Archive for the ‘JFCOM’ Category

Ceremony marks end of Joint Forces Command

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

In a harbinger of leaner times ahead for defense spending, one of the 10 major U.S. commands was eliminated Thursday with the disestablishment of the high-tech U.S. Joint Forces Command during a ceremony in sun-splashed Suffolk, Va.

A year in the making, the official shutdown itself didn’t take long. There was a brief recitation of the command’s accomplishments, followed by Army Gen. Ray Odierno, who was charged with closing the command as he took the job 10 months ago, rolling up the command flag to a solemn musical accompaniment. Short remarks followed.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended shuttering the command on the 2010 advice of a Pentagon advisory board, which suggested that eliminating contractor jobs and redundant functions could save millions of dollars. President Obama signed off on Gates’ recommendation in January.

Previous coverage

JFCOM’s Odierno outlines closure plans (Jan. 10, Army Times)

Obama officially closes JFCOM headquarters (Jan. 7, Army Times)

About 6,000 government civilians, contractors and service members worked at Joint Forces Command, most of them in the surrounding Hampton Roads region. By Tuesday, Odierno said, that number was down to 31.

All told, about 1,900 of the roughly 3,800 total command jobs in Hampton Roads were eliminated, providing an annual savings of $400 million, according to spokeswoman Kathleen Jabs.

Most of the command’s functions — coordinating joint training, tasking the services for forces required overseas and developing and joint concept development and experimentation, for instance — are being retained and have been transferred to the Joint Staff and other combatant commands. About 80 percent of its personnel were reassigned elsewhere.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tried to lighten the mood as he adjusted the microphones on the podium at the start his remarks.

“This is probably set for Odierno,” the tall officer joked about the taller four-star.

But turning serious, he acknowledged the popular and political angst generated in Hampton Roads and around the state over the closure decision.

“I know everyone here today has likely been impacted in some way by JFCOM’s transition,” Mullen said. “And as tough as this may feel right now, I believe that the event we mark is indeed in the nation’s best interests.”

Military and civilian workers who have been assigned to the command, Mullen said, “can take genuine pride in JFCOM’s essential role in transforming and guiding the separate branches of our military into a truly joint force.”

“Our young men and women in theater now are not only operating, but thinking, jointly,” he said.

Gates cited such progress when he announced the closure plan, saying that the military “has largely embraced jointness as a matter of culture and practice.”

Odierno, who is about to assume the job as the Army’s service chief, praised the workforce he headed following his tour as the senior U.S. commander in Iraq.

“Your professionalism, expertise and plain hard work resulted not only in monumental joint warfighting gains, but allowed us to successfully navigate this period of transition by preserving key joint processes, which will ensure continued growth and continued capabilities that are most needed in our joint force,” Odierno said.

“We no longer require a separate four-star command to oversee joint warfighting,” he said. “We have progressed far enough, and inculcated jointness deeply enough, to realize that efficiency while simultaneously refining our efforts.

“But we’re not walking away from jointness,” Odierno said. “Rather, we are adapting to a new reality. … Today’s ceremony, therefore, marks the new beginning — as we continually strive for greater effectiveness and efficiency in the joint force.”

In attendance were the first three former Joint Forces Command commanders: Adm. Hal Gehman, Army Gen. William Kernan and Adm. Edmund Giambastiani. Prior to being stood up in 1999, the command was known as U.S. Atlantic Command, which was formed in 1947.

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Military headquarters in Va. losing 2,300 jobs

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

SUFFOLK, Va. — The general of a military headquarters known as the U.S. Joint Forces Command said Wednesday that 2,300 workers in Virginia will lose their jobs as part of the Pentagon’s plan to trim bureaucracy and cut costs.

The command employs nearly 6,000 military and civilian personnel, with the bulk of those working at its headquarters in southeast Virginia. About three dozen positions at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev., about 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas, will be cut. The base is home to a squadron operating unmanned aircraft over Iraq and Afghanistan.

Another 25 to 30 percent of the command’s work force in Tampa, Fla. will also be eliminated.

The command’s mission is to train troops from all services to work together for specific missions.

The Pentagon ordered it be eliminated as part of far reaching budget cuts. The command has a budget of just under $1 billion, and its closure is expected to save about $430 million a year as many of its elements are reassigned. The command’s elimination is expected to be completed by the end of August, although some personnel reassignments won’t be completed until 2012.

“The changes are significant,” Gen. Ray Odierno said. “Going forward,we are not simply trimming down each staff element. We are making a major departure from past organization design,procedure and mindset to more effectively execute the core functions and sustain the jointness we’ve worked so hard to achieve in the past.”

Contractors will be among those hardest hit, with the number nationwide dropping to 500 from 2,500.

Officials in Virginia lobbied to retain some of the command’s job functions, and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell applauded the reorganization plan.

