McCAIN ON A TEAR: Sen. John McCain, battling brain cancer at age 81, was back in full prosecutorial form yesterday as he ranted about the continued decline of U.S. combat readiness over the past several years. “In that time, we’ve seen military readiness decline to nearly unprecedented levels, a crisis in pilot and aircraft maintenance personnel retention, numerous cases of senior officer misconduct,” McCain said at a hearing for Pentagon nominees. “The military readiness crisis has impacted every service from ship collisions, aircraft crashes and vehicle accidents to personnel shortages in critical roles, like aviation and cybersecurity,” McCain said. “And by the way, the Congress is also complicit in this almost criminal behavior.”
ZEROING IN ON THE PILOT SHORTAGE: McCain, a former naval aviator, berated the Pentagon for policies he said are worsening the shortage of combat pilots, now close to 2,000 in the Air Force. A big problem is not pilot pay, but all the bureaucratic hoops pilots must go through that have nothing to do with flying, such as numerous staff assignments, relocating every two to three years, and required military education courses, he said. The “outdated requirements” are mandated by the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act, or DOPMA, which McCain called “an overly rigid system that is increasingly unable to cope with the demands of the modern force.” It’s driving pilots away, he argues. “All of this is done to turn every officer into the military’s next general or admiral,” McCain said. “Well, not every officer wants or needs to be a general officer.”
