Central Command announces it will cut a third of its staff

The move to cut about 1,100 jobs may be the largest reduction in its history.

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
Published March 13, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey will be Fallon's interim replacement effective March 31.

TAMPA - U.S. Central Command is slashing the staff of its Tampa headquarters by a third - about 1,100 personnel - even as it coordinates two wars in the Middle East, CentCom confirmed on Wednesday.

The move comes as a surprise to some Tampa Bay leaders who had received no notice of the decision by Adm. William Fallon, the CentCom chief who abruptly announced his resignation on Tuesday.

It is probably one of the largest staff reductions in the command's 25-year history and is a striking cut seldom seen in crucial military commands at a time of war.

A CentCom spokesman said the cuts have been under way for months and could be completed by May. They are part of a staff reassessment ordered by Fallon last June, three months after he took the CentCom helm.

They were not ordered by the Pentagon and are not the result of any budget shortfall, CentCom said.

"The boss asked us to look for ways to ensure we were using our human resources to the best efficiency," said Navy Capt. James Graybeal, a CentCom spokesman. "The reductions do not hamper the ability to do our jobs" or the war effort.

Some leading military analysts applauded Fallon's reductions, saying military commands have been top heavy since the days of Ulysses S. Grant.

"It's less interference for tactical units in the field," said Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information, a Washington think tank.

"The bozos 10,000 miles away pushing pins in a map that have nothing to do with reality - the fewer of those, the better," he said.

Some Tampa leaders were caught off guard. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has dined with Fallon. But the mayor said she had no idea CentCom, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, was trimming staff.

"If they have a need to cut back, I can't fault them for that," Iorio said. "Every organization needs to occasionally look at its structure and revenue. If they need to cut back, I can certainly relate to that."

Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, who has played a key role in bringing funding to MacDill, said he, too, hadn't heard, despite two conversations with Fallon last week.

"I'd rather look into this whole issue than make any snap judgments," Young said, declining to comment further. "This is news to me."

No job losses seen

Graybeal said nobody is actually losing a job. Personnel are simply being shifted to responsibilities outside the command. In some cases, personnel might be deployed overseas.

Many of the cuts are coming among reservists or what CentCom calls "augmented staff," which are personnel assigned to the command on a temporary basis and who are not permanent.

In some cases, Graybeal said, reservists might return home, their military obligation finished.

For many of those troops, "as their tours expire, they're just not being replaced," Graybeal said.

He could not provide information on what local political leaders were told, if anything. Graybeal said he thought the news had previously been disclosed.

Fallon, 63, was traveling Wednesday and neither he nor his top deputy, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, could be reached to comment.

Dempsey interim

Graybeal would not speculate on how an upcoming change in command would impact the cuts. Fallon steps down effective March 31 and Dempsey will be his interim replacement.

It has been a tumultuous two days for CentCom that began with the stunning announcement that Fallon, after only a year on the job, would resign and retire after 42 years in the Navy.

The move was widely seen as evidence of a rift between Fallon and the Bush administration over Fallon's outspokenness on military strategy in the Middle East, CentCom's area of responsibility.

Some analysts said the last straw for Bush might have been a recent issue of Esquire that portrayed Fallon favorably and described him as possibly being the only thing standing between Bush and war with Iran.

In announcing his resignation, Fallon described media reports as embarrassing and said a reported schism between him and Bush made it difficult for him to do his job.

Fallon insisted that reports of disagreement were inaccurate.

CentCom and other military commands, including U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, have experienced dramatic growth in the days since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Expansion had been so quick, CentCom staff often worked out of temporary trailers.

But that growth and a need to update aging infrastructure have led to $807-million in ongoing or planned construction at MacDill. That includes a new $118-million CentCom headquarters on base.

Fallon has earned a reputation as a no-nonsense commander during his short time at MacDill, and cuts have caused some grumbling among the rank and file.

The irony of the cuts won't be lost to some military watchers given Fallon's desire for a smaller and shorter U.S. presence in Iraq.

"The guy doesn't suffer fools gladly and wants to get things done rather than staff them out endlessly," said Larry Korb, an assistant defense secretary in the Reagan administration.

That kind of personality, he said, wouldn't easily tolerate excessive staff.

Bush will nominate

While Dempsey will hold the interim CentCom command, Bush must nominate Fallon's successor and the Senate must approve the choice.

Some speculate Bush's ground commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, who is Fallon's subordinate in the chain of command, appears in the running.

Analysts said Bush has come to rely far more on Petraeus' advice than Fallon's, another potential bone of contention.

Mike DeLong, former deputy commander at CentCom, said he thinks Bush won't again select a Navy man to head CentCom, though he called Fallon an excellent leader.

"It is a ground war," said DeLong, a retired Marine general. "So it makes sense to me they would pick a Marine or Army officer like they always did before."

William R. Levesque can be reached at levesque@sptimes.com or 813 226-3436.

[Last modified March 12, 2008, 23:30:59]