Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF NBA: Spurs NFL: Niners MLB: Giants NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Apr 22, 2015 5:19:51 GMT 9
Here is a story that most of us can relate to, as we used Jerry Cans on every base I was on.
In Thailand, they were used for carrying safe drinking water to our bungalows in town.
I still see them on the back of Jeeps and other vehicles.
I wonder how many millions of them have been made over the years.
www.jerrycan.com/the-little-can-that-could/
Jim Too
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Post by Jim on Apr 24, 2015 0:09:09 GMT 9
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Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF NBA: Spurs NFL: Niners MLB: Giants NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Apr 24, 2015 2:07:26 GMT 9
As this article is from 2012, some information may be outdated.
However, I'm sure the overall number of Civilian DoD Employees and DoD Contractor Employees has not shrunk much, if at all.
It seems the main purpose of DoD is not to Defend our Nation, but to employ people to fill slots that are not needed.
All while reducing the size of the Military.
Soon, there will only be civilians and people wearing stars in DoD, and Mercenaries doing the fighting.
I'm sure glad I'm no longer in.
Jim Too
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Post by LBer1568 on Apr 24, 2015 6:44:49 GMT 9
The move from full military staffing to replacing Military slots that are not combat related has been going on for decades. I was part of a Blue Ribbon panel to determine if the Flight Simulation career field needed to be all military, a mix, or all civilian. It was interesting to see how budget folks work on this type of study. They take the life cycle cost of Military versus the yearly cost of civilian contractor folks. For the flight sim field I advised that the real costs of manning the field would grow in leaps and bounds after all of the AF trained maintenance /operator folks were used up/retired. The effect was not felt for over 15 years, but it came back to bite them. The initial manning was done by hiring all of the top notch military folks. That gave contractors a fully trained and experienced cadre to bid and be cost effective. But the contractors did not anticipate how much it costs for Air Training Command type training. I kept in touch with several AF sim troops who went contractor in mid-late 1980's. The career field was turned over to Contracted Services over a 5 year period. Many senior NCO became GS-11 or GS-12 to be the oversight QA folks. But it has been so long since the transfer that there aren't any old AF Military folks around to perform the duties. So the over sight is simply an administrative position and not a skilled technician evaluating maintenance and operations. The Military cooks went away before the Flight Sim folks at most locations. The AF/DoD is still looking at jobs that can be contracted out as they still believe it is more economical to go contractors. The biggest cost drivers for DoD are Medical care and retirement costs. With contractors, the full cost is payroll and any cost for medical/retirement go away when contract is expired. Last cost data I saw had new cost for simulator contracts, including the training of new folks, has increased more than normal inflation and more than out year predictions. But once they made the decision it was all bets off and pray that they made right decisions. That applies to all career fields. Some career fields were partially contracted out so that they still had a steady supply of trained folks. Most of military manned the overseas bases and what they called isolated areas, like Minot.
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Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF NBA: Spurs NFL: Niners MLB: Giants NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Apr 24, 2015 8:15:07 GMT 9
The move from full military staffing to replacing Military slots that are not combat related has been going on for decades. I was part of a Blue Ribbon panel to determine if the Flight Simulation career field needed to be all military, a mix, or all civilian. It was interesting to see how budget folks work on this type of study. They take the life cycle cost of Military versus the yearly cost of civilian contractor folks. For the flight sim field I advised that the real costs of manning the field would grow in leaps and bounds after all of the AF trained maintenance /operator folks were used up/retired. The effect was not felt for over 15 years, but it came back to bite them. The initial manning was done by hiring all of the top notch military folks. That gave contractors a fully trained and experienced cadre to bid and be cost effective. But the contractors did not anticipate how much it costs for Air Training Command type training. I kept in touch with several AF sim troops who went contractor in mid-late 1980's. The career field was turned over to Contracted Services over a 5 year period. Many senior NCO became GS-11 or GS-12 to be the oversight QA folks. But it has been so long since the transfer that there aren't any old AF Military folks around to perform the duties. So the over sight is simply an administrative position and not a skilled technician evaluating maintenance and operations. The Military cooks went away before the Flight Sim folks at most locations. The AF/DoD is still looking at jobs that can be contracted out as they still believe it is more economical to go contractors. The biggest cost drivers for DoD are Medical care and retirement costs. With contractors, the full cost is payroll and any cost for medical/retirement go away when contract is expired. Last cost data I saw had new cost for simulator contracts, including the training of new folks, has increased more than normal inflation and more than out year predictions. But once they made the decision it was all bets off and pray that they made right decisions. That applies to all career fields. Some career fields were partially contracted out so that they still had a steady supply of trained folks. Most of military manned the overseas bases and what they called isolated areas, like Minot. The last time I stayed in base hotel at Minot AFB, one of the NCO's told me that Military Inn Keepers were being phased out of all Air Force Lodging.
Travis began doing that around 2004.
The NCO told me that Minot still has a contingent of Military Inn Keepers, because they can not hire enough civilians to fill the positions.
The cleaning of rooms lasts well in to the evening, because of the shortage of civilian workers.
The base Burger King had to cut back hours and close a couple days a week, for the same reason, along with other facilities.
The Exchange and Commissary are way understaffed, and if it were not for AF wives living on base working in them, they would not have enough to stay open as many days and hours as they do.
All areas of Civilian staffing is hurting, at least for new hires, and promises to not get better, as older workers retire.
To the best of my knowledge, the Chow Hall is also understaffed, as are other services dependent on civilian workers.
But, so is nearly every business in Minot and other town in the area.
A couple of chain stores rotate people in and out from stores in other states.
When fast food restaurants are paying as much as $18 an hour, plus hiring bonuses to stay a certain number of months, Walmart starting at over $17 an hour, and not getting enough people, and other traditionally low paying jobs going unfilled, it makes it double hard for the base.
The wages on base, no matter where, are set by some bureaucratic office in some DoD building, and they do not take in to account local conditions.
So, jobs on base go begging, as they can't pay the wages even Fast Food places in town pay, let alone what someone with a few skills can make in the Oil Industry.
And, many of those jobs no longer are a Military function, so no Military are there to fill them.
Minot is not as isolated as it was once considered to be, and really never was, as it is less than 20 miles from anywhere in Minot.
Lorin, your post is correct about what happened when the retired and ex military retired from their civilian jobs, but that is just one aspect of the entire picture.
It goes back to the main problem of relying on Civilians to do traditional Military jobs, rather than making sure our Military is staffed to the level needed to do those jobs.
Jim Too
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