Virginia will retain about 1,900 jobs between operations in Norfolk and Suffolk. Roughly 500 of the command’s jobs will remain between Ft. Belvoir and the Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center in northern Virginia.

“While Joint Forces Command will still close, we were successful in retaining 50 percent of the command’s positions in the region,” McDonnell said in a statement.

The elimination of the command will free up plenty of office space. The command occupies 21 buildings in Norfolk and Suffolk. Once the command closure is complete, JFCOM will be down to four buildings. It wasn’t immediately clear who would occupy the soon-to-be empty buildings, but McDonnell said officials would work to make sure they were filled.

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Officials optimistic about JFCOM

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

City Council members were optimistic on Wednesday about what the future holds after the proposal to disestablish U.S. Joint Forces Command has become reality.

President Barack Obama signed off on the closure earlier this month. The command, which includes a facility in North Suffolk, is expected to shed about half its jobs. The other half will remain, although not in the form of a command. A detailed plan on how the closure will play out is expected to be released sometime in February.

“I think we’re going to be fine,” Mayor Linda T. Johnson said during a council work session Wednesday. “I think, at the end of the day, we’ll probably be better.”

The command, largely located in Norfolk and Suffolk, was tasked with helping to prepare the armed forces to fight jointly in the field. However, additional tasks were piled onto Joint Forces Command over the years, causing it to balloon into a much bigger command than originally intended.

“It morphed over the years,” Johnson said. “It was just a matter of putting it back in a position of what it was truly meant to be.”

“It was about looking for efficiencies,” City Manager Selena Cuffee-Glenn added.

Johnson said she and other city officials had met with JFCOM’s commander, Gen. Ray Odierno, a few days after the announcement and came away from the meeting with an optimistic outlook for the future.

“I think we all came out feeling very good about it,” Johnson said.

The city had been working on a threefold strategy to deal with the situation — reject the proposed closure, retain elements of the command in Suffolk if it was closed and replace jobs lost.

With the command’s downscaling now certain, city officials are concentrating on the second and third segments of the plan, Economic Development Director Kevin Hughes said.

“We’re really concentrating our efforts on the retain, as well as the replace, strategy,” Hughes said.

Councilman Charles Brown praised city, state and federal elected leaders for their work in trying to keep the command open.

“You worked as a team,” he said. “You were thinking about what’s best for the region. You went beyond your call of duty to make positive things happen.”

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JFCOM closure could take 15 months

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

A plan to disestablish U.S. Joint Forces Command should be complete in the next month to month and a half, but the entity will retain a presence in Suffolk.

About 1,900 local jobs — 50 percent of JFCOM’s total Hampton Roads workforce — will be eliminated.

General Ray Odierno, the commander of JFCOM, acknowledged he does not yet know many details of how the closure will happen. He has been tasked with developing a plan for the closure and submitting it to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“We’re working very closely here with the secretary in developing the implementation plan,” Odierno said Monday, speaking to media representatives in his Norfolk office.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama approved the formal disestablishment of JFCOM.

The command will shed about 50 percent of its 3,900-strong manpower in the Hampton Roads area, as well as about 30 percent of its functions. The reductions are expected to save roughly $400 million a year, Odierno said.

Gates recommended shuttering the command in August among a slate of cost-cutting measures. The command teaches America’s forces how to fight jointly with each other and with military from other nations.

Military personnel whose positions at JFCOM are eliminated will be offered other responsibilities or have the chance to apply for other positions, Odierno said. Department of Defense civilian employees and contractor employees will be on more shaky ground.

“We have mechanisms in place that will help them obtain other employment,” Odierno said of the DOD civilians.

Odierno said he is carrying “a huge burden” for the people who could lose their jobs.

“I know the unknown has been bothering people,” he said. “I’ve been very impressed with how people have continued to do their jobs.”

Odierno had no details regarding whose employment will end, or when. He said the workforce and the public would be informed as soon as details are finalized.

Odierno said the functions that are being eliminated were add-on functions given to the command after it originated in 2000. Those functions were being duplicated elsewhere in the defense department, he said.

The leftovers will no longer be known as a command, Odierno said. However, they will continue core functions of JFCOM, including joint training, concept and doctrine development and providing forces to missions around the world.

Odierno estimated that the closure plan would take about a year to a 15 months to implement fully.

“We’re still going to have a very strong presence in Suffolk, but it will be reduced,” Odierno said.

He also said JFCOM hopes to continue its relationships with community partners such as Old Dominion University.

Odierno added that the remaining functions of the command would need modeling and simulation support, which is good news for some local contractors.

He could not yet give any details about the status of the Suffolk facilities. The buildings at a compound in North Suffolk off College Drive currently are leased.

Odierno has shut down military entities in the past. When he was a lieutenant colonel in the 1990s, he was tasked with shutting down an infantry division.

He said the defense department would need to be judicious as it scales back its workforce as a result of bringing troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“After Desert Storm, I think we probably went a little too far [with cuts],” he said. “It’s about recognizing what’s necessary to sustain as we move forward.”

