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Effects Of Downsizing Of The Army Downsizing Essay

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Effects of Downsizing The impact of the Army downsizing is nothing new. This rapid demobilization of forces has transpired after every major conflict. The most recent downsizing effort was from the Persian Gulf. The Army was an incredibly powerful force around 730,000 in 1990 and rapidly downsized to 508,000 in 1995. Once again, the Army is repeating itself, projecting to shrink the active force from 566,000 during the height in 2011 to a speculated 420,000 reaching this in the fiscal year 2017 (Trice, 2015). A disturbing fact is that the unemployment rate for veterans outpaces that of the rest of the country at 6.8% rate verses that of the non-veterans of 5.7% (Watson, 2014). The strain of a growing unemployment rate among veterans rapidly increases in small towns throughout the United States especially those where units are deactivating.
Economic Effects As the downsizing and restructure of the Army continues, cities all over the country also feel the sting of Soldiers leaving the service. Two cities outside of Fort Benning, Phenix City and Columbus Georgia, have reported they will miss an estimated $229 million dollars in sales due to the elimination of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team (Adams, 2015). Other concerning factors are the civilian employees that currently work on Fort Benning. They may also be out of work due to the restructure. This ripple effect will continue throughout other privately owned businesses. For instance, the apartments Soldiers currently

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