Army Org: The Class VI Supply System--Rumsfeld's Question

[OldSoldier]

Donald Rumsfeld has been secretary of defense twice.

His first time in the barrel, he was working for President Gerald Ford, a World War II Navy veteran. This time around, he's working for George W. Bush, whose military record is, to be charitable, enough to put him in front of a firing squad.

A few weeks ago, Rumsfeld announced he was considering closing some commissaries and on-base schools. Said the secretary, "what am I doing running grocery stores?"

Military resale activities--commissaries, exchanges, and so on--have existed ever since there was a military.

* In many of the remote communities that military bases were set up in, the local economy would be unduly stressed by not providing resale activities. Example: Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana. During World War II, this base trained one of the forerunners of the modern Green Berets. The base is near Helena, Montana, which is not a large community. If you dropped five thousand people into a community that already has five thousand people, the stores there would not be able to absorb the new patrons and you'd have one disgruntled, anti-military community. Before anyone comes in with "the merchants would expand to meet need," consider that expansion on that scale takes time, and while the merchants are trying to find land, close on it, build on it and stock their new stores, the GIs are still in there buying up all the toilet paper.

* A related subject: some of the places that bases were constructed had no local economy, or no local American economy. Example: Fort Riley, a frontier outpost in Kansas. Basically, Custer found a flat piece of ground that didn't have too many snakes on it and built an installation. There was no town around.

* Commissary and PX shopping privileges are part of a soldier's pay. It's a recruiting tool: join us and you can shop tax-free in our discount outlets. Which, at this time, Wal-Mart can lowball but PX shopping is still tax-free.

Next time around we'll discuss the commissary, the thing Rummy wants to close.

[happyslug]

1. Yes very old

Sutler were intergrated into the Army early on, When Grant marched on Richmond he decided to keep the Sutlers back until the rest of the Army had moved, but even he relented after a few weeks and permitted them to catch up to their assigned units.

The Sutler store became today PXs and Commissionaires through the same updates the replaced the local General Store with today's Supermarket and Malls. These have always been private enterprise that have close connections with the Military and the Military will fight to keep them for Walmart will NOT follow the troops to new areas of Combat. Combat units move and th Sutler (now PXs) must move with them. Walmart can not do that (and does the Military want it to?)

One of the reason Sutlers existed was by inviting them onto the Miliary base or camp, they came under Military command and control. Unlike “Camp Followers”, the Sutler could be Court-Maritaled. Thus if a “spy” or other questionable person was in the Sutler’s store he could be driven out of camp by the Military. By providing a place WITHIN the camp to buy items, soldiers had less chance of running across such questionable persons and revealing secrets to them.

Thus the operation of such stores enhances security in addition to providing soldiers a place to buy items. In a place like Iraq do you want our soldiers buying Christmas Gifts from Bagdad merchants?

[OldSoldier]

2. Now that you mention it...

Remember that one of the troops who was killed in Baghdad was shot while he was trying to buy a DVD in a local video store.