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STATEMENT
OF
LIEUTENANT
GENERAL TIMOTHY J. MAUDE
DEPUTY
CHIEF OF STAFF FOR PERSONNEL
UNITED
STATES ARMY
JULY 18, 2001
Mr.
Chairman and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for this opportunity to
report to you today on United States Army
personnel programs and the fiscal year 2002
budget. As
a framework for this topic, I intend to focus
on how our personnel programs and policies
contribute to achieving The Army Vision.
To meet the national security
requirements of the 21st Century
and ensure full spectrum dominance, The Army
articulated its Vision
to chart a
balanced course and shed its Cold War
designs.
The Vision is about three
interdependent components – People,
Readiness, and Transformation.
The Army is people – Soldiers,
civilians, veterans, and families – and
Soldiers remain the centerpiece of our
formations.
Warfighting readiness is The Army’s
top priority.
The Transformation will produce a
future force, the Objective Force, founded on
innovative doctrine, training, leader
development, materiel, organizations, and
Soldiers. Our manpower programs are vital to each element of the Army
Vision.
Before
I go any further, I want to ensure you realize
how much our
soldiers and leaders appreciate the work of
the Congress and of this Committee in
addressing our most significant concerns.
Soldiers, retirees, and their families
sense a renewed commitment to their well being
through your support of fiscal year 2001 pay
raises and National Defense Authorization Act
health care provisions, coupled with the
President’s recently announced initiatives
to further increase funding for pay raises,
retention incentives, health benefits, and
housing improvements.
By increasing funding to our manpower
and recruiting efforts, you enabled a
sustained growth in Army personnel readiness.
Though the Army must balance priorities
to avoid negatively affecting our
Transformation efforts and near-term
readiness, the message to our uniformed
soldiers, past and present, and their
families, is extremely positive.
We also appreciate your continued
support of our Army’s Transformation.
The
Army has embarked on a historic endeavor to
change in comprehensive and profound ways.
Our objective remains to be the most
strategically responsive and dominant land
force of the 21st Century –
decisive across the entire spectrum of
military operations.
People
The
Army is people.
People are the core of The Army’s
strength.
Three years ago, we completed the
Army’s draw down to an active component
force structure requiring 480,000 Active
Component soldiers.
The speed of the draw down, the
imperative of taking care of our soldiers, and
the maintenance of near term combat readiness
created significant manning challenges.
We are addressing those challenges,
with your support.
Since fiscal year 1999, The Army has
made significant improvements in personnel
readiness.
This year we will achieve congressional
guidance for end strength for the third year
in a row.
At the same time, our average strength
has steadily increased, from 473,000 man-years
in fiscal year 1999, to 475,000 man-years in
fiscal year 2000, and a forecasted level of
479,500 man-years in fiscal year 2001.
As a consequence, we are manning our 10
active component divisions and two Armored
Cavalry Regiments at 100% of authorized
strength, and 94% grade and skill match.
The fiscal year 2001 achievement is
particularly notable. This
manpower level will only be possible should
Congress fund additional man-years in the
fiscal year 2001 supplemental appropriation
above our budget request.
Our fiscal year 2002 budget request
includes funding for an average strength of
476,900 man-years and 480,000 end strength.
However, we are fully capable of
achieving an average strength of 480,000 in
fiscal year 2002, and will put in place a
strategy to execute a manpower program at that
level. Increased
funding for man-years directly translates into
more boots on the ground each day in our
formations and higher levels of personnel
readiness.
Successful recruiting has been a key
enabler to our increased manning levels.
The Army achieved its recruiting goal
in all three components in fiscal year 2000
for the first time since 1991. (The next
previous time was 1982.)
For fiscal year 2001, we expect to
achieve our goals in all three components
again, achieving the first back-to-back
successful years in all components in two
decades.
These successes do not come easy or
cheap. A
large part of our success is due to the help
this committee has provided us in recruiting
support and enlistment incentives, and we
thank you for that.
Concurrent with The Army’s
transformation, we are transforming our
recruiting practices.
We have changed our processes to better
align with the expectations and needs of
today’s youth.
Our vision for Army recruiting is a
recruiting program that is able to connect
with the youth of America through a carefully
selected professional sales force, supported
by credible research, relevant products,
state-of-the-art systems, and world-class
advertising.
