The White Falcon - 12.03.1999, Síða 8

Armed Forces News
President Clinton praises men and women of military
En Route Tucson, Ariz. (NWS) - In an unprecedented interview
aboard Air Force One en route to Tucson, Ariz., Feb. 25, President
Bill Clinton praised the efforts of today’s military personnel.
Looking back 50 years from now, the President said it will be obvi-
ous to all that our men and women in uniform “put America’s mili-
tary might to work in building a new world, which is something that
I think their children and grandchildren will be very, very proud of.”
The Defense Department’s Armed Forces Radio and Television
Service (AFRTS) aired the entire half-hour interview with the
Commander-in-Chief to U.S. forces in Europe, South Korea and in
other overseas locations, including ships at sea. The following is an
excerpt of the interview conducted by Janet Langhart Cohen, wife of
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen.
Q: What do you think the American citizen should know and
understand about the military? Because when you and 1 were com-
ing up, there was always somebody in the family who was in the mil-
itary or somebody in the neighborhood. Nowadays, we don’t see
them on the street.
A: Well, I think most Americans do know and admire the fact that
we have the best military in the world. They know that we have the
most high-tech equipment. They know that our people are well
trained. 1 think most Americans know they’re good people, fine men
and women.
What I don’t think most Americans know is how hard they work
all the time. I don’t think Americans who aren’t involved in the mil-
itary have any idea how rigorous most of the training schedules are
and what is involved. That’s the first thing. The second thing is I
don’t think most Americans know how diverse the operations are.
And the third thing, maybe the most important thing in terms of this
budget we’re trying to push on Capitol Hill, I don’t think most
Americans know how tough it can be today on the families. I don’t
think they’re aware of how - with a smaller military and fewer big
engagements, but a lot more small ones - how much deploying is
involved. I don’t think they understand how quickly these people
have to come in from being overseas or come in from being on a ship
or being in a foreign land, and then turn around and go back again.”
Q: What are some of the things that you took into account, the
factors, the decisions you made on pay raise, retirement?
A: Well, they were sending us a signal. We’ve got a lot of people
retiring and we’re having trouble meeting some of our recruitment
quotas. Now, part of that is a high-class problem; it’s a result of the
success of the American economy. And with the unemployment rate
under 4.5 percent, wages rising at twice the rate of inflation now for
the last couple of years, there are so many compelling opportunities
for young people outside the military, that it’s harder to recruit and
retain. We see it in Air Force pilots, but we also see it in enlistees in
the Navy and the Army. We see it across the board. So it’s obvious
to me that we need to raise pay and we needed to fix that so-called
retirement Redux problem that I believe the Congress will go along
with fixing this year.
Q: Sir, with all due respect, you offered the highest budget pro-
posal in a long time. But is it enough when you talk about the things
we’re asking them to do? They’re at the tip of the sword. I don’t
know how much money anybody could pay me to get me at a
moment’s notice to go to Bosnia and stay there and leave my family.
A: This is what we’re working out with the Congress now. There
is sentiment in the Congress to have an entire pay increase, and I
think that, from the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs to the
White House, we would all support that. But we have to operate
within a given budget ceiling, so we have to measure what we need
to do for our troops and their families against the absolute imperative
of being able to pay for training, which is more and more expensive.
The more sophisticated the equipment is, the more expensive it is to
train on it, which is why we developed so many computer simula-
tions and programs, and the need to continue to modernize the equip-
ment. You don’t want a bunch of equipment out there that you can’t
run because you don’t have spare parts and you haven’t kept upgrad-
ed to high safety conditions.
So in the best of all worlds, is it enough? No, I don’t think so. I’d
like to do more. But if we’re going to do more, then we need to work
it out with Congress so we’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul. I mean,
most of our men and women in uniform would like it if we invested
more in them, in their families, in their quality of life, but they
wouldn’t like it if, in so doing, we made it impossible for them to ful-
fill the mission they joined the military to perform in the first place.
So that’s the real conflict.
Q: If you were to do a pitch right now for those we already have,
what would you say as to why the should stay? Because they’re cer-
tainly not in it for the money.
A: I would say, first of all, if you stay until you’ve got enough
time to retire, you’ll still be young, you’ll still have a whole other
career you can work. We’re going to do our best to get our budget
on a plane where we’ll be paying you better. We’re going to accel-
erate the maintenance of quality of life. We’re going to improve the
retirement system for those for whom it was a problem. And the
work you’re doing is profoundly important to the country. We need
good people to do it. And the skills you acquire in doing it will make
you even more marketable when you leave.
I see people all the time getting out of the service. A lot of these
people are doing 25, 26, 27 years and they’re still not 50 years old
yet. So they’ve got another 20 years or more to do something else
with their lives. So I would hope that if we can make quality of life
better for them, that more will choose to stay.
Ice-Tales
By Mike C. Jones
W)11' mimw
e-mail: jonesms@mwr.is
PageS
The White Falcon
March 12, 1999