Comment Number: 05-02582-EREG-101-d7391-c32119
Received: 3/2/2005 8:00:00 AM
Subject: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment
Title: National Security Personnel System
CFR Citation: 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901
No Attachments

Comments:

DOD has discovered that hiring private contractors to do the uniformed military's jobs in a combat zone is more costly than having the uniformed miliarty do them. Imagine that !!! So not having the option of these jobs not getting done DOD wants to remove the Title 5 protections from their civilian federal workforce and their exclusive representatives in order to make them take on the jobs in the combat zone cheaper. They want to do this before they convert approximately 320,000 uniformed military positions to the civilian workforce and make those uniformed military become practitioners of the arts of combats arms. Seems to me this is an admission that:

1. The military is 320,000 infantrymen short
2. The reductions in recruits and retentions and the size of the pool available to meet the shortfalls is insufficient to maintain the all volunteer force.
3. Stop-loss has been exhausted.
4. The only option left other than reinstating the draft is to back door the civilian employees to man the support positions in order to free up the positions for conversion to trigger pullers.

My question is: How can anyone be so dumb as to believe that people will go that have not signed on to go? If given a choice between being killed or not being employed by the DOD which one would you take? The average age of the DOD worker is 46. We are old enough to know we are mortal.

The average age of an infantryman is 19. The ideal age for making soldiers is between 17-22. They are convinced they will live forever.

If people want to serve in a combat zone they join the military not the civil service. This will make the DOD the employer of last resort. Right before joining the military.

DOD needs to come to the realities that:

1. The privatization of the miliatry has FAILED.
2. The size of the Army is TOO SMALL.
3. The unemployment rate is too low to sustain an all volunteer force.
4. The pool available to be recruited to the all volunteer force is also too small when considering the employment opportunities available to them.
AND 5. Reinstating the draft is not an option it is a necessity.