it's been hugely successful. i'll tell you why. it's not the leadership that i have given. it's the dedication our soldiers have given. soldiers in the army reserve today have joined the force or reenlisted to stay if the force while the nation is at war. they know what they signed up for. that culture says i'm goinging to go and do something to serve tb country. i'm not joining to be a weekend warrior, the strategic reserve. the challenge we've got, sir, is how do we keep them? it's critical we have the right training to make sure to retain the force and keep them ready. because we're not very good at predicting the future.

and the army will have to call upon us on short notice to sustain operations. that's why it's so critical to me. that allows me flexibility to buy equipment that i need now, that is not programmed yet. i can buy assimilation equipments to maintain the edge and keep them ready. so the money that we're transferring around $250 mlt r million to provide extra training days for the rotation cycle is critical. the army reserve is an operational force. it's highly successful and it's successful because of soldiers like sergeant burgess and other soldiers. >> we've been advised that you

have -- how is that impacting your mission? >> the -- what i can tell you, sir is if you look at the figures it says equipment on hand for the army reserves, we're better than we've ever been. 86%. we're 66% modernized. the equipment that we have in a lot of cases is old equipment. now as far as our soldiers being able to do their job in iraq and afghanistan and other places, not an issue. because we make sure they're using modernized equipment in those theaters. where it impacts me is back home. it impacts me back home because now, and especially now that we've drawn out of iraq and we're going to draw down out of afghanistan, i'm focusing on home station training. how do i keep the soldiers

trained at home so they're ready to go? and i need that modernized equipment back here. it's a morale factor. if you're a young soldier trained and equipped with the best standards and come home and go to the weekend drill in your army reserve unit, and there's a piece of old equipment that you know we don't use anymore in a wartime environment. it has an impact on the soldier saying, why aren't we training with what we just had in afghanistan? and so to me, the modernization of that equipment is critical for our retention. it's critical for our readiness. because to be ready, i've got to train on the right equipment. o right equipment. >> are you satisfied with the pace of modernization is sufficient? >> say again? >> are you satisfied that the modernization program as we have now is adequate? >> i have some concerns, sir. my concern, i guess, would be

that as the army is going through restructure and as the army has announced they're drawing down over a period of years, i think that's going to lead us to make some equipping decisions for the future that might say we can delay some modernization until we can say what the forestructure looks like, and i can't afford to wait because my soldiers need equipment today. and it's probably a smart thing to do in some cases f. we're going to draw down units in the active force that have modern equipment, then it would cascade to me, and i would have that modern equipment so the army might say we're not going to go buy more. we'll just give you what we have in the active when we do away with those units. however, that's going to be several years down the road. and i can't afford to wait. that's why the ngrea funding that you give us is so critical because if the army says we're not going to buy any more modernized trucks, for instance, because we're going to probably take some of the active trucks and give them to you in 2016, i

can go ahead and buy some today and put them in my units, and then when the other ones come, fill out the rest of the units. so i'm not satisfied that our modernization strategy will meet my needs for the immediate future, no, sir. >> i'd like to ask a question of all of you. the strategic plans for the next five years call for drastic reduction in end strength which gives you an opportunity to get active duty people transition ing to the reserves. do you have any plans to bring this about? >> chairman inouye, we certainly do in the navy, and our primary office we put up a couple of years ago, the career transition office in millington that is handling all of these transit n transitio transitions, we're proud of the work that they've done to reduce

the time it takes to make the transition what used to literally be four to six months down to somewhere two or three days by analyzing the process and making it smoother. we do believe that as we look forward here in the next couple of years that the active component that's been so full and stayed full starts to transition will have an opportunity to bring those sailors into the reserve component. we want to make that transition as seamless as possible and most of that we've discovered has been our regulations and policies within the department. there have been several things over the last several years that you all have been very helpful with in making that happen. i would say the most important thing we need to do, as i mentioned earlier, is to have real and meaningful work for those sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines do when they get to the component and that's why assured access and other provisions will be very important to us moving forward. >> what about the marines? >> thank you, mr. chairman? the commandant has recently,

since he's taken over as the commandant, general amos has revamped the transition assistance program from the active component, and he has various aspects. used to be it would be bring the marines together for a couple of days. give them some fast and furious education and training, and then they'd be out the door. now there's a couple times in their transition, a year before they get out, right before they get out, and then all of this information is put on the web so that they can get access to it for that legendary marine who wants to get out and go surfing in mexico four months before he wants to get a job or go to school. in the meantime, along that, there are four track tracts provided. one is a trade skill tract, if they're going to go to school for a trade school, a business tract, if they want to get into

