Having been through the Clinton years, and taking the RIF in ‘96, I HAVE seen this before. They didn’t “Officially” ground them, but they didn’t have spares, and some flying was down to less than 3 hours, A MONTH, barely enough to maintain cert.
When Kosovo came, they were cannibalizing stateside aircraft to the bone, to keep the aircraft in Italy going. The rebuild line at Nellis actually stopped for weeks, (full pay, of course), due to lack of parts.
Send them all home.We have not used them for years.
I remember those years well (especially having been in ACC), and cannibalizing was certainly occurring, but 17 squadrons at a time takes this to a new level.