Ongoing problem even now. Most depot folks are civilians who work for some flavor of L3, Dyncorp, etc. They are union labor, so if it isn't during their normal workday, or if it isn't specifically in the contract, it isn't happening. Every command I've been in has had jets on the books (like significant numbers) that were in depot for my entire 3 year tour and I never once saw them. I think this is the biggest factor in the recently heavily publicized aircraft shortages that all the services are reporting. We own the assets, but the ones we need on the front lines are in a decade long backlog at the depot because we can't un F our contracts or the money we are willing to pay them to do the work. But moving to a primarily contractor based work force has surely saved money in the bean counters minds in their holes in Washington.
