New Navy Drawdown Plan Targets Tens of Thousands of Sailors

[Fly Navy]

Care of another forum. Talk about suck. I swear, the DOD/DON is having a classic case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing.

August 13, 2004

New drawdown targets tens of thousands of sailors

By Mark D. Faram
Times staff writer

The Navy plans to draw down its force to 320,000 officers and enlisted sailors by 2011 — the lowest end-strength since 1940 and just over half of the 605,000 people the service had in 1990 when the last drawdown began.

Navy Times, in its Aug. 23 issue, will report that these latest cuts are more than 37,000 more than were announced in February, when Navy officials confirmed they planned to shrink the service’s ranks to 357,200 by 2009. The Aug. 23 issue will be available Monday.

The cuts, although major, are manageable, officials contend. The effects on the deck plates, however, will be traumatic.

“We’re going to be very surgical in how we manage this drawdown,” said Rear Adm. Gerald Talbot, head of military personnel plans and policy for the Navy’s chief of personnel in Arlington, Va. “In the ’90s we took the top right off the Navy. This drawdown is all about managing the force correctly so we have the right human capital in the right place at the right time.”

Talbot dropped his drawdown bombshell on Aug. 10 at the annual Navy Counselors Association symposium in New Orleans.

Despite those promises, the cuts didn’t sit well with Joe Barnes, a retired Navy master chief and president of the Fleet Reserve Association, an Alexandria, Va.-based organization that lobbies Congress for equitable pay and benefits for all the sea services.

“FRA is especially concerned on the impact this will have on the career force,” Barnes said. “These reductions are ambitious and apparently driven in large part by the desire to reduce spending.”

Unlike past cuts that targeted ships and at-sea sailors, the future reductions will focus on the Navy’s shore establishment, which has remained largely untouched since the end of the Cold War.

Talbot said the troop cuts were necessary in order to pay for the new ships and aircraft the service says it needs over the next decade.

Of the Navy’s total annual budget of $115 billion, nearly two thirds, some $70 billion, goes towards manpower costs, Talbot said.

 

[Falcaner]

this is going to catch up to the navy eventualy. just like it allways does.

 

[Fly Navy]

this is going to catch up to the navy eventualy. just like it allways does.

Yup, every fricken time. "OH CRAP! WE NEED PEOPLE BAD!"

Or a nasty big war will happen, ala 1940s.

 

[Dunedan]

I saw an article a few days ago where something like 30 percent of High School students believe a draft is looming. Right.

 

[Fly Navy]

I saw an article a few days ago where something like 30 percent of High School students believe a draft is looming. Right.

40 percent of Canadian high school students believe the USA is evil too. What do dumbass high school students know?

 

[squeeze]

40 percent of Canadian high school students believe the USA is evil too. What do dumbass high school students know?

Are we using this site as a judge? If so, you'd be amazed at the answer.

:icon_tong

 

[Fly Navy]

Are we using this site as a judge? If so, you'd be amazed at the answer.

:icon_tong

Hahhaha :icon_smil

 

[Fly Navy]

Are we using this site as a judge? If so, you'd be amazed at the answer.

:icon_tong

Hahhaha :icon_smil

 

[bch]

I am not sure this is AS horrible as it seems. The article said it was staff jobs under the gun right now. Does the navy really need all those staff people? It seems that the money would be better spent (current events considered) on the sharp end vice the staff side....

Now I know that the staff side is what supports the operational side, but I think in this case the same amount can be done with less.

 

[Flash]

The Navy Times article specifies tha tthe admin and support types will be cut the most and will be replaced by civilian/contract. That is all we need, more civilians who take long lunch breaks, have union rules, and really don't give a damn about the sailors. I don't know if he is still there but the guy at pass and tag in Pensacola with more gold on him than Mr T was a perfect example. The fat bastard would yell at you for stepping over the line, take breaks with 20 people in line and was just generally nasty. I have run into that constantly. Sure, there are some good ones out there but my recent experience at the Pentagon has only hardened my attitude, these people take inefficiency to new levels.

 

[VetteMuscle427]

they could probably save a lot of money keeping stuff done in house, and not having so many civilians doing paper pushing/admin stuff....

I can speak for one instance with this... My part time job is a inter-hospital transport paramedic. My company does LOTS of military transports, mostly between Walter Reed Army Med Ctr, Andrews AFB and National Naval Med Ctr. An Advanced Life Support transport will cost the military 2200 for us to show up and 79 bucks a mile... and more if we use drugs, oxygen or other supplies.

Every time we run a call, there are a few military ambulances and their crews sitting around complaining that they can do my job but aren't allowed to.

I've easily run 100 calls and seen this situation in the past 3 years; now that is a lot of money that could have gone other places. But who am I to point out what the military does/doesn't do correctly.

 

[Fly Navy]

Exactly my point... 79 dollars per fuking mile? Companies like that should be run into the ground for extorting money from the gov't.

Kinda goes both ways...

 

[Red2]

And yet the Navy won't pay me milage for the 120 miles I drive each day for IFS!!

 

[Fly Navy]

And yet the Navy won't pay me milage for the 120 miles I drive each day for IFS!!

And the Air Force will. Gotta love it.

 

[Pags]

The Navy Times article specifies tha tthe admin and support types will be cut the most and will be replaced by civilian/contract. That is all we need, more civilians who take long lunch breaks, have union rules, and really don't give a damn about the sailors. I don't know if he is still there but the guy at pass and tag in Pensacola with more gold on him than Mr T was a perfect example. The fat bastard would yell at you for stepping over the line, take breaks with 20 people in line and was just generally nasty. I have run into that constantly. Sure, there are some good ones out there but my recent experience at the Pentagon has only hardened my attitude, these people take inefficiency to new levels.

so what you're saying is that soon i'll get the same great customer service i get at PSD (or CSD or whatever the hell it is now) navy wide?