Alabama State National Guard to Close 13 Armories

The Alabama State National Guard is best known for its slogan, “Always ready, Always there” but it looks like for a while the always there part of the slogan will include a whole lot less in the way of there. The Alabama National Guard is getting ready to cut back on its budget by closing several of the armories it maintains in the state.

The National Guard is getting ready to close down 13 of the armories across the state. This move will leave many civilian workers out of a job as the facilities are not staffed exclusively by workers who are under a contract. While it will not be the case in all of the locations in some places these cuts may be enough to qualify as a mass layoff action. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term for the purposes of tracking, “Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

The reasons for the cuts were simple, too little money to maintain the facilities and a decreased need for the armory services thanks to a declining number of soldiers in the state. Given the overall push to decrease the size of the military this news is not surprising. Maj. Gen. Perry Smith, Alabama’s adjutant general, summed up the situation with the facilities to be closed succinctly for a reporter with The Tuscaloosa News, “We’re $12 million behind in maintenance, we have roofs leaking, commodes won’t flush, lights are flickering and they’re dangerous.”

The list of armories to be closed includes: Georgiana, Greenville, Grove Hill, Hartselle, Heflin, Linden, Lineville, Millport, Moulton, Ozark, Thomasville, Union Springs and Wetumpka. The last of the facilities to be closed will shutter it doors before the 30^th of September. This is when the fiscal year will restart for the National Guard in the state of Alabama, and at that time the buildings will have to be off of the budget.

Of course the Alabama National Guard is not the only military organization that has to make changes in order to keep its new, smaller budget set to right. For those of you who missed out on our look at the truly epic cuts coming to the US Army here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “Well it looks like that logic may be going out the window for up to 24,000 soldiers and 5,000 officers in the next couple of months. According to information release by a Pentagon official the Army will be reducing its force in the next couple of months, as the conflicts that have kept soldiers overseas are winding down to a trickle.”