here's what's coming uch today on c-span3. next, more on military issues. as a house committee hears from the heads of the military service branches on military readiness and budget challenges. after that, a forum on war and democracy. and at 5:40 p.m. a hearing with attorney general jeff sessions. here's a look at our prime time schedule on the c-span networks. starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern, discussion on the criminalization of mental illness. and why many are put in jail rather than psychiatric facilities. on c-span2 it's book tv with a look at books and publishing. and on c-span3 it's american history tv with programs on congressional history.

next, personnel chiefs of the military service branches testify on capitol hill about recruitment and retention efforts. they talked about their advertising strategies, efforts to recruit more women, and compensation packages foreign liforeign -- for enlistees. >> this hearing is called to order. i want to welcome everyone to the military personnel subcommittees hearing on the current and future state of the military personnel enterprise as we continue to build the fiscal

year 2019 ndaa national defense authorization act, our panel of the service personnel chiefs is here to address each of the services personnel requirements, including personnel policies for recruiting and retention, family programs, and to address other budget and legislative requests for fiscal year 2019. today's focus is on the requests foreman power increases from the armed services and the requirements that went into building this specific increases as well as how the personnel policies personally in place will support and sustain these increases. with the difficult recruiting and retention environment driven by a lesson over all propensity to serve, reduce qualified candidates an opinion robust economy, the competition for recruits will be difficult. and you will will be competing for the same pool. as you reference in your written

testimony, general simonds, if i said that right, today only one in four 17 to 24 years olds in the united states is eligible to serve in the army. and only one in eight has propensity to enlist in the military, making army sessions a challenging and resource sensitive at resource intensive activity. the subcommittee also remains concerned about the ability of the services to maintain the high quality standards and still meet the recruiting goals. also i'm especially interested in your plans for retention of the right service members that are central to your mission, and specifically what additional steps the air force is taking to fully address their pilot crisis. before i introduce our panel, will et me offer congresswoman sphe speier to make any opening remarks. >> thank you. my comments mirror yours. the national defense strategy

led congress to assume there will be growth and strength for most of the services. the fiscal year 2019 request seeks increases not just for next year but in state for fiscal year 2023 of more than 10,000 from the current authorization levels for the army, navy, and air force. for the past two years, congress has written a blank check fort army, providing end strength, increases not requested as part of the budget. we cannot continue this behavior. whether we agree the services need an increase or not is important for congress to understand what the long-term plans are. so we can have informed debate and make educated decisions about our military. i'd like to understand how the services would sustain this growth pattern over the next five years in an are a where finding quality applicants is becoming more and more difficult. congress must also understand how increased end strength will

apply to the force. fill current gps and increase units in capabilities. i yield back. >> we will give each witness the opportunity to present his or her testimony and each memoranda opportunity to question the witnesses for five minutes. we would also respectfully remind the witnesses to summarize to the greatest extent possible the high points of your written testimony in five minutes or less. your written comments and statements will be made part of the hearing record. let me welcome our panel. lieutenant general thomas sym onts, deputy chief of staffs, united states army, vice admiral robert p burke, chief of naval personnel, lieutenant general gi gina grosso. lieutenant michael, deputy commandant. general simonds. you are now recognized for five

minutes. >> chair coffman, ranking member speier, distinguished members tft committee, i thank you for the opportunity today to appear before you on behalf of the men and women of the united states army. i've submitted a statement for the record and now i'd like to highlight a few of the points. many of our army is one of the key components of readiness and army fight and win our nations wars. thank you for the fiscal year 2018 national defense authorization act which authorized army to grow by 8,500. also appreciate the two year budget deal which will improve readiness and ensure our formations are filled in the years to come. to build fuel tour army, we must recruit a diverse men and women high quality and character and competitive market as a chairman talked about, where only one in four, 17 year olds is eligible to join and one in eight has propensity to enlist in the military. maintaining the quality will

continue to be our priority and the army will not sacrifice quality for quantity. our recruiters across the country are doing incredible work to achieve this mission. the army must also continue to retain the most talented soldiers and noncommissioned officers with the experience and skills necessary to meet our future needs. we project historic retention rates again this year for ncos. the army leadership embraces talent management as cornerstone how we will maintain our best officers. pay system will be the keystone in the arch of our talent management. it will say be a responsive sys. we are standard based team in the army. and the taerm remains committed to giving all soldiers who can meet the stan darts of a military specialty the opportunity to serve in that special tismt last year the army implemented neutral physical standards for initial training for specific jobs. the initial results are

positive. we have successfully assessed and transferred more than 700 women in previously closed occupations of in fanty, armor and military. they are so popular we plan on expanding the program this year. they are vital and 27% of our total personnel. we need workforce with unique skills to support our soldiers and our families. as we build our force, we focus on the areas that provide the foundation for our future. we remain focused 0en personal resiliency, suicide prevention, with world class programs for soldiers and civilian families and reducing stigma with seeking behavior help. sexual harassment and retaliation are not compatible with army values, therefore combatting all forms of sexual misconduct remain a top priority for the army. although optimistic about the progress we have made in

