Dempsey ready to cut stars he says
The Stars & Stripes reports that Marty Dempsey says that the Department of Defense is ready to cut admirals and generals from their rolls – 144, about 15%, is the number, but, it’s only the beginning in my opinion. They should cut about half along with their sergeant majors. In fact, they should cut every enlisted member who has served during combat without serving in combat and are currently in the pay grades of E-8 and E-9. They should fire every E-8 and E-9 who hasn’t served in a leadership position while in those pay grades.
Dempsey also says that he will try to cut back on flag officers’ lavish lifestyle…and, oh, that was all Bush’s fault by the way;
Though the DOD claimed money is not at the heart of the cuts, spending on officers has become excessive with the free flow of funds during wars, creating bad habits that need to be curbed, Dempsey said during a recent visit to Japan.
“We got in the habit of surrounding general officers with a level of support that was probably excessive in some ways,” he said.
The perks for generals and admirals include lavish quarters, personal jets, chefs, speech writers, security details, aids and schedulers.
“What’s it going to look like if somebody sees you staying in the Ritz-Carlton … for four days and doing one hour’s worth of work?” he said.
Well, if they’re only doing an hours worth of work every four days, the math tells me that they can afford to cut 39 flag officers for every one they keep on the payroll. And how does a lavish lifestyle spring from a war? The Pentagon did that all by themselves, the decision makers making their own lives more comfortable – it has nothing to do with war, it has to do with self-serving pricks – and Marty Dempsey is their prince.
It’s the kind of stuff that comes from a Secretary of Defense spending $36,000 every weekend to be with his family on the other side of the country and paying the taxpayers back $300 for the trouble, ya know, because he deserved it for all of the tough work he did slashing the shit out of Defense for his boss.
Yes, the military life is going to be austere in the coming months and years, they don’t need to continue to pay those guys who’ve done their level best to avoid leadership positions in combat. They should endeavor to retain those who have experience in combat, those who haven’t made a career of being a self-serving pogue. There is no room in the lean days ahead for perfumed princes, but we already know who will get to stay on the train and who will be sent packing.
Category: Big Army
Let’s not stop there. Let’s revive the old ways, a Secretary of War (Army and Air Force) and a Secretary of Navy (Navy, Marines). No more Secretaries of Defense, Army, Navy, and Air Force. Cut the bloated staffing at the Pentagon…for crying out loud that five sided monument to Red Tape was supposed to be a storage warehouse after World War II. And you are right….EVERY officer or senior enlisted that has made a career out of staying in DC…here is your flag, have a nice life.
Wait what? Get rid of Generals and SGMs? They will starve to death?
Swampfox, I’ve been INSIDE the Pentagon. It has five sub-basements. That’s where they store all that Indiana Jones stuff that gets crated up and put into a corner, to be forgotten until it turns up missing.
PH2…just one more reason why we should take a meat cleaver to the employment rolls in DC….
Swampfox, THAT was funny!!!! 🙂
And they can start with that 0-5 PAO guy who called his service at Fort Benning during Desert Storm his only deployment.
Dempsey can start cutting the flag rank fat by resigning himself- the truth about Benghazi will reveal his moral cowardice. There should also be a corresponding reduction in E9s- lots and lots of people hiding out in those billets, clogging up the system, preventing the hard-chargers from moving up. Any E9 (or O6 and above, for that matter) who hasn’t yet deployed- it is astonishing but there are plenty who haven’t- should be forced to retire by 1 Sep 13.
Granted, I retire in July…but damn…I have always (and always WILL) had an extreme dislike for the bean counters in DC.
Having been a D/SGS, the perks existed before Bush.
“In fact, they should cut every enlisted member who has served during combat without serving in combat and are currently in the pay grades of E-8 and E-9.”
OK, Jonn, but what about Navy people who spend their time on ships during combat, but which do not enter combat zones? The Navy has less opportunity to put boots on the ground in combat zones than the Marines. We squids do our share, too.
I’m not pouting over this, just asking.
Unfortunately, cutting Generals won’t help, if they are replaced by SES (Senior Executive Service) civilians of the same pay grade, ie. cost, like the last time this Admin made such “cuts.”
I’ll agree with Jonn and with Swampfox: Cut the DoD civilian force as well. They don’t deploy and they aren’t Troops. Replace them with E4’s and E7’s and O4’s, which are cheaper and deployable.
Cut every Active Duty Service member that has been in since 2007 and hasn’t deployed. Cut every Guard or Reservist that has been in since 2004 and hasn’t deployed. Offer letters of exception, IF they can demonstrate written proof of requesting TWICE to deploy.
