SecDef to Servicemembers: BOHICA!!!

[Lonestar]

(Bend Over, Here It Comes Again!)

Today I thought I'd post something that's near and dear to my heart, Military benefits. The Current Administration is continueing the process of grinding away the support of the (smart)servicepeople for the next election.

This time?

Shutting down Commissaries and Stateside Schools.

An act of ‘Betrayal’
In the midst of war, key family benefits face cuts

By Karen Jowers
Times staff writer

Commissaries and the Defense Department’s stateside schools are in the crosshairs of Pentagon budget cutters, and military advocates, families and even base commanders are up in arms.
Defense officials notified the services in mid-October that they intend to close 19 commissaries and consider closing 19 more, mostly in remote areas.

At the same time, the Pentagon is finishing a study to determine whether to close or transfer control of the 58 schools it operates on 14 military installations in the continental United States.

The two initiatives are the latest in a string of actions by the Bush administration to cut or hold down growth in pay and benefits, including basic pay, combat pay, health-care benefits and the death gratuity paid to survivors of troops who die on active duty.

The roots of all these efforts reach back to the highest levels of the Defense Department.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made no secret of his desire to get the military out of support activities that are not central to its core war-fighting functions, said Joseph Tafoya, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity. As soon as he arrived at the Pentagon three years ago, Tafoya said, Rumsfeld began asking: “Why am I running stores? Why am I in education?”

On Oct. 16, at the headquarters of the Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools in Peachtree City, Ga., Tafoya hosted more than 70 senior officers, school administrators, teachers, military parents and students for a forum on the future of the U.S.-based schools.

“As Marines, we take the short end of the stick in many ways,” said Col. James Lowe, commander of Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. “But when it comes to our children, we’re very intolerant about them being shortchanged.”

And shortchanged is exactly how military families and family advocates are feeling, said Joyce Raezer, director of government relations for the National Military Family Association.

“How can leadership be talking about cutting back on quality-of-life benefits right now when the force and everyone supporting the force is at such a high stress level?” Raezer said.

The week the commissary cuts became known, 11 soldiers were killed in Iraq, and as many as 30 failed to show up on scedule for return flights to Baghdad at the end of their two-week R&R visits.

A ‘personal affront’

“Betrayal — write that down and put it in your report,” said Col. John Kidd, garrison commander of Fort Stewart, Ga., testifying at Tafoya’s forum on the need to keep military-run schools on his post. “As a commander, I will fight this tooth and nail. Folks down there are not just militant on this issue. They will march on Washington.”

Lowe, the Quantico base commander, said he never has seen his community more united than it is over the schools issue.

“The very fact that this transfer study is being conducted at this time when Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen and their families are increasingly required to give more of themselves and to go in harm’s way is taken by many as a personal affront,” he said. “It raises serious questions about DoD’s commitment to all quality-of-life issues.”

Tafoya said there is no problem with studying the need to keep the schools. “[But] I do have a problem with the angst it has caused,” he said. “If we had known about what military families would be going through, we may well not have done [the study]. … I hope we will never have to do this again.”

The study’s recommendations must be submitted by Feb. 15 to Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. The timeline for what happens after that is unclear, but officials say no decisions are likely before March or April.

Officials could decide to transfer operational control of some or all schools to local public districts — or simply keep the status quo. Tafoya said any changes would take at least three or four years to implement.

In the first two phases of the $1.6 million DDESS study, which began earlier this year, contractors have:

• Analyzed the operating costs of each school.

• Projected costs of transferring each school to its respective public district outside the gate.

• Assessed the physical condition of each building.

• Surveyed local and state school officials in affected districts.

The physical analysis found that four of the 58 schools need to be replaced; six are in excellent shape; 26 are adequate; 17 are good; and five are in poor condition. The bill for fixing the subpar schools is $121 million, Tafoya said.

School officials will use this data to plan for repairing or replacing the schools, regardless of whether they’re turned over to public districts, he said.

Not just dollars and cents

Commanders and parents urged defense officials to consider not just the dollars involved, but the quality of the education provided by the schools, which consistently rank high in national test scores.

