You are correct about the Navy downsizing, in part. My son is active duty Navy today stationed in Guam for the last three years. There seems to be three things that are happening.
1. The overall budget is smaller which means make due with less. Less ships, subs, planes, and bases equals less people to operate them. Some of this might be Fat from better economic times that could be trimmed. Lets hope they don't trim the Muscle.
2. I read that the Navy works best with a 50% retainage rate. Half leaving after first hitch. Half leaving after second hitch and so on. This leaves the right amount and experience to maintain the Rates/Ranks. The current retainage rate is 72%. Guys that would have normally left on their own are not seeing civilian jobs to go into and are choosing to stay active duty. This means guys that have 7+ years in the Navy and have not advanced will be let go (downsized).
3. Many Navy jobs are becoming civilain jobs. My son is a Personell Specialist (PS). This is the combined job of the old Personellman (PN) and Disbursing Clerk (DK). His (PS) Rate has almost a 0% retainage as the work is being done by civilians. Same for other Rates. So the "Navy" is shrinking and the civilain jobs have gone up. The civilains actually get paid much more. So , good if you happen to have one of those civilain jobs. Bad if your paying your taxes because if it comes out of the Military budget or some other Civilain budget (contract) it is still coming out of your pocket at a higher cost.
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