I’ve been reading about how there’s a number of military bases to be closed, and that’ll result in x number of jobs lost.
How does that work? I’m assuming the vast majority of base employees are military. Are they told, “Hey, we’re closing, so you’re not in the miltary anymore?” Or, is it a situation where the ‘loss of job’ is just in terms of local economy, and the soldiers/saliors/etc will just be reassigned elsewhere (in which case, the terminology sucks, becuase that’s still very much being employed).
Military personnel are reassigned. Military bases, though, typically employ a substantial number of local civilian employees either directly or through contractors.
Military people are just reassigned. The vast majority of these jobs are civilian. Those of sufficient seniority are packed up and moved out. The others have preferential treatment in finding other government jobs.
Some people win, some lose. The idea is consolidating bases saves the military basket loads of money. It is well worth doing.
In the short term, military personnel are reassigned, but in the long term, it does mean fewer billets in the military, it just takes longer for it to happen. Bottom line is fewer platforms and fewer bases means fewer personnel in uniform. Believe it or not, there is increaing pressure to cut billets in the military due to the increase compensation costs.
In a lot of places, the local military base is the largest employer. If they leave, the surrounding economy may suffer. Especially all the stores and bars and restaurants that the soldiers carouse at.
Like the senator on TV said this afternoon,
"Not in my state, ours are essential to the war on terror, etc. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It will have to be some place else!
I read the BRAC Closure list this morning, and I was struck by one thing: Of the two bases I’ve done construction on, both are closing (Ellsworth and Cannon AFBs).
I have the touch of death. :smack:
Tripler
Please, finish this war on terror before I build anything else.
Here’s the official list of base realignments and closings: BRAC 2005 (pdf file 117k) Does anyone know what the numbers in this document mean? Are they number of positions or something else?
Well, it is more or less the number of positions being either gained or (lost). For example, take Alabama’s Anniston Army Depot. It’s losing 87 civilain positions (indicated by the parenthesis), but gaining 1,121 civilian positions, with a net gain of 1,034 civvies to start working there.
Whether this is a specific unit or fucntion, I don’t know, but yes, the numbers indicate the movement of personell to or from a base.
Tripler
Thank goodness Malmstrom was spared . . . :rolleyes:
The local (~40 mile away) base (Ft. McCoy) employs ~3000 civilians.
It survived the recent cust, probably because it is a major Nat’l guard training place.
Kind of makes me want to shed a tear – I’m not that old. Hell, they had just finished building that skinny building to the left of the two Ys when I got there – it’s where they had the “pre school” where you got up to speed on math and physics before getting into the good stuff.
It’s like finding out that they tore down your high school
I see they’re planning to close Willow Grove NAS. A number of years ago, they changed that from being a NAS to a Joint Reserve base, so does that mean just the Navy ops are closing, or is the whole deal shutting down?
Actually, a total of 18,000 civilian jobs will be lost through base closures and realignments. Those jobs will either go away or be contracted out. What a surprise, NOT! The military personnel, of course, will be reassigned.
I’m fortunate in that the military installation I work for will actually gain a few people, but this presents possible problems too. In other words, there will be a hiring freeze and positions will be held for those people who have lost their jobs due their installation closing or realigning. It’s fair, in a way; but there are always folks who are currently at the installation who want to move up the food chain. Having lived through this 10 years ago, I can see a lot of frustration and morale problems. Add to this the fact that some organizations on this installations are slated to be first under the new pay system for civil servants and times will become bleak.
I find it interesting that many of the DFAS offices are being closed down because they want regionalize those services again. Back in 1995, (the last BRAC), they shut down the Command Finance and Accounting Office located on our installation. The folks there were given the option of moving to Rome, NY or accepting a position offered to them on the installation (resulting in downgrades for many), or just plain getting out of civil service, either through retirement or resigning. The Rome, NY DFAS is now slated for closure.
Ultimately, this list will change to some degree. It still needs to go through the BRAC commission, the Senate and the President. We’ll see which Reps and Senators have the most power then. The actual closures and realignments wouldn’t start until 2006.
