Job Cuts At U.S. Central Command Now Projected At 1,500

Posted Nov 28, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Nov 28, 2011 at 06:26 PM

The last time I was at the new U.S. Central Command headquarters, back in August, workers were still racing to get the place ready. Cables were still being laid, screws still being driven, framing still being done on the big monitor in the commander’s conference center.

Monday afternoon, in a ceremony that was supposed to be held outside but was moved inside due to the rain, Centcom officials cut the ribbon to the new building, that when all is said and done will have cost more than $82 million.

Marine Corp. Gen. James Mattis thanked taxpayers and congress for making it all happen and Congressman Bill Young talked about how three decades after Centcom was first stood up at MacDill Air Force Base, this new facility was a long time in the making and badly needed.

But as far as news, there are two tidbits.

The first is a clarification on the number of job cuts looming at Centcom.

Maj. Gen. Karl Horst, the command’s chief of staff, told me it looks like there will be about 1,500 job cuts.

Back in September, Horst said that by 2014, Centcom will reduce its personnel in Tampa from 5,100 jobs to somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000.

“Intuitively, I would say we will be around the 4,000 mark,” Horst said at the time.

The mark will now be around 3,500, he told me at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The jobs will come from a combination of personnel provided by the individual services, as well as the reserves, National Guard and contractors. Horst said he is still working on his budget analysis and it is too early to say what number of jobs will be cut from each area.

The positions are temporary in nature, with some personnel here for just a few months while others stay for a year or more. There will be no pink slips, said Horst.

“The cuts will come through attrition,” he said, adding that the command is well aware of the effect on the local economy. The cuts, said Horst, were requested by his boss, Mattis, who said the command will comply with budget reductions requested by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

The other news nugget from the ceremony also came from Horst, who said Mattis would appoint someone today to investigate the killing of more than two dozen Pakistani soldiers by NATO helicopters and planes over the weekend, an incident that has outraged Pakistan, which has closed supply routes to Afghanistan.

Horst said that Centcom is working with Pakistani counterparts to maintain mil-to-mil relations and that, at present, though supply routes are cut off, U.S. forces are facing no shortages as a result.