[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                     
 
                         [H.A.S.C. No. 118-12]

                   SENIOR ENLISTED LEADER PERSPECTIVE

                               __________

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                   SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                              HEARING HELD

                             MARCH 9, 2023


                                     



               [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 
               
               
               
               
               
               
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               U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
   53-803              WASHINGTON : 2024
 
                                     
  


                   SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

                      JIM BANKS, Indiana, Chairman

ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York          ANDY KIM, New Jersey
MATT GAETZ, Florida                  CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
JACK BERGMAN, Michigan               VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida               MARILYN STRICKLAND, Washington
BRAD FINSTAD, Minnesota              JILL N. TOKUDA, Hawaii
JAMES C. MOYLAN, Guam                DONALD G. DAVIS, North Carolina
MARK ALFORD, Missouri                TERRI A. SEWELL, Alabama
CORY MILLS, Florida                  STEVEN HORSFORD, Nevada

               Dave Giachetti, Professional Staff Member
                 Ilka Regino, Professional Staff Member
                  Alexandria Evers, Research Assistant
                  
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

              STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

Banks, Hon. Jim, a Representative from Indiana, Chairman, 
  Subcommittee on Military Personnel.............................     1
Kim, Hon. Andy, a Representative from New Jersey, Ranking Member, 
  Subcommittee on Military Personnel.............................     2

                               WITNESSES

Bass, CMSgt JoAnne S., USAF......................................     7
Black, SgtMaj Troy E., USM.......................................     9
Grinston, SGM Michael A., USA....................................     4
Honea, MCPO James M., USN........................................     6
Towberman, CMSgt Roger A., USSF..................................    11

                                APPENDIX

Prepared Statements:

    Banks, Hon. Jim..............................................    45
    Bass, CMSgt JoAnne S.........................................    69
    Black, SgtMaj Troy E.........................................    81
    Grinston, SGM Michael A......................................    49
    Honea, MCPO James M..........................................    62
    Kim, Hon. Andy...............................................    47
    Towberman, CMSgt Roger A.....................................    97

Documents Submitted for the Record:

    [There were no Documents submitted.]

Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:

    [There were no Questions submitted during the hearing.]

Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:

    Mr. Bergman..................................................   109
    Mr. Moylan...................................................   116
    Mr. Waltz....................................................   111
    
                   SENIOR ENLISTED LEADER PERSPECTIVE

                              ----------                              

                  House of Representatives,
                       Committee on Armed Services,
                        Subcommittee on Military Personnel,
                           Washington, DC, Thursday, March 9, 2023.
    The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:01 a.m., in 
room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jim Banks 
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

  OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JIM BANKS, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM 
     INDIANA, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

    The Chairman. The hearing will now come to order.
    I want to welcome everyone to this hearing of the Military 
Personnel Subcommittee.
    Today's hearing is focused on the health and welfare of the 
Enlisted force and their families from the perspective of the 
Service Senior Enlisted leaders.
    I want to thank our witnesses for being with us today, for 
their service to the Nation, and for their continued daily 
support and advocacy of our Enlisted service members and their 
families.
    I personally owe a debt of gratitude to all of the Enlisted 
service members I served with and that have helped me along the 
way during my Navy Reserve career.
    I also want to thank the thousands of Enlisted service 
members--Active Duty, Reservists, and Guard Members--who are 
serving this Nation around the world as we speak here this 
morning. We ask all of you to put your trust and confidence in 
us to provide for you and your families. And as always, you 
have answered the call and put service before self.
    But what I would like to know is whether we are doing 
everything that we can to support our All-Volunteer Force--an 
All-Volunteer Force that has placed the covenant of trust in 
our military leaders. Trust is a tricky thing because we 
oftentimes can't see it; yet, we know it exists. Trust is 
embodied in the spirit of the service member that is willing to 
sacrifice for their unit and their country because they have an 
abiding belief that their leaders will take care of them.
    But when I see the stories in the press about poor barracks 
and housing conditions, access to healthcare challenges, food 
insecurity, high suicide numbers--and the list goes on--I 
wonder if there has been an erosion of trust within the 
military and whether that can be restored. Actually, it must be 
restored to ensure that we have the men and women we need to 
serve in the best military in the world.
    And that is the focus of today's hearing, an unvarnished 
assessment from the top Enlisted leaders of each Service on 
whether the Department of Defense and each individual Service 
has lived up to this unbreakable contract with the All-
Volunteer Force. This is a contract of trust that is critical 
to recruiting and retention. I submit that they have fallen 
short in many areas, several of which we will explore here 
today.
    Our witnesses have the pulse of our Enlisted service 
members and know what service policies affect their decisions 
to join, to stay, or to go. What I would like to understand 
today is whether the services and the Department of Defense 
have not lived up to their responsibilities. Is it pay? 
Healthcare? Childcare? Assignments? Social policies? Food 
access? Housing? Other benefits? The answer is likely some 
combination of all of these things.
    Secretary Austin reiterated, again, in a March memo to the 
Force that, quote, ``People are the bedrock of a strong 
national defense,'' and that, quote, ``We made significant 
investments to improve the quality of life for our service 
members and their families.''
    And yet, despite this rhetoric, we find out that, through 
Department of Defense's [DOD's] own survey process that ``45 
percent of spouses of service members in pay grades E-1 to E-4 
are food insecure'' and that some ``25 percent of military 
members overall are food insecure.''
    This is clearly and completely unacceptable and a further 
erosion of trust with our service members. Remember, this is an 
All-Volunteer Force. This is certainly a recruiting issue. How 
do you get people to enlist if this is what they will face?
    So, for this hearing, I want to hear from our witnesses on 
their views of where the stressors are on our Enlisted service 
members and their families, and where the Department and the 
Services need to change policy or to address funding. I think 
with aggressive oversight from this committee, we can prompt 
quick action to keep the faith with those that we ask so much 
of.
    So, I now want to welcome our witnesses: Sergeant Major 
Michael Grinston, Sergeant Major of the Army; Master Chief 
Petty Officer James Honea, Master Chief Petty Officer of the 
Navy; Chief Master Sergeant Joanne Bass, Chief Master Service 
of the Air Force; Sergeant Major Troy Black, Sergeant Major of 
the Marine Corps; Chief Master Sergeant Roger Towberman, Chief 
Master Sergeant of the Space Force.
    But, before hearing from our witnesses, let me offer 
Ranking Member Kim an opportunity to make opening remarks.
    [The prepared statement of Chairman Banks can be found in 
the Appendix on page 45.]

 STATEMENT OF HON. ANDY KIM, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY, 
       RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL

    Mr. Kim. Yes, thank you, Chairman.
    It has been quite a few years since we have had the Service 
Senior Enlisted leaders testify, and I look forward to hearing 
from you about the issues that matter most.
    I want to just thank the Chairman for your framing today in 
terms of what we are trying to deal with and what it is that is 
the core of this. I think your distillation there of talking 
about it in terms of trust is really at the heart of this.
    Right now, we recognize that we are asking a lot of our 
service members. We ask them to risk their lives, be able to 
protect our country. And the promise that we make back to them 
is that we will have their backs; that we will support them and 
their families, especially in their time of need. And honestly, 
as the Chairman mentioned, we don't always live up to that, and 
we need to make sure that we are doing better.
    One example of that that I face constantly when I talk to 
service members at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, in my 
district, is the challenge about suicide and mental health; 
that there is recognition that people that I talk to, they 
struggle to get the care that they need, even when they are 
asking for it. So, this is something that we need to work 
together on to be able to address and ensure that our service 
members don't just get adequate care, but they get the best 
care that our country can provide.
    As several of you alluded to in your testimonies, you may 
recruit the Soldier, the Sailor, Marine, Airmen, or Guardian, 
but to retain them, you must retain the family. So, ensuring 
access to quality healthcare, safe housing, affordable child 
care, and the right pay and benefits package is critical to 
sustaining the health of the Force.
    Military compensation is a combination of various pay and 
allowances, some of which are taxed and others not. While 
Congress was able to deliver a 4.6 percent across-the-board pay 
increase to all service members, I believe it may be time we 
consider reevaluating whether there are additional ways that we 
could help deliver important support to our service members and 
their families.
    I'm looking forward to the findings from the Quadrennial 
Review of Military Compensation, which kicked off in January, 
although I admit the results could be delivered faster. In the 
meantime, I had been optimistic that short-term solutions would 
have an impact on the financial challenges faced by some 
service members. Yet, I was disappointed to see so few service 
members are eligible for the Basic Needs Allowance provision in 
last year's National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA]. We can 
and must do better.
    Like most of my colleagues, I am gravely concerned by the 
findings of the Research and Development [RAND] Corporation 
report about food insecurity that the Chairman mentioned, 
problems approximating 25 percent of Active Duty service 
members struggling when it comes to food insecurity. I 
appreciate that more research is needed to identify root causes 
of this problem. Is it a pay issue, a money management issue, 
an access-to-food issue, or some combination of all of the 
above? I'm looking forward to reviewing potential concrete 
actions that the soon-to-be-released fiscal year 2024 defense 
budget includes to address this urgent issue.
    I'm also grateful we are having this hearing today, so we 
can address the pressing recruiting challenges faced by the 
Services. Over the last 10 years, we have seen that steady 
decrease in the eligible youth population to serve without a 
waiver. And while waivers have become increasingly common among 
recruits, ineligibility to serve due to multiple reasons is the 
predominant disqualifier.
    In addition, we continue to see a decrease in young adults 
who have close ties to the military or basic knowledge about 
what Services look like. Perhaps, as we celebrate the 50th year 
of the All-Volunteer Force, we should be asking ourselves if 
the tools we are using are the most effective for the 
generation that often has different perspectives and priorities 
when approaching the question of what kind of work and career 
that they seek.
    Lastly, we must address the multitude of quality-of-life 
issues that impact our service members and their families. As I 
mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, healthcare, housing, 
childcare, and pay and benefits are critical components of a 
ready and healthy Force. And I am confident we can find common 
ground across party lines to do what is right for the most 
important military asset, which is our people.
    I yield back the balance of my time.
    [The prepared statement of Ranking Member Kim can be found 
in the Appendix on page 47.]
    The Chairman. I thank the Ranking Member.
    I ask unanimous consent to allow members not on the 
subcommittee to participate in today's hearing and be allowed 
to ask questions after all subcommittee members have been 
recognized.
    Each witness will have the opportunity to present his or 
her testimony, and each member will have an opportunity to 
question the witnesses for 5 minutes.
    We respectfully ask the witnesses to summarize their 
testimony in 5 minutes or less. Your written comments and 
statements will be made part of the hearing record.
    With that, Sergeant Major Grinston, you may make the 
opening statement.

           STATEMENT OF SGM MICHAEL A. GRINSTON, USA

    Sergeant Major Grinston. Chairman Banks, Ranking Member 
Kim, distinguished members of this subcommittee, thank you for 
the invitation to speak on behalf of your All-Volunteer Army.
    And I would like to, again, thank my fellow Senior Enlisted 
advisors a lot. I talk a lot about my squad and having more 
than one squad, and I am proud to be a part of this squad that 
is here testifying today.
    I am even more proud of the soldiers in your Army. Right 
now, more than 23,000 Soldiers are supporting combat operations 
in places like Africa, Iraq, and Syria--not just training and 
advising--combat. What started as a no-notice deployment of the 
82nd Airborne Division to Europe, their fourth in 3 years, now 
includes 17,000 additional troops to the region.
    And then, last spring, the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team 
of the 3rd Infantry Division had just returned from a 9 month 
rotation in Korea when they were called for a no-notice 
deployment to Europe. Seven days later, they were doing a live 
fire exercise in Germany. I challenge anyone, any nation, to 
see who could do that. And in 36 years, I have never seen 
anything like it.
    America's Soldiers are lethal, effective, and ready to 
surge when called upon in times of crisis. That doesn't just 
happen overnight. It doesn't happen without the support of this 
subcommittee. That means modernizing and becoming the Army of 
2030.
    Last year, we were awarded contracts for the XM5 and the 
XM250 as eventual replacements for the M4 and the M4-249. These 
weapons, paired with a new rifle control system and a 6.8 
millimeter ammunition, make our close combat force more lethal 
with its proven accuracy and increased energy on target.
    We are also looking at ways to augment those forces with 
robotics. Last summer, Army Futures Command led the largest 
ground combat robotics experiment to date. By connecting 
Soldiers with scientists and engineers at a critical 
development juncture, just one Soldier touchpoint helped save 
billions of dollars and saved years off the potential fielding 
timeline.
    That means preparing Soldiers to make a difference through 
specialized training, access to relevant certifications, and 
advanced education.
    We increased infantry One Station Unit Training from 14 
weeks to 22 weeks, putting greater focus on building a lethal 
ground force.
    We combined the testing of common Soldier tasks with expert 
badges, resulting in a 9 percent increase in pass rates for all 
Soldiers and a 353 percent increase in expert Soldier and field 
medical badges awarded.
    These are the kinds of Soldiers who make up your Army, not 
someone else's army. Your support means investing in the 
Command Assessment Program to select the right Battalion and 
Brigade Commanders and Command Sergeant Majors who build 
positive command climates at echelon.
    It means understanding the Army life and never forgetting 
about our families, who endure the stress of a loved one away 
or uncertainty of them leaving at a moment's notice.
    It is investing in barracks, dining facilities for our 
single Soldiers, meaningful spouse employment, quality housing, 
and available child care for our families, and better access to 
healthcare for all.
    And it is a direct action from our elected officials to 
address pay. No Soldier, Airman, Guardian, Sailor, Marine, 
Coast Guardsman should join the military, and then experience 
economic food insecurity, period.
    Recruiting and retaining the best begins with reminding 
every American the Army provides an opportunity to be all you 
can be.
    Polling shows that propensity for military service is 9 
percent, the lowest in 15 years, and the qualification rate for 
military service among 17- to 24-year-olds has decreased from 
29 to 23 percent.
    Young men and women want to be a part of something larger 
than themselves. They want to gain new skills. They want to 
make a difference in the world around them and provide for 
themselves and their families.
    We need a national call to service, a dialog that service 
to our Nation does anything but put your life on hold, as 
recent polling suggests. Unless we have the full support of 
this committee behind them, the call to service only goes so 
far.
    Before I close, I request that each of you encourage young 
Americans to consider public service, either as a teacher, a 
first responder, a civil servant, in the military, or any other 
way. Help us remind people you can jumpstart your life, 
contribute positively to our society, and be all you can be.
    Thank you for this opportunity to be here today, and I look 
forward to our conversation.
    [The prepared statement of Sergeant Major Grinston can be 
found in the Appendix on page 49.]
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Master Chief Honea.