reducing it in the ranks, we understand a lot more work to do as we drive towards zero. you've authorized us to grow and we are thankful for that we must ensure we are ready. army's improved deployable soldiers and we have ongoing review to increase number of deployable soldiers even more enhanced readiness. as are you aware department of defense is working with osd on implementation of these changes. army will make continued reduction in our deployable population a priority. because we care for our soldiers as they prepare for life after the service, the army soldier for life program with sourt from commanders has resulted in increased educational employment opportunities for our soldiers, our veterans, and our family members at a significant reduction of unemployment cost. additionally, i look forward to beginning the discussion of review at do the ma to determine

what's essential and what needs to be updated. our army is strong because of the courage commitment of our soldiers and veterans and family members. i thank all of your for your continued support for the all volunteer army. >> vice admiral burke, you are now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. good morning. thank you for the opportunity to represent the men and women of the united states navy. your support for them and their families continues to have a pro fund impact upon the heeltd of our force today. global demands upon the navy continue to grow. we must continue to recruit, develop, and retain the highly skilled workforce needed to meet the growing demand signal for naval forces. our force structure will grow as we build the navy the nation needs which will require increasing end strength. as we grow, our need for highly talented people increases. at the same time, propensity to

serve is declining in each of the services as well as civilian sector vying for the same limited talent pool. we are clearly in ha war for talent. current forecasts based on leading economic indicators suggest difficult times ahead. labor market factors may pull sailors with critical skills into the growing job market. we took note of this and initiated prehem tive action to retain the sail rs using all available policy levels to posture ourselves to meet this anticipated growth. despite this, we just made our fy 17 end strength targets. this year trajectory is good but we will require steady and reliable funding going forward to stay on track. the new two year budget deal is great news for us and is an excellent step in that direction. while recruiters had challenges last year and increasing fy 18 recruiting mission will be even more difficult for them. certain fields are in short supply and our projected growth

profile requires balanced approach of a session increases as well as retention improvement. and while our over all aggregate retention means high, nuclear field special warfare, advanced electronics, aviation, and cyber areas demand close attention. targeted bonuses continue to be the most cost effective monetary tool in addressing those retention challenges. but we are aggressively applying a combination of monetary and nonmonetary incentives with good effect. toward that end, we continue to implement and expand our sailor 2025 portfolio which is a dynamic set of over 45 initial tifs at work to provide our sailors and their families the choices, the flexibility, and transparency of processes that they expect and deserve. and we have combined that with our man power personnel training and education enterprise transformation efforts. and through those efforts we

will provide these programs to our sailors with the renewed focus on customer service through streamline, efficient business processes, and modern systems. we will also better meet the needs of our fleet commanders through vee responsiveness and use of predictive analytics so we be can pillar of stability in uncertain world. so moving out now with purpose and committed sense of your begin city on all of these initiatives. we also remain actively engaged in the departments review of officer management policies and are grateful for the subcommittee's interest to examine do the ma to ensure it meets the needs. i i look forward to your questions. and thank you. >> thank you, vice admiral burke. lieutenant general grosso you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to deliver the air force's personnel posture for fiscal year 2019. the air force is number one

priority to accelerate readiness is increasing end strength. we appreciate the fiscal year 2018 for continued end strength growth. the growth allows the air force to win in a more competitive and dangerous international security environment. the air force fy 19 president's budget continues that growth to 680,400 total force air man. 4,700 increase from 2017. this continues our man power investment for cyber and intelligence. additionally, the growth provides the inventory the air force needs to right size our training pipeline, improve squad dra ron readiness. as you are aware, our most stressed operational field is aviation. as of october 2017 our total force pilot short it age was

approximately 2,000 with the largest shortage 1300 in our fighter pilot inventory. fy 19 president budget increased pilot production capacity. in addition, this budget funds myriad programs and policies designed to address assignment, operational tempo and quality of life issues targeted to improve pilot retention. the fy 19 president's budget also increases support to air man and families tlul variety of kab capabilities that drive this. they total 114 million, this funding expands child care for those air men needing care, provides fees for 4,000 children who only have access to off base child care. the exceptional family member program assists more than 33,000 air men that have special needs. this budget has 15 support coordinate oors across the airport and respite care for the primary care giver from 12 to 40 hours per child each month.

taking care of air men and air men's children and care givers removes worries and dis strakss to allow air men to fully focus on the mission. interpersonal and self directed violence are det ments to our air men, culture anchor values. these acts negatively impact victims and unit readiness. we are deeply committed to this on all fronts evidence base programs and life skills training to prevent programs and time based prevention programs. should we fall short on our goals to eliminate this, we are committed to providing victims and family and units the care they need across a robust response system. this includes civilian management systems to ensure the air force continues to retain the highly skilled talent needed to defend our nation. the enlisted force we are won ducting a view of the enlisted

evaluation system following transition to new system in 2015. within our officer core, we are reviewing multiple initiatives to including modifying our current promotion categories and establishing technical tracks. our civilian workforce is essential to the air force mission and joint war fighting readiness. recruiting top talent is critical to our success. in fy 18 career program this top talents via summer program. our target for fy 19d on boarding is 500 new civilians and currently have 415 acceptances. this approach ensures we leverage the new congressional hiring authorities and stay competitive with aggressive private sector recruiting. finally, the air force is modernizing information technology infrastructure across our human resource systems to provide exceptional personnel service to air men and their families.

