White House: Staff Use of Helicopters (Letter Report, 07/14/95,
GAO/NSIAD-95-144).
In response to several congressional inquiries concerning the use by a
White House official of a military helicopter to visit Camp David and a
golf course on May 24, 1994, GAO sought information on helicopter
flights by White House staff in instances where the President, the Vice
President, the First Lady or the wife of the Vice President was not
traveling. Since 1976, the Marine Corps' HMX-1 Squadron in Quantico,
Virginia, has been responsible for providing helicopter support to the
White House. According to HMX- 1 manual records, approximately 1,200
flights were flown to support the President, Vice President, First Lady,
and heads of state during the 16 months prior to May 24, 1994. These
records indicated that, as previously disclosed by the White House,
staff members flew 14 times without the President, Vice President, First
Lady or heads of state during the period in question.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: NSIAD-95-144
TITLE: White House: Staff Use of Helicopters
DATE: 07/14/95
SUBJECT: Helicopters
Authorization
Executive agencies
Air transportation operations
Presidential appointments
Military aircraft
Federal employees
IDENTIFIER: HMX-1 Helicopter
Naval Flight Record Subsystem
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Cover
================================================================ COVER
Report to Congressional Requesters
July 1995
WHITE HOUSE - STAFF USE OF
HELICOPTERS
GAO/NSIAD-95-144
White House
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
NAVFLIRS - Naval Flight Record Subsystem
OMB - Office of Management and Budget
WHMO - White Houst Military Office
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-261222
July 14, 1995
The Honorable Roscoe Bartlett
The Honorable Newt Gingrich
The Honorable Bill Clinger
The Honorable Dick Armey
The Honorable Dave Camp
House of Representatives
In response to several congressional inquiries concerning White House
officials' use of a military helicopter to visit Camp David and a
golf course on May 24, 1994, the White House provided information on
14 helicopter flights by White House staff in instances where the
President, the Vice President, the First Lady, or the wife of the
Vice President was not traveling. You asked us to (1) independently
determine the frequency of helicopter flights by White House staff
from January 21, 1993, to May 24, 1994, and (2) ascertain whether
applicable White House procedures were followed in requesting and
approving the May 24 trip.
BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1
Since 1976, the Marine Corps' HMX-1 Squadron, located in Quantico,
Virginia, has been solely responsible for providing helicopter
support to the White House. The Squadron is specifically tasked to
fly the President, the Vice President, the First Lady, the wife of
the Vice President, and visiting Heads of State. White House staff
may be authorized to use HMX-1 helicopters when they are directly
supporting the President, the Vice President, and the First Lady or
conducting immediate White House activities. Manual records of
flights undertaken by, or in support of, the President, the Vice
President, First Lady, the wife of the Vice President, or Heads of
State, are maintained at the Squadron's Quantico facilities.
The Squadron also supports the Marine Corps' Combat Development
Command and various Defense schools located at Quantico and provides
a number of helicopter test and evaluation services to other Marine
Corps organizations.
DID THE WHITE HOUSE STAFF USE
HELICOPTERS FREQUENTLY?
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2
According to HMX-1 manual records, approximately 1,200 flights were
flown in support of the President, Vice President, First Lady, and
Heads of State during the 16 months prior to May 24, 1994. These
records indicated that, as previously disclosed by the White House,
staff members flew 14 times without the President, Vice President,
First Lady, or Heads of State during the period in question.\1 We
performed several tests to independently verify the completeness and
accuracy of the HMX-1 manual records. (See a detailed discussion of
our methodology below.) Our work did not identify any additional
White House staff flights. We found a high degree of conformance
between the automated database maintained by the Navy and the Marine
Corps and used to track and manage all naval aircraft and the manual
records maintained at HMX-1. Based on the results of our other
tests, we are also reasonably sure that the HMX-1 records we reviewed
were complete.
--------------------
\1 In examining the HMX-1 records, we found that the great majority
of White House staff flights were at the same time as flights of the
President, the Vice President, the First Lady, and Heads of State.
WERE APPLICABLE PROCEDURES
FOLLOWED FOR THE MAY 24, 1994,
TRIP?
