Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Date Night cost $1,000,000.00

Three days before "dinner" a C-17 flew Marines and the helicopter
maintenance equipment to JFK Airport. The day before "dinner" I flew
the USSS and the motorcade to JFK Airport. Our crew of 5 spent two days

and nights at the Hilton in Times Square. My hotel bill: $621.66 plus
$64 a day in per diem. The USSS guys were at a different Hilton in NYC,

so figure that cost another $14,000 (or so) plus per diem. The Marines
had to have cost as much and were there four days, so figure another
$55,000 plus per diem (for 44 Marines).

We were supposed to fly the motorcade back and go home, but the Air
Force was so short C-17s that we were re-tasked to take the motorcade
back, return to JFK and take the helicopter back to Quantico.

When we got back to JFK, while the pilot was turning the plane around to

park, he noticed a roto blade sticking out of the hangar where the
helicopter was parked and informed me that either it wasn't ready to
transport or it was flying home. After shutting down I walked over to
the hangar and to my surprise I find FIVE helicopters, not ONE.

We're obviously not transporting five big helicopters. I went and
talked to the Marines guarding the "fleet" and found that they were
flying all five helicopters home, and we were only transporting the
Marines and the maintenance equipment.. After talking to the Marine in
charge, I was told that the White House requested FIVE helicopters. The

Marines told me that they spent all morning trying to figure out how
much it cost them to come and said they figured it cost them $140,000 to

stay there (I don't know where they came up with that) and the trip's
total had to be about $1,000,000.

We heard that the President didn't use Air Force One (the 747), so I
asked if he came in on one of the 757s. I was told that he came in on
THREE Air Force Lear jets.

So, date night consisted of:
2 C-17s flying three missions;
3 Lear jets;
5 Helicopters;
Presidential Motorcade;
44 Marines;
More than 20 USSS personnel on our plane; and
Who knows what it cost the NYPD and NY Port Authority (at the
airport) in overtime.


If you remember the message I sent about the Trinidad mission for the
Summit of the America's, I found out that they spent their entire budget

for his movement on that one trip.

Stan