Our advertising campaign now features
real soldiers discussing 212 ways they serve
in the U.S. Army and 180 ways in the U.S. Army
Reserve.
In these ads, American youth learn
about intriguing men and women who are their
own age, serving our nation proudly.
The campaign discusses camaraderie and
core values.
The ads stress overcoming challenges to
achieve a better life.
"An Army of One" unites two
messages:
the teamwork that makes our Army
powerful and the importance of our greatest
strength -- the American soldier.
The response is highly encouraging.
After the new campaign's debut on
January 10, visits to WWW.GOARMY.COM were up to 28,000 per day,
calls to 1-800-USA-ARMY jumped one third, and
participation in on-line recruiter chat rooms
increased 94 percent.
We are continuing to shift our emphasis
from our traditional high school senior market
to the college and high school graduate
markets.
As a result, we have made major
strategic improvements in recruiting
production.
By enlisting soldiers who have already
completed high school, we have been able to
fill near-term training seats.
Delayed Entry Program (DEP) losses are
down. The number of enlistees with some college education has
increased, providing us with soldiers better
able to meet the demands of our high-tech job
requirements.
In fiscal year 2000, we enlisted over
8,000 soldiers with some level of
post-secondary education an increase of 30
percent.
We have repositioned our recruiting
force to match population shifts and more
effectively connect with our market.
In fiscal year 2000, we opened and
relocated more than 180 recruiting stations.
More than 20,000 newly trained recruits
participated in the Hometown Recruiter
Assistance Program, going back to their
hometowns to provide personal testimony about
their experiences.
We continue to leverage the growth of
technology in automating the recruiting force. We have modernized our job placement system Army-wide,
giving us better visibility of job
availability, allowing us to offer a greater
variety of enlistment packages and options to
enlistees, and reducing the processing time
for our applicants.
As a result, we have substantially
reduced the number of applicants who are
qualified to enlist but decide not to accept
available options.
Likewise, the enhancements associated
with the fielding of the Army Recruiting
Information Support Systems to our recruiting
force are showing positive results.
Closely linked with our improvements in
automation is our exploitation of the
capabilities and opportunities offered through
the Internet.
The expansion and redesign of WWW.GOARMY.COM allows us to offer more
information for web users to surf, click, see
and hear.
In fiscal year 2000 we had more than
3,000,000 visitors to our web site, providing
us with over 90,000 follow-up opportunities
(recruiter leads).
Our ‘cyber-recruiters’ corresponded
with more than 30,000 chat users visiting our
chat room, generating over 7,000 follow-up
email messages.
Our enlistment contract per lead rate
from the Internet is higher than all other
lead sources. The new Army advertising campaign is intended to drive
potential applicants to our web site.
Since the launch of the campaign in
January 2001, hits on our web site are up 197
percent, and recruiter chat room visits are up
94 percent.
Today’s young men and
women have more employment and educational
opportunities than ever before.
Competition for these young people has
never been more intense.
The Army needs to have competitive
incentives to make service to our country an
attractive option.
To that end, we’ve developed programs
we think will attract high quality young men
and women.
The potential impact of these
programs is broad-based and far-reaching. Our recruits, colleges, private industry, the Army, and the
nation all benefit from a better-educated,
highly skilled Army of opportunity that
returns a disciplined, mature citizen back to
society.
Announced in July 2000, the Partnership
for Youth Success (PaYS) program consolidates
Army and industry recruiting efforts into a
partnership that is cooperative rather than
competitive.
When a new soldier enlists under this
program, he or she can choose from 94 job
skills offered by the Army and needed by
industry, receive accredited certification in
that job skill, and upon successful completion
of their term of service, receive preferential
hiring status with a participating corporation
in need of that skill.
Currently, ten major corporations are
participating in this program and 1288
soldiers have taken advantage of this
opportunity.
The Army’s High School completion
program or GED Plus offers high quality young
people who have not completed their high
school education, but score high on the Armed
Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and the
Assessment of Individual Motivation test and
are otherwise qualified, the opportunity to
gain their GED and then enlist in the Army.
We expect this program to pay big
benefits not only to the new soldiers, but
also to the Army and the Nation as well.