Promote immediately every NCO that has a combined 24 months in combat in the last 5 years of Active Duty, or 10 years of Guard/Reserve. Credit every Purple Heart as 12 months of combat. Give a Purple Heart to every stateside Warrior wounded by stateside terrorists, while on duty or in uniform.
Recruit a new class of Privates to fill the holes left by firing the civilians, and the non-deployed. Grow the Military by the same number of civilians fired, plus the endstrength in 2008.
Ban PSD and entourages for all 2 star and below.
Oh yeah, fire Dumpster, and his turncoat CSM too. And Shinsucki, fire him too, and offer him a one way ticket to the country of his choice, with a restraining order preventing him from coming within 1km of a Warrior, Veteran, VA facility, or document containing a Veteran’s name.
PH2 does make a valid point. I had several uncles spend chunks of their lives on Yankee Station, that for the longest time were told they were not VIETNAM veterans because they never actually set foot in Vietnam (they just maintained/launched/recovered the jets that rained fire on the VC/NVA)..
Personally, I would say a squid who spent time on a ship in the IO, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Aden, dealing with terrorists and other assorted scum COUNT as those who have deployed for combat.
All of these 4 star billets for things that aren’t necessary. For example, Commissaries and the PX need a military MG as a commander? Get rid of them, and the staff of 2 BG deputies, 4 COLs, 8 LTCs, etc. All the way down the line. If you can’t deploy due to physical reasons, thanks for your service. If you won’t deploy because you’ve shammed your way from nondeployable unit to nondeployable unit, same thing. There’s probably 10% or more of the active military who fall into those categories, including generals, CSM/SGM, etc.
And yes WOTN…Dumpster needs to be fired after the lies he told about us not being able to respond to Benghazi for at least 20 hours…..
BUT….I will say that technically I am a DoD civilian….although I do the same job during the week, wearing the same uniform, that I do on the weekends and two weeks (yeah, RIGHT) a year…..
Talk of cutting Flag Ranks is just talk. Does anyone really think any Kevlar Rice Bowls will be broken?
No. But I am sure they will create a brass-laden commission to study for several years…..
PH2–a lot of the SCPO/MCPO communities today basically rotate between sea/shore SEA (Senior Enlisted Advisor) billets. Case in point, a lot of the submarine community at E8/E9 flip back and force between CMC/COB (Command Master Chief/Chief of the Boat) slots.
That being said, however, the sea/shore rotation at that level is typically 36/36 or 24/36 months. Compare that to when I was in and the sea/shore rotation for nukes, regardless of rate, was 60/36, if that. I ended up doing 7 1/2 years at sea (5 Westpacs) before I spent my last 2 1/2 years in recruiting.
My experience was typical. Not a whole lot of Navy jobs which don’t have seriously intensive sea duty requirements. Not sure why or how Army senior enlisted/officer have managed to dodge the bullet this long, so to speak.
force = forth. Damn food comas.
@16 – Swampfox: Heh. True, so true.
#11:
PSD’s for Bn Commanders are a necessary evil, I say this because I just came off a deployment to Afghanistan, where I acted as the Platoon Sergeant for a PSD. The activity level of the Commander that I was protecting was extremely high, he LOVED to be out seeing what his battalion was doing, and how he could assist in supporting the Infantry Battalions in the AO.
For the record, I am an infantryman (0369 SSgt), but was attached to a Combat Logistics Battalion for the purpose of PSD. There were times, when I was glad that I was there, because we got into some crazy situations (no gun fights, but situations that could have turned out really bad and ended that way)…
As I said, I can understand PSD’s in country, but not for those running around the US.
If we would cut the civilian contracts, and give those jobs back to the service members with the appropriate MOS, we would save a lot of money.
Real easy.
If you cannot Bench Press 225…Your out. Hit the showers.
Great way to balance the federal budget. (135 for Females)
Just saying…
GreenThumb:
As a Crossfit fanatic, (I drink the kool-aid, alot) I am down with that idea. Forget this whole, you got to be 9% body fat, and skinny, stuff…let’s get some seriously STRONG boys in the military…
But that leads me on another rant about the Height and weight (double)standards.
@22.
Maybe toss in a Buddy Carry.
I work with a woman who boasted to me that she is proud she hasn’t deployed with her CA Army Nat’l Guard unit yet; she says she has too much stuff going on; pisses me off to no end. Am I wrong in being pissed at her??
Cannot forget to include the SA training.
