good afternoon the meeting will come to order we're happy to have everybody here today the said kiddingly the subcommittee will hear testimony on the fiscal year two thousand and ten national defense budget request for military personnel of your written statements makes clear the heartfelt commitment by d o t and the services to protect and enhance the programs that support service members and their families you can be sure that the s view that the men and women who serve our nation in uniform are deserving of the highest praise and our best efforts to protect the programs that are the foundation for their quality of life i was pleased to admiral indicated that tighter budgets will put increasing pressure on leaders to reduce programs that sustain people and that those leaders including him needed to resist the temptation to make those cuts the admiral didn't note that health care and other personnel related costs were growing and that more needed to be done to control such cost because the rate of growth associated with personnel programs was not sustainable over time we have all felt the budget pressures increasing in recent years bir example the ongoing cuts to recruiting and retention are understandable so long as the military continues to attract and retain quality people however the cuts must be structured tell us not to preclude our ability to respond when the economy begins to recover other less prominent indicators of budget pressures are more troubling for example the navy's freeze of permanent changes of station for the remainder of the year is causing hardship for many of our families there are rumors of funding cuts to programs such as the army knowledge online that is so important to communication within the army and the virtual army experience that is important to understanding the recruiting of a new high tech generation we now know that the marine corps reserve will for the third exact consecutive year not achieve its authorized  strength during fiscal year two thousand and nine and the air force the one service most reliant on retention continues to struggle to achieve certain goals our purpose today is to better understand how those budget pressures will be translated to fiscal year two thousand and ten and how those pressures will impact in strength recruiting retention the force structure compensation and service member retiree and family morrell and welfare once again thank you all for being here we look forward to your testimony and i want to turn to mr wilson for his opening remarks thank you gentlemen davis in many respects to military personnel systems today reflected a degree of success that had been questioned three to five years ago in large part that success is due to the efforts of the witnesses who will testify today i want to particularly single out lieutenant general michael de rochelle the army g one and lieutenant general ronald colman the marine corps deputy commandant for manpower reserve affairs this likely will be their last appearance before this committee each will complete more than thirty years of exceptional service before retiring both men are directly responsible for successfully directing the personal programs of their respective services through an extraordinarily difficult period i personally want to thank you for your service to this nation and wish you both well in your future endeavors and i particularly know of your success having the privilege of representing fort jackson representing parris island the  hospital so thank you both for your service with regard to the fiscal year two thousand and ten military personnel budget request i have three areas of concern the first is the eight hundred million dollar reduction in the services recruiting and retention budgets while i know that the downtown downturn in the economy has made recruiting and retention somewhat easier the experience of this committee is said reductions in recruiting and retention funding negatively proved to be too deep so i am interested in hearing the personal assessment of each of the service personnel chiefs as to where risk exist in the proposed cuts to recruiting and retention resources my second concern focuses on the number of non deployable personnel in the army army national guard and army reserve clearly the fact that there are at least twenty seven thousand non deployable personnel in active army and at least another twenty one thousand nine hundred poil balls in the army guarding army reserve must have a range of effect on these components i would like to hear more about those impacts and how the army believes they might be mitigated that their area of concern relates to the recent testimony by the service chiefs particularly those of the marine corps an army that dwell time will not be significant will not significantly increase in the foreseeable future i would like to understand why with increase in strength there will not be a significant change in the dwell time for the active and reserve components madam chairwoman thank you for holding this hearing and i look forward to the testimony of our witnesses thank you mr wilson i now want to introduce our first miss gale mcginn acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness thank you very much welcome back to the hearing and i had an opportunity to see you this morning as well and talking about balloting for our military personnel overseas and appreciate you're doing that as well lieutenant general michael the rachelle deputy chief of staff to you on headquarters of the u s army and general is shall we had an opportunity to meet earlier and i wanted to wish you the very best as you retire this summer this probably is your final appearance before the subcommittee and we wish you well we thank you so much for all of your dedicated service thank you very much vice admiral mark ferguson the third chief of naval personnel deputy chief of naval operations of total force thank you very much for being here i'm lieutenant general ronald  commandant for manpower and reserve affairs headquarters u s marine corps and general coleman we know that you also be will be retiring this summer and this was probably your final appearance as well and again i thank you for your dedicated service thank you very much and lieutenant general richard newton the third of the u s air force deputy chief of staff manpower and personnel headquarters u s air force thank you for being here so yes we will start thinking and thank you chairman davis representative wilson and distinguished members of the committee thank you for the  opportunity to testify before you on the overview of the department's programs policies and budget that ikeda takes taking care of our most precious resource our people as our data shows we are largely succeeding in attracting and retaining the best and brightest young people the department of defense has set high standards for the quality for the all the force and the payoff is evident in the performance of this force in the field which has been truly remarkable it is vital to our national defense to maintain this highly skilled and motivated force we must continue to ensure that we provide the right combination of benefits and compensation we want to continue to work with you to ensure that we make the best use of every dollar authorized we are still sending our servicemembers in harm's way and to face serious conflicts abroad and for those service members who have returned from these operations wounded and injured the department is committed to doing everything we can to make sure they receive all the necessary medical care and non medical assistance to return to full duty status or successfully transition to the next phase of their lives we are grateful to you for giving us the authority and resources to make significant progress in restructuring the disability and compensation systems and hansen case management  hiring additional recovery care coordinators however we know that the work is not done and this budget is a testament to the fact that the department will continue to devote our energy and resources to our wounded and injured furthermore we understand the sacrifices made by not just the service members but their families these brave men and women cannot do what they do without the support of their loved ones and to enforce the ongoing support of these family members the department increased the f y two to twenty twenty two can baseline for family assistance by shifting funds from the overseas contingency operations budget to the baseline to ensure continuity in program delivery is a step in the right direction i do have a statement i submitted for the record and i would just like to thank you for the opportunity to discuss these important issues with you today and i look forward to your class thank you very much appreciated general shelf chairwoman davis ranking member wilson distinguished members of the committee that thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today i appear before you on behalf of the one point one million men and women serving here and abroad in peace as well as most violent environments this combat seasoned force is resilient and professional yet it is strained more than one million of its nation's fin citizens have deployed over the past seven years into harm's way and we realize very well that there are costs and effects associated with this conflict both visible and invisible effects our current programs to relieve stress on the force are vital to maintaining a healthy balanced and prepared army these programs help us defend our nation against some of the most resist persistent and wide ranging threats in our nation history the success of these programs due in part in large part i might add to the support of the congress and this and specifically this committee this committee has given us numerous programs that we have instituted to keep america's army strong well into seven plus years of war first and foremost you have given us the means to recruit and retain an agile army and i might add the best trained the best led and the best equipped army in the world as a result of the past two years we have met or exceeded our recruiting and retention goals for the total army this is a step in the right direction to get our personnel our people back in balance we can you to transform our force into one army that consistently uses the talents of our active reserve and national guard soldiers as well as our magnificent team mates our civilian workforce this total force approach is key to restoring balance within our ranks and our and in our homes this congress has embraced our needs and we are very very grateful you've given us the means to improve the quality of life for our soldiers and their families soldiers are remaining in the army because they see it's a good environment in which to serve and raise a family thus making us the employer of choice the army continues to face challenges which we will be doing which we will be directly in front of us for the next several years armed with lessons learned it's our intent to stay in front of those challenges anticipate them develop strategies  programs and keep them from becoming problems in the future one of our largest challenges is the eligible population to serve in our armed forces today that number continues to drop thus creating what i believe is a national dilemma a national problem the army will continue to work hard to attract and retain the best but we need your help and taking on this larger issue this larger problem challenging environments that our soldiers serving command that we maintain the standards as set and we must remain ever vigilant that our forces manned with both physically and mentally fit and qualified soldiers as it is today i have described a challenging environment to you here today i'm confident however that with the operational and institutional agility america's army has developed over the past eight years we will meet all of the challenges that will come our way it is easier to commit to a plan of action when we know that congress the congress supports us your leadership and support have been unwavering i have appreciated the discussions we have had over the years concerning the health of this great army and i look forward to taking your questions today thank you for your support thank you and heard chairwoman davis representative wilson and distinguished members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to review our budget request on behalf of the navy total force and their families during my previous testimony in march i discussed in strength and our successes in recruiting and retention since that time recruiting retention have remained strong and we continue to achieve our listed in officer goals across both the active and reserve components our fiscal two thousand and ten active and reserve budget supports our ability to attract recruit and retain a highly skilled naval force in support of our maritime strategy i would like to briefly highlight the principal themes contained in our budget request first in includes an increase of our authorized end strength to a level of three hundred twenty eight thousand eight hundred it sustains the reserve force and an end strength of sixty five thousand five hundred this increased end strength of our two thousand i level supports the demand for individual augment ts for the joint force and demonstrates our commitment to sustaining our current deployment to well times to minimize stress on the force our request sustains the recruiting success as we achieved last fiscal year where we met medical goals for the first time in five years and this year we met nuclear is own a retention goals for the first time in over thirty years while the budget reflects a slight decrease in advertising expenditure and it increases the amount for enlistment bonuses and sustains our recruiting force in the field at their current levels to support our projected it's the budget request also supports our stabilization strategy to balance the force in terms of seniority experience and skills while safeguarding the careers of our top performers we have adjusted incentives and bonuses in response to sailor behavior and this request sustains arliss one bonus programs at two thousand and nine levels the budget request also includes increases for selected medical recruiting programs your support for these programs is essential as we continue to target our investment in critical skill areas and i might add your support has been critical to our success as in the past the budget request also increases funding for family support programs in our safe harbor wounded ill and injured program it also supports our efforts to build resiliency and foster a culture that encourages sailors to seek help in response to stress finally our request balances our education and training requirements with growth in important mission areas such as cyber warfare language and culture last week i had the opportunity of is our naval personnel overseas in europe in the middle east your sailors today are positive enthusiastic and performing extraordinarily well in meeting the demands of the joint force and of the nation i could not be prouder of their efforts that they do every day in service to the country and so on behalf of all the men and women in uniform who sacrifice daily in their families i wish to extend my sincere appreciation to the committee and the congress for your unwavering support for our navy thank you and i look forward to your questions thank you general coming if you keep point first in regard to our secondly our active duty component retention continues to be successful in fiscal year zero eight first term retention was thirty six percent we're building on that success in fiscal year zero zero nine having already achieved our fiscal year mission we thank you for your support of our selective re enlistment bonus program it will remain a foundation of our retention efforts as we move from growing our force to shaping that so that we maintain vital marine corps leadership in critical skills i get improvements which continue to this day possible in large part to a generous funding that you have provided i want to personally thank you chairwoman davis for your recent introduction of a house resolution that recognizes the work of our family readiness volunteers as you mentioned the are a crucial part of the family care and military readiness equations in close and i want to thank you and the other members of congress for your support and partnership they have been central to the strength that your marine corps enjoy today they will continue to be essential as we work to shape the marine corps of the future so that we always remain the most ready when the nation is least ready thank you thank you generally  chairman ranking member wilson and distinguished members of the committee thank you for this opportunity to discuss our efforts as they relate to the fiscal year two thousand and ten budget can surely attract recruit develop and retain a high quality and a diverse fighting force a on the focal point for providing the critical capabilities that the air force contributes for winning today's fight and while the air force has innovative technologies and equipment it is the hard work of our dedicated men and women in uniform and our civilian to underscore our success without a doubt the tremendous talent of our total force airmen and civilians is the backbone of the united states air force and our budget proposal recognizes this fact these dedicated volunteer servants are our most important assets without them our organizations  equipment would not function our operations would grind to a halt therefore we must ensure we have the proper end strength to meet current new emerging missions for f y twenty ten our active duty in strength of the three hundred thirty one thousand seven hundred civilian population to a little over one hundred seventy nine thousand which includes four thousand two hundred contractor to civilian conversion simultaneously we will continue to reshape the skill sets of our workforce with particular emphasis on stress career fields and missionaries that need our attention such as intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft maintenance acquisition cyber operations nuclear deterrence operations in sustainment for instance n f y twenty ten our manpower investment includes increasing our nuclear personnel by two thousand five hundred and adding two hundred acquisition professionals the growth in straight goes hand in hand and with an increase in our recruiting efforts and it goes beyond finding the right numbers we must also ensure that the right quality in the right skills are present in our potential candidates and despite the weak economy we expect f y twenty ten to be a critical retention environment for several reasons an increased need to retain specific skill sets and certain special specialties create a sense strength decreases in corresponding decreases in the sessions increased operational demands and new emerging missions our commitment includes continued support for special pain allowances to address recruiting and retention concerns in our health professional skills and our most critical war fighting skills such as paris q combat control toddler control party and explosive ordinance disposal finally we are committed to take care in a very men in their families to include our wounded warriors to whom we have a never ending obligations over the past year we tackled important issues for air force families such as expanding child care capacity increasing child care support for guard reserve families improving financial reading this and providing opportunities for children of emmer of airmen whether they w sustain talented and diverse airman and their families is mission essential and it's also most appreciated our efforts to effectively manage and strength to recruit and retain trained developing care for him and their families will enable us to fly fine linen air and space in cyberspace thank you for your unfailing support of the men and women in the families of the united states air force and i also look forward to your question thank you very much thank you all for your presentations evolve mentioned and strength and let's talk about that a little bit because we know that there's been an increase and strains in the sess of the two thousand and nine authorization and what i think we're interested in is  assurances that the numbers dollars will be there as we move into two thousand and ten given the fact that there's likely to be from those higher end strength numbers what can you tell us about those concerns and do we have that that all together i think i would just turn to the service chiefs initially and start with you that somewhat it would be a discredit to you if i came in right now and said we have we have made our our retention goal already this year we are two years ahead of services from a shared perspective changes in entitlements as the bill goes through the congress can affect our ability to execute second we receive cost increases throughout the execution year for housing allowances subsistence allowances and so the changes in rates greatly affect our ability to execute we feel that the money we put in the budget adequately programs and covers the cost of the end strength that we have in the navy unique case because we received authority from the sex trade over executed and strength this year in the ten request you will see part of our end strength is funded in supplemental and it covers forty four hundred individuals in the overseas contingency operations to allow us strength the army madam chair is in a fairly unique position not too dissimilar from my brother in the navy to see service here and that we were funded below the five forty seven for which we have grown which is the number we've grown to two years ahead of schedule as a result we have a one point six billion dollars shortfall and nine which we are hopeful will be covered in full and the oco request and i realize that's here  the committee members are certainly aware of we are on a glide path down to three hundred sixteen thousand active duty end strength we have are going to make amends for that and we're going to actually as i mentioned in my opening remarks will be active duty end strength of three hundred thirty one thousand seven hundred and so we have a program to budgeted for that and so we are absolutely committed to make sure that we uphold both from a funding standpoint but also as we go out to recruit and retain particular those have you mentioned you're ok i think there is a concern that some of that we might need to look to an additional supplemental to help those numbers be able to support th e increased in strength that you have is that not a concern for anybody else from the navy perspective in the current supplemental for fiscal year zero nine the house appropriations committee added in there more of the bill three hundred fifty million to support the navy and strengthen this year and that's under consideration the senate for this fiscal year in execution that will help us to alleviate both the permanent change of station issue you addressed in your opening as well as the  get us through and cover the end strength thank you i think you know the big question for all of us is there anything in this that would suggest that you have to reduce accounts and are there impacts on the family and welfare accounts that might be felt in two thousand and ten i go back to the one point six billion m p a shortfall for four army and that would put us and again the marks as they where we're we are concerned that a large cut in especially in in recruiting retention and family readiness for grams that that would be that would be brought us right thank you my time is up i'll turn where the risk may exist and the proposed cuts in recruiting and retention and your own do does the budget request cut too deeply the two thousand and ten funded adequately and ten however however we must be careful that we don't yoyo the across the palm we don't yoyo the resourcing of the recruiting advertising and all of the associated support structure that day to day helps our recruiters be successful as a matter of fact hours before i came to the hill the new commanding general of u s army recruiting command paid a visit on me and we had this very discussion the discussion centered on the fact that we are in a very positive place today relative to where the army was in two thousand and five the year i left recruiting command very different place largely because of the economy but there are already signs that the economy is beginning to make a slight turn around and so we must think strategically about recruiting in that new environment and not be lulled into a false sense of security where we are today i would just say that we are very aware of the risks involved when you cut the recruiting account and i believe that we have taken of a prudent risk here with this particular cut because of the status of recruiting and retention and the overall status of the economy but my colleagues and i watch recruiting data monthly and they probably watch it more frequently than i do and so we need to be very vigilant in terms of keeping an eye on what is happening both in the economy and with the recruiting endeavors so that are there is something to be corrected we can correct it i say again sir our concern marine corps is is more drastic in reenlistment bonus the retention side of it than the then the initial session of it so  large a cut would be because you can't you can't make that up when there's when there's a critical m o s isn't critical marines to fill those m l s is and when they go out you can't you can't get seven y advertising where we felt that was a prudent risk to take and balance but yet we increased our accession bonus program and we kept the number of recruiters in the field to sustain we figure that's the strength of our program and in bringing in new  army also add from a perhaps a different approach to the pool of talent in america use that we can go after and i we've discussed this previously in other hearings is a challenge for all the services in particular for the air force would you go about trying to find specific critical skills not only from a recruiting standpoint but from retention standpoint as well because even though we're in a slight downward downturn of our economy many of those skills that ehrman bring to the fight are skills worthy of a lot of employers  commercial sector on the prize as well and so there is a there is no let up there should not be any let up in the same effort we are in a downturn or an upturn as general resell described you know the strategic effort to still be maintained well i appreciate all of the all and i want to point out i appreciate your room chairwoman davis visit with me at fort jackson the recruiting and retention school last year and that was extremely rewarding experience to me to see the fitness it's a lot easier i think we all would say to stay in shape than it is to get in shape so i think if we can if we can you know and i think you probably noticed i haven't haven't served  there's a large percentage of the population that is not physically fit and that's and that's that's deplorable when you think about what it was when when we were growing up when you had to take gym and now you can you can opt out  gym and you can't regain those those those muscles and a short period of time so if we could if we could stress and i don't mean just for day but if we could stress physical fitness and i think the  is planning for the future as well this is a national challenge we have one of the largest challenges we have with regard to being able to reach into america's youth and much less to entice them to come into the service but it's because they're busy we have a long american resources and so forth but i believe it's a it's a significant call to service that somehow if we can fill that gap first of all i'd like to to thank you for your very gracious comments about general coleman and my service and i would simply not unlike all of our great soldiers and marines and airmen and sailors who serve it's our families who really deserve the credit to your question and just to add on to what my wingman said here about obesity the larger issue is high school completion and the declining rate of high school completion a couple of data points if you if you look at and i'll try to do this very quickly if you look at high school graduation rates nationally and and segment those rates by race and ethnicity levels of poverty and then the general population you see some pretty alarming trends only one out of three anywhere in the nation regardless of race and regardless of the level of income for the well the family will graduate big part i said that incorrectly thirty percent will not graduate if you now add if you now add the level of income at all below the poverty level that number will graduate irrespective of race or ethnicity drops to fifty percent add one more layer of segmentation and we're now looking at race poverty level in general and seventy percent will not graduate on time and i and i've walked this a number of different times in various committees on the hill it really is a national tragedy and for us to think that we can remain strategically competitive not to mention looking and he says when you graduate if you drop out of high school not just quitting on yourself to quit on your country i thought that's exactly right tone and putting a burden back on not just the teachers but it starts at home education and we need that accountability and responsibility yesterday i was the only one meeting the donuts and the marine officers were not at all clear to me now but i want to ask two questions and have you each  them down the line i won't tell you which service but we heard from a couple people yesterday that said they were told by all their friends don't take the position it was a dead end for them to be assigned as a faculty member at one of the schools and then second  students how are students students assign the schools and how are decisions then made with regard to what their next assignment you know when and how is that process for this are as their next assignment after school the president of the university so his or her jacket record jacket green goes to the school and the school has say marine corps university and yes this  person should or should not be an instructor but what i criteria by which you make the decision to send those to the school to be screwed could be looked at this is probably one of the first things would that we look at the jacket we look at i q we look at personal parents we look at physical fitness we look at the whole manner whole woman concept and then the president of university still has some say maybe not the final say but he or she does have some say in that and that person coming to come into the school as far as the students fiza board it convenes just like a promotion board and i would say for some schools like our top level schools your chances of making colonel or better than they are getting selected to school so it's a it's a hard hard nut to crack from from where i  so from the student perspective when naval officers go through speak about the under strict line when they go through their screening boards at the zero five in the zero six level generally if you're in the upper half of the group that screens in your sign code it makes you eligible to go to a senior war college and then the distribution process will allocate those among national defense university the war college the various seats that we have to fill so we're under strict a line they're screened by a board an assigned a code the jelly represents have were driven in those pay grades primarily by command opportunities and so we don't assign them right away it's adjusted based upon when their command tour is of us of a fighter squadron let's say or submarine or surface ship with regard to the faculty the faculty are generally senior officers zero six at the naval war college who have prior master agrees most have had a prior tour but they're nominated by the bureau personnel to the president to work college for selection universally offered to all officers at a certain grade level whether it's done in a residence at fort leavenworth kansas which is our flagship intermediate level education institution or whether it's  done in a distributed fashion at one of several installations across the across the united states where you can get the same level of training and education but it is broken up into segments and it some of it is done distance learning it is universal and immediate level education your question about faculty make no mistake about it the army is challenge to right now to ensure that we have the very best faculty in place and our institutions of higher learning and training that the demand for that very best talent from theater and elsewhere around the globe is enormous however having said that as as my fellow witnesses have stated the leaders of each of these institutions has a voice and whether or not an officer is acceptable to be on the platform let me go to the to the next level the army war college first of with that level of education and training big capstone if you will for most officers that is a board selection process best qualified the availability of the officer to attend however is somewhat impacted by the level of demand on the army today and one final point if i may return to the enemy at level education two years ago we launched a pilot program which i coined the phrase leader development assignment panel believes development assignment panel was designed to take a look at are we in fact sending our very best and our brightest to our in a media level education in resident training with a view toward where i think your question is is heading with a view toward are we making the appropriate investments for the future for the next global war on terror or down downrange and for two years we've received very very positive feedback from the panel members and we have adjusted we have indeed adjusted as a result of those pilots we will do another one the third one this year whether individuals are sent to fellow ships whether they are offered an opportunity for a graduate level education or the resident intermediate level education all of the above  on the on the table to disprove a similar process in terms of selection both for our faculty and our students our faculty are first we