Friday, November 22, 2013

Pentagon requests plan to close stateside commissaries

Via Carl   

 

"Here’s a 4th option…quit giving money to countries that want to kill us.  That would save over $500 billion annually."

Tasked by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to find ways to preserve force readiness amid sharply falling budgets, his comptroller and the Joint Staff have asked the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) for a plan to close all stateside base grocery stores, say military resale community sources.

Time will tell if this is just the loudest warning shot yet fired by a department desperate for budget relief, or if stateside commissaries, still enormously popular with military families and retirees, are viewed by current military leaders as a costly relic burdening a financially stressed force.

Under Secretary of Defense Robert Hale, the department’s top financial adviser, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark F. Ramsay, director of force structure, resources and assessment for the Joint Staff, reportedly requested the plan in a meeting with military personnel policy and commissary officials.

It was to be briefed soon to Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

More @ FRA

2 comments:

  1. It is a costly relic. Imagine how costly Walmart would be if it were run by the federal government? As it is, most military families already shot at Walmart. It only makes sense in overseas locations, so American families have access to American labeled products. But even there, most of those bases are themselves cold war relics. So shut them all down.

    --Hale

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. & the PX does carry good clothes for example, but you can certainly buy what you need cheaper elsewhere. Same goes with computers whatever.

      Delete