Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, USA, Ret., said the new secretary “has the experience necessary to meet the many challenges the Army faces in this era of persistent conflict. As under secretary and acting secretary, Pete Geren has shown compassion for soldiers and their families. He also demonstrated the depth of understanding in addressing critical Army issues from preserving the All-Volunteer Force, ensuring the successful completion of base realignment and closure, the movement of forces from Korea and Germany to the United States, the successful implementation of modularizing the force to the continued need for key modernization initiatives such as the Future Combat Systems. He and Gen. George Casey, the chief of staff, are a very strong leadership team for the Army.”

Sullivan said he particularly noted Geren’s opening statement at his confirmation hearing and an address he recently made in the Institute of Land Warfare breakfast series.

As reported in AUSA NEWS, Geren told the committee and attendees at the ILW event that “a complex disability system that can frustrate and fail to meet the needs of soldiers” still remains.

He called it “a system that fails to acknowledge, understand and treat some of the debilitating yet invisible wounds of war – leaving soldiers to return from war and battle the bureaucracy at home. And, leaving families at a loss on how to cope.”

Geren added, “The Department of Defense, working with the Congress and VA have an opportunity that does not come along often, to move our nation a quantum leap forward in fulfillment of that commitment” made by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War to “care for those who have borne the battle, his widow and orphan.”