Correspondence
Correspondence Victory & life Baltimore, Md. To the Editors: All three essays in your Resurrection issue [April 5] offered complementary insights into the important historical realities of...
...A recent Pentagon press release shows a smiling Defense Secretary accepting what he calls a "substantial refund" from Gould, Inc...
...The gross overcharging in this case was identified by a Department of Defense auditor in the normal course of auditing the contractor's proposal...
...A short time before his death, he said, "I've been trying to live as a biblical person and understand the nation and the world in a biblical way...
...Robert O. Richardson's comments ["A Wrenching Solution," April 5] are very misleading to the American public and do a great disservice to the American military profession as well as American industry...
...That same year, the Defense Department bought 122,429 diodes for 40 and did receive a refund for the diode which was overpriced...
...We are working hard to retain the faith and trust of the American people and we feel that the military should be given a fair hearing in the media...
...In another of his examples, that of the Allen wrench for which he says the Air Force was willing to pay $9,609 before a Senate Committee made such a fuss in public, I should also like to set the record straight...
...If he still believes that the language and the system to procure IS million items a year is no more complex than scoring a perfect bowling game or calculating the return on a Quinella, I invite him to come and help us devise a better system...
...I will not try to mislead you or the readers by saying that there are not mistakes made in the military procurement system which makes more than IS million purchases a year — there are errors made but, hopefully, these mistakes are on the lower dollar items, which do not rightfully receive as much attention as the larger, more expensive purchases...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mi...
...To the Editors: Mr...
...The Allen wrench was, in fact, never bought by the Air Force nor was the Air Force ever willing to pay $9,609 for such a wrench...
...Stringfellow was a biblical person to the core...
...Is the 40 /$110 diode really such a rare instance...
...Where we have identified overpricing, we have sought and received refunds from contractors totaling over $2.9 million...
...For instance, he mentioned that diodes generally available for 40 were fetching $110 in the Pentagon marketplace...
...It is very simple to sit on the sidelines and be the critic when one has not played in the game...
...Some of the examples of wasteful procurement which he gave were honest mistakes by procurement officials, but others were a gross misstatement of the facts and not wasteful at all...
...Copyright © 1985 Commonweal Foundation...
...The titles bespeak the importance of the victory of life over death...
...p. 367, Mitro- To Vima, Athens...
...GENE ROMAN Correcting errors Andrews Air Force Base, D.C...
...illustrations: Cover, and p. 368...
...Even now, when the Pentagon is publicizing its efforts to reform, I would welcome more information...
...Virginia Broderick, from The Catholic Encyclopedia, ed...
...To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, "Those who can — do, those who can't — teach, and those who can't do either are the critics.'' CHARLES P. WINTERS Brigadier General, USAF The author replies Ever since Pentagon officials tried to keep A. Ernest Fitzgerald from testifying to a committee of Congress on $2 billion C-SA cost overruns and then punished him for doing his job, I've thought that Americans deserve "a more complete picture of military spending" than they usually get...
...In the last year, we have broken out over 100,000 items from prime contractors for competition or for direct buys from the actual manufacturer...
...Did the refund cover the whole overcharge...
...Gould, Navy auditors estimate, overcharged as much as $729,000 for a 421-piece repair kit for which the Navy paid $847,000...
...359,360, & 363, EmU Antonucci...
...p. 358, Valerry...
...369 & 372, Rite Corbin...
...The (Continued on page 383) Commonweal is indexed in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Catholic Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical Vene, Book Review Digest and Book Review Index...
...Serials Data program No.: ISSN 0010-330...
...The system does not deserve the misstated treatment of Mr...
...The Air Force official responsible for this procurement was in the process of finding an alternate means of procurement, obviously less expensive and more reasonable, when the matter was sensationalized by the press and certain congressmen to make it appear as though this was a general condition in Air Force procurement, which it certainly was not...
...by Robert C. Broderick (Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1976...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...p. 366, Al Ross, Rothco...
...Taking this example to show how a poor person heading a family of four could make a credible livelihood is facetious at best, and although perhaps well-intentioned, is exaggerating the condition...
...Why would a defense contractor try to collect $9,609 for an Allen wrench unless he thought he had a good chance to do so...
...All of the credit for uncovering the problem was given to the media and to the Congress when, in fact, it was the same military procurement system which he maligned which uncovered and corrected the problem...
...To the Editors: All three essays in your Resurrection issue [April 5] offered complementary insights into the important historical realities of this biblical event...
...Richardson's article...
...I believe that the American public has a right to hear the other side of the story and a more complete picture of military spending rather than the few rather isolated examples which Richardson chose to illuminate...
...This was, in fact, a diode which was ordered incorrectly by a procurement official for $110...
...I highly recommend Stringfellow's works for anyone trying to live a life as a biblical person...
...We estimate that by these break outs, we avoided almost $1.2 billion dollars during the last fiscal year...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...48106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster Ohio 44691...
...Commonweal: 354...
...We are doing a much better job as a result of the media attention which has been brought to our system...
...While reading them my mind shifted to the recent death of one of America's best theologians, William Stringfellow...
Vol. 112 • June 1985 • No. 12
