Serious Military spending question

[dakshdar]

I have no issue with spending a few million on advertising via NASCAR, UFC, Bass Fishing, whatever. You're talking about a volunteer military and you have to advertise. Let them advertise where they want. $72 million isn't that much considering they are getting exposure for it.

But, I don't get the part about the bands. So yes, we have military bands, I get that. They play events, things, whatever.

But they also employ 5,000 full time musicians in the military? We can't get by just letting the guys that play already (even if they aren't pros) play in the bands? Plus, there are 140 bands?

And they spend $388 million a year on the bands! Some (George?) please tell me if you think this money is well spent and why. If you (George) think it is, I'm fine with it, but I wonder if the military guys really care that much about the bands...

[trendon]

Found this comment on this article:

I am currently in the Army Band. I for one do see it as a waste of money. They are letting in TERRIBLE musicians who can't play their instruments at a professional level. I would estimate a good 80% of the people in the Army Bands are not professional musician caliber. Most of these people sit back and enjoy the ride of one of the easiest jobs in the Army while not bothering to improve past a mediocre high school level playing ability.

The fact that the Army Band is so weighed down with all these people is the TRUE waste. These people are getting paid full time with benefits. There are many civilians who have full time jobs and can play music at a higher level than a lot of the people currently in the Army Band service.

The few truly professional level musicians who get in the Army Band get fed up and leave the Army, change jobs in the Army, or become officers. This leaves all the dead weight riding the gravy train who stay in because it's a great deal for them, and they eventually get promoted and make all the decisions, like purchasing equipment and spending monies for TDY and other wastes.

In fact, due to the vast lacking of musical ability across the Army Band field, we have shifted focus away from Music to "Entertainment". Basically this directly gets translated to "if you can't sound good, look good and smile." Something we are being told again and again is that "the audience listens with their eyes".

So much for playing ceremonial music well.

To anybody reading this, the Army Band is NEITHER a place for a professional musician to grow nor develop.

There were also several positive comments including one telling you to go to bands.army.mil to find a performance near you.

[GeorgesGoons]

My guess is that a part of that money goes to the "Soldiers Show." That is where anybody in the Army can try out and if accepted they go around and put on a Glee type performance from post to post.

Now onto the band.......
Their War Time mission is to guard the towers of our FOBs. This is something they probably havent done since Vietnam. In Iraq/Afghanistan they bounce from FOB to FOB (via Blackhawk of course) playing music to maybe a crowd of 5 or 6. Nobody goes to see them because they are not morale building. When you have guys that are leaving the FOB daily clearing routes, getting shot at and their trucks getting blown up they don't want to see a bunch of (as they would call them) POGES.

I think spending that much money on Army bands is a complete waste of money. Stateside they perform at Changes of Commands and what not. So if you figure there are 4 Brigades per division, 6 Battalions per brigade and 5 Companies per Battalion, and IF they were to do a change of command once a year (which they actually stay in command for 2), they are performing 120 ceremonies a year per Division. To me thats just not enough to justify their budget.

I just found out my neighbor across the street has 21 years in the Army as a trumpet player. We chatted for about 40 minutes and I was appalled at how out of touch he is with what the Army is about. He told me he needed a change so he put in his Drill Sergeant packet. And being the smart ass I am, I told him that "after 21 years in the Army he was actually going to be in the Army...good luck." This was the first time I have talked to him and I don't think he appreciated my sense of humor.

[ajalves]

This was the first time I have talked to him and I don't think he appreciated my sense of humor.

for what its worth, i did

[OracleHCR]

This was the first time I have talked to him and I don't think he appreciated my sense of humor.

for what its worth, i did

Me too.

[GeorgesGoons]

This was the first time I have talked to him and I don't think he appreciated my sense of humor.

for what its worth, i did

This was the first time I have talked to him and I don't think he appreciated my sense of humor.

for what its worth, i did

Me too.

I'm glad I was able to give you guys a chuckle this morning. He just looked at me like I was an Asshole and couldn't understand why I can't wait for my 3 years to be up so I can retire at 21 years. He must assume all Soldiers are great like his band mates. And he never has to really put up with the daily crap real Soldiers do as long as they make it on time to band practice they are good.

[autiger730]

388 million? Seriously? That is absolutely ridiculous.

[autiger730]

Think about all the useful shit that that money could be spent on or could just be cut from the budget.

[buckeye76]

It was cool while talking to my brother this past April about his ship and he was going on about how they wanted him to cut even more costs. He said they were down 50 people on his ship and that the whole ship had stepped up and (I hate this phrase) did more with less. But he did have a good understanding that the tax payers were paying and all that stuff. He was trying to cut costs and trying to get more people on the ship. It was funny in his Captains room/quarters/office he had 4 wire brushes. I asked him if he used those things, he said when your short everyone has to help scrub/clean stuff including him. (its funny, as kids we used to go to grandpas house on the weekends, and he had these brushes everywhere and he always had us scrubbing or cleaning something with them, funny how that came full circle.. )

Anyhow 388 mil is alot of money.

[GeorgesGoons]

It was cool while talking to my brother this past April about his ship and he was going on about how they wanted him to cut even more costs. He said they were down 50 people on his ship and that the whole ship had stepped up and (I hate this phrase) did more with less. But he did have a good understanding that the tax payers were paying and all that stuff. He was trying to cut costs and trying to get more people on the ship. It was funny in his Captains room/quarters/office he had 4 wire brushes. I asked him if he used those things, he said when your short everyone has to help scrub/clean stuff including him. (its funny, as kids we used to go to grandpas house on the weekends, and he had these brushes everywhere and he always had us scrubbing or cleaning something with them, funny how that came full circle.. )

Anyhow 388 mil is alot of money.

