Why Does The US Military Have To Hire People?

Heat84

While I’m looking for jobs, I come across ads like this and this. Why don’t they have people who enlisted in the military that can do these jobs? How is there nobody currently in the military who can train people to pack parachutes and do the other things in that job’s description? And a corpsman is a basic job in the military too. Is that a MASH type corpsman, or in a hospital not near a battlefield? There’s no US infantry deployed anywhere right now is there? Involved in some kind of war at least.

MacLeech

Heat84 Both of those are US military jobs. You have to be enlisted in the US military and go through military training for those. The first link is the US Army site for more info on the job. The 2nd link is 3rd party UK site copying an old US Navy site page. The actual current page for that Navy job is https://www.navy.com/careers-benefits/careers/medical/hospital-corpsman

I was previously a medic in the Army, similar to the US Navy Corpsman MOS. We worked from hospital support settings to battlefield infantry unit support and everything in between. It was the basic starting point to medical jobs in the Army.

InternetJeff

Heat84 don’t they have people who enlisted in the military that can do these jobs?

Having retired relatively recently after serving 26½ years in the Air Force, and having been involved with the management of contracted programs, I can address this.

This ain’t like the old military where uniformed personnel spent time peeling potatoes or emptying trash on KP duty, or cutting grass or mopping floors, or even doing many other technical but routine jobs that you may seen advertised.

Today’s uniformed warrior is trained and focused on Warfighter tasks. In the Air Force, for example, we don’t waste the time of an aircraft technician that we have spent a million dollars or more in training to do stuff that is better served by a contract services, or even a Civil Service, employee.

As already mentioned, non-uniform personnel provide continuity and reach-back support for the Warfighter.

ElQuintron

I’m not in the (American) military, but I have in-laws that still are and were in the Canadian military. The first roles seems aimed at some kind of specialist, while the rest of the organization should be working on combat readiness. Someone who can pack a parachute (a fairly specialized task), may not necessarily want to jump out of planes.

You second role has a caveat at the bottom that states that requirements are different for enlisted, non-enlisted and people that are planning on enlisting for the role, so I don’t think that applies because you’re becoming an enlisted member by taking that job.

IMO civilians, and non-enlisted personnel are good to have in roles that would distract enlisted personnel from from their primary duty of combat readiness, or where a civilian with multiple years of experience doing the one thing would be better than someone who’s enlisted and has to worry about combat readiness and a complex role.

broknsymetry

Your second link is an invitational advertisement to enlist in the Navy Reserve.

The military has, in general, a very high turnover rate since most enlistees serve 4 or less years. Also, most billet positions are for a two year term. Certain positions are filled by civilians for continuity. As for training positions, like your first link, the military prefers someone who can remain in the position for some time, while their more experienced members are deployed in the field. These positions are often filled by veterans with a great deal of experience and proficiency in the subject area. However, the military does use enlisted personnel to train others in most situations. As an example, in ET “A” school at Great Lakes we had civilian instructors for the intermediate electronics theory phase which did not involve military equipment and then military instructors for communications systems and radar systems phases. Also, we had civilian employees at NAS Cecil Field for continuity. There we had equipment for which there was no military training, like the ILS system and some weather equipment, with which he was familiar. There is so much equipment in the military that not everything can be covered in schools. Besides, Hans was a very good cribbage player. We had other civilians there as well. We had one that had been at Cecil Field for a very, very long time and had participated in the installation of most of the systems there and knew where every cable was laid from memory.

Heat84

broknsymetry Your second link is an invitational advertisement to enlist in the Navy Reserve.

Why didn’t they say so in the job list? In the list of job ads that I found the ads that I linked to above, it just says the job title. It doesn’t say whether it’s a job or for recruiting. Since job ads are a good place for the military to put recruitment ads, I assumed that’s what was going on until I read the job ad for the parachute rigger. I’m half right. It doesn’t matter since you’ll find out what it is when you open the link, but it would still be nice to label it properly.