             STATEMENT OF MCPO JAMES M. HONEA, USN

    Master Chief Petty Officer Honea. Chairman Banks, Ranking 
Member Kim, and distinguished members of this subcommittee, I 
am grateful for the opportunity to appear before you and 
discuss the quality of life of our Sailors and their families.
    During my tenure, I want to do all that I can within my 
sphere of influence to improve the quality of naval service and 
remove barriers that impact readiness, so that we can remain a 
dominant naval force to deter conflict, keep the sea lanes open 
and free, and when called upon, decisively win our Nation's 
wars.
    In an era of strategic competition, if we are to maintain 
trained and equip a combat-credible Force, we owe our sailors 
and their families stability in their pay, access to timely 
healthcare and services, as well as opportunities to develop 
personally and professionally.
    Their individual success and the Navy's collective mission 
accomplishment rely on ability to provide an environment that 
promotes inclusiveness and a sense of value to the team, that 
ensures recruiting and retaining the talent our Nation 
requires.
    In the 6 months of being Master Chief Petty Officer [MCPO], 
I have traveled to our fleet concentration areas to hear 
directly from our Sailors and their families about their 
concerns.
    Access to adequate medical care and services, and timely 
care, is a top concern. In places like the Pacific Northwest, 
there have been two naval hospitals that were downgraded, 
requiring our Sailors and their families to drive an hour or 
more to seek military medicine and specialized care.
    Obtaining access to care isn't just a problem for our 
service members, though. It also includes our Department of 
Defense civilians and their families. In some of our overseas 
locations, they face medical care challenges because they are 
unable to access military medical treatment facilities due to 
the care priority.
    Our Department of Defense civilians are a part of our total 
military family and work directly alongside our military teams. 
As it stands, we will begin losing some of these employees that 
are mission-critical.
    To prepare our Sailors for combat, we must ensure each of 
our members of our team is resilient. Mental health is a 
warfighting readiness necessity, and we are facing significant 
mental health challenges.
    TRICARE has partnered with some telehealth programs. 
However, Active Duty members must still make an appointment 
with their primary care provider for a referral. This increases 
the wait time; therefore, missing the intent of more accessible 
healthcare. I ask for your continued support in these programs.
    If our team is to remain a dominant naval force, we must 
continue focusing on the factors that influence our recruiting 
and retention efforts--assessing situations that impact our 
All-Volunteer Forces' propensity to serve and build a stronger 
national call to service.
    Every Sailor is a recruiter, and we ask for your support to 
influence those around you to consider public service as an 
opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves.
    This year's pay increases were a historical milestone for 
our military compensation package, and we are very grateful. 
However, our Sailors are still facing challenges to meet basic 
needs in their economies. Affordable housing, food cost, and 
finding adequate childcare remain enormous stressors within our 
high-cost fleet concentration areas.
    If we want to retain our professional and qualified service 
members, and give tangible incentives to sustain a military 
career, I ask Congress to look at pay increases and 
compensation, and retention bonuses, to ensure that we 
appropriately keep them compensated.
    We are asking our men and women to be the best and most 
skilled warfighters to defend our Nation, and the risk of 
losing these talented Sailors will have dire consequences on 
our future fighting force.
    The United States Naval Community College reinforces our 
warfighting advantage and enhances operational readiness by 
providing world-class naval-relevant education to a globally 
deployed force. This program is partnered with colleges 
throughout the United States to provide degree and professional 
certificate options. This empowers our enlisted force to 
succeed in complex and uncertain situations they will face in 
future conflict and serves as a force multiplier that will be 
the advantage over our adversaries.
    I am honored to be here today and to appear before you on 
behalf of our 390,000 Sailors, their families, and our 
civilians deployed across the globe.
    I am committed to removing barriers from service that 
prevent them from having a safe and secure place to live and 
work in the execution of their Oath of Enlistment. Military 
service is one of the hardest things our Sailors, Marines, 
Soldiers, Airmen, and Guardians will ever be asked to do. With 
your continued support to our Navy and our families, you enable 
us to remain ready for any situation.
    I thank you for your time this morning, and I look forward 
to your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Master Chief Petty Officer Honea 
can be found in the Appendix on page 62.]
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass.

            STATEMENT OF CMSGT JOANNE S. BASS, USAF

    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Good morning. Chairman Banks, 
thanks for your service, sir. Ranking Member Kim, thank you for 
your support. And to the distinguished members of this 
subcommittee, thank you for your continued interest and support 
in the quality of life of the men and women who serve our great 
Nation.
    I am honored for this opportunity to join my brothers in 
arms and speak with you specifically on the issues impacting 
your Air Force and the lives of our airmen and their families.
    Right now as we speak, there are 16,021 Airmen deployed 
across the globe, conducting operations to defend our homeland, 
build strong alliances and partners, and ensure the rules-based 
international order remains unchallenged.
    We find ourselves at a critical point in the trajectory of 
our great Nation. For the first time in modern history, we are 
facing challenges from two strategic competitors: China and 
Russia. And while China might be our most significant pacing 
challenge, we cannot ignore the acute threat that Russia also 
plays.
    I am here to tell you that, more than any platform, more 
than any system, more than any program, it is our service 
members who will, who are, and always will be our biggest 
competitive advantage.
    As the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, I have the 
distinct privilege to meet and get to know our Airmen, hear 
their stories, talk with their families, and listen to their 
concerns and the unique challenges that they face as members of 
our Force.
    They are the Airmen who are serving in your districts, and 
I am honored to be their voice. They answer our Nation's call 
without hesitation and without fail. Therefore, it falls upon 
us to ensure that the Airmen of today have the resources 
required to serve in the highest trained, best-equipped, and 
best-led Air Force this world has ever seen.
    In order to be the Air Force that our Nation needs, we must 
prioritize both the quality of life and the quality of service 
of our Airmen and their families. The over 689,000 total force 
Airmen who I represent have afforded me a unique perspective on 
the direction our Air Force needs to go.
    Over the past year, I have seen examples of our Airmen 
working extremely hard to get after the operational imperatives 
and accelerate the change that our Air Force needs to build a 
future operating concept that maintains our dominance, even as 
China attempts to close that gap.
    They understand that rapidly evolving challenges, new 
domains of warfare, and near-peer competitors will define 
future-state operations. And we must continue to provide our 
support to them as they faithfully support and defend this 
great Nation.
    I met one of those airmen this week, in fact, Master 
Sergeant Aaron Cordroch, who is stationed at Hurlburt Field, 
Florida. He was at the Warfare Symposium I was at to highlight 
a project that he created to identify cyber threats to our 
maintenance systems. What impressed me most, in his words, that 
he is doing all of this to make our Air Force better--all the 
while serving alongside his Active Duty wife and raising their 
son. They are truly an example of the dedication and 
professionalism that we see in abundance in our United States 
Air Force.
    And how we recruit; how we train and develop; how we 
compensate, retain, and care for our Airmen are key to our 
success and they are key to our readiness. We have a strong 
modernization strategy and we will need your help.
    As we continue to move forward and focus on the Air Force 
of 2030 and beyond, there is much to be done. We will continue 
to develop the Airmen that we need and create an environment 
where every single one of them can thrive and be their very 
best.
    We need our Airmen to remain focused and committed to 
defending the homeland, and we cannot have them distracted by 
whether or not they can find quality and affordable housing, 
spouse employment opportunities, or other challenges such as 
healthcare, childcare, inflation, and food insecurity. When 
these are not readily available, our ability to accomplish the 
military mission and to deter our adversaries is absolutely 
degraded.
    We also have to acknowledge that the scope of 
responsibility of our enlisted force has never been greater. 
However, we will be challenged in retaining and recruiting the 
talent that we need if we are not able to appropriately 
compensate them.
    For 50 years, every single service member has willingly 
raised their right hand and accepted a life of service to our 
Nation, and we must ensure that the care and welfare for them 
and their families remains an undisputed priority. These things 
are integral to who we are and imperative to our future 
success. Taking these issues on demonstrates our commitment to 
our service members and their families, and ultimately, builds 
their trust in our great institution.
    As we work with you, our willing partners, in developing 
actionable solutions to build that trust and care for our 
Airmen and our families, we have to fundamentally understand 
that quality of life directly impacts quality of service. It 
also impacts our ability to recruit and retain high-end talent 
that we need to build the future Force.
    Our Airmen are America's sons and daughters, serving at one 
of the most complex times we have ever known. They are an All-
Volunteer Force ready to fight tonight, and they are ready to 
defend our Nation. These are Americans who are not just content 
to sit back and watch history unfold; they are making it. If we 
accept these challenges that they face as a cost of doing 
business, it becomes a cost that is borne by our service 
members and our families.
    The work that we do with this subcommittee absolutely 
matters. So, thank you again for your continued support for the 
men and women who wear this uniform. Thank you in advance for 
the help from each of you that you will provide to help ensure 
that we have timely authorizations and appropriations.
    We cannot afford to degrade our readiness. We cannot afford 
to spot China any more time. That will be a cost that is borne 
by all Americans.
    I look forward to your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Chief Master Sergeant Bass can 
be found in the Appendix on page 69.]
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Sergeant Major Black.

             STATEMENT OF SGTMAJ TROY E. BLACK, USM

    Sergeant Major Black. Chairman Banks, Ranking Member Kim, 
and distinguished members of the Subcommittee, I'm honored to 
speak to you today on behalf of your United States Marines. And 
thank you for your time in allowing me to provide you with the 
state of your Marine Corps.
    I will also echo the previous members, and I know I will 
speak on behalf of the Chief Master Sergeant of Space Force, 
now in saying we are proud to be part of this squad, as the 
Sergeant Major of the Army has spoken to a moment ago.
    We represent your entire enlisted force. The bottom line 
upfront is that your Marines are ready to fight and win. The 
technological enhancements and the paradigm of how we fight has 
evolved to better prepare us for the uncertain future, but a 
certain foe. For those, we must thank our people, our Marines, 
who are the greatest strategic advantage over any foe.
    The American people know that service is not a given in our 
society, and this issue rests on the shoulders of all of us in 
this room today. Today, I ask that we refocus our attention on 
the five pillars of the All-Volunteer Force, so that we may 
preserve our force of a noble group of motivated warfighters: 
the connection with the American people that drives propensity; 
equitable real income pay and compensation; quality-of-life 
standards; adequate medical care, and long-term retirement 
benefits that retain our most experienced, capable warfighters.
    As we approach the 50th-year anniversary of the All-
Volunteer Force, it is time to redress the issues that affect 
these pillars, starting with the eroding connection with the 
American people. Negative depiction and conversation about our 
service members in the media, social media, pop culture have 
all become unbalanced, inaccurate, and quite frankly, they are 
unjust. We must challenge the misconceptions and make bigger 
strides in valuing our service members publicly. We need 
immediate action if we are determined to increase the 
propensity to serve our Nation.
    I have the privilege of access to the entire Marine Corps 
in my nearly 4 years as the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. 
I have toured buildings, flight lines, hangars, ships, and, of 
course, the barracks and the chow halls where our Marines live, 
work, and reside.
    It is clear to me that we must increase our investment in 
the quality of life of our Marines. Many of our barracks are 
more than 30 years old and in dire need of renovations, about 
one-sixth of which the Marine Corps has, they are poor or they 
are failing. I visited a barracks in Camp Pendleton just a 
couple of weeks ago that has had deferred maintenance for over 
12 years, and Marines live there.
    Along with a quality home, our Marines and families require 
quality care. Although the Defense Health Agency is currently 
undertaking the largest revision of healthcare in our history, 
this transformation has not yet fully satisfied the 
expectations of our families or service members, in particular, 
those in overseas locations. Currently, in Japan, a military 
service member does not have access to emergent care in a 
military facility and the local economy does not provide such 
care--in addition to a lack of mental healthcare for the same 
reasons. This is unsustainable for our force.
    Suicide and harmful behaviors remain Corps-wide concerns, 
as well as all the services, and have lasting negative effects 
on all of us. We know as a society that mental healthcare is 
lacking, more so in our services because the additional 
healthcare that is provided in the military treatment 
facilities no longer exists in abundance. We need help here.
    Our Marines serve with honor, courage, and commitment, and 
we will continue to do so with respect for human life. The 
lifeblood of our unit cohesion and esprit de corps and respect 
to each other is what keeps us a close, cohesive family.
    We will continue to remain committed to prevention of 
sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other poor behaviors. 
Offenders will be held accountable.
    There is a waitlist at some of our child care facilities. 
We will address those conversations in the upcoming testimony, 
for our biggest problem with child care provision is being able 
to pay an equitable fee to those who provide that care. We have 
vacancies.
    Lastly, I thank this committee for your 4.2 percent pay 
raise last year. However, we must pay our Enlisted Marines and 
service members wages that move them far away for qualifying 
for any federal assistance.
    If Enlisted wages continue to lack in terms of real income, 
one of the foundational pillars of the All-Volunteer Force will 
be at risk and will continue to challenge recruiting and 
retention. We look forward to the upcoming review, or results 
of the Quadrennial Review to see how those things are 
addressed.
    Lastly, today, as always, we have more than 30,000 Marines 
forward-deployed who are well-trained, lethal, and capable. 
They are forward-deployed in locations in 45 countries across 
the world. Every Embassy and Consulate is guarded by Marines.
    Your Marines are currently conducting, or have conducted, 
23 real-world operations, either in the air, on amphibious 
ships, on land, in space, or in special forces. They have 
conducted three amphibious operations, eight large-scale 
exercises--and the list goes on. Your Marines, as well as the 
rest of the services, are forward-deployed protecting our 
Nation.
    I am thankful for this committee's attention and the 
consideration of these issues that we face today--with 
barracks, pay, healthcare, childcare, and other issues that the 
All-Volunteer Force must address before it is too late.
    I look forward to working with each of you and the rest of 
this testimony. Thank you, sir.
    [The prepared statement of Sergeant Major Black can be 
found in the Appendix on page 81.]
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Chief Master Sergeant Towberman.

