[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 6, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H190-H191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     PROTECTING OUR GREATEST MILITARY ASSET: OUR MILITARY PERSONNEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SKELTON. Madam Speaker, as we begin the 107th Congress and our 
debate turns to our national security, I want to remind our colleagues 
that we must remain vigilant in protecting the greatest asset in our 
defense arsenal, our military personnel. Without our soldiers, sailors, 
airmen and Marines, we cannot sail our ships, fly our fighters, or put 
boots on the ground to protect our Nation's interests here and abroad.
  Our highly qualified, well-trained military personnel are the core of 
our Nation's defense. I am concerned that the new administration will 
rush to fund high visibility weapons systems with important political 
constituencies, like the National Missile Defense, at the expense of 
ensuring that our military personnel remain the best in the world.
  I believe we must make every effort to continue to recruit quality 
service members to ensure the continued success of our Armed Forces. 
With the good economic times, rising numbers of high school graduates 
going on to college, low unemployment, myriad job opportunities in the 
private sector, and a whole host of other factors, it is no secret that 
the military services have been experiencing difficulties in recruiting 
and retaining enough qualified individuals.
  Last year, all of the services reached their yearly recruiting goals 
for enlisted active duty personnel, but this success was not easily 
achieved. For example, the Air Force, which historically has an easier 
time recruiting, had

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to establish a special task force in order to improve its recruiting 
program. This year, the services are forecasting that they will each 
make their active duty recruiting goals for enlisted personnel. Time 
will tell.
  Active duty recruiting is not the only challenge facing the services. 
Maintaining a suitable reserve force to provide the additional support 
for our military is also a daunting challenge. Last year, two of the 
seven reserve components, the Navy Reserve and the Air Force Reserve, 
missed their enlisted recruiting goals.
  Currently, the Army National Guard and the Naval Reserve are both on 
a path to miss their projected goals for this fiscal year. Both the 
Army and the Air National Guard are struggling to meet a higher 
recruiting mission with fewer recruiters than last year. With our 
growing dependence on the Guard and the Reserve, these difficulties are 
a cause for serious concern. Unlike years past, our military cannot 
operate effectively without the participation of the National Guard and 
Reserve. So we must do everything possible to ensure that we devote 
sufficient resources to Reserve and Guard recruiting.
  Retaining those highly trained service members who are already in the 
military is also vitally important. We cannot afford to lose the 
investment we make in our service members by failing to provide 
adequate education, training, working conditions and quality of life to 
make military service an attractive career option. Today, highly 
skilled, motivated individuals are being enticed to leave the military 
and to use their skills and expertise in the private sector. We simply 
cannot allow this trend to continue if we hope to remain the world's 
most foremost military power.
  Last year, enlisted retention was a particularly acute problem for 
the Air Force. In the officer corps, the Army missed its officer 
retention goal by 1,069 while the Air Force was short 523. Many 
officers who leave are in the junior officer ranks. These are the 
leaders of tomorrow; and if we hope to keep them in the military, we 
must be responsive to their needs and concerns.
  Spending on high-tech weapons systems is important, but we simply 
cannot afford to neglect the people side of our defense equation. The 
personnel and compensation systems of today are based on outdated 
notions which do not make sense for the 21st Century. For example, the 
up or out promotion system may not make the most sense in an era where 
we have computer experts who aspire only to work with computers for 
their entire careers.
  We need to revisit how the services fill critical specialty 
positions. The current retirement system, which penalizes those who do 
not stay for a full 20-year career, clearly merits scrutiny. And 
although the Committee on Armed Services addressed retiree health care 
last year, it is clear to me that the TRICARE system, which also serves 
the active duty and reserve communities, is broken and needs to be 
fixed.
  If we do not attend to these people programs, all the sophisticated 
weapons systems in the world will not do us any good because we will 
not have enough people who are smart enough and well trained enough to 
operate them.
  We simply cannot afford to let that happen. Therefore, as we begin 
this new millennium, let us renew our commitment to the dedicated men 
and women who serve in our Nation's military and to ensuring that our 
Nation's Armed Forces continue to be the best trained, most highly 
qualified force in the 21st Century.

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