What's the most important thing the military should do while going through this downsizing period? 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. Tip: Get all your friends to vote Up your response by the end of the contest on Oct 7, 2013.

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

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LTC (Join to see)

Posted >1 y ago

For soldiers:

-If you want to survive the cuts I'll recommend - Look at themselves, are they mission ready, no flags, passed Ht & Wt, this is a period to put on your best soldiering. Get on only good list not bad ones.

-Look at your military career path. Are you in one of those being cut? Ask a recruiter or someone in the know what they are offering bonuses for or are still recruiting for, consider a switch.

-Consider a backup plan. Do you have 6-10 years in? Consider the Reserves or National Guard. You can maintain being in the military, continue to collect good years towards retirement, and retire at 20+. Plus since 2006 the reserves has been offering Health Insurance. Once the draw down ends you may be able to go active again depending on the climate.

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SSG Mike Angelo

>1 y

Maj Lance,

This is the familiar course to take. Our Soldiers are coming home to a different world, so there is lots to prepare. My opinion is that one can never prepare enough.

Guards and Reserves are a great option.

US Postal Service is another, Police and State Trooper Academies are designed for the veteran also.

If you are an officer and NCO, look at ROTC programs in colleges to work. You can still wear your uniform to work there.

CONUS will get hit real hard before OCONUS IMO. People coming back will probably not recognize the old posts. When I came back to the world in 1980, Ft Dix, NJ was a ghost town where I took Basic just 4 years prior.

I just heard that the Hilton Hotels nationwide are planning on putting up veterans so they can find jobs.

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SFC Matthew Parker

Posted 11 y ago

Cpt Kletzing,

I went through the first down sizing after the Gulf War and based on that experience I would say don't reinvent the wheel.

Don't change NCOER formats

Don't change uniform and appearance regulations

Don't change PT tests

Don't use this time as an opportunity to just change things or reverse things we changed to make manning goals. You allowed tattoos on the necks and hands, you were wrong so deal with it. Just fix it now without a major disruption to those you allowed in.

If were going to get smaller fine, retire those eligible

Medically separate those hiding in the training room with injuries and conditions

Chapter PT and weight failures

We need to reaffirm ourselves to the basic principles of war fighting, look and adjust our MTOE and integrate the new battle tested equipment down to the platoons.

Update NCOES course outlines and add those topics we had issues with, battlefield stress management, suicide awareness and team leadership.

But above all, be patient and wait for our manning levels and budgets to stabilize before we decide to start changing things.

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SSG (Join to see)

Posted 11 y ago

The first thing they should focus on is finding out exactly who wants to be here. Starting with a voluntary separation, weed out who wants to stay and who wants to go. Once you find out who is really committed to this organization by heart and strictly not by MSO, focus on performing maintenance and rehabilitation on the Soldiers who have issues or could have potential issues who could make them ineligible for continued service and reinforcing our organization. If no ground can be gained, then Big Army should sweep forth with their involuntary separation.

We also need to start strengthening our mentorship programs. Some leaders rely entirely on NCOPDs and Sergeants' Time to coach and mentor, which in reality just cheats our Soldiers.

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SFC (Join to see)

Posted 11 y ago

Don't loose "combat focus"!

We may be downsizing or force in Central Asia, but make no mistake we are at war. And will continue to be for the foreseeable future. We need to trim down, but keep the combat-experianced soldiers we have. Maintain high standards, I'm not talking about soldiers who go to school in their spare time, compete in Soldier of the Month or parade ground soldiers.

I want studs who are smart, motivated, outside the box thinking, killers. Extremely proficient at their job, very fit, self-starters who can operate with minimum supervision. I could care less if they do not fit height/weight standards, if they have a high APFT and can ruck…keep them!

Sadly I suspect it will be the opposite, we will fail to retain the guy with 4 combat deployments, a PH and the ability to lead men in difficult circumstances. But keep the NCO who punched all the right tickets, knew the right people and has only one deployment as a staff guy making coffee in a Bde Toc. Sure he can correct people as the right way to wear their reflective belt, but when everything is going sideways is a soup sandwich.

I have noticed a almost "longing" among some senior Officers and NCO's to return to the 1990's garrison Army. I guess the lessons of TF Smith in Korea has again been forgotten.

One of these days we are going to fight a enemy that will close with us, who can neutralize our air dominance (thru technology, numbers or maybe the USAF will just drop the ball) and we are going to be sending a hell of allot of boys home in body bags. Unless we keep our act together and remember the US Army is not a social experiment for politicians to tinker with. Nor a bunch of toy soldiers who exist to get GO's promoted.

RLTW!

AATW!

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MSG (Join to see)

Posted 11 y ago

I don't need an iPad, but I would love to see them revamp eligibility and processing of the med boards. There are too many soldiers that are unable to do their job and are stuck on my books for years waiting for med board results. In my experience 4 out 5 soldiers I see in the med board process were not wounded in combat. I see an incredible amount of gamesmanship in the attempt to work the system and get paid. Case in point, one of my soldiers just received 100% disability rating and was working a full time job. $3000 disability a month for a soldier working a full time job. My gut tells me there is big money coming out of the VAs slice to pay a lot of folks that are fully capable of working.

