Everybody was standing around the grill. The cooler Violet carried into the house was now beside the grill. A heap of charcoal was beginning to burn. When Sabine got there, everyone had drinks in their hands. The Sergeant Major pointed at the cooler with his drink. Sabine flipped open the lid. Inside was several large paper bundles and a bunch of drinks; beer, wine, wine coolers, and sodas. Sabine grabbed a wine cooler and joined the group. The Sergeant Major was talking.
“OK, Now Sabine is here I can start hitting the meat of what I wanted to talk to you guys about, including you two, Fric and Frac.” He pointed at Veronica and Violet with his bottle.
“What I’m telling you, it isn’t official yet. All of it might not come to bear, it might all happen. We don’t know. What I am telling you is from a couple guys I know either at Congress or the Pentagon. The west coast events are going to fundamentally change the military. Congress is scrambling for money wherever it can to pour into the west coast. Many in Congress see the military budget as the biggest place to steal it from.”
“With Congress pillaging the military budget, the military is going to do as much as it can to refocus the funds it does have. It will probably not rebuild Pendleton and San Diego bases, or at least to the level they once were. The Marine equipment and resources being recovered are being relocated to Twenty-Nine Palms since it is out of the destruction zone. All the functions possible are being moved. I don’t see them ever being moved back. Pendleton will probably become mostly a range and operating area.”
“The main functions of the naval base are being moved to Pearl. The same thing with Bremerton, Kitsap, and Whidbey Island. They were all trashed, and the big question is whether to pour money back into these locations to get back to the status quo, or if we spend half as much, can we increase the same capabilities in a base that is still functioning. Pearl used to handle the level of operations it would have if you pulled what the west coast did a month ago. The Marine amphibious elements will end up on Guam, I figure.”
Everyone just stood there, trying to absorb what they were just told. The Sergeant Major handed out another round of drinks while Veronica raked the charcoal around to spread out the heat for the meat Violet was seasoning. Once everyone was set, the Sergeant Major started up again.
“So, as I was saying, the military is trying every trick in the book to make the most of the money they have left. With the talk of eliminating bases on the west coast by not rebuilding them, there is going to be a draw down of units and personnel. Some of it is going to be sneaky, too, and not make sense until you look at it like an accountant.”
“First, a history lesson. Many years back, the federal government and the military changed the dates people got paid on from the 15th and the last day of the month, to the first and fifteenth. It looks like only one day, but It provided a onetime budgetary windfall. What it did was move one whole two week pay period of salary from one fiscal year to another, freeing up the funds for other uses. Well, they are trying to do some other sneaky things.”
“One of the things they are looking to do is a 15 year retirement. On the face, it doesn’t look like it will save much money, but it moves the payroll over to another category and since the retirement pay is based on the top three years, and fewer will make higher rank, it will end up costing them less. It will also cull overall number of bodies. Not that it will be mandatory, yet, nor are they going to change high year of tenure, yet. Think about most of your coworkers and such. You offer them at the 15 year mark a 50% paycheck and never come back, there will be a lot of takers.”
“There is another couple sneakier things in the works as well. One of the biggest things gobbling up resources and money is moving troops around unit to unit, base to base. Well, the rest of the services will be moving to the Air Force model of a minimum of four years’ time on station before you are eligible to PCS to your next station instead of the two to three years we are used to. Fewer moves mean fewer moves to pay for, and units have fewer periods of time with less than their required bodies. Between PCS in, in processing and out processing to leave, you lose about six months of functionality to the unit.”
“That’s the first half, the other half they are talking about, they are going to reset everyone’s time on station clocks to zero regardless of how long they have already been there.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “That means, unless you are fresh from MOS school or retiring, where you are at, that’s where you will be for the next four years at least. All of you are over ten years in, so unless you choose to push higher and longer, you are at your retirement base right now.”
“So, those of you here, this place will at least draw down to a much smaller base and capability, or close all together. The US will be focusing inward for some time. The days of the military running all over the globe doing diplomacy by presence are done for quite some time. The various schools set up for the expeditionary military operations will wither and maybe go away. It will take years for the base to close down completely, probably, but it will probably happen. If you are over 15 years, they may or may not allow you to re-enlist if they have to move you. That gives you around four or five years to figure out what you want as your next career.”
Everyone was quiet as they thought about the massive paradigm shift they just got dumped on them.