Behind the Cover: The Drawdown Plan
April 9th, 2012 | Afghanistan Battle Rattle Behind the Cover budget Camp Lejeune Drawdown Manpower Marines | Posted by James Sanborn
By now it’s no news that the military is facing serious cuts. The Marine Corps alone will drop 20,000 over the next five years. But just how leaders will make those cuts has been a mystery — until now.
To get the lowdown on how the Marine Corps will drawdown by 2016, and what the plan means for you, check out this week’s edition of Marine Corps Times.
For our cover story, we traveled to Camp Lejeune, N.C., to sit in on a briefing by the drawdown’s architects who are now on an eight-week tour of the fleet. In it, we learned what cash incentives are up for grabs, how it will effect re-up and promotion opportunities, and what MOSs and ranks are most at risk.
Also in this week’s issue is a pair of great faker stories by staff writer Gina Cavallaro. The first is about a Pennsylvania man who claims to be a Marine first sergeant. Even his brother has called him out, but he was still able to dupe a Canadian soldier who started a foundation for Afghanistan veterans grappling with PTSD. The second revisits the case of Skyler Whalen. He once claimed to be a gunny, but has now moved on to impersonating a police officer.
Pick up Marine Corps Times on newsstands now or click here to subscribe.
Behind the cover: Cutting 20,000 Marines
February 7th, 2012 | Behind the Cover budget Force Structure Review Manpower | Posted by Andrew deGrandpre
Throughout the Corps, anxiety is high as Marines and their families wait to learn how the commandant intends to execute massive force cuts ordered in January by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. And their uneasiness certainly is justified. The reality is that over the next five years, the service will purge some 20,000 from the active-duty force — about as many as it added during the latter part of the last decade to sustain operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This week’s cover story, which was co-reported by Marines Corps Times’ senior staff writers Gina Cavallaro and Dan Lamothe, examines how the drawdown is expected to take shape and what means the service will employ in reducing overall end strength by 3,500-5,000 personnel a year, as the top Marine, Gen. Jim Amos, has forecast. It analyzes future force structure also, and how budget cuts will drive the elimination of units and diminish certain capabilities. As Marine Corps Times first reported last week, officials now are looking beyond last year’s force structure review, which accounts for about 15,000 personnel cuts, with thoughts of axing some light armored reconnaissance assets and an additional infantry battalion while dialing back planned expansion of the Corps’ special operations command.
A companion piece, reported by staff writer James K. Sanborn, looks at the future of the Marine Corps Reserve. Although it’s not targeted for personnel cuts, smaller budgets could influence training deployments in the coming years, according to the Reserve’s three-star commander.
All in all, it’s vital career news for Marines everywhere. The issue is on newsstands now. To read it immediately, subscribe to our digital edition.
Behind the Cover: The debt deal’s effect on the military
August 9th, 2011 | Behind the Cover budget Capitol Hill | Posted by Dan Lamothe
If you’ve been following the news coming out of Washington, D.C., you know that the financial and political realities of our nation are coming together in a great, big mess.
The recent agreement reached to cut the U.S.’s deficit could have widespread impact on the military, especially when a 12-member “super committee” in Congress begins hunting for $1.2 trillion in federal budget cuts by mid-November.
The debt deal will reduce defense spending by $350 billion over the next decade, and potentially as much as $1 trillion.
This week’s Marine Corps Times explores all those themes, but also drills down into how specifically it could affect active-duty and retired Marines.
A variety of pay and benefits cuts are on the table, alarming many who have served their country. Congressional editor Rick Maze lays them out in a comprehensive cover story.
To get the details, check it out this week’s edition on newsstands now or subscribe here online.
Behind the Cover: The plan to overhaul military retirement
August 1st, 2011 | Behind the Cover budget Manpower | Posted by Andrew deGrandpre
Listen up, Marines!
This week’s cover story is a must-read for all — from the lowliest privates to tomorrow’s general officers. Marine Corps Times Pentagon correspondent Andrew Tilghman lays out in stark detail an aggressive new plan to revamp the military retirement system, one that would dump today’s 20-year model in favor of something akin to a corporate 401(k).
The proposal, pitched by an influential Pentagon advisory board, calls for everyone to receive at least some retirement cash when they leave the service. Even Marines who complete just one enlistment and get out as lance corporals would clear about $20,000.
Career-mind troops planning to stay in for 20 years or more would take a massive hit, however. Replacing the current pension system with a civilian-style 401(k) would result in retirement packages worth hundreds of thousands of dollars less, on average, according to the Defense Business Board’s plan.
Also in this week’s print edition, senior staff writer Dan Lamothe outlines two abrupt announcements from Marine Corps headquarters: one freezing housing allowance requests for single NCOs and below; the other implementing new top-end service limits for sergeants. Both changes mean that day-to-day life is about to change drastically for the Corps’ junior leaders.
To read up on these and other important stories, pick up a copy of this week’s Marine Corps Times — on newsstands now. Or you can subscribe online here and get instant access to our digital edition.