Students at DDESS schools at Fort Benning, Ga., outperform any nearby district, said Brig. Gen. Ben Freakley, commander of the post, which has six elementary schools and one middle school. Some 89 percent of parents surveyed are satisfied with the schools, he said.

“I remind you we’re at war,” Freakley told Tafoya. “Having just come from Iraq, I know that the last thing soldiers, sailors and airmen want is to be concerned about the education of their children while they’re fighting.”

Freakley said the roughly 1,000 parents who attended a recent Fort Benning town hall meeting are “mad that this is even being suggested at a time of war and deployment.”

He warned against making a decision based on dollars rather than quality of life. “Dollars don’t tell the whole story — they never do,” he said.

Commanders also noted states and local communities are having problems funding their public schools. Col. Larry Ruggley, garrison commander at Fort Campbell, Ky., showed local newspapers with headlines noting a two-week delay in the opening of civilian schools outside the gate because of budget wrangling.

Fort Campbell soldiers will continue to be deployed, Ruggley said. “We look to the stability and support of the school environment on Fort Campbell to take care of the children. It’s all about the soldier we put in harm’s way.”

Col. John Neubauer, commander of Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., said his base’s schools outperform those outside the gate. DDESS students at Maxwell consistently score in the 75th percentile nationally, he said, while “students outside the gate consistently score in the lower half.”

“We have a close relationship with the local community,” he said. “But the state of Alabama refuses to adequately fund education.”

Marine 2nd Lt. Daniel Allen, 32, a former staff sergeant with 14 years in the Corps who is assigned to Camp Lejeune, N.C., said the debate over the DDESS schools comes down to one thing — quality.

He and wife, Shelby, have two children — daughter Mercydes, 11, and son Zachery, 10, both of whom go to DDESS schools on Lejuene.

“All that matters is quality,” Allen said. “Once education [quality] starts falling, that’s when you start asking, ‘Is this best for my kids?’.”

Impact on retention

Lt. Gen. William Lennox, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., urged defense officials not to overlook the potential impact on recruiting and retention that this study could have.

Lennox was disappointed that senior Pentagon leaders who would make the decisions about the future of DDESS were not at the forum. He said the study probably is the top concern among families at West Point.

“I dare say I would lose 50 percent of those who want to teach because they wouldn’t want to put their kids in jeopardy,” he said. “I would be transferring 800 students into a 600-student [public] school, and have no voting representation in the school board.”

He showed a video clip from a town hall meeting held at West Point in which parents said the No. 1 reason they love living at West Point is the schools. Said one soldier: “We choose not to invest in a home [off post] because our equity is in our children.”

The same is true at Quantico, said Lt. Gen. Edward Hanlon, commander of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command.

“To win battles, you’d better have a good family foundation,” he said.

The DDESS schools were started after World War II, when President Truman desegregated the armed forces. The military needed them because so many bases were in the segregated south, where black soldiers’ children couldn’t get the education they deserved.

Race continues to be an issue for some commanders. Segregation “still exists in the deep South,” said Kidd, the Fort Stewart commander. “If that was a prime situation for the [creation] of DDESS, then that need is not yet met.”

Safety and security also are at issue. “My peers and I feel much safer from violence and drugs,” said Drexel Heard, a student at Camp Lejeune High School in North Carolina. “At DDESS, safety is right up there with education.”

A powerful kinship

For DDESS students, one of the most reassuring aspects of the schools is their strong sense of community. Christie McCrum, a high school senior at Fort Campbell, Ky., said teachers at her school are intimately familiar with the stresses often placed upon military families.

McCrum said words can’t express the pain she endured being separated from her father during his long deployments. Her teachers “know what to say when you’re crying your eyes out and need to step out in the hallway,” she said.

Caroline Myers, stateside director of the Federal Education Association, which represents DDESS teachers, remembers a little girl named Elizabeth who came into her second-grade class at Fort Benning the morning after the 1991 Persian Gulf War began.

