Cut the number of flag officers down to size.
ABILENE, Kan. (AP) — Warring against waste, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday he is ordering a top-to-bottom paring of the military bureaucracy in search of at least $10 billion in annual savings needed to prevent an erosion of U.S. combat power.
He took aim what he called a bloated bureaucracy, wasteful business practices and too many generals and admirals, and outlined an ambitious plan for reform that’s almost certain to stir opposition in the corridors of Congress and Pentagon.
Now its not clear to me if Gates is being the loyal soldier that he has shown himself to be and is carrying water for others- or if this is his own idea-but he is on the right track about reducing the total number of flag officers. The Navy has more flag officers than it has ships-and that is nothing short of a crime.
So to help the man-I have a suggestion of at least one flag billet that can be put to bed. For the good of humanity, for the betterment of our Navy, and in the complete interest of saving precious TAD dollars for use by Sailors who actually deserve to use them-I nominate this man, RDML James C. Grunewald to be SECDEF’s first test case for flag downsizing. Try not to let the door hit you on the way out.
Well, maybe not him personally-but returning the staffs he commands back to independent O-6 commands. Specifically, breaking up CTF-57 and CTF-72 into separate Patrol Wings (commanded by an O-6 P-3 aviator) and returning COMFAIRWESTPAC to an O-6 command (commanded, as it should be, by a TACAIR or Helo aviator) and aligned directly to Commander Naval Air Forces. CTF 57 and CTF-72 would be separate commands aligned to their respective fleets. CTF-57 would be based in Bahrain where it already is and CTF-72 could stay at Misawa. With the stroke of a pen-that one move alone would save the Navy about 2.5 million ( that’s right MILLION) dollars in TADTAR a year.
Not to mention the overhead in flag writers, drivers, MLC’s, FLag Sec and Flag Aide that could be re-assignedto more productive duties. In addition the several thousands of dollars being spent to create expensive watch floors for these entities in both theaters could be re-programmed to more productive pursuits, as the CTF-57 guys could be worked into the Maritime Operations center in Fifth Fleet, and a similar arrangement could be worked with CTF-74 in Seventh Fleet. Or just leave them alone-they already have a pretty strong watch floor in Misawa.
It would also probably lead to savings in staff size as well-as an O-6 command would be forced to leverage assets in theater like JAG and others rather than having their own. It is a win-win.
“But every other task force commander is a flag in Seventh Fleet!”
Bullsh*t. Furthermore-over where they are actually fighting the war, just about every task force save for the carrier task force and the Maritime interdiction task force is commanded by an O-6. So don’t tell me it could not work. And the fact that there are so many flags in the WESTPAC area is a function of politics and tradition-not a matter of operational efficiency.
Not to mention an O-6 commands 74 carrier based aircraft in Japan and CTF-72 has, on a good day, maybe 7-10 aircraft in theater.
As for COMFAIRWESTPAC or as it is known now-COMNAVAIRFOR FORWARD, it could return to the mission it did so well for so many years, managing aviation readiness and one stop shopping for all aviation readiness issues overseas. And contrary to what the P-3 guys seem to think-that does not mean P-3’s exclusively. In fact, P-3’s constitute only about 11% of the business in theater-something the senior P-3 guys convieniently forgot when they lied and lied and lied to convince the world that they needed to take over COMFAIRWESTPAC in order to have enough span of control to justify a flag officer in theater.
That was wrong then and it’s wrong now. And perhaps-with SECDEF”S and SECNAV’s urging it could finally be undone. Come on deficit hawks! Write your Congressman and SECNAV/SECDEF. Urge that he break up CTF-57 /72 immediately. And while they are at it they could do the same for CTF 54/74 as well. That’s two flag officer clay pigeons down-300 to go.
Amen.