It was a horrible week for the military.
Luckily, they still had "appearing strong" in front of North Korea (and the world) to distract from a few of their more prodigious messes.
Here's the breakdown:
— The top general in Africa was fired following revelations about alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct (sound familiar?). This is the second general in the AFRICOM command to get the axe. The first was Army General William Ward who spent a boatload of tax payer money on lavish trips.
Of course, the announcement of his axing came on Friday, not unlike the Petraeus scandal.
— The Congressional Budget Officerecommended canceling the Army's coveted Ground Combat Vehicle due to excessive costs. Their report, issued April 2, noted that there were several less expensive routes the Army could take without any loss in readiness.
The program was projected to cost $29 billion which, consequently, is what it costs to run the entire Marine Corps for one year.
— The FBI caught the self dubbed"Godfather of Camp Pendleton," a Department of Defense employee who managed construction contracts on base, April 1 trying to fix contracts for kickbacks.
The FBI and prosecutors say the Godfather was providing this kind of service dating back to 2008, but have yet to reveal the total take in bribe money.
— Monday also opened with expectations for a judgement on a recent Veterans Association probe. The probe aimed at finding out why $42 million in awards had been "fragmented" into amounts of $25,000 or less.
If an award is below $25,000, then it doesn't have to be entered into a competitive bid process.
The problem is that several of these $25,000 dollar awards were going to the same company, for the same job. Administrators started to catch on that companies were getting multiple awards for one job, spurring the probe.
— A report Sunday detailed how the Army had accumulated, and essentially forgot about, $900 million worth of spare parts.
The Army's focus on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had led it to put its books on the back burner. The lack of focus led to several warehouses filled with obsolete or unused parts, while orders for more parts continued to get filled.
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