Chandler & Stevens give Congress the go-ahead to slash personnel costs
We discussed earlier today how Marine Corps Sergeant Major Michael P. Barrett threw his Marines under the bus, telling Congress that it would make the Corps a better place if they cut pay. According to the Stars & Stripes, he went back today to drive his point home;
“In my 33 years I have never seen this level of quality of life ever! We have never had it so good,” he said. “And I say that, in part, because if we don’t get a hold of slowing the growth [in compensation], we will become an entitlements-based, a health-care provider-based corps, and not a war-fighting organization.”
He said the administration’s plan to impose another one percent pay cap in January “makes sense because our quality of life is good.”
And, oh yeah, the Sergeant Major of the Army and the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy joined him under Congress’ desk;
Enlisted leaders of Army, Navy and Air Force sounded more wary than Barrett of proposed pay caps or compensation curbs. But they delivered their own warnings to Congress not to balk at making hard decisions on pay and benefits at the expense of training, equipment and readiness.
A compensation slowdown “is not something, if we were given a choice, that we would want to do,” said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Michael D. Stevens. “Given the fact that the slice of pie is only so big, this is what we must do in order to maintain readiness.”
“I don’t like this and it’s a challenge but it’s what’s necessary,” said Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond F. Chandler III, of compensation curbs proposed. “We have to make sure…our soldiers are trained and ready for anything the nation is going to ask them to do. It’s got to trump the rest.”
“I hope, if we make those decisions, you will stand behind us,” Senator King told the enlisted leaders. “Yes sir,” Chandler said.
The only thing that really surprises me is that the ranking enlisted troops didn’t endorse Jim Moran’s plan to raise Congress’ pay, but, you know, they were too busy trading away their self-respect for their own post-retirement jobs. Or some sort of sexual reference, if you prefer.
ADDED: ROS sends a link from USMC Life written by kristine who writes an excellent open letter to Sergeant Major Michael P. Barrett in regards to his statement yesterday.
See how well readiness holds up with a pay cut. I smell a Draft in the future !
And I am always asked why I did not make a career out of the military.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
Anyone who has a hand in gutting our military like this has the blood of our soldiers and our civilians that get killed because of it on their hands. You know what you’re doing, and you’re going to own the shit storm this nation suffers because of it.
9/11 happened because of egg suckers like you, the pampered darlings of perfumed princes who call themselves leaders in this nation. When the next 9/11 occurs — and it will, because of your spineless political whoremongering —
YOU will be more to blame than the bastards who launch the attack.
A former CSM of mine was in the same platoon as Chandler during OSUT. I was his driver on the day he found out that he was being made the next SMA. He looked at me and said “Son, prepare for shit to get stupid. He was a brown nosing piece of shit in OSUT and I guarantee he’ll be the same as the SMA.” Oh how he was right..
I was in Afghanistan with a fellow MSG who was in his battalion and brigade when he was a CSM of both. He said about the same thing.
This is why AR 670-1 is rewritten and they’ve probably spent countless months working on “tattoo” reform because that’s a more important priority than Soldier welfare or training.
My Div CSM just took over the job that SMA Chandler had before he became SMA. Hopefully he becomes the next SMA because he is a bad ass that actually cares for the troops. One of the things he used to do for the troops (we are all senior NCOs in my unit) would be to call their branch personaly and try to get them the assignment they wanted. He succeeded 90% of the time.
The Spartan Code, eh? Is that what this is about? Some romantic image of the USMC as ancient Spartan warriors? Okay, I’ll play. What say we forego modern weaponry and just issue spears, short swords, and shields? And he can lead by example and forego his entitlements. He gets too much leave. He gets too much pay. He has servants—by another name, of course. And he will get a retirement check. Following his line of reasoning, all of these things make a Marine soft. I guess we can call him Sergeant Major Charmin hereafter.
I am not often surprised but I have to say this surprises me. I expected this from the Joint Chiefs, they showed their colors long ago. But to hear this from the 4 senior enlisted men of the Armed Services is not something I ever thought I’d hear. In my book they are all sold out ass kissers now. Looking out for own asses and to hell with their Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen. I agree with Pinto Nag, they have put blood on their hands. Like Pontius Pilate, they will now go to wash their hands of their decisions affecting the lives of their enlisted men and women. It is a sad day to me.
The candyassed perfumed princes have sold their souls for political gain. While we’re looking at this, have ANY such cuts been proposed for say, TSA and DHS Personnel, as well as the goldbricks at HHS, the EPA,… And how about the steady stream of handouts to illegal aliens, let alone the welfare flunkies?!
