Naval Aviations "One" Problem...

[Hotdogs]

This philosophy seems at odds with resourcing DoD to the right level to perform status quo tasking, to say nothing about a conflict with China.

@robav8r information is fake news.

Interest payments are no where near the DOD annual budget. Current interest payments for FY23 stands at $395.5B while defense outlays are $816.7B.

Not to threadjack, but the defense budget is expected to flatline and decrease over the next decade as a percentage of the overall budget. CBO snapshot below:

 

[Brett327]

So my controversial opinion is that DTS isn't that bad, at least within the constellation of enterprise software the Navy uses. Yes I'm sure the update process is fucked and that the lowest bidder maintains it (the fact that I can pick Midwest Airlines and ATA as options for frequent flyer numbers indicates a bit of age). But the biggest issue with that platform is incompetent unit-level admin who don't understand the JTR and presumably orgasm every time they hit "deny." This is followed very closely by arcane rules like the need to use your GTCC (corporate welfare if ever I've seen it), that your flight isn't ticketed until 72 hours prior to departure which can lead to fuckery if there are issues with aforementioned GTCC, and that for some reason SATO is thrown into the mix and there is no self-service function.

Agree on DTS, and spot on for unreasonable people in the approval process. The difference between what I had at NAWDC, where there was a travel SME that you could walk down the hall and talk to, vs. the bureaucratic penny-pinching automaton I now go through at CNRH, is mind numbing.

 

[JTS11]

Another issue is that the JTR rules aren't programmed into DTS properly. I've had quite a few issues where I needed to travel under certain programs or lines of accounting that leveraged special case rules within the JTR and it was a huge problem trying to get it squared away. Each time the command's DTS admin had to go in and manually override everything. I miss the days where my PS or admin department would just set everything up and hand me my ticket and TAD orders.

That is probably what happened to me on my last ever interaction with DTS. In summary I go on a 2 week TAD trip for Marine Week as OpsO just prior to going pre-retirement leave. Get back, knock out the claim, gets approved at every ass-bleeding level...money hits account, everyone happy.

Fast forward almost a year, I get a letter from DFAS saying I owed ~$800 as a result of an audit of the TAD travel claim. Trying to get this rectified while on the outside is almost impossible. I eventually gave up.

Should have threatened a CONGRINT though.😄

 

[DanMa1156]

So my controversial opinion is that DTS isn't that bad, at least within the constellation of enterprise software the Navy uses. Yes I'm sure the update process is fucked and that the lowest bidder maintains it (the fact that I can pick Midwest Airlines and ATA as options for frequent flyer numbers indicates a bit of age). But the biggest issue with that platform is incompetent unit-level admin who don't understand the JTR and presumably orgasm every time they hit "deny." This is followed very closely by arcane rules like the need to use your GTCC (corporate welfare if ever I've seen it), that your flight isn't ticketed until 72 hours prior to departure which can lead to fuckery if there are issues with aforementioned GTCC, and that for some reason SATO is thrown into the mix and there is no self-service function.

This is a more eloquent way to say what I was trying to in a previous post. BZ.

 

[robav8r]

@robav8r information is fake news.

Interest payments are no where near the DOD annual budget. Current interest payments for FY23 stands at $395.5B while defense outlays are $816.7B.

Not to threadjack, but the defense budget is expected to flatline and decrease over the next decade as a percentage of the overall budget. CBO snapshot below:

View attachment 40064

In FY-23, yes. I stand corrected.

CBO's February 2024 Budget and Economic Outlook​

• Interest costs will explode. After nearly doubling from $345 billion in 2020 to $659 billion in 2023, interest costs will double to $1.3 trillion by 2031 and reach $1.6 trillion – a record 3.9 percent of GDP – by 2034. Interest costs have already passed Medicaid and will exceed the cost of defense and Medicare this year.

My point, as you are well aware, is the unstable trajectory we are on. But sure, all good for 2023 . . .

Ref 1.
Ref 2.

 

[sevenhelmet]

In FY-23, yes. I stand corrected.

CBO's February 2024 Budget and Economic Outlook​

• Interest costs will explode. After nearly doubling from $345 billion in 2020 to $659 billion in 2023, interest costs will double to $1.3 trillion by 2031 and reach $1.6 trillion – a record 3.9 percent of GDP – by 2034. Interest costs have already passed Medicaid and will exceed the cost of defense and Medicare this year.

My point, as you are well aware, is the unstable trajectory we are on. But sure, all good for 2023 . . .

Your posted numbers and @Hotdogs ’s posted numbers are significantly different. At least if you call $300B significant. Who is right?

 

[Griz882]

Your posted numbers and @Hotdogs ’s posted numbers are significantly different. At least if you call $300B significant. Who is right?

