[ARC5] Surplus Dealers

[Robert Eleazer]

In addition to David's informative rant, let me add something.

At my first job out of college, at Tinker AFB, across the back fence of the base we had a surplus dealer who only sold his stuff to the Federal Government and even had signs up to that effect.  Rather than what I would call a warehouse he seemed to have just a bunch of sheds, with about the same degree of protection as a car port provides.

One day some of the warehouse people on the base were doing what they do, reviewing what they had in their buildings.  They noted one fairly large item that had never been ordered as far back as they had records.  Opening the crate the saw what appeared to be the wing of a jet fighter. They decided it much be a part for an obsolete aircraft, no longer in service, and offered it for sale through DPDO.  The surplus dealer behind the back fence bought it and hauled it to his yard after paying essentially the scrap value of the weight of aluminum.

Shortly thereafter the KC-135 people discovered that the one and only spare KC-135 horizontal tail was missing from the warehouse.  Guess what had happened to it.  If a truck hit the tail of a 135 the airplane was as good as scrap.  They had to have that tail back, and the surplus dealer was only to happy to sell it to the USAF for several thousands dollars profit for having hauled it a few miles and stored it on his property for less than a month.  

That kind of stuff went on all the time.  So if you want to get into the surplus business, target Uncle Sugar as both supplier and customer and you'll probably do fine.  There are enough Useful Idiots slopping at the Federal trough to ensure that you will make a profit.

Wayne
WB5WSV