“She walked in, looked at me, ran into my arms and said, ‘My mommy said my daddy might die,’” Myers said.

Myers took the girl to talk to the school counselor. When she returned, “I said, ‘Elizabeth, we have to cross our fingers they’ll be OK,’” Myers recalled. “I had 20 children in the class. … Eight had parents deployed. Elizabeth crossed her fingers and walked back to her seat. I looked across the room, and 20 children had their fingers crossed.”

Commissary concerns

With the Navy community at Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., already concerned about their schools, news that their commissary also is under scrutiny for possible closure comes as a double whammy.

“The commissary is busy all the time when it’s open,” said Maggie Coulson, the wife of a Navy captain. “They’ve got good prices, which is important for our younger service members.”

The small base is an hour’s drive from the next-closest commissaries at Quantico and Andrews Air Force Base, Md., she said. “If we lose that and the school, there will not be a whole lot here for us.”

Raezer, of the National Military Family Association, questioned why Defense Commissary Agency officials hadn’t notified her association or other military family advocates about the closures. Although Abell signed a memo about the closures on Aug. 29, sources said the commissary agency director didn’t hear about it until Oct. 15, and service officials didn’t hear about it until a few days before that.

Defense officials did not respond to questions about the closures by press time. But previous Defense Department documents cite criteria for operating stores that include having at least 100 active-duty personnel stationed at the base and consideration for the remoteness of the location, with the benchmark being that a store generally should be within 20 miles or 30 minutes’ driving time for personnel assigned in the area.

That puzzles family members at places like Dahlgren and the Army’s White Sands Missile Range, N.M., where driving time is twice that.

“We are so remote, it would make it really difficult” if the store closed, said Patti Gentry, wife of an Army colonel at White Sands. Although two sprawling bases — Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., and Fort Bliss, Texas — actually border White Sands, it’s 45 miles to the commissary at Holloman and more than an hour’s drive to the store at Fort Bliss.

“Even the closest commercial grocery store is 26 miles away, in Las Cruces. It’s desert between here and there,” Gentry said. “It would be awful” if the White Sands store closed.

She noted that a large proportion of the housing area, with more than 330 homes, is populated by enlisted and company-grade officers from all services.

In his Aug. 29 memo to the services and the Commissary Operating Board, Abell referred to funding shortfalls. “I appreciate the difficulty of decisions to close commissary store operations,” he wrote. “[But] we can no longer justify marginal stores in close proximity to another commissary.”

Previous commissary agency officials developed a formula to measure the operating efficiency of stores, based on, among other things, how much taxpayer money is used to operate a store compared with its total sales.

The Commissary Operating Board recommended cutting off taxpayer funding for the combined commissary/exchange store at Orlando, Fla. The fate of that store hasn’t been decided. Abell sought recommendations from the Navy on the future of the store, which would have to charge higher prices without taxpayer support.

Abell approved the board’s recommendation to close the stores at Bad Aibling, Germany, this fiscal year, and approved a request from the Army and Air Force to close combined stores at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., and Fort McClellan, Ala. He asked for a report on the combined store at Fort Worth, Texas.

He also asked for plans to close this fiscal year stores at Sagami Depot, Sagamihara and Camp Kure, Japan; Idar Oberstein, Neubreucke and Panzer, Germany; Chinhae, Korea; and Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.

Based on sales-to-operating-cost ratios, decisions are imminent on store closures at Dahlgren, Va.; Lakehurst, N.J.; Kelly Barracks, Germany; Hario, Japan; Pusan, South Korea; and Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz.

Abell said another 19 stores, including the White Sands store, “do not meet the criteria for continued operation.” For the moment, he is deferring closure decisions on those but wants to see quarterly reports for each.

Raezer said service members and families in remote areas appear to be the potential big losers in the current round of store closures.

She said the main argument for providing appropriated funds to the commissary agency is to support stores in such remote areas, because they are more costly to operate.

With that need gone or sharply reduced, incentive to privatize the stores could grow.

