Guardians,
When I delivered the State of the Coast Guard address on 12 February, I was asked the following question:
"As the need for budgetary cuts grows, has any consideration been given to cutting costly officer billets and replacing them with less costly enlisted counterparts?"
I promised to answer this question on my blog so here it is:
The personnel reductions in the FY 2011 budget are directly tied to the decommissionings of several operational units. Those units (especially the High Endurance Cutters and MSSTs) have many more enlisted members than officers and that is reflected in the proposed reductions (104 officer and 1,008 enlisted). We are adding civilian positions in specialty areas and for continuity purposes, so that brings our net personnel reduction to 773 which is the number we referenced in previous communications.
To manage the size of the existing workforce and meet that proposed reduction in FY11, we have lowered our active duty recruiting targets and reduced our accession rates.
During the State of the Coast Guard address, I also said I would get back to the questioner about the active duty officer to enlisted ratio. The Coast Guard has approximately 43,000 established military positions with a ratio of one officer for every five enlisted positions; we have maintained that average since FY2006. By comparison during that same time frame, the other Services averaged the following officer to enlisted ratios: Army: 1 to 5; Navy: 1 to 5; Marines: 1 to 8; and the Air Force: 1 to 4. Including the personnel reductions proposed in FY11, we will still maintain our 1 to 5 ratio.
We will continue to monitor these numbers to ensure we have the right mix of officers and enlisted to execute and support our operational missions.
