The New York Times Reports: Battle over fighter jets in vermont heats up

Thursday, July 4th, 2013

New York, NY

Click here to read the entire article.

An excerpt from today’s The New York Times written by journalist, Theo Emery, reports, “A 2010 scoring chart provided to The New York Times showed that before the decision was announced, the base at Burlington received the lowest score of three guard finalists for the F-35s. But the Air Force said that those scores were discarded and Burlington was declared the preferred destination after more qualitative criteria were applied. Similarly, the base in Utah scored second in its field, according to the chart, but was declared the preferred combat base.

Critics have speculated whether politics informed the process. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat and the senior member of the Senate, is a chairman of the Senate National Guard Caucus and a longtime advocate for the Air National Guard and its officers.

In one earlier scored assessment, when more bases were under consideration, Burlington received 91 points out of 100. But after a visit by Air Force officials, the score fell to 87.1, the number on the chart provided to The Times. McEntire Joint National Guard Base in South Carolina received an 87.4, and the Air National Guard base in Jacksonville, Fla., received a 91.”

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