Department of Defense -- Business as Usual?

Kellogg, Brown, Root (KBR), accused slayer of our military, received a new, many-millions DoD contract; Bethesda/Walter Reed rushes to failure while continuing its billion dollar plus cost overrun meanwhile record numbers of military commit suicide; last but hardly least, a tiny support base in western Pennsylvania scheduled to close in 2011 is being rushed to close this year depriving thousands of Pennsylvania National Guard families of support services. Is DoD on auto pilot? Is Cheney still in his secure location? Is it under the Pentagon? Someone needs to grab control of DoD quickly; it is harming our troops and the nation.

A crashed economy cannot support a strong national defense. By necessity, an administration less than a month old must concentrate on the economy. However, they do not have the luxury of allowing other issues to go completely by the wayside.

The Department of Defense appears to be running amok in key support areas: BRAC, healthcare and contracts. Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) offices are out of control and clearly off the rails. For instance, CE Kelly, the little base mentioned above, is rushing to closure two years early and it is being handled badly. For example, the BRAC folks at Fort Dix, New Jersey, issued a "take it or leave it" letter to employees for voluntary separation or retirement with two weeks to decide. Nice way to treat longtime employees. The entire budget for the facility is less than $500,000. Why the rush to closure especially when the the economy is crashing and the services are needed to support families of deployed soldiers.

Then there is Bethesda/Walter Reed, a major fiasco, with a cost overrun of over one billion dollars and confusion reigning. This may be the time to freeze BRAC and have an outside agency/congress review the status of programs. If need be, BRAC compliance time could be extended while the incompetence of past compliance efforts are corrected. There is a larger issue at hand here. Military healthcare is being turned from a leading edge innovator and researcher, a position held since Walter Reed's days, into a barely adequate HMO style beast. Military healthcare,all of it, from treating causalities on the battlefield to treating the children of soldiers to providing promised healthcare for retirees, is part of a whole system. Now is the time to review what is being done and how it serves the military mission.

KBR, literally accused of negligent homicide for the death of a highly trained Army ranger in Iraq, is awarded another contract for electrical work. This is not a quality company:

"....Separately, court papers filed in Houston on Friday show KBR is preparing to plead guilty to federal bribery charges for promising and paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Nigeria in exchange for engineering and construction contracts between 1995 and 2004..." KBR gets huge contract despite electrocutions By KIMBERLY HEFLING, The Associated Press 10:54 p.m. February 6, 2009

Why are they still getting contracts? Is there no other company? Our new administration must grab control of contracts quickly before additional damage and costs are incurred.

Deaths of our soldiers are always sad and tragic but when DoD lies to the families of our dead, insult is heaped upon injury . Rumsfeld's treatment of General Shinseki contributed to the breakdown of integrity and honesty within DoD. While expected, it can never be condoned.

Priority one must be to rescue and repair the economy. But key people should be placed in every other part of government to prevent further damage until a full team can be put in place.

Comments

[jimpwhite]

Global Mahalo's Hal., you're article will make a difference!

[Hal Donahue - Huffpost Blogger]

first thing has to be the economy I back almost anything to get people back to work. BUT we must not lose sight of what is being done in our name. Gates booted Chu but Chu's folks have bored in. Now let's see what happens. But we must wave the BS flag when needed

[MsSparky]

Very well said! Kudo's!! It's time to debar KBR from ALL Federal contracts. I have heard some good things about Secretary Gates. But I was concerned that if he stayed on as Secretary of Defense it would be DoD business as usual. That's what I see happening. I just can't get behind any bailout plan until the Federal Government gives us something other than lip service. Give us something big to show us your serious about change. Debar KBR until the Iraq investigations are complete. They just pled guilty to bribery! What more do you need?

Ms Sparky
http://mssparky.com/