Army End Strength, Background Checks, Civil Servants

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Light Air Support Decision for Afghan National Air Force. Contributor Marc Selinger reports on GAO’s decision in favor of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s A-29: “The U.S. Air Force has won a key victory in its efforts to equip Afghan forces with A-29 Super Tucano light air support (LAS) aircraft. In a 32-page decision released June 25, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld the Air Force’s A-29 contract award to Sierra Nevada Corp., denying a protest by losing bidder Beechcraft Defense. The GAO said the Air Force was justified in concluding that Beechcraft’s offering, though less expensive than Sierra Nevada’s, was also riskier.”

2. Don’t inhale! DEA is hiring. In spite of an outbreak of marijuana legalization, contributor D.B. Grady gives us 8 great reasons to consider the Drug Enforcement Agency for you cleared jobs bucket list: “Everyone knows a little bit about the DEA (and some of you know more than you would like), but here are a few things you might not know about the Drug Enforcement Administration.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. Commander-in-Chief brings smile to waning Mandela. The Independent’s Daniel Howden reports, “[Obama and Mandela] are not expected to meet, a spokesperson for the South African presidency said. Mr Obama is, however, due to visit Robben Island, the former prison colony where Mr Mandela contracted the tuberculosis that is blamed for his recurring lung infections. It will be Mr Obama’s second visit to the island off Cape Town. He will also be speaking a few streets away from Mr Mandela’s hospital in Pretoria on Saturday.” Exactly who is advising POTUS here?

2. The military leads the way (again): in the hours before a Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, as has become tradition, the military leads the way in divisive national social issues. Amaani Lyle of American Forces Press Service reports, “Noting that democracy, while imperfect, can change and has changed for the better, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel today called gay and lesbian service members ‘integral to America’s armed forces’ during a Pentagon Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month event. . . . ‘Our nation has always benefited from the service of gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines,’ the secretary said. ‘Now they can serve openly, with full honor, integrity and respect.’” Also see Amaani Lyle’s companion piece, “Acting Air Force Secretary Recounts Journey to Equality” and Reuter’s “Supreme Court due to set legal course on gay marriage.”

3. Here we go again. Claudette Roulo of American Forces Press Service reports on history repeated: “As part of its force restructuring due to the Budget Control Act of 2011, by the end of fiscal year 2017 the Army will reduce its number of brigade combat teams from 45 to 33, the Army’s chief of staff announced today. In addition, Army Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters at a Pentagon news conference, the Army will shrink its active component end strength by 14 percent, or 80,000 soldiers, to 490,000, down from a wartime high of 570,000 troops. The Army National Guard will cut 8,000 soldiers, he said, without making any force structure changes. And the Army Reserve will skip a planned force increase and maintain its current size of 205,000.” Also see Reuter’s report by David Alexander, “Army to eliminate 10 brigades at U.S. bases in drawdown: Odierno”: “Odierno said if the additional cuts continue in the coming years, the Army would have to look at reducing force structure again, possibly by as much as another 100,000 personnel from active duty, reserve and National Guard.”

4. Odierno’s subtle smarts: scare constituents, save Soldiers. For lawmakers, cuts in Army endstrength are not so much national security as those bases in their districts. DefenseNews.Com’s take on Odierno’s announcement: “In a briefing on Tuesday afternoon that has ignited furious debate on Capitol Hill and in communities that depend on nearby military installations as a key part of their economy, Army Chief Gen. Ray Odierno announced a sweeping plan to cut 12 brigade combat teams (BCT) from the active force by 2017.” (Prediction: lawmakers do something to change that plan.)

5. A quarter-million dollars say you will. Air Force Times’ Jeff Schogol reports on how the Air Force contends with retention issues: “About 250 fighter pilots are eligible to receive a $225,000 bonus in exchange for a nine-year commitment under the latest change to the Aviator Retention Pay program, said Lt. Col. Kurt Konopatzke, chief of rated force policy. Pilots can take half the money up front in a lump sum payout of $112,500, minus taxes. The rest is paid out over the nine years of the contract.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. It’s just a half-a-billion: DoD Inspector General Report: Report No. DODIG-2013-093 – DoD Needs to Improve Oversight of the Afghan National Police Training/Mentoring and Logistics Support Contract. The 81 page report begins, “DCMA, NTM-A/CSTC-A, and Army officials did not implement adequate oversight of the ANP contract. This occurred because DCMA did not coordinate oversight procedures with program or contracting personnel and did not implement quality assurance requirements that DCMA management considered critical to mission success . . . . the Army could not determine whether the contractor fully delivered $439 million in services or provided effective training of the ANP.”

