Public Attitude Shifting on Military Waste, Rep. Aspin Says

The national furor over the $630 ashtrays sold to Miramar Naval Air Station may have less to do with the problem of military waste than with a new cycle of public interest in Pentagon spending, a high-ranking congressman said Saturday during a visit to San Diego.

Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, said that while recent reports of military waste should be investigated, he believes the publicity generated by such things as the Miramar ashtrays indicates that the “attitude over defense spending” is shifting.

“We kind of go in cycles where we are interested in the issue and we drop interest in it,” said Aspin, who took a whirlwind tour of San Diego defense installations, including the scandal-plagued Miramar.

“The public perceives that waste is worse at one point (in time) than at another. It may not necessarily be so,” he said. “It just may be the cyclical nature of the interest in the subject.”

The soft-spoken Aspin, a known critic of defense spending, cited a spate of news stories about military spending abuses in the early 1970s, when public sentiment seemed to favor cutting back on the Pentagon budget.

But those kinds of stories disappeared when the mood shifted toward more defense spending, a mood that prevailed from 1978 to 1984. As interest increases in belt-tightening, stories about Pentagon waste are again grabbing headlines, he said.

“I don’t think it’s worse all of a sudden,” he said about the recent reports, adding that he expects additional reports about waste to be forthcoming during three government investigations into military procurement and spending.

Asked who bears the blame for military waste, Aspin responded: “There’s plenty of blame to go around.

“I would not stick it onto one person or one administration or one branch of the government,” he added. “Procurement is something that requires constant attention. Congress is part of the problem.”

Standing on a runway at Miramar, Aspin also told reporters he believes Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger acted too quickly when he fired the base’s commander and supply officer and a rear admiral after revelations about the ashtrays and the purchase of a $400 socket wrench.

“I thought it was a little precipitous,” Aspin said. “One thing you have to say for it is if you want to get the attention of the system, you’ll get the attention of the system by doing that.

“It’s probably a little unfair for the people involved,” he said. “I guess the reaction was a little hasty.”

Aspin toured San Diego as the guest of Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego), who has been instrumental in revealing waste at Miramar. The visit was scheduled before the firings, said a Bates aide.

The slouch-shouldered, bespectacled Aspin--once an economics professor--is considered one of the nation’s authorities on the military. He began his tour with a color guard ceremony and a drive around the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

At one point, military commanders tried to impress Aspin by calling over a new recruit from Wisconsin. The young man, 11 weeks out of high school from Eau Claire, was asked if he could identify the visitor in the light-colored suit.

“No, sir!” said the new Marine.

Without missing a beat, Aspin, from Madison, tapped his shoulder and said, “I’m a congressman from Wisconsin, but not from Eau Claire.”

“Yes, sir!” said the new Marine, his eyes widening with surprise.

Commodore B.L. Boland, one of Aspin’s hosts during the day, said it was important to show the committee chairman the military’s contribution to Southern California.

“That’s the only way he can have a feel of how ready the Navy and Marines are in Southern California,” said Boland. “And I assure you we are ready. That’s our business--readiness.”

Later, Aspin inspected Nassco ship-repair facilities before heading to Miramar and a drive down the runway. He took a close look at an EA-6B (an airplane used for jamming electronic transmissions), then chatted briefly with a roomful of white-clad commanding officers from the Navy Reserve.

Before leaving the base and going to the Convair plant to inspect a cruise missile, Aspin declined to comment on charges made by Bates that there was enough fraud in the Pentagon procurement program to cut the military’s spare parts budget by 30%.

“The point is, it ought to be corrected, regardless of whatever percentage it is,” said Aspin.

“It ought to be corrected for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it is important for defending the country because the defense dollars are not going to be so available in the second Reagan Administration as they were in the first.

“And if we’re going to make them go as far as we should, we need to spend them very carefully,” he said.