[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 29, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8224-S8226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        U.S. STATE OF READINESS

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I saw a very interesting article in 
Friday's Washington Times that has brought to surface the truth that is 
so often avoided around here concerning our state of readiness in our 
Nation' defense system.
  As the chairman of the readiness subcommittee of the Senate Armed 
Services Committee, I have had occasion to visit many, many of the 
installations around the country. I have been in the European theater, 
most of the installations in England, Italy, Hungary, and, of course, 
several times to Bosnia, Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base; Fort Hood, TX; 
Fort Bragg, NC; Corpus Christi Navy Air Base, and several others. What 
I am finding is that there are very serious problems they are facing.
  Mr. President, I know you are aware, as chairman of the personnel 
subcommittee, of some of these problems and how they are affecting our 
state of readiness. One of the contributing factors, of course, is our 
contingency operations. We have two serious problems with contingency 
operations. First of all, they are very expensive. We had occasion to 
narrowly lose our resolution of disapproval in order to keep our troops 
from being sent over to Bosnia here back in December 1995--only by four 
votes. And one of the determining factors was they said it would be a 
12-month operation, which we all knew better, but they also said that 
the cost of the operation would not exceed $2 billion, it would be 
somewhere between $1.5 and $2 billion. At that time we felt, with 
mission creep and the fact it was easy to go in and very difficult to 
come out, that it would cost more.
  Well, sure enough. We are up there now, close to $7 billion it is 
going to cost us.
  Where does that money come from, Mr. President? It comes from our 
readiness accounts. This has become a very serious problem.
  The other problem is that it is using up our troops, keeping them 
from being

[[Page S8225]]

able to be trained properly should an emergency come along, should some 
type of war operation become necessary to face. I have been going 
around, and they have been bringing out problems such as equipment is 
wearing out well before its projected lifetime, excessive usage of 
spare parts, pushing our people so hard they no longer have time to 
train. At almost every unit I saw maintenance personnel cannibalizing 
perfectly good, new equipment to keep other equipment working, which 
may solve the problem for today but it is very labor intensive by the 
time they get the machines working again.
  An Air Force maintenance officer told me, ``Our lack of spares has 
caused us to cannibalize perfectly good engines to keep others 
operating, requiring my maintenance troops to work even more hours to 
keep our planes flying. Our normal workweek is now 50 to 56 hours a 
week.''
  With regard to OPTEMPO--when we talk about OPTEMPO, we are talking 
about the tempo of operations--an F-18 squadron commander told me, 
``The high OPTEMPO at which our personnel are operating is definitely 
causing a strain on our people's families and the strain also affects 
my pilots' job performance.''
  We know our retention is low. In my State of Oklahoma, we will 
spend--we actually save $86,000 a primary student. That is the savings. 
Imagine what it costs to put someone in training. Right now the 
airlines are coming along and taking some of our very best. And the 
ones I talked to, Mr. President, do not want to leave. They want to 
stay in. They are soldiers, they are fighters, but they have to do it. 
And their family situation is demanding that they do.
  An Air Force F-16 squadron commander said, ``The number of days we 
fly to support Bosnia doesn't leave us with enough time to train. The 
only areas where we get training from our Bosnia missions is in 
reconnaissance and close air support. The rest of our training areas 
are suffering.''
  This goes on and on. An Air Force C-130 squadron commander told how 
they are now up to 160 days in their TDY as opposed to their goal of 
120.
  Now, what does this do? It is quite obvious. When you talk to the 
services, you give them choices. You say, well, if you are going to 
have to take money to put in these contingency operations, it is going 
to either have to come out of force strength, readiness, quality of 
life, or modernization. Those are the only four areas over which we 
have control. And I can tell you that each one of the chiefs has said 
we cannot take any more money out of any of these areas.
  Now, there is an assumption around here that somehow we have a state 
of readiness that would allow America to protect itself in two regional 
contingencies. I can tell you right now that this is not the case. In 
fact, it has been stated by most of the chiefs now that we could not 
fight today the Persian Gulf war.

  I will just read a couple excerpts from the article that came out 
Friday morning. It is the first time I have seen it in print. It was in 
the Washington Times Friday morning. It said, ``The Air Force is 
suffering from pilots who have lost faith in their generals, jet 
engines that still don't work after repairs, and maintenance depots 
with little quality of work being produced. Pilots complain of poorly 
equipped fighter wings, too much time away from their families, and air 
patrol types of missions that do little to hone their air combat 
skills.'' And it goes on and on.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at the conclusion of my 
remarks the article of Friday morning be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. INHOFE. In conclusion, Mr. President, right now I think we are 
facing a very serious threat. I know there are people in this Chamber 
who would like to believe that the cold war is over and that there is 
no longer any real serious threat out there when, in fact, as I have 
said several times before, I am not the only one who looks back 
wistfully at the days of the cold war; at least then we had two 
superpowers and we had an idea of what the Soviet Union at that time 
had. We could predict what they were going to do. They have a more 
predictable type of personality. Our intelligence knew more about what 
their capabilities were. Today we have 25 or 30 nations out there, run 
by the type of people who murder their own grandchildren, and here we 
are in a position where we could very easily be challenged in two 
geographic areas.
  So, Mr. President, I hope as we progress here and as we follow 
through the rest of the year we can change some of the attitudes in 
this Chamber and over in the other Chamber and in the White House as 
concerns our ability to defend America.

