THE Obama administration is pointing so many fingers over the Air Force One photo flop that it’s starting to run out. But it’s already seemingly decided who should be the blame game’s biggest loser: the White House Military Office.
On Friday, the White House released the results of a bizarre “inquiry” into Scare Force One that strangely looked only at the military office. Little surprise, then, that the designated fall guy was the military office director, Louis Caldera.
No loss there: Obama displaced a respected Navy admiral to install a political loyalist to direct a bunch of top military officials. (Of course, things went south fast.) But Obama has also ordered up a review of the military office and its structure — as if somehow the military office, not White House senior staff asleep at the switch, are to blame.
That may be the Obama team’s worst error in the whole sorry saga. Lost in the kerfuffle is that the military office — bad leadership aside — does fantastic work for the president and the people he serves.
It would have been nice, then, for Obama to show a little gratitude and defend the 2,300 men and women of the military office for their extraordinary work. For example, in the last administration, the Presidential Airlift Group — at the center of the current controversy — flew President George Bush nearly 1.5 million miles and more than 3,000 hours (about 125 days spent in the air).
They spent more than 217,000 hours cleaning and polishing Air Force One, traveled to more than 75 countries on six continents, and never had a mission canceled or delayed. Air Force One flight attendants served more than 1.3 million meals — responding to hungry, tired, stressed and cranky staff with reliable patience and smiles.
On the ground, the military office runs all motorcades for the president, vice president and first lady — and has supported more than 21,000 ground missions over the last two years. It also oversees work especially dear to Obama’s heart: that of the White House Communications Agency, which controls the presidential teleprompters. It sets up and takes down the presidential podium for every speech, hooks up the speakers and wiring and makes video and audio recordings so he can be heard around the world via radio and Web.
The job isn’t easy: During the Bush administration, these guys hefted more than 60 million pounds of equipment, and spent more than 340,000 days away from home in order to serve their commander-in-chief.
Look anywhere around the White House, and you’ll see members of the military office doing their jobs with professionalism and cheer. They’re at the White House Medical Unit, caring for the president and first family, and fixing up presidential staff. From sunup to sunset at the White House Navy Mess — which at certain hours can resemble feeding time on the savannah — they’re serving picky eaters and prickly egos without missing a beat.
The military office is the force behind Marine One and Camp David. It provides the ushers at formal White House social events and the people who plan and carry out dangerous missions overseas — including President and Mrs. Bush’s surprise trips to Afghanistan and Iraq.
It also provides a critical link between the White House and two of its most important constituencies: wounded warriors and the Gold Star families, who’ve sacrificed loved ones for the cause of freedom. Hundreds are active-duty military themselves — and many have served with honor overseas in the War on Terror.
There are many amazing things about working in the White House, but one of the coolest is working alongside the men and women of the White House Military Office. Whether it was military nurses who treated a skinned knee in Africa or the airlift guys who printed out heavily edited speeches minutes before they were to be delivered, they made my life and job much easier. They were also great representatives of the competence and compassion for which the US military is known around the world.
And they deserve better than to be hung out to dry by political operatives inside the White House. These are the men and women who make the place run and on whom Obama will rely heavily every single day of his presidency.
Would it be too much for him to stand up for them — in public — in return?
Meghan Clyne was a speechwriter in the Bush White House.