Patrick Air Force Base is in Brevard County.

"Headquartered at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, the 920th Rescue Wing is the Air Force Reserve Command's premier combat search and rescue (CSAR) unit. The wing consists of over 1,500 Airmen, trained and equipped to locate and recover U.S. Armed Forces personnel during both peacetime and wartime military operations."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/920th_Rescue_Wing

You don't think they 'actually spend $20k on a hammer, $30k on a toilet seat, do you'[1]? If this is not an error, I think we just found the best justification I've seen for making all budgets/purchases etc. in government publicly available via API, as this and the ones below are amazing finds.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/quotes?item=qt1534129

Not to excuse it all, because I'm sure there's plenty of waste and fraud, but sometimes militaries/governments need things that are more robust than the seemingly just-as-good civilian alternatives.

Why doesn't Curiosity run on a Dell Inspiron? Why can't the President drive a used Honda Civic? Why can't the drone programs just retrofit toy helicopters?

(Hint: there are good answers to all of these questions.)

I've always found this West Wing clip interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9kH_HOUXM

As another point, the book Burning Money from the Chairman of Reagan's Committee on Cost Control, J. Peter Grace:

"The Federal government is Burning Money and it is your money. An actual case. One day the US Navy decided to buy a hammer, the kind you buy for $7 at the corner hardware store. To the $7 cost of the hammer, add: $41 to order the hammer and figure out how to use it. $93 to make sure the hammer worked. $102 for "manufacturing overhead. " $37 to make sure there were spare parts for the hammer. $3 for packing the hammer for shipment. $90 for the contractor's general administrative costs. $56 for the finder's fee. $7 for the capital cost of money. The U.S. Navy ended up buying a $7 hammer for $436, and who paid for it? You."

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Burning-Money-Waste-J-Peter-Gra...

Jefferson county in WV did pay $189 per a latrine though...

I can't find the 20k hammer or the toilet seat.

It's a quote from "Independance Day" explaining how the us govt was able to keep the funding of area 51 secret.

I think the quote is not the main thrust of the GP point - but it's pretty hard to make any sensible comments with billions in hardware being given away.

> There is no way a county of ~500k people could need 61 helicopters, rght?

Need has nothing to do with it.

Well,they needed 3 Kiowa(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_OH-58_Kiowa) & a lot(54) of Bell UH1-H's.....How do they afford to maintain a fleet that big?

Imagine, or hope?