The finding was that our military forces are stressed and under strength. Army, Navy and Air Force are having a hard time recruiting. The civilian economy is offering many opportunities. The continual military deployments around the world are separating families. Pay isn't rewarding.
Pressures are great.
The current administration has cut the military while it has expanded civilian spending. Our Army has about 475,000 men and women, our Navy 371,000, our Air Force 359,000 and our Marines 173,000. Readiness has dropped from 68 percent, where Reagan got it, down to less than 30 percent. Just to keep pace with ship decommissionings and get out of the hole we're in, the U.S. needs to build more than 10 ships per year in order to maintain a 300-ship fleet. In fact, the U.S. is funding only six to seven ships per year.