I can tell you that DHS just came off a 3-year pay freeze. Not capped, froze.
i can think of $7,816.20(X4) we can save a month.
step right up boys
Nice how the 4 service SEAs by statute get that special pay, I mean…they could starve on puny regular run of the mill E-9 salary. I believe they are also afforded 3 star protocol, and authorized a military jet to carry out their duties…talk about wasteful.
We’ve seen all of this before. Particularly appros during Lent. In RIF’s past I’ve seen aviators with 12 years in service tossed as their expertise was in anti-sub warfare in a P3 and who needed that any more as the soviets caved. Gents, (and Ladies) the nation as a whole – and politicians in particular – don’t give a rat’s ass about you. Forget the speeches on Memorial Day – they will gut your career, medical care, and training to allocate more money for food stamps for illegal aliens. Do what you have to, your masters would just as soon see you dead as have your back.
Or multi-billion dollar giveaways to contractors and corporations for equipment and services no one wants or needs and which doesn’t work anyway. Everyone drawing a Treasury paycheck, no matter how well they do their jobs or what they’ve accomplished, is expendable. And no matter how poorly the bad “leaders” do THEIR jobs, they’re protected if they’re connected.
The current senior enlisted leaders are moral cowards and sell outs, more concerned with their perks, access to power and their cushy post-retirement jobs than looking out for their people.
They are always going on about readiness – what they seem to forget is that you still need qualified personnel to run all of this crap, although the latest robotic vehicles are taking a swipe at that…you can cut the personnel all you want, what you’ll start ending up with is soldiers like the gem we just had at Hood.
Their response should come as a surprise to exactly no one. Why do you think they were selected? For their candor and unwavering support of the troops.
A couple of years ago, there was a senior enlisted panel at the big Tricare Conference in DC (Woodley Park Marriott). The Army E-10 started it off with the blanket statement that the DoD should get rid of non-combatant medical care and just give the wives, kids, REMFS and POGs an insurance card.
I’ve sat in on a number of medical briefs to the SEAs at BUMED and TMA. They come already pre-loaded with their scripted and rehearsed party line speeches, all written by the Flag Writers at the Pentagon. If they had an original thought, they’d be out on their ass by COB.
I am obviously in the minority here, but I honestly agree with Barrett. They are going to take money regardless so I’d rather they take it from my pay than from programs for training and gear aquisition. I didn’t join the USMC for pay and compensation. I chose infantry for the opportunity to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy. Give me the gear I need and the target and I’m happy just doing my job. The pay stuff will work it’s way out. My .02.
These senior enlisted have forgotten their first role is to protect the enlisted men and women from injustices. Rather than volunteering to sacrifice some poor, married LCpl’s paycheck to further pad the pockets of defense contractors who spread production out over as many congressional districts as they can, these SgtMajs, CMC, and CMSGT should be defending compensation and directing Congress’s attention to other areas where cuts can be made. Like the White House’s travel budget, for starters.
“Like the White House’s travel budget, for starters.” You hater. You’d deny Mooch, the kids, the dogs and Mooch’s mother the opportunity to visit China, or Africa, or Martha’s Vineyard, on our dime?
This is history repeating itself. They said many of the same things, or statements that followed along the same concepts, back in the early ’90s.
With a lot of junior service members on food stamps, high OPTEMPO despite steadily declining numbers of personnel due to the cuts, the infamous redux retirement that served as a weak incentive to make the military a career, and other factors, service members were leaving the military in droves.
I even talked to one guy who was hell bent on getting out despite his having 16 years.
Late in the ’90s, senior military members were at Congress “breaking down” and admitting that things weren’t all good despite the draw down. After years of blowing steam up Congress’ ass, these guys couldn’t hold out.
It’s like being on one of the two ships that’s about to collide, knowing that you can’t do anything about it, and saying, “Oh no, here we go again!”
If this trend continues, it’s possible that they’ll be back 8 to 10 years from now advocating the mobilization of able bodied members of the ready reserves, active standby reserves, and retired reserves to back fill active duty shortages… with the option to activate the draft if necessary.
Many use the “ending of the Afghanistan War” as a side comment. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happen. Last decade, they were talking about a follow on campaign for when the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars end… this involved helping nations in “crescent shaped geographic area from Northern Africa to Southwest Asia… based out of the Horn of Africa.
This started ahead of schedule, we’re doing it in a larger geographic area, and this phase is going to trend towards high OPTEMPO for the troops that don’t get the cut.
I’m so sick of the senior leadership at the Pentagon, if you can even call it leadership. I seem to remember that when certain president was in office Hussein and the rest of the Dems were screaming that the troops were not getting proper equipment and proper treatment. Now they say we’re an entitlement military when their guy is in office. What a joke. I was at Walter Reed in 06-07 and I remember the phony outrage that Dems unleashed on President Bush when the “scandal” came out. Not a lot of Dems saying we needed to cut funding and reign in the military entitlement culture back then.