OK, NHSparky, but how much of that sea duty time was in a combat zone onshore? I knew plenty of sailors stationed in the SEAN area, but they were at Subic Bay or Olongapo or off the coast of Vietnam or South Korea and not once did they go ashore into Vietnam. The flight deck crews on the carriers were in a combat zone but they weren’t working onshore. So does that count? Did duty on the New Jersey count as combat?
I met only two sailors who had actually been in country. One was a JO, who had been embedded with the Marines and got a transfer to NPC, and another up at Great Lakes who had been in Saigon teaching the English to Vietnamese in Vietnamese.
I knew plenty of guys who’d been stationed at Rota, Naples, some place in England, Yokosuka, and other places, but only those two who were actually in a combat zone onshore, but not ignoring those on ships offshore during Vietnam.
I’m just trying to sort this out, that’s all.
Can’t say I ever pulled into Haiphong. Or Vladivostok, Murmansk, Vilyuchinsk, or Changjon.
My point is that I’m in agreement with Jonn’s assessment that far too many senior enlisted/officers have NEVER done an overseas deployment or assignment. Even in some Navy ratings the chances of deployment is virtually nil, but such is the nature of how the Navy is structured versus the Army/Marines.
You really can’t draw a parallel/equivalence between those who have served in the Army/Marines versus Navy. However, my point is that when deployed (which most ships do in fact do) the hazards are no less present.
Okay, then if combat is in a specfic area and Navy ships are deployed there but not actually involved (e.g., sub tender or sub), it should still count as combat deployment, shouldn’t it?
Ex-PH2 is right. Ship deployment duty counts.
Not being sarcastic; it should.
Still need to bench 225 (135) though.
135, huh? That’s about 1/10th my weight. (kidding) I’ll let you know, GT.
I’m just trying to get this all straight, because I didn’t get deployed, it wasn’t done with WAVES in the 1960s and 1970s. I couldn’t have gotten sea duty if my life depended on it. I asked about being assigned to a combat camera group and was told the Navy did not send women there because it was automatic combat zone assignment. That was then, and I know that things have changed.
@24
The Guard has no CA…I’d be more concerned about her claiming that than not deploying
GT–sure, as soon as you can demonstrate why benching 225 is relevant to running a nuclear reactor, etc.
PH2–I’d draw a distinction between tenders and the boats they support. But the point being, even in the Navy we’ve got more admirals than ships, something’s gotta give. And finally, going from a 60/36 or 60/24 sea/shore rotation to a 24/36 rotation just because of what’s on your collar/sleeve? Frankly, if there are so many E-8’s/9’s that you can spend that percentage ashore, well, we need to toss a few of those folks as well.
Oh, and some rates what they call sea duty is a friggin joke.
@30.
WAVES is solid. Met one the other day; old, salty foul-mouthed woman.
I loved her. She always has a seat at my dinner table.
@32.
Absolutely.
Turning a rusty lugnut.
Still need to make the cut. Knew a dude that was 6″5′ on Sub duty. Yeah.
True story.
Multiple reps. No shit.
I was an ET. No lugnuts involved. Rust on a nuke? Surely you jest, GT.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, there’s a need for meeting physical standards, but even in my prime I would have been hard pressed to bench that, and I consistently pulled outstanding scores on the PRT. Don’t even ask me to do it today. Ain’t happening.
I though everything on a sub was rusty and crusty.
Just kidding.
Sorta…
Not only does sea duty count, it has for some time, regardless of how a number of groundpounders here might agree or not.
For example, during Desert Storm, all sailors on a ship that merely entered the Persian Gulf were given the SWASM, as well as all those that served on the ground, in a number of Middle Eastern countries.
I couldn’t tell you which countries or seas currently are considered combat zones, but I do understand your point PH. Clearly, the nature of our current conflicts is different than what we trained for in the Cold War, and the Navy would need a different bar for who was and was not pulling their weight.
I’ll also say that today’s Navy isn’t what it was in the Cold War. The lack of a worthy opponent has changed the seriousness of Sailors in their duties. I told a Cold War Sailor, a few years back, that when a real threat does surface, they’re going to need to call the old-timers back, to teach the next generation what it’s like to face a global threat on the seas. ((That doesn’t change the sincere veracity of every Squid joke I ever told.))
@36.
Good point.
Hit them with the Spanish Inquisition. Grill them on their jobs and questions about anything they should know below them. If they fail, fire em on the spot and go the next lower person and do the same.
I’m here now (not by my choice), and it’s amazing how many of these people have made a “military” career of this place. There’s a lot of fat that can be cut.
I do believe he was saying California, not Civil Affairs…for CA.
Dempsey is a punk bitch.
Sparky, thanks for clearing that up for me.
You’re right — if there are more chiefs than tribes, it’s time to cull the herd a bit.
