[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12012-S12014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE DEFENSE MANPOWER DRAWDOWN

 Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, almost 4 years ago I made a series of 
speeches about our men and women in uniform who won the cold war.
  I asked my colleagues to remember their sacrifice as we undertook the 
unprecedented drawdown of our All Volunteer Force.
  I asked that we ensure that the drawdown was accomplished in a way 
that preserved the legacy of national security which that force had 
built.
  And I called on the Congress to see that people leaving military 
service were given a helping hand as they moved into civilian life, 
because we owed it to them and because the Nation needed their skills.
  When I made those remarks, the post-cold-war drawdown was mostly in 
front of us. Although it had started in 1987, the downsizing moved 
slowly at first and then halted completely for Desert Shield and Desert 
Storm.
  Today, as I rise to review what has happened in the intervening 3 
years, the downsizing is over 90 percent complete, and next year it 
will essentially be complete.
  Let me begin by looking at the drawdown and how we did at meeting 
this enormous challenge. In the late 1980's, after the disintegration 
of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, it became clear that we could 
make significant reductions in the size of our Armed Forces. It was 
decided by the Bush administration and the Congress to reduce military 
personnel by approximately one-third over a period of 5 years.
  As a nation, we had experience with large demobilizations after World 
War

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I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. This drawdown, however, was to be 
different. The United States had never before sought to downsize an 
all-volunteer force.
  In those earlier reductions, our conscripted soldiers were more than 
happy to return to civilian life. In contrast, the men and women who 
had won the cold war had all chosen a military career and expected to 
be able to remain in uniform as long as they performed their duties 
well.
  Under these circumstances, nobody in the Congress or in the Defense 
Department knew how the downsizing would turn out, and many were 
skeptical that it would turn out well.
  A drawdown of this magnitude could easily have caused bitterness, 
skill gaps, stalled promotion opportunities, morale problems and could 
have created a hostile attitude toward the military across the society.

  As we began to reduce the size of the force, some predicted that the 
best and the brightest would take the opportunity to get out of the 
service, leaving us with a less than ready military.
  But Congress, two administrations, and the military leadership worked 
together to ensure that through the drawdown the force was carefully 
shaped to maintain quality and readiness.
  We in the Congress provided creative tools, like early retirement and 
special separation benefits, which allowed the Pentagon to carefully 
shape the force and to address emerging problems as they occurred.
  In this regard, each of the military services--and especially the 
Army--did a tremendous job in balancing the needs of current and future 
readiness with the imperative of easing in every way possible the 
transition to civilian life of those who would be leaving the service 
as a direct result of the drawdown.
  Mr. President, the results are impressive:
  The quality of our force is higher than at the start of the drawdown. 
The proportion of active duty enlisted personnel in the upper aptitude 
categories has increased from 56 percent in 1987 to 66 percent in 1995. 
Those in the lowest acceptable aptitude category dropped from 11 
percent of the force in 1987 to just 6 percent in 1995.
  Our force is more experienced, as measured by age and length of 
service. For example, the average age increased 1.4 years from 1987 to 
1995 (to 28.7) and there are 45 percent fewer enlisted service members 
under age 22.
  And, despite warnings that the drawdown would sacrifice the 
military's hard won gains for women and minorities, their 
representation has actually increased. The percentage of women in 
active service has increased from 10 percent to 13 percent. Total 
minority representation in the active force has increased from 27.4 
percent to 30.5 percent. Minority field grade officers showed an even 
larger increase: from 7 percent of the total to 12 percent.
  As we achieved these impressive results, we maintained our obligation 
to be fair to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. Only a very 
small number of service members were involuntarily separated to achieve 
our downsizing goals.
  Let me repeat that, although over 1 million people have left the 
military during the drawdown, fewer than 2,000 service members were 
involuntarily separated. The Pentagon used tools such as the special 
separation benefit, provided by the Congress, to perform this miracle.

  The Nation will be reaping the benefits of that accomplishment in 
recruitment and public good will for years to come.
  We also took special care with the service members who had dedicated 
their professional lives to the military. In order to maintain an 
orderly flow through the ranks, we had to thin at all experience 
levels, including those with 15 to 19 years in the service.
  Service members with this many years in uniform had made a long-term 
commitment to military, but had not yet reached the 20 years necessary 
for retirement benefits. In many cases their decisions to stay in the 
Armed Forces were predicated on being able to make it to 20 years to be 
eligible for retirement.
  An easy approach would have been simply to dismiss these people--but 
that would have been short-sighted and, I believe, morally 
indefensible. However, using the early retirement program which I 
called for in 1992 and which became law in fiscal year 1993, we were 
able to keep faith with these patriots and save taxpayer money, too, by 
offering early retirement. Over 34,000 men and women have availed 
themselves to the early retirement option.
  By shaping the force thoughtfully, we also maintained promotion 
opportunities that helped us keep the highly skilled and experienced 
service members we needed to retain.
  In sum, the drawdown has been a real success. The credit for that 
success goes to those who administered this effort, to my colleagues 
and former colleagues in the Congress, to the leadership of the 
military services, and to the rank and file service members who have 
performed so brilliantly during this time of turbulence.
  The second part of my call in January 1992, was to see that those 
departing the service were helped in their transition to the civilian 
economy. It would have been wasteful and wrong to send these people out 
into the job market with no guidance or support.
  I am pleased to report that the military has used the programs 
created by the Congress to benefit departing service members on an 
unprecedented scale.
  The effort begins 3 months before a service member leaves the 
military, when they are offered preseparation counseling. This includes 
information concerning relocation, employment issues, financial 
assistance, education and training benefits, health and life insurance 
rules, veterans benefits and assistance in developing individual 
transition plans.