Commercial grocery chains will not go into such small communities to provide this benefit, Raezer said, adding that divesting the commissary agency of such stores could boost the incentive to privatize the commissary system, an idea that has simmered on the back burner for years.

“What does it do to the benefit if you say some places are too isolated even for the Defense Commissary Agency?” she said. “You’re taking it away from the people who need it the most.”

Yep, I'm definately going to have to consider Democrat in '04.

[Lonestar]

In synopsis:

The DoD, at the SecDef's instruction, is looking to close down onbase schools for dependents and cut a whole bunch of commisaries (read: Grocery Stores).

Most Stateside Onbase schools are in the Rural Deep South, so while Servicemembers are fighting and dying Over There, their Kids are being dumped on already. shall we say, "strained" school systems.

Some of the commisaries on the list include those in isolated areas like Yuma Proving grounds and White Sands. The nearest Grocery store in both locations are quite a ways away, so it's a bit different if they were closing a store in, say, Ft. Worth. (which they are, but in this case "only" Reservists families and the few Active Military types are getting screwed, as opposed to the rather large numbers elsewhere)

[MichaeltheGreat]

Clinton brought us Aspin, and Kennedy/LBJ brought us McNamara. George I brought us Cheney, and Geore II Rummy.

I'm not sure which of those asswipes I hold in the most contempt overall. Rummy is bad, but it's hard to single him out so much for all time ******* SecDef when he's in such illustrious company.

Worthless bastards.

[Nubclear]

The Bush Admin the troops.

Edit: MTG, you really need to change your avatar. I keep thinking of Slowwy when I see it.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
The Bush Admin the troops.

I think you are thinking of Reagan.

[Space05us]

What ever happend to the government looking out for itself, why would they do such a stupid thing as backstab thier most loyal supporters, the troops. And why is Powell letting it happen!!? (or have I misunderstood this?)

[Lonestar]

Powell can't even run Foriegn affairs with Rumsfeld sticking his dirty little fingers in it.

[Space05us]

he might not be able to directly do anything about it himself but he could use his influence to do something couldn't he?

reading this article just pisses me off, I ha donce considered joining the army for awhile after getting out of college but after seeing everything the Bush administration is doing and has done I'm beginning doubt I'll even join the national gaurd when I turn 18.

[Q Classic]

so, i get it. when liberals want to bring the troops home, they're not supporting the troops, but when the people upstairs kill off basic necessities for keeping their troops happy, it's just dollars and cents, because they always support the troops?

[mrmitchell]

How can the DoD justify this kind of thing with their huge budget increases every year?

[GhengisFarb™]

I really dislike the idea of shutting down Commisaries in remote areas. Large posts like say Fort Sill and Fort Hood would go mostly unnoticed since the bulk of service members buy at WalMart which is cheaper. Commisaries in those situations are treated more like a second-rate Big Lot than anything else.

I seriously disagree with the schools though, yes it would intrigate the military families into the community but I think its a good thing for military families to have their loved ones secure within a military post, less chance of them being targeted by terrorists and what not.

Not that it would be overly difficult for a terrorist to get onto a military installation.

[Dis]

bah!

When I lived in Mississippi we didn't even have a galley to eat at.

They forced us to either bring your lunch, or eat at the crappy McDonald's express on base. McDonald's express is like a McDonald's- only crappier. They microwaver their burgers and such.

Our SIMA used to have a grill and we used the money from the food for MWR funds. But the stupid base tried to shut us down because we weren't contributing to the base MWR fund.

We had nothing to eat on that island!!

I don't even remember us having a commisary in Norfolk (the biggest navy base in the world). You guys with a commisaries have it lucky.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by GhengisFarb
I really dislike the idea of shutting down Commisaries in remote areas. Large posts like say Fort Sill and Fort Hood would go mostly unnoticed since the bulk of service members buy at WalMart which is cheaper. Commisaries in those situations are treated more like a second-rate Big Lot than anything else.

Some of the commisaries are inefficient, and aren't really needed. The emphasis of the study shouldn't just be on cost efficiency, but on impact to serving personnel and their families.

