Troops Explain What Defense Cuts Look Like To Them

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With elaborate projects flying high above defense cuts, it's become tough to get a feel for what's going on within individual military units.

The following replies to what troops see in their daily lives comes from reservists to West Point cadets via Reddit.

Looney82: So far, nothing here. I'm in TRADOC and we can still get damn near everything we want. Ink is hard to come by for the printer, but we make it happen. We're getting 20 blanks per soldier for our FTX 3, so that kind of sucks. I'm kind of afraid to get back to the line and find out what I'm not going to get when I get there.

Our logistics guy saw it coming and ordered surplus toilet paper...he's developed a plan in which when everyone else runs out, we'll rule the base through an intricate bartering system.

tromix1:That's genius! We ordered surplus pens, notepads, and excessive amounts of printer paper...We figure a ream of paper is worth a GOV fill up.

battlebattlehooah: We've already cut three pretty essential contractor jobs, one of them was my only coworker in a really busy section, so now I am tasked to work here alone. I don't really mind, just don't get mad when it takes me twice as long to do twice as much work (my command understands more than the patients do).

We can't even buy paper right now, they put a big fat no go on anything not medically necessary (IV bags, band aids, syringes etc etc... are still able to be ordered). Once I run out of this box of paper, I will have to go around and search for extra reams of paper like it was water in the Sahara desert. My busted ass copier that prints cock-eyed? It's just going to go on printing cock-eyed long after I leave in two months.

Short answer: everything.

BlueFalconNation: No more deployments or ADOS orders. Means my unit will eventually be full of boots like me with no awards and no experience. inb4 hurr durr reserves [the Reserves]. Under normal wartime conditions we are the most deployed unit in the Marine Corps.

And West Point: Heh, almost everything at West Point has been modified. No public printers. Summer training has be truncated, they're taking away our academic term Ammo (blanks and live). Furloughs mean that civilian professors are thinking about leaving, and the days off are forcing their military counterparts to pick up the slack.

Practically all summer schools cadets go to outside of Airborne and Air Assault are canceled, and in house training is being trimmed down to as bare bones as physically possible. Combine this with half finished building projects things are feeling pretty rough around here. $100 million out of the $300 million they are cutting from CONUS is coming from us, and hopefully the AoG can pick up the slack.

So while the drive to keep F-35 costs down may be "burned into the brains" of Pratt & Whitney's engineers, there's at least one wily supply sergeant stockpiling toilet paper.

Perspective always helps.


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