[N8 v2.0]

This is something that has pissed me off since I came to work for the USAF in the mid 90's. Back in the 80's when I was in the Navy, our unit had a GI for every type of job that had to be done. Our Seabee battalion had personnel who ran the chow hall, cut your hair, ran the post office, ran the unit's shop, did the unit's laundry, etc. The Air Force dosen't have personnel to do hardly any of these tasks.

We took care of all of the construction using Seabee deployable equipment. We had our own asphalt batch plants, concrete plants, we blasted our own rock to make aggregate etc... The USAF's CE units spend the vast majority of their time managing contracts with local vendors for supplies, labor and equipment.

However, that was back in Ronald Reagan's time when the military was pretty much self sustaining.

Now with the facts indicating that the attack on the US troops in the chow hall was carried out by an Iraqi suicide bomber, who worked in the chow hall, it seems to me that for the sake of security, these jobs need to be handled by the US military.

Of course this situation was created by the massive down sizing of the US military in the 1990's combined with the attitude of the today's military leadership that it is 'beneath' an E-3 to pull KP or take out the trash.

 

[llkoolkeg]

It's done to throw a bone to the politricksters and communities in which the bases are set up. Local nationals are often employed on military bases because it is something waved in front of the local legislative bodies before the bases are built. "Hey, we are going to be an active, positive force in your community if you let us build here, employing your people and making life safer for all." Force protection is always an issue, however, whenever you employee an LN or allow them on base, escorted or otherwise. That was a big issue in Germany when I was there, where even the security guards at the bases were German LN's. Any jobs not considered inherently "governmental" were to be outsourced according to OMB-A76. This also makes it difficult for soldiers when trying to entertain LN women, of course.

 

[PonySoldier]

In the mid 80's at Pond Barracks in Amberg,Germany the locals handled post and motorpool security so we could concentrate on our Mad WarFightin' Skillz...

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

paying "local contractors" is a way of buying local elites my friend... easy as that.

 

[quadricolour]

It's done to throw a bone to the politricksters and communities in which the bases are set up.

It's all ink: