January 5, 2007


The start of this new year, 2007, brings many changes and challenges for our Army and our Association.

2006 was a successful year for AUSA. Our mission to support Soldiers and families and to be the Voice for the Army was successful on many fronts. I am most grateful for the many wonderful programs that have been conducted by our Chapters and their volunteers in taking care of Soldiers.

I appreciate the continuous support our corporate and sustaining members have provided to AUSA this past year, both fiscal and physical. This appreciation extends to our great team here at AUSA headquarters. Together, we have been strong—Army Strong—in accomplishing our mission in 2006.

As I write this e-column, many changes have already occurred, and there are more on the horizon with regard to our political leadership, both in the Administration and on Capitol Hill. You can expect that these new leaders will bring policy and resource changes that will have an impact on our Army.

As members of the AUSA team, we must all remain well informed and focused on maintaining the proper level of support for our Army and its Soldiers in 2007. Our Call to Duty will be to ensure the nation continues to focus on the fact that our Army is at war and transforming. We must insist that the new congressional leadership maintains strong bipartisan support for the troops and their mission; there can be no decline in support on Capitol Hill or in the White House.

More AUSA members and Chapters have participated in the creation of the 2007 Resolutions than ever before. Congratulations and thanks! You are the bedrock of our grassroots effort. Our overall goals for the Army remain: To have a campaign-quality force possessing excellent joint and expeditionary capabilities that is fully resourced to successfully conduct the long War on Global Terrorism, to execute a winning strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to simultaneously transform and reset the force—Soldiers, units, equipment and installations.

Our 2007 Resolutions outlined our AUSA strategy in three specific areas of action: People, Readiness and Future Force.

These resolutions reflect changes in the Army that will become evident when the Secretary and the Chief of Staff go before the 110th Congress to deliver their 2007 Posture Statement in the next several weeks.

Our message remains that our Army, our total Army, must be fully resourced, manned, and equipped, now and in the future. Simply put, the critical message is: an increase in Defense spending to more than 4 percent of our national Gross Domestic Product, a reallocation of the Army’s budget share to at least 28 percent of the Department of Defense base budget, continued timely and adequate supplemental funding, and tough and relevant bipartisan support for our Army at war.

We believe our Army, as it prosecutes the war—today in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and perhaps elsewhere in the future—not only must receive timely and adequate funding but also must be sized and structured correctly for the total mission and strategy. To AUSA and for the nation that means an increase in endstrength starting in 2007 with full budget funding—no self/internal funding allowed.

Although the Association has long advocated an increase in endstrength, we have recently come to the conclusion that to successfully fight and win our nation's wars, we must grow the Army to an endstrength of 650,000 Soldiers—trained, equipped and ready to fight. This size will guarantee an Army that can generate and sustain forces to fight and deploy, maintain the qualitative edge in training and leader development, and sustain a quality of life for Soldiers and their families on installations of excellence.

AUSA will remain focused in 2007 on its mission—regardless of the new and developing challenges unfolding in the early months of this new year. We believe the nation, now more than ever, needs and deserves a strong Army—sized, equipped, trained, manned and funded to meet the National Defense Strategy. We cannot afford to do less in this year or in the future.