look at their professional credentials as well as their academic credentials and also their desire to as instructors particularly in our war college in their community staff college i can also tell you from a student selection standpoint those for intermediate development education are so senior officer development education again those are board results we take generally are fifteen to top fifteen to top twenty five percent of the actual selection and where they attend school could be their command staff college or army command staff and so forth i actually chair that board every fall and identify which students will go to what particular development education from that point on but it's again it's one that we put a lot of attention to because as we are trying to not only develop and then sprit certain professional quality qualities it's also how they go about in their strategic thinking how are they beginning again now to become those those strategic thinkers in those strategic leaders as early on as we possibly can to impact their professional development can i add one more thing so please and i sort of started off with this if you're not w call pm me complete so if you have if you haven't attended or haven't completed the schooling for your grade then then you do not get promoted thank you mr upset thank you out into the arcade parking lot along the river there and across over the anacostia going to the park on many days and i see a lot of lot of the folks you know from the services who are over there working out doing their tasks running that sort of thing and i you know i wish i could stop and talk to them and encourage them to continue to do it all the rest but they're running and i'm running and that's not possible but but i think that it's just it's absolutely fantastic and i think  out of a lifelong approach to this too i think that's really the way to do this also on on the education front on the high school dropout issue there are at least two of us on this subcommittee or on the education labor committee and the dropout factory problem as is a huge one across the country high schools where there are disproportionate numbers of folks who drop out and don't graduate and we're trying to address that on the committee i actually have legislation myself trying to deal with that issue as well so we're going to continue along those lines and that's where we can cross over as far as committees are certain i think but along those lines what if anything is being done by services as far as encouraging i mean it's a problem by encouraging folks to stay in school and  folks to get their high school degrees for russia that's a that's a recruiting tool and then we look at every marine is recruiting as our recruiters visit schools i think that's the best way we can we can do it and i would say that most marines would never pass up a chance to go speak with school or to the children in any in any part or or anything but it's one of those things you have to be accessible and they have to allow you in but i think that's a key when the recruiters if i might follow when the schools we have seventy five thousand students most are diverse and lower privilege areas but when they complete to graduation sixty five percent go on to higher education and forty five percent come into service that is a real strong program for us and we have over six hundred units around the country so i'd add one thing that we're very proud of first of all every every soldier encourages young people whether it's in his or her community or on a military installation in the high school resident on that installation encourages young people to stay in school and that's especially true of army recruiters as well but since we are at such an epidemic state on this side and you obviously know quite well that  it's epidemic the army has has launched an army prep school at fort jackson south carolina and the army prep school is our effort with d o d support i recall having several conversations with dr david chu about this and he was very supportive but as a result of those efforts in two thousand and nine fifteen hundred almost sixteen hundred young persons who would not have received a high school diploma did so through the army prep school now it is a it's an equivalent today but working with the governor of south carolina we expect that before the end fiscal nine it will indeed be a certified high school diploma that's a small effort but it is it is a start thanks to just as a as a short follow up we also see argument as role models in whatever communities they serve there's a total force aspect of that from those who are serving on active duty but guard reserve as well almost see that as a responsibility that they have is wearing a uniform i would also add that it's not just the student cells but to go after the influencers in communities that could be found in the school  could be found in variety of organizations throughout the last point i would raise in terms of the challenges that we have with regard to recruiting whereby perhaps we focused on on high school level twelfth grade perhaps we are now being compelled and again reach into lower grades as well to begin because of the challenges that we've already discussed here well thank you all yes sir me at me i'm pleased at my numbers and the sixteen hundred other numbers who are entered into the program the number of graduates is one thousand three hundred  yes ma'am it is because of the support from the governor of south carolina students from across the country that's correct i beg your pardon i didn't understand that was your question they are across the street from across the country marine corps are projected to achieve their program to end strength increases by the end of this fiscal year how soon can we i see a reduction in the operational tempo and an increase in due out time for army and marine corps combat in support unit first of all it thank you for your question ma'am and let me let me elaborate on what the chief said and say it in the way that i would articulated before we see a net reduction in demand we are probably looking at twelve months to eighteen months into the future and that's if everything goes according to plan with responsible drawdown in iraq and build up to some level acceptable level of forces in afghanistan it's a little bit like an analogy if i may of having an aircraft carrier battle group replace an aircraft carrier battle group in the middle of the  pacific for a period of time the chief of naval operations has to equal it's a battle group tied up that he can't do anything with until one recovers the one being relieved recovers it's no different for a brigade combat team it's no different for a combat aviation brigade replacing another combat aviation brigade if that demand eventually at the end of twelve to eighteen months does begin to diminish and we see a net reduction and by the way history suggests that demand continues to rise yesterday in testimony and the other body i use the analogy if if the past is indeed prologue then we may be headed for trouble but optimism if we see the demand reduced reduced then we will be able to see also an equivalent reduction in the current dwell time which the active army is one year deployed for every one point three years at home that's unsustainable completely unsustainable for the act for the army reserve in our national guard the well is one year deployed for forward less than three years at home even at the rate for a at that rate for an operational reserve that's way too high so the a long answer to your question twelve to eighteen months from now if all goes according to plan and let's assume that for a moment that things don't go according to a plan and in fact there is a need for increased overall increases what kind of planning and thinking is taking place to respond to that we are actively considering and this is a discussion we're having inside the army at this point and will soon have at at the department of defense level we're actively considering whether or not in order to mitigate the risk that you're articulating ma'am if we shouldn't look at other means of having a temporary wartime allowance but that's internal discussion at this point unlike the army marine corps seven months seven months back and our and our goal is three to one where we started off with one one point eight we're now at one to two point four so almost two and a half  i would like to ask you general richelle or miss begin a question about the army national guards and strength i represent guam where the national guard and reserve personnel outnumber per capita any state in our nation and our