The Army accessed 3,449 through this
program in fiscal year 2000. By 1 July 2001,
the Army had accessed an additional 4,818 and
had another 481 in the DEP for 2001.
Geared toward vocational or junior
college interests, the College First program
offers high school graduates an opportunity to
attend two years of college before joining the
Army. The
Army provides enlistees in this program with a
monthly stipend during their time in college
in exchange for a commitment to service upon
graduation.
Even though research shows this is
precisely the type of option that youth are
looking for, response to the program during
its first year was very low (less than 250
contracts).
In fiscal year 2001, the Army
contracted 281 for the program as of July 2,
2001. The stipend that we are allowed to pay
is $150 per month.
We are examining proposals on how to
address this program and may be asking for
your help to make this a viable program as we
continue to increase our presence in the
college market.
Business
practices, incentives and advertising are a
part of recruiting but our most valuable
resource is our recruiters.
Day in and day out, they are in the
small towns and big cities of America and
overseas, reaching out to young men and women,
telling them the Army story. We have always selected our best soldiers to be recruiters
and will continue to do so.
These soldiers have a demanding mission
in making their individual goals.
We owe it to these recruiters and their
families to provide them the resources,
training and quality of life environment that
will enable them to succeed.
The Army appreciates Congress’s
continued support for recruiting programs and
also for your support for improving the
quality of life of our recruiting force.
Like recruiting, retention is critical
to our success in manning the Army.
The Army’s retention program remains
the most successful in the Department of
Defense.
This year, the Army will meet or exceed
its retention objectives for the third year in
a row. The
FY01 mission is 64,000.
FY01 accomplishments as of 2 July were:
Initial term – 106 percent;
Mid-Career – 109 percent, Career – 100
percent for an aggregate of 105 percent, FY01
ETS - 117 percent and Reserve Transition –
127 percent.
Funding of retention bonuses is
paramount to the success of Army retention.
Concerns over adequate housing,
compensation, and deployments are also key
factors in a soldier’s choice to continue
service.
The FY01 Defense Authorization Bill was
a start in addressing many of these concerns,
but continued attention is needed.
While we have had significant
success in improving enlisted manning, we are
still working to stabilize the officer corps
following the decade of draw down.
In fiscal year, 2001, we expect an
aggregate inventory shortage of approximately
1,700 officers. A particular concern is our shortage of 2,776 Army
Competitive Captains.
We continue to lose Captains with six
to ten years of service at levels above
historic norms.
This creates an imbalance between our
inventory and structure, which is difficult to
manage and a readiness concern.
In fiscal year, 2001, The Army
leadership implemented numerous initiatives to
encourage officers to continue service.
It’s too soon to determine the
effectiveness of these initiatives.
We will continue to inform you of our
progress.
The Army Vision states,
“The Army will assure our Nation’s
security by equipping, training, caring for
our people and their families, and enabling
their full potential as individuals.”
While this has long been our focus, the
dynamic and uncertain nature of the strategic
environment along with evolving societal
expectations and demographics dictate that we
address the human dimension in its entirety as
part of the overall transformation of our
force. To
that end, we are transforming the cold war
concept of “quality of life” into a far
more comprehensive system known as
“well-being.”
Well-Being is the personal state of our
people that contributes to their preparedness
to perform and support The Army’s mission.
The idea of well-being significantly
expands on the concept of quality of life by
taking a holistic approach, strategically
integrating all related programs into a more
encompassing and unifying concept based on a
specific set of well-being functions. Well-being philosophically links individual aspirations with
the needs of The Army.
Well-being establishes standards and
metrics by which to measure the impact of
well-being programs on desired military
outcomes such as performance, readiness,
retention, and recruiting.
And well-being recognizes the impact of
a much broader range of factors that effect
job satisfaction such as turbulence, training,
and leadership.
Our Well-Being program is focused on
achieving three strategic goals.
We must provide a
competitive standard of living.
Because the Profession of Arms is a
unique culture, we must provide sense of
community and a record of accomplishment that
engenders intense pride
and sense of belonging.
And finally, we must provide an
environment that allows our people the personal
enrichment that comes from pursuing their
individual aspirations.
We
believe such a focus creates the environment
where Soldiers and family members are more
self-reliant and exude higher levels of
confidence and competence in addressing the
challenges of military life.
