There is so much here, I could spend the whole day commenting ... but I'm going to let you do that instead.
Click here for the whole thing ... but here is the set-up. Read, ponder, and report - you'll especially like the debt graph, very - ahem - Salamanderesque.
... oh this came out in JUL, and if you want to know why JFCOM died ... look at slide 41.
Hat tip SCPO
49 comments:
It takes an act of Congress to get one more active duty Officer or Enlisted authorized. Contractors are just money. We have been cutting end strength for 20 years or more. For the staffs, it's a shell game, since they just contract out the to do list of the billet cut and (all too often) hire a retiree from a contractor to get the to do list done.
One problem.
The ex CDR or Master Chief works for the difference between his old active duty pay and his retirement check, more often than not. The Navy pays way more than that for his/her services to the contractor. And they saved money how?
Side effect: Skills the ex USN now Contractor Wage coolie fella gained on active duty are no longer performed by folks on active duty. So now the one star and the 4 striper hasn't ever (fill in the blank), will never have to, and can't pass it on. All this frees up time for nit picking correspondence in the chop chain, teacup tempests, and turf wars. Not to mention brainstorming for the fitrep bullet which will be the golden BB on the next selection board.
More and more staffies with more and more contractor helpers get less and less done and far less done well.
Managing by walking about? Isn't that what we hire contractors for?
Turkey trots to water...
We don't have to spend money/time telling people how awesome we are. They just can tell from our snazzy new Smurf-like uniforms. Staffs are too big, ship crews, too small. Education/training is too reliant on computer training and not hands on deckplate learning. The teeth are puppy teeth, the tail is a big ol' dog's tail. Too hard to fix? Not really. Cut a bunch of admiral and captain billets. Use WW2 as the model wrt reports needed, written and even for style. Streamline all of that further with the technology advances that negate the need for all the memos. In the words of Mark Twain, "Eschew surplusage."
Don't forget that "minimum manning" is also eating up budget from all the repairs I get to make...
Interesting read on Gates' drive that ties in with the topic and, I think, is Salamanderesque: Newsweek Story on Gates
Maybe all written communication should be mandated to fit within the SMS standard -- no more than 160 characters.
Well at least they hit some of the key recommendations like "reduce travel" and "reduce conferences". Maybe if they would apply those two to all these diversity awardees and conferences we could save some scratch. Tricare premiums could increase by 100% per year for a family and still be a great deal to all involved. Mandate a reduction of 25% of the SES in the DoD. Eliminate the diversity directorate as has been suggested here previosuly. Eliminate CONUS commissaries- contract with Food Lion, Publix, Bi-Lo etc. Get the dadgummed Navy out from under the HP contract and save billions in that alone. Hard choices require hardened leadership. Sadly we are lacking in that area IMHO.
I know the report is not trying to point fingers, but it's hard not to see from slides 13 and 14 how Rumsfeld, a Republican Congress, and Bush's unwillingness to veto a spending bill took us from a surpluss to huge spending spree.
Note that much-maligned Carter ends with 19 active divisions, 521 ships (second only to Reagan, and close to), and 2700+ TACAIR (again, second only to Reagan)...
Then the Big Shrink between end of Reagan and end of Clinton..
20>10, 573>341, 3027>1666. Yep, peace dividend.
And last but not least, shrinking continues under Bush II, in all sectors apart from land forces:
341>282, 1666>1480. During WARTIME.
From this I took away that the active component of DoD should deploy more and be compensated less in their retirement. Nice.
If Gates wanted to put down a marker - he would lead with your SES idea. Without exaggeration - 2 out of 3 SES I know of are non-valued added. The fact they expect to be treated as GOFO is just insulting on its face.
Yes, start with SES with a parallel reduction of GOFO. If they need help - have SJS, Lex, Skippy and I form LS3 Consulting. We will charge 1/10 what you would pay WBB types and do it better. We will close the shop once the project is complete.
Feel the love, yes?
Great. They recommend less shore duty billets and those should either be taken up by contractors or just eliminated completely. I mean I don't want to be married anymore, I don't want to live anyplace but my little 6x4x4 rectangular rack on USS Neverdocked. Asking where the junior most enlisted is and then stated that 1.1million out of the 1.4 million on active duty are not deployed (or not in a deployable unit). My only question to that is what do they consider "non-military" is that the instructor billets at CNATTU? The folks at NAVAIRDEPOTs? The folks at SIMAs? Who? I mean we have given up in most of our CONUS bases the yard tug and yard services to contractors, billets that use to be used by the QM's, BM's, and others in the black shoe community as a way to relax and recoup themselves between thier tours onboard ships. All of the RAG's and the VT squadrons are all contractor run for the maintenance side with only minimual military oversight. Most of those in the military oversight are RIP's anyways. RIP=Retired in Place, they are just awaiting their retirement package approval.
