Throwback Thursday: In 1974, Navy Spent $1.1 Million to Fly Officers to Private Event

As the country was amid an energy crisis, in September 1974, the U.S. Navy used 64 aircraft to fly 1,334 officers to the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas for a reunion of the private Tailhook Association.

The flights cost more than $191,000 in taxpayer funds — $1.1 million in 2022 dollars — and “squandered 347,000 gallons of fuel in the midst of the most severe energy crisis the nation has ever faced,” Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, said.

He gave the Navy a Golden Fleece award in September 1975 for wasteful and nonsensical spending. The Tailhook Association is a non-profit fraternal organization, supporting the interests of sea-based aviation, including aircraft carriers.

The chief of naval operations authorized the flights, which had nothing to do with changing of stations but were simply to fly people to a private, non-governmental event.

“The giant airlift was of such magnitude that it required the assignment of 13 Navy personnel for ground support and administration,” Proxmire said.

Planes left for Las Vegas from California, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Virginia, Louisiana, Nebraska, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Washington D.C.

“This utter disregard for tax dollars and complete mockery of the national energy program can only be described as calculated stupidity,” the senator said then. “The generals and admirals should spend a lot more time in the Pentagon and a lot less time in Las Vegas at public expense.”

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