Last edited Sun Nov 18, 2012, 05:15 PM - Edit history (1)
They have three years of experience with the program--they started with 200 souls, and quickly expanded the program to 800 when they saw the revenues that were enjoyed as a consequence.
"Friends of MacDill" is what other commands have done, only on a much larger scale because the installation has some prime facilities and because 80 percent of the military population of the base lives OFF-base, not on the facility. It's an effort to do outreach to the place where most of the service personnel (to include foreign military assigned to the base) live. Also, many civilians volunteer to help the military with Quality of Life undertakings like outreach to vets or wounded warriors, and the access helps with coordination.
It has nothing to do with Petraeus, or Allen, or Kelley, or Broadwell. It's an installation commander's solution for a vexing MWR shortfall, that has the added benefit of building community ties, and it had to be approved all the way up the chain to the USAF Secretary as an ADMINISTRATIVE fix for a fiscal problem.
Ms. Kelley wasn't meeting these generals on the base, you know--she was meeting them at soirees off base. Weekend parties. EVENING parties. We don't even know if she golfs. Her social climbing would not have depended on a base pass, not by any measure.
The FOM program, too, is a DAYTIME program, designed to bring in revenue to the O-Club and the golf course. I can guarantee you that if the program ceases, the first people who will suffer are the junior enlisted, who won't enjoy subsidized amusements at the MWR tix/tours shop or at their club/bowling alley, etc. However, your link simply says that the "annual review" of the program has been moved up owing to the attention that it has received. I'll bet they keep the program. I'm betting that it's worth at least a quarter of a million, conservatively, a year in MWR revenues. The O Club alone gets $163K p.a. with just dues--not having to do anything to make that money.
If not for the juxtaposition of one single member of this program to this scandal, it would continue on happily and no one would have noticed it--it's nothing more than a base moneymaker, because Congress does not fund NAF instrumentalities, and they haven't for many years now.
The behavior of the generals is a separate issue. I know people not familiar with the military can't see the distinction, but not everything is a conspiracy, and this program is nothing more than a way to pull in cash for non-appropriated funds efforts.
FWIW, Kelley didn't get her MacDill pass until AFTER Petraeus left MacDill--but she was throwing parties for the bigwigs--AND Dave and Holly Petraeus-- well before the program was even initiated. By the time she got her pass, Petraeus was gone from FL and in Afghanistan--so it is very likely that she DID know the family for five years or more, particularly since the photos making the rounds of her with them are from way back when he was assigned to MacDill and on active duty--in 2009 or thereabouts--and he assumed his assignment at MacDill way back in 2008. She was probably a member of the Welcome Wagon. She certainly became close with Mrs. P, from all accounts, down the years.
You're talking apples and oranges, here, or, more appropriately, putting the Friends of MacDill cart ahead of the Throwing Parties for the Petraeuses Horse. Kelley was entertaining Petraeus (and his wife) way back when he was a general assigned to MacDill, way before she was admitted to this Friends program (which, again, happened AFTER he left the base).
General David Petraeus kisses Jill Kelley after accepting community service award presented at Kelley's home during the summer of 2011.
From left: Gen David Petraeus, Scott Kelley and his wife, Jill, and Holly Petraeus are shown at the 2010 Gasparilla parade in Tampa, Florida. Photo: Tampa Bay Times
Kelley and her sister with Holly Petraeus...and is that Holly's daughter?
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