The comenstation bit is interesting. Though again walk into the way back machine and go back to the 1980 election, when comparing military compentation on a whole vs the civilian world then in almost the same economic world. The US military hadn't seen a pay significate raise since 1969-70. So they were struggling with .5% to 1% difference between previous pay tables. Meanwhile although thier civilian counterparts weren't doing much better companies were learning to get the best people you need to wave the best compenstation package at them. Now some thirty years later business (and the government) seems to believe that those rates are unstainable. I love it the often promised brass ring of "Work hard and loyalty to the brand will get you reward" seems to have lead to the only loyalty is making sure that your a drone in sector 7G and the computer replacement is on its way. People wonder why corporations are hated and others wonder why those with MBA's are often tarred and feathered in effigy.
I was curious about what "SES" was, then when I found it, threw up in my mouth...and I was eating a hoagie:
""What is the SES?" The Senior Executive Service (SES) is comprised of the men and women charged with leading the continuing transformation of our government. This dedicated corps of executives shares a commitment to public service and a set of democratic values grounded in the fundamental ideals of the Constitution. As the leaders of our Federal civilian workforce, Senior Executives strive each day to create a more citizen centered, result oriented Federal Government."
What a load of the brown smelly....
This growth in the SES and Admiral ranks did not occur by accident. As a young OS2 in the 92-95 timeframe at the War College. I sat in many conferences that this growth was put forth as ground breaking and well for lack of better word as intelligent. I so many times wanted to stand up and yell at the time "Are you blanking stupid". This is the type of leadership that has been built and grown upon in our Navy for the past two decades. Then we wonder when we can't built simple ships like the LCS.
I always wonder do this Bubba's putting forth this nonsense have any sea duty time? No self respecting Salt would ever let this dribble come out with their name attached to it.
I gotta stop hitting this site after the first pass, cuz then I just have to comment. (I know, I know, it's my fault) First, as much as it saddens me to say, the draw-down started while Reagan was still President, under then-SECDEF Carlucci. I know as my first (of many) units to dis-establish/decom happened 30SEP88, before the Presidential election. It did indeed go off the cliff post-ODS. I recall the "oh, we'll just contract out everything" briefings as early as the mid-1980's and the general reaction from the Ready Rooms and Maintenance Controls was "this is penny wise and pound foolish to the nth degree." I was briefed inside the Shark Tank, er, Beltway, in the late-90's about what the briefer cheerfully refered to as the "coming manpower train wreck" and that since well over 50% of DoD's budget was for people, then we ought to just cut more and more people. "What about the mission requirements?" "Oh, we'll [insert series of BS Bingo buzzwords happy talk HERE] and that should resolve the issue entirely." Oh really?
Sad to think Son Number One is headed this direction around JUN2012; then again I was a butter bar at the end of Vietnam and it wasn't pretty then, either.
However, this is just a stopgap until long term frozen stowage for living mammals becomes technologically feasible. Then they will just pop you in the deep freeze in peacetime. The off switch on the master panel for the cold troop storage warehouse will be in a glass box, labeled, "In case of war - break glass".
Byron -
That's just BS bingo.
The theory is that very senior government civilians shouldn't have all of the civil service protections (and get paid more than the top end of the GS rates). That's the theory at least....
<span><span>Please look at three of following people that wrote this document:</span></span>
<span><span> </span></span>
<span><span>Chair of the committee is Arnold L. Punaro, a retired Major General in the United States Marine Corps </span><span>Reserve</span><span>. </span></span>
<span><span> </span></span>
<span><span>Fernando Amandi was with </span></span><span><span>US Army Reserves of the Florida National Guard as a Non-Commissioned Officer for 6 years and Co-Chairman of <span>John Kerry</span> for President National Hispanic Council.
<span></span></span></span>
<p><span>Pierre Chao is a co-founder of Renaissance Strategic Advisors and brings over 20 years of management consulting, investment banking and policy expertise in the aerospace/defense industry. <span>ZERO military service. </span></span>
</p><p><span>It’s funny that a retired reserve Major General considers the Active Component retirement “unfair” and a supporter of John Kerry wants to pretty much cut everything military. </span>
</p><p><span>Let’s just go to a conscript military like the rest of the world…and implement Socialism now... </span></p>
I lifetime ago, in a career far, far away while working in a sister DoD service, I supervised contractors. On average, we paid approximately half of the contract as salary to the actual employee, i.e., a $115K/year contractor cost the government approximately $230-250K/year. I never understood how that saved money....
Punaro has been shoveling this sh*t for sometime. I think he's been trying to get back at AC for years for some unknown reason.
