Caldera Resigns Over Air Force One Photo Op Mishap
Director of the White House Military Office leaves because of furor over incident over New York
Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, resigned Friday in the wake of the furor over an Air Force jet's photo shoot over New York City April 27, the White House announced.
In addition, President Obama asked his deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates or his designee "to jointly review the organizational structure of the White House Military Office and the reporting relationship of its components to the White House and the Air Force, to make recommendations to him to ensure that such an incident never occurs again," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.
An internal review of the incident found that Caldera didn't pay much attention to the evolving details of the flyover and failed to make sure that the public was informed of it in advance.
Many New Yorkers were frightened by the flyover and believed it might be another terrorist attack like the ones on 9/11. Some evacuated buildings as the 747 jumbo jet, which is designated as Air Force One when the president is aboard, and an Air Force fighter escort flew low over the Manhattan area in an effort to get publicity pictures with the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks as backgrounds. The White House released one such photo, of the plane flying over the Statue of Liberty. The cost of the 747's flight has been estimated at $329,000.
In his resignation letter to Obama, Caldera said, "I have concluded that the controversy surrounding the Presidential Airlift Group's aerial photo shoot over New York City has made it impossible for me to effectively lead the White House Military Office. Moreover, it has become a distraction to the important work you are doing as president. After much reflection, I believe it is incumbent on me to tender my resignation and step down as director of the White House Military Office."
Reader Comments
Idiots
Why not just digitally impose the plane's over a background shot of the area? I can do that for less than a buck!
Heck, give me the $325,000 and I will even make a true life video with 3D!
Caldera
Can anyone spell "SCAPEGOAT?" I believe the ONLY time when the plane is referred to as "Air Force One" is when the president is actually ON it...How does that change one's thoughts on this matter?
Air Force photo op.
Just shows what happens during a slow press month. For one, the Air Force requested this photo because some general wanted to highlight the Air Force's connection to the White House because of the popularity surge of the presidency. It was an oversight for sure, but way hyped up including the price of the operation, $329,000. Who cares?
Sure 329k is a significant amount of money, but pales in comparison to the billions/trillions of dollars that we spend on unnecessary pork barrel defense systems like the F-22 Raptor or SDI. What shocks me about this so called fiasco aka lazy reporting by US media is that the plane that flew over NYC was the president's spare Air Force One jet. Yes, there are two. Why are we paying for 2 planes for the President when he/she can only use one at time?! If it costs $329k for one photo op, then one can only imagine what it costs to maintain this unnecessary extravagance. Sorry Dick Cheney, but the VP should have to fly 1st class commercial or private jet. There's simply no reason to have two identical Jumbo Jets for the president. When Bush visited Iraq a few years ago, the Secret Service sent an empty Air Force One as a distraction while the President flew in a Gulf Stream. The relatively small Gulf Stream Jet was beautiful and provided the president all of the amenities that he required including an office to fly across the world. I'm sorry Air Force One, but both Jumbo Jets should be retired and a much more efficient and eco-friendly American made Gulf Steam should be the new Air Force One. Then the American people might be able to afford a spare plan for the president.
Worse yet, the U.S. taxpayers are spending 10's of billions of dollars to develop a new helicopter (Marine One) to transport the president from the White House to Air Force One. I know that the we all want the President to look good, but we Americans should remind ourselves that the presidency is not royalty and only will be serving 4-8 years. If we cut the defense budget down to systems that we really need for defense rather than offense, and cut back ridiculous expenditures for the U.S. president's travel, then maybe we could provide universal health care and vitalize our urban areas without raising taxes.
If you're still not sold on my arguments, then I dare you to research how much spending has increased on the US presidents vehicles and travel since the days of Ronald Reagan (who authorized but never used the current jumbo jets). If you draw a graph on the spending for transportation from JFK until now, then project it out 20-30 years, you will see that something has got to give. Before any of you right wing opportunists jump on Obama about this issue, the blame is evenly spread to both parties.
We Americans literally spent trillions to win the cold war with the USSR and China. It's about time that we all started receiving our peace dividend.
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