          STATEMENT OF CMSGT ROGER A. TOWBERMAN, USSF

    Chief Master Sergeant Towberman. Chairman, thank you.
    Distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for 
everything you do for our Guardians, their loved ones, and your 
Space Force. Thank you for your service to our country and your 
steadfast leadership in support for our service members; also, 
your willingness to make a difference.
    I am honored beyond words to speak on behalf of our 
uniformed and civil servant Guardians around the world. On 
behalf of all of them, I thank you all for what you do and your 
time here today.
    I would also like to extend my sincere thank you to our 
deployed Guardians around the world ensuring space superiority 
for the joint and coalition fight and the nearly 75 percent of 
our force who know and live the reality of 24-hour-a-day, 7-
days-a-week, employed-in-place missions, which enable not only 
military operations, but modernity itself.
    Without question, our greatest weapon system lives and 
breathes. Our service members set us further apart and more 
definitely apart than any other weapon system, technology, or 
strategy ever has. I can think of no more fitting way to mark 
our 50th anniversary of All-Volunteer Force than to discuss the 
recruitment, readiness, and quality of life with you here 
today.
    As regularly as I can, I visit our Guardians and their 
families around the globe, hearing what is on their minds and 
in their hearts. I try hard to hear what they say and even more 
so what they don't. My commitment to represent their voice 
could not be stronger, and I work hard to get truth from all 
levels. Every connection and every story matters, and I am 
honored to spend as much as I possibly can hearing those 
stories. Every single Guardian matters to us and to me 
personally.
    Our leaders in the field also do their best and we empower 
them to do so--to see what could be missed; to ask hard 
questions, and to find out what is going on. Recently, one of 
our Senior Master Sergeants took that empowerment at Schriever 
Space Force Base and stepped in when policy failed to find 
solutions and keep one of our most talent guardians who 
otherwise would have separated. Thanks to Sergeant Cherish 
Dempsey.
    These individual acts matter in a small service. It is one 
person, but it matters to the Space Force. The culture we are 
unleashing, the guardian spirit we are amplifying is changing 
lives as we change the world.
    Your Guardians represent some of America's most highly 
technical professionally skilled and talented cohorts, which 
makes them at times difficult to recruit and difficult to 
retain. As I mentioned earlier, nearly 75 percent are employed-
in-place. They have unique challenges to their resilience and 
quality of life.
    Imagine spending your day providing missile warning to 
people on the other side of the planet, and then, punching out 
to go home to play ball with your child, while the news reports 
on the lives you helped save, but you can't talk about it. It 
is not a normal military life, and the better we understand and 
address these unique challenges, the better our hope to 
maximize their skills, talent, and experience which are 
critical to our mission--a mission that grows more complex and 
more complicated by the day.
    When we first stood up the Space Force, we tracked 1,500 
spacecraft and 25,000 objects in orbit. Today, that number is 
7,000 spacecraft and 50,000 objects. Robotic arms, direct-
descent threats, hypersonic glide vehicles--the list goes on. 
There is no question our domain has never been more congested, 
more contested, or more competitive. And finding and retaining 
the most talented Guardians possible is a matter of national 
security.
    Young Americans value choice, and the young Americans this 
country needs in the Space Force have many. Recruiting and 
retention challenges are real, even for our small force. We 
must do what we can to remain an employer of choice and an 
institution of trust--focused on the future, focused on their 
future; delivering a value proposition commensurate with the 
talents and abilities so critical to our combat readiness and 
continued ability to win.
    President Roosevelt once said, ``Happiness lies not in the 
mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in 
the thrill of creative effort.'' There's no doubt an important 
key to our Guardians' proposition is the work. They want to be 
on the cutting edge. They want to explore, to analyze, to solve 
difficult problems. They value autonomy and they invite 
challenge, and there is no shortage of challenges.
    We will continue to do what we can to amplify their spirit 
and allow them to use their exceptional talents in ways that 
matter to them, but happiness is not only in meaningful work. 
Their skills, expertise, and talent are compensated well 
outside the military. We must, at a minimum, provide their 
families and them enough compensation to take worry off the 
table.
    I look forward to helping the Office of the Secretary of 
Defense with the Quadrennial Review, as has been previously 
mentioned.
    Thank you in advance for continuing your help to improve 
their lives and strengthen their value proposition. I know it 
is not lost on any of us in this room how important this is.
    I thank you for your leadership. I thank you for your 
opening comments, sir, and I look forward to the discussion.
    [The prepared statement of Chief Master Sergeant Towberman 
can be found in the Appendix on page 97.]
    The Chairman. Yes, thank you to each of you--such powerful 
testimony. Each of you has done a great job today representing 
the men and women who make up the Enlisted force of your 
Branch. And I appreciate it very much.
    I will begin with questions. And I want to begin with the 
obvious question. The 50th anniversary of an All-Volunteer 
Force; yet, we are met with a recruitment crisis that we have 
never seen before.
    And all of you have discussed this already in your 
testimony, but I want you to be more succinct and be as candid 
as you can possibly be because it could make a big difference 
today in helping guide our work to make a difference for the 
men and women that serve under your command.
    What is the biggest obstacle to recruitment of the Enlisted 
forces? Is it quality of life, trust in the military, social 
issues? Are men and women questioning whether or not service is 
the best path to a successful career? Or is it the slimming 
pool of recruits that we are asking to join and serve today? 
And what do you want us to do about it? We will start with the 
Army.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Chairman, thank you for the 
question.
    As we surveyed our future candidates for the United States 
Army, we asked them this very question: `What is their Number 1 
barrier?' And we found that the Number 1 barrier for those that 
we surveyed was they would be putting their life on hold.
    And I challenge that every day when I say I don't think my 
life was on hold. I would not have met my wife without being in 
the military. I got degree through going to the night school. 
So, I continued to further my life as it went on from the first 
day I got into the military, and that is the No. 1 reason, when 
we asked, about putting their life on hold.
    What I would ask for the committee to do is to be the 
advocate for the military and talk to someone that does not 
have a service man or woman that they have served with in the 
past. They don't know about our Army. We found that about 83 
percent of those serving in the military have a parent, a 
grandfather, or someone that was in the military. We don't want 
the Army to be, you know, a family business. We want it to be 
an American business. We need every man and woman eligible to 
do that.
    So, if there were two asks that I could add, it would be 
the second is increase the propensity for those that want to 
serve. Nine percent is not going to be a big enough pool for us 
to sustain the All-Volunteer Force.
    The Chairman. Navy?
    Master Chief Petty Officer Honea. Chairman Banks, again, 
thank you for your opening remarks. When you spoke about the 
trust of our service members, it is very, very important.
    Those that we are trying to recruit, as well as retain, 
need to understand that we have their well-being in our 
consideration, in all the decisions that we are making.
    I'm going to allow for the Sergeant Major of the Marine 
Corps to speak in greater depth about those five pillars that 
he used in his opening comments.
    But we should reexamine how well we are performing at those 
five pillars that were founded in the Gates Commission on how 
we were going to create our All-Volunteer Force.
    So, we need to continue to find ways to make sure that 
those that we are recruiting and those that we are retaining do 
believe that we have their well-being into consideration. I 
believe that serving in our military matches the values of most 
of our Americans and many of our young people that have an 
opportunity to serve. What I think that they probably find 
missing is whether or not their well-being will be taken into 
consideration. There is way too much rhetoric out there about 
serving in the military would be dangerous to their life in a 
way that their well-being wasn't being taken into 
consideration.
    And they see the issues with adequate compensation, as all 
of us spoke about in our opening comments.
    So, that is what I would ask for us to continue to do, sir.
    The Chairman. Air Force?
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Chairman Banks, thank you for 
that question.
    In addition to what my colleagues mentioned, I would say 
all of it that you mentioned is the biggest challenge that we 
have; specifically, the service piece.
    What we also are finding out is, again, that narrative 
piece cannot be understated. There is a narrative that, if you 
join the United States military, you are going to be hurt or 
injured, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), et cetera. And 
I would say that is where we could really use help with that 
narrative.
    There is a narrative that you could join the United States 
military and you will be sexually harassed and/or assaulted. 
And I would say that, as a mother of two children, and as a 
mother of two daughters, I trust that my children, especially 
my daughters, joining into the United States military--I feel 
more comfortable with them joining the military than possibly 
going to some of our colleges and our universities, and that is 
not a knock on our education system.
    But it is that narrative that we would appreciate your help 
with. We of the Air Force, the Department of the Air Force, in 
fact, have a working group that is focused on what are the 
barriers that we can do internally to help make sure we don't 
have artificial barriers that are keeping our people from being 
able to join. We have started executing some of those, but we 
will overall need help with the narrative, and also, the 
quality-of-life challenges that we mentioned in our opening 
statements.
    Thank you.
    The Chairman. Very good.
    Marine Corps?
    Sergeant Major Black. Chairman, sir, thank you for the 
question. I thank the committee for taking on these challenges.
    The Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy mentioned the 
Gates Commission. I think it is worth a good read. I'm sure 
everyone has read that. I have intently.
    There are pillars to the All-Volunteer Force that are non-
negotiables. And I mentioned them in my verbal statement.
    It is the connection with the American people, right? We 
don't want to be a family business. Otherwise, you lose that 
connection. The ability to recruit and retain talent; equitable 
real income and compensation that is commensurate with 
inflation rates and the cost of living, right? There is 
quality-of-living conditions, whether that is housing on bases 
or installations, access to bases or our barracks, and a couple 
of other ones. But those are the three primary ones that I like 
to focus on.
    And I will narrow that down to just one. We will talk about 
many challenges here today that we need assistance with in our 
Services.
    But if the American people don't have a desire to serve in 
uniform, we can do all the things we need to do. And I think 
the majority of the challenge we have right now, in my 
understanding of it, is how we speak about service in our 
military to the people we are trying to attract and bring into 
the service.
    I made a joke last week in testimony. I won't repeat it, 
but I would challenge anyone to find any positive story about 
the military. And if it is, it is buried on page 6. The front 
page is all negative.
    There was a report of our testimony last week where we 
spoke about propensity to serve in the military, the joy of 
serving. I'm married to a retired Marine. We have raised 
children. They have gone to school. They are successful. Our 
family has been successful. We have served the course in 
combat; all of us here have. But the story did not focus on 
that. In the middle, in bold print, in all caps, with 
parentheses and quotation marks, it was `negative, negative, 
negative, negative, negative', and it ended with ``And we need 
to get people to join the military.''
    Whether that is a national leader, it is in media, pop 
culture, in social media, it is irrelevant; it is always 
something negative. Until we reverse that--until we reverse 
that--it doesn't matter how qualified someone is; just have to 
have a desire to serve.
    We can reduce and lower the qualifications, but we will 
still have to tap into the--the point that the sergeant made, 
that the Army made, was nine percent propensity. That is desire 
to serve your Nation; raise your hand to defend the 
Constitution in these United States. That is a national 
challenge.
    Thank you, sir.
    The Chairman. Very well put.
    Space Force?
    Chief Master Sergeant Towberman. Yes, sir. To save time, I 
won't repeat everything my teammates have said, though we feel 
as passionately about them as they do.
    I would say maybe two things a little bit from our 
perspective, which is really about quality of recruiting. Our 
numbers are small; we meet our numbers. But the quality has to 
continue to be good.
    We need access to schools. And anything that anyone can do 
to help us partner with the Department of Education and with 
schools writ large, not just high schools, but universities as 
well, so that we are working together, not just on recruiting, 
but on this nationwide mobilization to serve in some way.
    It is really important to us as a Nation, and certainly, we 
are willing to partner with anyone to talk about serving; and 
also, the importance of science, technology, engineering, and 
math [STEM], which, again, is certainly very important to us on 
the Space Force.
    So, anything that we can do, any help that we can get from 
the Subcommittee to work in a whole-of-government approach to 
really mobilize this Nation to care about science, technology, 
engineering, and math; to make sure our children are focused on 
the right things, and then, to have the access to schools 
throughout, so that they can see the benefits of military 
service, the benefits of any service, I really think that that 
might help in this propensity-to-serve conversation.
    And then, everything else everyone has already said. Thank 
you, sir.
    The Chairman. Thank you to each of you.
    I yield to Ranking Member Kim.
    Mr. Kim. I am actually going to start by yielding to 
Representative Strickland.
    Ms. Strickland. Thank you, Ranking Member.
    Enlisted service members are the backbone of the military, 
and a lot of people don't even know that 40 percent of the 
people who are Enlisted are people of color. If they don't 
thrive, the military doesn't thrive, and our national security 
suffers.
    Since coming to Congress, I have focused on the issues that 
I hear most from Soldiers and Airmen and their families that I 
represent at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. And my family went to 
Washington State because of Fort Lewis.
    And the issues that arise are not news to us: housing, pay, 
food insecurity, and child care. That is a really big deal.
    Now, I have several questions that apply across all the 
Services, but because of my limited time, I am going to start 
with you, Sergeant Major Grinston. And if any other witnesses 
want to jump in, feel free to do so.
    So, last year, I was pleased that my Basic Allowance for 
Housing Calculation Improvement Act was included in the defense 
policy bill. And this language directs the Department to 
evaluate how it would create a more transparent and modernized 
approach to calculating Basic Allowance for Housing [BAH].
    I hear from my constituents all the time about how their 
housing allowance doesn't keep up with the cost of housing. And 
in the market that I represent, we have a housing shortage and 
we get emails and calls all the time to my office about ``I'm 
coming to Joint Base Lewis-McChord [JBLM] and we can't believe 
how expensive it is to find housing.''
    While this report is not due until December of this year, 
how do you think that we can update the way we calculate Basic 
Allowance for Housing, so that it is more responsive to the 
reality that service members are facing to find adequate 
housing? And when I say, ``adequate housing,'' I mean housing 
that is affordable, that is habitable, and that is safe.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congresswoman, thank you for the 
question.
    And I concur that every Soldier or every service member 
should have adequate and quality housing, family housing. But, 
to address your specific question about the Basic Allowance for 
Housing, I would actually be proud and tell a little bit of the 
story about the power of this group.
    Almost about 18 months ago, this group got together and 
challenged the Basic Allowance for Housing, and we had a 
meeting with Office of Secretary Of Defense [OSD] and said, 
``We have to change right now what we are doing for the Basic 
Allowance for Housing.'' And it was a very heated discussion 
with the Office of Personnel and Readiness [P&R]. And the power 
of this group, we saw a change in that year in an out-of-cycle 
Basic Allowance for Housing. And that is what we need.
    Doing a survey one time a year, it ends in August, and 
then, the survey comes out in January. It is late to the need 
for our service men and women. And we have advocated, this 
whole group up here has advocated multiple times that 
calculation needs to be done faster. In this day and age, with 
all the things that we have, we can do better, and that is what 
we have challenged Office of the Secretary of Defense. And that 
is how I would recommend that we go forward with the Basic 
Allowance for Housing. We can't do it once a year and expect 
that to meet the needs of our service members.
    Ms. Strickland. All right. Master Sergeant Bass, did you 
want to join in?
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Absolutely. Thank you, ma'am.
    You know, what I might offer is we have got to--and what we 
have pushed is--we have got to be responsive in our ability to 
look at and assess Basic Allowance for Housing. And how we 
assess, to the Sergeant Major of the Army's point on an 
assessment, written assessment, is probably not the best way in 
2023 that we might be able to look at how we can keep up with 
housing costs across the Nation, to include overseas. And we 
have been pretty vocal on that.
    What I would say, it is a challenge that we have across the 
Nation. It is, when we increase Basica Allowance for Housing, 
everybody knows. And so, as such, you have a lot of landlords 
who are also, then, increasing what they are costing. So, it is 
a cycle that we are really in, which is why I think you have 
heard from every single one of us we need a holistic look at 
military pay and compensation, period. We still need to be 
responsive to Basic Allowance for Housing, but it really is 
that holistic look of military compensation all together.
    Thank you, ma'am.
    Ms. Strickland. Great. Thank you.
    According to the Department of Defense's 2021 Survey of 
Active Duty Spouses, 45 percent of Junior Enlisted service 
members' spouses reported facing food insecurity. And this was 
mentioned in opening remarks, E-1 through E-4. Given this need, 
what is the Army doing to encourage people to seek help and 
lessen the stigma among lower Enlisted families? What 
suggestions do you have to remove barriers to food and 
nutrition support?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congresswoman, again, thank you 
for the question.
    So, first of all, we have added financial counselors. So, 
you could see: `Here is the pay that you have and how are you 
managing that money'. So, that is Number. 1, is how you manage 
your money. And I will jump on that we have to pay our service 
men and women adequately, and then, we have to teach them how 
to manage that money that they have.
    But there have been several initiatives and some of them 
have actually come from the Secretary of Defense. And one of 
those is getting a larger benefit in the Commissary, especially 
for those items like milk, cheese, meat, and reducing those 
prices, so that there is a benefit when they go to the 
Commissary. So, they will actually save money when they shop 
there, as opposed to going to another grocery store.
    But it is product with two things. We have to pay our 
service men and women equitably, and then, we have to teach 
them how to manage their money. And we are making great 
strides, then, to do that.
    The Chairman. The gentleman's time has expired.
    I yield five minutes to Representative Waltz.
    Mr. Waltz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And thank you to all of our Enlisted leaders for joining us 
today.
    I agree with you that a narrative about service is really 
at the heart of the issue here.
    But just to do a quick kind of walkthrough, just 2 years 
ago, we had the first-ever African American Secretary of 
Defense order a service-wide stand-down because of the growing 
threat of White supremacy within our services. Yet, then, a 
year later, the study showed only 100 service members out of 
