Get Ready for the Next War

(8-2-2010)

Well, folks, you might legitimately wonder about the title of this piece given the fact that we are currently engaged in two shooting wars.  However, the war that title refers to is one that our nation fights over and over.  It is the battle of the defense budget and the heart of the issue is that old saying that goes something like “if you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it”.

I read with great interest a recent Washington Post opinion piece by Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.  From the post-American Revolution era to post-Persian Gulf War era, he outlined the disastrous results of lawmakers cashing in on the “peace dividend”.

After each of America’s wars, the armed forces shrank and were consequently too few and too ill-equipped to fight the next war – and indeed, the smaller poorly-equipped troops seemed to invite the next foe to attack our weakened military force.

I have written the House and Senate leadership to remind them that reducing military manpower is not appropriate when the nation is fighting two wars. The Army of today, fighting two hot wars is smaller than it was at the end of the Cold War.   I believe the repeated deployments that this smaller force has endured contributes greatly to the increased suicide rate and the increased cases of post traumatic stress (PTSD) .  In my letter to the Hill, I stressed the need for additional money for research and treatment of TBI and PTSD - silent wounds that will affect Soldiers for a life time.  I suggested the best way to provide for our military personnel, who sacrifice so much for our freedom, would be to hold manpower levels steady and provide more medical care that addresses the psychological needs of our over-stretched military force.

I was very pleased to see that the first items addressed in the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee’s mark up of the fiscal 2011 defense appropriations bill were funding for end strength and additional money for research and care for TBI and PTSD. AUSA will fight to see that funding commitment carries through the entire funding process.

In the Max Boot article, he refers to a fact that we at AUSA have noted in our annual legislative resolutions for many years.  The defense budget is less than four percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.  Our nation, even in these fiscally challenging times, can afford to have a robust military force adequately manned and properly equipped. 

Indeed AUSA has advocated for a defense budget approaching five percent of the gross domestic product.  Our defense budget is affordable and a necessity.  The next war we must fight is against the historic trend to cut the budget in peaceful times.  History has shown that doing so inevitably leads a new foe to see the smaller force as an easy target and creates the conditions necessary for the next conflict.  Let’s break the chain of history and maintain a strong military force that will not encourage our enemies to test it.  Let’s win the next (budget) war now.

1. The June, 2010 newsletter - accessed by hotlink from this website - reports on:

•              2/4 Aviation Heads to Afghanistan - with Guitars in Hand

•              2010 Annual Meeting

•              4th AUSA Region Leadership Changes: Jones steps down; Gauer steps up

•              Annual Golf Tournament Raises $23,000 for Soldier Programs

•              Business Plan & Budget Now On-Line

•              Chapter Members Recommend HHG, TRICARE & Spousal Employment Improvements

•              Chapter Presents Record Sixty One $1,000 Scholarships

•              Chapter Supports TRIAD 2010 Conference

•              Leon County Host 41st Fires Brigade: Military Appreciation: Where Vets Meet Vets!

•              MG Allyn Featured at Chapter Awards Dinner

•              Our 2010 Scholarship Sponsors

•              Our 2010 Scholarship Winners and their School Choices!

•              Our 2010-2011 Leadership Team

•              Our Phantom Warrior Club Members We Thank You

•              Playing in the Mud

•              ROTC Scholarships

•              Scrubbing Our Adopt A Fort Hood Unit Membership

•              Ten-Miler reaches 30,000 runner cap in 35 hours

•              The Tragedy of 11/5: We Will Not Forget

•              We Celebrate our Army’s 235th Birthday

•              We Thank Our Golf Sponsors

2. Chapter Members Recommend Improvements - the details

3. Quiet Pride - Adopt A Fort Hood Unit Program part of Fort Hood Campaign Plan

4. JCS/J5 Global War on Terrorism  Briefing  (popular & remains available)

2. Chapter Members Recommend

HHG, TRICARE & Spousal Employment Improvements

Each year, AUSA asks members for recommendations on making Soldier and Family life better. Submitted as “draft resolutions” through a member’s local chapter, they are examined by the association’s national resolutions committee - and many then included - as issues to be promoted by our association’s leadership, both in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. That’s exactly what COL Jimmy Jenkins and Ms. Shelley Hossenlopp have just done.

