Several years of budget cuts from efficiency initiatives and sequestration have shrunk the Pentagon’s operations and maintenance accounts so much that the Defense Department may begin funding more “unanticipated contingencies” in its Overseas Contingency Operations fund, despite crisis response and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief being primary missions of the military. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. James Winnefeld told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the Pentagon’s $58.6 billion Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) request for fiscal…