in ha digly connected world, our air men deserve the best resources available today. we have six year plan to migrate 115 technology platforms in 400 plus applications to the cloud. as we modernize technology platforms we will provide more modern systems to air men hand enhance our ability to make decisions. in conclusion, we must make sure they have the tools and training to deter and win increasingly complex security environment. we are committed to resourcing what is most important to make the air force more ready and lethal. we welcome the opportunity to partner with you in our even deaf ors to protect our nation. i thang for your continued spurt of the air force and look forward tour questions. >> thank you, lieutenant general. lieutenant rocco. >> thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss your marine corp.

marines are the foundation of the koran most critical resource. they are recruited trained and educated and retained to win our nation's battle. they are smart, fit, disciplined and able to overcome adversity. they are lethal and ready. recruiting and retaining high quality men and women is my number one priority. this year meet the recruiting mission while at the same time exceeding all quality goelgs. department requires 90% to be in the top education tire. we are at 98%. requires 60% to be the mental aptitude group. we are over 72 group. just as we recruit the best, so we must retain the best. marines must be capable of fulfilling our operational roles and operational requirements. >> continuous challenge to keep high quality marines especially in the current economy. this is particularly true for cyber and high tech occupations that are critical to the future

of warfare. incentive paying and bonuses remain vital to retention effort and appreciate your continued support for them. we are open for new ways to recognize reward and retain high quality marines. the top priority in this regard is officer promotions. we believe this is simple yet effective way to recognize excellence. we look forward to working with all the services, the department, and members of the subcommittee on other nic initiatives. we remain adaptable to new ways to recruit and retain the high tech force we need for the future. as we build on the foundation of quality marines we have today, thank you, and i look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you. let me just begin. i am very concerned, and i'd like each of you to address this, with the lowering of standards. in that i can remember i was in

the army, marine corps, and in the army at the end of the draft where, you know, anybody, i guess you have to talk your way out of getting in the army. but i think that the problems, than were a lot of disciplinary problems, morale problems, but they were actually across the board, wasn't limited to the united states army at that time. and when i look at the military today, when i meet these young women and young men and women who serve in uniform today, they are extraordinary. we truly have talent. we have an elite force. so we have a smaller force than we've historically had, but it is an elite force. i'd rather have fewer numbers and high quality than big numbers and low quality. and so i know that there is that great temptation to meet numbers, to lower standards. so i want each of you to address

that. starting with the united states army. >> chairman, thank you for the question. i'll tell you the army leadership has been very clear to me in our recruiting command. it's quality over quantity. if we can't make the quality or quantity you've allowed us to assess this year for the end strength, it's my job to come back to you and tell you why we can't do it. but we will not sacrifice quality. a couple points. your description of our soldiers is extraordinary. that's a really good word to describe who they are. they impress me and inspire me each and every day. as the army is growing again thanks tour work, what we did is went back to look at the last time we grew in 2008, and ma made some mistakes back in 2008, and we are not making those mistakes now. back 2008 we were focused more on quantity than quality. that's not happening now. personal level, sir ex, i entered the army in early 80s and we had problems. and i love the army and don't want to go back to those days

and speak across the force. they don't want to. we will remain focused on quality. thank you, sir. >> i would echo what general see manned for the army. we won't sacrifice quality. what we have done is it look at self-imposed policies that imlit the spectrum of candidates that we look at. for example, we are engaging with our medical experts to make sure that our medical standards, the navy's side of the medical standards are up to date with societal norms, making sure we are not negatively impacting fleet readiness. for example, someone that may have used medication for bronchitis, you know, does that equate to having asthma type of things? that at one point may have been medically disqualifying, those kind of things. we've used the full latitude of

the title ten thout that i've give us us for age limits and opened it up for both officer programs, where there is no physical limitation such as, for example, pilots or nuclear programs where there is physiological concerns, but every where else we've opened them up to the fuel latitude enlisted programs as well. and then we are looking at single parent policies as well where you have an older single parent where they've demonstrated they can responsibly care for the children and can translate that into military service. so we have opened up our doors to those sorts of situations as well. and then the last part is our recruiting techniques, as we've gone, as we are entering transformation, shifted our recruiting techniques to more of a virtual base. we still rely on our recruiters as sort of the boots on ground deal closures.

