The Sandbag Times Issue No: 20

NEWS
Pilot Killed as WW2 aircraft crashes
into Hudson River
Police divers and Army Corps of
Engineers personnel retrieved
the wreckage of a World War II
plane from the Hudson River
between New York and New
Jersey on Saturday after the
vintage aircraft crashed during a
promotional flight, killing the
pilot. The P-47 Thunderbolt
crashed Friday during a
promotion for the American
Airpower Museum, which is
celebrating the 75th anniversary
of the P-47 this weekend. Scuba
divers recovered the body of the
pilot, 56-year-old William
Gordon, of Key West, Florida,
about three hours after the crash.
Gordon was a veteran air show
pilot with more than 25 years of
experience, according to
promotional material for a Key
West air show last month. The
website for the April air show
VA still plagued by delays in
veterans’ care
The Department of Veterans Affairs still has
not done enough to stop employees from
manipulating veterans’ appointment waiting
times, and the agency isn’t giving an accurate
picture of the delays in veterans’ health care, a
nonpartisan watchdog report said Monday. The
Government Accountability Office found that
the Veterans Health Administration is plagued
by “the lack of comprehensive scheduling
policy” that makes it difficult for officials to
identify and fix the problems. GAO looked at
180 newly enrolled veterans at six VA facilities
nationwide, and found that 60 had not been
seen by providers at the time of the review.
says Gordon was an "aerobatic
competency evaluator" who
certified performers to perform
low-level aerobatics. The P47-
Thunderbolts were the heaviest
single-engine fighter planes used
by Allied forces in World War II.
They first went into service in
1942, with the 56th Fighter
Group based on Long Island. To
read more about the P47
accident please click here.
Canada military
recruiting forced
to lower standards
Canada’s military is having to
accept new recruits who are
fatter, less educated and harder
to motivate than previous
generations because quality
applicants are in dwindling
supply, an internal Defence
Department audit has
concluded.Despite an end to
combat operations in
Afghanistan and deep budget
cuts, officials say the military
needs more than 4,000 new
recruits each year to offset
attrition and keep 68,000 fulltime
troops in uniform.
According to the audit
conducted last year but only
recently made public, Canadian
military recruiters are expected
“to encourage dedicated
individuals, who are mentally
and physically fit, towards
military service as a career of
choice.” However, the
department’s auditors found that
“recently, this has been an
increasingly difficult
challenge.” Changes have come
since major cuts to defence.
Read more here.
Canadian Forces
Indigenous entry grads
enjoy military life
A class of young people who
have just completed the
Canadian Forces Aboriginal
Entry Program say most of
them are planning to enlist in
the forces full time. Nineteen
students from seven provinces
and the Northwest Territories
graduated Friday from the
three-week Canadian Forces
recruiting program in Halifax.
The program allowed
participants to sample military
life, including living in
barracks, doing physical
training, and learning things
such as basic weapons training,
boating skills, and emergency
simulations. Read more here.
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