The White Falcon - 02.07.1999, Síða 1

White Falcon
Cragin visits Iceland to see reservists in action
Vol. 58 No. 26
online at www.nctskef.navy.mil/IDF
July 2, 1999
Charles L. Cragin, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and Principle Deputy Undersecretary of Defense fori
Personnel and Readiness, visits with National Guard soldiers during Exercise Northern Viking ‘99. (Photo by PHC George Chen)
By J03 Mike C. Jones
Charles L. Cragin, Acting Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs,
visited the NATO Base recently to observe
Exercise Northern Viking ’99 (NV-99).
During his visit, Cragin took time to meet
with reservists deployed to Kelfavfk as well
as members of Patrol Squadron Forty-Five.
NV-99 positively demonstrated the inte-
gration of the reserve forces with the active
forces in Iceland, he explained. “I think it’s
been very impressive. 1 think it’s a good
comentary on Secretary Cohen’s insight and
wisdom and really taking the initiative to
push the whole issue of total-force integra-
tion. Fie recognized when he took office that
this was a military force that was much
smaller than it had been 10 years ago. In
1989, we had 3.8 million men and women
serving in the total force. Ten years later,
we’re down to 2.8 million. We’ve essential-
ly lost a million people from this force and
at the same time, we’re doing more and more
missions everyday.”
The increasing importance of National
Guard and reserve members became appar-
ent in order for the military to complete these
missions, he added. ‘‘Fifty percent of the
force today, 1.4 million, are in the guard and
reserve. (Secretary Cohen) recognized the
reality of the situation: we were increasingly
relying on the guard and reserve, and we had
to do what we could to seamlessly integrate
this force.”
With the integration of the reserves into
more active-force missions such as Kosovo
and Bosnia, Cragin said the workload of
reservisits has increased, but shouldn’t be
unbearable. “We have to look at this from
two perspectives,” he said. “The reservists
and guardsmen of today really are total-force
warriors. They’re totally committed to
America and America’s military. Frankly,
most of them serve more than just two days
a month and two weeks a year. I think the
challenge lies in the relationship between
members of the guard and reserves and their
employers. We really need to be conscious
of the strength of that relationship. I don’t
know where the end of the elasticity ends
and where the brittleness begins, but we’re
trying to find out.”
To help find out, Cragin said a survey will
be distributed to the employers of reservists
and National Guard personnel called to serve
in the Kosovo operations. “We’re hoping to
get some real-time reactions that we can
aggregate into data.”
The flexibility of employers for reserve
forces clearly demonstrates the high regard
in which the military is held, he added.
“America has really changed in the way it
perceives its military. The military is the
most respected institution in America. Any
poll you see, including the most recent Harris
Poll, will tell you that.”
Cragin’s visit to the base didn’t mark his
first trip to Iceland, he said. “I was up here
in 1989 on a short trip with a patrol squadron
out of Brunswick, Maine.” Since that first
visit, he said the base has received many
improvements. “The quality of life respons-
es have really been making great progress.
Looking at Keflavik in 1999 and remember-
ing Keflavflc in 1989, I was really over-
whelmed with the progress of the quality of
life programs here.”
Cragin emphasized NV-99 was a definite
success in terms of reserve training. “When
I’m travelling and visiting bases around the
world, the first thing I ask the Soldiers,
Sailors, Airmen and Marines is, ‘Are you
getting the training that you need?’ The con-
sistent answer I’ve received while up here
has been, ‘Absolutely.’”
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