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3
White House Military Office officials must approve all HMX-1
helicopter travel by White House staff. There were no written
procedures detailing how such flights are requested or the criteria
used to approve flights.\2 We were told that the infrequency of
helicopter use by White House staff made written policies and
procedures unnecessary; each request had to be reviewed on an
individual basis. The former Deputy Director of the White House
Military Office stated that he approved the use of an HMX-1
helicopter for the May 24 trip and for the majority of the other 13
trips previously disclosed. A request for helicopter service was
made orally well in advance of the May 24 trip, and approval was
given orally. The former Deputy Director also told us that most
requests and their approval were oral.
--------------------
\2 According to a White House memorandum dated May 31, 1994, the
approval authority for staff's use of military aircraft was raised to
the White House Chief of Staff or the Deputy Chief of Staff. If a
request involves the Chief of Staff, the White House Counsel or the
Deputy White House Counsel must approve it.
WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4
In commenting orally on a draft of this report, White House officials
generally agreed with our report. Their few specific comments have
been incorporated into the report where appropriate.
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5
To determine the frequency of helicopter use by White House staff, we
reviewed approximately 1,200 manual records (HMX-1 After-Action
Reports) of flights by or in support of the President, the Vice
President, the First Lady, and Heads of State. An after-action
report is filed by the pilot after a flight has been completed. The
report includes a list of passengers and an itinerary, identifies the
flight crew, and is retained by the HMX-1 White House Liaison Office,
which is located at Marine Corps Squadron, HMX-1, Quantico, Virginia.
Among the after-action reports we examined were the 14 flights
previously reported by the White House as the only flights taken by
White House staff when the President, the Vice President, the First
Lady, or a Head of State was not on board. According to officials
from the White House Military Office and HMX-1 and an Associate
Counsel to the President, the after-action reports we reviewed
covered all White House-related flights between January 21, 1993, and
May 24, 1994.
We performed several audit steps to independently verify the
completeness and accuracy of HMX-1 files for all helicopter travel.
First, we compared the President's itinerary, as reported in the
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, with HMX-1 after-action
reports. We then listed instances in which the President had
traveled but no after-action reports existed. A White House official
then provided us documents from the Presidential Diarist and the
Secret Service. These documents verified that the President had used
other forms of transportation on the days in question.
We then asked Marine Corps Headquarters, Arlington Annex, Arlington,
Virginia, to provide us a portion of the Naval Flight Record
Subsystem (NAVFLIRS) database in an effort to find the flights
identified by the after-action reports we reviewed at HMX-1. This
database is part of a larger automated flight record system used by
aircraft managers to track and manage all naval aircraft flights.
Records are maintained within this system by individual aircraft,
home squadrons, and flight dates. The NAVFLIRS database is
maintained by the Navy and the Marine Corps, using flight information
provided by pilots after each flight. The automated data we obtained
covered 6,120 flights of HMX-1 aircraft from January 21, 1993,
through May 24, 1994. We found 93 percent of the flights recorded on
the manual after-action reports in the NAVFLIRS database. We were
unable to match 7 percent of the manual records that we reviewed at
HMX-1 with the NAVFLIRS records. According to Marine Corps
officials, the automated system was not completely accurate due to
keypunch errors. Errors in any of the three key data elements--date,
home squadron, or aircraft number--would preclude a match with the
Squadron's after-action reports we reviewed.
According to a Marine Corps official, pilots are supposed to assign
an HMX-1 Squadron-specific mission purpose code to all flights for
logistical support of an executive aircraft, as well as to all
flights by White House staff that are not directly associated with a
flight of the President or Vice President. During our review of the
previously reported 14 White House staff flights, we found that 10
had the Squadron-specific mission purpose code. We therefore
attempted to find any staff flights not previously disclosed by
searching the NAVFLIRS database for all flights with that specific
mission code. In our search of the NAVFLIRS database, we found an
additional 72 flights. Of these 72, 34 had been reported by HMX-1
pilots in their after-action reports, but 38 flights had no
after-action reports. Because it was unclear whether after-action
reports should have been included in HMX-1 records, we asked for
clarification. We ultimately confirmed with White House and HMX-1
Squadron officials why the
38 flights with the specific mission code were not included in the
manual records we reviewed at the Squadron. Examples of the purposes
of some of the flights with no after-action reports include flights
to and from the contractor for maintenance, flights to aircraft test
facilities, and flights to support the President's travel.
