Posted on Sep 27, 2013
What's the most important thing the military should do while going through this downsizing period?
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As the military enters a significant downsizing period, it's important to talk through relevant issues and solutions. Enter your response below, and if it gets the most Up votes, you win a free iPad Mini and we will personally deliver your thoughts to our Advisory Board, which includes retired Generals George Casey and Norton Schwartz, the recent Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Air Force, respectively.<div><br></div><div>Tip: Get all your friends to vote Up your response by the end of the contest on Oct 7, 2013.</div>
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Downsizing
Downsizing
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 502
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The military needs to not destroy readiness by making pay and benefit cuts to the men and women risking their lives for this great country. The military is already really good at dis-incentivizing re-enlistment by offering horrible pay, and being stingy with promotions, for a job that is rewarding but stressful, and hard on families.
What we should do instead, is increase pay and benefits, improve the educational opportunities, thus making it a competitive job that everyone wants. Right now we just replace one disgruntled person with another warm body, when we should be incentivizing our troops to make a career of it, not because their prospects on the outside are bad, but because their prospects on the inside are amazing.
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The first thing the Army should do is to re position Soldiers so that they can do their jobs as specified in their MOS. Not all civilians are replaceable but I firmly believe that with the amount of MPs in the Service, you would think they would be the ones manning the gates and patrolling the streets on post; let me also say that we can make great use of all Finance, Personnel and Supply Soldiers. If we found them more jobs maybe the promotions wouldn't be as hard for them? I dont have all the facts but it is a thought as a young NCO looking at things. We need to cut Soldiers that have become unworthy and hazardous for the health of a unit, but we also need to reposition everybody to see what we need.
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Top Army leaders must let go of their empires during this downsizing period. Top level DoD culture for the O6+ is always to defend programs to the death. An organization is concerned with the programs within its borders and when it comes time to cut every organization will make a mountain of statements about how broke they will be if they are cut. Across the last decade we have added more and more programs to our pool.
Its as if in 2000 our DoD was made up of 2 fingers. After 9/11 and the contingency funding we added programs and the DoD expanded to 5 fingers. Now we have a nice 5 fingered fist. One war is over, another is winding down and for better or worse its time to downsize. Now instead of taking away the extra fingers and return to pre 9/11 levels, the top officials are fighting hard to protect their empires. Defense statements sound like 'if you cut me by ___% well I've got to chop all 5 of my finger tips off now and my whole hand is worthless.'
In downsizing the top brass must look at the added programs out there that no longer serve a purpose or their purpose is limited (Yellow Ribbon). Funding should be directly tied to readiness. The Virtual Family Readiness Group (vFRG) for example hasn't done anything for readiness and probably has a large contracted force running it.
On the opposite side of the coin top brass should not cut programs they know will cause heart ache and uproar. I can't help but feel that suspending tuition assistance earlier this year was a planned exercise to get Soldiers to call their congressmen.
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Follow orders, remain calm, adapt to the changing standards, and show subordinate members of the military that we follow policy regardless of the outcomes. Live for your troops now put the blinders on and control what you can control nothing more. Do not give into the media or political hype.
