C-SPAN Presidents 2012 Budget Request Review:Military Comments p1

C-SPAN Presidents 2012 Budget Request Review:Military Comments p1  by Monty K Reed.

(shortlink to this page                 http://theyshallwalk.org/?p=533        )

As I watch the C-SPAN broadcast of the budget review I noticed I got sucked in because I could, first of all understand what they were talking about.  I had experience training with the combat equipment they were talking about replacing.  My friends have had and are having experiences using those antiquated technologies.  Some of them died because of the lack of technology and many, because of the lack of the will to use it.  Rather than get angry I thought I would listen in and put another log on the fire.  After the fourth log hit the fireplace I realized I had to share a little about what I was seeing.

How many of you have actually watched C-SPAN and thought about the way our tax dollars are being spent.

One of the the interesting comments over an hour ago that sucked me in was the comments about soldiers on the front line using solar power to reduce fuel consumption.  At first glance I imagined a gun toting, cigar smoking R from the south or Idaho imagining this was a ‘ploy by the greenies’ to infect the military.   When you apply science it really is not.  The comment by one of the government officials (first comment to ID the person gets a Free Tshirt) made the point that a team in Afganastan was able to reduce fuel consumption at their forward station from 20 gallons a day to 2 gallons a day.  This single action will result in a reduction in the loss of life.

Here is the logic.  Less fuel means less convoys and that leads to less soldiers being exposed to IED’s.  Now take that logic and start to apply it to every aspect of front line operations and then spread it around to the rest of the military.

One of the other comments had to do with the ‘reexamination of the budget process’ where the current system looks as spending $15 billion because of the budget that was laid out the year before and an increase that resulted in the current budget.  The suggestion was to consider budgets based on the THREAT.

Imagine if the bean counters were to consider talking to the soldiers who were doing the work and considered a budget that actually was based on the need, not what was spent the year before.  This guy was talking about that very thing.

WOW.  I am really impressed.  When I was in Ranger School at Fort Benning back in the 1980’s we were instructed on the budget for OP Ords (Operation Orders) that we needed to assess the threat and add ten percent to be sure we had enough; weapons, ammunition, fuels for aircraft and vehicles, first aid kits, parachutes, food rations, artillery support, air support, troop levels and so on… We were trained in how to estimate all of the needs for small operations and large in all terrains from; mountains, desert, arctic, swamp, jungle and woodland.

When that was all done and we were ready to submit the op order we were taught we had to double the logical request because the standard DOD (Department of Defense ) and DOA (Department of the Army) to slash all requests in half to save money.  I felt like I was dealing with high school dating games when it came to submitting a budget for a military operations order.   I was a bit scared to think that when real combat op ords were being submitted that these kind of budget slashes were going on.  I was blessed and lucky to have never been in combat operations as some of my friends have.

I must say that when I heard this govt official talking about a budget based on real threat levels I was relived and excited.

There was a lot more covered during this broadcast that I do not have time to get into.  The logs have almost turned to ash and I noticed the snow was still falling outside, and since I am looking forward to a day of skiing ‘tomorrow’ (in seven hours) so I need to sign off for now.  Take some time to get involved in politics.  Write your reps and senators to let them know how you feel.