Is certain spending really needed?

SFC Randy Purham — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 16:23:36 -0500

With the growing concern of saving money – especially in the
military – I pose two questions that will help with the thought process behind
wasteful spending. 1.) Do we really need to print EVERYTHING? 2.) Do we really
need to run vehicles and burn fuel EVERY MONDAY? With the growing capacity of
technology, the need to print and have physical copy should be the thing of the
past. Let’s face it, Awards, Counselings, NCOERS, Regulations, APFT cards, etc
are the most common thing that is printed over and over again and for what?
There are digital signatures and email for a reason, why not create folders for
personnel and back them up to disk or hard drives for later use? This would cut
back on paper, ink and other associated costs.
Maintenance and running vehicles that never go anywhere and if they do,
is it really important for them to been used in that capacity? We spend so much
money in bulk fuel and maintenance parts all because of this very instance alone.
Why not consolidate vehicles at a main draw yard and as vehicles are actually
needed they are prepped and ready to go? Yes, it would require leaders to do
some planning, but that’s life. I think
with the annual spending within the military alone – it could clear the
national debt in 5 yrs tops. Just my take on it.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 7 at 2014 4:26 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 16:26:26 -0500

there you go SSG Purham, trying to bring common sense into the Army

Just like for every IG or BN Inspection I need to have on hand every regulation ever printed, even though it takes me less time to find the information digitally

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 7 at 2014 11:09 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 23:09:08 -0500

I am positive there could be changes especially administratively and the redundancy of some programs. I am not sure for example that the C-130 cannot do what the C-17 does. Also those aircraft sent to Davis Monthan and never used it is a tragedy. I am also not sure if there is the political element that cuts programs but what really stinks is that programs are cut and brand new aircraft are basically junk.

Response by SSgt George Brown made Feb 7 at 2014 11:18 PM

SSgt George Brown — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 23:18:26 -0500

Most documentation is on a computer anyway. In the Real Estate field, most of the signatures I get are electronic, sometimes, in special circumstances we do have to have a wet signature, however, those are copied and placed on computers or servers. You can even get a signature when you send a PDF file.
The issue, of course, is what to do in the case of a breach?

Response by PO2 Maxwell Jones made Nov 7 at 2014 11:17 PM

PO2 Maxwell Jones — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 23:17:22 -0500

It goes beyond that too. When the end of the year would get close, I would look at my division's budget, and blow the rest of it on things we didn't really need because I was trained that if we didn't use the budget, we would get it cut the next year. The year that I didn't blow the extra thousands of dollars, our budget was cut by that amount. Putting a budget of x amount of dollars for a 10 year old submarine and a 2 year old submarine for operational costs, with both being the same is ridiculous. Design life of a lot of components is 10 years, so being on a 10 year old boat, we blew WAY past our budget when we quit deferring maintenance/repairs because it was to expensive.