Our people will be better prepared to
perform and support the Army’s full spectrum
mission.
The Army’s readiness is inextricably
linked to the well-being
of its people – Soldiers
(Active, Guard, Reserve), civilians, veterans,
retirees, and their families.
Recognition of this demands a balanced
approach to the fulfillment of our strategic
goals. The Army has moved beyond the narrow cold war focus on
standard of living (pay, health care, and
housing) to add a mix of workplace
environment, education, and Soldier and family
programs to this holistic approach to
well-being.
There is no question as to the
importance of “pay” and “health care”
in terms of the well-being of our people.
Together, they are a trust we must
keep, not just with those currently in uniform
but with veterans and retirees who served
before us. Together with “housing,” pay and health care form the
backbone of The Army’s Well-Being Goal of
providing a competitive standard of living for
our people.
For most of the past
half century, the military has been closely
associated with education. With the advent of the information age and an increasingly
promising economy, this relationship is only
getting more complex.
The results of the Secondary Education
Transition Study are drawing attention and are
certain to be a principal focus in the not too
distant future.
Whether a direct benefit to Soldiers or
an indirect benefit to family members,
education remains a critical factor in
reaching our goals of professional pride and
personal enrichment.
Soldier and family programs such as
fitness, sports, libraries and recreation,
Army Community Service, and Child and Youth
Services are absolutely critical.
In some ways, they are perhaps the
easiest to overlook, but they also contain
some of the most powerful signs of our
commitment to our people. These diverse programs are tailored to meet a variety of
individual needs and aspirations.
By fulfilling them, The Army sends a
strong message directly to individual Soldiers
and family members.
In many cases, these are the programs
that bring volunteers from veterans and
retiree groups back into contact with the
force. They
solidify the common bond that reinforces the
sense of community and contributes to
readiness and retention.
Dollar for dollar, some of our most
effective and efficient programs reside in
this general category.
In summary, well-being is a strategic
human resource program critical to the
Army’s vision of equipping, training, caring
for our people and their families, while
enabling their full potential as individuals.
It accomplishes this mission by
leveraging a competitive standard of living,
personal enrichment, and pride coupled with a
strong sense of belonging.
With far greater strategic impact than
quality of life, well-being exists as both a
strategic program and point of view.
It creates an environment where
soldiers and families are more self-reliant,
more competent and confident in addressing the
challenges of military life, and better
prepared to support the Army’s full spectrum
mission.
Sustained Congressional support for
important well-being programs help us recruit
and retain a quality force.
Indeed, the pay raise, pay table
reform, and retirement reform, as well as
diligent efforts by leaders at all levels of
The Army helped us exceed our recruiting and
retention goals in fiscal year 2000. It is only through such efforts that we maintain our
commitment to our people.
A comprehensive well-being program
ensures a quality force both now and in the
future.
Readiness
We
have leveraged increased Army strength through
The Army Manning Initiative.
Over a four-year period beginning in
fiscal year 2000, our goal is to improve
manning levels in units across the Army.
We initially redistributed soldiers to
fill all personnel authorizations in every
active component combat division and cavalry
regiment. In doing so, we accepted some risk in the institutional base.
This effort exposed the serious gap
that has existed in the aggregate between
manning requirements and authorizations.
It is possible that we will need to
increase personnel authorizations to meet all
unit manning requirements, dependent upon
ongoing reviews of overall Army missions.
Manning the entire force will reduce
operational and personnel tempo and improve
both readiness and well-being.
Over the past year, we kept our 10
Active Component warfighting Divisions, and
two Armored Cavalry Regiments manned to 100%
assigned personnel of their authorizations. We made steady increases in key units that deploy in the
first 30 to 35 days in our Major Theater War
scenarios.
By the end of fiscal year 2001, these
units will be manned at 100% of
authorizations.
At the same time, we have continued to
fill key billets in our non-priority units to
100%, as well as keep their overall manning at
a level sufficient for them to accomplish
their missions by the end of this FY, 67% of
the Army will be at 100% strength while at the
same time we have guarded against
“breaking” the average strength of the
other units.
