JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The audience gasped insurprise and gave a few low whistles as
Defense Secretary Chuck Hageldelivered the news that furloughs, which have forced a 20 percent paycut on
most of the military’s civilian workforce, probably will continuenext year and might worsen."Those are
the facts of life," Hageltold about 300 Defense Department employees, most of them
middle-agedcivilians, last week at an Air Force reception hall on a military basein Charleston.Future
layoffs also are possible for thedepartment’s civilian workforce of more than 800,000 employees, Hagelsaid,
if Congress fails to stem the cuts in the next budget year, whichstarts Oct. 1.On the heels of the
department’s first furloughday, and in three days of visits with members of the Army, Navy, AirForce and
Marine Corps, Hagel played the unenviable role of messenger toa frustrated and fearful workforce coping with
the inevitability of aspending squeeze at the end of more than a decade of constant and costlywar.The fiscal
crunch also lays bare the politically unpopular,if perhaps necessary, need to bring runaway military costs
in line withmost of the rest of the American public that has struggled economicallyfor
years."Everybody’s bracing for the impact," Army Master Sgt.Trey Corrales said after Hagel spoke
with soldiers during a quick stopat Fort Bragg, N.C.Corrales’ wife, a military civilian employee,is among
those furloughed, and they have cancelled their cable TV andstarted carpooling to work to save money.The
furloughs have hitabout 650,000 civilian employees but also have slowed health care andother services for
the uniformed military, which has stopped sometraining missions and faces equipment shortages due to the
budgetshortfalls. Troops were told this month they will no longer receiveextra pay for deployments to 18
former global hot spots no longerconsidered danger zones.Troops already are facing forcereductions, and the
Army alone has announced plans to trim its ranks by80,000 over the next five years.___Follow Lara Jakes on
Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAPCopyright 2013 The Associated Press.