Army Secretary Pete Geren marked the 35th anniversary of the All-Volunteer Force by reminding attendees at the Association of the United States Army’s Institute for Land Warfare breakfast that the 1.1 million soldiers now serving are engaged in the third longest war in the nation’s history “and the longest war ever fought” by the United States without conscription.
Speaking July 10 in suburban Washington, he said, “We are succeeding in the global war on terror today, and this success has a thousand fathers and mothers.”
Adding, as professionals, “they have learned how to succeed in this complex security environment and they are putting that knowledge and experience to work.”
Geren said 64 percent of the active component have served in a combat theater. The numbers for the Army Reserve were 31 percent and for the National Guard 33 percent.
Citing George Catlett Marshall’s experiences, knowledge and candor gained over a 50-year career as a soldier and statesman, he said, “Today we are asking our NCOs and juniors officers to compress into their few years all the skills” Marshall accumulated over a lifetime “and bring them to bear every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
He recalled a conversation he had with a captain serving in Iraq.
The officer told the secretary: “Every day has new challenges that require young officers to be warriors, leaders and thinkers because of the demands of the current fight” that can range from rescuing a crew of a downed helicopter from al Qaeda to providing drinking water to a village.
“All these challenges are tactical, but at the same time, it is taking care of your soldiers. This is done by providing them the bigger picture, ensuring they are prepared for every patrol” and recognizing that the mission is a marathon and not a sprint.
Geren said that a major told him that the value of having experienced platoon leader lay in their not being yes men. “There were times my aggressiveness was tempered by my first sergeant and platoon leader. If that platoon was not capable of giving 100 percent on that mission another was assigned without any repercussions. To me, that showed maturity in our platoon leaders.”
He said what soldiers are accomplishing in Afghanistan and Iraq is a far cry from the warnings of former Defense Secretary Les Aspin of “asking too much” of them. “That was 20 years ago. Today we ask them … for much more and our soldiers are making hard and quick decisions every day and delivering for America.”
Adding, the success of the All-Volunteer Force “has confounded its early skeptics and critics.”
Even with military operations entering their seventh year in Afghanistan and Iraq, Geren said the Army will recruit 175,000 soldiers, the equivalent of enlisting the entire Marine Corps, and another 120,000 soldiers will re-enlist.
He called any comparison to the standards of recruits now to those of the 1970s “bogus,” with only half of the recruits in 1973 being high school graduates versus over 80 percent now and 20 percent of the recruits in 1973 came from the lowest testing category versus “way less than 4 percent” now.
Geren said the action of Pfc Ross McGinnis who sacrificed his own life by dropping from the gunner’s sling in a Humvee on an insurgent-thrown fragmentation grenade to save the lives of four other soldiers in the vehicle was an example of the courage of soldiers in the All-Volunteer Force.
At a ceremony in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes following the posthumous awarding of the Medal of Honor to his parents, McGinnis’ father departed from his prepared remarks to address the four soldiers who were in the Humvee with his son.
“Previous speakers had spoken of the debt we all owed Ross,” Geren said.
McGinnis’ father said, speaking directly to the four soldiers who were also at the ceremony: “Something that was said a few minutes ago made me think” about the gift of life the four had received from Ross, Geren said quoting McGinnis’ father. “That’s what it was. You can’t expect to live the rest of your lives living up to something or paying back something. It can’t be carried as a debt. A debt is something you can repay. A gift is something for you to enjoy. So live your lives, enjoy your lives because it was a gift.
Quoting President Ronald Reagan at Normandy on the 40th anniversary of the invasion, he asked the question first posed in a James Michener novel: “Where do we find such men?” Geren paused, “They find us.” Adding, “That is the magic of the All-Volunteer Force, a national treasure.”
ICF International, an AUSA sustaining member, sponsored the breakfast.