Seabees in the sights

[11chaos]

All of our funding in this budget is the baseline for the active side," he said. "There's no supplemental funding as we had in previous years for end strength." And as the war in Iraq winds down, he said some of the roughly 15,000 active...-duty sailors at Navy Expeditionary Combat Command face cuts.

Also, as many as three naval mobile construction battalions could go away in 2013 or beyond. There are nine active and 12 reserve battalions, each with roughly 600 sailors. "Right now, we're projecting that we will take two active battalions out in [fiscal 2013] from the nine we have today," Ferguson said "But I will tell you that's still on the table for debate." Navy budget officials say projections for fiscal 2013 budget call for removing three battalions from the active force, although the Navy is expected to fight to keep that loss to two. Yet to be decided is whether battalions go away for good, or switch to the reserve component. "We're looking at, is the right answer seven active and 14 reserve or seven active and 12 reserve?" Ferguson said.

Recruiting untouched Ferguson said one thing the Navy won't do is reduce recruiting goals. The service learned a valuable lesson in the previous drawdowns, when recruiting cuts created manning problems in later years.

Ferguson said officials learned savings must come from other places.
"Were down to [bringing in] 34,000 this fiscal year," he said. "We've probably got a little room left, but we're extremely close to the margins - we cannot cut our future by stopping accession."See More

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Why would we want experience when we can have untried, untested young Navy Personnel.

[duane1969]

Makes sense. Let's cut military spending so we can keep the entitlement programs fully funded...

I say that because there has been no mention of cutting welfare, Medicaid, HUD, etc. but they are tripping over themselves to cut military spending. Then when we end up in a military conflict they cry the blues because they are short on troops. Idiots.