ranking member mr wilson will attest to that because we attended the ceremony where these records were revealed  guard is authorized for an in strength of three hundred fifty two thousand six hundred according to your reports here but is currently at an end strength of over three hundred sixty eight thousand given that the commission on the national guard and reserve has indicated that the national guard is a highly cost effective means of national defense and that the national guard has demonstrated through innovative means that it can meet in strength goals can you describe the benefits of permanently increasing the national guard in strength to three hundred and seventy one thousand and i want to also add to that keeping in mind that they have a domestic role to play  it's a very good question first of all let me say that the army national guard and i know it's true for the air national guard as well is an extraordinary force more so today than ever in the past because it has migrated from the strategic reserve context to a much more relevant context that of an operational reserve and we are asking a great deal of our army national guard and air national guard soldiers airmen and leaders however and operational reserve first of all let me say that three fifty eight two which is the current authorization  sufficient in my estimation to cover down on both operational reserve demands in the global war on terror today as well as to address the needs of governors across the across the united states and go whether or not we would it would be efficacious to grow the guard beyond that should be based upon operational demands either and in the state or operational an increased demand that we see for forces army forces and air forces in the current environment quick and i think it would be a prudent move at that with that to look at it strictly from the perspective of the demand for those forces there there remains some reshaping that we may need to look at for the guard in terms of structure what what's in the in those forces at three fifty eight two but i'd like to conclude by simply echoing once  again lieutenant general clyde boss who you may know great great leader who will retire on the first of june is both my next door neighbor and dear dear friend and he deserves many of the same accolades that the chair woman and others have bestowed upon gen coleman and myself our guard the army guard in particular is awesome if if i could just add to that what are the potential benefits of creating a training hold these and students account for the guam national guard actually i would i would expand the my answer to your question creating a t t h s account for the guard  what are the percentages of members of the military personnel now this is the active military personnel who continue in the military service make it a career as opposed to those who leave the military service do you have any marines than the other services and so i think that we'd have to get those numbers by by bridge i would appreciate that and i would want to go into all the branches here but i just overall what the retention is thank you madam chair thank you i want to turn to a discussion about those service members who are unavailable to deploy the call not deployable but who are not able to deploy with their unit who are not deployable has become a burden on the force that threatens the army's ability to deploy units to required levels to fill the plowing units to require levels and to achieve its objectives to reduced operation temp when increased of all time between deployments it sounds like that active not deploy your population is around twenty seven thousand correct as of april two thousand and nine and i wonder general shall if you could comment then given this current number was the army forced to give up the brigade combat teams going from forty eight to forty five as a result of  where does that come into play i mean obviously the the shift from forty eight to forty five b c t's has an impact in a number of ways for the for the ability to to carry on the operations and excellent question madam chair and let me say at the very outset that the move from the shift from forty eight to forty five brigade combat teams as has been testified in the past by both the secretary of the army and the chief of staff of the army and i think the vice chief of as well was intended to give us the ability to think and our forces in other words we weren't chasing those that additional structure with an inside a five forty seven point four and strike which will stretched us even a little bit more so it was a it was a prudent move but it remains to be seen over time relative to demand to your specific question twenty six thousand nine hundred thirty six non deployable temporary as well as permanent and non deployable as were indeed reported through our unit status reporting process in the month of april on any given and i want to emphasize that it's a moving target a soldier who is not deployable for a temporary reason this week may be fully deployable next week and vice versa so it's it moves fairly substantially but i'll bring it into focus at the brigade combat team level the army g y m tracks the rear detachment reporting for our next to deploy brigades what the non deployable rate is inside that brigade frankly because it's a measure of how of whether or not we're going to meet our very very critical gates in terms of operational mandate for that deploying unit and we are committed to ensuring that we deploy as i said in my oral statement the best trained the best equipped and the best lead and that includes the best man to the last fourteen brigade combat teams  we looked at their average non deployable average eleven percent which is up i might add from over a year ago prior to the surge where non deploy rates were trending between eight percent and ten percent as we look at the most recent brigades five to deploy of that eleven we saw an uptick to twelve percent now that's that's somewhat alarming for two reasons i think it illustrates the cumulative effect of seven plus years of war  represents the the impact of two short the well one point three years at home for every one year and it is cumulative and we're learning that would get gaining some tremendous  says as a result of that to your question however we are sui are able to deploy today the best trained the best manned the best equipped and the best laid soldiers downrange to do the nation's bidding my concern would be if we back to the question of risk in terms of the future my concern would be if we cannot bring that to well try to focus on our expeditionary force and ice fishermen to make sure that their contribution to the fight to get ready to train for one of the joint war fight may take as well and for good the navy population of limited duty or medically not able to deploy is relatively small roughly in the two percent to four percent range delisted for so it's not a significant problem in our safe harbor when the war program's about four hundred individuals for example so   you deploy you've been with that unit for six months before he deployed ok thank you in our case because we are committed to eliminating stop loss the challenges i just articulated makes the mountain that we have to climb just a little bit higher ok thank you mr paulson and actually the brigade combat teams question the number of reduced from forty eight to forty five was my interest so i appreciate that that's been testify and on the issue of personnel that isn't in my opinion and i think the the committee as a whole to be the most important asset that we have in armed services so i appreciate your focus on that the war on terror and you elaborate on that some yes as a result of action from the congress we have new medals now for iraqi campaign medal afghanistan campaign medal global war on terror expeditionary medal and the like and so what we have been doing is systematically going through our records of policies for awards of medals and meritorious citations and we're updating our policies on that to reflect the new kinds of decorations that we have for now thank you oh good question is there any change in the valor award criteria that i don't know i have to get back to you one else on the panel have any input sir let me comment on that if i may  i was a member of the panel a member of the board if you will working that issue in department of defense and almost unanimously i believe it was not unanimous but i want to mention something here that i think is very important each of the service senior enlisted advisers were present on this matter of valorous awards and to a person