2.5 million--it is a fraction of a fraction of a percent--are 
actually participating in extremism.
    I think we are doing a much better job of talking about 
sexual assault. But, to your point, Sergeant Major Bass, or 
Master Sergeant Bass--excuse me; that is my Army in me, 
right?--parents aren't going to want their kids to join a 
military if they are a family of color if they believe it is 
overrun with White supremacy; if they believe their daughters 
are going to be sexually assaulted; if they believe their kid 
is going to come out and want to commit suicide because of 
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
    And on the flip side, as I hear from my constituents who 
don't want their kids to join if, for example, they go to the 
Air Force Academy and they are told in their orientation, 
``Don't say, `mom and dad'; say, `parent.' Don't say, 
`boyfriend/girlfriend'; say, `partner.''' And if you have a 
seminar at West Point talking about to cope with your white 
rage.
    And so, I want to submit for the record, Mr. Chairman, a 
poll by the Heritage Foundation that is showing that 68 percent 
of Active Duty members are concerned about the politicization 
of the military.
    The Chairman. Without objection.
    Mr. Waltz. Thank you.
    Mr. Waltz. Another 68 percent are saying the politicizing 
of the military is impacting their advice to their children of 
whether to join or not--negatively.
    And to your point, Sergeant Major Grinston, I think we are 
at--what?--80-90 percent of current recruits come from military 
families. So, you are getting a double-hit there. You are 
getting a retention problem and you are getting a future 
recruitment problem.
    So, my question--I will just start with you, Sergeant Major 
Grinston--is the military a meritocracy and should it be?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congressman, thank you for the 
question.
    I think, even by your comments, ``Are we politicizing the 
military?'' it almost feels like we are politicizing the 
military. We support and defend the Nation and the Constitution 
of everybody, and that is kind of how I feel about it. And we 
will leave the policies up to the elected officials and the 
Secretary of Defense and the President, and then, we execute 
those. And that is what good Soldiers do.
    That is what we swore, that we would defend the 
Constitution of America.
    Mr. Waltz. No, I'm sorry, not to cut you off.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Waltz. Just for the matter of time, I 100 percent agree 
with you. The Army I came up with, you leave your politics at 
the door. You leave all of that at the door. It is about taking 
care of the men and women to the left and the right. It is 
about achieving the mission. The color you are worried about is 
red, white, and blue. The enemy's bullets don't care about any 
of this stuff.
    And I'm determined to get us back to that warrior 
mentality, focused on being the best and having the best 
pilots, having the best Soldiers that we have, regardless of 
where they come from, because that is what our Nation is going 
to need to win wars.
    To that end, Sergeant Major, we, Senator Cotton and I, had 
language in last year's National Defense Authorization Act. The 
language established gender-neutral fitness standards and made 
the fitness standards dependent on the job, right? Obviously, a 
different fitness standard to be an infantry man or woman than 
it is to be a cyber warrior. Can you just give me a quick 
update on implementation of those gender-neutral standards?
    And again, this is on the premise that the artillery round 
doesn't care what race, religion, sexual orientation, 
socioeconomic background, and neither do the enemy's bullets.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congressman----
    Mr. Waltz. Sure.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. ----thanks for the question.
    As you know, the National Defense Authorization Act gave us 
180 days to report back. We have been looking at this for quite 
some time for the language. The language, I believe, said: the 
Secretary of the Army shall implement Military Occupational 
Specialty [MOS]-specific standards. But when we look at AR 611-
21, there actually are Military Occupational Specialty-specific 
standards, and it defines things like--and I will give you just 
one example--11 Bravo [infantryman] occasionally drags a 268-
pound person 15 meters while wearing their equipment. And that 
is what the regulation already says, and it doesn't say 
anything about anything other than you have to execute this 
task. And those are the tasks that they are graded on in the 
One Station Unit Training, when they graduate to be 11 Bravo.
    But we acknowledge the task and we understand that we have 
180 days----
    Mr. Waltz. I will look forward to that update.
    I agree with--two questions just in my remaining time. The 
Army has, the Chief Marketing Officer of the Army has had some 
different data and polling than what this Heritage poll found 
out. Do any of the other services have actual data of active 
duty members, recruits, their influencers, their parents, of 
the decisions that they are making that they could share with 
this committee?
    Because we all have our narratives and our opinions on the 
narratives, but does anybody have, do any of the services have 
any data behind it?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congressman, like you said, other 
than the Army, I'm assuming? Because, yes, we do have that.
    Mr. Waltz. I will take that. Thank you.
    And in my few seconds remaining, I agree with your call to 
national service. If you could answer for the record, send me 
back for the record, if you believe expanding the Junior 
Reserve Officers' Training Corps [ROTC] programs in secondary 
schools would help introduce students to the military or help 
promote defense of public service?
    The Chairman. So, please submit that for the record.
    Mr. Waltz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield my time.
    The Chairman. The gentleman's time has expired.
    I yield five minutes to Representative Houlahan.
    Ms. Houlahan. Thank you. I appreciate that.
    And, gentlemen and ladies, I really appreciate your time, 
too.
    Having been born on a naval air station, having been a 
dependent for about 17-18 years of my life, and then, having 
served myself, everything that you talk about is really 
resonating with me.
    I want to drill down on a couple of things that are about 
quality of life. And the first one is that we were able to 
successfully get through the National Defense Authorization Act 
12 weeks of parental leave, both for fathers and mothers, in 
the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. And that has been 
rolled out with each of your services.
    So, I was wondering, with the two and a half minutes of my 
time, if you could share how you are sharing that information 
with your service men and women, such that it is a benefit that 
they are aware of, and hopefully, one that they will, 
therefore, be more likely to stay as a result of.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass, please.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Representative, thank you so 
much. Thanks to your service to the United States Air Force as 
well.
    I will tell you, that was a good news story that came out, 
and our Airmen and their families were excited for that. We 
published articles communicating that this was an added benefit 
through both kind of traditional ways of pushing those things 
out; we have also posted them on social media, and then, we did 
it the traditional way through chains of command by our Air 
Force Manpower and Personnel Staff [A1s] pushing that out to 
our major commands. And so, we are very confident that our 
Airmen are well aware.
    Thank you for your support on that.
    Ms. Houlahan. Thank you.
    Sergeant Major Black, please.
    Sergeant Major Black. Congresswoman, thank you.
    I will echo the Chief Master Sergeant on the Air Force's 
comments.
    There's a couple of things you don't have to worry about 
people getting the word for, right? It is their pay increase 
and they get more time off. And I am not meaning to be flippant 
with your answer.
    But before we had even began to actually release through 
official chains, the Services' social media accounts were just 
exploding with people being aware of this expansion of parental 
leave, ma'am.
    Ms. Houlahan. That is fantastic.
    Anybody else want to contribute before I move to my next 
question which is related?
    My next question has to do with the action that your 
respective Branches are taking to increase recruitment of 
female service members. I think the Service right now is 
something around 20 percent women. But, depending on the 
different Service Branch, it is lower. It is as low as 10 
percent in some of the Branches, and particularly, in the 
Enlisted service.
    Are there ways that you can think of, and resources that we 
can set aside, to specifically target outreach to women? Have 
your Branches increased the proportion of recruiters who are 
women and who increase their visibility at recruiting events?
    And if I could go with Chief Master Sergeant Towberman--is 
that correct?--for that.
    Chief Master Sergeant Towberman. Yes, ma'am.
    Ms. Houlahan. I know you don't, apparently, have an issue 
with recruitment, but interested in whether or not we are 
focusing on women.
    Chief Master Sergeant Towberman. Yes, ma'am.
    Well, we are focusing on talent, and certainly, young 
ladies are talented. So, we are getting plenty, and we are 
really happy about that.
    And that is where our focus is, how do we get into these 
conversations? I saw a study recently that said one in nine, 
only one in nine, young ladies between 17 and 23 see themselves 
in a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math career. But 
anyone that has served in the military knows that, even the 
high-tech jobs, it is about a lot more, right? It is about 
service--excuse me--it is about people. And so, how do we 
correctly sort of advertise our brand, so that it is teachable, 
learnable, knowable. And as we increase that denominator to all 
people, the numerator sort of takes care of itself.
    Ms. Houlahan. And, Sergeant Major Grinston, do you have any 
ideas that we should be executing on or things that you are 
doing already to increase the number of women recruits?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congresswoman, thank you for the 
question.
    I would just say we just have a really great example. We 
have the Secretary of the Army, and I will even highlight one 
woman that I saw on the TV yesterday. And I was extremely proud 
when I saw Lieutenant General Donna Martin, the first Inspector 
General of the Army to be a woman. And I think that speaks more 
volumes than any other recruitment we can have. It is not just, 
you know, saying, ``This is what we want.'' We just have those 
leaders that are out there exhibiting those examples.
    But, to specifically recruit, we just recruit talent. We 
need all men and women to serve that are capable of serving in 
the United States Army.
    Ms. Houlahan. Yes, you certainly can't be what you can't 
see. And I think that it is helpful to be able to see that.
    And I know that, Chief Master Sergeant Bass, you had 
something you wanted to contribute?
    And then, I will go to Master Chief Honea.
    Go ahead.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Yes, ma'am, if I can just offer 
real quick: you know, we have done really a good look at, even 
upon entry into the United States military, how are we 
assigning people and are we ensuring that we are assigning all 
possible recruits operational career fields, and things like 
that.
    But one of the things that I am probably most proud of is, 
we have a barrier analysis working group that is called the 
Women's Initiative Team, the WIT. And that team is looking at 
all the barriers that perhaps are not helpful to us being able 
to keep the talent, especially our women. And they have had 
numerous wins.
    But one of the wins is we had written policy where, if you 
were pregnant, you were not even able to apply for Officer 
Training School, right? Like how much sense does that make? We 
could delay when you go to Officer Training School. But that 
was one of those things that, you know, from the Women's 
Initiative Team, we were able to identify some barriers to help 
us.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Houlahan. Thank you, and I have run out of time. And I 
apologize, Master Chief. If you have something to add, please 
do add it to the record. I appreciate you.
    Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    I yield five minutes to Representative Mills.
    Mr. Mills. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    It is great, first off, as a Non-Commissioned Officer 
myself, to see no Officers in here, which means we will get 
things done.
    Now, I want to start out with the fact that you talked 
about key things for me that I can understand, which is pay, 
the barracks standards, quality-of-life, healthcare, childcare, 
food insecurity. But, also, I want to talk about morale and 
priorities of recruitment.
    I have seen over the coming years--you know, I went back in 
with the original ``be all you can be'' days. And back then, we 
were really focused on things like increased lethality and 
readiness.
    I have seen where, in some regards, the prioritization of 
Critical Race Theory [CRT] and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 
[DEI] became something that was above the actual ability to 
maintain standards, instead of lowering standards, to meet 
actual numbers. And that was concerning because we know that 
the adversaries that we are going to face in the future are 
going to be much different than what we have been facing.
    So, in knowing that, the cost of living and inflation takes 
a massive hit. In my opinion, the 4.6 percent increase, while 
that sounds great, is nothing whenever you are talking about a 
10 to 13 percent increase in cost of living in inflation. It is 
actually an invisible defunding of our military, is what it 
really is.
    And when you can't actually feed your families, and you 
can't have the ability to go and train and fight, knowing that 
your spouse and your children at home are being taken care of, 
that takes our priorities away.
    You know, I would love to see something where we are able 
to put a bill on the Floor that allows us to tie our rate of 
increase from our military salaries to the rate of increase of 
our inflation, to guarantee that no one could actually be 
invisibly defunded again. And I think that that is one of the 
things that we should be working on.
    In going over this and knowing that we are having the 
access-to-care challenges, and knowing that I can remember in 
Fort Bragg when we were sitting in World War II barracks with 
black mold, and everything else, and you just kind of drive on.
    What do you think, personally, outside of pay, is the No. 1 
issue for a lot of the people with regards to the deficit and 
morale? Any of you can start.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congressman, thank you for the 
question.
    I will say that the retention in the United States Army has 
been exceptionally well. We are at the highest level of 
retaining our Soldiers than we have in a long time. And we have 
been consistent in the last 10 years of retaining those 
Soldiers. And that is how I meter morale. It is not 100 
percent, but it is a good indication that, once they join the 
team, they actually want to stay on the team. So, we have seen 
our retention stay steady. It is about accessions. It is about 
getting new recruits into the military.
    And so, we have consistently met every requirement that the 
United States has asked us to do in lethality. And our soldiers 
actually want to execute those missions, and then, they want to 
stay with the team.
    So, to answer your question specifically on morale, I just 
look at retention, and our retention numbers are consistently 
high.
    Mr. Mills. And in understanding that retention is, 
obviously, key, we are also going to face a time period whereby 
retirement age and retirement capabilities are going to 
overturn and our recruitment numbers wouldn't be able to 
maintain and keep up with that. That is just a harsh reality.
    And I know that our messaging--you know, I can remember 
when I would go into the recruitment station, I wanted to see 
the Ranger video where they were kicking doors, jumping out of 
planes, and doing real cool stuff. Now, all of a sudden, it is 
about how do we address our fellow Soldier, Airman, and what 
pronouns we are utilizing, which, in my opinion, wasn't exactly 
the quality for me.
    So, knowing that the Marine Corps prides itself on being 
first to fight, have you seen an increase by chance--and this 
kind of ties into the morale perspective--have you seen an 
increase branch-wide with regard to an increase of Article 15s 
or utilization of disciplinary actions?
    Sergeant Major Black. Congressman, sir, thank you for the 
question. The simple answer to your question is no. If 
anything, it is normal, based upon whatever those actions are 
that Commanders are taking to maintain discipline, sir.
    Mr. Mills. Thank you so much.
    And just in my last seconds, understanding that our Armed 
Forces and our Non-Commissioned Officers are really the core of 
our Armed Forces, this is exactly what every one of our 
adversaries continues to strive to achieve, is to get to a Non-
Commissioned Officer Corps like we have, like no other country 
has. They are a lot of times top-down. They don't have the 
actual backbone that we have.
    And so, any recommendations that you guys can submit later, 
whether it be in writing or otherwise, to continue to support 
our Non-Commissioned Officers Corps; how we can strengthen our 
military, and how we can continue to contribute to our Armed 
Forces, I would love to be able to receive that in my office.
    With that, I yield back.
    The Chairman. Thank you. The gentleman's time has expired.
    I yield five minutes to Representative Horsford.
    Mr. Horsford. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the Ranking 
Member, for this important hearing.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass, in your opening testimony, you 
state how recruitment, training, development, compensation, 
retainment, and transitioning are key parts to readiness. I 
agree with you.
    My district is home to Nellis Air Force Base, Creech Air 
Force Base, the National Test and Training Range, and the 
Hawthorne Army Depot. And while we don't have a shortage of 
missions coming out of our district, we do have a shortage of 
housing, especially at Creech Air Force Base. What was once a 
modest installation now hosts over a 3,000-strong workforce and 
it sustains around-the-clock, overseas contingency operations 
against global terrorism.
    Currently, there is no on-base housing at Creech Air Force 
Base, and Airmen who are stationed at Creech have to commute 
over 45 minutes to Nellis for basic needs, such as housing, 
medical, and childcare.
    So, Chief Master Sergeant Bass, I am just curious when you 
were last at Nellis and Creech, and what you think of the 
housing situation there. And are there any areas that you have 
identified as needing immediate attention?
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Congressman, thank you for that 
question. Thanks for your support, and especially for your 
staff for spending time with those leadership teams out there. 
I did get an opportunity to talk with them.
    I have not personally seen the housing that is at Nellis, 
but upon my discussions with our Airmen who live in those 
housing, I will tell you, by and large, the housing operator 
there does a really good job in taking care of the houses that 
are on Nellis proper. The challenge is, as you mentioned, we 
don't have enough of them, and nor do we have any housing on 
Creech proper.
    And so, there are hundreds, about two to three hundred, 
families that live on Nellis and do get bused back and forth to 
Creech every time. When I talked to the Command team there, 
what they shared with me is their work with the community, and 
their continued work that they are going to have with the 
community, on trying to get safe, affordable places for our 
folks to live.
    They were very appreciative of the Basic Allowance for 
Housing increase that they got at Nellis, which was extremely 
helpful, but it still is not helpful when the surrounding areas 
around most of our installations are just not the places that 
we typically want our service members to be in.
    Mr. Horsford. Well, I extend a personal invitation to have 
you come and to see, firsthand, both the needs in and around 
Nellis and Creech.
    You also mentioned in your testimony that the Air Force 
plans to spend approximately $235 million in the fiscal year 
2023 Facility Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization Fund 
to repair and improve the condition of the current inventory of 
dormitories. But I would like to know how the Air Force plans 
to assess which installations need the funds.
    I have been working for some time now to get additional 
money for dormitories at Nellis. And for whatever reason, it is 
on their priority list, but it never seems to make the 
Department's priority list. And I vote for the funding and it 
is not making it to the base and to the service members and 
their families in my district.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Yes, sir. So, as you mentioned, 
the majority of all that money is going toward dorm funding. 
And so, we have got a Dorm Master Plan across our United States 
Air Force, where we prioritize that, based on the facility 
conditions, forecasts, and really, the needs of the 
installation. And the Commanders do that.
    And so, I will tell you that there are two dorms at Nellis 
that are on that prioritization list. We also have renovations 
that are going on in Nellis proper for fiscal year 2023, and we 
look forward to those. But we are managing those, sir, based on 
the dorms.
