| Comment Number: | EM-001273 |
| Received: | 2/23/2005 8:51:03 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:
After reviewing the new NSPS proposed regulations, I have one specific concern that I feel strongly about. The Case for Action, page 7552, "DoD civilians must complement and support the military around the world in every time zone, every day." My understanding is that DoD officials voiced the intent of this effort to be that DoD civilians would be subject to involuntary deployment, similar to the military personnel, to anywhere in the world that DoD wished to send them, including war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. I disagree strongly with this premise. Most civilians are hired to perform a specific function, typically at a sustaining base in order to support mobilization and deployment of warfighters. Civilians are not soldiers, nor should they be expected to perform as such. Much of the DoD civilian workforce is made up of older employees, many with limiting physical conditions, since reductions in force have eliminated much of the younger workers due to seniority when jobs were cut. When these employees were hired there were specific expectations of their performance, which did not include being displaced from their homes and families to deploy to war zones. Positions which would be subject to deployment should be recruited as such, with such a drastic known requirement communicated prior to the individual accepting the position. To take an individual who was hired at Fort xxx to provide a specific garrison function at that location, and force them to deploy involuntarily to Iraq where their life would be in very real jeopardy, is just plain wrong. > Fort Drum - The Army and the Soldier's first choice >