Fort Hood cutting back on services (Crunch hits posts across the country)

Budget crunch to affect civilian contractors like landscapers, exterminators

Fort Hood, the nation's largest military installation, is cutting many of its contract services, including groundskeeping and pest control, because of what it calls a "severe budget crunch" hitting Army posts across the country.

The massive post also announced a civilian hiring freeze in a statement last week. The statement doesn't reveal how much the cuts will save or how many jobs could be affected. Dalena Kanouse, a spokes- woman for Fort Hood, said she could not provide details Wednesday.

Cutbacks like those at Fort Hood are happening at Army facilities across the country, said Ned Christensen, a spokesman for the Army Installation Management Agency, which oversees the money for operating 119 posts.

"The Army's at war," Christensen said. "And that's the primary place the funding is going."

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/8hoodcuts.html

You'd think the usual way to get the grass cut is to deploy 50 privates with push mowers.

usually go back to the genesis of the bases where the military would provide jobs for locals for the right to have the base in the community.

they deserve it, but a lot of servicepeople will be inconvenience by this

jobs G.I.s used to do, have been replaced by civilians so the troops can concentrate on training. But now this is part of the Cheney plan to form a mercenary army.

in my humble opinion- the army should be using it's own people to do a lot of the stuff that's now outsourced to companies like kbr and halliburton.