DUCKING BULLETS: U.S. Army Sgt Deandre Strange 82nd Airborne Division scrambles for cover under a hail of bullets from the enemy in Afghanistan.
On November 18, 2013 Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma asked for and was granted permission to address the United States Senate for a few minutes regarding the readiness of our military.
“The military is experiencing a dramatic decline in readiness and capabilities. I have a chart in the Chamber.”
“General Odierno, the Chief of Staff of the Army, recently said that his forces are at the–I am quoting now -“lowest readiness levels I’ve seen within our Army since I’ve been serving for the last 37 years” and that only two brigades are ready for combat–only two brigades. This is General Odierno. The reason I wanted this chart put up is because it tells us where we are today. The part shown in orange, which is the huge cuts coming from sequestration, is far greater than the rest of it. That is readiness. That is what we are talking about”, he said.
“We do hear a lot about the cost of personnel and all of that, but that is shown in the lower colored blue. So you are not talking about if you are able to do away with those actually coming up with any major reductions. The part shown in yellow is force structure. Now we are talking about, as General Odierno said, being down to only two brigades that are ready for combat. That is because of what has already been happening in the last 8 months in the force structure. The modernization is shown in green on the chart. Modernization is always the first to be cut when force cuts come in because they figure that is something you don’t feel the pain of today. But I want you to concentrate on the part shown in orange because that is where it really would hurt us”, he continued.
“So we had General Odierno saying his forces were at the lowest readiness levels he has seen in his 37 years in the U.S. Army. I was in the Army many years ago, and I can remember back then when it always had priority over everything. Defending America seemed to be the thing. Admiral Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, said: “….. because of fiscal limitations and the situation we’re in we don’t have another strike group trained and ready to respond on short notice in case of a contingency. We’re tapped out”, said Senator Inhofe (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov).
See video: Senator Inhofe’s floor remarks on NDAA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doGHIGC5Nq4