    Mr. Horsford. Well, I hope they stay on the priority list.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Horsford. Thank you.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Thank you.
    Mr. Horsford. Finally, in fiscal year 2022, the National 
Defense Authorization Act requires the military departments to 
invest 5 percent of their total facility's sustainment budget 
into the maintenance and renovations of barracks and 
unaccompanied housing. Have you seen any evidence of those 
increased investments across your Services, and if yes, is that 
effort making an impact in prioritizing these needs?
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Sir, I would offer, absolutely, 
it is, anytime we can have funds that are going toward things. 
I would also tell you, they are going to make future needs. We 
have got 39 dorm projects that are on the way in fiscal year 
2024, and we look forward to those.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Horsford. Well, I look forward to working with members 
of this Committee, Chairman Banks and Ranking Member Kim, and 
their leadership. Housing, in my view, is one of the most 
critical things. Service members and their families should not 
have to worry about having a safe and adequate housing.
    And I agree with the Chairman's opening remarks about the 
unconscionable nature that so many of our service members and 
their families indicate that they are food insecure. It is just 
unacceptable, and I look forward to working with my colleagues 
on both sides of the aisle on this committee to make sure that 
that is a priority.
    With that, I yield back.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    I yield five minutes to General Bergman.
    Mr. Bergman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And thanks to all of you for being here, and thanks for 
continuing to be the example, not only for the young men and 
women who would desire to serve, but those influencers who 
would make every attempt to enable them to achieve a dream that 
they may not have dreamed for a long time, but it could be 
something that just happens quickly.
    In fact, as I walked in, I heard more than one of you, I 
think, use the term ``propensity.'' And so, my favorite app on 
my phone is my Webster's Dictionary. I'm a little old school 
and it is much lighter to carry it here. But, in Webster's 
definition of propensity, it is ``an often intense natural 
inclination or preference.'' That is the definition of 
propensity. But the key phrase there ``intense.''
    And when you think about the age at which your recruiters 
are beginning to engage these young men and women, that means 
in a lot of cases high school. Would you care to offer any 
thoughts on how recruiter access to the public school system--
let's start there--is and the welcoming nature, or not, in the 
high schools for your recruiters?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Yes, sir, thank you for your 
service, and thank you, Congressman, for the question.
    I would be remiss if I--or I think we would be fooling 
ourselves if Corona Virus [COVID] and all the schools being 
shut down didn't have some kind of impact with access to high 
schools.
    Mr. Bergman. Let me go right to the heart of the matter.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Yes.
    Mr. Bergman. I don't want to talk about Corona Virus. I 
want to talk about the welcoming of your recruiters by 
everything from the board of education to the school 
superintendent, to the principal, to the guidance counselors, 
to the coaches, the teachers, the influencers that those kids 
are with 7 or 8 hours a day.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Yes.
    Mr. Bergman. That is where I want to focus this. We are not 
talking about Corona Virus.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Yes.
    Mr. Bergman. And I have to cut you short because time is 
clicking.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Absolutely. We have to have 
access. If you don't have a recruiter that walks in the hallway 
and you don't see----
    Mr. Bergman. I guess my question is, are you getting it? 
And if you all want to take this for the record? By the way, I 
only have, roughly, 40 years, not that I have been looking at 
this for a while. But I could tell you the study the Marine 
Corps authorized in 1985 in Chicago about access to the school 
systems. I was part of that study. Okay?
    And I am trying to look at, as well as others here, what 
has changed; what has stayed the same. Because we need--we can 
talk about food insecurity. We can talk about training 
standards. We can talk about a lot of things all day long. But 
if we don't have access, your recruiters, those ambassadors 
that wear your uniform, we are not going to be able to 
intensify the intensity that they already have that being in a 
uniform of sorts would make them a better man or woman and make 
them a better functioning adult. So, that is kind of where I am 
going here.
    So, I guess maybe it would be best if you would take this 
for the record. I would like to have a written answer on the 
access to the schools.
    Mr. Bergman. Now, time goes fast here. I would also like 
you to take, for the record, the following--because you are all 
in leadership roles. And if the answer is you decide not to, 
okay.
    Would you be willing to submit a list, for the record--or 
privately, your call--of current Department of Defense policies 
that inhibit your ability, whether you as a Senior Enlisted in 
a unit at whatever level or the Commanding Officers' ability to 
lead? And are there policies--because we do policy; we do some 
law here, but we do mainly policy. And we are trying to figure 
out here, are there policies that are countering the positive 
efforts, and we still have on the books, that you are expected 
to comply with?
    And that could be touchy, but the point is, I thank you.
    And by the way, rather than saying, ``Thank you for your 
service''--I know some of you may already know that I have been 
kind of being scorched in the media for this, but introducing a 
resolution that says, instead of saying that, say, ``Thank you 
for our freedom.'' So, thank you for our freedom.
    I yield back.
    The Chairman. I yield five minutes to Representative 
Escobar.
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you so much. I would like to express my 
appreciation to the Chairman and Ranking Member for this 
important conversation.
    And many thanks to our panelists, not just for your 
participation, but for your Service, of course.
    I represent Fort Bliss, Texas. And in my community of El 
Paso, Texas, we are very, very proud to be in an Army Strong 
Community. It is the second-largest military installation and 
the largest Joint Mobilization Force Generation Installation in 
the Army.
    And in my duration in Congress, I have served on the 
Military Personnel Subcommittee because quality-of-life for our 
service members is so critical.
    And I am really proud, also, of the work that my team and I 
have done for military spouses, because we know that the family 
serves when the service member serves. And included in last 
year's National Defense Authorization Act was my bill to help 
support military spouses who own small business who move, to 
make sure that they have the resources necessary when they make 
those moves; that they take their entrepreneurial spirit and 
can ensure that it benefits another community, but that we do 
our best to help support that effort as well.
    And so, if I have time, I actually want to ask an issue 
about spouses. But I, first, really want to focus on food 
insecurity because it is something that we have seen has 
increased, especially post-pandemic, as many resources have 
gone away and food banks have been extra stressed during this 
period of time.
    And I would like to focus my question, really, with 
Sergeant Major Grinston. My first question about food 
insecurity is, I'm wondering what the Army is doing to mitigate 
the effects of inflation on costs of food for our service 
members, and what can we, as Members of Congress, do to help 
support those efforts?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congresswoman, thank you for the 
question.
    Like one of the things I already alluded to, what the 
Secretary of Defense did with the cost of reducing the amount 
that a service member would pay in those facilities that we can 
control--you know, making the milk, the meat, and the eggs 
cheaper in our Commissaries really helped those families out, 
and controlling those costs and helping the servicemen or, in 
this case, on Fort Bliss, the Soldiers and their families 
reduce that cost.
    And then, the second thing is what you have heard 
consistently from the panel, and we are going to keep saying 
it. We have to look at how we compensate our base pay or our 
Soldiers and their family.
    We have the QRMC, the Quadrennial Review of Military 
Compensation. We need to take a hard look at that. And I agree 
with the other panelists, it is that no Soldier should be able 
to be eligible for those needs because our pay is just that 
good.
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you so much.
    And now, a question for all of you about spouses. And 
again, we know that when a service member serves, it is not 
just the service member, but it is the entire family. And one 
of the things I have heard consistently in my community is how 
we have got to do more to help with that transition, which is 
why I introduced the legislation for entrepreneurs who are 
spouses. Our local Chamber of Commerce has really embraced this 
as an issue as well.
    But have you all seen some best practices during your 
tenure or some gaps maybe that we, as Members of Congress, can 
address?
    And I only have one minute. So, anyone who might have a 
burning desire to answer this question can go first.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. I will go very quickly. We need 
the state reciprocity for our spouses as they move over. You 
know, the President kind of signed it into law, but each State 
has to actually acknowledge that. So, when a spouse moves from 
one location, they shouldn't have to redo their licenses again. 
And that is incumbent on every State to go ahead and ratify 
that.
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you.
    Sergeant Major Black?
    Sergeant Major Black. Ma'am, I mentioned before in my 
verbal comments that we have challenges in our Child Care 
Development Centers [CDCs]. Directly to your point, a large 
portion of our providers are spouses. But if a Marine's family 
transitions from California to North Carolina, they have to 
start the entire process of recertifying in that state with 
their rules and regulations in order to be able to provide the 
child care, be a child care provider. And our biggest shortfall 
right now is in providers.
    So, being able to continue, like the Sergeant Major of the 
Army mentioned, being able to get those certifications to 
transfer is a big help. And I won't speak for everyone, but we 
are all shaking our heads north and south because that is the 
number 1 key, ma'am.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Escobar. Can I just follow up on that real quickly?
    The Chairman. The gentlelady's time has expired.
    Ms. Escobar. You know, actually, yes, my time has expired. 
I will follow up separately. Thank you.
    I yield back.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    I yield five minutes to Representative Moylan.
    Mr. Moylan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And thank you to our witnesses here.
    I was a product of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training 
Corps program in my high school. And I am glad I did it 
because, when I Enlisted in the Army, I got myself an extra 
stripe. So, it got me a little extra pay. And I eventually did 
the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program and went from 
Enlisted to Commissioned.
    But I really appreciate and I respect your positions, and 
as I grew up, that really helped me move forward in my life.
    I represent the district of Guam. And, of course, we have 
this massive buildup going on right now because of our 
situation in Pacific Command [PACOM]. The Marines, coming from 
Okinawa, that is wonderful, and working really closely with our 
Admiral there to ensure that transition is worked out.
    And, Sergeant Major, I forget now, were you able to come 
during the rededication there or the reactivation of our Camp 
Ben Blaz?
    Sergeant Major Black. Congressman, I was, and it is good to 
see you again sort of comment on that, and I really enjoyed the 
visit. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Moylan. I'm glad you were there and I hope to see you 
again as well.
    I have a few questions here. Okay. So, with the increase in 
military presence on Guam over the next few years, what are the 
Department's--let me rephrase that. Hold on.
    The fiscal year of 2023 National Defense Authorization Act 
mandated, by statute, a timeline to contract an independent 
assessment of the much-discussed defense of Guam integrated air 
and missile defense architect. The 60-day window for the 
Secretary of Defense to enter into the contract to fulfill this 
requirement was last week, and we have not seen a public 
notification that this congressional mandate has been met. So, 
please advise, if anyone can, of where we stand on this mandate 
to date.
    If not, that is fine; we can get back to each other. Is 
there somebody willing to answer?
    [No response.]
    Okay. Let's move on.
    One of our main concerns, of course, is for the morale and 
the welfare of our troops on Guam and understanding in the 
Indo-Pacific how expensive it is for our troops to live. There 
was the situation with the Cost of Living Allowance [COLA] 
being reduced. Do we have any recommendations, or are we seeing 
a correction to be made to that? Please.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Congressman, thank you for that 
question. Thanks for your care for our Airmen that are living 
on Guam proper.
    I will tell you that I spent some time talking to that 
command team there, and I have spent time on the island myself. 
Knowing that a carton of milk today in Guam costs $14 is just, 
you know, a challenge that we do not want any service member to 
bear.
    And so, yes, the help that we have gotten with funding our 
commissaries has been extremely important in reducing costs 
almost 25 percent, but the challenge that we have in both Guam 
and, also, Japan, and some of our other overseas locations, are 
challenges to the supply chain and the Commissaries that have 
empty shelves, which forces, then, our service members to go 
off-base.
    And so, that is a challenge that all of our command teams 
are actively working. First Sergeants are working to make sure 
that they are in tune with the support and the needs of our 
Airmen, you know, providing some of that training. But we have 
also really tapped into the Air Force Aid Society and them 
giving hundreds of thousands of dollars of grants to our 
service members to be able to help offset that cost. But we 
have got some work to do on that.
    And thank you, sir.
    Mr. Moylan. I appreciate that. Thank you.
    Also, with the increase in military presence on Guam over 
the next few years, would you know or can you express what the 
Department of Defense's plans are, if there is constructing for 
new schools, or construction of schools? We have got the 
military families coming on over. Is there any discussion about 
the students?
    Sergeant Major Black. Congressman Moylan, again, thank you, 
sir, for representing Guam.
    As you know, the Marine Corps has got a pretty long history 
on Guam. In fact, I will make two really quick comments and 
they are both about schools.
    You mentioned Reserve Officers' Training Corps. There is a 
fine retired sergeant major that is responsible for the Marine 
Corps Reserve Officers' Training Corps at the high school 
there, and that is a good thing.
    Lastly, about the schools writ large, as you know, the 
majority of the growth of the population, or the military 
population on Guam is going to be Marines. And as we see the 
expansion of the Marines start showing up there over the course 
of the next several years, there is going to be additional 
resources provided to that.
    I would like to get back to you on the record, 
specifically, what those things are going to be, because it is 
more than just the schools in and of itself, sir.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Moylan. Thank you.
    And just quickly, of course, we want the military, the 
long-term relationship, and it is important that we continue 
our cultural relationship and make everybody feel at home, too. 
So, I hope you please continue to do so, and working with our 
communities, working with our mayors.
    The Chairman. The gentleman's time has expired.
    Mr. Moylan. Thank you, and I applaud you for your----
    The Chairman. I yield to the ranking member five minutes.
    Mr. Kim. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Thank you again for all of you to come on out here today.
    I have a couple of questions about mental health-related 
issues, but I did want to just ask a very quick question, since 
it is a topic that has come up several times in this hearing. I 
want to just kind of quickly ask each of you, do you have any 
reason to believe that Divesity, Equity, and Inclusion 
initiatives are negatively impacting our recruitment, our 
retention, or lethality of the Force?
    Sergeant Major?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Ranking Member, as I have 
previously stated, in our survey, that was not the Number 1, 2, 
3, 4, or 5 reasons on how that would negatively impact our 
soldiers.
    Mr. Kim. Okay. Thank you.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Or our future recruits.
    Mr. Kim. I appreciate it.
    Master Chief Petty Officer?
    Master Chief Petty Officer Honea. Ranking Member Kim, I 
would echo the Sergeant Major of the Army's comments.
    Mr. Kim. Great. Thank you.
    Chief Master Sergeant?
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. I agree, sir. What I would say 
is, back to the opening statements, I think the narrative that 
we are focused on that more than warfighting is what is perhaps 
hurting us.
    Mr. Kim. Sergeant Major Black?
    Sergeant Major Black. That we are focused more on 
warfighting and protecting the Nation, I think we will probably 
see those numbers increase.
    Mr. Kim. Chief Master Sergeant?
    Chief Master Sergeant Towberman. Yes, sir, I agree with my 
teammates.
    Mr. Kim. Thank you.
    I want to just switch gears here, as we are thinking 
through some of the issues. And I have raised this with you as 
we were talking earlier.
    One of the big things that I hear about from people in my 
district is about mental health. We have had some tragic 
suicides in our region.
    I recently saw that the Suicide Prevention and Response 
Independent Review Committee released over 125 recommendations 
to reduce the rate of military suicide. So, I want to just get 
your reactions to this in terms of what you are hearing, if you 
had a chance to review any of this.
    But, in particular, when I was looking through it, it felt 
like a number of these types of recommendations are ones that I 
think we have talked about already or ones that we have 
understood in terms of how to have better healthcare access and 
support for our service members.
    So, I would also like you to just try to address, you know, 
what is holding us back? Is there something that you need from 
us? Is there something that we could offer, or other things 
like that, that can try to help us make sure we close this 
down?
    Sergeant Major, it looks like you wanted to jump in.
    Sergeant Major Black. Ranking Member, so thank you for the 
question and, really, the interest.
    I haven't read through, and I don't know if the rest of the 
panel has, the Independent Review Commission's recommendations.
    Let me first start by saying, thank you for the Review. But 
if I were to challenge anything, it would be the following: 
mental health, in and of itself, is not mutually exclusive of 
other factors. Generally, it is a combination of things that 
make someone have challenges. Mental health results in 
potential suicide.
    I think, occasionally, we get too wrapped up in a single 
issue and forget the fact that human beings are very complex, 
and there is more things to look at holistically. For instance, 
what piece does spirituality fit into sense of worth, right, 
when it comes to mental fitness? How do we think about social 
fitness, how we interact with each other, right? How do we 
think about our behavioral fitness? Obviously, we talk about 
performance and fitness in terms of physical fitness a lot, but 
that is also an aspect of it. And then, lastly, there is an 
aspect of mental fitness.
    That holistic view is a lot of what we found inside of the 
Independent Review Commission, right, along with some quality-
of-life challenges, right? So, all of those things together are 
wrapped up in a study labeled ``suicide,'' but a holistic human 
performance and fitness look holistically, that is a new way to 
look at solving the problem, rather than just one thing at a 
time, sir.
    Mr. Kim. Well, one thing I want to just kind of expand on 
here, just in my final minute here, is: some of the 
recommendations focused on issues about length of assignments, 
greater flexibility in a career trajectory, more predictability 
in unit training. Some of those, you know, certainly sound very 
direct to this issue, but some of them, also, sound like these 
are the types of things that we can be doing for recruitment, 
retention, and just overall modernizing sort of how we 
understand our workforce. Does that make sense to you? Is that 
something that you would agree upon?
    I guess maybe, Chief Master Sergeant Bass, if you don't 
mind kind of speaking to this?
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Sir, thank you so much for 
that.
    Absolutely. Like I was actually really excited to read all 
of the recommendations. And a lot of them we are already doing. 
Some of those ones that you mentioned, though, with respect to 
