Airline Pilot Central Forums - more sequester posturing?

Quote:

Originally Posted by GunshipGuy (Post 1356673)

BINGO! Easier to make across the board slashing cuts to personnel than to do the hard work of determining where money can be saved if people just worked at it. Just like counties do across the nation, they tell citizens critical services will be the first to go--cops, firemen, etc. The goal is to spread fear and pain so they can keep their power and kingdoms instead of doing what needs to be done to save money.

Maybe now wings are finally getting the message that if you don't have to fly out the flying hour program than guess what???? Don't fly out the flying hour program! Who here among us hasn't felt the pressure to get the hours flown just to zero out the hours?!! Even when I confronted my group CC in my final year of service about the need to fly out the hours (I had a memo in hand from the Air Staff stating you're done flying when you say your training is done, circa '08) he replied, "You told me before the FY started you needed XXXX hours to accomplish your training. Therefore, your training is not complete until you fly those hours."

The unneeded TDYs, the unneeded HD flat screens, blowing money at the end of the year that you won't get back if you don't spend it....it all should be looked at. But the low hanging fruit are the DoD's civilian employees. Generals need to stand up to their bosses and tell them the hard work of determining where the wasted dollars are has yet to even begin.

There is so much room in the DOD budget for economy that the "mandatory cuts" will be a drop in the bucket. When I retired back in the 90's, a friend of ours went to work at an Air Logistics Center. After about his second week of work, the shop steward called him aside and told him that he had better slow down (he was repairing avionics equipment) because it was making the rest of the shop look bad. So, he repaired about 4 sets a day and took about 20 coffee and smoke breaks to fill up the rest of his day.
There was an Air Force museum at the front gate of the base. I called the Atlas missle sitting there "The Civil Service Monument." It just sat there, didn't work, and couldn't be fired.
If the DOD sytem worked like any normal system, managers would be allowed to save money and try to be more efficient. With the empires that must be built and protected, this will never happen.