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SGT(P) (Join to see)

11 y

Agreed!

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MSG (Join to see)

Posted 11 y ago

I don't need an iPad, but I would love to see them revamp eligibility and processing of the med boards. There are too many soldiers that are unable to do their job and are stuck on my books for years waiting for med board results. In my experience 4 out 5 soldiers I see in the med board process were not wounded in combat. I see an incredible amount of gamesmanship in the attempt to work the system and get paid. Case in point, one of my soldiers just received 100% disability rating and was working a full time job. $3000 disability a month for a soldier working a full time job. My gut tells me there is big money coming out of the VAs slice to pay a lot of folks that are fully capable of working.

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SFC Dennis Leber

Posted 11 y ago

Having served on active and reserve duty, also working as a contractor at HRC Ft. Knox, one thing I see that seems to be forgotten during any changes are the people. Downsizing means folks losing the way they pay bills and feed the family. This must not be discredited. Keep and train the best, but keep in the back of your mind they're still people. Two basic principles of leadership; mission accomplishment and troop welfare. Ask yourself how your doing on these? self reflect. manage the processes, procedures, people, and money together, do not just be a manager of money.

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Suspended Profile

Posted 11 y ago

The Military depends too much on contractors. Department of Public Works for example. The vertical construction Engineers can do most repairs on post. Engineers don't do a lot in terms of MOS training from what I have experienced. Especially in certain MOSs in the branch. I am a 12R which is an Interior Electrician. I sadly don't remember anything from AIT because I have only done this specific job twice. I mainly do 12W work which is Carpentry/Masonry. I am familiar with this type of work, however I would like to do more of my MOS. If we got rid of some civilians, a lot of Soldiers not well versed in their jobs can train and become more proficient because the civilians hired by the government to do the SAME job will be gone. Why pay civilians more for work that can and should be done by soldiers? We can be self sufficient if we tried to be. That would save a lot of money as well. And with that, I would suggest the Army put more time and money into some of its AIT training like the Air Force. My MOS training is only 5 weeks, I think the Air Force equivalent gets 16 weeks of training.

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11 y

That's what I'd like to see for Soldiers during the downsizing, efficient training for technical jobs :)

SGT (Join to see)

11 y

Absolutely, SGT Johnson!

I think it's absolutely silly that many of our Soldiers train for "Jobs" they never get to do in Garrison because the Government hires Civilians (and worse - overpaid contractors) to do them... and then we have other Soldiers that DO their job in Garrison (such as graphic designers, which I used to be) but then in the Field, they get shuffled to do something almost totally unrelated (like operating a radio or running cables)

If we started training ServiceMembers as though they were ACTUALLY going to have to DO their jobs, and do them WELL... and we held them to the highest standards when they DID their jobs... then we could develop a highly-trained corps of fine craftsmen, who were also ready at a moment's notice to pick up a rifle and put a bullet in the enemy's eye...

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SFC Stephen Hester

Posted 11 y ago

Training. It doesn't always take a lot of money to conduct quality training. I know Soldiers who complain of "just sitting around" in garrison. Break out your TA-50 and Warrior Tasks and Drills and TRAIN! Even if units can't get as much time in the field or on the range there is no reason why Soldiers cannot remain as proficient as possible on the Soldier and MOS tasks. If Soldiers are sitting around complaining about doing nothing then the obviously have plenty of training time available. That's a tremendous opportunity for a creative NCO to take some initiative.

The current situation demands different thinking and proactive leadership if Soldiers are to remain combat ready. Complaining about not having any money is a cop out.

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SFC Rocky Gannon

11 y

SFC Hester I totally agree!!! I remember in the early to mid 90's during the draw down I took my squad just out back of the barracks and conducted training. You can always find training devices that want cost money. Trust me I deal with the training seats every day for formal training and know those dollars are not as plentifully as one time. But be resourceful and ensure your soldiers are trained.

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SGT (Join to see)

Posted 11 y ago

I think the first line of people to go should be the Soldiers that want to go. After that the ones who need to go, ie APFT Failures (more than 1), overweight, etc. Then the ones who don't WANT to get promoted. I am sure everyone knows at least 1 in each category in their Unit that fits this description.

By offering the Soldiers a choice to get out that would weed out the ones who would later be the ones not wanting to get promoted but are holding back the one who want to get promoted. Walking around post I hear daily "be glad when this contract is up so I can get out of this stupidity" or something similar. Ask them first and there will be many who take it.

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SGT (Join to see)

11 y

I agree with you SGT Evans,

I hear Soldiers all the time saying they want out... can't say I really understand their logic in such hard economic times, but still... If they want out, and we're looking for people to put out, it sounds like a Win-Win!

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