The smartest thing the Military ever did - Letting civilians do military jobs.

[G50AE]

One guy had the balls to tell me not to bring any tanks in from 1900-2000 because that was their lunch hour.

Leave it to some lazy-ass civilian to take a century long lunch break.

[AvidshooterTX]

I believe the problems you are pointing out are really the problems associated with "employees", especially those in a union. Employees have no stake in their company's performance, other than the paycheck that they periodically receive. This is why I typically like to deal with an individual who owns the store rather than the mnimum wage clerk who doesn't give a damn. Greed is a good thing if you can make it work for you. When individuals share in the ownership of the company and its fortunes (good or bad) they tend to have a stronger work ethic. Don't get me wrong. Some people will do a good job just because they're good people and it's in their nature. But to get the most bang for your buck everyone working for you needs to feel that their performance will directly impact on what they receive.

[kn1080]

If I may, what scares me about civilians doing military jobs is simply that the military does not have command and control over those civilians. Other than pay and benefits, there isn't really any incentive for a civilian to do a good job or to be loyal. A good portion of the civilians are not even government employees, they are employees of privately contracted companies. The fact that these people are not subject to the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice does make me uneasy.

[dmaxx3500]

can't we just let the military do its own job?,this goverment will screw up everything

[gogriz91]

One of the biggest reasons I am EX Navy is because of, well, I was on a ship in overhaul, I would have to stand an 8 hour watch. My duty while on watch was to roam the ship with a camera and take pictures of civillians defecating in the empty compartments. I guess they couldn't find the porta-johns located all over the ship, or the bathrooms on the pier. Talk about a worthless use of my time.

That sounds like one of the jobs Obamanomics has saved!

[A10Fixer]

I am an Air Force aircraft mechanic at Nellis AFB, NV. They too have have hired CSC (Computer Science Corporation) personnel to do 100% of all backshop functions on the flightline. I could see the same thing happening at Nellis. It's not just that they are civilians who can quit or go on strike at any time, the main issue is that they are not held liable for their actions. A friend and coworker's hand was badly burned during maintenance because the CSC employee failed to adhere to Technical Orders (basically a Haynes manual for jets) and didn't pull a circuit breaker during electrical power application. CSC employees have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in aircraft damages due to their negligent maintenance practices. To make matters worse, their Union states that in order to fire someone they must first establish a trend of bad behavior or actions. Apparently destroying a flight control surface by placing a ladder under it while cycling flight controls isn't good enough grounds for dismissal. How many more incidents am I going to have to clean up as an Active Duty Air Force NCO after CSC messes something up? I am getting sick of dealing with these lazy, mostly incompetent people the Air Force sees fit to work on multimillion dollar aircraft. I personally would not have let this contract happen. Unfortunately that decision is above my pay grade. Now that they have repeatedly proven that they don't know what they are doing, and they don't care about their impact on the Air Force mission, it's time for them to be shown the door.

First off WTF was your co-worker doing grabbing a hot pitot tube ? not to smart. How much damage has the Air force caused in the last 2 years? Lazy incompetent people ? 85% of the mechanics are retired military crew chiefs make your own opinion on that.

[A10Fixer]

I know what you mean. What's supposed to be a 10 day phase for F-15s often takes 2-3 weeks and when they finish we find screw bags and loose bolts under panels, hydraulic leaks, and often a worse jet than before we sent it to them. Their R&R (repair and reclamation) shop takes months to fix problems that GIs could fix in days. I'm surprised their fuel shop gets anything done because they are so lazy. They find any excuse to work on fuel tanks we send for repair. One guy had the balls to tell me not to bring any tanks in from 1900-2000 because that was their lunch hour. All he had to do was open the gate so I could drop off the tank and put it on a stand for them.

The phases take longer because of the condition of the aircraft they recieve most have Red X conditions( Un flyable conditions) Finding screw bags loose bolts ? They opened up a panel on a F-15 on the first day of phase RT stab act I believe and what popped out but a Dogbone wrench !! dam didnt hear much about that probably.
you just wish you could have a uninterupted lunch HATER

[A10Fixer]

If I may, what scares me about civilians doing military jobs is simply that the military does not have command and control over those civilians. Other than pay and benefits, there isn't really any incentive for a civilian to do a good job or to be loyal. A good portion of the civilians are not even government employees, they are employees of privately contracted companies. The fact that these people are not subject to the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice does make me uneasy.

Civilians under the UCMJ

[Cocked _and_Locked]

Greed is a good thing if you can make it work for you.

Money is the plain and simlpe reason for outsourcing military work. A contractor is on average about 40% cheaper to do the same job as a military member when all financial aspects including benefits, retirement, base support and all related costs are rolled in. If the work ends up being on par or even a bit worse than before it is a net savings, the bean counters are happy and there are more dollars to spend in the Middle East fighting the Taliban, etc.