Here's another story from the groundbreaking ceremony for the LAAFB.
The mayor of Hawthone (the city where I live) was one of the speakers, and one of the major players in getting the land-swap to happen. He put a lot of work into it, and should get a lot of the credit for the revolutionary deal.
During his speech he went on for a while about how difficult some of the meetings were between the officials at various levels of government, and then he made a joke: "I think we should all get medals of valor and purple hearts for sticking with it, even when times were tough." Now, this seemed particularly inappropriate to me considering we were at the Air Force Base and half the people in the audience were service members. There were probably people there who had earned those medals through great sacrifice, and if I had been one I might have gotten up and walked out.
This attitude is probably one of the reasons why LAAFB will probably go the way of all things in the next century. There is nothing that entitles the LA region to be the center of the defense industry that it has grown to be. In fact, both the USAF and its major contractors know damn well that paying people to do the same job anywhere else, asides from NYC and DC, is cheaper than paying them in CA west of the Central-San Joq. Valley. Whatever gets done at LA AFB could be done in this age of electronic communications by service personnel stationed elsewhere. The only issue is whether it can be done "better" or "at less cost" there. Your prior post would imply that "better" is a valid discussion point; "cheaper" isn't by any realistic measure.
(Note: AB = newcomer)
Hmm. I see both sides. I would understand the reactions of soldiers to a perceived demeaning of the award. At the same time, it was said in jest (if at a poor time), and thus it was not meant to offend the audience.
An idea I feel ought to play a part somehow (although, admittedly, I know not how) is that such awards can be touted on license plates. Would that not somehow lower it, given that license plates are often subjected to nasty weather, mud, debris, etc.? Perhaps not. I'm still thinking.
Joking is also a manner through which people handle stress, a coping mechanism of sorts. Maybe an offhand comment is a way of distancing oneself from the reality of war.
*Did* many audience members leave?
AB: No one left that I saw, no. There was polite laughter as with any other joke. It just struck me as particularly out of place.
Tom: If all the civilian workers stay in Los Angeles, it's probably cheaper and better for the AFB to stay here too. But if they could magically convince all the talent to move to Wyoming, it could obviously be cheaper.
It doesn't move all at once: it migrates as new programs get funded elsewhere and infrastructure is errected outside of LA or the Silicon Valley. Its the same principle behind why the F22 is getting made in Georgia rather than in CA, or that the research efforts at Edwards AFB, CA or Hanscom AFB, MA are being cut back over time and those at Kirtland AFB, NM and Wright Pat AFB, OH being augmented. As Lenin put matters, in the two steps forward, one step back pattern, you have to watch the trends, not the individual steps.
How do you measure the PR value of having a military presence in LA? If all the bases moved to the blue states, the divide between the Americans and Anti-Americans would grow even larger.
I don't think anybody has ever tried to use that as a BRAC concept. Actually, most of the concepts for closing LAAFB involve moving SMC to Kirtland AFB, NM, which voted Gore (by about 400 votes). Other portions of what is there would go to DC or the Pentagon. Only a minor bit would go to Space Command in Colorado.
Tom: I know these things happen over time, and it's true that if California continues to make it expensive for businesses to operate here more and more will move.
And over time LAAFB and The Aerospace Corporation may be scaled back, but I don't think closing the base in 2005 is likely to be the best choice.
Of course, as I said, I don't know all the details, and I do have a vested interest in it staying here.