Trade soldiers for civilians?

In the Navy, there has been an increasing use of civilian contractors for major ship repairs. Often, we would be told to wait until refit or fly out an civilian expert to do the work for us. When combined with a decrease in the level of technical ability in the pertinent rates, I have often wondered how a ship would fair in battle conditions. I look at the extensive damage ships received during WWII, and I cringe at the thought of our ability to cope with such damage today.

In peacetime, it may be cost effective to use civilians, but if they are doing work that a service member would have to do in war time, then we are robbing our forces of valuable experience that could be useful in the future.

I think this is becoming an increasing problem of interest especially in light of the troop draw down/RIF of all the services. My personal opinion includes what you noted Capt Diaz, in that is is expensive to hire and train both contracted and GS civilians. As a nurse manager, I had to sign/approve the contract nurses time sheets. We were paying the contract agency double the amount of what the contract nurses were getting paid. That's a huge profit at the tax payers expense! Secondly, we are potentially taking a position away from an active duty member who could gain valuable training and experience by working in the same capacity. On the flip side, how do we man the short staffed duty stations when the military members are deployed? Often times the civilians help hold "hold the fort down" so to speak. I have no idea as to what the solution may be. I do know from personal experience, that I have seen many active duty members who were months from retirement, convert their job position into a GS or contract slot, and then promptly move into that slot right after they retired.

With the downsizing of the force, all of the ousted senior NCOs and officers need somewhere to go. The Army, in particular, has never batted an eye at paying a civilian up to 3 times what a Soldier would get for the same job (with less control over the "employee"), so don't expect that to change anytime soon.