Our forces showed that during Operation Desert Fox last week. Every day, U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, along with members of the Coast Guard, work together to protect our national interests around the world and our freedom and prosperity at home. The key to our strength is the men and women who serve in uniform. One of my primary responsibilities as Secretary of Defense is to assure that we recruit, train and retain the best people we can find.
Military training is difficult and extensive.
For this reason, I have been working with President Clinton, the Service chiefs and the senior enlisted representatives to make sure that military pay and retirement systems adequately reward the experienced men and women in our military. I am pleased to announce a package of significant pay increases and retirement improvements for the nation's men and women in uniform. These will be part of President Clinton's fiscal year 2000 budget. The Department of Defense's pay and retirement package has three main parts. This increase is the largest in basic military pay in nearly a generation and it compensates our Service members adequately and fairly.