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Military to reassign cooks to combat

The Taiwan military will stop using soldiers as cooks in order to make these servicemen available for combat purposes only, defense sources said yesterday.

The plan is scheduled to be finalized by 2006 -- when the armed forces are supposed to be reduced from the current 380,000 to 300,000.

Around 30,000 cook positions will no longer be filled by soldiers, but by professionals from the private sector.

The move is part of the military's plan to transfer the food-supply services to the hands of private catering companies so that no military personnel are wasted on activities that do not directly involve preparations for combat.

Once the plan is finalized, the armed forces will have an extra 30,000 personnel at its disposal, which will go a long way in making up for the simultaneous large-scale reduction of personnel over the next four years.

The military is also considering not using soldiers as drivers, especially those who serve as personal drivers for generals or their families, in a bid to release more soldiers for combat training.

It is estimated that there are over 1,000 such personnel, who often have nothing to do if their assigned officers don't go anywhere.

These soldier-drivers are considered as contributing much less to the military than its cooks.

A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it is easier to reassign the cooks compared to the drivers, because most of the drivers got their cushy jobs by using their connections with high-ranking officers.

"In the military, the best-connected soldiers are placed in the most comfortable positions, such as drivers for generals. No one really wants to work as a cook," the official said.

"These drivers are not competent drivers from a professional point of view. But most of the generals have no choice but to accept them because they are assigned to drive for them," he said.

"A recent example was when a soldier who drives for an army major-general was stopped by freeway police for driving too slow on the Second North Freeway. The soldier did not know it is against the rules to drive at 85kph on the inner [or fast] lane of the freeway," he said.

"What is worse is that many drivers of this kind don't know how to repair cars. Why should we need them if they can only drive?"

The defense official revealed that some generals who are not happy with their drivers' abilities, will sometimes choose to drive themselves. "But it is not fitting for a one-star or two-star general to be seen sitting in the driver's seat," he said.

Drivers and cooks are currently the two positions in the military that are marked for privatization but, considering the contribution the two make to the military, cooks seem to have more reason to stay.

But cooks are now on the priority list to be reassigned, primarily because they are greater in number.

After the private catering companies take over the food-supply services, the military will probably proudly declare to the public that it has not only bettered the quality of its food, but it also released more manpower for combat training.
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