business or if they want to start a business. there's a entrepreneurial tract. with regard to the reserves, we have room for them in our 396 with our latitude. we do do see the individual ready reserve increasing. right now we're about 57,000. an estimate would be up to perhaps 75,000. those are marines we also pay attention to and take care of as much as we can even though they're not drilling reservists, so there is a plan. we are tightly integrated with the active component in that continuum, in that marine for life program that brings them and trains them and gives them the opportunity to join the reserves if they want to and then continue to be valuable citizens throughout their life. thank you. >> how about the air force?

[ inaudible ] >> are you hearing me? we, too, have a robust program, and we have worked very closely with our active component over t the last couple of years as they have worked aggressively to downsize. the critical skills that we're shorting are the ones we're focusing on and we have in service recruiters that interview every single person that is leaving the active force and offer them the opportunity to continue to serve in those particular areas where we have the needs. we try to match the critical skills to where the needs are. we also offer cross training to the folks who might be interested in continuing to participate in a different career field. just as importantly, i think the active force has used some very significant tools to include voluntary early retirement and other options to depart the active force which does, in fact, put some is folks into what general hummer mentioned in the irr. we're also working on musters inside those irr members once a

year at several different locations targeting the skills we need and mustering folks in because we found that within that first year after somebody leaves, they may not be just as satisfied as they thought they were going to be and we have found a lucrative recruiting ground from some of those folks who come back to us in the reserve component. we're working aggressively with our partners to keep the critical skills that have been trained. we can't afford to retrain, and we must keep that compaapacity capability. >> are you satisfied with your program? >> we are. >> general stultz? >> yes, sir. it is a critical part of our strategy for the future, our human capital strategy. and we have learned from my good friend, steve hummer here of the marine corps, that the marine for life mentality needs to be in the army, also. a soldier for life mentality. we're doing several things, sir.

we are putting -- i am putting manpower on the active duty installations to start working more aggressively with the transition process much further out than we have in the past. that soldier that decides he's going to leave the army from an active status, we're telling him he's not getting out. he's transitioning. he's transitioning into reserve status, whether it's active or inactive reserve status, he's still going to be a soldier. but we need to start talk iing him six to nine months before he leaves not two weeks. we need to start talking to him first of all about what he's going to do for civilian work, and we need to help him get a job. and so one of the cornerstones of our program is our employer support program that we've developed over the last four years where we now have over 3,000 employers across america that have partnered with us. we have 700,000 jobs on the web portal that are available out there and we have program support managers on the ground, contractors that we've hired, to help facilitate between the

employer and that soldier, and we want to facilitate that before he ever leaves active service. we want to have a smooth transition where he can come off of active duty, go right into a civilian job, if that's what he chooses to do, and we can also facilitate him coming into the reserve whether he comes in active reserve status or whether he says i just want to take a break for a while and be in the irr. fine, you're still going to belong to us. when you're ready to come back and start drilling with us, we'll bring you back. it's that employer piece that's critical because if i bring a soldier into the reserve and he doesn't have a job, i'm at risk. because he has to pay his mortgage. he has to pay for the kids to go to college. he needs to have a good, comfortable career. we're putting forces on the installatio installations, with the employers, and we're going to make that as a cornerstone of our program. i can tell you today it's working. and the past couple of years

we've already put 1,000 soldiers that we know into civilian jobs in our force. there's many thousands of others we know have used the portal and web gotten jobs and the employers are telling us, and we didn't even know the soldier because the soldier just used the technology themselves to do it. but the program is working. the soldiers are happy. the employers are happy. we've got a good force. >> thank you very much. i'll be submitting a few of the questions for your consideration so expect that. mr. cochran? >> senator, thank you. i've given to your staff some questions about re-assigning aircraft that now are based at keisler air force base-biloxi. and i hope you can take a look at those and address a response to the committee as soon as

reasonably possible. what we're concerned about is the readiness, of course, of an operational reserve and how that may be affected by the air force's restructure decisions. do you have any comments that you can make as a way of introduction to what your thoughts are on that subject? >> senator cochran, i can do that. and let me just refer to the previous panel's remarks especially those of general wyatt as he was discussing some of the same kinds of issues as we look at downsizing some of the fleets that we have as a result of age or as a result of requirements. and that's the tricky part of this is how do we look at this across the systems in the c-130s in this example and ensure that we meet the requirements of the combatant commanders which, if we do that, will allow us to reduce the numbers that we currently have. we did have a very rigorous

