thedrifter
07-28-07, 06:29 AM
THE FEEDING TROUGH
By Vicki Crawford
JULY 27, 2007 (Posted at: 2:11 p.m.)
It is said that every Marine is a basic rifleman. But there are Marines that would argue they maintain a higher proficiency with a mop than they do a rifle.
Untold hours are spent by Marines cleaning decks and bulkheads, conducting field days in barracks, offices, classrooms, and shops. Say "police call" and the first thing that pops into a Marine's mind is to look on the ground for discarded trash rather than dialing 911.
Such menial tasks such as polishing brightwork in the head or running a buffer across a floor may seem beneath a Marine, but it is part of military life. Mess duty and maintenance duty also use to be a part of military life, but such has disappeared with the hiring of civilians who have stepped in to do the mundane.
In the chow hall for example, we have Marines that prepare and serve the food. They do the dishes and the overall cleanup of the chow hall as well; however, there are civilians employed to clear tables, to wipe down tables, and to do spot cleaning.
Hello? You could have on or two privates or pfcs replacing four civilians doing the same job.
While some argue that contracting some services to civilians frees many a warrior for more important things like combat training, it also frees many a dollar that could have been spent on more beans, bullets, and bandages for the troops. And it's the contractors who go laughing all the way to the bank.
In our current war for example I've heard some tout the necessity of having contractors provide basic services for the troops. Not so. The military is capable of being self sufficient.
My platoon for example was part of a combat engineer unit. Within it there were commodities that provided for all the essential needs of troops in a combat theater.
There was H.E. (Heavy Equipment) platoon with earth moving equipment, forklifts, cranes, etc. And there was Motor T (Transport) to provide vehicles for moving personnel and equipment.
There was water supply with equipment to process water, launder clothing, and supply essentials such as shower units and heads. Bulk Fuel platoon for numerous fuel needs and firefighting equipment.
There were commodities for electrical equipment, communications, computers, food, supplies, medical, etc. The unit even had a Special Services for recreational needs.
Each of these units are peopled with military personnel who earn less than minimum wage which is a savings to taxpayers. Moreover, problems with work production and quality are available for immediate reconciliation by other military personnel.
With civilian contractors, there's paperwork and time consuming (as well as dollar consuming) procedures for even something as simple as changing a light bulb (I'm not kidding). A police sergent in our company barracks tried for months, going through the system, to get some wax rings on some of the leaking toilets replaced.
Even after getting the corpsmen involved in the health issue of standing water and urine on the decks didn't prompt action from base maintenance. The sergeant finally had to resort to doing the repair himself, a procedure that technically was illegal for a non-contractor to do.
While there was a stir about the public servant who had stashed ninety some thousand dollars in his freezer, not much of a fuss was raised over Haliburton, one of the more prominent contractors in the Iraq war, slapping the Army with a multi-million dollar bill for services rendered of which some eighty plus million couldn't be verified or accounted for. That's outrageous.
As a Marine working in some of the logistical aspects of Motor Transport, I was required to account for everything that I did. I couldn't even spend two dollars of the taxpayers' dollar for a packet of bolts for our PEB (Parts Expenditure Bin) without supplying documentation for need to justify ordering and having the part on hand.
Get real. A lot of the services being supplied by contractors in the Iraq war are things that the military is capable of doing and should be doing themselves.
Money doesn't grow on trees, and our hired help in Washington DC should stop treating it as if it does. It comes from the hard work of American citizens, and their purses and wallets shouldn't be treated as a feeding trough for contractors.
Ellie
By Vicki Crawford
JULY 27, 2007 (Posted at: 2:11 p.m.)
It is said that every Marine is a basic rifleman. But there are Marines that would argue they maintain a higher proficiency with a mop than they do a rifle.
Untold hours are spent by Marines cleaning decks and bulkheads, conducting field days in barracks, offices, classrooms, and shops. Say "police call" and the first thing that pops into a Marine's mind is to look on the ground for discarded trash rather than dialing 911.
Such menial tasks such as polishing brightwork in the head or running a buffer across a floor may seem beneath a Marine, but it is part of military life. Mess duty and maintenance duty also use to be a part of military life, but such has disappeared with the hiring of civilians who have stepped in to do the mundane.
In the chow hall for example, we have Marines that prepare and serve the food. They do the dishes and the overall cleanup of the chow hall as well; however, there are civilians employed to clear tables, to wipe down tables, and to do spot cleaning.
Hello? You could have on or two privates or pfcs replacing four civilians doing the same job.
While some argue that contracting some services to civilians frees many a warrior for more important things like combat training, it also frees many a dollar that could have been spent on more beans, bullets, and bandages for the troops. And it's the contractors who go laughing all the way to the bank.
In our current war for example I've heard some tout the necessity of having contractors provide basic services for the troops. Not so. The military is capable of being self sufficient.
My platoon for example was part of a combat engineer unit. Within it there were commodities that provided for all the essential needs of troops in a combat theater.
There was H.E. (Heavy Equipment) platoon with earth moving equipment, forklifts, cranes, etc. And there was Motor T (Transport) to provide vehicles for moving personnel and equipment.
There was water supply with equipment to process water, launder clothing, and supply essentials such as shower units and heads. Bulk Fuel platoon for numerous fuel needs and firefighting equipment.
There were commodities for electrical equipment, communications, computers, food, supplies, medical, etc. The unit even had a Special Services for recreational needs.
Each of these units are peopled with military personnel who earn less than minimum wage which is a savings to taxpayers. Moreover, problems with work production and quality are available for immediate reconciliation by other military personnel.
With civilian contractors, there's paperwork and time consuming (as well as dollar consuming) procedures for even something as simple as changing a light bulb (I'm not kidding). A police sergent in our company barracks tried for months, going through the system, to get some wax rings on some of the leaking toilets replaced.
Even after getting the corpsmen involved in the health issue of standing water and urine on the decks didn't prompt action from base maintenance. The sergeant finally had to resort to doing the repair himself, a procedure that technically was illegal for a non-contractor to do.
While there was a stir about the public servant who had stashed ninety some thousand dollars in his freezer, not much of a fuss was raised over Haliburton, one of the more prominent contractors in the Iraq war, slapping the Army with a multi-million dollar bill for services rendered of which some eighty plus million couldn't be verified or accounted for. That's outrageous.
As a Marine working in some of the logistical aspects of Motor Transport, I was required to account for everything that I did. I couldn't even spend two dollars of the taxpayers' dollar for a packet of bolts for our PEB (Parts Expenditure Bin) without supplying documentation for need to justify ordering and having the part on hand.
Get real. A lot of the services being supplied by contractors in the Iraq war are things that the military is capable of doing and should be doing themselves.
Money doesn't grow on trees, and our hired help in Washington DC should stop treating it as if it does. It comes from the hard work of American citizens, and their purses and wallets shouldn't be treated as a feeding trough for contractors.
Ellie