Political Quotes

“Every day men and women from Travis Air Force Base fly the big C-17s and C-130s and other heavy, large aircraft into harm's way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and over and around Syria. Every day they are at risk. They are at risk from being shot down by a shoulder-fired missile. There is a defense for this. It is called the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures defense system. It is one of the unfunded requests that the Air Force has made of us. This amendment would fund at least part of that request and provide a higher level of safety to the men and women in the Air Force that fly these large aircraft into harm's way. I don't think there is one of us here on the floor, in the House, or even in the Senate that would deny that flying these aircraft into the airfields of Afghanistan, even into Bagram, and certainly into Baghdad, is always safe. It is not. There is a proliferation of these shoulder-fired MPADS, and they are increasingly available to the bad guys, who our men and women are trying to take out.…”