[Alas Babylon!]

I am retired from the Air Force. I can see a lot of savings if we do some things that are almost politically impossible.

1. Roll the US Marine Corps into the US Army. All ground forces should be in the US Army.

2. All airplanes should be in the USAF.

3. All ships should be in the US Navy.

4. Generals/Admirals in major commands only. Deputies/immediate replacements can be O-8s (one star). All the rest should be O-6s (Colonel/Captain).

5. Move all bases/forts/stations to rural areas when possible. Sell the expensive suburb real estate and roll the profits back into the DOD budget.

6. Bring back a national service requirement. Either 1 year training in a military, non-technical skill—if you want technical training you can commit for 3 more years—or national service working in an urban area cleaning up, a forest doing fire control or a hospital as an orderly. CCC level corps for whatever the country needs. Perhaps border guard.

None of this will ever be done because of reasons—some good, some bad, some political, traditional or other.

[Alas Babylon!]

For above —one star - O-7...

[9YearLurker]

I’d put those forts and bases along our borders.

[ByteMercenary]

“1. Roll the US Marine Corps into the US Army. All ground forces should be in the US Army.
2. All airplanes should be in the USAF.
3. All ships should be in the US Navy.”

#1 - agree
#3 - agree - roll the Coast Guard into the Navy
#2 - disband the USAF and repurpose it to the Space force.

The reason is that the air support mission for the Army and Navy differ quite a bit. Army planes don’t need to land on carriers and Navy planes are not suited to ground support missions (generally). The DoD has to spec out two different design extensions when ordering aircraft - very expensive.

[Svartalfiar]

1. Roll the US Marine Corps into the US Army. All ground forces should be in the US Army.

2. All airplanes should be in the USAF.

3. All ships should be in the US Navy.

1. The Marines are already in the Navy. They literally are just Navy infantry. They've taken on too much mission creep and need to get back to their sole purpose - establishing a beachhead for the Army to come through. Marines are amphibians, they go in the water, not just another ground force.

2. You actually think the Air Force should be operating off naval vehicles? Do you not realize how much MORE that would cost us in "substandard living quarters" pay for all the zoomies? If anything, push Air Force up and out and fold everything under 50 kft back into the Army Air Corps.

3. Coast Guard has a different mission set than the Navy (for the most part), but is under the Navy already, when deployed. If you're talking about the Army's ships, it makes sense to maintain more of the logistical support within the supported department.

[Jacquerie]

You funny.