Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced yesterday plans to close the Joint Forces Command, located in Norfolk. In a press conference yesterday, Gov. Bob McDonnell was joined by the Hampton Roads Congressional delegation – Reps. Bobby Scott, Randy Forbes, Rob Wittman and Glenn Nye – along with the mayors of Norfolk and Suffolk, Paul Fraim and Linda Johnson.
A clip of the press conference, courtesy of PilotOnline:
Vodpod videos no longer available.Gates has said that the closing of JFCOM is a reallocation of resources.
“If, as a result of these efforts, I’m able to add a billion or two billion dollars to the Navy’s shipbuilding program of record, Virginia may well come out with a lot more jobs than it loses,” Gates said. “This is why the point needs to be emphasized again and again: this is not about cutting the defense budget. It’s about a reallocation internally.”
Statements from a number of Virginia’s representatives can be found here. Senator Mark Warner’s statement is here. Scott Rigell, the Republican candidate in the 2nd CD, used the closing of JFCOM to take a shot at his opponent. Guess he didn’t get the “we are all united” memo that Rep. Forbes mentions in the video.
At least one candidate in the 2nd, Kenny Golden, was not caught off-guard by the announced closing. In a press release dated July 29, Golden responds to the recommendation of the Defense Business Board to close JFCOM, saying:
“If we scrap it now, we will have to re-create it in a different form and at a massive cost to the taxpayers.”
The full text of that press release is below the fold.
Kenny Responds to Proposed Scrapping of US Joint Forces Command
Virginia Beach, VA –The Defense Business Board (DBB), a group of independent advisors to the Pentagon, has recommended closing Norfolk based Joint Forces Command to reduce costs in the Department of Defense.
Independent Second District Congressional Candidate Kenny Golden, however, disagrees with the assessment:
“Although JFCOM has never been given the authority by the DOD or combatant commands to accomplish its mission, getting rid of it will not eliminate the need for jointness in our armed forces. If we scrap it now, we will have to re-create it in a different form and at a massive cost to taxpayers.”
The current 2010 operating budget for JFCOM is $704 million and it employs over 5000 people in Hampton Roads according to the Daily Press. Elimination of the command would be a serious blow to the local economy.
Golden served as Deputy and Department Head in both the J5 (Strategy and Plans) and J8 (Strategy and Requirements) directorates and was the command briefer for three years as US Joint Forces Command made the transition from US Atlantic Command in the years from 1998 to 2000.
“The problem is not JFCOM,” according to Golden, “but rather the combatant commands and the Joint Staff not wanting to give up money, influence, and the authority that should have been given with the crucially important job of coordinating all joint activities.”
“The first thing we need to do,” Golden said, “is give JFCOM the capabilities and authority it needs to carry out its mission, then we can worry about eliminating duplication and unnecessary personal. If the goal is to reduce defense spending, we need to start with the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and work our way down.”
According to The Hill Newspaper, the OSD roster has grown by over 700 since 2000. Currently it employs more than 5000 people and has an annual budget of $5.5 billion. While the DBB report suggests a hiring freeze at OSD and the combatant commands, Golden believes it is not enough:
“A hiring freeze is a good place to start, but what we really need is a complete independent audit of the entire DOD to see exactly where we stand in terms of contractor support, program duplication, and misplaced areas of responsibility. Right now the Pentagon does not even have a total head count of everyone it employs. This is simply an unacceptable situation.”
Kenny Responds to Proposed Scrapping of US Joint Forces Command Virginia Beach, VA –The Defense Business Board (DBB), a group of independent advisors to the Pentagon, has recommended closing Norfolk based Joint Forces Command to reduce costs in the Department of Defense. Independent Second District Congressional Candidate Kenny Golden, however, disagrees with the assessment: “Although JFCOM has never been given the authority by the DOD or combatant commands to accomplish its mission, getting rid of it will not eliminate the need for jointness in our armed forces. If we scrap it now, we will have to re-create it in a different form and at a massive cost to taxpayers.” The current 2010 operating budget for JFCOM is $704 million and it employs over 5000 people in Hampton Roads according to the Daily Press. Elimination of the command would be a serious blow to the local economy. Golden served as Deputy and Department Head in both the J5 (Strategy and Plans) and J8 (Strategy and Requirements) directorates and was the command briefer for three years as US Joint Forces Command made the transition from US Atlantic Command in the years from 1998 to 2000. “The problem is not JFCOM,” according to Golden, “but rather the combatant commands and the Joint Staff not wanting to give up money, influence, and the authority that should have been given with the crucially important job of coordinating all joint activities." “The first thing we need to do,” Golden said, “is give JFCOM the capabilities and authority it needs to carry out its mission, then we can worry about eliminating duplication and unnecessary personal. If the goal is to reduce defense spending, we need to start with the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and work our way down.” According to The Hill Newspaper, the OSD roster has grown by over 700 since 2000. Currently it employs more than 5000 people and has an annual budget of $5.5 billion. While the DBB report suggests a hiring freeze at OSD and the combatant commands, Golden believes it is not enough: “A hiring freeze is a good place to start, but what we really need is a complete independent audit of the entire DOD to see exactly where we stand in terms of contractor support, program duplication, and misplaced areas of responsibility. Right now the Pentagon does not even have a total head count of everyone it employs. This is simply an unacceptable situation.”
