Thread: SR-71
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Old November 1st 07, 01:08 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Bertie the Bunyip[_19_]
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Default SR-71

wrote in
. net:

Ah yes, Bill Clinton, the Republican Party's favorite scapegoat. Well,
if you read the 1996 book "SR-71 Revealed" by former 9th Strategic
Reconnaissance Wing Commander Rich Graham, you'll find out that the
demise of the SR-71 was already being planned as early as 1986 if not
before. He writes on page 196 "The head of SAC intelligence favored
satellites over the SR-71 and wouldn't stand in the way of his boss,
General Chain, who wanted to terminate the program entirely."
On page 198: "A vocal DoD official who expressed displeasure with
the SR-71 was the Assistant Secretary for Defense for Command,
Control and Communications, Mr Duane Andrews. As his Pentagon title
would suggest, he was an avid supporter of increased reliance on
satellites to gather intelligence and used his Pentagon influence to
keep the SR-71 from being a viable reconnaissance aircraft. Whenever
funding support for needed upgrades to the aircraft were sought, he
used his connections on the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence (where he once served as a staff member) to disapprove
the request. Lieutenant Colonel "Geno" Quist remembers briefing Mr
Andrews when he was a Congressional staffer:
'One day in 1985, I was summoned over to the "Hill" to talk to some
Congressional staffers on the SR-71 program. The two that I talked
to eventually became"somebody" in the Bush administration.- Mr.
Duane Andrews and Mr. Marty Faga. In a closed room, these two
advocates of space-based assets tried to give me their solution to
all of the problems of military reconnaissance. Their idea was to
"mothball" the entire SR-71 fleet but have it ready to respond to
any needs the nation may see in the future. I tried to explain in
vain that you needed the SR-71 support, aircrews, and
infrastructure in existence before you could fly the aircraft. The
fact that I had experience flying the SR had no effect on their
ideas, and it soon became obvious that their only answer to future
reconnaissance systems was going to be space-based. It was just a
matter of time before they were in a position to make things
happen. Mr. Faga went on to become an Assistant Secretary of the
Air Force (in fact he was the head of the National Reconnaissance
Office) and Mr. Andrews worked in the Office of the Secretary of
Defense.' "
"Two key Air Force players instrumental in retiring the SR-71 were
Generals Larry Welch and John Chain."... "When asked during a 12
September 1990 interview with ABC News about why he terminated the
SR-71 program, General Welch stated it was "too expensive,
vulnerable to enemy air defenses, and duplicated overhead systems."
Colonel Graham says all of those charges were simply not true.
Colonel Graham was removed from command by General John Chain, who
was commander of the Strategic Air Command, in November of 1988
"because the SR-71 program phase-out was proceeding too slowly and
met resistance to SAC Headquarters plans every step of the way."
So the program was closed down in 1990. Ten aircraft were given to
museums that year. Colonel Graham notes that when 61-7972 set four
world speed records while being delivered to the Smithsonian on
March 6, 1990, no senior USAF officers attended the event. General
Welch had canceled the record flight at least once before,
"presumably because he didn't want ANY favorable publicity
concerning the SR-71. The flight was finally pushed through by
certain Lockheed executives, politicians supporting the SR-71, and
a small cadre of lower ranking but influential officers. Had it not
been for the initiative of those officers, the media would not
have been informed about the record breaking event, much to the
wishes of those who wanted no more publicity for the SR-71."
In September 1994 Congress put $72.5 million in the defense bill
to bring back three SR-71s. Rich Graham wrote on page 217: "The
Air Force wants nothing to do with the return of the SR-71s and
consequently has not budgeted for the aircraft. It will be up to
congress to fund the program each year, making it difficult to plan
for the future." This book was written before the final retirement
of the aircraft, but it is apparent that if Clinton did indeed kill
the program off for good with a line item veto, he had the
wholehearted support of the USAF command staff. I'd bet he did it
at the urging of the command staff, though I don't know if we'll
ever know that for sure. Col. Graham also describes the animosity
the USAF had for the people connected to the SR-71 program at the
end. In 1989 ten Habu crew members were up for promotion, but only
one was promoted, the other nine were passed over! Anyone who
knows about the Blackbird program knows that every officer chosen
to be part of the program was an exceptional performer, and it's
obvious there was discrimination against the men connected to the
SR-71. Getting passed over for promotion is a very black mark on an
officer's record. It was outrageous, and there was nothing anyone
could do about it.
So scapegoat Mr Clinton if you must, but know it was a Republican
administration and the USAF command staff that really killed the
Blackbird.
Scott Wilson


Completely believable.

Why would Bill willingly scrap the best down blouse shot platform ever
made?


Bertie