Perception of Army Civillian Contractors in General
What is the perception amongst current or former Army / Navy / AF / Marines types regarding civilian contractors. Since I am one and admittedly ‘part of the problem’, I seek feedback as to the need and value they either bring, or take away. Would the military be better off going back and ‘insourcing’ jobs that civilians now do. Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Posted on March 17th, 2009 by Shard
Filed under: Uncategorized
Having done my share of KP and guard duty, I think we should keep the contractors. During my first tour (mid-70s), we lost a lot of training time because we had to do house-keeping chores. We were not a good Army.
Once NCOs could concentrate on training instead of KP and police call, the troops got a lot better at being soldiers. I would rather have a well trained soldier at my side than a dish washer.
Respectfully
Having served in the Army in the late 80′s, I was surprised as to how much contractors were used, but I thought its use was appropropraite. We focused on being soldiers and they did the rest. The military has gotten specialized and for good reason. As such, it needed to decide what specialties needed to be maintained and what could be done better by the “outside”.
NY-David