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

a. To retain the best personnel, OER and NCOER
evaluations should not solely be based off rater and senior rater’s outlook on
your performance. Peers and Subordinates
should have an influence on your OER and NCOER. These ratings from peers and subordinates should also be completely anonymous. Also, have mandatory bottom blocks to have a clear distinction between top performers and bottom performers. Perhaps a bottom 25% block
included. Have standardized test required for promotion, specific degrees for
specific fields in the Army, or standardized certifications that have to be met
prior to graduation from military schooling. Have mandatory quarterly or bi-
annual counselings (dependent upon rank) submitted along with the OERs and NCOERs. It should also be digitally signed to create
transparency. Also, perhaps a standardized test should be implemented in
accordance with the MOS along with promotion boards could help retain technically proficient personnel. There should also
be multiple objective measures that should be utilized ie pt test, range
scores, standardized tests, civilian certifications, etc.

b. Require baseline certifications upon graduating
from AIT. Most Signal soldiers don’t
have the baseline certifications to perform their daily jobs, ie Security plus.
This is counterproductive. Also, IT contractors
should be required to have the CISSP or CCNA and should be specified on their contracts. Baseline certification such
as the Security Plus does not determine a person’s competence but ability to
memorize large amounts of information.

c. Have a centralized server to save large amounts
of data and have virtual servers at multiple areas to provide redundancy. This would be similar to the implementation of
Enterprise email. If you are going to
ban external hard drives and USBs, have an alternate solution to transfer
information from one government device to the other. This will be cheaper than having supply purchase hundreds of CDS for the Companies, Battalions, Brigades, etc.

d. Chapter soldiers that are overweight and can’t
pass the PT test. 

e. Outsource contracts that cost less than soldiers
performing these tasks. There are a lot of hidden costs involved with deploying
soldiers or moving soldiers from one place to the other.  IE: If it cheaper to outsource an operation by all means do it. PCS moves, Family separation
pay, BAS, BAH, liability insurance, health insurance, etc have to be accounted
for. If the opposite applies, than soldiers should be performings these tasks.

f. 401k implemented to Soldiers that just
joined. A grandfather clause for
everybody that joined after it was announced to the public.


g. Remote log in software should be utilized for
every local administrator at your BN S6 or BDE S6 shop. This will improve
efficiency and cut down on wasted time it takes to remediate trouble tickets.

h. User friendly websites. Perhaps have these created
by reputable corporations since most of our websites are not user friendly, ie
Google. We created the internet but it was enhanced in the civilian world. Also, when improving these websites internet security and encryption of these websites should always be accounted for. Have a webiste for personnel, supply, maintenance, etc  consolidated onto one page. This will cut down on costs as we have to many websites that we use on a regular basis. I log in on 3 or 4 everyday.