Audits Reveal AF Spent Millions on Luxury Items

The Air Force has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on gold-plated chandeliers, golf course projects and other luxuries to boost morale, internal Pentagon documents showed Sunday.

Back in 1985, the Air Force decided to refurbish its officers’ club at the Mildenhall base in Britain at a cost of $75,000. The service’s champagne taste, however, hardly matched the appropriated amount.

Gold-plated chandeliers valued at $145,000 were installed, solid oak paneling lined the walls and fireplaces with marble fixtures completed the decor. The final tally was more than $2 million, with U.S. taxpayers picking up the tab.

The internal Air Force audits, conducted in April and May of this year, reveal widespread waste and abuse in the Air Force management of its Morale, Welfare and Recreation Activities unit.

Golf course projects at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base cost nearly $600,000, while parties for a departing officer at Ramstein Air Base in Germany totaled $26,000.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) called for leadership from the highest levels of the Pentagon to crack down on these abuses.

The documents reveal “a mind-set among some senior Air Force officials that the bases they command are their own personal fiefdoms, with appropriated funds to be used at their discretion regardless of law and regulation,” Boxer said in the letter.

According to the documents, strict restrictions on excessive spending for renovation projects have been either ignored or circumvented. Projects valued at more than $500,000 must be reported to Congress. In some instances, however, major projects were split into smaller projects to avoid seeking congressional approval.