Veterans Day Message From Your C-inC

During his comments commemorating Veterans Day from Arlington National Cemetary, His Highness let slip this little goodie:

"Over the next 5 years, over one million service members will be transitioning back to civilian life."

The mainstream media will be harping about this, how all the folks who have been fighting for our country won't be at war anymore. Peace, we're abandoning Iraq and Afghanistan, the whole world will love us, we don't need a military.

There's a more serious message there for our military members. Whether he meant to slip it in, or it was just a Freudian slip, I don't know ...

If the Dems are successful at destroying the Pentagon's budget, many folks who are employed (either full time or part time) by the military will be out of a job. The sad fact is many soldiers returning from combat will be told thank you, there's no place for you now, you are now unemployed. Members of the Guard and Reserves who count on their part time service as part of their income will find that their positions have been eliminated. The drawdowns have already started, and the big budget axe hasn't even fallen yet.

Not to mention all the civilian employees of the military, and the thousands upon thousands of people who work in the defense industry who are going to find themselves without a job.

Update - The Army has announced the elimination of 8700 civilian jobs by the end of FY 2012, mandated by budget cuts. It is hoped that most of these can be accomplished through early retirements and normal attrition. The cuts will affect installations in 37 states.

The Army is also facing a mandated reduction in force (RIF) of 27,000 soldiers by 2015.

Update - An estimated 1,500,000 people will be put out of work over the next 10 years due to budget cuts in the Defense Department, according to the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. These comprise 800,000 military members, 200,00 civilian employees of the Defense Department, and about 400,000 workes in the Defense industry.