Military Airshows and BP: Polluting the Environment for Fun

The BigOil cartels have committed premeditated murder against the dying Gulf of Mexico and, having done their part in melting the sea ice at the top of the planet, are now aiming their lethal gaze at the Arctic Ocean. They have gotten off with a slap on the wrist for mortally wounding the Gulf. The corporate criminals in the oil business are back to business as usual.

Just like most of the above the law corporate powers that were in charge of the Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukashima nuclear power disasters (that contaminated massive amounts of soil, water and air and killed off or sickened uncounted numbers of children and other living things) the institutions that had reassured us sheeple about the safety of nuclear energy or deep water drilling were knowingly taking huge risks, among them the possible extinction of life on the planet, especially us easily brainwashable “little people” (AKA, “the untermenschen”, in the original German).

Not only that but, also like Chernobyl and Fukashima, the corporate elite that were responsible for the British Petroleum and Halliburton disaster had no plausible contingency plans on how to handle the worst-case scenarios. In other words they knew there were huge risks for the massive poisoning of the oceans but, with their fingers crossed, these elites went full-steam ahead anyway.

Taking Lethal Risks With the Planet for Fun and Profit

As was true with the bigwigs responsible for those nuclear disasters, the three major bunglers of the Gulf disaster (British Petroleum, Transocean and Dick Cheney’s Halliburton) were being richly rewarded for gambling, for high stakes, with the long-term survivability of the planet because of the potential for huge corporate and shareholder profits.

The guilty CEOs and the top management types (where “the buck” no longer stops) are well protected from the wrath of a justifiably angry public. They hide behind boardroom doors, avoid public transportation in their chauffeured limousines and private jets and are defended in the court system by their raft of well-paid shyster lawyers. So, happily for them, they don’t have to worry about being brought to justice or doing jail time for their crimes, and, unindicted for their corporate crimes, they can even run for president of the US, whereas in other eras they would be imprisoned, or at least, tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

Most of these elite corporate CEO criminals have “golden parachute” clauses in their contracts; so, no matter how disastrous their performance during their tenure, they know that they can retire at any time – in disgrace or not - with their ill-gotten billions stashed away in tax-free havens and Swiss bank accounts to sustain them and their over-privileged, spoiled families for the rest of their lives (like Mitt Romney).

These predators know that they will be able to live out their privileged miserable and miserly existences behind gated community walls, with food-tasters and well-paid, heavily-armed bodyguards at the ready.

In the corrupted American capitalism that epitomized the 20th and early 21stcenturies, corporate fat cats, banksters, war profiteers, predatory vulture capitalists (like Mitt Romney) bought, looted and shut down innumerable domestic manufacturing plants and shipped them overseas for fun and profit. And they were allowed to do that looting by their BigBusiness-bought-and-paid-for Congresspersons, White House and Supreme Court, all of whom deemed them too big to be allowed to fail or even criticized. And it was all legal, albeit obscenely unethical.

BP is one of the major suppliers of jet fuel for the Pentagon

Despite contrary public opinion, BigOil’s lobbyists have bribed right-wing, pro-corporate Congresspersons to limit BP’s and Halliburton’s financial liabilities for the “Gusher in the Gulf” by shamelessly introducing and passing protective legislation. And the military/industrial complex is involved in protecting their business partners as well, since the Pentagon’s biggest supplier of fuel is British Petroleum (a non-American, multinational corporation).

Which brings me to the next topic: Military Air Shows.

The history of toxic petroleum pollution of the previously pristine, fertile and life-giving waters of the Gulf of Mexico didn’t just start with BigOil’s deep water drilling or the BP/Halliburton disaster. The famous US Navy’s precision stunt pilot group known as the Blue Angels have been contaminating the Gulf of Mexico since 1946, well before they established their current base of operations on the shores of the Gulf at Pensacola, Florida in 1954. The two other Blue Angel Gulf Coast bases were at Corpus Christi, Texas (1950 – 1954) and Jacksonville, Florida (1946 - 1950.

JP-5 jet propellant is highly toxic

The jet propellant (JP-5) that is used by most military jets is actually a refined kerosene that contains a mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), some of which are known carcinogens (cancer-causing) as well as being liver, kidney and immune system toxins.

The post-combustion exhaust from jet engines is a known toxic pollutant of air, water and soil and is poisonous to animal, plant and aquatic life.

The military personnel who handle jet fuel through exposure to the raw fumes or engine exhaust can easily develop chronic ill health because of the toxicity of VOCs.

But those two factors aren’t the only disturbing reality of military air shows. Jet fuel is also commonly dumped, raw and unburned, into the atmosphere prior to the plane’s landing.

Blue Angel pilots have been dumping raw jet fuel over the increasingly polluted Gulf of Mexico for decades

When jet pilots are preparing to land their planes, they often release much of the remaining fuel in their fuel tanks, retaining just enough to make a safe landing. This maneuver decreases the possibility of a dangerous fireball if there was a crash landing. In the case of most airstrips, the fuel is discharged over land, but in the case of airstrips near a body of water, the fuel is often dumped over water, where it is less easily detected by human victims who otherwise might complain about the fumes. In the case of the Blue Angel daily practice sessions near Pensacola, that body of water is the Gulf of Mexico.