I think he was p$ssed he didn't get his 3 Star & Marine Forces Reserve and Dennis McCarthy did. IMHO.
Wow. I knew what they were, but had no idea that they claimed such nonsense. I'm betting that any of them worth a squat would laugh out loud at the description.
And we're still paying over $70 via the supply system for things we can get for $20 at West Marine. No wonder we're broke.
“Is it a dire threat that by 2020 the United States will have only 20 times more advanced stealth fighters than China?”
That quote in particular caught my eye. It is either dishonest political spin (my assumption; even more so, my hope), or a bona fide example of being unfit for duty. The whole claim simply makes no sense when you look at the terrain (particularly the distance), logistics, and weaponry on both sides.
Then, in almost the same breath, he glorifies the LCS, which may be in some respects a greater waste of money than DDG-1000, from which we should at least get some new technology demonstrated.
The sad thing is, while he was successful in killing the F-22 just at it reached the point where new ones could be bought for decent prices, I seriously doubt that he will have much success in removing the entrenched bureaucracy that siphons so much of our military spending into wasteful, unneeded, or even counterproductive actions and salaries.
And, if you are buying something at WM, you are paying a stiff premium...
(its me)
18.95 at goodboatgear...
When you gotta pay for this stuff out of your own pocket, it makes you mindful of such things.
Can I make a prediction:
2030
140 ship Navy
700 TACAIR AF
Huh?
You really need to see a doctor.
"Stiff Premium" does not equate to 364% of average retail. Yeah, WM aint the cheapest on the planet, but some things are beyond ridiculous.
Holy crap batman. Staffs, bloat, layers, contractors and JFCOM redundancy. Who knew? Uh, pretty much everyone for years. Liked the graph of retirements peaking at year 21-22. Duh, that's how it's set up and of course that's where they'll start cutting - already in play. However, comma, the tectonic changes need to take place going forward with new systems to not allow the federal government, with all the 'crats & elected rats, to renege on personnel promises, again. See Indian Wars for a start.
The only way to effectively manage this monstrous beast is to a) dictate reverse layering by 20-25% including forced retirements of GS and GOFO b) reduce the DOD total budget X% (let's say 8-10% to start) YEARLY to force and effect Cost-Benefit changes. Everything else is just a ricebowl.
Re: Poor use of our most expensive personnel - Active duty. A classic. Dang, what a mess.
I hear yah QMC....
Its insane.
But then again, one of LockMart's slogans goes something like:
We Never Forget To Work For the People Who Print The Money...
Pretty much sums up the larcenous acquisitions process.
I remember sitting through a Supply briefing one time - the O6 stated their goal was to get items to us at 120% of cost. Took me a few seconds to comprehend.
They (the progressives) won't bring back conscription cause that would mean thier children would be subjected to the horrible draft and be subjected to those knuckle dragging, idiots, who don't understand that if people just hug and love each other then the need for a military won't be there. All you need is love!
As to the horrors of the reserve and NG retirement bennies, well it use to be way back when (and to an extent in still is someplaces outside of big city influence) that most reserve and NG units were folks from the same county/city/bourgh that got together every Friday night at the Armory. Traded Fishing/Hunting/Camping stories over cups of coffee, dressed in thier uniforms, talked about the respective service, maybe gripe about what it was like when they were still active duty compared today, studied for advancement, the broke for the week. Every two weeks in the summer or every weekend go in do thier business at the closes military installition, try and show up the active duty element and prove they are the better service, go home. Deploy for natural disaters or augment an active duty unit if there was a needed NEC/MOS. That isn't to put down the NG or Reserve forces, but for the most part they were folks who flocked to doing what they could to support the American ideals and were all local folk. They knew walking in the door, that thier job was to augment or assist the "Pros from Dover" and that thier reward would be a long time off. If they didn't well then just like the active duty sailor who shows up to a deploying unit that sailors belong on ships and ships belong out to sea, they need to pull thinking unit from rear unit and get in gear.
I think the other funny thing about all of this is compare and contrast the OSD/DoD from say September 1, 1945 to September 1, 2010. How many level of bureaucracy have been added in the last 30 years (FY1980) at a minimum in an attempt for either create jointness, prevent cost overruns with military systems, or smooth out some other layer of bureaucracy that popped up in some main stream media report as the fleecing of America? It always seems that even in the civilian business world as more layers of bureaucracy are added in attempt to speed things up or cut out the red tape, the more things will slow down, the more expensive that department becomes, and the greater chance of reaching a tipping point where you just can't afford to have everyone. It reminds me of that classic joke about DC where the DoE hired a guy to protect and abandoned urainium mine, and each month they add someone new to make sure the other guy is doing thier job right until they can't afford that cost of supporting an abandoned mine, so in the end they fire the guard.
