The Navy disguised a major base as a $17.8 million communications facility

Evidence

When the Navy was asking Congress for money to build a base on Diego Garcia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, for example, officials tried different justifications over the course of more than half a decade until finally securing Congress’s agreement to provide MilCon funds. After suffering repeated congressional defeats, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird gave the Navy simple instructions to downsize its initial funding request: “Make it a communications facility.” Obligingly, the Navy soon submitted to Congress a proposal for a 17.8 million “communications facility.” However, a closer examination of the Navy’s budget shows that half the cost of the “communications station” was for dredging Diego Garcia’s lagoon and building an eight-thousand-foot airstrip at a facility that featured a mere 800,000 worth of communications equipment. The officially “austere” project featured the construction of a seventeen-mile road network, a small nightclub, a movie theater, and a gym. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 773

Categorization

• SHARE: Send to anyone interested in military budgeting or the Diego Garcia story — the ‘Make it a communications facility’ detail is a striking concrete example of justification gaming.