Going commercial

National | Pilots are leaving the military, and Congress should ask why | Cal Thomas

Congressional hearings should be held to determine whether the six military plane crashes since Sept. 13 are the result of massive cutbacks in defense spending and social experimentation by the Clinton administration, which has watered down qualifications for pilots in favor of advancing certain "preferred" groups.

President Clinton says there is nothing unusual about the incidents, and these sorts of things happen because flying military aircraft is a dangerous job. Maybe. But active-duty and recently retired pilots and their families suggest something else. Wives of military pilots have told me on several occasions how concerned they are for their husbands. Because of sharply reduced funding, they say their husbands' planes have been grounded because of a lack of fuel. The "cannibalization" of planes (taking parts from one plane so that another may fly), while not unusual, is said to be more widespread in the downsized military.