fact that famous athletes ment is 43, the memo notes. "He probably endorse the smokeless products. Talk about muddled has kids in or ready for college, and a big Revenue Service, is Internal in The and cut afford his a can't thinking: mortgage, income. He is at the peak of his intellecunderstandably upset over the growing tual powers, is emotionally involved and number of taxpayers who simply refuse to doesn't want to quit. We throw him out reply to letters and notices the tax collectors send out. The agency's bizarre soluanyway. for "Many of these officers, particularly the tion is to hire a research firm to conduct a survey of these good ones, who have spent most of their $625,000 and find out why they careers flying aircraft, operating ships or to the IRS. "Taxpayers who do won't not have skills that are respond leading troops, do not reply to written communications readily marketable in the civilian sector. "This nice man then comes around and from the service most likely would not offers him a job at $50K to $75K a year. If respond to IRS personnel over the telehe (the procurement officer) stands up phone or in person," an agency memo and makes a fuss about high cost and poor explains. But they'll bare their souls to quality, no nice man will come to see him some private snoop lured by the IRS? Come on! when he retires." UNDER THE DOME: The cost of integWhat to do? "The real problem." the memo states, "is that the procurement rity sometimes comes high. Rep. Charles calls his 1978 appearance Bennett, process is completely controlled by military officers and that no improvement is in Groton, Conn., for the launching of the possible until the process is controlled by nuclear submarine Jacksonville "one of the most expensive speeches I ever made civilians." A civilian employee has crucial advanin my life." The reason: Bennett insisted tages over a uniformed oliicer, the memo on paying General Dynamics for the gilts silver trays, gold bracelets, a promoted and rewarded with cushy jobs explains: "He can stay on. ... He has that the contractor gave him after leaving the government. Those who much more protection against reprisals." The memo recommends "hooking" a and his family as mementoes of the do something (to cut costs) are quite program manager "until the program ei- occasion. He sent the company a check for frequently punished." also reimbursed the Treamemo on this the Expanding lays ther succeeded or failed, so that he would $1,258. Bennett point, the $1,6(58.60 in Navy transportaout the "revolving-door- " phenomenon that not be able to move on and leave his sury for tion costs. successor holding the proverbial greases the procurement system. nose-thumbe- ., dock-baromet- |