process that we went through and there are four very major tenets of the kinds of things we looked at that include no negleative impact to the combat commanders, make sure we don't create any new bills, increase rates, there's a requirement when we do this and then we need to look at all the locations that we've got out there, apply that criteria and in some cases there is judgment that needs to go into it at the end. but we will certainly come back to you very quickly with the questions that you've asked. i use that as a prelude and we work it through our corporate structure general mckinley and general wyatt mentioned in their testimony to come to the realization that we have in the fiscal 2013 projection that those were the kinds of things that need to be done to ensure we don't become hollow in other parts of this force as well. so we'll get back to you very soon. >> i'm looking forward to going

down to the mississippi gulf coast for the christening of the "uss mississippi." the newest submarine that will be joining the fleet. that will be an exciting occasion for all of our state. identify very closely with the navy's presence down there and the ship building capability along that gulf coast and personally serving in the navy, i'm a little bias. about the importance of the u.s. navy. but what is the prospect of this budget we approve the schedule for ship construction and maintenance and adding new ships to the fleet. is it robust enough to take care of responsibilities for national defense that falls exclusively under the jurisdiction of the na navy? >> yes, sir, and i would

respectfully like to defer that question if i could. primarily because in the navy reserve, which is my responsibility, obviously, we do have a reserve fleet of now nine fr frigates and as we're retiring those frigates, we're bringing more in to replace them until we retire all of our navy reserve frigates. as i look forward in the future, our involvement once those frigates are retired will primarily be with combat ship program which, as you know, is ramping up and we're in active discussions with navy and where we in the navy reserve will play into that. the larger question of the entire ship building program is one that i would like to defer obviously to the secretary and the cno. i will say from may own perspective having been in the navy for 35 years that the fleet today in the mississippi is a great example of it is far more capable than any fleet we've ever had in the past irregardless of numbers and if we had to use that fleet, i would rather use the fleet we have today in looking into the

near future than any fleet we've had in the past both the capabilities of those programs as well as for the training and the dedication and the honor, courage and commitment of the sailors who serve on that fleet today. >> thank you very much. thank you for convening the hearing and let me say to all of the panel we appreciate your dedication and your commitment to helping strengthen and maintain the best reserve components of our military establishment. thank you very much. >> i'd like to join my vice chairman in thanking all of you for your testimony and for your service to our country and to note that as general stultz pointed out the critical role that you played and continue to play in the middle east, most people in the united states

don't realize this. they think it's just active component but the role that the reserves and guards play a very, very important. this committee appreciates that very much. this subcommittee will reconvene on wednesday, june 6, at 10:00 a.m. to receive testimony from outside witnesses and now we'll stand in recess subject to the call of the chair. coming up here on c-span 3, new york university law school hosts a discussion on race and law enforcement. that's followed in an hour and 25 minutes by a forum looking at terrorist financing since the 9/11 attacks. on washington journal tomorrow morning, we'll talk about jobs and the economy with democratic senator mark begich of alaska.

we will take your questions about the book "the death of liberalism." and we'll be joined by "washington post" writer eli saslo, the author of "ten letters -- the stories americans tell their president." "wash journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. right now i want to you take a look around you and think not where everyone has been but where they are going. the guy in front of you could win an academy award some day. the girl behind you could be a future president of the united states or even, better than that, the mayor of new york city. the guy sitting to your right to be a future nobel lawyer yacht. okay, maybe not the guy to your right but certainly the one to your left. >> memorial day weekend watch commencement speeches, politicians, white house officials, and business leaders share their thoughts with the graduating class of 2012. saturday through tuesday at noon and 10:00 p.m. eastern.

there's an extra day of book tv this holiday weekend on c-span 2. h.w. brands on a different side of the new york politician and vice president saturday night at 8:30 eastern. and on afterwards, the former direct or for asian affairs at the national security council, victor chaw on the impossible state, north korea. >> the dialogue on human rights is kind of a ridiculous dialogue because you can tell them you need to improve your human rights situation, and their response to you will be, and we've had this conversation at the official level, the response to you will be, well, you, the united states, have human rights problems, too. i mean, that is not a comparable discussion. >> that's saturday night at 10:00. also this weekend, marcus luttrell details operation red