but we are get noog new markets, places where we haven't been able to get our message through before. so we are getting that message through and getting the talent that we could. >> yes, sir, we have not found any real challenges in recruiting. we are recruiting the same quality that we've been able to r recruit and meet our goals. but what we have done to growing end strength, we have laid it out reasonable pace so we don't over tax both the recruiting and training sources that make them air men. and so we have put a little bit of resourcing. we've increased number of recruiters. we stabilized the marketing budget. because what you find in the past is as we decreased you see this huge sign wave in the marketing budget. and any marketer will tell you you have to stay in the market. and much like the navy, we are modernizing where you find air

men as well. because you find that hasn't had much of a process improvement. so how do we find it today using technology and better leverage our capacity making it less stove piped. >> senator rocco. >> as i stated in my opening remarks, 91% are tere 1. the number is 98.6 percent of tier one. that's based on the needs of the marine corp. when we talk about first term enlistments who want to stay on and do a second tour, we are at 92.9% of those marines that are coming, that want to stay in, that's where we are right now for retaining. and it's not first in and first out, we have the tablt to look at those marines that want to

stay n and toenl retain the high else quality of those marines, including second term marines that we are at 98.5% of the marines that want to stay in that we retain. so we think we are in a good place. they have done a good point to go ought to make sure we hit markets we haven't hit in the past. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm going to defer and allow my colleague to ask the first set of questions. >> i thank the ranking member for deferring and thank the chairman ranging member for holding this committee, this hearing. as you all have noted in your testimony, the volatile nature of today's security environment and complexity of threats our country faces do require the military services to recruit from a talent pool that is as broad as talented as diverse as

possible. a committee on women found that only 29% of young people ages 18 to 23 are eligible to serve after adjustments are made for individuals who are disqualified based on standards for weight, drug usage, aptitude, and who have dependents. and add miracl a and admiral you referenced. over that population half are women. once you apply the filters what you are left with is much smaller group, over half are women. however, less than 20% of today's active duty force is comprised of women. so this study in my mind makes clear inner a where the eligible recruiting population remains on the decline, it is more important now than ever that we recruit from the entire population and not overlook the

opportunity that half of the eligible nations talent pool would previovide the services i order to be the best services in the world. so with that in mind, i'd like each of you to comment on what your service is doing to recruit and retrain women in the services. and we'll start with you, general. >> thank you, i appreciate the question. a couple things. one, for our recruiting command as well as for our source of commission for rotc and west point, we are reaching out for females to encourage them to come out, and we have seen it is increased female applications and females being accepted which will help as they come into the army improve. i think as we did the gender integration opened up the specialties, army where we have female in 828nd airborne division. we had two ranger school graduates last week graduate from very difficult course at fort benning. i think as we see those role

models come out and successfully lead and doing wonderful things in our formations, i think you'll see increased females across formations. very excited about what the females are doing in the army. and i think there is no limit to what they can do in the future. we are very excited. >> i thank you for that. as we move down the line can you include how you are addressing your messaging, so as young women watching what they are seeing on tv, how you are also addressing culture that encourages retention? because i know as we have served on this subcommittee, we have seen there are issues that are unique to women who seek to serve their country but who often find barriers to lengthening out their term of sr advice. but start with you admiral. >> yes, ma'am. just in terms of where we are right now, last year's naval academy navy class, 6% were

women, last two years have been 26 and 27 percent women. operational imperative for the navy to increase our numbers of women. so we are, frankly, targeting them in our recruiting efforts in our messaging because that's what the talent is. 52% of technical graduates at america's colleges are women. that's where the talent is. so we are very aggressively going after them. our new ad campaigns prominently feature women. our most recent one has a female submariner earning her dolphins at the front of t first one that was released at the army navy game in december, first one of the ad campaign has female seller saluting at the end of it. so we are really trying to highlight situations that women can see themselves as career in the navy. the retention efforts, things like the career intermission

program, navy is the biggest user of that, we highlight that. but the other element of this is part of sailor 2025, one of the pillars of that is career readiness. and one of the initiatives under there is to make the navy a place where you can have life work balance. we want sailors to have a longer career and want them to it be able to ta chief life work balance, to do things like occasionally put family matters in perspective and not have to pay a penalty for your career. that applies to men and women and navy has a little bit of a problem with occasionally doing that for both men and women. so we are, working hard to do that if we expect people to have a longer career, we need them to have longer careers so we can bring fewer sailors in the front door and higher investment on return for those sailors. >> admiral i'm out of town, but if you could submit a written

answer i'd appreciate it. >> why don't you go ahead and take another minute. >> okay. go ahead then. let's move down the line. >> representatii would say it s messaging. and if you ask any person in the population who was their first protector and defender, it was their mother. so we have to change the messaging that there is a place for women. and i think we also have to have women out see that women can be successful. i feel like it's my personal responsibility to go to events so women can see that you can progress and there is a place for you. i think our recruiting efforts as well as we get rid of the stove pipes as women come to talk tous so many opportunities, full time, part time, guard reserve, civilian even. i went to event and had a woman tell me she didn't like sweating, i said 25% would be civilians, would you like to become a civilian. that's recruiting. retention side rand just finished a study for us and

