Posted on Apr 1, 2014
Should the military start cutting the civilians during this downsizing?
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This downsizing is getting ridiculous. The Pentagon has no problem cutting the military's legs out, saying that we are the reason so much money is being wasted. But what about the civilians? They get paid enormous amounts of money to do exactly the same job as us, but don't have to be to the same standards. Case in point: while I was deployed, a construction worker with a company on my COP made roughly 9 1/2 times more than my base pay, was unequiped, unarmed, and not trained as we were. He was the lowest paid guy there, too. If we got over ran, I would have to risk my life to save his because he had no weapons to defend himself with. Thoughts?
Downsizing
Civilians
Budget
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 17
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Daniel, you make a good case. It's difficult to see the civilians make more to do nearly the same duties. I believe the cuts within the DOD should be proportional to the population of service members and civilians. I think that would be much more equitable.
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Here comes the heat... My opinion is, before they start cutting a Soldier that the Army and American people put time and money into for training, lodging, food, clothing, education, ect. that they should cut civilians. My personal opinion is that we dont need 75 percent of the civilian force that we have. Also, why would they cut Soldiers to save money? Civilians make much more money than we do, especially deployed civilians. Also, many civilians are rude and are not eager to help so I tell them if it werent for Soldiers then you wouldnt even have a job. So to answer your question, YES cut the civilians. Thank you for your time.
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Sgt Vance Bonds
May I add, I think we do need to down siaze. You're correct. But cut the Contractors and replace THEM with military and or Civil Service as It used to be. If more cuts are needed then go after the Civil Service Side. There should be a logical progression. Don't cut because you think there rude. Most are Veterans.
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MSgt (Join to see)
SFC I agree with you on the cutbacks. Currently I am a contractor, in my specialty there are only three of us in the entire country of Afghanistan. We travel all over Afghanistan to different cops training soldiers. I see different contracting employees who have become stagnant in their jobs. Their focal point is only about money, they have forgotten their real purpose to help the military. They are rude, arrogant, and have in general a piss poor attitude. The military combined with the companies needs to rotate these people out, or come up with some sort of vetting system. This is my first tour as a contractor, I have five combat deployments, 9 years Army, 10 years Air Force as an JTAC with a SOF background. I believe as an contractor you have to earn the command staffs respect, and work with them not against them. With that being said I don't know to many people who can teach a class on how to call in an air strike, then turn around and teach the military how to use its own equipment i.e. Radios, Daggers, weapons, map reading, and basic combat skills. From what Ive seen the NCOs need to worry more about training their troops to be combat proficient, and the leadership backing the NCOs in this. The military has bigger problems than contractors, and yes I am still in the service as an MSgt 7 level JTAC.
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Absolutely, I am a firm believer that more money is spent on civilian GS employees than what would be spent if they were to be replaced by Soldiers. Not to mention how many of the civilians have forgotten their purpose to provide support to the Soldier, recently I have noticed this attitude that they feel we are here for them. I pay no homage to a GS employee, nor do I answer or report to them. If the time come that I am required to answer to them, I will quickly request separation from the Service.
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LTC Jason Mackay
Check out my post in the thread. There was conscious effort to cash in those military billets for those auxiliary tasks. If you do it now, and you will, it will be out of hide as BMM and S3U (red cycle). We used to do thing this way in the early 1990s, it sucked.
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