Improving Army manning within our
overall strength and fiscal constraints,
particularly in a tight labor market, has been
a tough challenge. We have not sacrificed our quality standards for recruiting
and retention.
Our sustained improvements in personnel
readiness are the proof our success in
recruiting, retention, and attrition
reduction.
Transformation
The third component of the Vision is a
comprehensive transformation of the entire
Army. This
complex, multi-year effort will balance the
challenge of transforming the operational
force and institutional base while maintaining
a trained and ready force to respond to
crises, deter war and, if deterrence fails,
fight and win decisively.
Transformation is far more extensive
than merely modernizing our equipment and
formations. It is the transformation of the entire Army from leader
development programs to installations to
combat formations.
All aspects – doctrine, training,
leaders, organization, material, and Soldiers
– will be affected.
During this transformation, The Army must become
more flexible in our personnel management
practices as well.
This flexibility will allow us to react
to changes in our strategic environment, and
to potential enemy adaptations to our
capabilities.
We need flexibility to take advantage
of new technologies, and to adjust our plans
to the pace of change.
The Army recently completed an in-depth
evaluation of our warrant officer and enlisted
personnel management systems.
The study resulted in 23 initiatives
being approved for implementation.
These initiatives, when combined with
our revision of the Officer Personnel
Management System in 1997, refine The Army’s
leader development and personnel management by
modernizing personnel business practices,
aligning warrant officer inventory and
structure, and providing agility and
versatility to the Enlisted Personnel
Management System.
We call this holistic approach to
military personnel management the Army
Development Systems.
It includes character development,
performance evaluation, leader development,
and personnel management subsystems.
The Army Development Systems enhance
our ability to support The Army’s personnel
needs by ensuring all personnel life cycle
functions are efficient and flexible during
The Army’s transformation to the Objective
Force, while allowing for the inevitable
system adjustments generated as The Army’s
personnel needs evolve.
We are also supporting Army
Transformation by transforming the way the
personnel support services are provided.
Personnel Transformation will
revolutionize, integrate, and redesign our
personnel programs and systems to provide
simple, accurate, and accessible personnel
information for commanders, soldiers, and
families.
It is vital to sustaining Army
readiness and providing for the well being of
soldiers and family members.
Today, the Army employs over 350 legacy
personnel automation and information systems
in support of over 1,170 processes, which are
often overly complex, burdensome,
non-responsive, unnecessary, and redundant.
With few exceptions, our systems do not
facilitate or foster the sharing of
information between the Army’s three
components. We continue to employ many manual, stove-piped, and
duplicative procedures and processes.
Historically, the personnel function
has required a large footprint in the
operational theater.
Our goal is to reduce that footprint
via modernization of personnel systems and
leveraging technological advancements in
information systems.
The Army’s Personnel Transformation
Campaign Plan is comprised of three elements.
First, the creation of an integrated
corporate personnel database that is secure,
yet accessible and provides seamless, timely,
accurate, responsive, and reliable
information.
This corporate database will allow the
Army to eliminate and collapse numerous legacy
systems. Second, Personnel Transformation will implement “best
business practices” that streamline and
eliminate personnel processes.
We fully endorse and support the
Defense Integrated Military Human Resource
System (DIMHRS) initiative as part of this
effort to implement best business practices
across the Departments and components.
In fact, we have asked the Department
of Defense to consider accelerating the
implementation of DIMHRS.
Finally, Personnel Transformation will
reduce the footprint of personnel
administration on the battlefield while
improving strategic responsiveness. We will leverage advanced communication technologies with our
integrated database and best business
practices to become more efficient and
more responsive to our theater commanders.
Closing
Statement
With the support of the Administration
and Congress, The Army has embarked on a
historic enterprise to transform in response
to a changing strategic environment.
People remain the centerpiece of that
transformation because ultimately, soldiers on
the ground are responsible for carrying out
our nation’s policies.
On any given
day, the Army has over 121,000
soldiers forward stationed in over 100
countries.
The
personnel policies and programs I’ve
described are essential to their support.
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members
of the Committee, I would like to thank you
once again for this opportunity to report to
you today on the personnel readiness of your
Army. The statements made in this testimony are contingent upon the
results of Secretary Rumsfeld’s strategic
review. I ask you to consider them in that light.
I look forward to working with you on
these important issues.
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