Tagged: Department of Defense

The 502nd Air Base Wing at Joint Base San Antonio has a new commander and local political and business leaders joined military dignitaries for the change of command ceremony at the base Wednesday morning.

Brigadier General Theresa Carter took command just months after the 502nd was relocated to San Antonio after the BRAC realignment and replacing Carter is Brigadier General Robert La Brutta, who comes to the 502nd with management experience.

La Brutta was most recently the director of manpower and personnel for the U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

U.S. Army North at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston will be looking for a new commander now that Lt. General William Caldwell IV is leaving to become president of the Georgia Military College.

Caldwell has submitted his retirement paperwork to the Department of Defense and has announced to friends that he will leave Texas to become the next president of the military college in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Joint Base San Antonio has been working with its civilian workers to communicate the military’s instructions if sequestration kicks in this Friday.

A 20 percent across-the-board cut includes furloughs of federal employees at all military bases across the country.

That’s the bad news. The good news is the furloughs are part-time.

Joint Base San Antonio Spokesman Brent Boller said the sequester will cut $1.2 trillion from government spending, and about half of that will be cuts in Department of Defense spending.

With ten days until the sequestration that prompts severe cuts to the nation’s defense budget, some lawmakers in congress are speaking against the cuts that no side wants but no one can agree on how to fix. 

Congressman Lamar Smith of San Antonio wants individual agencies to decide on what is necessary and was also critical of the recently leaked White House plan on immigration.