EngineGirl
Sleepy Head
So what exactly does this mean for new officers coming into the military? If we plan on making a career out of the military, and we work hard and don't mess up, how hard will it be to stay in? Will we most likely be forced out? Is this something I should even be concerned about? Also, is this not dangerous, to the nation and to security, to have this many personal cuts?
-Erin Leigh
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-304558.php
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.
-Erin Leigh
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-304558.php
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.