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Bad idea. JFCOM does a lot of system integration work — making Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force systems work together properly. Simple things like “gridlocking” — getting the local ship co-ordinates to match those of a land-based system in real-time, so they can exchange information on enemy locations, is far from simple.
This is so bad…I understand Gates wanting to reel in the “Blackwaters” and “Halliburtons” in the world but there are some good contractors over there with mission essential jobs.
Demonstrating, once again, that “fiscal conservatives” are better labeled “people who don’t like it when money is spent on priorities they don’t agree with.”
No, fiscal conservatives are those who think the federal government should spend money on those things that the Constitution SAYS the federal government can spend money on.
Warren, your marginal Constitutional scholarship is duly noted.
How about….
“lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the united States”?
or maybe
“the enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”?
how about “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes”.
What, specifically, are you talking about, NND? (You do realize that the “to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the united States” is the PURPOSE for the power “To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises,” right?)
Rather than floating the ridiculous premise that JFCOM is anything but a place for our military to piss away a few years on shore duty before their next deployment,
try looking at the options for other areas that you could support cutting.
My favorite target is the elimination of all of the social recruiting and promotion that our military does and replacing that with just MERIT based promotion.
Next, cut the flag billets by 80% We now have more Admirals than we have ships, and the Army and Air Force are far, far more bloated with Generals assigned to hundreds of jobs that were previously done by Colonels, or that didn’t exist at all a few decades ago.
We could also eliminate the E8 and E9 ranks altogether, and replace those grades with a graduated proficiency pay system that would reward the technicians for their system expertise, rather than their ability to kiss their Colonel’s ass.
JFCOM and that Modeling-Simulation center could disappear and nobody in the military, or the rest of the world would even notice.
DoD is a vital part of our government, but NO part of our government should be treated as a sacred cow. In tough times, we need political leaders who will use TARGETED CUTS, not across the board, percentage cuts. Targeted cuts allow management to reward the truly productive elements, while eliminating reducing, or merging those areas that have become non-vital.
I see you have no knowledge of what JFCOM actually does.
As a former staff officer at what used to be called, CINCLANTFLT, I have a solid understanding of what is going on here, Warren.
There is no reason why JFCOM functions could not be blended into one or more other commands that already exist.
Opponents of this change are misleading the citizens to believe that the functions of the command will be somehow simply lost, rather than the reality that any worthwhile work will be carried over to other commands where the work and support of our forces will continue, just not in the bloated operation, JFCOM.
JFCOM, in my view, has always been a redundant operation of, at its best, dubious value to the force. It will be better to move JFCOM functions out to other commands.
Well, the Air Force, in my view, has always been a redundant operation. Back to the Army Air Corps.
Now, whether the functions of JFCOM can be parsed out to the services again is a subject of reasonable debate. I think the M&S and integration work that JFCOM does is extremely valuable to all of the services. The reason it was broken out in the first place was to get away from the service vs. service turf wars.
JTB-Who will run the military if you get rid of the top sargeants>;-)
On a more serious note, I agree with your reasoning here. JFCOM is just the kind of “main office bureaucracy” that conservatives generally target, with reason, when aiming cuts at school systems, for example.
It’s not a fighting command, as the statements from of our elected representatives would have us believe.
No, it is not a fighting command, but it is a training command. And JFCOM runs a lot of joint simulations that save a LOT of money over testing live systems.
Backward Bob and Freaky Forbes turned this into a partisan issue in a vile and disgusting manner. And as typical with right wingers, they lied through their teeth about it.
Ignoring the pros and cons of the decision, the monies saved are not going into funding domestic spending or auctioning off our military. It will be reinvested into other programs deemed, rightfully or wrongfully, more important.
Proving once again for the bazillionth time, the GOBP are the most vile and contemptible political liars and hacks only worthy of derision and scorn, not your votes.
I recall in the early to mid 90’s how the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce was telling member (of which I was one at the time) that “WE DON’T NEED THE MILITARY TO SUPPORT OUT ECONOMY”
Wonder what their position is today? Which way is the wind blowing?
I think many of you forget the entire point of our military, “provide for the general defense”, and as such, it needs to be adaptable and moved easily and quickly at any given moment. JFCOM much like TRADOC can and should be moved to accommodate the military, not the local politicians.
But back to my point, lets see what “study paper” the Chamber has to fix it!