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Preamble
“You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life – but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men in the mud.”
T.R. Fehrenbach
Korean War historian and U.S. Army combat veteran
CALL TO DUTY – Boots on the Ground
Five years after terrorists directly attacked our country, we are engaged in a Long War and will remain so for the foreseeable future. American Soldiers have answered this Call to Duty magnificently. Boots on the Ground – the boots of American Soldiers – are crucial for success on the battlefield today, just as they were more than 200 years ago. These boots are filled by men and women – America’s sons and daughters – who have never failed the Nation. More than 600,000 Active, Guard, and Reserve Soldiers are on active duty today. Almost half of them are deployed, serving in 120 countries worldwide in defense of our Nation’s interests.
Who are these warriors? To paraphrase the Soldier’s Creed - they are American Soldiers, members of a team who serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values. They place the mission first. They never accept defeat. They never quit. They never leave a fallen comrade. They are experts and professionals. They are our guardians of freedom. They are the heart and soul of our Army. They are disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in their warrior tasks and drills. Thus, they deserve nothing less than the full commitment of the American people and support of the Congress to fund, train, and equip an Army to deal with the challenges we face today and tomorrow.
The Army Posture Statement describes how the Army is executing a carefully crafted, tightly integrated plan - The Army Plan - to meet the challenges of today and to also be ready for an uncertain future. The Plan consists of four overarching, interrelated strategies, focusing on people, training, infrastructure, and forces. It identifies strategies to:
- Provide our Soldiers and their families with a quality of life equal to the quality of their service in order to sustain an All-Volunteer Force composed of highly competent Soldiers
- Train and equip Soldiers to serve as warriors and grow adaptive leaders
- Provide infrastructure and support necessary for the force to fulfill its strategic roles and missions
- Provide relevant and ready land power for the 21st Century security environment
When the rationale for these key strategies is examined, it becomes clear that gaps must be corrected in order to fully man, fully train, fully equip and fully resource America’s Army for the challenges that face us. The funded end strength of our Active Army must be increased to 650,000 Soldiers, the Army National Guard must be maintained at 350,000, and the Army Reserve must be maintained at 205,000.
Transformation of the Army involves creating modular designed forces with increased capabilities as well as improving strategic responsiveness and Joint interdependence. Doing so ensures relevant and ready forces that are organized, trained and equipped for full-spectrum Joint, interagency and multi-national operations and adaptability for Future Force development. It involves transformation of installations, transformation of the way the Army learns and develops leaders, transformation of acquisition and fielding, as well as transformation of logistics and human resource systems. A culture of innovation must be fostered to allow optimum utilization of the new equipment, evolving technology and battlefield lessons learned symbolized by the Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (SBCT) and the Future Combat Systems (FCS). This approach combines the best of current manned systems with the future capabilities of a fully integrated network.
Army Transformation affects the entire fabric of the Army. Readiness must be maintained and Transformation must accelerate forward. There must be a balance between short-term and long-term risk. The Global War on Terrorism makes it clear that near-term risk cannot be increased in order to minimize long-term risk. The cost of war and our current operations must not be borne at the expense of our future readiness. The strength and quality of our Soldiers and units are key components in the requirement for balanced, complementary forces necessary to ensure national security.
To mitigate risk, the Army is addressing a series of challenges including resetting the forces returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, implementing force stabilization measures, rebalancing Active and Reserve Component forces and increasing the number of available combat brigades through improved force management and modular reorganization. The Army’s restructuring of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program enables “spin outs” as they become available, speeding the delivery of technologies to Soldiers during the program rather than waiting until full system fielding.
The Association of the United States Army fully supports The Army Plan. To ensure success, the Army needs Congressional leadership in four key areas:
- Providing full, timely and predictable funding to sustain the Army’s National and Global commitments
- Obtaining legislative authority for assured access to our Army National Guard and Army Reserve units who have become an operational rather than a strategic reserve
- Providing wartime authorities and resources needed to equip and protect our Soldiers
- Of greatest importance - Maintaining the support of the American people whom the Army serves
Today, our Army is at a critical juncture in transformation. It must seamlessly fuse the elements of modularity, modernization, and realignment of our force posture to build a campaign quality Army with Joint and expeditionary capabilities. Success depends on established timelines which are resource dependent. If one element is delayed there is a cascading effect that can derail the effort. For example, failure to fund military construction at a receiving base will cause delays in increasing the number of combat ready Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). This delay shortens the turnaround time for the transformed BCTs from two years to one or less, before combat redeployment – this is unacceptable. The current impact of one year turnaround time is already having an adverse impact on readiness and the quality of life of the All-Volunteer Force, now being tested for the first time in a protracted conflict. In light of the stress on the force today and the challenges we will face tomorrow we must accelerate movement to the Future Force. A force that possesses a broad range of capabilities to better respond to the full spectrum challenges it will face and be better able to sustain frequent deployments in a Joint and expeditionary role.