definitely some systemic things we need to do. child care was a big one of them. but i don't think that's a women's issue but if families can't take care of their children we can't retain them. another clear thing from women, this was in the study, they want to get off the escalator. so we have to have some way to figure out reform, whether technical tracks, so that they can be more technical. and also asked for opportunity toss maybe cross train into career fields that may be more suitable to having a family. so there is some systemic work we are looking at as well. >> thank you. >> that's an important question. and thank you. . so the marine corp. as you know we've opened up all occupational fields now and are represented throughout the marine corp., that's one issue. second, from the marine corp. recruiting command, we have gone to places we haven't gone, mail outs, athletics, coaches, we opened up programs to basically have access to both at the high school level and collegiate

level both male and female case. we run education and coach access so marine recruiters can have access to population we haven't had in the past. and advertising campaign has focused on not only diversity but females and been more aggressive in displaying a diverse marine corp. thank you. >> thank you all for your testimony. and i appreciate your work. much to be done, but we want to have the best services possible, so we need to recruit fully from all that this country offers. >> you are now recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman t i thank the witnesses for being here. general, i'll start with you. we all understand that when a pilot gets through with the air force training specifically, that ten year commitment that the civilian side is at that day dangling a check sometimes three and four times more than what

they are getting paid from the air force. and fortunate or unfortunate we understand that's the reality. and i understand all the services are in shortage of aviators. it's my understanding that the air force is probably more in a shortage area because they employ more aviators just logistic i wil logistically. so the question is, specifically what is the air force doing to retain that aviator where he or she has invested in the air force has invested so much time, and then all of a sudden, poof, the next day they are anything for a delta or southwest? >> so we have several lines of efforts to retaint aviators. but what we find is this is very sick cal. and if you look at the data, it is high lie correlated to

aircraft hiring. how to give them better work, that's clear, duties we need to take off their plate, and we are working that, we funded that in the butt. so admin strit tive duties that take wear their ability to fly. we have to make sure the planes are ready to fly more. and we need to give them more flexibility in our systems. we are working hard from assignment perspective to get more input from the air men from our aviators. so maybe have less disruption from assignments. also looking at ways to insentivize long deployments away from their families. but we've also understood we can't retain our way out of this challenge. so you have to produce moran take a hard look at the requirements as well. >> so in that line you mentioned your college intern program as a

pipeline for maybe more aviators coming in. i guess my question is, are you getting much resistance across the college spectrum of that type of intern program being on those campuses? >> sir, just to be clear, that intern program is for civilians, so not our military aviators. >> i understand that. but you are on college campuses touting this, am i correct, trying to bring those students into the armed service sns. >> yes, sir. it takes us so long to hire that we don't keep them. so the congress offer them jobs in junior year is it really the way we are competing for talent and in particular stem talent. >> because i know you have to pick them up early, no later than junior, because if not a civilian krot or business is going fob already tugging and putting a check in front of them. >> exactly. that's why the authorities you gave us are critical.

and then us being able to execute those authorities. >> okay. adds mirr admiral burke, in the navy side, cyber shortage is an issue, and i think cyber and certainly space is our next domain of fighting. specifically, for the navy, on cyber, what are you guys doing to hold onto those people? i mean, that's a different, some of what a different culture as far as cyber mindset, in my world. that takes a little kind of an outside the box thinking. so that's something of a different personality. any comments on that? >> yes, sir. our big challenges are on the senior enlisted technical leaders. and one of the -- so they'll grow to sort of the e5-e6 level

and then poached off by commercial entities right when they are maturing to the point where they'll be eligible for maybe one of tour warrant officer programs at the e6 or 7 level. so one of the things we just employed was instead of a commission warrant a grant program this was existing within our existing service authorities to use that option. that made junior e5s eligible and made them available for that program for many more years. so opened the pool to many more sailors. we have to be a little more careful about screening those sailors, looking harder for the potential, but we know how to do that pretty well. and then we get them in, into the leadership position, and

then they can blossom from there. so we have just implemented that. that's getting off the ground. too early to tell if that will succeed. but we'll at least get three to four years out of them once they get into the warrant officer program. so that will buy sometime out of it. the other area that we are a little bit of a challenge in is on the officer side, our operators, both on the offensive and defensive side, we are doing okay on there. it's the engineers, the folks that are developing the pay load packages, if you will. we grow those right now. you gave us some legislative authority to bring them in with equivalent of three years experience laterally. that's about, you know, lieutenant junior grade in the navy or first lieutenant in the other services, but it's about $50,000 pay.

