Budget cut woes leave military, families unsure
By Brock Vergakis - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 8, 2013 8:22:29 EST
NORFOLK,
Va. — With family members waving from a pier, sailors aboard a Navy
destroyer left for an overseas mission with more uncertainty than ever
about their homecoming as potentially massive budget cuts reshape
military plans.
The political hick-hack in Congress over the
budget is having real-life consequences for service members in the Navy
and maybe soon in other branches. It comes at a time when some military
families were getting used to deployments coming back down to normal
lengths after more than a decade of two wars, when the Pentagon
routinely extended the time forces stayed in the field.
The
guided-missile destroyer Barry headed out Thursday for what was
supposed to be a six-month deployment in Europe as part of a NATO plan
to provide a ballistic-missile shield for the continent. The Navy has
warned that tours like this one could be extended for unspecified
periods after billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts known as
sequestration take place March 1, unless Congress acts to avert them.
Among
the military impacts, the Navy has said the cuts will mean less money
for training and maintenance and that it could take longer to prepare
crews to deploy as a result. The Navy has said that it would also deploy
fewer ships to fewer places and that those that are sent out could
spend longer stints at sea with fewer port calls to boost morale.
The possibility of extended deployments adds to the uncertainty that already accompanies military families.
"Even
before the budget cuts and everything, you never have a set time that
they're going to be home. I mean, they have a date, but that can always
change so you always have that little bit of a worry that it's going to
be longer than you think," said Robin Lunsford, whose husband Robert is
an electronics technician aboard the Barry.
It's not just a concern for sailors, but for Marines, soldiers and airmen who continually deploy around the globe.
"If
the military because of budget issues downsizes too much, does that
mean that the fewer people who are left are going to have to deploy
more?" asked Joyce Raezer, executive director at the National Military
Family Association. "That's a real concern in the military community."
Many
Navy tours crept up to seven or eight months from the typical six
months while the Iraq war raged, with ships dotting the nearby waters to
supply all kinds of support, from hosting warplanes to maintaining
floating hospitals. The Army, the largest force on the ground in the
wars, upped tour lengths in Iraq to 15 months from a year for the troop
surge in 2007 to combat escalating violence.
The toll that
extended and repeated deployments can take on sailors and their families
isn't lost on Navy leaders. They created an expansive wellness campaign
last year that targets alcohol abuse, among other problems, that they
were concerned after a decade of war.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus
announced the campaign during an all-hands call aboard the Bataan. The
amphibious transports Marines that had recently completed the longest
deployment for a Navy ship in nearly 40 years — at more than 10 months.
At the time, he noted that the operational pace for the Navy and the
Marines wasn't expected to slow down as the military shifted its focus
to the Pacific.
There's also concern in the military community about how the cuts could affect programs meant to assist military families.
"I
think a lot of our worry is access to some of the support services,
whether it is counseling programs for kids, or programs to help families
who are dealing with deployments, or programs that help military
spouses find jobs when they move to a new community," Raezer said.
She
said the services and programs that families depend on are staffed by
federal employees who work for the military services, who have already
been told to expect furloughs starting in March.
"Who is going to be there to support the family when they need that support service?" she said.
The
Barry deployed a day after another ship's tour was canceled because of
the looming cuts. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta indefinitely halted the
USS Harry S. Truman from heading to the Middle East, leaving just one
carrier in the region.
Barry Cmdr. Thomas J. Dickinson said part of being in the Navy is the ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.
"Anytime
you go on a deployment you tell the crew, 'This is what we're scheduled
for and if requirements change you have to be flexible.' And we talk to
the families about that as well because that's who it's really hard on
because they're holding down the fort while we're away doing our job,"
said Dickinson, the ship's commanding officer.
"Everybody reads
the news and we talk about it, but one thing I don't do with the crew is
give them any kind of speculation. That just kind of jerks them around a
little bit. So I give them the facts, I give them what I know, when I
know it."
For other sailors, being flexible means unexpectedly
staying in port when they had already canceled apartment leases,
cellphone contracts and put items into storage
Seaman William
Neild had already given up his apartment ahead of Friday's planned
departure for the Truman. His wife had also already made plans to move
to Illinois for the duration of his expected six- to eight-month
deployment. He now plans to spend his nights aboard the Truman until it
is finally given orders to deploy again.
"It's just a lot of frustration," he said.
The
potential for the cuts to kick in is the result of Congress' failure to
trim the deficit by $1.2 trillion over a decade. The Pentagon faces a
$42.7 billion budget cut in the seven months starting in March and
ending in September. The automatic cuts would be in addition to a $487
billion reduction in defense spending over the next 10 years mandated by
the Budget Control Act passed in 2011.
Associated Press writer Kristin M. Hall contributed to this report from Nashville, Tenn.