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JFCOM closure: Roughly 1,900 local jobs to be cut

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

NORFOLK —
— Roughly 1,900 jobs will be eliminated in Hampton Roads as the Pentagon moves to downsize and reconfigure Joint Forces Command, its commander said Monday.

The good news: About that same number of positions will survive the cost-cutting, Army Gen. Ray Odierno said

The controversial cuts will save taxpayers about $400 million a year at a time when Congress is trying to rein in spending.

Odierno said he expects a final plan to be ready in 30 to 45 days. Once approved, it will take between 12 and 15 months to implement.

The general held the news briefing to update the public – an anxious public, in the case of Hampton Roads — now that President Obama has formally approved the move to disestablish the command.

Nearly 3,900 people work for JFCOM in Hampton Roads, and they are spread across active-duty military, civilian defense jobs and private contractors.

“We’re working toward 50 percent of that staying here,” Odierno told reporters in a briefing.

He didn’t have details on how specific jobs would fare. However, it appears that the ax will spare positions connected to modeling and simulation,a growing regional industry.

“There is a piece of modeling and simulation that has to continue,that will continue to improve our ability to conduct state of the art joint training,” he said. “That piece will remain.”

Much of that work takes place in Suffolk, and Odierno said he expects the military to still have “a very significant presence” in that city.

Jobs that won’t survive are either being done elsewhere in the military or don’t relate to JFCOM’s core mission, Odierno said.

The major roles that will survive include joint training, developing concepts and doctrine, and providing forces to missions around the world.

Odierno said he was confident whatever is left standing behind will enable the military to sustain its mission of operating and fighting together in a joint manner. The JFCOM acronym will fade from the region’s vocabulary, and there won’t be a new name, Odierno said, because it will not be a separate command.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last summer he wanted to close JFCOM, which teaches different branches of the military to operate and fight together more effectively. Virginia politicians, concerned about losing thousands of jobs, immediately protested.

Relations between the Pentagon and Virginia leaders were strained throughout the summer and fall. Then in late November, Gates sat down with Virginia’s top elected officials and the atmosphere appeared to improve.

Odierno took command of JFCOM in late October and began meeting with state officials. As the former leader of U.S. forces in Iraq, he oversaw the drawdown of forces there. He pledged to keep the process open.

“Engagement is important,” he said.

The general said he has been impressed by JFCOM’s workforce, but is concerned about their morale as they face the future.

“It is fear of the unknown,” he said. They don’t understand. And I also want to let them know we have mechanisms in place to help them try to gain other employment, especially if you’re DoD civilian. In the military, it’s much easier. We’ll send them somewhere else.”

The issue of contract employees is “much broader,” the general said. A job placement expert told the Daily Press last week that Hampton Roads has a diverse military/defense job base that should make finding a new job easier than in other parts the country.

Hampton Roads is also home to NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, which over the years has established a strong relationship with JFCOM. That helped determine what roles should remain in the region, the general said.

NATO’s ability to link with U.S. concept development process and its training programs has become important, especially with NATO forces fighting side by side with Americans in Afghanistan.

“Leaving the remnants behind where we can maintain that strong relationship is very important piece of this,” he said.

Looking to the long-term future, the general could not predict if Hampton Roads would see significant cuts in defense spending, but the U.S. as a whole should brace for them.

“There’s a lot more coming — of this type of thing,” he said. “The secretary is trying to get ahead, for us to identify where we think we can build some efficiencies before somebody tells us.”

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JFCOM Commander General Ray Odierno speaks out on JFCOM changes

Monday, January 10th, 2011

NORFOLK — JFCOM Commander General Ray Odierno spoke out today regarding the end of JFCOM. Odierno says in the next 30 to 45 days, nearly half of JFCOM’s military, civilian, and contracted employees in Hampton Roads are going to learn they will be out of a job.

Odierno says, “Things are tough these days and now here I am responsible for potentially 1900 people no longer being able to be employed. Whatever the number is here, that’s quite a burden.”

Odierno says he’s working with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to keep at least 1900 of the more than 3800 jobs associated with JFCOM in Hampton Roads.

“What we want to do is help ease that burden and help them get jobs in other areas, and we’ll do that the best of our abilities,” Odierno says.

The command’s closure is part of a national defense effort to save $78 billion over five years.

Odierno says, “I can’t specifically speak about this region, but I will say there’s a lot more coming.”

He says that once the plan to dismantle JFCOM is approved in the next month or so, JFCOM will cease to exist as we know it in the next 12 to 15 months. “It won’t be a command, per say, that’s left behind,” Odierno says.

Certain functions, like joint training, will stick around under other military organizations.

Still, 5,100 additional jobs created in Hampton Roads because of JFCOM hang in the balance.

Odierno says he does expect to eliminate more contractors than Department of Defense civilians. The command flag at JFCOM will be lowered in nine months.

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