COL Jenkins would like AUSA to tackle DOD’s outdated and inadequate household goods allowances, and the unnecessarily complex TRICARE bureaucracy. For Ms. Hossenlopp, the issues include Spouse Employment and Career Development.

We thank both for helping to set AUSA’s 2011 national agenda.

Their Submissions

ISSUE: SOLDIERS, FAMILIES AND ARMY CIVILIANS  

SUB-ISSUE: Supporting Soldiers and Families  

SUBJECT: House Hold Goods (HHG)  

Submitted by:  COL Jimmy Jenkins, Commanding Officer, 69th ADA Brigade, JIMMY.JENKINS@us.army.mil through Ron Taylor, President, Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter, ron.taylor@fhnb.com or 254-532-2493.  

For too many years, the Army has kept its HHG allowance at nearly the same rate. The maximum weight allowances were created in the middle of the cold war when the majority of military soldiers and officers were single. Today over 60% of the military is married with children, yet these rates have not adjusted. Further, allowance rates do not recognize family size. A Sergeant First Class (SFC) with 1 child receives the same limit as a SFC with four children though it is intuitively obvious, they will have different requirements.  

More Soldiers have families, and the family sizes are increasing. Further, the type and complexity of household items reasonably considered as essential have also dramatically increased. And so total HHG weights have risen sharply. As a result, soldiers end up getting charged 12-18 months after a PCS move for excess weight. A decade ago, the excess weight charge averaged $1 per pound, but today that can be $3-5 per pound. Faced with these restrictions, families are forced to make unwise economic decisions. Many families throw away heavier items before they move, after having invested their hard earned dollars on them in years prior.  They also tend to buy lighter and often cheaper items to try and stay within unrealistic weight allowances, instead of buying more durable and sturdy furniture which lasts longer and is usually a better deal over time for their money.  

The military allows a soldier to subtract "Professional" items from their weight, but this is not nearly enough to compensate for the extreme limits otherwise imposed today. Further, for many, this category of need has diminished, in part due to the digitization of printed products that in years past many soldiers kept on their bookshelves.  

WE THEREFORE RESOLVE to urge the Administration and Congress to:  

*  increase maximum HHG rates to better reflect the needs of today's Soldiers and their families.

*  specifically factor for family size in setting HHG rates for all Soldier families; and

* provide significantly higher HHG rates for more senior Soldier families, beginning at the MSG and LTC grades. *

ISSUE: ARMY HEALTH CARE  

SUB-ISSUE: TRICARE  

SUBJECT: Tricare Complexity vs. Soldier Family Special Needs  

Submitted by:  COL Jimmy Jenkins, Commanding Officer, 69th ADA Brigade, JIMMY.JENKINS@us.army.mil mailto:JIMMY.JENKINS@us.army.mil> through Ron Taylor, President, Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter, ron.taylor@fhnb.com mailto:ron.taylor@fhnb.com>    or 254-532-2493.

TRICARE is a bureaucratic nightmare for a Soldier with children, particularly if any of the Soldier's dependants has special needs. TRICARE is divided into regions. Every time a soldier family moves from one region to another, they must refill out in pen a form for each family member to enroll them in that new region. It amazes my soldiers and me that the most technologically advanced military in the history of the world can't at least digitize this data and share it amongst regions that are under one command.  

The most challenging aspect of TRICARE though is how families must get new referrals for doctors they don't even know to cover the special needs of their family members. For example, a family with a cleft lip and palette child must find new dentists, orthodontists, plastic surgeons, heart specialists, speech therapists, and other special doctors. Each requires a specific referral approved by TRICARE with stipulations on coverage and visits allowed.  A soldier and his spouse must navigate these waters after every PCS.  For example, we have moved 15 times in my 24 years in the service.  My 17 year old child has been treated for his special needs in KS, CO, NC, VA, PA, and TX.  Each move required us to go through this process, and since we moved to and from KS and TX twice we had to redo all of these procedures each time.  