in silicon valley these folks would be up over $100,000. so laterally them in. the mission and the service appeals to these folks, but there is an equivalent accepted cyber civilian program that allows the government to pay in the closer to $100,000 range. so they seem to be preferentially going that section. so that's an area we are having a challenge so growing them at the ground up. but retention is where it is right now. >> thank you. thank you for the extra time, mr. chairman. >> miss speier. >> thank you all for being here and your service. i think you've heard loud and clear we are not interested in seeing lower quality. even though you have a great challenge ahead of you. we want to be part of making

sure you can meet the challenge. so as i'm listening to i'm realizing i wonder to what extent our efforts in terms of recruiting and looking at personnel issues are relative to our father is or grandfathers military service. i think vice admiral burke mentioned looking at this qualifier. so what i would like each of you to provide to the committee is what the disqualifiers are for all those who actually do apply or who become recruited. you may not have those figures for us now or those specifics. so if you would just provide that to us, that would be appreciated. secondly, in talking to those who actually were purveyors of mres rekrcently had a presentatn

for us and showing us how they are beefing up some of the calcium in their products. i was told there is about 10% of those who are recruited during basic training that wash out. so i would like to know from each of you if that's the case? and they wash out because of hairline fractures. so could you each address that particular issue for me, please? >> thank you very much for the question, ma'am. within the army about 10% wash out during basic training for variety variety of reasons including medical issues. and taking a look at that within the active force across the total force about 80% are medically related and mess cue low skeletal is one of the biggest portions of that population. >> so if you could provide the specifics on the nondeployables of that 8% and 10% how many of them fall into that musculoskeletal. yes, vice admiral? >> yes, ma'am. we have about 10% attrition at

training. overwhelming majority of that, 925% of that is nondisclosed medical conditions. >> would that be use of inhaler? >> well, thoels are the things we are trying to change the policy on. when we come across those, we change it right then and there. but it stings that no kidding n insurmountab insurmountable medical things we can't get through. so we are working through some privacy act issues for example, being able to look at the medical records of dependent children of military members and look at public military records so you are not completely dependent on what individuals, you know, write and tell you about. the ability to go look in medical systems and see these

things ahead of time and making sol progress working with the department of defense on that. >> lieutenant general. >> representative, i have not seen the current data but i believe it's about 6 to 7% but i'll get you exact number. having the commander there several years ago, we didn't typically somebody if they had a stress frack tore. we tried to rehabilitate them. because depending on ts severity two or three weeks out of training so we didn't typically send them home for stress factors but i'll get you the exactly data. >> thank you. >> in the marine corp. attrition is closer to 20%. most of it as admiral burke had issued nondisclosed issues. but i can give you specifics on break down what exactly that number is as we get beyond boot camp, the attrition goes down to about 3%. >> okay. one of the things that was recommended is the calcium is beefed up before they come into

training. and i don't know what attempt through recruiting. how about retention after their first term? what sts percentage you are able to retain? could you each of you tell us that, please? >> ma'am, about third of the people who enlist don't make it to their initial reenlistment window for variety of reasons. either separation or medical issues within the army. >> well, how many actually could continue, could reop but don't is what i want to know? >> well, on retention we have historic about over 80% of our eligible population to reenlist are reenlisting and staying in the army. >> thank you. >> we are averaging navy wide around 60%. >> so our first term retention is 60%. but we do, for various reasons, lose about a third. so if you looked at who started basic training and who gets to that first term, it's about a third that aren't there.

>> and for the marine corp., we by design lose about 70% of that cohort or those recruits in that year. when i say lose, those marines, we don't need -- we need about a third of this tem to stay in the marine corp. to go for second enlistment. so by rank structure, most of that, 70% of those recruits in that given year do the first term enlistment and leave. some solitary and some we don't have the space for. as i mentioned in my remarks, we are at retaining 92%. and we have more marines right now who want to stay in than we have boat spaces for. >> all right. thank you very much. >> now recognized. >> thank you. it's good to see you all today. miss speier, there is a part of me would like to sit over there to as army podiatrist.

it's more than adding calcium because it's biomechanical. but i'll just address to you, general see mons, if you don't mind, for the sake of time, but want to go through the recruiting pros stes, when someone wants to join, they go through the process, checked all the boxes as being eligible. the recruiter then starts, and i'm thinking more enlisted at this point, young people. what mos do you want? what is it you want to do in the military? i was so impressed when idea employed, 90% of our enlisted were eligible for reenlistment while in theater took that. i don't know if that's the case across the board but it was pretty impressive especially where they were make that decision which is in theater. and so what occurs to me, and

i've asked people when they joined, and they met with the recruiter, did the recruiter say, what do you want to do in the army? but what do you want to do after? whether it's 20 years plus or four years, are we investing the way we should in their success? in other words, what does success look like to us? yes, it's successful if someone reenlists we have retention, that's successful, and that's one of the career paths we should be talking about. but are we talking about what is your long-term success? because when you talk about marketing, when you talk about recruiting, if the military is perceived as the place to go, because there is going to be something good at the end, whether it's in uniform or not, i think we'll recruit and retain even better. so i'd like to hear from all of you on that. we'll start with you on that notion of day one what do you want to do after this. >> thank you, sir. that's actually part of the discussion recruiters have, these are the mos you qualify

