Opportunities for Service Function Consolidation

摘要

On 2 July 1992, Senator Sam Nunn, Chairman of the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee, delivered a speech entitled 'The Defense Department Must Thoroughly Overhaul the Services Roles and Missions.' In it, he told his Senate colleagues that service redundancy and duplication are costing billions of dollars each year, citing examples to support his assertion. When General Colin L. Powell responded with his February 1993 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Report on the Roles, Missions, and Functions of the Armed Forces of the United States, he devoted less than three pages to service support functions--reviewing only construction engineers, chaplain, and legal functions. This research project constitutes an effort to gather and analyze the opinions of senior leaders at the installation level--where the rubber meets the road. It contains results of a survey administered to Army and Air Force installation commanders, who rated their support or opposition to consolidation, intraservice streamlining, or contracting out 42 different service support functions. Survey results are tabulated and analyzed through the use of graphs, tables, and quotations. In addition to highlighting opportunities for improved service efficiency and effectiveness, this survey reveals some sound arguments for perceived service parochialism.