Your brother is a Navy Captain (Full Bird)? What type of ship is he commanding?

[shel311]

It was cool while talking to my brother this past April about his ship and he was going on about how they wanted him to cut even more costs. He said they were down 50 people on his ship and that the whole ship had stepped up and (I hate this phrase) did more with less. But he did have a good understanding that the tax payers were paying and all that stuff. He was trying to cut costs and trying to get more people on the ship. It was funny in his Captains room/quarters/office he had 4 wire brushes. I asked him if he used those things, he said when your short everyone has to help scrub/clean stuff including him. (its funny, as kids we used to go to grandpas house on the weekends, and he had these brushes everywhere and he always had us scrubbing or cleaning something with them, funny how that came full circle.. )

Anyhow 388 mil is alot of money.

Your brother is a Navy Captain (Full Bird)? What type of ship is he commanding?

[Wasted Memory]

The Kauffman?

I spent some time on the Philippine Sea out of Mayport, FL. Hated Jacksonville back then, would love to be back there now...

[xLiQx]

I think one of the largest growing problems in the US, is the burdon student loans play on college students....I know this has nothing to do with that, and is a seperate budget, but that would be about 47,500 kids through college for an 80,000 loan, now must "standard" loans are around 40,000 for a 4.5 year bach degree, So you could double that number if you maxed it out at 40,000. Just a crazy thought.

[brett11253]

we spend more than twice the amount of all other countries combined. Gotta love it and Dick Cheneys trying to get even more defense spending. I guess I would too when I owned all the business that profited from war.

[dakshdar]

we spend more than twice the amount of all other countries combined. Gotta love it and Dick Cheneys trying to get even more defense spending. I guess I would too when I owned all the business that profited from war.

I don't mind defense spending if it goes toward building something of worth and value down the line. An assett for future use or whatever. Developing new aircraft or ship technology. Building the next generation of defense satellites. These are all worthwhile, IMO.

I kind of mind defense spending when it goes toward some guy and his oboe.

Of course, I'm biased because defense spending helps keep the company I work for going, so the last four years have been shit.

[brett11253]

50% of it is worthless and unneeded. If not more. You tell me how many ships and planes and shit we actually use to what we have. Same with nuclear weapons. How many we have stocked piled and only 2 have been used. To continually make these things and pump millions and millions of dollars into this is retarded. Take half of all this money and put it towards research for shit that matters. Not better guns. We don't need anymore of this shit. The world to going to hell around us and all we want is a bigger ship.

[autiger730]

50% of it is worthless and unneeded. If not more. You tell me how many ships and planes and shit we actually use to what we have. Same with nuclear weapons. How many we have stocked piled and only 2 have been used. To continually make these things and pump millions and millions of dollars into this is retarded. Take half of all this money and put it towards research for shit that matters. Not better guns. We don't need anymore of this shit. The world to going to hell around us and all we want is a bigger ship.

Hit the nail on the head. Really think about what he said before this. We spend twice what all other countries spend combined. That is insane. Take half of that and put it towards medical research, education, infrastructure, tons of problems could nearly immediately become much less of a problem.

[OracleHCR]

50% of it is worthless and unneeded. If not more. You tell me how many ships and planes and shit we actually use to what we have. Same with nuclear weapons. How many we have stocked piled and only 2 have been used. To continually make these things and pump millions and millions of dollars into this is retarded. Take half of all this money and put it towards research for shit that matters. Not better guns. We don't need anymore of this shit. The world to going to hell around us and all we want is a bigger ship.

From your perspective and only having to worry about your day to day life I can understand how you feel. Growing up a military brat and being around the military and seeing the world, I dont think enough is spent. $388 mil on the band is really out there but as far as defense spending we need a lot more.

[shel311]

50% of it is worthless and unneeded. If not more. You tell me how many ships and planes and shit we actually use to what we have. Same with nuclear weapons. How many we have stocked piled and only 2 have been used. To continually make these things and pump millions and millions of dollars into this is retarded. Take half of all this money and put it towards research for shit that matters. Not better guns. We don't need anymore of this shit. The world to going to hell around us and all we want is a bigger ship.

Hit the nail on the head. Really think about what he said before this. We spend twice what all other countries spend combined. That is insane. Take half of that and put it towards medical research, education, infrastructure, tons of problems could nearly immediately become much less of a problem.

I kinda like feeling completely safe in my country, knowing my country has by far the most powerful military in the world.

How much money does it take to obtain that? Shit if I know, but I don't think any of us can say with any certainty that cutting that budget in half keeps us just as safe as it does now, can we?

[nick]

50% of it is worthless and unneeded. If not more. You tell me how many ships and planes and shit we actually use to what we have. Same with nuclear weapons. How many we have stocked piled and only 2 have been used. To continually make these things and pump millions and millions of dollars into this is retarded. Take half of all this money and put it towards research for shit that matters. Not better guns. We don't need anymore of this shit. The world to going to hell around us and all we want is a bigger ship.

Hit the nail on the head. Really think about what he said before this. We spend twice what all other countries spend combined. That is insane. Take half of that and put it towards medical research, education, infrastructure, tons of problems could nearly immediately become much less of a problem.

I kinda like feeling completely safe in my country, knowing my country has by far the most powerful military in the world.

How much money does it take to obtain that? Shit if I know, but I don't think any of us can say with any certainty that cutting that budget in half keeps us just as safe as it does now, can we?

a dude ate a guys face off in Florida. Hundreds of people are murdered every day. Oklahoma city bombing, 9/11, amongst other shit, and you feel completely safe in America?

America is "safe" from international warfare, too bad America is far from safe from internal warfare.