andrew tilghman, you talked about this earlier. in 1973, officers had an average age of 32 years old, now 34.5. but unless man has risen from an average age of 25 up to 27. of and there are longer serving. officer average years haven't risen from 9.7 up until 10. what are the pluses and minuses? guest: it is more expensive to have a longer serving force, people reaching higher pay grades, people with higher levels of education and training cost more. host: is a recruiting expensive? guest: where the expense really comes in is behind those numbers, more people reaching retirement than they used to. military retirement benefits are extremely generous. that is something the pentagon is wrestling with. if that system will be able to continue in this age of austerity. host: michigan, james, active- duty, good morning. what is your story? caller: i actually have two questions for your guest. one is regarding civilian control over the military, one of the underlying tenants of society. how many presidents, vice presidents, secretaries of

iraq then we'll talk to margaret harrell with a report on military suicide and andrew tilghman. "washington journal" is next. ♪ ♪ host: good morning. it is friday, november 11, 2011. this holiday got its start in 1919 when president woodrow wilson claimed an armistice day when fighting ceased between the allied nations and germany in world war i. to mark veterans day on "washington journal" we have a full lineup of guests. we begin with a question for you about america's connectedness with its military. is it are forgotten 1%? many people are looking at the consequences of an all-volunteer army and the closing of many military bases around the country and suggesting it has consequences for us from a policy perspective. we will talk about that and open up our phone lines on this veterans day morning. good friday morning to you, a day when lots of people who look at numbers are looking at today, 11-11-11. we are going to spend our morning talking about veterans day. this chart tells the story behind our question to you this morning. it's a graphic demonstration of the total percen

a conversation with andrew tilghman. later tomorrow morning, we will take you to arlington national cemetery for a veteran state ceremony. our live coverage gets started at 11:00 eastern. >> in his new order by -- autobiographical novel autobiographicalkarl marlantes. "i started telling discussion about my symptoms. jumping out and the middle of the night and going outside. the car would haunt the behind me. i would get angry and attack the car behind me. he said, have you ever been in a war? that hit me so hard. i am in the middle of the room with 80 people. i started bawling. s not was coming out of my nose. when he finally got me back into some semblance of control, he said, you have ptsd. have you ever heard of it? >> federal reserve chairman ben bernanke talks to u.s. soldiers about the economy and the importance of financial literacy for veterans. he was at fort bliss in el paso, texas. this is about one hour. >> good morning. how are we doing this morning? we have quite a treat this morning. a unique opportunity t