Readiness Over All Flying time for active Air Force fighter and attack aircrews has been set at 18.7 hours per month, down from 19.3 this year and 20.0 the year before. Bomber and transport crews continue flying at their current rates. We're absolutely confident, in talking with the services as they propose them, that this reflects no change in readiness. Indeed, the Fiscal 1998 defense budget still is dominated by former Defense Secretary William J. Perry's penchant to protect force readiness above all else. Your second priority will be quality of life.
Third priority is, well, complete the downsizing without breaking anything.
In military pay accounts, the Administration proposed the full legal pay hike of 2.8 percent in 1998 and three percent for each of the ensuing four years. The DoD proposal protects commissary benefits. In contrast, procurement continues to stagnate, as it has for more than a decade, despite many promises to the contrary. Yet, when the actual 1998 budget was presented, procurement again had fallen short. Scout's honor, I was not lying to you, but my guess is my credibility . . .