The military justifies doing this fuel dumping maneuver to “save lives”, an excuse that is repeatedly used by the Pentagon to justify many military operations, no matter how lethal to the environment or to innocent civilians who might be near the combat zone. The Pentagon often states that it will spend any amount of time, money and effort to ensure the safety and survival of even a single US pilot or soldier and therefore justifying the routine dumping of raw fuel into the sea or over the land.

The sobering economics of military air shows

The fuel consumption data for the Blue Angel and USAF Thunderbird air shows that seem to occur every two years here in Duluth seems to be a carefully guarded secret. And for good reason. The sobering facts are well-hidden partly because it would surely dampen the enthusiasm for all but the most uber-patriotic ticket-buyers.

The aviation industry does say that JP-5 jet fuel costs 2-3 times more than automotive fuel. That means that at the current $4/gallon at most American gas stations, JP-5 costs between $8 and $12/gallon!

A few years back the Blue Angels headlined the air show in my hometown, Duluth, MN. A Duluth News-Tribune journalist was given a publicity ride a day or so before the show. He said in his newspaper report that the fighter jet he rode in burned 1,200 gallons (8,000 pounds) of jet fuel per hour. In 2012, a gallon of JP-5 costs the military between $8 - $12. At $10/gallon, an hour of flying would cost $12,000 per jet! And there are 6 jets in each Blue Angel performing team!

We’re talking big bucks here, even if the fuel costs less that $10 per gallon and the jets get 800 gallons per hour. One wonders if escalating fuel costs are one of the reasons that neither the Thunderbirds nor the Blue Angels are flying in Duluth this year.

The reporter also wrote that the single commanding officer of the Blue Angels was required to fly a minimum of 3,000 training hours in order to qualify for the role of commander. The other team members, just to qualify for the team, had to fly 1350 hours. It was noted at that time that there were a total of 15 pilots that were team members, although only 6 performed at a time. The team members, subs as well as prime time flyers, apparently practice their highly technical and dangerous maneuvers virtually every day to keep their skills honed.

As of 2006, there had reportedly been 230 fighter pilots since the Blue Angels started their stunt-flying for audiences. Since the Angels began flying, about 25 of their pilots have died in crashes, which means also that at least 25 multimillion-dollar planes have also been senselessly demolished (this figure does not take into account the planes that crashed while the pilots successfully ejected) . In recent years, 70 US military air shows have been presented annually at 35 or so sites, with dress rehearsals the day before each performance. Blue Angel pilots, when they are not on tour, practice their routines year-round over the Gulf at their Pensacola, Florida base of operations.

Now for more math

Tens of millions of gallons of precious $10/gallon jet fuel are used up for our amusement

Using the figures gleaned from the journalist mentioned above, the 3000 hours of simply training the single Commanding Officer for the Blue Angels, as much as 3,600,000 gallons of jet fuel was burned up (3,000 hours X 1,200 gallons/hour)! This figure does not include the fuel consumed during the practice flights or the actual shows, only the training to become commander.

The 1,350 training hours for the non-commanding officers on the team (at one time there were 15 pilots on the Blue Angels team) consumed 1,620,000 gallons for each pilot's training (1,350 hours X 1,200 gallons/hour). Multiply that by 15 pilots and you get 24,300,000 gallons of fuel just for the training (apparently there are less than 15 pilots on the Thunderbirds teams). At today’s costs of jet fuel, say at $10/gallon, for every new Navy pilot who aspires to become a Blue Angel, the costs to the US taxpayer will approach, from now on (if BigOil has anything to say about how much they will try to gouge the Pentagon), $16,200,000 per pilot! And this is just for the JP-5 fuel used in the training but not the airmen’s salaries or the tens of millions of dollars that each jet costs.

But that isn’t a fraction of the total cost of air shows. If you aren’t already appalled at those enormous numbers, I challenge anyone to calculate the fuel costs for the 70 shows/year and the dress rehearsals before each show, plus the continuous training that goes on almost every day of the year. Then add in the fuel used up in the flights to and from Pensacola (or Las Vegas in the case of the Thunderbirds), the support crew's C-130 transport plane that carries all the repair parts and the 120 military men in the supply and maintenance crews. The jets, of course, have to fly for hours to and from each air show, which often requires complex in-air refueling with a fuel-guzzling tanker. Enormous amounts of Pentagon time, effort and expense is spent on the scheduling, promotion and coordination that is required to put on these shows that have, in the past, occupied 8 months of every year. The costs to the American taxpayer are incalculable, but surely it is in the tens of billions of dollars per year.

Using up increasingly scarce fuel for our amusement

This weekend (September 22-23, 2012), a Canadian military stunt pilot group will perform instead of the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds. There will be a host of foreign military planes, stunt planes, stunt planes and parachutists, all squandering increasingly scarce and increasingly costly petroleum products for purposes of entertainment.

