The Nation - News from Jan. 10, 1988

A congressional leader complained that the Army sold usable construction equipment at bargain prices and replaced some of it with expensive but less useful new vehicles. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, made the charge in a letter to Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci. Dingell called the $500-million program that purchased 5,000 new heavy-construction machines “premature and inadequately justified,” but Army officials said problems with the older vehicles had impaired U.S. readiness for war.