for, what is your passion and an expire too. and in some cases talk about life after the army. also start that discussion basic training and continues on. thanks to the wow act it's a conscious decision. and you can see effect of that from engaging if. you go back five years unemployment compensation was half a million. so soldier for life programs and credentialing that we work through the programs, in order to return better citizen back to their community is it evidenced in lower unemployment. so that's a discussion we have. because once they come in, we want to make sure they are set up for smooth take off as they leave. >> thank you. >> yes, sir. similar, when our sailors come in, we test them for aptitude, of course, as all services do. we also have a test that is

called join, job opportunities in the navy that test their interests. and we found a high correlation between sort of sweet-spot between the two is about 75%, 75% match between the two. and that gives us a much hyper retention. if you are good at it and you like it and not necessarily the peak of both, you'll stay, because you are challenged in something for a lot longer period of time. but in addition to all the many educational opportunities that we offer to improve one self, to help you later 0on in life eithr inside or outside the military, the certification, navy certification opportunities online. we have over 1900 credentialing opportunities. there is at least one credentialing opportunity for the job skills. every single sailor could get at least one credentialing opportunity. tan that's to show that they've

been tested to industry standards. and then the u.s. military apprenticeship program gives them the experiential documentation as well. so we'll provide those things to all to help them be better citizens, more productive employment opportunity when they get out. >> thank you. >> i think ours is very similar as well. we do aptitude testing. and for the most part most air men that come in have a skill that they know they want to do and typically get that skill. not that common unless they don't qualify. tan then military tuition assistance really helps set them up for fut tour. typically what you'll find is they want to do something when they leave. early childhood education and we believe that must be because that's something that they choose to do beyond their service. the other thing is we have an a credited associates program in the air force community college of the air force. so very few, if any, enlisted members leave without their associates degree.

>> so knowing full well we are going to return 70% of those enlistees after the first enlistment we spend time focusing on that. we want to return back those citizens. so we encourage tuition assistance and gi bill while on active duty to purview some further exception. those enlisted commissioning programs we'll fully endorse. and in our transition courses they are full with job fares and credentialing organizations that will help those marines take the skills they've learned in the marine corp. and transition them to civilian job. >> i think just all too often general public doesn't realize. you hear about anyone who has a difficulty after their service. but we don't hear enough about the military being a pathway to a suck secessful civilian life. and i think that's really what i'd like to see promoted moran

change the perception that some people have. because i think we all know the great majority of people who serve end up in a better place. i yield back. >> you are now recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for all being here today. one of the things that we are exploring in this year's authorization is the ability to train, and this will be an officer related training question, do you have people with four year scholarship program or at the service academies, tan thand then for wr reason, this is high investment, they have some injury that will preclude a commissioning. and talking to others, it's like through no fault of their own,

but then they are released to the american public as a whole, yes, maybe better citizens and all of that, but all the investment is gone. and so one of the things that we are looking at maybe exploring is to translate them, if they are precluded from taking a commission, to go into the department of defense workforce and fulfill their service obligation in that direction. and i would just be curious of your thoughts on that. >> sir, if i could comment first. we are already doing that. we have had several academy cadets to your very example)sng+

great investment thereright. >> there's been a great investment there and i would love to have your thoughts on that. >> i support that. i think it's a great opportunity. in many cases, they want to serve. we've given them a great education, so i think that's an appropriate payback. >> we would support it as well. like the air force, we seek volunteers to come into government service. we do the same thing when there's been an injury for medical scholarships, get them to come in as a civilian doctor, for example. there's always a high interest rate in those options, but we would support making that mandatory. >> we would support it, sir.

>> in the marine corps, we would support it. if through no fault of their own they cannot serve, opening them up to a department of defense job benefits both the student and the organization. >> look for it heading your way, i guess. it's something that we're looking at for this year's ndaa. i really appreciate your thoughts on it. it's valuable to have your comments on it. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> we'll have a second quick round. ranking member speier? >> thank you. lieutenant general grozzo quoted a low retention rate in some

specialties. i'd like to know if you have categorized the caareas where y have problems in retenstionrete. if we get them through boot catcamp and have them serve for a period of 18 months or two years afterwards and have them not continue, that's a loss of $80,000. >> ma'am, thank you for the question. within the army, we're attacking that with increased training through-put as well as bonuses. the other area is cyber. we don't have a problem assessing them. there are a lot of people interested in being cyber soldiers. we think because they'll have a

six-year obligation, we'll have a problem with retention. i would say aviation and cyber are the two issues. >> for us, it's the nuclear specialties, nuclear propulsion, cyber including linguistics, aviation, mechanical and structural rates on the enlisted side, pilots of course, retention on the officer side and then the special warfare folks. >> and you mentioned ours, but we track every single career field extensively. you only retain what you need. so for the most part in the aggregate we've got very good retention. we've just got these pockets.

