Author Description

This paper will provide the reader a framework by which to understand the unintended consequences of the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 directed outsourcing/privatizing and downsizing of the military in general. Downsizing has reduced the active duty military personnel pool that accomplishes an increasingly complex and diverse mission. This downsizing, coupled with outsourcing/privatizing and an ever-expanding mission, has increased the operations tempo for today's military members from both an operational mission perspective, but also with regard to accomplishing a fixed number of numerous "military unique" details and additional duties. These duties, such as honor guard, Resourced Augmentation Duty (READY) program, search and recovery teams and "weeds and seeds" do not earn manpower but must continue to be performed as additional duties by the smaller pool of military members that remain. Commanders have always been responsible for a certain amount of workload that must be "taken out of hide", but now the "hide" is much thinner than ever before.