Contracting out facilities

The best chow I had during 20 years in the Navy was at the Naval Submarine Medical Center in Groton, CT. 100% civilian, a Medical Service Corps Officer in charge. The civilians were dedicated to turning out the best food possible. The head cook was a man of integrity and skill. I am sure that he and his staff needed no threat of termination to do their job well.

Submarine Force always had a reputation for 'the best chow'

And, I didn't mean all men and women need that threat to do a job, but there are those that sit down on the "longevity guarantee" as an answer for poor performance. And I've seen more than one or two incompetent individuals that maintain a job because of that rule, and not because of good performance.

The point is, at the beginning (guess I hijacked) that we don't have a record of good service or low cost when the civilians contract the work that military performed before it went to contract - it's generally less quality and more cost overall ... despite the fine performance of 'some' employees.

As a general rule, I believe our military brothers and sisters take pride individually and as a group in a job well done, regardless if it's cleaning a room or cooking a meal, or hitting a target. That pride does not always transition to the civilian side of DOD.

For the civilian code, it appears enough that the job gets done, but not necessarily that the job gets done WELL.

OKAY, DOD, flame away ... but I bet those DOD that do take pride in the job and do it well are ex-military.

monkey44 wrote:

Submarine Force always had a reputation for 'the best chow'

And, I didn't mean all men and women need that threat to do a job, but there are those that sit down on the "longevity guarantee" as an answer for poor performance. And I've seen more than one or two incompetent individuals that maintain a job because of that rule, and not because of good performance.

The point is, at the beginning (guess I hijacked) that we don't have a record of good service or low cost when the civilians contract the work that military performed before it went to contract - it's generally less quality and more cost overall ... despite the fine performance of 'some' employees.

As a general rule, I believe our military brothers and sisters take pride individually and as a group in a job well done, regardless if it's cleaning a room or cooking a meal, or hitting a target. That pride does not always transition to the civilian side of DOD.

For the civilian code, it appears enough that the job gets done, but not necessarily that the job gets done WELL.

OKAY, DOD, flame away ... but I bet those DOD that do take pride in the job and do it well are ex-military.

;)I still agree 100% It seems pride in work, has almost disappeared in our country. I have grown tired of going to a gate, with the DOD in charge, and they act like it is a bother to let us on base. I was glad to see the scanners at FT Meade, since the guards their barely looked at our cards, now they have a extra aid to keep them from straining their eyes , and can catch expired cards. Safety should be put above all else.

We are at Kings Bay, and I always felt secure here. You ride through two security gates. The second one only picks vehicles at random. One night several years ago, we were told to stop. They make you get out of the car and check the car out top to bottom.
We had tow civilian friends stop by to visit us on there way to FL. They were not even allowed on base. We had to pick them up at the gate and bring them in. I wish more bases took such care in allowing people on base.

I concur with everything karylkoch says about Kings Bay. We frequent this base and they are tops in our opinion in keeping the entry secure. Most of the security at the gates are retired military so they know how important their job is.

Our car was stopped at random at the second gate also and they spent several minutes inspecting the vehicle. Very few military installations we go on are performing this type of security check.

I'm at Kings Bay as well, and always wonder at the gates if this is "my turn" to get the complete check - of course, don't worry about it, but only once has it happened ...

Security even said, "Sorry, but you're it - random." And I just laughed and said -"You're doing your job - don't sweat it." Took him six minutes or so ... but made me feel like Sub-base cares about who gets in here.