TRICARE could easily unburden the soldier of these bureaucratic requirements with a few digital enhancements. First, once a Soldier arrives at a new duty station, TRICARE could digitally pull most of the standard information on a soldier and their family from DEERS and HRC databases. This data could merge with all required forms, and the Soldier could adjust a few changes such as address, phone number, and unit and link it to all of their family members. Second and most important, once TRICARE has deemed a certain type of care is warranted for a family member, they could generate a generic referral applicable anywhere soldiers live and work, transferrable throughout the world. Although the family still must find new doctors, this dramatic reduction in bureaucracy could free up TRICARE administrative workers to focus on helping the family find the doctors and services which best fits their needs.  

WE THEREFORE RESOLVE to urge the Administration and Congress to:  

*             incorporate modern data flow and information transfer methodologies to promptly reduce to the absolute minimum the bureaucratic entanglements associated with access to health care for mobile Soldier families.  

SUB-ISSUE:  Supporting Soldiers and Families

SUBJECT:  Spouse Employment and parallel Career Development

Submitted by: Ms. Shelley Hossenlopp, Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter, (254) 681 6551 or s.hossenlopp@att.net , through Ron Taylor, President, Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter, ron.taylor@fhnb.com  or  (254) 532-2493. (6/8/2010)

Army spouses face unique challenges in building and balancing a personal career independent of their military service member’s retirement. This is especially true for young to mid-level officer and mid to senior enlisted families who are too frequently required to sacrifice the spouse’s career to support their Soldier’s. The US Government can and should do more to make military service a win-win environment for couples.

Over the past twenty years, our nation has undergone a fundamental restructuring of its labor force and work site culture. We now live in a society with many more formally educated young people who all strive for success and independence. Whether in the military or not, both husband and wife work. But when the service member is reassigned, the spouse is too frequently frustrated while trying to find a job, build a career and achieve some sort of financial security separate from their Soldier spouse/partner. Too often, unable to resolve their dual income employment challenges, good soldiers leave the military to accommodate their spouse’s employment needs and aspirations. 

Our nation’s largest military installations (Fort Hood, TX; Fort Sill, OK; Fort Stewart, GA; Fort Benning, GA; Fort Bragg, NC) are more than 60 miles from cities large enough to offer employment in fields corresponding to the business, advertising, marketing, law or medical skill sets of contemporary Soldier spouses. Traveling to the larger cities (Austin, Oklahoma City, Savannah, Atlanta, Raleigh etc.) create increased transportation, vehicle wear and tear and child care costs, along with increased windshield/communicating time and, in many cases, this is coupled with a deployment situation. As an example: I commuted to Austin from Killeen/Fort Hood everyday driving 150 miles roundtrip. Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates currently (Jan. 2010) are 0.50 per mile. This would have equated to driving 37,500 miles/yr at a cost of $18,750 annually based on a 250 days of work.  This expense is huge, and a tax deduction on commuting miles would help alleviate and help outweigh some of these added burdens.

Because the nature of the military is to move individuals every couple of years, spouses do not get the same opportunity to participate in a TSP or 401k.  Some companies have time limits on participation, not providing for enrollment until the completion of a year’s employment and taking number of years (Avg. 5) to become vested.  Military spouses need prompt and assured access to a wider array of investment and retirement programs regardless of the company, time of employment, and location to allow the spouse to earn retirement funds independent of their military spouse.  I would be happy to provide examples of this scenario.

Although the My Career Advancement Account is a successful program serving over 136,538 military spouses through March of 2010, many spouses are not truly looking for more classroom education. They are looking for an alternative! Many spouses took advantage of this program to get a second degree or certification because they were trapped and unable to work in their current degree field or field of expertise. Many spouses are have undergraduate degree and advanced degrees but can not find employment in their chosen career field in the small to mid-size towns that serve many of our Army’s military installations. Versus getting another degree or certification, I do believe many spouses would like to have the opportunity to start their business or company, but they lack the initial finances to get them started. The $6000 assistance would allow offer them the financial assistance to get them started.

WE THEREFORE RESOLVE to urge the Administration and Congress to:

• Authorize a Military Spouse-Thrift Savings Plan or equivalent 401k type of plan without a minimum number of years of employment prior to enrollment, participation or vesting.

• Expand the My Career Advancement Account program so that it can be used not only for tuition programs but also as a Small Business Loan.