you've given us incentive pays. we just need to target them where we need them. >> part of the challenge with cyber is the other specialties that we're drawing upon are usually are the schools that the marines go and spend a lot of time at. so they're in high demand. the other one, aviation maintenance, we've included aviation bonuses for the enlisted side. so those marines that work on aircraft, they have certain specialties inside of those cdis and different aviation specialties, we've given them extra bonuses which has stabilized the population. >> lieutenant general, congresswoman songas made the case that targeting women is going to be key in the military moving forward. it takes me back to 40 years

back when i was a staffer and went to west point and asked the audacious question as to why women couldn't be accepts in the ame academies. we've actually moved forward a little bit since then. at the time it was because they couldn't serve in combat. that was the rationale. there really is no rationale anymore. the marines have lagged behind in terms of incorporating women, in terms of training. they're still be trained separately from men. and just the general sense that women don't belong in the marines. could you tell me how you're going to be more embracive of women. >> we recently opened up marine combat training west which is where we send all non-infantry marines to learn how to be a marine first. we've recently opened up that to

females. as far as everything else, we've opened up all occupational fields. it is more voluntary to go into these more ground centric load bearing units. we are making progress, albeit slow. we go out and ensure that commanders and units are trained on unconscious bias and some of the things that perhaps has prevents some of that in the past. we're taking proactive steps to ensure that women are accepted in every mls and every level of the marine corps. >> how many generals do you have that are women? >> we have two. i'm sorry. general reynolds, general shea. and we just recently general

mallock. >> three out of how many? >> 82 active. >> thank you. >> thank you. it's hard to do two committee hearings and a speech. thank you for being here. it's good to be with some friends i've served with. what is the impact so far you've seen on the bundled retirement? any kind of negative adverse retention from that or recruitments? thank you. >> we monitor that pretty closely. so far about 9% of the active and 3% of the guard and reserve have opted into the blended retirement. we're going to have to fundamentally change how we address retaining talent. today if i keep somebody an officer in nco to ten years, i have a pretty high probability i'll keep them to 20. i think that could change, but

we won't see that for the next 7-10 years. we're thinking about it now. >> my hunch is people are going to get out at the 17-year point. >> blended retirement reduces the cost of getting out potentially. we need to be creative in how we address that and work to retain talent. >> sir, we're not seeing any impacts yet, but we continue to watch it closely. we really appreciate the flexibility you gave us to move the continuation pay component. it gave us some year s to move t around. our plan is to use that and complement that with other retention incentives to offset. >> i don't think we have enough data yet. we don't know what skill sets there. i agree it is a big change. how we manage that continuation pay is going to be critical. >> i'll just pile on.

the continuation pay is going to be key. 25% of the marine corps has chosen and 70% have opted into brs. >> some positive end cay toindi yet too early to really say. i've mentioned colonel grosso -- general grosso, excuse me, is the pilot bonuses. i'd like -- i think we need to have the data at some point if, say, 55% of our pilots stay, we say that's a success for the bonuses. y at some point we need to have some kind of data that say the bonuses are having this kind of impact. i know we always look at the

retention we have, but we don't know how many we would have retained anyway out the bonus. your thoughts? >> there's clearly economic rent which is very hard to know. the one thing it does is locks the person in, so it helps us know what we do keep. but i completely agree with you, it's an imprecise tool. >> i agree the commitment thick -- thing is important. it would be nice to know if we're getting a 5% payoff added or 10. could you give us an update on enlisted aviators? >> it's going very well. it's clear that our enlisted airmen are just as talented. they're doing well through the course. we're just starting the cultural

piece on how do we get that right, but it's clear that they're skthey e they're successful. >> so far only in remote piloted aircraft? >> yes, sir. >> thank you very much. i yield back. >> mr. russell? >> thank you. i just want to close with one issue that i want to mention to you. i've seen this for a very long time where in the meps process somebody is deemed physically qualified. we pay to send them to basic training in their respective branch of service where they're given another physical and they're deemed unqualified. you know, that's a waste of money and time. i don't know if it's just a

false feeling of warmth to try and get the numbers up initially or what it is, but it ought to be the same standard. there shouldn't be a disparity. i saw it when i was in the military, but i also see it today when a family calls me and says my son just reported -- the last example was navy recruit training. of course they're in limbo as they're trying to be administratively processed out. you know, we need to get this straight. and there needs to be one standard and it needs to be consistent. so i want to thank the witnesses for their enlightening testimony this afternoon. there will be no further business. the subcommittee stands adjourned.

here's a look at our prime time schedule on the c-span networks. at 8:00 p.m., a discussion on the criminalization of mental illness. on c-span 2 it's book tv. on c-span 3 it's american history tv with programs on congressional history.ipi sunday on q & a, author and former es care contributing

editor robert kurson on his new book "rocket men." >> i never realized what a major role the wives played. it was impossible to disregard it. that's mostly what they wanted to talk about. all three of them believe without their wives they could not have pulled this off. apollo 8 looked to many people like near certain death to go on this thing. it was all rushed. these men needed wives at home who were absolutely supportive and did not reveal to their husbands just how terrified they really were. >> q & a, sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. former cia director michael hayden spoke with