$300 BILLION is just a rounding error.

 

[robav8r]

In the current administration, you’re probably right !!

 

[JustAGuy]

I'll summarize the one problem: The Navy will go out of its way to NOT take care of its own people.

I think if you had to boil it down to one sentence, this one does it.

Specifically the work/life balance and ever growing trend to "do more with less" in all regards, people, parts, support, and time....

Not sure I've seen it mentioned but the ever present disconnect between upper levels (Talking 0-7 and up) and the "working class" in the military. They seem to forget that the military they grew up in no longer exists in many ways, they never had to deal with the amount of things we ask young sailors and JO's to deal with. Reference the ill-fated speech yo JOs by ADM Aquilino on the pier in Guam during COVID or the Air Boss visit to Lemoore JO call where he bragged about taking a division down to San Diego to do an event every week only then to find out the largest squadron in the navy, the RAG had one up jet that day....

Something interesting I thought it is why don't we have more policy level positions for senior enlisted leadership in more places? IE, which do think would solve a problem better, an O-9 or an E-9?

 

[DanMa1156]

JOs by ADM Aquilino on the pier in Guam during COVID

Hadn't heard about this despite being in the AOR during COVID. What's the story here?

 

[JTS11]

Something interesting I thought it is why don't we have more policy level positions for senior enlisted leadership in more places? IE, which do think would solve a problem better, an O-9 or an E-9?

Not sure if this is a policy panacea. I'm indifferent to their E-9 status giving them unique policy insight.

 

[JustAGuy]

Hadn't heard about this despite being in the AOR during COVID. What's the story here?

Short version, very condescending tone implying that the JO's were not like he was growing up in that they didn't want to get back to flying. The line he started out with was asking a JO when his last trap was, and then saying "Well mine was 13 years ago so shut the fuck up..." Don't quote me that those were his exact words, but that was his message, even if meant to be joking was ill-received and poorly delivered. I then heard him berating CAG later about the JO's "demeanor" and that they weren't fighting to get back to flying...

Not sure if this is a policy panacea. I'm indifferent to their E-9 status giving them unique policy insight.

Not so much policy insight, but more so I feel they stay better connected to their junior counterparts. IE a E-9 will take better care of an E-2 that if you replace those E's with O's. Again, not sure if that is really true, just a gut-feeling...

 

[JTS11]

No worries, you may be right.

Not so much policy insight, but more so I feel they stay better connected to their junior counterparts. IE a E-9 will take better care of an E-2 that if you replace those E's with O's. Again, not sure if that is really true, just a gut-feeling...

From a USMC perspective (speaking at a squadron level), the E-9' Sergeants Major were a somewhat mixed bag. A lot, or some, had infantry backgrounds and didn't understand how the air wing worked.

Some adapted, some didn't.

 

[JTS11]

Not so much policy insight, but more so I feel they stay better connected to their junior counterparts. IE a E-9 will take better care of an E-2 that if you replace those E's with O's. Again, not sure if that is really true, just a gut-feeling...

To add on, the good Sergeants Major I was around embraced being in the Air Wing. Got a flight suit and/or coveralls and got on AO orders (as long as not preventing anyone else getting "on skins") to get to know their Marines.

The other ones sat in their office upstairs planning their post-retirement.

 

[sevenhelmet]

Short version, very condescending tone implying that the JO's were not like he was growing up in that they didn't want to get back to flying. The line he started out with was asking a JO when his last trap was, and then saying "Well mine was 13 years ago so shut the fuck up..." Don't quote me that those were his exact words, but that was his message, even if meant to be joking was ill-received and poorly delivered. I then heard him berating CAG later about the JO's "demeanor" and that they weren't fighting to get back to flying...

Aquilino is a tool. He came aboard the carrier during my last deployment, and trolled our ready room about pilots leaving for the airlines and why they’re all morons who would regret their choice (nobody else had brought it up) demanded to know why we were packing up (we were a day out of Hawaii, preparing for Tiger cruise), and told us in a ship wide address on the flight deck that we should all be more motivated and ready to head back into the fight at any moment. This on the tail end of a 10 month float with multiple indefinite extensions. I’ve never seen an admiral suck all the air out of the crew so effectively (though several have tried…)

The icing on the cake: we very nearly did turn around that day. Aquilino’s visit and his remarks to the crew all happened about an hour before Iran rocket attacked Al Assad and Erbil. It’s like he knew it was coming. I was later told that his staff asked that night what it would take to get us turned around and headed back to 5th fleet. The answer from CSG’s staff was purported to be “a stack of 5,000 divorce papers.”

Others may feel differently, but I think Aquilino is out of touch, incredibly condescending, and compensating for some kind of insecurity. He has that old school 1990s “I’m a Tomcat guy and you’re a homo” vibe.