AUSA President: America's Land Forces Must Grow Immediately to Meet Range of Threats

AUSA’s President Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, USA, Ret., recently wrote an op-ed article on how  important  sufficient land forces are to our national strategy.  The article appeared in the Feb. 18 issue of the Army Times and is included in the information Gen. Sullivan has been providing to key members of Congress and their staff during his recent visits to Capitol Hill. 

Last week, Gen. Sullivan spoke with the national security advisor to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and expressed his appreciation for Rep. Hoyer’s strong support of legislation that benefits the nation’s veterans.  He also spoke about the need for a larger Army and a defense base budget above 4 percent of GDP.

The text of Gen. Sullivan’s column is below and was reprinted with the permission of the Army Times.

As we continue to learn from Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, the southern borders of the U.S., peacekeeping operations and the expanding commitment of U.S. land forces to capacity-building tasks around the world, the sine qua non in the defense of our vital interests around the world is our ability to control land and influence people.

In such an environment, it becomes self-evident that land forces — the Army, the Marines and special operations forces — constitute the central military arm of an effective national security strategy.

It is equally obvious that our land forces are far too small to contend with the increasingly wide spectrum of missions and tasks that our nation is demanding of them.

The manifest inadequacy of the size of our land forces is most obvious in Iraq. Although the surge is paying dividends in reducing violence and setting conditions for long-term political stability, we may be compelled to reduce the size of our forces in Iraq in the near future — not because of policy decisions or progress, but because we do not have the wherewithal to sustain the commitment at surge levels indefinitely without significant troop hardship and long-term readiness implications.

Moreover, the U.S. is not positioned to respond to threats to vital national interests elsewhere or to advance U.S. objectives around the world.

Within the framework of these realities, the process of building the land forces that the nation needs must begin immediately within the current administration and be sustained by the new president and the next Congress. Specifically, the nation should commit itself to the following key points:

• Begin an accelerated development of a new national security strategy that is based on the realities of the international environment and the efficacy of the instruments of national power available to us.
• Commit the nation to a significant expansion of active-duty land forces end strength far beyond the growth to 750,000 soldiers, Marines and SOF already announced and build an active-duty land force that approaches a million men and women.
• Make the hard resource decisions. The aggregate defense budget must grow, and the proportion allocated to the land forces must increase substantially.

If we are to recruit, train, equip, prepare and employ land forces to meet this dizzying array of challenges, we must begin immediately, and we must act with courage, foresight and vision.

When the United States of America possesses a land force — Army, Marine and special operations forces — that is as capable as today’s land force and 25 percent larger, elected and appointed leaders will be free to exercise their role as strategic decision-makers unconstrained by a force designed for a world that no longer exists.

 

Treatment of Wounded Soldiers Subject at Senate Hearing

A hearing was held on the anniversary of the publication of stories in the Washington Post and Army Times about living conditions of outpatients being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the difficulties these service members faced in going through the complex disability rating systems in the services and Veterans' Affairs department.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Army Secretary Pete Geren said that managing the care for injured soldiers has greatly improved, especially assigning one squad leader for every 12 wounded soldier, one primary care manager for every 200 soldiers and one nurse case manager for every 18 to 36 soldiers.  He added that each of these units will also have “a dedicated ombudsman who reaches out to soldiers and families as an extra resource and problem solver.”

LTG Eric Schoomaker, the Army’s Surgeon General, said that there are 2,400 individuals assigned as cadre to these Warrior Transition Units compared to 400 earlier.  In his prepared testimony, LTG Schoomaker said soldiers notice the difference. 

Quoting Staff Sgt. Michael Thornton, who is convalescing at Fort Hood, Texas from burns covering 33 percent of his body:  “Things flow more efficiently.  It seems more organized.  It’s good to have dedicated leadership who handle just our issues.  In the past some of the wounded soldiers were also serving as squad leaders at the Medical Hold Company. They had appointments too, so it’s better to have dedicated leadership.”

Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said that the Wounded War Act included as part of this year’s defense authorization law “represents major reform” to advance “the care, management and transition of recovering service members, enhances health care and benefits for families, and begins the process of fundamental reform of the disability evaluation systems of the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs.”

The day before the hearing, Secretary Geren and Dr. James Peake, VA secretary, signed a mutual support agreement covering assistance to soldiers and their families as they transition the military Disability Evaluation System to the VA.  Peake, a former Army surgeon general, said at the ceremony, “We share a duty to do what’s right for our soldiers and their families.”

In his prepared testimony, Secretary Geren said that 16 VA liaison officers have been added at major medical centers, provided VA access to military health records and databases as needed and entered an agreement with VA governing coordination between VA benefits advisers and personnel at Army installations.”

Gordon England, deputy secretary of defense, sent the committee prepared testimony on the pilot test of the Disability Evaluation System in the National Capital Region.  “Key features include a single medical examination and single source disability rating” for the VA and Defense Department.  “A primary goal is to reduce by half the time required to transition a member to veteran status and receipt of VA benefits and compensation.”

He said that two brigades’ worth of wounded, ill and injured soldiers are returning to the force year.  “Eighty-eight percent of these soldiers are noncommissioned officers, the backbone of your Army.”

“We continue to face challenges that require blunt honesty, continuous self-assessment, humility and the ability to listen to those in need,” Schoomaker said.  He added that he was convinced that the efforts of the Army, Department of Defense and VA “have turned the corner toward establishing an integrated, overlapping system of treatment, support and leadership that is significantly enhancing the care of our warriors and families.”


House Appropriators Set to Move War Spending Legislation

Congress is in recess this week for the President’s Day holiday.  Upon their return next week, House Appropriators are expected to move on the remaining $102.5 billion fiscal 2008 war spending legislation.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense said that he was committed to passing legislation by March that would fully fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  However, the decision of when to bring the bill to the floor for debate will be made by the House leadership.

Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England praised Rep. Murtha’s decision during his appearance before Murtha’s subcommittee last week.  He said that pushing the funding request forward would be “most helpful” to the military.

Unfortunately, the news from the Senate is not so encouraging.  Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has repeatedly said that their version of the legislation may not come until May. 

That would be cutting it close since the Pentagon has asserted that military personnel accounts will dry up sometime in June and that they are already experiencing equipment inventory shortages.

Another issue for Democrats is whether or not to use the war funding measure to try and legislate a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer said earlier this year that did not favor continuing to put war restriction in military spending bills.

Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., who serves as the vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus also expressed his reluctance.  "Our goal this year is to be strategic and pragmatic and keep our eyes on the prize", he said, referring to the presidency.

However, not all Democrats agree.  A staff member for Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W Va., said that the chairman still wants a bill with strings that would help bring an end to the war.  California Democrat Lynn Woolsey said that Congress cannot wait to see who will become the next president.  "That's punting the ball to another administration while our troops and Iraqis are dying", she said. 

Note:  Because of the President’s Day recess, there will be no Newsletter next week.  It will resume on March 3.