The trend of retirement pay as a percentage of the total DoD budget is basically flat to declining at 0.007% of the total DoD budget. We are talking less than a rounding error or a contract overrun here. Please look for other places to make real and meaningful cuts...staff weenies, Diveristy Directorate, etc. There is a social contract that needs to be honored.
The data covered the period FY 2001-2010. Not being a staff weenie or PPoint expert, I was unable to provide a chart for your viewing pleasure; however, I can hunt and peck a table.
FY DoD Budget Ret. Cost %
2001 325,000 34.2 0.011
2002 350,000 35.2 0.010
2003 450,000 35.5 0.008
2004 475,000 36.9 0.008
2005 480,000 38.8 0.008
2006 530,000 41.2 0.008
2007 600,000 43.6 0.007
2008 660,000 45.7 0.007
2009 650,000 46.3 0.007
2010 695,000 46.8 0.007
Amounts are denoted in millions of dollars and the budget numbers are DoD off of a graph. Retirement costs are provided by the wonderful power point presentation.
I've worked under an SES2 and he was actually a solid guy. But then he was a retired marine colonel...
The 120% is the 20% that the supply mafia charges you for the services that they provide. Since you pay a mark-up on supplies instead of finite charge in the navy budget this fleecing of the navy is allowed to persist year after year. If I were the DoD king for a day I would cap this amount at 10% and tell the supply community to lean itself/eliminate unneeded services.
Weird question: are the numbers adjusted for inflation or are they numbers from the years they represent?
You may know this laready, but I think it is important to point that that the Gaurd hasn't been that way since the all Volunteer Force came in after Vietnam. At least on the land side, by design, the Active Componant has the basic combat arms numbers, and anything big requires calling up the Combat Support (Army Reserve - I don't recall the number of Civil Affairs troops, for example, we have in the Regular Army, but it isn't many at all - virtually all of them live in the Army Reserve) and additional Combat Arms (the Guard). The idea was to make it hard to go to war without overwhelming support of the American people, because the Reserve and Guard would have to be called up. See how well that has worked since 9-11 (we got away with it in Gulf I because it didn't last very long). The Guard since 9-11 has become a full Operational Force rather than a Strategic Reserve - which raises the question of just what is our Strategic Reserve (I don't think we have one). Meanwhile our commitments don't seem to be getting smaller even as we have halved the size of the Army since what, Bush I? Oh, we've added more to the Army and Marines in the last year of Bush II - what was that 22,000 more Soldiers? Whoop-de-do. Oh, and if you're in the Guard you should plan on being deployed 1 year out of every 5 at least. Great way to have a career (or a marriage) if you're deployed at least 20% of the time. The only employers that can handle that are government or Fortune 500's, and the vast majority of the country works for small business (which by the way, create virtiually all new jobs, or so says the Kaufman Foundation).
You might check out the graph on this one - you're right, spending is out of control, but it isn't the war.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/iraq_the_war_that_broke_us_not.html
"...<span>deployed 1 year out of every 5 at least. Great way to have a career (or a marriage) if you're deployed at least 20% of the time..." Uhhh Last time I check the Active Duty folks do this for a career. Try deploying 6 months out of each year for 20 - 30 years. </span>
That fact that he's a reservist is irrelevant. I'm a retired reservist with my first two hitches on active duty and I think the retirement system is fair, as do most reservists. That guy is a liberal poltician with a uniform more than he is a General officer.
<span>That fact that he's a reservist is irrelevant. I'm a retired reservist with my first two hitches on active duty and I think the retirement system is fair, as do most reservists. That guy is a liberal poltician with a uniform more than he is a General officer. There are plenty of those on Active Duty, too. Like the current CJCS and CNO.
</span>
<span>which raises the question of just what is our Strategic Reserve (I don't think we have one)</span>
Methinks a good portion of the strategic reserve consists of all those bloodsucking retirees under age 60 -- you know, the guys Punaro wants to cut the wages of, never mind that "reduced pay for reduced services" silliness and that form I have to fill out once a year attesting to my availability for recall. If the SHTF really badly, it would also consist of that pesky unorganized Militia discussed in title 10...you know, the one that is covered by the Second Amendment.
Under the current system after completing 20 - 30 years of service, you get a retirement check. Now imagine doing the same and then waiting until you are 60 to get your retirement check. What do you think that will do for retention?
or staff to answer inane requests for info from either the pentagon or congress.
They are numbers from the years they represent. Apples to apples.
SCRO - in the Guard, the career I'm talking about is your civilian job; the one you are going to be around for only about 80% of the time. The AC make the military a full-time career.
You're point about constant deployments and marriage is well taken.
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