Private Trips

In response to “Baker Changing His Flying Habits,” April 4:

Unfortunately, we are drawing the wrong conclusions and adopting the wrong solutions in trying to solve the excessive cost of Secretary of State James Baker’s private trips on military planes.

Officials of such high profile, as President Bush, Baker and others, are laying their lives on the line every minute of the day in a world with no shortage in lunatics and fanatics who hate them for what they do, no matter what they do, while serving our country. We want to put them on commercial airliners to save a few dollars. Shame on us!

The real question is: Why does a trip on a military plane that sits there anyway, fully maintained and a crew fully paid, cost an extra $28,000? You guessed it: Because it is performed by the same government that has lost track of 237 of its planes! The solution is simple: Award the job of security flights of high officials to the private sector.

CHRISTINE TITTEL

Los Angeles