National Guard troops and staff to be furloughed

This is insane, whats next, start laying off full time soldiers?

More than 1,100 National Guard soldiers and airmen in Hawaii -- and thousands in other states -- will be living with 20 percent less pay over the next three months as the Defense Department carries out automatic federal budget cuts.
Guard members will be furloughed for one day a week starting Monday, so helicopter pilots and mechanics, pay and finance clerks and others who keep the guard operating will have eight hours less each week to do their jobs. It's not clear precisely what effects the unprecedented cuts will have.
They could, however, make it more difficult for the guard to fly helicopters to help put out wildfires or rush to the scene of natural disasters in trucks.
"Our general sense is that short-term, it's going to be a terrible hardship for those soldiers, airmen and their families. But if it goes on for any length of time, that may have a negative impact on our readiness and our ability to respond," said Hawaii National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony.

Story


I know what alot of you [SNIPPED] will say, stuff like 'good, we need less soldiers', or some such crap like that. Your attitude would change pretty damn quick if some foreign country would take advantage and raid our country.

reply to post by HomerinNC

Would you be so kind as to post why you believe this is no-not-such-a-good idea? I’d be interested to know your reasons before entering into a conversation in depth...

In my opinion? It’s cutting back in the wrong area - but what do I know.

peace

reply to post by silo13


The National Guard assists in state disasters, emergencies, etc. You cut back on the Guard, you cut back on the response of things like hurricanes, blizzards, etc.

ETA: I was a member of the NYARNG during 1996, when the Eastern seaboard got hit with that massive blizzard in Jan 1996, the local civil authorities (Fire, police, EMS, etc) didnt have the equipment or their vehicles equipped to handle the 3-4 foot high snow accumulations, we had to use our gear to help get them to the places they needed to go.
With my EMT background, I was tasked out to drive a humvee ambulance to respond to 911 calls.
We also were tasked out later that year to assist in the TWA flight 800 disaster by combing the eastern Long Island beaches for aircraft wreckage

Interesting this comes up. My company just got word that AMOS and MHPCC are getting rid of 1100 computing nodes from the data center. These nodes are directly related to space observation. I have the bid sheet in front of me as I speak and requirements include onsite data destruction services as is common with sensitive data at a government facility.

I find it odd that they are getting rid of this many nodes in a facility built for space observation and satellite information gathering. The cluster they seem to be decommissioning, based on the specs I am looking at in this sheet, is the 11th most powerful cluster computer in the world and is the leading computing resource of the DoD R&D community. From my notes on this cluster it appears they are moving it to Huntington Beach, CA. What is in Huntington Beach?

Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC)[edit] The Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) is an Air Force Research Laboratory center currently managed by the University of Hawaii and is located in the Maui Research and Technology Park in Kihei.[1] The MHPCC is a leading computing resource of the Department of Defense research and development community and operates numerous computer clusters, including a 5,120 processor Dell Poweredge cluster named "Jaws" which, as of November 2006, was the 11th most powerful computing systems in the world.[2][3]

sounds more like hawaii having financial trouble too ... if remember correct national guard is funded by individual states rather than by federal government ... shame they cant cut politicians pay instead ...

I'm with Expat888 they should take the required pay to keep the soldiers working out of Congress and all the shady politicians paychecks.

Just another reason Merika is on a downward spiral~

What infuriates me most is that throughout my time in the armed forces I have witnessed a massive increase in the numbers of contractors and civilians that have replaced what had been military positions. Not only are they redundant, they actually are paid ludicrous amounts of money.

IDGAF what anyone says in defense of the civilian/contractors. They quite possibly are the laziest pieces of [snipped] I have ever had the displeasure of working alongside. What possible defense can you give for contracting HVAC, mechanics, HR, base security and base maintenance, or anything else when we already have service members that are trained in exactly these fields?

IMO these worthless [snipped] should of had their necks on the chopping block years ago. PVT Snuffy can turn a wrench, type reports and mow the parade field just as well as any other lawn service and a hell of a lot cheaper too.

reply to post by HomerinNC


I think that this affects only the Mil-Techs, not AGRs.

A Mil-Tech is a dual status position for those who don't know. They are basically State or Federal employees but have to be a drilling member of their respective NG or Reserve unit in order to hold the position. Mon thru Fri they are basically civilians, until its time for Drill, now called Battle assembly or they are put on orders, at which time they revert to being a Soldier.

AGR Soldiers are paid on a monthly salary, not hourly basis, so if the State gives them a day off, it would be a paid 3 day weekend. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't want that.

reply to post by Lipton


I'd flag you if I could. I have made that same argument for decades.

The supposed argument is that the contractors save money. That way the DoD doesn't have to pay for them and their families healthcare. Or training as many have already been trained by the military. If they get hurt on the job, they cannot make a VA claim and if a lawsuit arrises, they can only sue their employer, not the DoD. etc, etc.

But usually, what savings were projected when a contract is granted, it is usually offset by a large margin by cost over-runs.

Regardless though, I agree with you. Most are a waste of money.

I agree, when I was in AD, I was a cook, we had CIVILLIANS that were contracted to do KP!!!
I was friends with one, they made $15.00/hr to wash pots n pans, why wasn't the soldiers in the bn detailed out to do this? Why pay civvies to do this job?
When I was in Basic, they had civvies cooking for the recruits, WTF???

reply to post by TDawgRex


I honestly don't buy the whole 'saving money' line. While deployed I say a posting at the MWR looking to contract an ETS'ing soldier to the tune of $140,000 annually.

Tell me why we need to pay out that kind of money to a civilian (veteran or not) to make sure that the video and board games are returned, the coffee is hot and the tables wiped down?

reply to post by HomerinNC


Hmmm. Notice how they make the budget cuts hurt the taxpayer. Why not reduce some of the overpriced defense contracts. I think these defense contracts cost more than the payroll of the military. I think many are funded through independent side channels also, channels that are classified and even most military officials and most congressmen don't have much access to. I often see that this new expensive technology is not wanted by the ones using it because it is unnecessary or the cost causes cuts that are more necessary.

What kind of nuts are running this place. It seems like this practice of making cuts hurt the people is often abused by everyone in all levels of government, right down to the communities. This practice should be stopped, just because everyone is doing it, it does not make it right.

S&F

Wow, gotta wonder if Oblamas DHS army will get the same layoff,.
or if they will suddenly rise and shine in the event of a "planned" event.

Something else, I live in Wisconsin,. where the the military vehicle company
Oshkosh is located. I happen to work near railroad tracks and see at least
15 Tank haulers or troop haulers or fuel trucks every day,. My off shifts tell me
the same thing, so on average about 35 vehicles a day. and nearly all of them
say US Army on them. These are Brand new trucks,, not cheap,. Budget cuts huh...

reply to post by Lipton


Saving money is the selling point. But we know that really isn't the case when put into practice. Another "Selling Point" was that contracting out services, it pushed money into the private sector and created jobs.

When I first enlisted in '79, we did everything ourselves. Cook, KP, cutting the grass, painting...all the menial chores. It seemed like the only contractors we saw were those who were training Servicemembers on new systems.

When I retired, contractors did everything, and usually piss poor. I watched it grow and was disgusted by it.