Sandbag,

That's a good story that illustrates a dynamic that most people are not aware of - including me, until now.

It squares 100% with the madness that I observed on the FOBs. The first time that I visited a FOB - in 2005 - was an attempt to secure some lumber in order to build overhead cover for my Soldiers in a newly established outpost that was getting hammered with RPGs and mortars. I could not get any lumber. It was not available in the supply system - or so everyone said. But, curiously, the FOB landscape was peppered with wooden bus stops, wooden stairways leading to wooden rooftop decks, and wooden porches, wooden verandas, wooden gazebos, and - my personal favorite - some aviation unit actually constructed a wild west style saloon. Glad we bought lumber at a fat premium to ensure a handful of pilots could enjoy their midnight chow in aesthetically pleasing and properly-themed settings. I found it amazing that Soldiers had the time, tools, and know-how to build some of those elaborate structures. In hindsight, it was probably contractors - and plausibly the fraud/waste/abuse was committed in a manner similar to what you described. FWIW, I immediately emailed the Army's fraud/waste/abuse whisteblower email. Eight months later, I got a generic "thanks for contacting us."