How will the resources be secured that will fund the Long War and Army Transformation? The current level of defense spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product is significantly less than 4 percent. The Association of the United States Army has maintained for many years that defense spending must be more than 4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and that the Army must receive a greater share of the Department of Defense Budget – at least 28 percent instead of 24 percent. Until this imbalance is corrected, the necessity for timely supplemental funding will continue. Congressional support and assistance is critical to increase the overall amount of money allocated to DOD and the Army’s percentage of that amount. Further, the funding must be made available in a timely manner. Last minute approval of authorizations, appropriations, and supplemental funding bills cannot continue. Delays in Congressional approval create strain and increased reprogramming actions within an Army at war as it attempts to meet emergent needs.
The Association of the United States Army, throughout these resolutions, continues to highlight the fact that people are the heart and soul of the Army – Soldiers, civilians, family members and retirees. This is the “Army Family” and its well-being is key to increased readiness. Therefore, Congress must always keep in mind this human dimension as resources are allocated.
Current congressional defense authorization and appropriations legislation is making significant strides in funding compensation, health care, retirement, survivor programs, housing, readiness, procurement, and transformation initiatives. The Association of the United States Army acknowledges and sincerely appreciates this support for our Army. While much has been done, more remains. The pay gap must be closed. The Reserve Component compensation package, and in particular health care, must be revised and enhanced. Erosion of benefits must be resisted to ensure the continued success of the All-Volunteer Force.
Full funding for readiness, reset between deployments, and acceleration of Army Transformation must be provided. Reset funding must continue for at least two to three years after the end of hostilities. Funding associated with Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), and Global Defense Posturing Review (GDPR) must be provided. If the Army is required to self-fund implementation of any of these, it will degrade its ability to remain the world’s dominant land power force.
Full spectrum operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are placing a tremendous burden on Soldiers and their equipment. The Army has deployed more than 40 percent of its equipment in support of these operations. Battle losses and usage levels five to six times above peacetime levels has taken its toll on both the Active and Reserve Forces. Reduced National Guard and Reserve forces equipment levels in the United States are significantly affecting those components’ ability to respond to natural disasters, Homeland Defense requirements, and/or a terrorist incident. The Army needs to reset not only equipment, but Soldiers and units for future missions. Under Reset, returning units must be transformed into modular unit designs: equipment must be replaced, recapitalized, and repaired. The Army Reset program must be fully funded and supported at the federal and state level.
The resolutions that follow contain the Association of the United States Army’s agenda which will lead to a campaign quality Army with Joint and expeditionary capabilities. In an era of strategy-resource mismatch, implementation of these resolutions will help maintain an Army our Nation and Soldiers deserve: an Army that is fully manned, fully equipped, fully trained, fully resourced, the best lead - America’s Army – an All-Volunteer Force that is positioned for success in the 21st Century.
The defense of United States of America is a shared responsibility. The American people, through their elected representatives, must step up to the responsibilities that come with the freedoms we enjoy. One of these responsibilities is to provide the resources necessary to secure freedom for ourselves and those who follow. Make no mistake; if freedom is to endure, this shared responsibility is a moral imperative. Our Congressional leadership and we, the members of the Association, must make the case with the American people that we cannot mortgage the future.
The Nation must commit more resources for defense. As a Nation, we must invest prudently, in a focused and sustained manner to modernize the force and break our historical cycle of un-preparedness. Together we can clarify the understanding that national defense is a non-negotiable, shared responsibility and that if we desire to remain secure and a force for good in this world, we must pay the price to ensure the preeminence of our Army.
This is our Call to Duty – Boots on the Ground.
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