Military Recruiting "purely remarkable."

I’ve never seen a better Army, said Major General Thomas P. Bostick, Commanding General of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, at a briefing on FY2008 Recruiting and Retention for the AVF (All Volunteer Force) Military, held at the Pentagon. Each person, Bostick said, became a hero the day they enlisted. Dr. David S.C. Chu, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, echoed this sentiment by saying that a willingness to step forward and serve is a great tribute to our military.

Ninety-two percent of those enlisting overall in FY2008 had high school diplomas, with the Army having the lowest score, with only eighty-three percent having diplomas. The Air Force, at ninety-nine percent, is the branch of service having the highest amount of enlistees with diplomas in FY2008. One of the ways the Army is working with that, is by their Army Prep School, where potential recruits can get GEDs before they go to Basic Training for the Army.

All services met or even exceeded their recruiting goals for FY2008. At the end of the year, the totals for Accessions were 80, 517 Army; 38,485 Navy; 37, 991 Marine Corps; and 27, 848 Air Force. Of special note was the waiver system in place, where individuals are granted waivers to enter the military when ordinarily a medical problem, a criminal offense of some sort, or even their age wouldn’t have allowed them to do so before. Specific numbers were not announced for the waivers, though when the question was asked how many waivers were issued for overweight individuals Major General Robert E. Milstead, Jr, Commanding General, Marine Corps Recruiting Command, boomed from the back of the stage, "THE MARINE CORPS HAS NONE!!"

Rear Admiral Joseph F. Kilkenny, Commander, Navy Recruiting Command said in the Navy that they were successful in all fronts, and the total force team is “definitely firing on all cylinders.” The results achieved were “purely remarkable” and they were pleased they have exceeded retention goals in the Navy. But as Brigadier General Alfred J. Stewart, Commander, Air Force Recruiting Service pointed out, the retention in the Air Force is a little soft likely due to the high-skilled jobs competing with high paying competition in the private sector.

Of huge concern was how the economy affects recruitment. While Dr. Chu wouldn’t directly quote numbers, he did say that people are more willing to “give us a chance” because of it. Older adults, Chu said, need to be more supportive of young people’s decision to go into the military. If you treat people right, such as equal pay for a job they could hold in the civilian sector, good benefits, and use of deployments, they will stay in. There are many discussions about “public service,” said Chu, but few mention the military as a way to do that.

Culture Warriors

“As Marines we must be able to navigate the human terrain as well as we navigate the physical terrain of the battlefield,” said Brigadier General Richard M. Lake, during a House Armed Services committee hearing on transforming the U.S. Military’s foreign language skills, cultural awareness, and regional expertise capabilities.
The military representatives described a series of new programs aimed towards making U.S. forces more effective in dealing with different cultures, including financial incentives for Reserve Officers Training Corps students willing to study new languages, actively recruiting those who already have skills in foreign languages, and the creation of a personnel database that includes active members, retirees and separatees.
The Department of Defense contends that these steps have been successful. In 2001 there were 1,400 students studying Arabic, Persian, and Chinese at the Defense Foreign Language Center. Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel for the Air Force Joseph M. McDade, Jr. says that over the past seven years those numbers have doubled. There has been a similar increase in Foreign Area Officers (FAO).
“In 2001 there were 1000 army FAOs, and 149 Marine FAOs. In 2008 those numbers were 1,600 in the Army, Marines, and Air Force,’ said McDade”.

Getting to know the Department of Defense (Again)

By Meredith MacKenzie

I was born on Hahn AFB in Germany during the Cold War. I was baptized by an Air Force chaplain. For most of my life my father has been an F-16 Fighter pilot and my mother the most understanding and enduring of military spouses. All of my father’s friends went by names like “Fuzz,” “Mad Dog,” and “Chairman.” I have waited at an airport many times with that “Welcome Home Daddy!” sign. I understand every phrase from military life from “hurry up and wait” to the alphabet soup of TDY and the SOP and I will never forget the ROE my dad made me sign in order to get my learner’s permit.