Behind the Cover: Military benefits under fire
May 31st, 2011 | Behind the Cover budget Leadership The Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps | Posted by Dan Lamothe
This week’s Marine Corps Times cover story highlights an ongoing debate that could hit service members right where it counts: the wallet.
In a trio of stories, Pentagon correspondent Andrew Tilghman explores where cuts could be made to military benefits. Reductions to tuition assistance and pensions are possible, and military officials also are considering a partial pension for those who serve at least 10 years.
This week’s newspaper also offers three strong career stories for enlisted Marines. One focuses on promotion opportunities for sergeants, another looks at the Corps’ early-out program, and the third offers tips to Marines seeking their preferred special duty assignment.
Finally, we offer up a long-form feature this week exploring the personal relationship of Navy Cross recipient Jeremiah Workman and Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, the Corps’ senior enlisted Marine. It’s the kind of story that Marines will hopefully tell again and again.
EFV: At what cost to the Corps?
February 4th, 2011 | budget Capitol Hill Vehicles | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle goes for a swim at Camp Pendleton, Calif., last summer.//Lance Cpl. John Robbart III
With ringing endorsements from the Pentagon’s top leader and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Jim Amos to kill the program, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle’s fate is close to being sealed. But the EFV remains a contentious issue as big defense contractor General Dynamics continues with its push to save the program, with some help from congressional members who say nixing the EFV is akin to killing the Marine Corps itself.
Beating the drum is Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-Calif., an Iraq veteran who now represents California’s 52nd district. In recent weeks, Hunter has taken his pro-EFV argument to various newspaper op-ed pieces, saying the Marine Corps would “lose its core competency” without it, and he noted that other top leaders – he didn’t identify but would include retired commandant and Gen. Jim Conway – had enthusiastically supported the EFV as a “top priority.”
So why the change in tune? It’s all about money, specifically what getting the EFV would cost in real terms to the Marine Corps, says a senior Department of the Navy official. “The Expeditionary Fighting vehicle is doing pretty well. It’s had a very troubled history,” Navy Undersecretary Robert “Bob” Work told a mostly-defense contractor crowd during the West 2011 conference on Jan. 26, noting the $3.3 billion investment in the program so far.
But the decision to cancel the EFV is not about its capability, Work insisted, but about the drain on the bank needed to support other requirements, notably ground combat vehicles, if the Marine Corps went forward with the program. From 2018 to 2025, he said, the EFV would consume from the Marine Corps’ budget 100 percent of the average of all ground combat vehicles, 50 percent of all Marine Corps procurement, and 90 percent of historical operations & maintenance dollars for ground combat vehicles.
Navy Undersecretary Robert Work//Navy photo
“It would not make a difference if that vehicle could do everything it said it can do. We simply cannot afford it,” said Work, a retired Marine Corps artillery officer and seasoned budget analyst before he took the bureaucratic post in 2009. “The opportunity costs…are too high.” The decision to cancel the program was made by the commandant, Gen. Jim Amos, he said, “and the secretary concurred.”
The $2.8 billion saved in canceling the program will help fund ground tactical vehicles. That’s $500 million toward the new amphibious vehicle – he expects the initial solicitation will be made by 2013 – $1 billion to extend the life of the current fleet of AAVs, $400 million to accelerate by three years the initial operating capability of the Marine Personnel Carrier, $200 million to recapitalize Humvees, and $700 million to recap light-armored vehicles and other vehicles.
“The EFV is an exquisite, wonderful capability,” he said, but the cost is too high. The smarter thing, he insisted in speaking with reporters, is to focus on funding vehicles that would fill the Corps’ requirement for 12 battalions of lift, which is either a 8-4 or 6-6 split between the next amtrac and wheeled MPC. “It’s going to be decided on the Marine Corps’ own terms. The secretary of defense has said, you’ve convinced me on the need for amphibious assault capability – a two MEB capability – you’ve convinced me that an armored tractor is a good thing to have in the Marine ground mobility portfolio, but you can’t afford to spend on the EFV,” he said.
Gates orders “thorough force structure review” of the Corps
August 12th, 2010 | Battle Rattle budget World War II | Posted by Gina Cavallaro
This time he really means business. Gates sounded the death knell for U.S. Joint Forces command at the beginning of the week and by the end of the week he had his sites trained on the Marine Corps.
In a speech at the Marines’ Memorial Club and Hotel in San Francisco on Thursday, he ordered a thorough force structure review of the Marine Corps. It’s no news that the Corps is prepared to draw down its personnel after operations in Afghanistan wind down. But this goes deeper. He said he wants to determine what an expeditionary force in readiness should look like in the 21st Century.
In his speech, Gates took the audience down the storied path of Marine Corps lore, through the rich history of important and seminal engagements, sacrifice and victory through World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, concluding that the nation does not need a second land army.
Gates said he is worried that in a time of austerity the Defense Department may be seen by some legislators as a cash cow to fix funding issues in some other agencies. The spigot of defense spending that was turned up after the attacks of 9/11, he said, is closing.
BLUF: every dollar counts. Stand by for more.