BRAC fiction

Aug 26th 2015

Pentagon, USAFR Command Section

General Myron Bartleby

The general sits at his desk reviewing the performance of the aircraft in his command. As he is doing so, there is something in the information that has been nagging at him. What exactly that is he did not know, but there was something in the latest report that just looked wrong.
He presses the intercom button, "Mitchell, come in here please."
A moment later the door opens and a young Captain steps in.
"Yes General."
"I need you to cross reference these (aircraft) tail numbers against bases they are assigned to."
The Captain walks in, takes the papers and walks out.

The General keep going over the numbers in his mind, and he knew something was wrong, but he couldn't say exactly what it was.

A few hours later the Captain knocks and enters the office.
"General, did you know there were four aircraft that were not officially assigned to any base still flying missions."
The Captain had never seen this particular expression on the Generals face before in the two years he had served as his aide. The look seemed like part of confusion, part astonishment and more than a little annoyance.
The General did not move, he just stared at the Captain for a moment before he spoke. The Captain shifted his weight a little, being a little disconcerted by the General staring at him with that particular expression.
Finally the General spoke. "Could you say that again, not assigned to any base?"
"Yes General, I would have been finished sooner, but I started checking into the records and it seems these aircraft have been operated by a unit that was supposed to have been closed down 10 years ago."
A look of anger flashed over the Generals face.
"Ten years ago? What base was it?"
"Willow Grove Air Reserve Base, General." The Captain replied.
"Never heard of it." The General said.



September 29, 2015
Willow Grove JRB, Building 201
General Barleby

"What do you mean no one ever got word to close?" The General asked.
Colonel Hatch, the Wing Commander at Willow Grove, replied calmly, even though the General appeared agitated.
"General, we got the orders that we were to close, but the orders to actually close never came."
The General looked at the Colonel, and began to feel more agitated. He stopped the next statement he was going to make and decided to try to find out what happened from the beginning.
The Colonel brought the General back to his office and they sat down and the Colonel brought up his computer and began to show the General the paper trail.
"As you see General, I have been trying to get information, especially after my predecessor retired. These are all of the emails I had sent and their replies."
The General was impressed; there was a list of over five hundred emails and scant replies. He noticed, with some concern, most had been directed to his own office.
While he was impressed, he was also very concerned. This entire incident made him look bad, and he was due for another star in the next year. This glitch brought all of that into a very unwelcomed light.
The General asked.
"In that time you still had inspections and four deployment rotations?"
"Yes General." The colonel replied.
"And no one said anything or asked questions."
"Yes, everytime. And no one could give us an answer."
The General felt an uncomfortable feeling creep over him. This base is under his command; it is ultimately his responsibility for it not being closed. He needed to divert any responsibility away from his office and most particularly himself.

_______________________________________

Willow Grove JRB
October 18, 2015

To: All Reserve and ART personnel
From: Col. J. Hatch, 913 Wing/ CC

To all personnel, there will be a Wing commanders call today at 1300 in
the Wing Auditorium. Attendance is Mandatory, no exceptions.


1300, Wing Auditorium

The Wing Commander began speaking once everyone had been seated.

"As you all know the past few years have been eventful. We had an ORE,
an ORI and two deployments to Central Command in Qatar and two
rotations in Germany. As many of you remember, we had been slated to
close in 2005. And while we did receive the official notice that we
were going to close, the order to officially close never arrived."

This was old news to everyone. After the first notice to close had
arrived, many people left to other bases or got out entirely. But over
half decided to hang on for "a while".
The Colonel continued.

"It has been ten years and we are still here. There seems to have been
an oversight somewhere along the line. The 913th has fallen through the
cracks and while not forgotten, because we still had a mission and the
funding never stopped, officially we were closed."
"But this seems to have changed. And I received the order to cease operations today."


The Colonel continued and answered many questions about why it took so
long and how could this have happened. Back in his office he called
General Bartleby's office.
"The General is not available at the
moment, I will tell him you called, he will return your call as soon as
possible." The voice on the other end of the phone said.
The
Colonel was very angry. He had been trying to call Gen. Bartleby for
over a week, and he was getting the distinct impression he was dodging
his calls. This gave him a bad feeling. Was it possible that all of
this could be dumped on his lap? Would Gen. Bartleby put full blame and
responsibility on him? It would not surprise him in the least.