3. Quiet Pride

Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Adopt a Fort HoodUnit AUSA conducts the Adopt a Fort Hood Unit in order to better channel organizations that wish to support a military organization. The AUSA Adopt a Fort Hood Unit is sponsor driven and provides unique opportunities and resources for units to establish, sustain and increase / improve relations with the greater community through sponsors who are seeking a unit. The Adopt a Fort Hood Unit program unites the sponsor with a unit of their choice and the ensuing relationship enables the unit to coordinate with the sponsor while stationed CONUS and during forward deployments.

Time of Execution: Ongoing

Frequency: Weekly / Monthly

Additional Resources Required: Command emphasis  

(As we continue our nation's Global War of International Terrorism, this briefing - presented more than three years ago - remains a VERY much a part of understanding what is happening in Iraq & Afghanistan)

(June, 2006) It’s a conflict of cultures - - Muslim extremism on one side and western concepts of democracy and modernity on the other. And according to COL Gary H. Cheek,* who briefed chapter members on June 21st as Chief, Strategic Planning Division in the Office of the J5, JCS, it will be a “Long War.”

For average Americans, a war against global terrorism is difficult to understand and a sustained state of war alien to our nature. Further, research suggests that while insurgencies typically last nine years, the American people are prepared to support a war for only about three. That creates a six year gap - a gap in which our nation now finds itself.

Unlike past wars, this Global War on Terrorism is not being fought solely within specific national borders. This war, COL Cheek stressed, is a transnational movement of extremist organizations, networks and individuals who share a common purpose. Quoting Zeyno Baran in “Fighting the War of Ideas” (Foreign Affairs, Dec. ’05), “the west is being drawn into the clash of two competing ideologies within the Islamic world. Proponents of the first believe that Islam is compatible with secular democracy and basic civil liberties. Proponents of the second are committed to replacing the current world order with a new caliphate - - that is, a global Islamic state.”

This concept of a global Islamic state has its origins in earlier history and Muslim domination of most of Africa, the Middle East, much of SW Asia and SE Europe achieved by 1500. Today, with that former domination now past, many Muslims feel a severe loss of dignity and honor. This loss provides Al Qa’ida’s leadership with easy access to an aggrieved population able to attract recruits with their extremist ideology.

COL Cheek described Al Qa’ida’s plan, obtained through captured documents. That plan seeks to expel American influence from the Mideast; remove all secular governments within the region; eliminate Israel and purge Jewish and Christian influence from the region; and expand the Muslim empire to its 15th century historical boundaries.

Cheek emphasized these points with a quote from Osama bin Laden: “We are seeking to incite the Islamic Nation to rise up to liberate its land and to conduct jihad for the sake of God.” COL Cheek added, “in 100 years, they expect to achieve global dominance."

COL Cheek next detailed our nation’s strategy for the Global War on Terrorism. Its principal aims call for the defeat of violent extremism as a threat to our way of life and creation of a global environment inhospitable to violent extremists and those who support them. Cheek described ways by which this strategy will be achieved in protecting and defending the homeland and US interests aboard, attacking terrorists and their capacity to operate at home and abroad, and supporting mainstream Muslim efforts to reject violent extremism.

Our national strategy seeks to deny terrorists the resources (especially WMD) needed to operate; aid partner nations in their efforts to counter terrorism; partner with other nations to counter terrorism; defeat terrorists and their organizations; counter state and non-state support for terrorism; and contribute to establishing conditions that will successfully counter ideological support for terrorism. That is tough work - and will take time.

But then, COL Cheek stressed, waging and winning wars DO take time. He cited examples - the Cold War, our defeat of communism and the emergence of the Republic of Korea from a devastated post-WWII peninsula to a respected and democratic Asian economic power. These transformations took time. And winning this Global War on Terrorism, he said, will take time. But to fail would be disastrous - for the US and other western democracies.

Winning the Muslim population is key. In that sense, this truly is a war for the hearts and minds of Muslims throughout the world. Worldwide, there are 1.3 billion Muslims; if only 1% of that population choose to actively support the terrorists, that’s 13 Million dedicated to that extremist cause.

COL Cheek closed with a quote from President Ronald Reagan, in speaking of the Cold War; “The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve; the values we hold, we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.” That remains true today.

COL Cheek's slides are available as a PDF file here.