Help Us Save These Military Aviation Performance Parachute & Flight Teams:
http://www.bringbackthejets.org
USN Blue Angels: GROUNDED
USAF Thunderbirds: GROUNDED
USAF F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
USAF Viper West F-16 Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
USAF Viper East F-16 Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
A-10 Demonstration Team West: GROUNDED
A-10 Demonstration Team East: GROUNDED
F-15E Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
East Coast F/A-18 Super Hornet TAC Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
West Coast F/A-18 Super Hornet TAC Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
USAF B-2 Spirit Demonstration Crews: GROUNDED
USAF B-1B Bomber Demonstration Crews: GROUNDED
USAF B-52A Bomber Demonstration Crews: GROUNDED
USAF C-17 Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
USMC MV-22 Tilt Rotor Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
USN Navy Seals Parachute Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
USA Golden Knights Parachute Demonstration Team: GROUNDED
USAF Heritage Flight Program: GROUNDED
USN Legacy Flight Program: GROUNDED
I love air shows. However, their sole purpose is PR for the armed forces. I'd rather our boys whom are deployed have the fuel for ops. The sequester is stupid, indeed.
Am I the only one who thinks keeping multiple squadrons of Multi-Million dollar jets, who's only purpose is to do tricks for crowds at air shows and fly over sporting events is a huge waste of tax-payer money? Not to mention the operational costs.
+Jason Odell I disagree the sole purpose is for PR of the armed forces. Unless you consider broadening the importance of military troop support by the public PR.
At these shows – fleet week etc.. when i walk the lines of people lined up with their entire family you can feel the support for every person in the military. That is very important to in turn keep people aware of and reminded of the fact that everyday many thousands of troops across all services are fighting to keep our freedom we have grown way to accustomed to living in the US..
It's also not a "huge" waste of taxpayer money. It may be a lot of money compared to your paycheck, but compared to the overall budget, it's less than a drop. OTOH, picking and choosing what we want to have restored to the budget – like air traffic controllers – is not useful to the budget discussion. The sequester should be left alone until enough Americans browbeat their Congresspeople to man up and make serious budget decisions.
Cutting something like these programs IS a serious budget decision. It's never popular when programs the public like get cut. For me, I would rather have roads, schools, disaster relief, air traffic controllers, and on and on and on.
Signed!
+Mark Behrendt Then ask your government to be wiser in their spending and stop special interest and such from stealing from the coffers. It's financial mismanagement that has us in this pickle. Taking away something that shows support for troops and gives people a feel good time is not an answer. How about we make our government officials work 365 days a year minus the vacations that "normal" people get and hold them accountable to their actions.
I don't care what party they are in, just do the job that you are hired to do and vote for the people. Not the special kickbacks you get for help some corporation or freeloading social program. Then may be we can see things turn around.
+Kevin Gault I couldn't agree with you more. Mismanagement is all over the government. Lobbies special interest groups, corporate kickbacks, subsidies, etc. No one likes cuts. The military hasn't experienced a budget cut. Ever.
If you want the jets back then get on to congress to do something about the sequestrure. They can't be allowed to piecemeal fix things that got broken because of it and not address the real issue.
But that's what they do…. Half ass attempts at fixing things as long as none of these things affect them..