As an Air Force brat, I thought that I understood America’s military. I mean, I come from a military family, the military helped pay for my education, my favorite college team (after my alma mater, of course) is the Fighting Falcons. But being on the ground, on base, even my own failed attempt to join AFROTC in college, could not have prepared me for getting to know the Department of Defense all over again.

As the TRNS Pentagon correspondent I had the chance over the last week to travel with the Secretary of Defense to Mexico City, Ft. Bliss, Texas, and the largest Army vehicle depot in the country at Texarkana. It was my first time traveling with a government entourage and I want to tell my fellow citizens that there is no better way to travel. I imagine that only the President or the Secretary of State travel in more style than Secretary Gates.

It was the contrast between our great accommodations (which the journalists themselves pay for) and the convenience of riding in a police escorted motorcade and the drab brown surroundings of Ft. Bliss that stuck out to me. I thought I knew what military life was about-- turns out that I know military life in an officer’s family. My family has never had to live on base, my father has never had a 15-month hardship deployment, and he certainly has never had three of them.



The bulk of America’s military are the enlisted men and women who serve in active duty. Only in the insulated rings of the Pentagon do officers outnumber enlisted. It is the enlisted soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who do the daily work of the military. By and large these are people who have not attended a four-year university. They have families which they began at a young age. They enlist and give control over their lives to an institution. Then they go to Iraq and Afghanistan and then they go back.

There are 34,000 active troops in Afghanistan and 150,000 in Iraq. The new Yankee Stadium could be filled twice with the men and women serving in theater. And this is just one part of the vastness of America’s Defense Department. The sheer size of America’s military/industrial complex is staggering. Considering the $550 billion base operating budget, the 23,000 employee population of the Pentagon and the millions of members of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, as well as their respective Reserves and National Guards; it is not too much of a stretch to believe, as one colonel told us, that the combined territory of White Sands Missile Range, Yuma Proving Grounds and Ft. Bliss is larger than Rhode Island.

We toured a factory in Texarkana that puts out one Humvee every 24 minutes. We met with a colonel responsible for transitioning over 200 wounded soldiers to their homes or new units a month. We witnessed an enlistment ceremony where 45 young people (and they were young) enlisted and another 30 soldiers reenlisted. This ceremony at Ft. Bliss occurs monthly.

Sure everything is bigger in Texas, but these are just numbers from that one post, there are more than 250 U.S. military installations all over the world. Looking at the enormous scope of the nation’s defense it is no wonder that Sec. Gates, whom the Pentagon staff refer to as simply “the Boss,” is a big picture thinker. As the local press in Texas and a class of sergeant majors at Ft. Bliss discovered, Gates is the wrong man to ask about the details of a soldier’s pension or home loans. Gates simply can’t be expected to know all those details.

Over the past few months, in hearings and press conferences about what Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen has called “stress on the force,” I have felt concern about the long and repeated tours of duty. I have wondered what it does to the psyche of the young men of my high school graduating class. I have read carefully Joseph Stiglitz evaluation of a $3 trillion war. But at Ft. Bliss I met a psychologist who gave me a real idea of the cost of this war.

Dr. John E. Fortunato is the resilience and restoration program director in a prototype program at Ft. Bliss. He works with severe cases of post traumatic stress disorder, all of whom want to return to duty. Through an intensive 35 hours a week in therapy, Dr. Fortunato uses alternative medicine, psycho analysis, and biofeedback techniques to help soldiers become fit for duty. He says that it is his job to heal the wound that does not show and help these soldiers deal with the price of killing.

He told us the story of one soldier who had trouble in therapy. They pushed him and intensified therapy until finally he broke down in tears telling the hardest of his stories. What he said to the therapists, represents the real cost of this war. “No one knows,” he gasped through his tears, “No one know the price, the price you pay when you shoot a man so close his blood splashes back on your flack jacket.”

The money for the war comes from American taxpayers and their children, the decisions about funding are made in the air conditioned rooms of Congress, the war is administrated by top brass and career civil servants like Secretary Gates, the cost is estimated at $12 billion a month. But the price of this war is paid by men and women who enlist and serve in the U.S. military.

House Armed Services Committee hearing on AMAP

At the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Army’s Medical Action Plan and Other Services’ Support for Wounded Service Members, Subcommittee Chairwoman Susan Davis (D-CA) said "our challenge and our responsibility" is to make sure that the military as a whole, not just the health care system, remains focused on the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers and their families.