2. Senate approves PAR for FAA Budget. (PAR is a precision radar approach . . . it’s a pilot thing.) Aviation Week’s Kerry Lynch reports, Thursday, the Senate votes on “its version of the fiscal 2014 funding bill . . . the same day the House Appropriations Committee is set to consider its own bill. The House and Senate bills will be significantly different, since the House bill includes steep cuts over the Obama administration’s request and the fiscal 2013 enacted level. The Senate bill is expected to seek an increase.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. China: Crazy as a Loong . . . a Wing Loong, that is. DefenseNews.Com reports: “A report issued by Kimberly Hsu, policy analyst for military and security affairs at the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, ‘China’s Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry,’ warns China’s inexpensive and multifunctional unmanned aerial systems are poised to steal the international UAV market away from the US and Israel.

2. Putin wins (already) 2013 Metaphor Contest while Snowden imitates the average air traveler: stuck waiting. Crafting a perfect metaphor, Putin compares punches over Snowden to puny porker: “’It’s like shearing a piglet,’ [Putin] said. ‘There’s a lot of squealing and very little wool.’” In an excellent recap of the multifaceted rhetoric, New York Times’ trio Herszenhor, Barry and Baker report: “Mr. Kerry told reporters traveling with him in Saudi Arabia that the United States was ‘not looking for a confrontation.’ And American and Russian officials meeting in Geneva on Tuesday scheduled a session next week between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov to discuss Syria.” Putin – the world leader we love to hate to love.

3. Oh. Those flaws in our security check systems. Diane Bartz and Tabassum Zakaria report in Reuters, “Government auditors discovered four years ago that a select group of private contractors conducting background checks for high-security jobs were not doing enough to ensure the quality of their investigations. Some investigators hired by the companies were not adequately trained or closely supervised, and the background reports they turned over to agencies for hundreds of thousands of prospective employees had missing information that could lead to risky hiring, the inspector general for the Office of Personnel Management said in a 2010 report that got little attention.” (It’s getting attention now.)

4. Al Qaeda: bastards, but not stupid bastards. U.S. News & World Report’s Kimberly Dozier explains, “U.S. intelligence agencies are scrambling to salvage their surveillance of al-Qaida and other terrorists who are working frantically to change how they communicate after a National Security Agency contractor leaked details of two NSA spying programs. It’s an electronic game of cat-and-mouse that could have deadly consequences if a plot is missed or a terrorist operative manages to drop out of sight.”

5. Be Dick Tracy. But change your name. Time Tech reports on new Smartwatches, that might not be smart enough: “With all due respect to Dick Tracy, it may be that the first truly epoch-shifting device you strap to your wrist since the first wristwatch won’t look or work much like a watch at all,” writes Harry McCracken. But, McCracken explains why “the [smart watch] category is nowhere near ready to become the next breakout hit. I can’t even confidently say that I think it’ll ever be ready for mass consumption.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1. The side step — also known as a Werfel. Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel “Screening efforts were inappropriate, but ‘we have not found evidence of intentional wrongdoing by anyone in the IRS . . . .” Washington Post’s Josh Hicks explains the moves.

2. The dip – also known as a Weiner. “Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner leads City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in the race for New York City’s Democratic mayoral nomination for the first time, snatching the frontrunner mantle as the contest heads into the final months before the primary . . . ” Wall Street Journal’s Michael Howard Saul reports. “Mr. Weiner’s dramatic move to the front of the Democratic pack comes two years after he resigned from Congress amid a sexting scandal. He admitted he sent women sexually explicit photos via Twitter and then lied about it. Mr. Weiner has made asking New Yorkers to give him a second chance a central part of his campaign since he began flirting with a candidacy in April.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. Peace out. Wall Street Journal’s Davood Moradian highlights costs of the Taliban peace process: “The U.S. has made enormous sacrifices and investments in helping Afghans to build a peaceful and dignified life. Afghanistan is transforming at all levels, despite continuing challenges, with Afghans now ready to take charge of their own destiny. A ‘cheap peace’ should not be allowed to negate these precious achievements. It will stain America’s reputation, and undermine regional stability for another generation.”

2. Skirting tough issues. (Is skirting some kind of misogynistic pun?) Washington Post’s Ed. Board gives POTUS advice on Africa: “What the president should not do is use his tame schedule to dodge the continent’s toughest problems. These include not only lingering dictatorships but the rise of Islamic terrorist groups in northern Africa and continuing conflicts in Sudan and the Congo . . . .”

3. Lessons for civil servants, courtesy of Nelson Mandela. Humble servant of the people. Washington Post’s Joe Davidson shares “Lessons from the Ultimate Public Servant”: “Mandela made clear his orientation as a public servant immediately after getting out of prison.,” writes Davidson. “In the third sentence of his first speech upon being released after 27 years, [Mandela] said ‘I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people.’”