assignments, et cetera, those will draw budget requirements. 
And so, those are some of the challenges that all of our 
services have to face when it comes to Military Personnel 
[MILPERS] accounts and things like that. We absolutely want to 
do those things, but when you have a set amount of budget, it 
will challenge our ability to get after some of those 
assignment things.
    Mr. Kim. Yes, and I will just say here to conclude, you 
know, that is on us, too.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Kim. So, you know, I very much want to engage with you 
on what these best practices are, and then, make sure that the 
Chairman and I, and this Committee, are doing everything we can 
to fund it.
    Thank you.
    The Chairman. I yield five minutes to Representative 
Alford.
    Mr. Alford. Thank you, Chairman Banks, and thank you, 
Ranking Member Kim.
    Nine percent, that is a number that really jumped out in 
the testimony and what was written that we were able to look at 
beforehand--the number, the percentage of young people who are 
actually interested in joining our Armed Services.
    I, of course, am a freshman. I'm joined by my brothers here 
in our freshman class who have served in our military. I never 
served, but I gave up everything I have to run for this office 
and to be here today, because I feel like we are very close to 
going over the edge as a Nation. And I wanted to do something 
to serve my Nation, and this was it.
    I read a book from Simon Sinek. It's entitled, `Start with 
Why'. And it was very instrumental in helping me form exactly 
why I wanted to do this.
    There are two ways to motivate people--one through 
manipulation and one through inspiration. Typically, 
manipulation involves some sort of fear. And we live in a very 
dangerous time, as you all know--the threat from the Communist 
Chinese government, the uncertainty with the war in Ukraine. 
So, it would be very easy, I think, to try to motivate someone 
through fear, the existential threats that our Nation faces.
    We need to inspire young people to greatness. We need to 
inspire people to the greatest of America. We need to let them 
know that the American dream is alive.
    I personally believe we have been sold a bill of goods that 
our strength as a Nation relies on our diversity. I truly 
believe the strength in our Nation relies on our commonality, 
what we have in common. And that one thing we have in common is 
we live in the greatest Nation ever known to man. And it is 
worth serving. It is worth fighting for. It is worth dying for.
    We had to get out on the House Floor and publicly denounce 
socialism. I never thought in my wildest days that one of the 
first things we would have to do in Congress, when I got here, 
is to educate Americans and denounce socialism.
    We live in the greatest Nation known to man, an experiment 
in democracy, a republic with no equal, a beacon of hope, a 
refuge for freedom, a land of opportunity. So, how do we get 
our young people, without manipulating them through fear, how 
do we, in their eyes, make America worth serving?
    Sergeant Major Grinston, I will start with you.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Sir, Congressman, thank you for 
the question.
    I actually will go off what the Sergeant Major of the 
Marine Corps already said. We have to tell our stories. We have 
to share. We have to be out there and be an inspiration for all 
those young men and women and just advocate that we are the 
greatest country in the world, and we have the greatest, 
strongest military the world has ever seen. Full stop.
    And we are going to take care of our people. We have got 
great programs. And we are hard on ourselves. Let's be honest, 
that in our militaries, we go and we look at ourselves, and 
sometimes we are overly critical and say, ``We need to do 
better. We need to do better.''
    But make no doubt, like I said in my opening comment, we 
have the greatest Army the world has ever seen, and will see in 
the foreseeable future. And I think that is what every 
narrative has to be from every American, not just us in the 
service.
    Have you asked your kids, your cousins, your uncles, your 
nieces, your nephews, and their parents, ``Why aren't your kids 
joining the military?'' And it shouldn't be just those in the 
military that do that. And then, `Are you advocating for us?' 
Remember, we are your Army, your service.
    Mr. Alford. We are about out of time, and I wouldn't want 
to throw it to anyone else on our witness panel, not giving 
them the justice of time to answer that question.
    But I thank you for your service from the bottom of my 
heart, and I will do all I can to fight for you, and to fight 
for this Nation, in the time that I have left here.
    Thank you so much. I yield back.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    That completes our first round. I have had a request for a 
second round. So, with the permission of the ranking member, 
can we do a rapid-fire second round of questions for those who 
would like to?
    I will begin. Sergeant Major Grinston, you have referenced 
an Army study a handful of times. The study was leaked to the 
media, to an Associated Press reporter, but hasn't been made 
publicly available. Why would the Army not be willing to 
publish that recruitment report, make it publicly available?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. I'm not sure, Congressman. We will 
have to take that for the record and make sure we can get you 
that. I don't control the survey, but we have an obligation and 
will see what we can do.
    The Chairman. You did talk about the results of the 
survey----
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Yes, sir.
    The Chairman. ----in public testimony. Why not make it 
publicly available? I mean, why wouldn't the Army be willing to 
do that?
    You also made strong comments to members of the Committee 
suggesting that, because they are talking about the effects of 
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, that that is having 
a more severe consequence on recruitment than the actual 
programs themselves. If you are willing to say that in public 
testimony, why wouldn't the Army be willing to make that report 
public?
    Can you take that for the record and have the Army get back 
to me on that?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Yes.
    The Chairman. I appreciate it.
    And with that, I would yield to Ranking Member Kim.
    Mr. Kim. Look, I just wanted to follow up on one more 
question that I have. You know, we talked a lot about 
recruitment. We talked a lot about the challenges that we are 
facing here. I guess my question to you here, just to help me 
think through this, is: what new tools or what new tactics are 
you thinking about here? We were talking about school access 
and we were talking about some of the narrative elements, and I 
think those are certainly part of this.
    But, as we are thinking through this kind of new paradigm 
shift moment--and certainly a lot of new challenges out there, 
not just for the military, but for every employer in this 
country when it comes to workforce--I am curious if that has 
pushed you to think through sort of new tools, new tactics, 
things like that that would be helpful for us to know about 
here in Congress.
    Go ahead.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Ranking Member, if I can just 
add, you know, for us, it is interesting, right, for those of 
us who have been around when 9/11 happened, our bases, by and 
large, were more open than they are today. And since that, they 
were more closed off.
    You know, our Chief of Staff of the Air Force pushed a note 
to every one of our wing commanders saying, ``We've got to 
figure out ways to some degree be able to open our bases back 
up.'' So, you don't have Americans that live five miles down 
the road and have no idea what is happening on our 
installations and what we offer.
    And so, we are opening ourselves up to partner with our 
communities more than we ever have before. I would offer, when 
it comes to recruiting, we have to start way left, even before 
high school. You know, children, we have to start to inspire at 
elementary school, middle school. And so, we are doing those 
things organically by encouraging our airmen to spend time in 
some of the schools with Science, Technology, Engineering, and 
Math programs and other things like that.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Kim. Yes, thank you.
    And I just want to end here by just kind of reiterating a 
point that I just thought, Sergeant Major Grinston, you made so 
eloquently in your opening remarks about just that sense. I 
wrote it down here. You talked about this national call to 
service. And I want to thank you for talking about it in that 
kind of way.
    You framed it as saying that what inspires people to want 
to join our military is that they want to be part of something 
bigger than all of us. And I very much feel that as well. I did 
not serve in uniform, but, in terms of what inspired me to 
serve this country, it was very much in that same vein.
    There are a number of us in Congress on both sides of the 
aisle that are trying to develop up efforts that would build 
towards a national service program, or something of that 
nature, that would very much try to instill in people--whether 
they decide to go into uniform or not, or non-uniform, or 
government, or public service in a different way.
    But I just want to thank you and everyone on this panel for 
your patriotism, but, also, your belief that we can still turn 
this ship around and make sure that we can inspire a new 
generation to serve. And I would like to continue to work with 
you to realize that.
    Thank you.
    The Chairman. I yield to Representative Mills.
    Mr. Mills. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Just touching back on what I was mentioning earlier--and I 
would love to hear each of you individually with a simple yes 
or no, so we can kind of get through this--but do you feel 
that, with the increased focus on pronoun training and 
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, that it has made us a more 
increased lethal and ready force?
    We will start with you, Sergeant Major of the Army.
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congressman, it is hard to answer 
that with a yes-or-no answer.
    Mr. Mills. Well, how about I will simplify it? Do you feel 
that pronoun training translates into increased lethality of 
our Armed Forces?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Again, it is really difficult to 
answer that with `yes or no'. I can just say that we are 
stronger and better the more inclusive we are, and it is a 
testament to see the diversity of this panel.
    Mr. Mills. So, when I served, I served with members who 
were born in Cambodia, lived in California. I started with 
people who had grown up in bad neighborhoods out of Brooklyn. I 
had served with people out of Alabama. It was pretty diverse. 
There was inclusion and we all considered ourselves to be able 
to bleed red, white, and blue.
    I'm curious, you know, because when I walk through 
Arlington and visit friends of mine, I don't notice that our 
headstones are actually lined up by race or gender, or by what 
our religious belief is. It is by the battlefields that we were 
all willing to fight and die together.
    So, I'm curious as to, when I talk to people and say, 
``Well, why aren't you looking to join the military?'' a lot of 
them say, ``Well, the military has been over-politicized. Well, 
the military has gone woke. Well, the military is now focused 
on areas that it doesn't really focus on what I care about,'' 
which is being able to do the things that I said that brought 
me in--the cool guy videos. You know, the 80 percent do stuff; 
20 percent, how cool does it look? Kick doors, jump out of 
planes, and increased lethality to be able to take it to the 
enemy.
    So, we are saying that this modification, and that this 
idea that we now have the--because we don't see the recruitment 
videos that we once saw whenever we, like, joined in the 
military. We are seeing that this new focus, this new shift, 
this new kind of woke ideology is not impacting recruitment and 
not impacting our readiness and lethality? I have a hard time 
believing that.
    Does anyone want to just address a yes or no? And I know 
you, Command Sergeant, you are more than welcome to go ahead.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Sir, I would offer you that the 
Air Force does not have pronoun training.
    And, sir, you know, you have asked where you can help us. I 
would offer, Congressman Mills, where we could use your help is 
by sharing that message that your Services are not focused on 
any of those such trainings more than we are on warfighting. 
That is a fact; I can assure you of that.
    We have challenges when it comes to quality-of-life of our 
airmen. That is not one of them.
    Mr. Mills. And we have not lowered standards in any way to 
include things such as Ranger school, where certain classes 
wasn't even carrying the ruckster and the Mountain Phase, and 
things like this? We have maintained standards at all times? Is 
that what we are saying?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congressman, yes, we have 
maintained our standards. And I would say that, when I looked 
at it, there is one hour of Equal Opportunity Training in Basic 
Training and 92 hours of Rifle Marksmanship Training. And if 
you go to One Station Unit Training [OSUT], there's 165 hours 
of Rifle Marksmanship Training, and still only one hour of 
Equal Opportunity Training.
    Mr. Mills. Well, I can tell you, from a person I had served 
with, one of my first roommates who ended up going throughout 
the Enlisted ranks all the way through to being a Major, he was 
training over at West Point and he was teaching squad and 
platoon tactics for infantrymen. And his class had got bumped 
because they wanted to introduce a new class which was called 
``Intro to Transsexuality.''
    Now, I'm not really certain on how that is a priority over 
platoon tactics, or how that in any way increased our lethality 
and readiness. I can guarantee we have the ability to ``out-
pronoun'' every one of our enemies; no doubt about it. But if 
you look at what China, Russia, and other folks are actually 
doing right now, it is about increased lethality and being able 
to take it to the West--economically, from resource 
perspectives, militarily, and also, making sure that they now 
have the largest navy in the world, not us.
    Just for the rest of the members who haven't answered yet, 
do you, on that same thing, feel that our priority had shifted 
somewhat because of the politicization, and that we are as 
ready now in lethality and readiness as we always have been?
    Sergeant Major Black. Congressman, great question.
    We are talking about words. There is a word that the 
Ranking Member used that I haven't heard yet, except for him. 
It is called patriotism. I will let that sink in in my verbal, 
my oral statement, what everyone here has said about 
propensity. Sir, if we want to focus on words, we probably 
should focus on words like patriotism.
    Mr. Mills. I agree.
    Sergeant Major Black. Some of the words we have used here 
are not words that we regularly use, right? And quite frankly, 
until we figure out--well, Congressman Bergman brought this up, 
his time in the 1980s serving on a certain panel and a study.
    In the 1980s, we knew who the enemy was, right? Everybody 
knew who the enemy was. We all talked the same about who the 
enemy was.
    Mr. Mills. That is right.
    Sergeant Major Black. That had us who wanted to join the 
military focused on what our mission was, and it was all based 
on the protection of the Constitution, period. That is called 
patriotism.
    And so, we can figure out who meets standards; who does not 
meet standards. But I can tell you this--and I won't speak for 
everyone--but in the Marine Corps, we have not lowered a single 
standard. We will not lower a single standard.
    Mr. Mills. As it should be.
    Sergeant Major Black. Whoever meets the requirements for 
becoming a United States Marine will be a Marine, as patriots 
protecting the Constitution, as we swear to.
    Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Mills. Thank you.
    And with that, I will go ahead and yield back.
    The Chairman. Do you have further questions?
    Representative Moylan.
    Mr. Moylan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Sergeant Major Black, if we can continue on where we left 
off, I think we were discussing the military presence over the 
next few years, and especially with the Marines. If you have 
ideas, or what is the Department of Defense's plans with the 
schooling for these families that are coming on out to Guam?
    Sergeant Major Black. Congressman, as I had mentioned, 
legitimately, I would like to take that for the record. Because 
along with education for the increasing amount of military 
personnel, Marines, in particular, are going to be arriving in 
Guam as part of the Camp Blaz reactivation, sir. There is a 
whole list of other things that we are really going to talk 
about, assets to the community, sir. It would be worth talking 
about offline.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Moylan. I appreciate that.
    Another follow-up question is that, given the magnitude of 
all the other Branches also expanding on Guam, I would like to 
make this an open question for any of the witnesses. First, for 
the many service members being stationed in Guam, it means 
moving far away from home to a place that is culturally unique 
within the United States. So, what programs or practices have 
you found to help service members integrate with the host 
community?
    Sergeant Major Grinston. Congressman, thank you for the 
question.
    I'm assuming most of us already have one program that deals 
with sponsorship of families as you move from one installation. 
It doesn't matter whether you go to Guam, if you go to Germany, 
if you go to Hawaii, or Alaska. All these moves are unique, in 
and of themselves. You are joining a community. You are joining 
a different culture that you might not have grown up in. You 
know, I moved from Alabama to Washington State my first move.
    And it is important for us to bring those families on as 
they move. And we have had the sponsorship program for a long 
time, since I have been in the Army. And that is how you bring 
people into the community. You welcome them.
    Most families want to look for two things, and it doesn't 
matter where you go. `Are you going to have a place to live, 
and, you know, are my kids going to be taken care of?' So, if I 
can get that, then I can get to work and I can just focus on 
the mission.
    And we have several programs, one of those being the 
Sponsorship Program for the Army.
    Chief Master Sergeant Bass. Congressman, in addition to the 
Sponsorship Program, we have base introduction briefs and 
programs, where all of our installation Command teams welcome 
our service members when they come onto the installation for 
the first time. And it is, typically, during those briefings--
that is, you know, a day or two days long--where we introduce 
them into the culture, to the community, and also, bring on a 
lot of our folks from off-base onto our base to help 
indoctrinate our service members.
    Sergeant Major Black. Congressman, if I could, as I was 
thinking about your question, I'm remiss, I didn't say, ``Hafa 
adai [speaking in the Chamorro language]''
    [Laughter.]
    But the reason is, as a young Marine--and I think we can 
all say this--if you are getting ready to get stationed in a 
new country, and getting into a new community or a new society, 
things like knowing that, when you get off the plane, people 
are going to run at you and they are going to say, like, 
``Aloha'' and ``Mahalo,'' if you go to Hawaii. If you go to 
Japan, it is going to be, ``Domo Arigato.'' And you are not a 
member of that community until you can also communicate with 
that community.
    That is one of the greatest benefits of service--to joining 
and sitting in these uniforms that we sit in--is being able to 
have those experiences.
    And I have never been stationed in Germany, but everyone 
who I know in the Army who has, they are like half-German, 
because they are part of that community, right, and not in the 
literal sense? But being part of the community is part of the 
integration into the communities.
    And just something as simple as saying, ``Half a day to 
you,'' that is part of that.
    Mr. Moylan. Hafa adai [speaking in the Chamorro language]. 
And thank you for that. I appreciate that, and I think we will 
be working out just fine.
    So, thank you for your service, folks.
    And I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    The Chairman. Thank you to all of you.
    Sergeant Major Black, this is a very patriotic committee. 
We have a duty and a job to address a recruitment crisis in 
this country. For the first time in 50 years of an All-
Volunteer Force, we have a crisis, and that is why we are here 
today, to address it.
    And, Sergeant Major Grinston, Diversity, Equity, and 
Inclusion programs--accusing Members of Congress of talking 
about issues and hurting recruitment, that is why we are here 
today, to dig deeply into these issues, to come up with 
solutions and guide the way for the National Defense 
Authorization Act, to solve big problems and big issues that we 
have that come to recruitment. That is the job of this 
committee, and I take it very seriously.
    But, with that, I want to thank all of you for your 
service, for providing testimony, your feedback.
    I want to close by requesting that you take the issues that 
we have identified and discussed here today back to your 
Service Personnel Chiefs and leadership, and let them know that 
we will be asking them what concrete actions they intend to 
take to mitigate the problems that we have identified in this 
hearing, and how they intend to rebuild trust with our service 
members.
    With that, and there being no further business, the 
subcommittee stands adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:57 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]