  The next step in preparing for the civilian job market is the 
transition assistance program workshop. Working in coordination with 
the Departments of Labor and Veterans Affairs, the Department of 
Defense has implemented transition assistance programs at some 200 
sites in the United States, and more overseas.
  Staffed by outplacement and employment experts, 330 transition sites 
worldwide provide intensive individual counseling to departing service 
members and their families. These programs teach resume writing and 
interviewing, provide information on the current job market and help 
the attendees understand how best to translate their military skills 
into skills needed in the civilian work force. The courses have also 
been put on video to accommodate the special needs of sailors deployed 
at sea for their last tour and those service members stationed at 
remote duty locations.
  The rewards of this program can be seen with people like Jerry Sack. 
As Jerry was getting out of the Marine Corps in California, he had two 
dreams, to be a fireman and to move to Georgia, where his wife had 
grown up.
  He said at the outset that he thought these twin goals were nearly 
impossible. But the transition assistance people worked intensively 
with Jerry on his resume, interviewing techniques, and job search 
strategies.
  Then they gave him a lead on a civilian fire chief's job at the 
Marine Corps logistics base in Albany, GA. With the tap team's 
guidance, he hit the books to prepare for the interview. The team heard 
that Jerry got his dream job when he wrote back saying:

       Because of your staff, and only because of your staff, I 
     was able to prepare myself personally and on paper to be 
     selected for this position as fire chief.

  The Department of Defense has also created an automated job matching 
system. Departing service members enter their resumes, skills, and job 
criteria and they can be matched with private employers who use the 
service free of charge. This system and a transition bulletin board 
maintained by DOD, is a great example of how the information super 
highway can be used to help veterans.
  Here are just a few examples of the results of this system: a number 
of individuals have been placed with Infotec Corp. in Virginia helping 
to track down missing children; a dozen more are working as managers 
and line officers at the Indiana Department of Corrections; three were 
hired by Metropolitan Life Insurance; and the new engineering 
coordinator at Telspan International was hired through this system. And 
there are many more who

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have been hired as computer programmers, stockbrokers, and supervisors.

  One satisfied employer who used this high-technology service wrote 
back saying, ``the guys coming out of the military are our best 
workers.''
  That comes as no surprise to anyone here, but it is good to know the 
word is getting out to employers nationwide.
  All of this has led to a much friendlier transition for many 
thousands of military families.
  The best indicator of our success is that thousands of employers who 
hire veterans come back to hire more through the automated systems and 
job fairs. A healthy economy is certainly helping, but the transition 
programs are ensuring that people leaving the military can match their 
skill to high quality civilian jobs.
  The heart of my challenge 3 years ago was to help departing service 
members use their skill and leadership abilities to address some of our 
Nation's pressing needs. The problems I talked about then are, 
unfortunately, still with us today including violence in the streets 
and a need for discipline and role models in our schools.
  In the fiscal year 1994 Defense Authorization Act, we created a 
program within the temporary early retirement authority which 
encouraged retiring service members to enter public and community 
service employment.
  Under this program, if an early-retiree takes a job in a critically 
needed skill area, he or she can accrue additional military retirement 
credit up to the 20-year mark.
  Today almost 9,000 individuals who chose early retirement are working 
in public and community service positions and, as such, are earning 
additional credits toward their military retirement. This program has 
encouraged many of our former service members to use their talents to 
improve their communities.
  There has been a big push lately for the Federal Government to help 
States and localities cope with crime. But in many ways, the quality of 
law enforcement will never be better than the quality of the front line 
police officers patrolling the street. That's why I suggested that 
service people, with their training to think on their feet and handle 
complex and dangerous situations, be encouraged to pursue a law 
enforcement career.

  To this end, we authorized the Troops to Cops Program. A combined 
effort of the Departments of Defense and Justice, Troops to Cops will 
provide funds to local law enforcement agencies to offset the initial 
cost of hiring former service members as police officers. We may never 
have statistics on the number of crimes prevented or how much safer 
people feel as a result of having these highly-trained professionals on 
their local police force, but America will certainly be the better for 
it.
  Perhaps the most successful community service initiative we 
established for people leaving the service is the troops to teachers 
program. This program provides stipends to assist people leaving the 
military in obtaining certification as elementary and secondary school 
teachers or teachers' aides.
  In addition, it helps disadvantaged local schools that have a 
shortage of teachers and teachers' aides to hire program participants. 
This program helps bring together one of our greatest national needs, 
tough but inspiring teachers for tough schools, with one of our 
greatest national assets the men and women trained and molded by the 
Armed Forces.
  Departing service members placed in the troops to teachers program 
everywhere from South Carolina to New York are writing back to the 
Department of Defense, raving about the support they've gotten.
  To date, 4,337 departing service members have been selected for the 
troops to teachers program; 1,482 are now in training programs leading 
toward the necessary certification. And over 800 former soldiers, 
sailors, airmen and marines are already in classrooms helping America's 
kids. This is a success story of the first order.
  In sum, Mr. President, the post-cold war drawdown of our forces and 
the transition programs for departing service members are a case of 
government doing a job well. The Congress, the executive branch, and 
the uniformed military each did their part, and we all had the 
readiness of the force and the well-being of the service members in 
mind as we created and executed these policies.

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