Outsourcing of Navy SEAL Training May Have Led to Fatal Accident and Lawsuit

[The Straight Story]

The U.S. government’s penchant for contracting out services to the private sector even extends to live-fire training exercises for the military’s elite warriors—sometimes with fatal results.

In 2008, Shapoor Alexander “Alex” Ghane Jr. was a member of the Navy’s SEAL Team Five sent to the Mid-South Institute of Self Defense for a combat simulation that featured live ammunition.

During training at the Lake Cormorant, Mississippi, facility, Ghane was fatally wounded when a bullet pierced his chest just above his body armor. He was standing inside a so-called shoot house that was supposed to be protected by bulletproof walls.

But a naval investigation of the incident found the building was not designed or built according to established standards. The walls of the shoot house were less than half as thick as required by the Pentagon.

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/outsourcing-of-navy-seal-training-may-have-led-to-fatal-accident-and-lawsuit-140126?news=852264

[marble falls]

1. Outsourcing and privatization are bad for us.

[jmowreader]

2. Usually but not always

If you have a function that the government wouldn't do very often and the private sector does all the time, outsourcing makes sense. It's completely stupid to set up a facility on every military base to rebuild starters and alternators when there's a civilian auto electric shop or two outside every base that rebuilds starters and alternators forty hours a week. Similarly, the government made a very wise decision when they outsourced most of their unclassified printing - unless you are able to run a press at least 40 hours per week it's not worth buying one. And the government outsources mail hauling to civilian owner-operators.

But outsourcing shoot houses that have operators going through them all day and night? Are they nuts?

[marble falls]

3. Unless alternaters need to be rebuilt in th field and the craft need to be taught and learned.

[jmowreader]

4. That's why we have Class IX supply lines

It's better to bring a truck full of alternators with you and ship back to the states any you have to replace.

But you can see the point: if you do it all the time you're better off doing it in-house. Consider the cooks in Iraq. We outsourced the cooks because Shrub's people took the total cost of a cook who retires from the Army and came to the conclusion it was cheaper to rent them. If they would have gone to a mess sergeant and asked about the retirement rate of cooks they'd have gotten a different theory - very few cooks stay in past three years.