      
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                            A P P E N D I X

                             March 9, 2023

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                             March 9, 2023

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              QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING

                             March 9, 2023

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                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. BERGMAN

    Mr. Bergman. Are your recruiters getting access to the 
schools? Are the Boards of Education/Teachers/Counselors/
Coaches/Principles (influencers) welcoming recruiters into the 
schools?
    Sergeant Major of the Army Grinston. Under 20 U.S. Code 
Sec. 7908, Army recruiters are gaining access to high school 
students. Due to the pandemic, our recruiters used online 
platforms more often to connect with high school students but 
have now fully returned to a routine presence in the schools. 
Obtaining access to the schools has not been an issue, but 
rather strengthening relationships with those influencers to 
solidify a message about the Army as a potential career path. 
As such, United States Army Recruiting Command is working with 
the Civilian Aides to the Secretary of the Army and community 
partners to remedy any localized challenges.
    Mr. Bergman. Would you be willing to submit a list of 
current DoD policies that inhibit your ability to lead and are 
there policies are countering the positive efforts that you're 
expected to comply with?
    Sergeant Major of the Army Grinston. I am not aware of any 
DoD policies that inhibit my ability to lead nor aware of any 
policies that are countering the positive efforts I am expected 
to comply with.
    Mr. Bergman. Are your recruiters getting access to the 
schools? Are the Boards of Education/Teachers/Counselors/
Coaches/Principles (influencers) welcoming recruiters into the 
schools?
    Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Honea. Navy 
Recruiting Command (NRC) is required to report high schools 
that deny access via the Recruiter Access to High Schools 
database, maintained by the Defense Manpower Data Center. NRC 
is currently reporting zero high schools on this list. However, 
compliance is not the same as welcoming. The current law 
requires visits comparable to colleges and other employers 
which means some high schools only allow access no more than 
once a year. We continue to enhance communication and 
partnerships with local, state, and Federal education officials 
and influencers to promote military service as a meaningful 
post-high school pathway.
    Mr. Bergman. Would you be willing to submit a list of 
current DoD policies that inhibit your ability to lead and are 
there policies are countering the positive efforts that you're 
expected to comply with?
    Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Honea. When I took 
the helm of the enlisted force as the Navy's 16th MCPON, I 
identified my top priorities as warfighting competency, 
professional and character development, and quality of life. I 
am not aware of any DoD policies that inhibit my ability to 
lead efforts to support warfighting readiness, enlisted leader 
development and a culture of excellence in support of all 
enlisted Sailors.
    Mr. Bergman. Are your recruiters getting access to the 
schools? Are the Boards of Education/Teachers/Counselors/
Coaches/Principles (influencers) welcoming recruiters into the 
schools?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Bass. Our Department 
of the Air Force recruiters are working with school 
administrators in their areas to talk with students about 
opportunities in the Air Force and Space Force. However, there 
are varying levels of cooperation throughout the school 
districts, based on their openness to military recruiters. We 
train our recruiters to cultivate positive relationships with 
schools and administrators; and use the prescribed process for 
elevating school-access issues, and concerns, to their 
leadership teams for increased communication with these schools 
and school districts. Any help you can provide in this area is 
greatly welcome.
    Mr. Bergman. Would you be willing to submit a list of 
current DoD policies that inhibit your ability to lead and are 
there policies are countering the positive efforts that you're 
expected to comply with?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Bass. The Department 
of the Air Force maintains an open dialogue with Office of the 
Secretary of Defense (OSD) and Congress on policies and 
statutes that we believe require modification to best position 
us for success. As this is a dynamic employment environment, 
the list of legislative and policy change requests is ever-
changing. I very much welcome further dialogue on this, and all 
topics of interest regarding the current state of our service 
members, especially with your previous experience.
    Mr. Bergman. Are your recruiters getting access to the 
schools? Are the Boards of Education/Teachers/Counselors/
Coaches/Principles (influencers) welcoming recruiters into the 
schools?
    Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Black. Our recruiters 
are getting access to most schools throughout the Nation and 
engaging with influencers through Center of Influence events 
with educators, coaches, counselors, and boards of education. 
The Marine Corps appreciates the continued support of 
legislation from Congress that provides recruiters enhanced 
access to high schools and student directory lists.
    Additionally, we support efforts to incentivize schools 
such as including military service in school accountability 
plans in support of the Every Student Succeeds Act. This access 
remains critical to recruiting quality applicants. Without it, 
our Marine Recruiters would lose the most efficient and 
productive means of conveying military service opportunities to 
a diverse market. Maintaining access to high schools and 
student directories remains a top priority for ensuring 
continued success.
    Mr. Bergman. Would you be willing to submit a list of 
current DoD policies that inhibit your ability to lead and are 
there policies are countering the positive efforts that you're 
expected to comply with?
    Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Black. My commitment as 
the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is to ensure we are 
taking care of our Marines and their families. It's a key 
element of overall readiness and our warfighting prowess. 
There's no policy that prevents us from achieving readiness. I 
would offer that while we continue to dial in on the 
appropriate policies for our U.S. service members, propensity 
to serve continues to decline. The conversations we hold in 
public regarding the policies and practices we serve by affects 
our ability to attract the young men and women who are needed 
to defend our Nation and the Constitution. I trust that our 
elected leaders will always put our people first, so we, 
military leaders, may continue to attract, lead and retain a 
healthy and professional fighting force.
    Mr. Bergman. Are your recruiters getting access to the 
schools? Are the Boards of Education/Teachers/Counselors/
Coaches/Principles (influencers) welcoming recruiters into the 
schools?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Towberman. Our DAF 
recruiters are gaining access to schools to talk with students 
about opportunities in the Air Force and Space Force; they are 
welcomed by the school's administration. However, there are 
varying levels of cooperation throughout the school districts 
based on their openness to military recruiters. We train our 
recruiters to cultivate positive relationships with schools and 
administrators, but if schools deny access, they use the 
prescribed process for elevating these concerns to their 
leadership teams for increased communication with these schools 
and school districts.
    Mr. Bergman. Would you be willing to submit a list of 
current DoD policies that inhibit your ability to lead and are 
there policies are countering the positive efforts that you're 
expected to comply with?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Towberman. DAF 
maintains an open dialogue with OSD and the Congress on 
policies and statutes that we believe require modification to 
best position us for success. The list of legislative and 
policy change requests is ever-changing as might be expected in 
a dynamic employment environment. We've been very successful as 
a Space Force, under current policies, to find and retain our 
best Guardians. Our approach to tailor solutions to maximize 
individual talent and mission readiness is key to our success, 
regardless of policy.''
                                ------                                


