A large percentage of those DoD employees go on deployments and support the soldier in the fight. What do the employees of EPA, NEA, SSA, HUD, etc, etc, etc, support? Paperwork. I support flesh and blood and lives on the line.
Civilian support personnel in the war zone(s) are exempt.
Actually, it is a very small percentage. Part of the reason for the substantial increase in the civilian percentage of DoD employment end strength is the change of many non-deployable positions from Uniformed Active Duty to Civilian.
Yes, more DoD Civilians and Contractors deploy than used to, but the increase in DoD Civilian deployment percentage is much lower than the increase in DoD Uniformed Active Duty and Uniformed Reserve deployment percentage.
My daughter is a DOD civilian. She’s been on three deployments. I am a retired DoD civilian. As a civilian, I went to Vietnam, Panama, Iraq, Iran, inter Alia. I also did four years active duty. Let’s go easy on DoD civilians, guys. We’re not all bean counters