The budget is large because in small part of the tremendous amount of waste that goes on in the military. I'll not get into specific details but there are hundreds of thousands of dollars of waste, especially down range. Individually we do out best to curb some of this waste, but a lot of it is out of our control. Another part of the tremendous amount of cost for the budget is the constant refitting of equipment that we have. Army equipment requires constant maintenance, in part because some soldiers just don't give a shit about the equipment they have, and another part is the nature of some of the stuff we use. The Bradley for instance is a great platform in combat as long as the crew is vigilant and is always on top of their maintenance. I have been in combat in an M113-A3 Armored Personnel Carrier. I put over 5,000 miles on it in five months, and the only issue was that a small o-ring started seeping. I was a section leader on a Bradley and again, I had minimal maintenance issues with my sections Bradley's. Why? Because I am very anal about maintenance. Part of that comes from the fact that my first 12 years in the Army I was a mechanic. So now as an end user of the equipment I used to work on, I am keenly aware of the importance of staying on top of my equipment. However, these vehicles go through a lot of wear and tear and like anything mechanical, something is bound to go wrong with it. These vehicles have parts that are very expensive, usually the high tech electronics that are in them. Same with tanks and howitzers.
There are a tremendous amount of civilians that work on military bases, and they cost money as well. However, the issue with that is it's actually more cost effective to keep them rather than use soldiers for some of the things that they do. I didn't think so at first until my brother-in-law, who works at the Pentagon broke it down to me. One of the biggest issues with the DOD budget is that Generals want their projects. They want them because congressmen and women want them because they either create jobs, or they get to keep the jobs in their districts by way of more contracts. There are tons of government contractors as well, and the military is always buying things. A few of the things that are bought are actually worth it, but most is useless. It's another example of if it looks good on paper, it must be good in practical application. As we all well know, that is not always the case. One of the things that the Army bought were off the shelf Dell smartphones. These phones were tweaked for the military. We were issued them to test them out in Afghanistan. They had GPS, detailed maps of our area and the ability to tag the maps with data. I used mine to keep track of all the mines and IED's that we found in the area, as well as where all of the important people in the villages I patrolled in lived, and also tagged some homes with potential HVT's. And I kept track of orchards that we had cleared and when we cleared them. Other than that though it was pretty useless. The phone part of it was disabled even though there were cell towers in the area (I know because I had a cell phone while I was there). I actually kept paper laminated maps that I could easily update with a marker. I also had detailed imagery on paper of the villages from a PPT slide I made, and kept up to date information on it and printed a new one out every couple of weeks or so on a printer that I bought and had delivered to Afghanistan. I could have used Army printers and ink, but thought I'd do my very small part. I did use Army paper though. I have a couple friends who worked here at Fort Benning, in the R&D department. They told me that the status quo was to buy things and field them, and to check a box, send it to them for testing. I was told that most of what they said was junk the Army already bought, and the really useful stuff was overlooked because of the cost. Watch The Pentagon Wars for an example. Uniforms are another huge waste. In the 17+ years that I have been in the Army, I have worn four different uniforms, and two different dress uniforms. These things are not cheap. Currently, a set of ACU's cost about $80.00. A brand new dress uniform costs around $400.00. And now the Army is going to change our uniform again because the ACU is a colossal piece of shit. Unless you are fighting in a granite quarry, you are not camouflaged in any way, shape or form. To be honest, we don't need new tanks or other armored vehicles. The M-1 and Bradley's, as well as the Paladin are great platforms and have tremendous potential for the foreseeable future. Upgrades would suffice. I can't say whether or not we need new jets or ships as I am not a sailor or airman. I can only speak for the Army. The HMMV's are great for training and sending to areas where we are doing humanitarian stuff, but the MRAP HAS to be used for combat situations as it's proven to save lives. While the vehicle is not indestructible, it is worth the money. I have seen more than one get the shit blown out of it by an IED, and the crew survived. They had injuries, but they all lived. Unfortunately though, even an MRAP cannot withstand 15,000 lb. of explosives, as was the case during my last Iraq deployment when one of the trucks in my platoon was blown up and everyone died instantly. In my opinion, new procurement of equipment needs to be put on hold so that money can be spent for training. I shudder to think of what will happen when battalions such as the one here at Fort Benning literally has to quit training because they don't have the money, so the soldiers will end up mowing lawns and picking up trash around here instead - and then something pops off that needs our attention, and we have to do half ass hurry up training. That's how men and women die in combat. When I deployed to Desert Shield/Storm, I was 110% confident that the regiment I was in would kick ass and we did. The squadron I was in fought in the Battle of the 73rd Easting (Google it, it's an amazing fight). This was because we trained and trained, then trained some more on everything. The result was that one squadron (cavalry speak for battalion) plus one troop (company) took on two Iraqi tank divisions and won. Some other things that can be cut back on are the amount of gyms on bases. We have many here on Benning and to be honest, I have not visited a single one. Reason is that I can run on my own, and prefer to run outside rather than a treadmill. I can do push-ups and sit-ups anywhere, and I have my own home gym. Home gyms are not expensive. The machine I have and free weights and kettle bells, and exercise ball all cost less than $400.00. I really don't need someone coming in to mow my front lawn or trim the bushes around my house. I can do all this myself. I already have a lawn mower and edger because I am responsible for my back yard, so I made the initial investment in equipment. All I'd have to buy is a hedger. So, cut new programs, continue refurbishing critical equipment and fund training. Stop or cut back on some things that we don't really need on base. Lay off some civilians and let soldiers do some of the jobs that are done by civilians for a while. Close the commissary and PX one or two days a week, or close earlier every day. While it is convenient for my wife and I to go to the Commissary for grocery shopping, we usually go off post to Wal-Mart, Target, Burlington, Ross or the mall to buy other things, because there is a better selection off base, and prices are usually lower. I can go on and on but I have already said a lot. Bruce On Feb 28, 2013, at 5:52 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > Some good stuff, Bruce. > > Question for you, though. The Military portion of the US budget is > significantly out of proportion to other countries. Some of that is because > we've chosen to be a bigger military policeman for the world. Other parts > of it seem to be just historical inertia and lobbying from contractors. > > Do you think that the US military budget is too big as it currently stands? > Too small? If too big, where do you think it should be cut? If too small, > where should it be expanded? > > > Cheers, > Judah > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:361677 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