they felt that we should not change the valorous award criteria and i concurred with that and supported while we are in our current conflict i'll ask a totally unrelated question  you know there's been this this problem or issue with two wars that have gone on longer than we would have liked at levels that are borne tints and we would like i'd love to hear from the panel whoever would like to step up on this one what is the sustainability of that we you know we have a very active reserve or not a reserve reserve in the classic sense any longer and some people who men in the reserves have had several deployments have been more active duty than they have not active duty so i'd love to hear comments from the panel on this and i'd just say that if you look at the retention statistics from the services where just about every retention goal has been met it tells you that the all volunteer force is working the gates commission that was the commission that recommended the all volunteer force had predicted that in a time of prolonged conflict it wouldn't stand up but it is doing very very well thanks to the work of my colleagues here and thanks to your help because what's very critical are the bonuses and the funding for recruiting  for you know from an active duty guard reserve standpoint but also the actual aspect of how we as the united states air force contribute to that joint fight i would also mention to you that for two thousand and nine we've dedicated to the year the air force family and the reason i say that is because you know the balance of effort and resources and so forth is it's important to us not only on our men and women in uniform regardless of active duty guard missouri but also our family members as well that we emphasize their value their service and their commitment anyone else for the for the army it's about the well it's it's the whether or not we will have the ability as predicted to have a slightly less demand or is substantially less demand that would allow us to get to the optimum levels of the well time home for time against time deployed for the active component as well as the army reserve army reserve and national guard components and the current level as i said earlier in my testimony the current levels of the well are unsustainable ok yesterday in our survey data of members and their families throughout the conflict what we've seen is that the support of the congress in terms of compensation health care is extremely important access to it the family support programs we have had to expand our own health care programs providers as well as family support programs and that's been the biggest ability that we've demonstrated i think to support families deploy i believe are our families thanks to you our families are being taken care of much better than ever before and as importantly the american people support the military to a higher degree and i throw one more thing into the mix when the things that we're doing now it's really a new initiative is building a civilian expeditionary workforce so that our civilian employees can step up to do some of the missions that our military personnel have to do right now in the face for post conflict operations ability operations humanitarian mission we are asking civilians who would be willing to come forward and volunteer to be sent on those kinds of assignments to identify themselves and we have a few thousand in the mix and brand new initiatives so very small right now but hopefully it will pay off her chair in fact just close the loop on this very quickly let me say that all volunteer force is an expensive force but i think it's a great investment i think it's worth every penny of it my understanding is that the active duty member today is likely to have a family as opposed to in previous years and it would be my sense that they can perform much longer overseas and harder conditions if they know their families are well taken care of which i think is such a high priority today and so i thank you and your efforts in doing this the subject really to the dynamic of how we are able to bring down soldiers in order to respond to the needs in afghanistan it is it cannot be done in isolation from the challenges of  you do and then the follow up question is in terms of the sustainability and the issue of dwell time being so key general chiarelli i think recently testified of the enormous mental strain that are currently that our soldiers are currently experiencing and the need we have for mental health care professionals chaplains and i think he said substance abuse counselor so as you face many questions really around how quickly you're going to be able to address the issue of dwell time knowing the great strains there are going to continue to be placed on our on our soldiers how are you responding to that in terms of the need for these professionals but we've actually had much help from the congress and help even from o p m on  on addressing health care professionals the ability to do direct hire for civilians which has helped us a lot in isolated areas the ability if you will to bypass some of the merit based hiring practices that are extraordinarily cumbersome for the congress we've been given the authority to offer six very attractive bonuses and for individuals going through the health professional scholarship program to offer them additional incentives as well so we've we've received support in both and i jump in on that from the wide perspective we have been aggressively pursuing more mental health providers in our health care system we actually have two thousand seven i think one thousand nine hundred more in our military treatment facilities and about ten thousand more in our contracted tri care operation we have expanded the number of confidential counseling sessions you can have with our military one source which is also a call in support line we have for our families and we provided for confidential mental health counseling under tri care today i think we rolled out a major mental health campaign called real warriors which is marketing campaign designed to do away with the stigma of showing up for help if you have a mental health problem and to reinforce the fact that leaders should encourage their service member subordinates to seek help for that just as they would seek help for anything else so we've been working very closely with the department of veterans affairs establish a center of excellence on psychological health and try and romantic brain injury and we've been moving very very aggressively toward solving the mental health problem does like to  comment it seems as though we have made great strides and i know that congress wants to be a partner with you but that we just can't seem to keep up with it that even general cheerily said i need more and i don't know where i'm going to get them so i think it's an ongoing challenge that we all have an obligation to face that bank is it's a national problem in terms of shortage of mental health providers if i may follow up ma'am the the one thing we one of the things we're learning is that our basis of authorization for mental health providers was designed if you will in a cold war environment and it's it's inadequate for what we're facing and what our soldiers are experiencing today and i would especially mention the fact that in addition to what mr mcginn said i fully agree with that that there is a challenge nationally to grow but mental health providers health care providers in general that we need it's especially acute in our ability to find individuals capable of donning the talking about that we will be having a hearing solely on mental health issues p t s d t b i really the in the impacts on family as well because we want to highlight those issues and we know it's critical i'm delighted to hear about the and we are seeing the first concurrent receipt legislative proposal offered biden ministration and it is a very welcome shift i think we all feel that way in the current current receipt landscape which will really set a precedent for future initiatives it does provide the president's budget request does provide sufficient mandatory offsets to support a legislative proposal but none of those off are within the defense accounts and therefore not within the the management reach of the house committee on armed services and i'm wondering this mcguinn what the department's position on the assets  is and will the department and the office of management and buzz budget assist the committee in identifying some offsets that are most likely to be available for inclusion with the provisions in the national defense authorization bill chairman i wasn't part of