Congressman John M. McHugh (R-NY), ranking Republican on the Military Personnel Subcommittee, said he is concerned about reports from Fort Drum highlighting an apparent disconnect between the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs personnel as to the type of support to be provided disabled soldiers.

In a joint prepared statement by Army Surgeon General Lieutenant General Eric B. Schoomaker and Assistant Army Surgeon General Brigadier General Mike Tucker, they said that because of the extraordinary success of modern battlefield medicine, there are many more wounded soldiers with injuries that are now struggling to recover. Walter Reed Army Medical Center is trying to support a population of outpatients that is six times greater than it was designed to support. Wounded, ill, and injured Soldiers are under the command and control of the medical treatment facility commander, in medical facilities called Warrior Transition Units. There are 35 Warrior Transition Units, and they are at full operational capability but staffed at 90%. One of the issues, they said, is of "sustainability."

Navy surgeon General Vice Admiral Adam Robinson said "our focus is to get the family back to ‘normal’ as soon as possible." Families, he said, are part of the care team and their needs are integrated into the planning process. Beginning in 2006, he said, Navy Medicine established Deployment Health Centers (DHCs) to provide care for Marines and Sailors who self-identify mental health concerns on the Post Deployment Health Assessment and Reassessment. From 2006 through January 2008, 28% of visits were for mental health issues.

Air Force Surgeon General Lt. Gen. James Roudebush said to be assured that the Air Force’s Medical Services is ready for today’s challenges. To execute their broad missions, he said, all military sections must work together, and also independently, as we are in the trust of today’s All-Volunteer Military.

Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on Air Force Nuclear Security Incident

In a combined prepared statement by Lt. General Daniel J. Darnell, Major General Polly A. Peyer, and Major General Douglas L. Raaberg, they said that they have initiated multiple levels of review to ensure that they have investigated the root causes of the weapons-transfer incident of August 30, 2007. They said that the problem is "bigger than the Air Force." Through a series of mistakes, 6 nuclear warheads were lost, and no one missed the warheads for 36 hours. They were discovered when other missiles were taken from a B-52. No incident of this magnitude, they said, has ever happened.

If the warheads had jettisoned and not exploded, they said, nuclear particles could have been spread for miles. They found that the underlying root cause is the deterioration of attention in the Air Force, which has grown substantially worse since the Cold War ended. There are 122 recommendations, some of which have been implemented, but most have not been. Most of the corrective measures remain classified.

While the Command Directed Investigation showed it was the result of a few Airmen’s mistakes, it still revealed a conclusion that there is, indeed, a deterioration of accountability. Without a strong reliance on the Chain of Command, they said, we will be weaker as a nation. Because we have been at war for over 17 years, they said, the Air Force has been spread thin.

During the question and answer period, General Darnell said that the Airmen on board the plane that was transporting the nuclear weapons did not know that they had nuclear weapons aboard but there was no risk because they were following proper procedure to carry weapons, as they had other missiles aboard.

Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, stated as a question that a pylon with cruise missiles that was supposed to be loaded with dummy warheads but actually had nuclear warheads on it unbeknownst to the Airmen on board the B-52 was the actual mistake made, which Darnell confirmed. Levin continued, saying that the Munitions Scheduling Officer failed to verify the contents of the pylon, the air crew was supposed to verify their payload, and that the pre-flight log did not show any checks. Darnell said that the Levin’s assessment was "pretty accurate."

When asked how many Airmen had failed to carry out their duties, Darnell said that it was 90 that were initially de-certified, but that the Investigative Officer found that 5 specific procedures were broken, there were three scheduling errors, and that about 25 people were responsible for the incident itself. 13 people received UCMJ action.

Darnell said that in any inspection, there will be areas that are isolated because a team has a "finite amount of time" to do them. He said there would be some value to limited-notice inspections, and that procedurally, inspections could "be tightened up." The Air Force is taking steps very quickly to rectify the situation. There will soon be a two-star general in charge of that operation, he said, so from the top down there are high level people in key positions to make it go as fast as possible.