Somewhat-Reticent

Cheaper.

Heat84

I don’t know if it’s true in real life, but I just remembered that most of the doctors and nurses on M * A * S * H were civilian doctors and nurses before they were drafted.

broknsymetry

Upon a second look at the parachute rigger “job” it does not look like a job ad. Instead it looks like an invitation to enlisted personnel to become a specialist in that field, Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). A better view can be found on the main Army recruitment site…

https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/support-logistics/transportation-inventory/92r-parachute-rigger

I first considered an enlistment in the Navy after answering an ad in the local newspaper that did not indicate that the Electronics Technician position was for the Navy. This is how they recruit a lot of people.

px_eliezer_

InternetJeff As already mentioned, non-uniform personnel provide continuity and reach-back support for the Warfighter.

A similar example would be the NYPD…

Uniformed Police Officers: Around 36,000.
Civilian Employees: Approximately 19,000.

broknsymetry

It’s not new either, I remember when base security and meal services was turned over to civilian contracted personnel in the ’80s.

egeezer

I have a friend who was an Air force IT analyst and project manager. He retired after 20+ years with captain’s rank
He, returned to the same desk, phone and job as an employee of Booz Allen.

His experience, qualifications and security clearance made him eminently qualified for his private sector career.

Heat84

egeezer The military’s primary job is to defend the country, not to train people to do it. So why not hire sombody that already has the training. I never thought of that.

MacLeech

Heat84 Hiring contractors is more expensive than using the personnel you’ve already trained.

Also you don’t want to wait until someone retires before they can come back to train others. You want them relatively soon after completing training and some time on the job.

At least in the US Army, the career advancement pipeline almost requires either time as a trainer or a recruiter to advance in beyond a certain rank (E-6 or E-7) at some point.

Part of military training is learning to lead and train others the skills you’ve learned.

Heat84

MacLeech So these people the military are hiring are contractors? I almost asked this question when I made the thread.

Someone in here said it was cheaper to hire than train: https://broadbandbulletin.com/d/1592-why-does-the-us-military-have-to-hire-people/4

MacLeech

Heat84 If they’re civilian, they’re contractors. DoD uses alot of contractors in various jobs.

For the Parachute Rigger and Hospital Corpsman jobs you originally posted, those are jobs for enlisted military personnel.

InternetJeff

Heat84 So these people the military are hiring are contractors? I almost asked this question when I made the thread.

Someone in here said it was cheaper to hire than train: https://broadbandbulletin.com/d/1592-why-does-the-us-military-have-to-hire-people/4

In many cases for routine services that are not inherently military in nature (food services, custodial services, general support, etc.) it can be cheaper, avoids certain overhead, and frees up valuable resources. When the contract is over you’re not on the hook for pension or retirement benefit costs. I spent time in the Air Force managing programs that used contracted services. As I alluded to earlier, I don’t want to have to pull trained and expensive active duty technicians off the flight line to go to the dining hall to peel potatoes or serve food.

broknsymetry

MacLeech If they’re civilian, they’re contractors. DoD uses alot of contractors in various jobs.

Actually most are direct salaried employees of the DoD. However, the military does contract with private sector companies like Raytheon, General Dynamics, etc. and they do have company representatives on site and also provide specialized training to military personnel. On occasion company training may be specified in their contract. Xerox had a contract to supply shipboard copiers to the Navy. Their contract stipulated that there would be at least one ET/IC/EM onboard that was company trained, I was one such ET. They of course charged the government for their classes. They also stipulated that replacement parts had to be supplied directly by them. I had great difficulty once getting new drums from a Xerox supplier in Italy.

The Navy also own auxiliary vessels (USNS) used to support the Navy in various functions. These ships are mostly crewed by civilians, but do carry a small contingency of military personnel. I was originally billeted to an oilier that had only 17 Navy personnel onboard, but my billet was changed just before I was scheduled to report.

https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/Ships/Ship-Inventory/