the conversation around the office so i will have to get back to you on that so i think what it does is limit our ability to act in some other areas and while we welcome we really are interested in how you all are going to be handling it as well so that would be of help to us i know that there are a number of family  you have been been speaking about and are considering i would like you to just let us know what initiatives that you're really most proud of that we will result from a two thousand and ten funding request what are you hoping that this is new provides additional services to our families that we might be able to follow and evaluate in the bases where we have been able thanks to you to hire folks to do that so the funding i don't notice anything more important than the funding that congress has given us to take care of our family nothing more and as long as we maintain that because a marine or any serviceman or woman that the pulleys and knows that his or her family is taking care of it is a much better service i wo uld offer to is the important support of the congress on recruiting and retaining medical personnel dental nurses medical service corps mental health practitioners those bonuses are very important to us and to protect those in terms of the programs for the navy we've rolled out what we call the operational stress control and we've introduced this training to up to sixteen thousand service members everyone going into theater coming out and then also expanding it to the whole force and in the budget request supports us expanding that centrally education awareness of service members and how they react to stress and be able to remove the stigma of it i think that's an important program that you'll see from us in the future i think that  a lot of what is in the budget is an expansion of the important things they're already doing childcare being principal among them to try to meet the demand for child care there are a couple of things obviously there was a litany of them in my testimony the spouse career accounts where we provide funding for spouses to get certification for careers and we can start to build a career base for our spouses i think that's employment is incredibly important and i also saying that the yellow ribbon program where we reach out to the reserve component upon their deployment and their and they're coming home working with their families and easing the stress of of the deployments for the reserves another very important i would opening comment which is that much of what you see in the f y ten budget is a continuation of the wonderful programs that the congress has authorized us to have and to offer primarily to our families i would echo the words of general creighton abrams a former chief of staff of the army who said that the army the army isn't about people it is people and that's very very true it's perhaps even more true today than it was then if that's possible i would highlight one particular area that's fully funded in the budget that is vital with those two previous comments of mine one and that is the family readiness support assistance which the secretary of the army and the chief of staff of the army two years ago carved out of existing authorizations and the existing fund existing funds to resource down to the brigade and battalion level in order to address what they clearly recognized as the fragile fabric of that family readiness and repeated deployments once again the well being at one year for every one point three years back at home and for our national guard and reserve the same i'm sure a woman as i mentioned earlier the two thousand a year their force family and as we move the ops tempo and so forth the previous discussion the stress on the families is significant and we are anticipating it to remain significant we've taken great steps to the support of this this committee in support of resources to narrow down o open childcare spaces from over sixty six thousand four hundred nearly down to zero by f y eleven and so forth as we continue to make sure that again we take care of what we are mission critical efforts for force families well out years as well from family support and guard reserve support school support the challenges that children have on average moving five six seven times i was an air force kid i moved thirteen times in twelve years of school and so forth i brought my wife jody with me today and she's  eighteenth or nineteenth move but can you imagine the impact that has on on a lot of our all the servicemen and women that will continue to remain and thank you very much and thank you jody for being here we appreciate it we know that you sacrifice a great line report saturday i went to an awards dinner i typed in high school tape in south carolina there were nearly four hundred people there and colonel buddy slack chief charlie cook  personal you have there it was just really uplifting to me my wife and i which is so impressed by the young people serving the families we've known so many of the families of the years and to see these young people what an extraordinary opportunity and both families have had individual deployments that's a great question presently there are about eleven thousand on the ground in central command navy personnel on any given day there may be more myself and we form together and look at all the ways to support families and do that and so having a four star in charge of that with us as a council to help them as provided that to the families where we do following we assign mentors for and we track them and provide assistance where we can well it's really inspiring to me to know the talented people serving in the navy who have volunteered to serve around the thank you abbie for before we close and i certainly appreciate everybody having been here i know that members have other committees to go to today but i one of the the areas that we speak about often are the critical need areas that we have in the services and i wondered if you believe that we should open up some ideas about how we might have more commission officers who don't necessarily always come from the ranks citizens that perhaps have cards have talents have abilities that we might look to for help in the services we have some opportunities with  research with the reserves and also with the and listed but not with commission officers any thoughts about that and whether or not that's an area that we ought to explore more i've lived like very much to offer a thought madam chairwoman first of all a little background to get to your question several years ago when i was the c g of recruiting command i was called to the pentagon and asked if we could launch a program to recruit middle eastern born individuals primarily in dearborn michigan area which was where it began that program was is is called and it still exists but the zero nine leymah interpreter program it broke the mold a little bit because these indeed these indeed are citizens in many cases  but they were unable to pass the standard army armed services will castel aptitude battery few years later last year to be precise fiscal zero eight if my memory serves correctly we launched the military sessions vital to national interest programme effect it may have only been this year this fiscal year which was targeted towards green card holders who are not a big part which targeted to visa holders toward bisa holders and what we saw is that we were able to attract a much better educated individual nothing wrong with the zero nine lima interpreters but we we opened up a whole new vista  and that program has proved very very fruitful for the army i've not tracked so closely the other services it to your specific question i believe because of the challenges we face to which we've talked about today many in terms of health care professionals scientists and individuals with very highly specialized skills that it is time to ask the difficult question should we indeed change title ten united states code to allow us to commission individuals in a military sessions in skills vital to national interest style i believe it is anybody else want to comment on that well that's a discussion perhaps that we need to have in the future and i appreciate the fact that sometimes when one is retiring you can bring up some issues which may not always be easy but have certainly some merit as we move forward because people are critical and being able to reach out and really engage  americans people who are in our country productive and contributing is always an important issue for us and so i want to thank you very much again general coleman and general shall thank you for your dedicated service