                    QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. WALTZ

    Mr. Waltz. I am working on a proposal to encourage public 
schools to bring in active or retired military personnel to 
speak to classes about, or help teach, civics and physical 
education. Do you believe these sorts of interactions with 
servicemembers will help young people consider a military 
career?
    Sergeant Major of the Army Grinston. The Department of 
Defense (DoD) Office of People Analytics' Report State of the 
Recruiting Market (prepared by the Joint Advertising, Market 
Research & Studies (JAMRS) on January 2023) indicates that the 
youth market has transitioned from being disconnected from the 
military to mostly disinterested in the military. Establishing 
value alignment to spark interest with youth is the first 
hurdle for the Army. Making the connection between what the 
Army has to offer and how today's youth view their career 
decisions as interlinked with their personal values, via this 
proposal in public schools, would enable youth to have 
meaningful interactions with members of the United States Army.
    Mr. Waltz.. I am working on a proposal to encourage public 
schools to bring in active or retired military personnel to 
speak to classes about, or help teach, civics and physical 
education. Do you believe these sorts of interactions with 
servicemembers will help young people consider a military 
career?
    Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Honea. The Navy 
welcomes the opportunity to review and comment on any such 
proposal. Generally speaking, in today's difficult recruiting 
environment, we are challenged by both propensity and 
eligibility to serve that can benefit by encouraging schools to 
enhance both civics and physical fitness programs. Active and 
retired Service members can help create positive perceptions of 
military service by sharing their positive experiences and the 
benefits of their service. Helping our youth understand the 
value of military service, both in terms of tangible and 
intangible benefits, is essential to ensure the military 
remains relevant as they consider their post-high school plan.
    Schools are a priority setting for obesity prevention 
efforts because they reach the vast majority of school-aged 
youth, provide regularly scheduled opportunities for physical 
activity, and can offer nutritious foods through school meal 
programs. These efforts may reduce the prevalence of obesity 
among young and provide a larger population qualified and 
available for the opportunity of military service.
    Mr. Waltz. The USS George Washington, which is undergoing a 
long-term overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding, has had eight 
sailors assigned to the ship commit suicide in the last 10 
months. After a string of three suicides in one-month last 
April, the Navy determined that stress related to conditions 
living on the ship contributed to at least one of their deaths. 
This January, it was reported that another sailor assigned to 
the ship committed suicide.
    How is the Navy addressing this? What housing options be 
provided as an alternative to living on a ship undergoing 
constant construction?
    Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Honea. The Navy 
mourns the loss of our shipmates. While the Navy is a resilient 
force, we are not immune from the same challenges that affect 
the nation that we serve. The Navy is working daily and 
aggressively to ensure support and resources are available to 
Sailors in the shipyards, at sea, and at home. The Navy shares 
your concerns and has investigated these issues with an eye 
toward making lasting change. We can and must do more.
    The death of a USS George Washington (CVN 73) Sailor in 
January is still under investigation by the Newport News Police 
Department. The Sailor did not live in military housing but 
maintained a private residence with his roommate, another 
George Washington Sailor. In accordance with Navy regulations, 
the Commanding Officer of the USS George Washington convened a 
line-of-duty investigation to determine if the Sailor's death 
was in the line-of-duty and whether it was due to his own 
misconduct.
    This investigation is still ongoing. Line-of-duty 
investigations are limited in scope and affect survivor 
benefits. It would be inappropriate at this time to speculate 
as to the outcome of these investigations. It is known that the 
Sailor was experiencing numerous life stressors unrelated to 
military service and that he was receiving routine mental 
health care and seemed to be improving.
    The Navy continues to prioritize and promote mental health 
care for our Sailors in the shipyard, and numerous Quality of 
Service (Quality of Life + Quality of Work) initiatives are 
ongoing to help improve the lives of all Sailors in the 
shipyard. At the end of January, the Navy completed its 
expansive review of issues and programs that affect Sailor 
Quality of Service in the shipyards. The report is under review 
by Navy leadership and will be made public in the coming 
months. This review incorporated multi-disciplinary subject 
matter experts from numerous stakeholders to identify program 
areas that require increased attention, support, or resources. 
Over the past year, the Navy has been working diligently to 
immediately identify and solve problems as they arise. This is 
directly aligned with the Navy's ``Get Real, Get Better'' 
(GRGB) campaign. Through the GRGB initiative, the Navy intends 
to instill a culture in leaders to empower our people to find 
and fix problems at the lowest levels and to raise issues to 
leadership when they need help.
    The Navy is meticulously working towards implementing a 
number of immediate and long-term recommendations that were 
outlined in the command investigation released on December 
19th. Recommendations such as adding additional mental health 
counselors and refining the process of how we welcome new 
Sailors aboard ships has been implemented and have been well 
received. The Navy's goal is to ensure every Sailor knows they 
are a critical component of our Navy team, so improving our 
team-building programs remains a priority. This includes 
reviewing commands'sponsorship and mentorship programs to 
ensure we are connecting with Sailors and providing them 
avenues to seek help. Commands continue to promote that there 
is ``no wrong door'' in the Navy for Sailors to get the help 
they need. The Department of the Navy's suicide prevention 
efforts are aimed at encouraging positive help-seeking 
behaviors, eliminating stigma, promoting personnel safety, and 
increasing visibility and access to critical resources. 
Commands are using all avenues to inform Sailors, through 
multiple methods (e.g., ship announcements, monthly magazines, 
mental health pamphlets, resource fairs on and off ship, and 
videos on closed circuit television) of current and new 
resources to help promote greater personal resiliency.
    The Navy has taken a programmatic approach to countering 
individual destructive behaviors. The Navy's Culture of 
Excellence focuses on a holistic, cross-program approach to 
proactively build resilient Sailors in order to prevent 
destructive actions. The initiative is a Navy-wide approach to 
achieve warfighting excellence by fostering mental, physical, 
spiritual, and emotional toughness; promoting organizational 
trust and transparency; ensuring connectedness to every Sailor, 
civilian, and family member throughout their Navy journey. The 
Navy's Culture of Excellence programs proactively work to build 
resilient Sailors with intervention strategies to prevent 
destructive actions. The cultural champions network is a cross-
functional effort led by the command triad, designed to 
streamline conversation and care for Sailors and encourage them 
to stay connected to tools and resources to thrive in any 
condition--psychologically, spiritually, physically, and 
emotionally--throughout their career. Commands also have a 
Command Resilience Team Human Factors Council (CRT-HFC) that 
operates at a programmatic level to effect improvements for the 
benefit of the command. The CRT-HFC focuses on helping 
individual Sailors who have been identified as needing more 
care and resources.
    The Navy's recently released Mental Health Playbook is a 
tool for Navy leaders to assist them in preventing, mitigating, 
and addressing mental health concerns within their commands. It 
provides a framework for commanders to approach issues related 
to mental health, recognize mental health issues, and get 
Sailors the care they need. By providing increased resources, 
training, and tools to leaders and Sailors, earlier 
intervention and awareness may result in lower demand for 
skilled medical care. This will allow our skilled medical 
providers to focus their attention on the most at-risk Sailors.
    The Navy is committed to transparency and open to public 
scrutiny. We will continue to share information with 
congressional staff members to ensure these offices are kept up 
to date with all matters affecting Navy readiness and Sailor 
quality of life.
    Four options exist to house Sailors off the ship: 
     LProvide a housing allowance to procure private 
housing in the community. 
     LUnaccompanied housing. 
     LLeased housing. 
     LBerthing barge.
    Navy relies on community housing where available to house 
families and more senior unaccompanied Sailors. Statute 
prohibits payment of a housing allowance to E3 and below 
without dependents on sea duty. For junior unaccompanied 
enlisted Sailors, Navy looks first to unaccompanied housing 
(UH) at installations within a thirty-minute rush-hour commute 
of the Shipyard. Where UH is not available, Navy relies on the 
authority in 10 USC 8772 to acquire lodging accommodations 
either through the Shipyard or through a lease with a local 
community provider.
    Housing the entire crew on a berthing and messing barge is 
considered only as a last resort.
    The Navy does make use of Duty Crew Barges to provide 
housing for the Duty Crew in close proximately to the vessel to 
provide for duty section emergency response to fire, flooding, 
engineering casualty control, and security breaches. Duty crew 
barges also provide administrative offices, food service, and 
training facilities.
    Mr. Waltz. I am working on a proposal to encourage public 
schools to bring in active or retired military personnel to 
speak to classes about, or help teach, civics and physical 
education. Do you believe these sorts of interactions with 
servicemembers will help young people consider a military 
career?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Bass. These 
interactions are not only welcomed but necessary to expand the 
experiences of military service to our youth. In this 
challenging environment, where we need young people with a 
desire to serve, whether in the military or in their 
communities, a consistent presence in our public schools is 
imperative. Having active and retired military personnel 
speaking to our students provides another level of authenticity 
to the value of military service. I would ask Congress to 
support our efforts by working with States and local 
communities to expand and enhance programs like Purple Star 
Schools, which not only provide critical support for our 
military-connected children, but also build foundational 
connections with communities to recognize and celebrate the 
contributions of those who serve.
    Mr. Waltz. I am working on a proposal to encourage public 
schools to bring in active or retired military personnel to 
speak to classes about, or help teach, civics and physical 
education. Do you believe these sorts of interactions with 
servicemembers will help young people consider a military 
career?
    Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Black. Any increase of 
public exposure and education provide opportunity and 
awareness. Our recruiters offer these services now, however the 
Marine Corps appreciates support from Congress to enhance these 
efforts and increase the amount of access our Recruiters have 
to public schools. As you know, those who have served in 
uniform depart our ranks with increased professionalism, 
maturity, leadership, and skills that translate well into the 
civilian sector.
    Mr. Waltz. Sergeant Major Black, my staff recently visited 
Marine Basic training at Parris Island and I commend the work 
done there to prepare these young recruits for their careers in 
the Corps. However, one area that caught their attention was 
the water survival training portion where a small portion of 
recruits struggled. For some, this was their first time ever 
being in a swimming pool and lacked some basic swim skills. The 
swim instructors do an outstanding job in getting them ready, 
but it does take time. Time that could be spent with the rest 
of their training platoons to help acquire and develop the 
other essential skills to be a Marine. The Army has a pre-boot 
camp program that recruits can participate in to physically 
prepare themselves for boot camp. Does the Marine Corps have 
any similar programs and is basic aquatics part of it? If not, 
do you think the Marine Corps could benefit from such a 
program? What can this committee do to help?
    Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Black. The Marine Corps 
has a delayed entry program (DEP) designed to prepare and 
motivate applicants for shipping and recruit training. The 
goals of the DEP are to: mentally and physically prepare 
applicants for recruit training with the objective of reducing 
Marine Corps Recruit Depot attrition and maintain and enhance 
the motivation of applicants while they are in the DEP and to 
minimize DEP attrition. The DEP does not include an aquatics 
portion aside from an applicant that may self-profess a need 
for improvement or familiarization in the water. Most 
applicants do not have access to a pool or funding for pool 
memberships or lessons. The Marine Corps is exploring options 
for providing discounted or free-swimming lessons to applicants 
that self-profess a lack of basic swim skills.
    Mr. Waltz. I am working on a proposal to encourage public 
schools to bring in active or retired military personnel to 
speak to classes about, or help teach, civics and physical 
education. Do you believe these sorts of interactions with 
servicemembers will help young people consider a military 
career?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Towberman. These 
interactions are not only welcomed but necessary to expand the 
experiences of military service to our youth. In this 
challenging recruiting environment, a consistent presence in 
our public schools is imperative. Having active and retired 
military personnel speaking to our students provides another 
level of authenticity to the value of military service. I would 
ask Congress to support our efforts by working with States and 
local communities to expand and enhance programs like Purple 
Star Schools, which not only provide critical support for our 
militarily connected children, but also build foundational 
connections with communities to recognize and celebrate the 
contributions of those who serve.
                                ------                                


                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. MOYLAN

    Mr. Moylan. With the increase in military presence on Guam 
over the next few years, what are the Department of Defenses 
plans with constructing new schools?
    Sergeant Major of the Army Grinston. This question would be 
best addressed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
    Mr. Moylan. What issues have enlisted personnel on Guam 
reported regarding commissary use in Guam? Are they 
experiencing shortages of goods like baby formula, and do 
barriers exist on Guam preventing service members from 
accessing necessary goods that my office should be aware of?
    Sergeant Major of the Army Grinston. The Army has a 
relatively small number of enlisted personnel in Guam. The 
larger service components on Guam are Navy and Air Force. To 
highlight, the Army Active Component is 198, U.S Army Reserves 
is 490, and Army National Guard is 1,154, totaling 1,842. The 
feedback received from soldiers of the 94th Army Air and 
Missile Defense Command were minor concerns regarding the 
commissary on Andersen Air Force Base (AAFB). The majority of 
these soldiers shop at the AAFB commissary (rather than the 
Naval Base Guam commissary which is larger and has a greater 
selection of goods) as the formations are tenant units at the 
AAFB. Non-dairy milk products or alternatives to real milk as 
well as pre-packaged/pre-made salads are frequently out of 
stock; both can take one to two weeks to be resupplied.
    Soldiers have noticed a trend that when the AAFB commissary 
displays include enforcing signage ``limiting purchase to x2 
per household'', stocks of meat and fresh produce stay on the 
shelves a lot longer and do not experience shortages. However, 
soldiers also reported hoarding or over-purchasing for these 
products when signs are not displayed; this has been observed 
from retirees and/or locals accompanying someone with 
commissary access.
    Mr. Moylan. With the increase in military presence on Guam 
over the next few years, what are the Department of Defenses 
plans with constructing new schools?
    Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Honea. The 
Department is currently assessing options to handle the growth 
on Guam through 2029.
    Mr. Moylan. What issues have enlisted personnel on Guam 
reported regarding commissary use in Guam? Are they 
experiencing shortages of goods like baby formula, and do 
barriers exist on Guam preventing service members from 
accessing necessary goods that my office should be aware of?
    Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Honea. Neither my 
office nor the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) leadership are 
aware of any reported issues regarding commissary use in Guam.
    Regarding access to goods, during the last year, DeCA has 
experienced several challenges including manufacturing cuts, 
distributor labor and driver shortages, ship delays, and port 
congestion. These have placed a strain on overseas distribution 
centers, which then impacts fill rates at the stores. The 
manufacturing cuts have decreased in Fiscal Year 2023 and fill 
rates have improved, climbing to 82%. Stock availability for 
the Guam Central Distribution Center (CDC) averages 85% for 
chill, dry and freeze categories.
    In late January of 2023, DeCA upgraded its Central 
Distribution Center warehouse, ordering and forecasting system. 
The conversion caused minor disruptions. DeCA invested in the 
new Warehouse Management System (WMS) to improve stock 
availability in overseas distribution centers. This improvement 
allows DeCA to maximize warehouse utilization, track product 
availability, and allow for more efficient ordering from our 
suppliers.
    DeCA continues to prioritize overseas operations to ensure 
our outside the contiguous United States patrons receive the 
bulk of limited products. DeCA leadership is unaware of an 
inability to access goods at commissary locations in Guam.
    Mr. Moylan. With the increase in military presence on Guam 
over the next few years, what are the Department of Defenses 
plans with constructing new schools?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Bass. Because Guam 
encompasses numerous Services, we defer this question to the 
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 
Readiness (OSD-P&R); specifically, the Assistant Secretary of 
Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs and their DoD 
Educational Activity (DoDEA) division.
    Mr. Moylan. What issues have enlisted personnel on Guam 
reported regarding commissary use in Guam? Are they 
experiencing shortages of goods like baby formula, and do 
barriers exist on Guam preventing service members from 
accessing necessary goods that my office should be aware of?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Bass. Our service 
members continue to face challenges in Guam at the Commissaries 
including low product quantities and expired, or near-expiring, 
daily use products like milk. We know this is due to DeCA 
experiencing several challenges during the last year, including 
manufacturing cuts, distributor labor, driver shortages, ship 
delays, and port congestion, which have strained overseas 
distribution centers. Additionally, manufacture cuts averaged 
17.27% in FY22.
    Regardless, when products are unavailable at the Commissary 
where prices are subsidized on known value items (meat, eggs, 
milk, etc.), our members must purchase these items from local 
markets paying, in some cases, quadruple the price. It is 
important to note that DeCA is aware of these challenges and 
continues to prioritize overseas operations to overcome supply 
chain problems and ensure OCONUS service members receive the 
bulk of limited products.
    Mr. Moylan. With the increase in military presence on Guam 
over the next few years, what are the Department of Defenses 
plans with constructing new schools?
    Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Black. An assessment is 
underway to evaluate all school requirements associated with 
the military presence in Guam.
    Mr. Moylan. What issues have enlisted personnel on Guam 
reported regarding commissary use in Guam? Are they 
experiencing shortages of goods like baby formula, and do 
barriers exist on Guam preventing service members from 
accessing necessary goods that my office should be aware of?
    Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Black. Supply chain 
constraints on Guam have a noticeable impact on the 
availability of commodities for service members, dependents, 
and other authorized patrons. Inventory levels at the base 
exchange and commissary are subject to change without notice 
and make family meal planning/grocery budget management a 
challenge.
    Another contributing factor is the bulk purchase of items 
by authorized patrons from within the local population. Guam 
has the highest rate of military service per capita in the 
United States and there are roughly 30,000 veteran patrons 
eligible for commissary and exchange services within the 
civilian population. These numbers are not captured in the base 
loading criteria to determine Commissary/Exchange size and 
service levels. Item restrictions put in place by Installation 
Commanders to mitigate the negative effects of buying in bulk 
are left to cashiers to enforce. Specific examples of items 
often seen being purchased in bulk include meat, baby products, 
and over the counter medicine.
    These sentiments have been validated through several 
working groups and other informal data calls with service 
members and their families.
    Mr. Moylan. With the increase in military presence on Guam 
over the next few years, what are the Department of Defenses 
plans with constructing new schools?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Towberman. Because 
Guam encompasses numerous Services we defer this question to 
the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 
Readiness (OSC-P&R); specifically, the Assistant Secretary of 
Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs and their DoD 
Educational Activity (DoDEA) division.
    Mr. Moylan. What issues have enlisted personnel on Guam 
reported regarding commissary use in Guam? Are they 
experiencing shortages of goods like baby formula, and do 
barriers exist on Guam preventing service members from 
accessing necessary goods that my office should be aware of?
    Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Towberman. DeCA 
leadership is unaware of any issues reported regarding 
commissary use in Guam. DeCA has experienced several challenges 
during the last year, including manufacturing cuts, distributor 
labor, driver shortages, ship delays, and port congestion, 
which have strained our overseas distribution centers. 
Manufacture cuts averaged 17.27% in FY22. DeCA has begun to see 
improvement in FY23, with manufacturing cuts decreasing to an 
average of 12.45%. FY22 fill rates from our distributors 
averaged 76%; FY23 rates have climbed to 82%. Our stock 
availability for the Guam Central Distribution Center (CDC) is 
85% chill, 85% dry, and 87% freeze. The CDC recently upgraded 
from Power Enterprise (PE) to Warehouse Management System (WMS) 
in late January 2023. Although, as expected, the conversion 
caused minor disruptions, product availability is now at normal 
levels.
    DeCA invested in WMS, an automated warehouse system, and an 
ordering/forecasting system to improve stock availability in 
our overseas distribution centers. This improvement allows DeCA 
to maximize warehouse utilization, track product availability, 
and allow for more efficient ordering from our suppliers. DeCA 
continues prioritizing our overseas operations to ensure our 
OCONUS patrons receive the bulk of the limited product. DeCA 
leadership is unaware of service members' inability to access 
goods at commissary locations in Guam. This is the collective 
DAF response.