Budget crisis brings shortages of ammo, supplies and more The signs are everywhere. A Navy gym in Hawaii is closing earlier. Army families in upstate New York are bracing for possible cuts in on-base child care. Enlisted airmen in California are paying out of pocket for office supplies. And in North Carolina, Marines on a range are pointing rifles and shouting, “Butter, butter, jam,” to simulate the sound of live ammo after being told there isn’t enough money for real bullets. Budget cuts are already hitting home, and hitting hard — and they’re about to get a lot worse. SMA…
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TAP out: Army takes steps to make outgoing soldiers career-ready Major upgrades to the Transition Assistance Program are underway this year as the Army strives to make it easier for departing soldiers to find meaningful employment in a tough labor market. The program is adding two major elements to the program: education and training tracks to help them meet their goals, and a check to make sure transitioning soldiers are ready to go. Key elements of the re-engineered program, which has expanded its facilities and staff threefold in the past year, include pre-separation counseling; developing of a 12-month post-transition budget;…
Army looks to reclassify soldiers over kicking them out The vast majority of enlisted soldiers who want to re-enlist during the coming drawdown will be allowed to do so, but they may have to change specialties to stay in service, according to the Army’s chief personnel officer. “We know we may have to do involuntary separations during this drawdown, but over the next three years, about 95 percent of the enlisted soldiers who want to re-enlist will be eligible,” said Lt. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg, the Army personnel chief. “Now the problem is that some of the soldiers who want…
An Internet rumor that American troops in Afghanistan no longer get breakfast has prompted a response from the Pentagon via Twitter. A chain email says the last-minute deal Congress passed to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” also denies breakfast to troops in Afghanistan. The email garnered enough attention that rumor-debunking site Snopes.com picked up on it and rated the email “partly true” since some bases stopped serving hot breakfasts as they get ready for the drawdown. From Snopes: It isn’t true that, due to fiscal cliff-related budget cuts, breakfast has been completely eliminated for all U.S. troops stationed outside the…
Army Times will publish a complete breakdown of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act in the Jan. 17 edition, which hits newsstands Monday. In the meantime, here are some facts and figures from the stateside and Afghanistan military construction budgets we found interesting: Only five of the 165 stateside requests were shot down. They include a $30-million request for a Aviation Task Force Complex at Fort Wainwright, Ala., and a $19-million commissary for the garrison in Miami, Fla. It also was a bad year for museum operations support buildings, which got the thumbs-down for a combined $74.8 million requested for…