WOTN, if they ever call me back, I’ll go, but I refuse to answer to Media Specialist. I was, am still, and always shall be a Photographer’s Mate. And a member of the WAVES.
GT, you know I can turn the air blue with the best of them. 😉
You all have a good night.
When my unit deployed, they turned every cook and supply guy into Infantry in a two-week class. They weren’t corded/disked, but they had a basic understanding of that Infantry training might be like for some third-world country.
Our cooks and supply, including tech to service the weapons, were all civilian and were being paid about the same as a 1LT (O-2).
‘ell, PH, if you were the Photographer’s mate, then ah’m s’hore ‘e was doin’ well.
As to figuring out Navy Ranks, it might be easier than to figure out what a woman means/wants, but I’ve given up on both, to preserve my sanity, and all. I guess Navy ranks were dreamt up by womenfolk, myself.
I still have warm thoughts for WAVES and WACS, but that could just be an idealistic dream, based on the stories of my elders, that I missed out on.
There will be an O-5/O-6 retirement board this fall for the Army to cut some fat. The same Army Times issue that announced that also mentioned that the Office of the Secretary of Defense has grown 35% since 9/11. Secretary Gates announced back in 2009ish that he wanted to cut a large number of flag officers and while the number went down a bit, a lot of them were due to elimination of wartime positions as Iraq shut down. When force structure is reduced, the senior officer billets don’t go down as fast. They always seem to invent new positions to give themselves a golden parachute.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/04/08/army-officers-face-early-retirement-board.html
Yeah, we need to cut some of the fat off the top, to include most of those senior NCOs and officers who haven’t deployed, or who did a token deployment earlier in their careers. I can’t help but believe that these individuals have much more say in where they go and what they do than the average 1LT or SGT. #11 WOTN, For us lowly junior NCOs and enlisted, deployments or a lack thereof shouldn’t be as much of a consideration. If an NCO has gone where the Army’s sent them, and done what was asked, give them credit. I’ve known plenty of Soldiers who stayed in TOG more than three years, some of whom wanted to get into the fight. I volunteered for the 2005-2006 HOA deployment, only to be told that I had my combat patch. Three years later I was PCS’ing to recruiting after being DA Select (and having a fence prevent me from PCS’ing six months earlier). On the flip side, there were a few Infantry NCOs who wanted to stay in TOG as long as possible to avoid deploying. They should have been discharged as soon as their self-serving nature became obvious. The same should go for those who fill non-deployable positions outside of their core MOS for extended periods. We had two 88Ms in recruiting who had never deployed due to having spent years as AIT instructors. Of course, both converted and are now 79Rs who will never have to worry about leaving CONUS. As for automatic promotions, I had a SGT under me in the rear with four deployments from 2003-2010. Based solely on your suggestion, he should be a SSG or a SFC by now. Yet he failed to meet the standard at Drill Sergeant School earlier this year and is anything but a mature NCO despite his deployments. I’ve met many Soldiers who mistake their deployment experience with leadership experience, and some of the best NCOs I’ve met have deployed only once (or not at all). That said, there should be little to no reason why a Combat Arms SSG or… Read more »
FWIW, we had a situation at FT Jackson (about 15 miles down the road from me)last year that got people to raise eyebrows and chat among themselves – the CSM of the Basic Training School turned out to be a brand new E9 who’d never – not ONCE – done any overseas duty since 2001. Once that sank in, folks started looking at her record more closely. The ‘diploma mill’ schools that seem to have provided much of her civilian education were probably the last straw.
Mike
Not that this contributes anything useful to the debate, but as someone who grades writing please note it is: Sergeants Major, Privates First Class, Sergeants First Class..
You may now bash me with grammatical ire..
Is it also Lieutenants General, Lieutenants Colonel, Firsts Sergeant, Lances Corporal?
#47,
You must be referring to CSM Teresa “No Slack” King. Odd how she was under investigation and suspended as Commandant of the Drill Sergeant School, then reinstated only to be transferred a couple of weeks later.
One defense used by some other Drill Sergeant types was that a number of previous Commandants and other bigwigs at the school had never deployed. If the purpose of a Drill Sergeant is to train new Soldiers to survive in combat, how can an NCO who has never done anything but train (despite having had ample opportunity to perform their job in combat zones over the past eleven years) really look PVT Snuffy in the face and tell him/her they may be facing a life or death situation in less than a year?
Funny, but the current Commandant and his deputy have both deployed. CSM King? I guess she quit while she was ahead and retired, though I would not be surprised to hear about her “enforcing the standard” in another cushy CONUS position.