I suppose that I am poking a hornet’s nest with this reality check on what, admittedly, are thrilling shows for all adrenalin junkies, but I can’t help it if fans of air show fans are rarely given the opportunity to think critically about the real costs of the machinery of war.

However, it’s time that we Americans stop to consider these inconvenient truths, because we live in a world of rapidly dwindling fossil fuel resources that our corporate, political and military misleaders in Wall Street, BigOil, the Cheney/Bush White House, Congress and the Pentagon secretly used as their motivation to illegally and aggressively invade two sovereign nations that had not attacked us.

The ill-advised decision to go to war in the oil-rich Middle East has resulted in two disastrous, unaffordable wars, in which tens of thousands of military men and women have been deceived into believing that they were fighting for America's freedom rather than our misplaced national honor or for corporate fat cats who profit economically from wars. Too many servicemen and women are now physically, neurologically and/or spiritually dead or wounded or are emotionally dying every day, not for democracy, but for sociopathic corporations and politicians who are cunning flag-wavers and lapel pin wearers of the stars and stripes but obviously care not one whit for the post-war well-being of their "cannon fodder" warriors

The dead and dying veterans of virtually every war throughout history often enlisted out of a sense of patriotic duty but soon found themselves working at less than minimum wage (often not even getting hazardous duty pay) for the corporate war profiteers who then invariably abandoned them when they came home crazy, wounded and disabled and therefore having to fend for themselves - or die trying.

America's soldiers, airmen, seamen and Marines work for a whole host of greedy war-profiteering corporations that, with the help of their propaganda machines (ie, the mainstream media), make enormous amounts of money on the sacrifices of others, but who abruptly stop their support when the body bags come home. Perhaps acknowledging these painful truths will eventually set us free from the nefarious war-mongering, get-rich quick schemers on Wall Street.

The main purpose of this column is to reveal a few hidden truths about military air shows and the coming energy and environmental crises that are routinely censored out of our consciousness by the feel-good media that chooses silence or vagueness about the costs of war when courageous clarity is what is needed.

So, this weekend, as we Duluthians stare, in heart-pounding wonder, at the breath-taking and highly lethal air power, hopefully we will also be thinking about the many downsides of these energy-wasting air shows that are inadvertently doing their part in bankrupting the nation and the planet, both financially and morally.

So when we see and smell the colorful chemtrails that are sprayed behind the planes (remember that condensation trails [contrails] only show up in the freezing temperatures at 20,000+ feet of elevation and that the smoky trails behind low level planes consist of unknown chemicals and are not ice crystals of frozen water vapor) or when we breathe in the toxic clouds of exhaust or wonder whether or not excess jet fuel is being dumped into our beloved, increasingly polluted Lake Superior, we also need to think about the health of our dying lakes and our poisoned planet that we are shamefully leaving for our children.

And we should be worrying about what our children will think when they finally see the mess our misleaders in Wall Street and the Pentagon have left for them to struggle with.

What did you do in the wars (for oil), Daddy?

We need to start now, thinking about what we will say when our children and grandchildren ask us in some future decade, “Daddy, Grandpa, what did you guys do in the Cheney/Bush/Obama wars for oil? Did you do your part to conserve fuel and thus do your part against war and for peace? “Did you support or resist the US fascist/imperialist elite’s stated goal of “Full Spectrum Military Domination”, the “weaponization of space and the militarization of the domestic police?” “Did you see to it that BigOil and the trillion dollar/year Pentagon did not continue their fuel wasting and war-mongering programs?” “Did you protest the massive wastage of fuel and boycott the Air Shows that were offered for fun, profit, amusement, recruitment and propaganda purposes?”

Some of our children in the near future will angrily ask us: “Why can’t I afford to buy gasoline or home heating fuel like you did back in the good old days?” “Why did your generation squander precious oil resources when scientists were warning you that the earth was running out of it - unless you started switching to alternative forms of energy?” “Why are there such long lines in front of the gas stations, and why does it cost $10 a gallon?” “Why did the corporate criminals like British Petroleum and Halliburton get away with environmental rape and murder of the Gulf fisheries when they were obviously doing so?”

Hopefully we won’t have to sheepishly admit that ”I participated, to my shame, in America’s extravagant and unsustainable lifestyle by my silence, my ignorance and my complicity. I blindly thought that the Pentagon’s continued overuse and wastage of fuel for my amusement was worth it, and I didn’t want to concede that one of the reasons behind military air shows was the recruitment of impressionable young boys and girls by getting them to think that war is glorious rather than gruesome. I’m sorry now, but I wasn’t taking the environmental crisis, the Peak Oil crisis, the squandering of fuel or the endless wars seriously back in 2012.”

Such an apology will surely be regarded as pathetically inadequate and way, way too late.

Gary G. Kohls writes a weekly column in the Duluth Reader Weekly warning about war, extremist politics, the epidemic of violence, the rape of the earth, BigBusiness, fascism, the malnourishing Standard American Diet and the dangers of BigPharma’s neurotoxic synthetic drugs, among other issues. His essays are frequently republished on various websites world-wide.

© Scoop Media