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

 I 100%  agree with  MSG Alex Petty, Fort Bragg, NC  I think that he has the most refined answer I've seen on here THIS WAS HIS STATE INSIDE THE QUOTATIONS

"I believe that keeping tuition assistance funded and available while ensuring that the Noncommissioned Officers Education System and the Officers Education System are current, relevant, and meaningful will keep the spear sharp. The two previous/current wars have been executed with great precision as accomplished in part by the greater level of responsibility placed upon the Strategic Sergeant (Newell 08) and the On the Scene Commander. The critical thinking skills of our greatest instruments, our Soldiers, should not be allowed to dull, but instead should be sharpened with better training, schooling and appreciation of their ability to wield additional responsibility.
The military is the only business that puts so much responsibility and risk onto its newest members. Its leader’s lookout for their training and education would be the least they could do as one day those Strategic Sergeants and junior lieutenants will be the leaders of our military and need to be able to think critically for roles of greater responsibility, as well as the caring for the new junior Soldiers in which they are leading."

THIS IS MY ADDITION TO IT:

If they are going to downsize they might as well keep the education going on those left so that when it is time to move forward and strengthen the ranks again the training will be more advanced and will achieve much greater success when we are deployed in shorter time frames. At least that would be the hope. I mean isn't that what we've been taught our entire lives. The key to success in anything in life is an education. For those Soldiers who do want to stay or get to stay whether they are Officers,NCO,Enlisted,Reserve,etc..,

Start upgrading their education, new methods of training in and out of combat situations. This will save our Gov't time & money with the shorter deployments. Also, Instead of shipping all of that equipment to where ever we are deployed and then leaving it there because its too expensive to ship back. At least try to sell it to other Countries and regain some of the money and put it back into the military budget so that we are not the ones to lose our pay first when Gov't closures happen. There is ZERO reason and there should be a zero tolerance policy for leaving all of that expensive equipment over there. Recoup that money by selling it to the contractors or the countries we are in even at cost. The military can be self sufficient if we learn to cut our own spending within. I am a reservist and I would love to be an enlisted. I've asked to be full time for the last 6 years. Some recruiter was always giving me a reason why I couldn't. But, I am good at my job. Keep those of us that want to stay and train us. I've been passed over for rank for the last 5 years and I still re-enlist lol I love the Army, PERIOD. they have to stay in shape, do their jobs, no corrective actions, at least nothing serious, these kids that are right out of High School that want to join for just 2 or 3  years just to say they were in and aren't really serious about it. It is just like in the Civilian world, low man on totem pole goes first unless they qualify better than some one else that has been there longer. Downsize but first we are a Military Family all of us world-wide need to start being more frugal. If we could just retain that money within we would be so much better off.

Rethink its priorities, reorganize and reload with an eye toward the future with a limited budget, a adversarial, agenda driven administration and a knowledge that we are never fully at peace. The next "Surprise!...We're at war" moment will once again require a rapid build up, so put into place a military that can quickly ramp up and down without breaking its focus on warfighting and at the same time detrimentally affect the lives of its men and women by a promise of a career that cannot be supported.