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<p>Having retired from the Navy in 1982, I probably cannot speak to the most current servicemen and leaders, but, I do stay current on what is going on in the world. My first concern for the country stems from the errant messages I have read so far from the other responses. </p><p> </p><p>1. The brightest and quickest of the servicemen may or may not be the most dedicated to the country. These two concepts need to be considered apart from each other, during my years of service, as a Senior Chief and Command Senior Enlisted Advisor, I could always depend on the "followers", but not always the "leaders"!</p><p> </p><p>2. Cost effective service has to be the result of more followers than leaders, you get more bang for the buck, so provide better for the followers, by reducing the number of leaders.</p><p> </p><p>3. Do the same at the Officer level, find dedicated young officers who want to be leaders in the military of the greatest country on earth, let them make "learned" decisions, and retire some of the top level officers.</p><p> </p><p>The net result will be a younger, leaner and more dedicated military. As for those who are Bright-Sparks, move them to instructor duty or incentive duty of some kind to keep them, but only if they have passed the "dedicated" standard.</p><p> </p><p>Thank you one and all for your service.</p>
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I feel that their should be waivers for those who have something on their record like myself which is why I was released and I served 4 yr 3 mo which a yr of that was in Afghanistan and have to leave AD.... Not than anyone cares or what not, but its the simple fact that people like myself that loved being in the Army and would give/do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to get back in and be able to wear the uniform again to show to those around me what I really enjoy doing. But I know God will allow me to get back in if it's meant to be!!! And many of days I think of being back in the Army AD and knowing it means alot not only to myself but others more importantly my wife and kids. It's NOT about the paycheck or health care, that is irrelevant, it's about doing a job and doing something you want to do!! However, I may not be able to get back in, but maybe it will work itself out! Godspeed to those going downrange, and may the Good Lord be with you in every step of the way.... Don't forget to thank Him for allowing you to get up each and every day and the food you eat. Because as long as you trust Him, he will provide and PREVAIL :)<div><br></div><div>Thanks</div><div>Sincerely, </div><div>Brian Brown</div>
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I beleive one of the most important things we can do is ensure we are training all of our Soldiers Enlisted and Officer alike to be leaders and ensuring they posses the skills needed to compete in the civilian marketplace. Some of the ways to ensure they are ready are education and training. Military and civilian education are both very important when transitioning to the civilian market. Leadership is a huge reason veterans are hired but they still must meet the requirements to apply for the position that is where education comes in. We need to make sure they are educated trained and prepared.
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Why not combine certain MOSes again? What I mean to say is that we split several MOSes in the past to make room for the influx of new troops. Why not combine those MOSes again. For example, you can take make specialty intelligence like SIGINT or IMINT an additional skill identifier for Intelligence Analysts. That way you have a Soldier that is not only qualified on his/her given job but also multifaceted into another specialty. Additionally, we could stand to lose 60-70% of the civilian contractors now that we are expected to leave Afghanistan. This could help with the Military's funding and make the downsizing less painful.
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teach the soldiers how to properly disengage the mentality they have been groomed into so that they can better function in a normal society when they are released from duty. provide more time for the people that will be let go so that they can adequately take care of the families they have that have depended on the military as the only source of medical and income. help soldiers find homes before evicting them from what they know... dont send broken people into the normal world with the mentality they have had in the military.. because even when they are no longer employed by the army.. the way the adapt in society after serving is still a reflection of how the military groomed the person... dont let them out with a bad idea that the military did not try to help... so that they can still be "all they can be" even when no longer affiliated with the army!
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MCPO Kevin Logan
Transition programs are notoriously weak at accomplishing everything on your list. Service Members don't take transition very seriously either because they often don't understand what they face in transitioning back to civilian life in a culture that doesn't understand and isn't willing to learn the military culture. It is incumbent on the service member to learn their new culture and, as you point out, no one is teaching/learning effectively. It would be a great change of pace to actually effectively prepare transitioning service members.
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Over the years while us The Military rotated through numerous of deployments either to Iraq or Afghanistan; the civilian sector jobs increased on Military Instalations, bigger salaries, more red tape nonsense by catering to the special needs of its civilian employes. I suggest we the Military take over what is rightfully ours and start dismissing the civilian employment and start moving our troops back to peace time occupations Lessening the down sizing in the Military. However, we all know that communication is the key; keep us in formed of the process step-by-step by giving a curtsy to the Military members who are under review for QSP/ QMP and RCP. A letter notifying the individual 24-36 months prior to QSP/ QMP and RCP date; " you are being recommended for, so forth." Our young Soldiers who are not meeting the standards due to drugs, diciplinary over weight and etc... should get bar from reenlisting and forced out allowing other Soldiers with a fighting chance. Incentives for reenlistment must remain in order to stay competitive with the civilian sector, who ever says other wise is a fool. We MUST take care of our own, keep our good Officers, NCOs and Soldiers in our ranks; we are in the family business that the military is a way of life not meant forevery body...
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