Tyndall AFB suffers massive damage; including irreplaceable F-22s

a reply to: jimmyx

As if there is no history for hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. The lack of the big one doesn't mean it won't happen. No speed limits for certain places along the coast.

Short sighted but the government doesn't have limits for spending to rebuild like the average person.

a reply to: roadgravel

When you're talking a base, a city, an airport, you build for what's been seen in the area. Tyndall would have come through a weaker hurricane ok. They would have had damage, but not to this extent. That area doesn't get storms this strong, so the base wasn't built to withstand one.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yes, I understand the idea and it is basically done almost every where. Of course the idea of it won't happen was proven wrong. I imagine the plan was fix it if it happens versus prevent it.

a reply to: jimmyx

want to give yourself a major headache, try and understand the different pot of money approach to military spending.


They can have a trillion dollars sitting in pot A with out a single penny being spent out of it that year, and not be able to use it to repair a base that normally draws its funding from pot B without essentially an act of congress. (this is an uber simplified version obviously)

a reply to: Irishhaf

If it was anywhere but Tyndall, I'd say don't be surprised to see it BRACd and everything moved.

a reply to: Zaphod58


Yup Florida has some atrocious representation in Congress, but one thing they are great at (besides doing nothing) is keeping their bases open no matter what.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: jimmyx

They've never had a storm this strong in that area. It went from a category two, which they would have handled, to a category 5 in the 12 hours before it hit the base. You don't build tornado shelters in areas that haven't seen tornadoes, they didn't build hangars capable of handling a storm that's never been seen there.

then, maybe this is a wake-up call for the Pentagon....or if not, at least have a "plan B".....maybe someone already had presented this scenario, and the necessary precautions were dismissed as "fanciful thinking"

a reply to: Zaphod58

To be honest, not many buildings are built to withstand that kind of hurricane. Look at the islands last few years, those hurricanes that devastated PR and VIs went through and devestated reinforced structures. There's nothing the AF could have done. At a certain point mother nature wins.

a reply to: jimmyx

There aren't really a lot of precautions they could have taken as Plan B though.

a reply to: Caughtlurking

There are a few shelters they could build that might be able to have protected the aircraft, but you're right. At some point, all the precautions in the world aren't going to save you.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ivan, Katrina, Rita have all hit about the same parallel as very strong hurricanes and that was just the past decade.

This in my opinion should have prompted Tyndall to make stronger structures.

A cat 5 landfall at that latitude is not unprecedented, Camille was the 2nd strongest hurricane to hit the US.

Had a friend ride out Andrew on homestead the only things left standing were the WW2 hangers if memory serves.

Not much you can do with borderline or full on CAT5 hurricanes.

a reply to: jrod

They've barely had budget to keep aircraft flying. There's no way they would have gotten the budget to build hardened shelters based on other hurricanes hitting that latitude, but not near the base.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: jimmyx

There aren't really a lot of precautions they could have taken as Plan B though.

maybe now there will be.....

a reply to: jimmyx

Not really got to remember the military is still govt run, and even though we badly need infrastructure upgrades neither party does it... why build up the infrastructure on a base when you can buy a shiny new weapons system. (got to secure that retirement consulting gig, that's just my opinion of general officers)

a reply to: jimmyx

It's not so much not having a plan B, as there isn't really a plan B you can have. Hardened shelters might work, they might not. That's about all you can do.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wonder if they pulled the hard to get avionics and easily dis-assembled parts from the birds left behind.
At least they would have something valuable if some of them were totally destroyed.

It is really sad that there are at least 2 that are known to be heavily damaged.

a reply to: charlyv

Even if they're written off they should be able to get a lot off them that can go back into the supply chain. With luck, the cann birds were the ones that took the brunt of it.

Hurlburt loading supplies for Tyndall.

They reduced the minimum evacuation distance to 50 miles, down from 100. Maximum distance is CONUS. They've also increased allotments for families.

God the armchair maintainers have me ready to pull my hair out. One today said they'd be fine with closing both sides of the road for a couple hours to tow aircraft clear.

Another said they transport windmill blades and transformers on trucks near him every day, so there's no reason they couldn't have trucked them clear, especially knowing the storm was coming so far ahead of time.

Many people are saying they didn't move them because they couldn't think outside the box. They should have brought helicopters in and flown them if nothing else.