Downsizing

[Mr. Thirsty]

House lawmakers back big military pay raise, block plans to cut 18,000 defense medical jobs

The draft of the annual defense authorization bill also includes new protections for sexual assault victims and new help for unemployed military spouses.

www.militarytimes.com

So this happened, but I feel it’s just delaying the inevitable.

Big Hoss

"But they did break with military and administration plans to shift nearly 18,000 uniformed medical billets — doctors, nurses, dentists and other specialists — into civilian jobs to increase the number of warfighting positions within the armed forces.
The draft bill would prohibit the Defense Department from making any such moves until medical end strength until analyses are conducted and officials have reported back on the availability of health care services around stateside military bases."

Yeah it sounds like it will still move forward but not until more data is available about the amount of care needed. I could see commander's putting more emphasis on DWV's to show necessity in the near future.

I'm not surprised by this whole thing. The amount of O-6 dentists that are just doing admin in Army DENTAC seems really inefficient. There's a lot of fat that could be trimmed in the military medical system in its current form.

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[InformMe123]

Is DHA going to make bases triservice in the future with these changes? For instance, Army dentists getting stationed at San Diego or Navy at Scott AFB or AF at Fort Sill, you get the idea?

 

[vellnueve]

In terms of personnel logistics I doubt you’ll see it become truly joint facilities quickly, but I think you’ll see more and more mixing to fill gaps and critical needs.

It’s easier to consolidate supply and equipment logistics and eliminate redundant facilities, but you’d probably add bureaucracy by having to create more admin support for personnel from multiple services.

Plus in the end the services have some different standards for operational units that would need to be translated across the services.

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

Any new word on the proposed force reductions? I’ve heard a bit from friends that are still active duty that changes to retention bonuses and special pay were recently talked about as a way to thin the numbers and encourage some to get out.

Big Hoss