Army Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, head of Joint Task Force Haiti, told bloggers Monday there has been only one way to get supplies, equipment, and people into earthquake-devastated Haiti, the international airport, which routinely hosted only 13 flights per day. Now, said Keen, thanks to “the best airmen in the world” who quickly got the airfield operating again and with turnover of airfield management to USAF airmen, the flow has been fairly constant at 100 aircraft or so a day. He noted that some delayed and turned away flights, like one international flight delivering a portable hospital, have generated bad news, but he said many US flights also were turned away, in many cases because an aircraft on the ground had mechanical problems. On Jan. 18, Keen said 180 flights went through with no delays. Still, he advocated getting ports reopened quickly to “take pressure off the airport.” (Transcript)
After years of serving as the bill-payer for other Pentagon priorities, munitions stockpiles are poised to get a major boost from the $150 billion reconciliation package unveiled by lawmakers in Congress this week, along with the defense industrial base to...