                               Exhibit 1

Air Force Leaders Lose Pilots' Faith--Pentagon Memo Details Low Morale, 
                              Shoddy Work

                         (By Rowan Scarborough)

       The Air Force is suffering from pilots who have lost faith 
     in their generals, jet engines that still don't work after 
     repairs and maintenance depots with ``little quality or 
     quantity of work being produced,'' according to an internal 
     Defense Department memorandum.
       The draft memo, a copy of which was obtained by the 
     Washington Times, paints a troubling picture of the state of 
     American air power.
       It says Air Force pilots are in the dumps, fleeing the 
     service at a rate higher than aviators in the Army, Navy or 
     Marines.
       ``Many pilots expressed great distrust of the senior 
     leadership,'' said the memo prepared for Louis Finch, deputy 
     undersecretary of defense for readiness. The memo calls the 
     Air Force cadre of instructor pilots ``a very disgruntled 
     group.''
       The memo didn't spell out why the senior leadership, 
     including Air Force Secretary Shelia Widnall and Gen. Ronald 
     Engleman, the chief of staff, has failed in the eyes of 
     pilots.
       But the service has been hit by a series of public-
     relations disasters, including the Khobar Towers terrorist 
     bombing that killed 19 service members and the attempted 
     court-martial of Lt. Kelly Flinn. Pilots complain of poorly 
     equipped fighter wings, too much time away from their 
     families and air patrol-type missions that do little to hone 
     air-combat skills.
       ``Discussions with fighter pilots reveal a great deal of 
     dissatisfaction with the ongoing deployments,'' the memo 
     says. ``There is no training, they are not doing what they 
     are trained to do, they are simply `boring holes in the sky.' 
     Combining this lack of mission satisfaction with increased 
     airline hiring makes civilian life much more attractive.''
       In what should be a troubling finding for safety officials, 
     the memo states that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of 
     engines for the giant C-5 cargo jet are returning from repair 
     shops still malfunctioning.
       It says two major depots in California and Texas are caught 
     up in the battle between Congress and President Clinton over 
     whether they should stay open. A nonpartisan base-closure 
     commission recommended closing the air-logistics centers in 
     Sacramento, Calif., and San Antonio and transferring the work 
     elsewhere.
       But last year Mr. Clinton, making what critics say was a 
     political decision to garner votes in two large states, said 
     the bases would be handed over to civilian companies.
       Said the Pentagon memo, ``Due to the ongoing political 
     contest regarding privatization, there is little quality or 
     quantity of work being produced. Both workers and plants are 
     underutilized. Further, the operational units are not 
     satisfied with the products received from the depots.''
       It is the San Antonio depot that is sending out 
     malfunctioning C-5 jet engines, the memo states. ``Currently, 
     there is a 65 percent reject rate of the engines coming back 
     from [San Antonio],'' it states. ``The quality is getting 
     better though.''
       Dated yesterday, the memo seems to bolster complaints from 
     pro-defense conservatives in Congress. They contend the 
     Clinton administration is underfunding the armed forces at 
     the same time it deploys troops at a high rate around the 
     world.
       Robert Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, said 
     the report shows the negative effects of cutting defense 
     spending by more than 30 percent the past five years.
       ``The sad state of Air Force readiness can be blamed on the 
     Clinton administration, which treats the military as a toy to 
     be deployed for meals-on-wheels-type missions without due 
     consideration for its impact on readiness,'' said Mr. 
     Maginnis, an analyst at the conservative Family Research 
     Council.
       ``Depots are caught in never-never land between 
     privatization, base closures and status quo,'' he said. ``The 
     results are devastating.''
       Maj. Monica Aloisio, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the memo 
     is a ``trip report'' periodically done on all four branches. 
     The Pentagon readiness office uses such reports in making 
     budget recommendations.
       The Air Force declined comment, saying the report is still 
     in draft form.
       The report was based on site visits by defense officials in 
     June to warplane squadrons, repair depots, the Air Force 
     entry-level pilot school and an air-refueling unit.
       It draws a particularly negative portrait of pilot morale 
     at the Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air 
     Force Base, Texas.

[[Page S8226]]

       The inspection report calls Randolph a ``poor training 
     ground for future pilots.''
       ``The instructor pilots at Randolph are sick of high 
     `OPTEMPO' [operational tempo],'' says the memo. ``Most said 
     that they came to Randolph as a three-year break from being 
     gone from home too much on deployment. Most of the pilots 
     also said that they will be getting out of the Air Force as 
     soon as their commitment is over.
       ``The pilots liked the quality of the mid-level leadership, 
     but totally disliked their senior leadership. They stated 
     that they did not trust senior leadership and that things are 
     getting worse. In general they felt they were lied to, 
     betrayed and treated very poorly.''
       Officers at the 940th Air Refueling Squadron complained of 
     excessive training.
       ``Everyone complained that the number of days of mandatory 
     training per year should be capped and purged of everything 
     that is not mission essential or job critical,'' the memo 
     said. ``All of the politically correct, brainwashing, 
     propaganda and white laboratory mouse training should be 
     purged from the curriculum.''

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I observe the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
allowed to speak for about 5 minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I thank the Chair and thank my colleague from West 
Virginia.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

                          ____________________