Panetta announces plan for defense cuts that would shrink ground forces, retire some planes

[MADem]

26. You can do a lot of that with "prompt retirement."

It will mean that a lot of people who might want to stay on and promote have to retire at a lower rank, but they'll get a full benefits package. It's also possible to cut people loose at the lower ends, forgiving enlistment contracts and offering "early out" opportunities at PCS points (cheaper to let them go early than move them with a forced extension on their contract).

And then, there's force shaping--up or out strategies, through performance standards (more challenging testing for promotion, rigidly enforced phsyical fitness/height-weight standards, increased drug testing and a resumption of true zero tolerance policies )--all of those techniques can take a big bite. There's also medical boards--they can be guided to interpret "readiness" more harshly. If not enough, after all that, it's time to go to another TERA (Temporary Early Retirement Authority). Congress has to make that happen, though.

IIRC, during the last big bloodbath, we started slow, took a big bite in the middle (much gnashing of teeth) and ended with a whimper. It wasn't fun. I hope this one is a bit smoother and is accomplished with less pain.