by Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) — “How’s it going?” Bernard Rostker recently
asked a soldier during a room inspection at Fort Carson, Colo.
“I’m really ticked off,” the soldier candidly told the
Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. “They dragged me
back from Bosnia to go to school. I could’ve gone to school later.
This is one of the stories Rostker tells to illustrate how servicemembers
feel about today’s military missions. After visiting troops around the world,
he’s concluded servicemembers value real-world operations. And in return for
their dedicated service, the Department of Defense is working hard to improve
service members’ quality of life.
Rostker said people join the armed forces for a variety of reasons, but there’s
only one reason they decide to stay in—the love of serving in the military.
“What keeps a sailor in a purple shirt pulling fuel lines on an aircraft
carrier deck in the middle of the North Atlantic? What keeps a soldier driving a
70-ton stabilized tank over hill and dale, firing on the run at Fort Hood, Texas?
“It’s the excitement,” Rostker said. “It’s the thrill of it.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to love it or you wouldn’t endure the family
separations or working outdoors in the winter cold or in the Sinai’s
133-degree heat. It is the profession of arms. You come in for a lot of reasons.
But you don’t stay unless you’re a warrior.”
Even after nearly 32 years of service within the Defense Department, Rostker
said, he continues to be impressed by America’s men and women in uniform.
“I sat in on a morning brief in Incirlik, Turkey, for Operation Northern
Watch. It was like they were talking in code,” he recalled. “They went
through how they were going to stage a combat air patrol with all its supporting
aircraft. It was the height of professionalism.”
Rostker said the most remarkable change in the armed forces in the last 10
years is how what DOD call’s ‘operations other than war’ have been
legitimized. “They’ve been legitimized by the troops who patrol the
streets in Bosnia or in Kosovo who know they are doing important things,”
he said. “Their infectious enthusiasm has convinced the military leadership
that this is, in fact, the way a great power acts in the 21st
century.”
Today’s service members are helping bring peace to the world, just as did
those who served during World War II, Rostker said. “It’s just as true
today in the Balkans, the Middle East and elsewhere,” he said. “These
troops know it’s important. They re-enlist for it. They want to get back to
doing it.”
In the past three years, he noted, U.S. forces displayed their military
skills evacuating U.S. Embassy personnel in the Congo and providing quick, vital
assistance following the August 1998 bombings outside the U.S. Embassies in
Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
They successfully conducted Operation Desert Fox in the Persian Gulf,
Operation Allied Force in the Balkans, as well as strikes against Osama Bin
Laden in the Middle East. U.S. forces continue to serve in peacekeeping missions
in Bosnia, Kosovo and the Persian Gulf. Most recently, American forces stood
ready to rush to the aid of Russian submariners.
The Army’s current retention rate of 57 percent to 60 percent is evidence
of soldiers’ morale, noted Rostker, who formerly served as undersecretary of
the Army and as an assistant secretary of the Navy. In some cases, he said, the
services have had to adjust to the changing role they play in today’s
missions. The Air Force, for example, adopted the air expeditionary force, which
allows it to cycle deployments, and it’s “working very well,” he
said.
Sailors, he pointed out, have always joined the Navy to go to sea.
“Six-month deployments for sailors are what they are made of,”
Rostker said.
He recalled meeting with Army National Guard members training for a rotation
in Bosnia. An active-duty colonel working with the group told the Pentagon
official about the enthusiasm and quality of the National Guard troops.
Playing devil’s advocate, Rostker razzed the colonel: “Yeah, but these
guys didn’t sign up to become the policemen of the world. They didn’t sign
up to be U.N. soldiers.” The colonel stood by his opinion, becoming angrier
and angrier, until he realized the Pentagon official was just kidding.
Rostker also recalled meeting an Army sergeant major who was returning to
Fort Polk, La., after building and repairing roads damaged by floods in Central
America. “He said to me, ‘This is the most important thing I’ve done.
This was a lot better than garrison life or going out to the field.
This was real.’”
Just as the troops value “real missions,” Rostker stressed, DOD
values its troops. The department has put substantial resources into improving
service members’ pay and compensation and other aspects of quality of life.
Some recent quality of life improvements include:
- A 4.8 percent across-the-board pay increase went into effect in January
2000. - Targeted pay raises of up to 5.5 percent went into effect for mid-career
members in July 2000. - DOD initiated pay raises greater than the average private sector raises by
one-half percent for the next five years. - A reform of the military retirement system offers members a choice: a
return to a system based on 50 percent of basic pay at 20 years of service
or a $30,000 bonus at 15 years and a smaller retirement at 20 years. - A new housing allowance initiative announced in January 2000 is designed
to reduce service members’ out-of-pocket housing costs to 15 percent by
2001 and to zero by 2005.
DOD officials are also improving military housing, Rostker noted. The Army
has “whole base” ventures at Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Lewis, Wash.; and
Fort Meade, Md. The Navy recently put $720 million into quality of life programs
over the next six years. Other initiatives include:
- Setting a goal to eliminate inadequate family housing by 2010. The Navy
and Marine Corps are on track. - Setting a goal to eliminate gang latrine barracks by 2008. The Air Force
has met this goal. The Marine Corps is on track to meet the goal in 2005.
The Army and Navy are on track for 2008. - Setting construction standards to provide more privacy in the barracks and
working to improve common areas.
Family programs have been a particular focal point for Defense Secretary
William S. Cohen and his predecessor, William J. Perry, Rostker said. Cohen and
his wife, Janet Langhart Cohen, recently sparked new momentum in family programs
by hosting two forums for service and family members at the Pentagon.
“We’ve made great strides in taking care of our families,” he
said.
Recent quality of life improvements in family programs include:
- Overall per capita investment in community quality of life programs,
including commissaries, schools, recreation facilities, family centers,
child care, family advocacy, transition assistance, relocation services and
others has increased from about $1,500 per service member in fiscal 1990 to
about $2,100 in fiscal 2000, based on 1990 constant dollars. - DOD has started full-day kindergarten and reduced pupil-teacher ratios in
the early grades within DOD dependent schools. DOD has also upped the number
of school psychologists and guidance counselors. - The department has also invested in technology for DOD schools. Their
average of one Pentium-class computer for every 4.8 students is well above
the national average. - Over 95 percent of the DOD child development centers are now nationally
accredited, compared to 8 percent of the civilian childcare centers in the
United States. In May, the National Women’s Law Center held up the
military child care system as a model for nationwide reform. - DOD has added more than $200 million for morale, welfare and recreation
program and physical fitness center improvements. Since 1995, funding for
these programs has increased by 19 percent.
“These investments in quality of life are a tangible sign of support for
the arduous duty and everyday sacrifices incurred in a military career,”
Rostker said. “They recognize the important role military families play in
achieving overall readiness.”