As one last check that the Squadron had not inadvertently omitted a
flight from the after-action records we had reviewed, we interviewed
52 pilots who had previously flown a White House mission during the
16-month period being reviewed.\3 In the presence of officials from
the White House and the Squadron, we asked the pilots if they had
ever flown a White House mission without filing an after-action
report. The pilots stated that they always filed an after-action
report when they flew a mission in support of the White House.
To ascertain whether applicable White House policies were followed in
requesting and approving the May 24 trip, we interviewed a former
Director and a former Deputy Director\4 of the White House Military
Office and an Associate Counsel to the President. We also reviewed
White House and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policies,
including memorandums on how White House staff were to request and
approve military aircraft, OMB Circular A-126, OMB Bulletin 93-11,
and a classified procedures manual for the operation of HMX-1
helicopters.
Our review was conducted from August 1994 through May 1995 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Appendix I provides information on the stated purpose of the 14
helicopter flights identified by the White House as trips taken by
White House staff.
--------------------
\3 The 52 pilots interviewed represent 67 percent of the pilots
assigned to the Squadron from January 1993 through May 1994. The
remaining 24 pilots are no longer assigned to the Squadron and were
not interviewed.
\4 There were two Directors and two Deputy Directors of the White
House Military Office during the period January 21, 1993, to May 24,
1994. The current Director and Deputy Director (now titled the Chief
of Staff) assumed their responsibilities in November 1994 and March
1995, respectively.
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :5.1
Unless you publicly announce the contents of this report earlier, we
plan no further distribution of this report until 5 days from its
issue date. At that time we will send copies to interested
congressional committees, the Assistant to the President for
Management and Administration, the Director of the White House
Military Office, and the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget. Copies will be made available to others on request.
Please call me on (202) 512-5140 if you or your staff have any
questions about this report. Major contributors to this report are
listed in appendix II.
Mark E. Gebicke
Director, Military Operations and
Capabilities Issues
HMX-1 HELICOPTER FLIGHTS
OFFICIALLY REPORTED BY THE WHITE
HOUSE
=========================================================== Appendix I
Date White House officially stated purpose
------------------ ----------------------------------------
Apr. 29, 1993 Orientation of the Assistant to the
President with the communication system
on the helicopter and at Camp David and
the secure facilities at Camp David.
June 21, 1993 Orientation and training of the new
Deputy Director of the White House
Military Office (WHMO). Included tour of
the Quantico/HMX-1 facilities.
Sept. 16, 1993 Multiagency emergency medical training
exercise for support of the President.
Nov. 16, 1993 Classified military training at a secure
facility.
Feb. 25, 1994 Pre-advance site survey of U.S.S. George
Washington.
Mar. 4, 1994 Orientation of the new Director of the
WHMO with the facilities and emergency
action procedures for the President.
Mar. 7, 1994 Multiagency training exercises for
support of the President.
Mar. 14, 1994 Multiagency training for support of the
President. Second phase of March 7
training.
Mar. 15, 1994 Classified military training mission.
Apr. 14, 1994 Classified mission.
Apr. 15, 1994 Secretary of State foreign policy
address for Senate Democratic Members.
May 12, 1994 Review of U.S.S. George Washington.
May 22, 1994 Advance team's preparation for
President's arrival on U.S.S. George
Washington.
May 24, 1994 Briefing on and inspection of classified
construction sites at Camp David and
golf course visit.
------------------------------------------------------------
MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS REPORT
========================================================== Appendix II
NATIONAL SECURITY AND
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS DIVISION,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
-------------------------------------------------------- Appendix II:1
Sharon Cekala, Associate Director
Robert Eurich, Assistant Director
C. Frances Coffey, Evaluator-in-Charge
Beverly C. Schladt, Evaluator
James J. Ungvarsky, Computer Specialist