I seriously disagree with the schools though, yes it would intrigate the military families into the community but I think its a good thing for military families to have their loved ones secure within a military post, less chance of them being targeted by terrorists and what not.

Not that it would be overly difficult for a terrorist to get onto a military installation.

The school thing is more about environment than physcial security. Families get transfered a lot, and having an integrated school system that's aware of that reality, you can minimize disruption to the kids - they start back up where they left off, in a familiar environment, and where a lot of kids have the same issues.

[Grandpa Troll]

Here is something that throws up a Big 'Ole Flag..

I am in The Ready Mix Concrete industry. I have bid the concrete on a new school complex, a 2 school complex aboard Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base. The project has not been awarded, but should be within the next 45-60 days.
Onslow County Schools, which border Camp Lejeune (which is the Largest Amphibious training Base in the world and has in addition Camp Geiger, Camp Johnson, Marine Corps Air Station New River, The Greater Sandy Run Training Complex plus additional training facilities) has its schools sytem busting at the seems, with "modular units" (trailers) housing many of its classrooms.

We are in the midst of building a new elementary school, but the county has too few schools to handle the area, let alone handling the DOD schools.

BUT, they may perhaps be considering building the schools, allowing the "State" or "County" to oversee them and still allow them to be "Housed" aboard base.

Whom knows, the sure bet is this:

The Govt. will do what is in their own best interest, not necessarily what anyone individual feels is best for their child or military branch. I myself would simply ask what is wrong with turning over the schooling to the local areas, it is good enough for all the other children, why wouldnt it be good enough for the dependants?

This may be a way to perhaps free up funding for the military itself.

I know a large amount of retired persons whom work in this area. I think they should be given some sort of discount on what they buy. BUT, they have their children, whom are grown, also purchasing from the commissaries. All these discounts have to come from somewhere. People dont want taxes, people want increased benifits and someone should have to pay for it. US, the taxpayer. Politicians are going to look out for their best interests. Shame, we pay for it. "Good 'Ole Boys"

I am a Veteran. I would love to see our Veterans taken care of. I think its a shame and a tragedy that our enlisted folks have to go on supllemental income just to feed their families. It goes on here all the time. Maybe some of these cuts will help rid some expenditures to free up funding for them?

Whom knows?


Peace

Grandpa troll

[GhengisFarb™]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Some of the commisaries are inefficient, and aren't really needed. The emphasis of the study shouldn't just be on cost efficiency, but on impact to serving personnel and their families.

Exactly my point, larger bases tend to be adjacent to larger civilian communities and the Commisary doesn't really providimg a needed service.

Rural areas where the commisaries are less cost efficient as they don't have the volume of personnel purchasing from them are more crucial as the personnel will have a more difficult time finding stuff and finding it at a reasonable price.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
How can the DoD justify this kind of thing with their huge budget increases every year?

Ole Rummy is really big into the whole "transformation" schtick. Plus that whole high Ops Tempo in places where' we're getting shot at has drained money.

[DanS]

The tone of the article really turned me off.

[MichaeltheGreat]

How should it have been written, as a press release from the DoD praising Rummy for the great things he's doing for America?

Rummy really turns me off.

[DanS]

Well, the lead was that since soldiers were deployed, no changes could even be contemplated. This doesn't seem right, since the business of the DoD continues on despite deployment.

[MichaeltheGreat]

The business of the DoD continues on, but (a) this is a massive deployment, on a scale of time that we haven't seen since you know where (yeah, we had a lot more in GW I, but many were late rotating in, and early rotating out), and (b) given the scale of the DoD budget, there's no need to really touch quality of life and dependent issues right now. If anything, DoD should be looking at improving the lot of serving personnel on every level.

That was among many things that convinced me to never be a lifer, and the vast majority of the people I knew as well.

[DanS]

Why would dealing with these issues preclude increasing the quality of life of the troops?

Anyway, the article spends the first third slagging the Bush administration without dealing with why these parents want to keep the DoD schools--that they are of generally higher quality than their civilian public counterparts. It's just a bullshit way of going about writing an article.