Pentagon Wastes $100 Million on Airfare

W A S H I N G TO N, June 8, 2004 -- The Department of Defense spent at least $100 million for airline tickets it did not use, a new congressional report found, even as some troops serving in Iraq were forced to dip into their own pockets to get home on leave.

The report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said the unused tickets, purchased since 1997, were fully refundable, but the Pentagon never asked for a refund from the airlines. The report will not be released until Wednesday, but ABC News obtained a copy.

In just two years, 2001 and 2002, the Department of Defense bought 58,000 airline tickets that were never used, the report said. The trips were canceled or changed. The Pentagon brought another 81,000 tickets for trips that were only partially completed, it found.

"Millions of taxpayer dollars are just out and out wasted." said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee."The department comes to us and asks for more money, money that it needs to prosecute the war and support our troops, and yet at the same time, the department is wasting money."

Soldier Feels Let Down

As the government sat on millions of dollars in unused tickets, some soldiers on leave from Iraq were forced to pay part of their way home.

Staff Sgt. Chad Crandall of the North Dakota National Guard says he spent $405 in airfare in order to get home last October. His family could have used that money to help out with family expenses, he said.

"It kind of lets you down a little bit," Crandall said, after hearing of the GAO findings.

His wife says the government has a responsibility to the troops.

"It makes me sick to my stomach," said Heidi Crandall. "My husband is over there fighting and there should have been money that he should have been able to come home with."

Since that time the Pentagon has said it will reimburse the soldiers for this out-of-pocket expense, but Crandall says he has yet to see any of the money.

The GAO report also found that the Pentagon had no system in place to track unused tickets, and that it was totally unaware of the problem until the GAO audit.