Pentagon to downsize? Ha!
You probably remember how Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel promised to downsize the headquarters personnel at the Pentagon. Well, here we are two years later and they can’t figure out how to do that, according to the Washington Post;
[F]ederal auditors reported this week that the Defense Department has not produced a realistic plan to make the cuts — and can’t say how many people it has or needs at its management headquarters.
In a new report, the Government Accountability Office described an unwieldy personnel system that seems unable to account for the size of military and civilian staffs at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force secretariats and staffs — all headquarters that ballooned in size after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and have only recently begun to level off.
Compounding the problem, contractors form a large chunk of these employees, but DOD does not have an accurate handle on how large, auditors found.
“Without a systematic determination of personnel requirements and periodic reassessment of them, DOD will not be well positioned to proactively identify efficiencies and limit personnel growth within these headquarters organizations,” GAO concluded in a 90-page report released this week.
They know how to slash the hell out of combat formations, but they can’t figure out to slash that Specialist whose only job is to provide color to the Power Point slides.
Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.
Category: Big Pentagon
Nothing new here, Jonn. Headquarters tend to grow, and such growth is difficult as hell to prune back.
Case in point: despite Eisenhower’s directives to the contrary, the Allied HQ in Algiers during the North Africa campaign swelled from the desired few hundred to (if I recall correctly) over 10,000 before Axis forces in Tunis capitulated. Much the same later occurred in Italy and France.
The troops in line units are always the first ones to get the axe during a drawdown.
We have more Admirals than ships. I say we take the number of ships, divide by two, and that’s as many flag officers as the Navy needs.
Everyone else, including their staffs, here’s your walking papers, have a nice day.
Slashing top staff and command billets means fewer career opportunities for those over-promoted staff weenies tasked with making the cuts. Of course they can’t get it done, there’s no incentive.
What used to be done by an E-4 is now done by an 0-5. Can’t trust those enlisted swine to get those briefing slides correct! How many O-5’s does it take to change a light bulb? No one knows because they are still scheduling meetings…
We’ve all heard the cliche about the Pentagon being the place where colonels fetch coffee. Well, ol’Poe actually witnessed that one time during a business call on the Pentagon, although the coffee OIC in this case was just a “light” colonel.
I must confess this old grunt NCO took a bit of smug satisfaction watching him prepare the coffee which his boss, the general, then offered me as we discussed business.
One of the best quotes from that movie occurred immediately before that clip starts: “Just think of your secretary, sir.” (smile)
You can view the full scene at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzbhbetwYFU
The secretary quote is at about 1:30. (smile)
I’m partial to the bean scene myself but I don’t think there were two minutes in the entire movie that I wasn’t laughing. “Yes, but I shoot with this hand.” “Chewing gum in line, eh?” “Aw, okay. But no Irish!”
Mongo coldcocks a horse. The movie was hysterical.
To my wife’s chagrin, anytime there is a question on Jeopardy etc re movies I always answer: “Blazing Saddles!” Best movie ever.
Huh? No! MONGO STRAIGHT!!!
Funny thing is, whenever I’m having trouble lining something up, I remember that quote “think of your secretary” and it goes right in.
Life imitating art right there, to the betterment of at least one man…
Harrumph! Harrumph! I didn’t get a harrumph outta that guy!
Give the governor a harrumph!
You watch your ass!
“Who watches the watchers?”
Nothing will ever be done – too many contractor “sweetheart” deals. Look at the population demographics in the Mark Center. As a result of trying to make the Pen “Military only.”
The Mark Center was built from scratch even though the owner of a building at Eisenhower Avenue offered to renovate to DoD/WHS spec before turnover. And I’m sure the Mark Center O&M contractor is NOT exactly starving either.
The expensive status quo at the Pentagon is about THE CLUB. No one wants to eject anyone from THE CLUB. It’s just not done.
First rule of THE CLUB: Nobody talks about THE CLUB because we don’t know how many are in THE CLUB.
Given the schizoid stupidity and insanity of the current regime, that reference is so appropriate it’s almost scary.
Having been on the Army Staff and JCS (in uniform) and the Air Staff and OSD Staff (as a contractor)….ain’t ever going to happen.
And, yes, in my later years I was a REMF….and a well paid one!
“Without a systematic determination of personnel requirements and periodic reassessment of them, DOD will not be well positioned to proactively identify efficiencies and limit personnel growth within these headquarters organizations,” GAO concluded….
That’s a long sentence. I know, because I frequently write long sentences. However, this long sentence is specifically designed/written to obfuscate/cloud the issue. The shorter version is as follows:
‘There are too many civviecons at the Pentagon, but if we figure out how to cut down on sandcrab jobs, I’ll lose my job, too, because I’m a sandcrab, and that scares me.’
Is that better?
I just figured out how to downsize the Pentagon. Tear out one of the five sides and push the others into a square. Everyone on the side torn down…gets fired. Or pick a side, fire everyone in it and then lease it our to Corporate Suites of America or some such company for use a professional out of town, long stay apartments…kitchenettes and everything. Think of the per diem it would save.
I’m not sure why this is so hard to figure out……..
Oh hell just forget it. If they don’t know by now they never will.
“Without a systematic determination of personnel requirements and periodic reassessment of them, DOD will not be well positioned to proactively identify efficiencies and limit personnel growth within these headquarters organizations,” GAO concluded….”
Simply put: We don’t know how to do a PERSTAT.
HRC is just as bad. Departments within departments, branches within branches, sections within sections.
What’s worse is most all of them are just arms on an assembly line. They might as well all be machines since they don’t have any original answers.
It takes a Congressional inquiry for any of them to actually stop for a second and turn back into a human being.
Would it really be so horrible for the generals and admirals to make their own Goddamn coffee?
Three dozen flag officers just fainted dead away at the mere thought.
Here’s another one:
You’re a general. You have your own office in a five-sided office building in northern Virginia. That office has a private bathroom. You’re the only one who ever takes a dump in there. So why can’t you be the one who cleans it?
The perfumes princes of the Pentagon can hardly be expected to perform their own perfunctory work with the aid of a platoon of pawns. Don’cha’know?
Oops! “with” => “without”
These fucks can’t figure out how to win a war or that an aircraft is a galactic piece of shit. I have zero faith that they have the mental capacity, nor the testicular fortitude to make even the most minuscule amount of cuts.
No bureaucracy will reduce its own self. Never. It always takes an outside stimulus to make it happen.
Here’s an idea. Maybe someone in Congress can figure out approximately how much continuing to support all that bloat of flag officers and reduce the budget accordingly. Of course, the flag officers will reduce staff below their rate, but the next year the budget specifically reduces the number of flag officers because they can no longer justify the clearly out of balance ratio of supervisors to staff they command.
Rinse and repeat.
I spent last Friday writing up the justification for adding 2 more O-5s to our staff. The main reason the higher ups wanted O5s is they don’t feel that having O3 representing the section at inter agency meetings, events etc gives enough “oomph”. The O3s who work in the section are also being replaced by O5s under the premise that certain CCMDs fill similar billets with O5s so we should too.
One way, use a version of the Golden Flow’s random number generator and do it only for those who have reached minimal retirement age. But instead of the 10% use the pay grade for the percentage i.e. 4% of O-4’s and up to 9% of O-9’s. Could do the same for the enlisted ranks too.
If your number comes up, too bad, so sad, your gone, take your pension and go.
I know we would lose some that are needed, but thats the way it goes.
If you have not trained your subordinate to take over, you are not doing your job.
A wild idea, let the NCOs make the reductions at the 5 sided clown show. You know NCO BZ.. Joe