Cost of a date?

[RRD3]

Cost Of A Date
From a former Air Force Colonel….
First, let me say that I’ve moved three presidents up to now and I’ve seen incredible waste. But, the “new” guy really takes the cake. I don’t have an issue with the President promising his wife dinner and a show or that he even takes his wife out. But, when I saw the news say that the date cost $24,000, here’s what you DON’T know.



Three days before “dinner” a C-17 flew Marines and the helicopter maintenance equipment to JFK Airport.
The day before “dinner” I flew the USSS and the motorcade to JFK Airport.
Our crew of 5 spent two days and nights at the Hilton in Times Square. My hotel bill: $621.66 plus $64 a day in per diem. The USSS guys were at a different Hilton in NYC, so figure that cost another $14,000 (or so) plus per diem. The Marines had to have cost as much and were there four days, so figure another $55,000 plus per diem (for 44 Marines).



We were supposed to fly the motorcade back and go home, but the Air Force was so short of C-17’s that we were re-tasked to take the motorcade back, return to JFK and take the helicopter back to Quantico. When we got back to JFK, while the pilot was turning the plane around to park, he noticed a rotor blade sticking out of the hangar where the helicopter was parked and informed me that either it wasn’t ready to transport or it was flying home. After shutting down I walked over to the hangar and to my surprise I find FIVE helicopters, not ONE.


We’re obviously not transporting five big helicopters. I went and talked to the Marines guarding the “fleet” and found that they were flying all five helicopters home and we were only transporting the Marines and the maintenance equipment. After talking to the Marine(s) in charge, I was told that the White House requested FIVE helicopters. The Marines told me that they spent all morning trying to figure out how much it cost them to come and said they figured it cost them $140,000 to stay there (I don’t know where they came up with that) and the trip’s total had to be about $1,000,000.



We heard that the President didn’t use Air Force One (the 747) so I asked if he came in on one of the 757’s. I was told that he came in on THREE Air Force Lear jets.
So, date night consisted of: 2 C-17’s flying three missions, 3 Lear jets, 5 Helicopters, Presidential Motorcade, 44 Marines, more than 20 USSS personnel on our plane. Who knows what it cost the NYPD and NY Port Authority (at the airport) in overtime.



These are the same people that chastised the automobile CEO’s for using their aircraft. It further proves that the media only use the facts that make the President look good and hide any facts that will detract from his persona.



Is this the ‘change’ we expected?
Talk with friends and those who are not blinded by charisma. Many folks I know who voted for Obama are very disappointed and sorry they did so.
The Emperor’s clothes on a grand scale. “Transparency”? Remember, 2010 is just around the corner. All we have to do is survive long enough.



2010
AMEN

[Batteriesnare]

Geez, and I thought a nice dinner and a show was expensive!

I can't believe how wasteful this prick is, especially after pushing a green agenda.

2010, pass the ballot, pass the ammo.

[2008f450]

Obamas idea of a green agenda is to spend all of our green on his interests. The son of a bitch wants us to give and give and give yet he takes a vacation 6 months into his job after flying all over the world to say the U.S. is sorry for being a bad country. what a scumbag

[theGinsue]

Hell, I'd be happy to have some of my tax money go towards forking over $1 billion cash-in-his-pocket if he'd just take it and go back to Chicago and let the adults run the country.

[hobowh]

Damn and I thought dinner and a movie was starting to get a little pricey...

[hobowh]

Hell, I'd be happy to have some of my tax money go towards forking over $1 billion cash-in-his-pocket if he'd just take it and go back to Chicago and let the adults run the country.

+1 on that

[Sixgun]

I wouldn't bang his ugly bitch for $1,000,000. It's only a matter of time before he slips up. Where's Monica??

[7idl]

I don't doubt it, but a link would be helpful

[theGinsue]

Or we could just "accidentally" miss the mechanism.....

Shhh. You cant talk like that - even in jest.

[jerrymrc]

I remember when I saw this and thought to myself $24,000? I was thinking more like $500,000 since I do work for the DOD and understand how these things work. Because of 101 ways the fed gov works nothing is cheap even if they try and convince you of this.

Let me show you how it works just for the common folk in the DOD. Trip to Cleveland for a week. You log on and spend 2 hours booking your flight/rental car/motel through DTS.

Now you have some choice in the flights since DOD gets those great rates because the lock them in every year to keep the taxpayers from paying too much........

RT from Colorado springs to Cleveland is $1020 since everyone wants to go there. A check online gets me the same flights for $560. The rental car place is $330 for the week but I could have got the same car for $180. Once again locking in those cheap rates so we can save. Motel looks good at the govt rate of $110 per night vs the $130 that I saw for the common folk but there is a catch. They charge the govt types $15 per night for web access so the big savings is $5 per night or $25 for the week. See, ya saved some money.

I did not check what I could have got the room for on priceline etc but since the Motel was about half full I am guessing that $75 would have got the room with the internet.

Half of my job nowadays is keeping the vultures from ripping off the DOD. It is a thankless job and many hate me for not letting them do what the salesman wants them to do. The only way I can describe it to people that are not in it is this.

Send your clueless wife to the car dealership with a blank check and see how much it costs ya when she comes home with that shiny new car.

I am so glad that I only have 5 years to go after 29 in.