What's the most important thing the military should do while going through this downsizing period?

Good after noon I would suggest instead of going thru the I went to college and I'm an officer look at me process you take a career minded service member and after there 10 mark start the shuffle process like the total soldier concept deployment leadership traits etc and promote in to the officer roles stop pulling in college kids off the streets with no knowledge of how to lead a group of soldiers down range or back in the rear that's great if you graduated you start from the bottom and work your way up. Also get rid of the good ole boy/girl systems certain places still due that ie 3rd I'd etc a lot of toxic leaders where made in the past 12 years due to deployments ppl going and answering questions at a board in stead of looking at how effective are you as a leader person etc fix that and you will have a great military

Get rid of useless soldiers and not soldiers that make a difference

Read things no one cares about.

Follow the money: Military Contract Awards.

Administrative / Congressional Transparency allows you see which branch is living in the Penthouse or the Basement.

The most interesting feature of this "downsizing" is the method that the Army has chosen to undertake this endeavor. We all hear reports of the widespread downsizing of NCOs' and Officers Billets. Adding insult to injury they are often choosing to do this to deployed soldiers.

I was curious and sought out some of my friends serving in the Navy/Marines and Air Force and heard that they are taking a very different approach to the Army. When I asked my friend, a AF Colonel about cuts his answer was simple. "Everyone saw this coming for a long time so the Air Force sought to honor the service of its members by natural attrition, offering cash incentives including early retirement for those eligible and cutting those who cannot meet the standard; not through throwing out Airmen who volunteered and chose to serve in a time of War."
It left me speechless and wondering why the Army leadership did not have the same opportunity or effort in constructing a respectful considerate method of naturally thinning the ranks. The Naval Officers I spoke with expressed the same sentiment "We want to retain that priceless wartime experience and planned to retain all those in our ranks who performed well." Now I am aware that this is not a representative sample but the words of a few select AF, Naval and Marine Officers but what struck me is the fact that I have never heard a similar dialogue in the Army about planning to keep everyone whom has performed well and served honorably. In fact quite the opposite, I have been told by Officers/Staff at Human Resource Command (HRC) how the Army was "caught off guard and did not see this coming". It is true the Army has more cuts to make being a larger service but it is fairly obvious that they did not adopt the approach of retaining that "priceless experience of combat veterans" as the other branches of our military. The question is why?

Create a transparent process that is fair.
No special preferences, influence peddling etc. Base promotion and retention purely on merit, training, education, maintenance of excellent soldier skills.

Get rid of those who have UCMJ etc first.
Then those who wish to leave. I am always amazed how the Army kicks out many who want to stay and hangs on to those who don't want to be there.

Train, train and train some more. And create jobs for our veterans.

Train, train, and train some more. And provide employment for discharged vets.

The most important thing the military should do while going through this downsizing period is to continue to take care of soldiers and families and not break trust with them or with America. Rather than hand "pink slips" to soldiers that are deployed or returning from deployment, which in my mind is a break of trust, the leadership should implement incentives for early retirement and allow the force to downsize over time with natural attrition until force structure targets are reached.

I understand the date of this post and the criteria. If I had to advise a Commander or Staff as an NCO, the single most important thing that must be considered is that the target of downsizing is the same Service Member, no matter what Branch, volunteered to Serve. Remember that we recruited because our Forces needed numbers at one time and the need was met by volunteers. Remember that one day may come that numbers will be needed again. Downsize with the same care and emphasis used in the recruiting process down to the lowest level of Command. When we remember the Service Member, everything about the downsizing process will line up and the objective of downsizing will be met without consequences.

I feel that the military needs to adjust the mindset of spending all of the budgeted money to ensure it receives the same funding the next fiscal year. It causes unnecessary waste, and does not reward leaders for meeting the mission with less money.