[ARC5] Surplus Disposal

[MillerKE6F at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/10/2012 4:03:45 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
arc5 at ix.netcom.com writes:


----- Original Message ----- 
From:  <MillerKE6F at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Surplus  Disposal


>Therefore, what is the government to do?...
>  The original contractors did not want the stuff flooding the 
>  marketplace in competition with their post war offerings...

Stupid  waste is never justified.  *Never.*
Thoughtful people can always find  a positive alternative
IF they are allowed to do so.  
There are  people all over the world who could have 
broken that disarmed equipment  down and put it to 
all sorts of postive uses, even if only to smelt it  down
to make plows and hoes.  Better to disarm  
and strip-out  the critical spares and leave the rest of 
the aircraft to the natives on  the island or the destitute
peoples in Europe to make of what they would,  
than to throw them in the drink.
 
I agree in part, but you and I tend to look at our surplus  icons at a very 
micro-economic lever while the engines of industry and politics  see the 
surplus world through the eyes of Self Interest.  Money talks BS  walks at 
that level.  I would posit that there was so much surplus materiel  at the end 
of WWII that there was no way our economy could consume it all no  matter 
how painful it was to see it plowed under or dumped into the ocean.   That 
Heath, and others made good use of CONUS material was a good use of that  
stuff, I'm sure a lot of other firms and companies made a lot of money in the  
decade following the war on this materiel as well.



Think of the technical schools that could have been founded  
with the equipment of all types that was dozered.   
It would  have cost us nothing to turn it over to the 
locals and let them make the  best of it.
Sure, some would have been sold to Chief Ugg's uncle,
but  that's beside the point;  once we've given them
the assets to better  themselves in any way, the 
responsibility passes to them; our hands are  morally "clean."
As noted, there is little evidence that the early post war US  economy and 
industry could digest all the WWII surplus being that WWII junk was  still 
selling well into the 1960s.  Keep in mind that the amateur  population was 
quite small in the late 40s and early 50s and they were the major  consumers 
of surplus junk that had no real market in the post war economy.   Recall 
that 304TLs sold for 79 cents each and happily many of those old rascals  saw 
service both in Ham Radio and the commercial market as industrial RF sources 
 for glue drying and induction heaters.
 



And I think the "it wasn't worth the transport-" 
given  the empty transport sitting idle in every harbor and 
the hundreds of  thousands of idle hands laying around 
playing cards- is nonsense spread by  those
who were beholden to commercial interests.
Well, those empty transports " Kaiser Coffins" as my mom  recalled them 
(she was a welder during the war and saw many a liberty ship float  off the 
Richmond CA ways) were never designed for long term service although  it's a 
credit to Henry's engineers and the folks who toiled building these that  many 
saw service form many post war decades.  But these ships among their  
successors have been floating in the Carquinez Straits near  Benicia CA. for over 
50 years rusting awy and dumping lead into the  bay.  



The truth is as you stated later in your post, Bob:   
The Big Money boys had it done.
Congressmen and Senators were bought,  just as they are now, 
by commercial interests who felt threatened.   
The sad part is, the threat was hollow.   
They were never in  real danger.  Most of the equipment 
was not suitible for civilian use  in the U.S. in the first place.
But that's no excuse to dump it in the  ocean.
It was never my intention to apologize for the greed or self  interest 
demonstrated before, during, and after the war as that behavior  pertains to the 
subject of war material before, during and after.  But is  it fair to the 
tax paying public to pay for the storage and maintenance and or  recycling of 
the millions of tons of surplus that has little or no  commercial value.  
Please recall that there was no stomach for a "  Recycle" zeitgeist at the 
end of the war as folks had been dragging tin cans to  the foundries and 
animal fat to the butchers for nearly a decade and were just  tired of the 
exercise.  Folks wanted a new car or at least new tires and  maybe some sugar and 
a pair of shoes without having the pony up a book of ration  stamps.
 



No one can ever convince me that the only good thing  to
do with that 7-foot tall stack of NOS Textronic scope probes
and  those tons of tech manuals for every kind of gear you can 
imagine was to  bury them in a hole.  
It would have cost nearly nothing to send them  to tech schools 
and colleges all over the world.  Many people could  have 
(and.... ahem... did) volunteer to spend their own time 
and money  to pack them up and ship them out.
We were told "the schools don't want any  of it."
Well I and some others actually made some calls on that,
and it  was a flat *lie*, one of Uncle Stupid's chief talents.
Lord... 15 years ago  and it still angers me to think of it.
And I'll tell you a secret- I heard  a "rumor," but of course
could never swear... of course not...
that a  lot of small stuff that could fit in boxes at the post office
did  anonymously go to those places.
There are people who are willing to take  risks to address 
such a gross and disgusting outrage;
even if they can  make only a tiny dent in such an evil,
it's worth doing.
 
Once again, who in the great supply chain committed the first  sin? The 
Tektronix salesman who oversold the probes in the first place, the  logistic 
clerk who moved a decimal point a few columns to the right on the order  form, 
or the idiot engineer who wrote the original requisition. I'm sure  the Tek 
Probe story has been duplicated and told many times and there is no  excuse 
for the waste.  However, this waste is only a small  nit in the  grand 
scheme of things.  As to school's needs and wants.  I've seen  the obverse 
attitude my many schools and colleges.  They don't want older  test equipment.   
A Community College in my area dumped all of their  very serviceable 
Tektronix 2200 series scopes to upgrade to the New Tektronix  Itty Bitty LCD 
screened units.  I think they gave the older scopes to a  local high school who 
probably didn't want them either since very few high  schools support any form 
of electronics programs or any other vocational ed  program for that matter.
 
Bob, KE6F


The  C.O. who "followed his orders" by "throwing it in the fire" 
in such a way  that the locals could put the stuff to good use 
should get a  medal.

I believe completely that Ingratitude and Waste, which
are  "kissing cousins," are two deep, black evils for which
The West shall  certainly be held accountable 
on  "That Great Getting'-Up  Mornin'."

73 DE Dave  AB5S

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