What Difference Does it Make - by Lee McGarr (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What Difference Does It Make? is a true story of one individual who still believes in the democratic system that is now being stripped away from the honest American, and the struggle this one person went through to attempt to preserve it. With over seventeen years with the FAA and numerous excellence awards with cash bonuses, my career ended up being fired for "lack of candor" in my refusal to reveal what I had provided to the FBI after the retaliation began from my testimony in Washington DC, and the continued attacks. A complete lack of true management ability and training, including to the accidents of two FAA aircraft involving pilots who saw the corruption and the near fatal accident that were all set up by unscrupulous maintenance personnel at the direction of FAA management. A continual string of fraudulent contracts, all for just under $10,000,000 that happened to coincide with the limit of which the DOT/OIG would be required to audit.

The majority of the story takes place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center. Here, a group of "managers" who care for nothing other than their own gratifi cation and stolen wealth manipulates the budget, contracts, and contractors to their own best interest, leaving the American taxpayer to foot the bill! The fraudulent activities of FAA management completely turned my life upside down immediately after I testified. The few true friends who in two cases emerged from the woodwork to assist me during the worst time of my life came shining through. From professed good friends to a wife and on to a business partner who turned on me when they felt they could gain from my loss. At the time of testifying against the FAA, I had no criminal history, no bankruptcies, and a perfect credit history. My purpose is now to educate the American taxpayer as to what was and is occurring within the FAA after the FAA Re-Authorization Act of 1994 was signed into law by President William Jefferson Clinton.

The Federal Aviation Administration has a budget that grows faster than the national debt, and we the people will receive nothing for it. Managers, if you wish to call them such, manipulate funds and budgets for their own personal gain and sell the American taxpayer a bill of goods. From our Mexican nationals who are in top management positions to the inspector who is told what to find on accident investigations, the system is broken all due to in part to the Congressional Act in 1994 that allowed the FAA to operate without outside supervision. How many times have you heard on the news after an aircraft accident or incident, "The FAA is investigating?" Did TWA Flight 800 really have a leaking fuel cell? The factual data shows a completely different story. This story goes from the investigations to the death threats of this one individual and the near accidents that beset him to his rapid termination! "He will be long in a pine box before he ever recovers anything from us!"

I would like to state a great debt of thanks to Larry Benson, Mark Hendrix, Lois Ballard, Jack Vance, and especially to Clifford MaGee. Had it not have been for these five people; the outcome may have been dramatically worse.