admiral mark ferguson, general philip breedlove, vice chief of staff of the air force, and general joseph dunford, associate commandant of the marine corps. gentlemen, i sincerely appreciate each of you adjusting your schedules at the last minute after we could not hold this hearing on the original date because we were voting. turning to the issue at hand, after more than a decade of combat operations in iraq and afghanistan, reported readiness levels of our armed forces have steadily declined. even as defense spending has grown dramatically. our nondeployed forces have experienced serious readiness shortfalls in terms of personnel, equipment, and training. even our deploying units have struggled with not enough time to train for full spectrum missions. now we're entering an era of declining budgets, forced structure and new strategies. as a result, our military services face a new set of challenges as they seek to balance the draw-down of forces, vital reset of equipment and personnel, and continuing combat operations in afghanistan. i'm interested in hearing from the witnesses the exten

finally, general philip breedlove. welcome, general. >> madam chairman, senator ayotte, distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for your opportunity to be here today and tell our air force story. these are challenging times, and i depend you for your leadership and your efforts to ensure we have the best equipped and best trained military on the globe. it's on honor to be here to serve on behalf of our 690,000 active duty, guard, and reserve civilian airlinemen who serve alongside their soldiers, sailors, and marine guardsmen. i would like this time to share important items with you today. first, the readiness of your airmen after more than 20 years of continuous combat ops. and second, the steps we're taking to ensure a superbly train and equipped force which is ready to support our new strategic guidance, and bottom line, to avoid a hollow force while balancing risk. the american people are fully aware that our nation has been at war for over a decade. for our air force, however, we've been conducting co

bice chief of staff of the army, admiral mark ferguson vice chief of naval operations, general philip breedlove vice chief of staff of the air force and general joseph dunford associate commandant of the marine corps. gentleman i appreciate each of you adjusting their schedules at the last minute. we could not hold this hearing on the original day because we are voting. turning to the shorthand after more than a decade of combat operations in iraq and afghanistan reported readiness levels of our armed forces have steadily declined. even as defense spending has grown dramatically. arnon deployed forces have experienced serious readiness shortfalls in terms of personnel, equipment and training. even are deploying units have struggled with not enough time to train for full spectrum missions. now we are entering an era of declining budgets, force structure and new strategies. as a result their military services face a new set of challenges as they seek to balance the drawdown of forces, vital reset of equipment and personnel in continuing combat operations in afghanistan. i am interested in hearing

joining general philip breedlove, vice chief of staff, united states air force is colleen, daughter oflonel cameron shine in honor of every member of the air force who served. joining admiral brown, united states coast guard, is henry, the brother of conway radicher. in honor of every member of the coast guard who served. joining general craig r. mckinley, chief of national guard bureau is bill siler and steven siler in honor of every member of the guard and reserve who is served. joining the honorable william burns, deputy secretary of state is cindy coal cole -- coleman. joining the honorable john picari, deputy si secretary of transportation is commander william cahill, u.s. navy, retired. a vietnam veteran and member of the department of transportation to honor all who served in the merchant marines. joining mr. jan scrugs is miss billy gabriel, the sister of specialist james gabriel in honor of all special forces. joining major general victor hugo, u.s. army retired, is jamie chan, daughter of colonel van nguyen in honor of all who served. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ [amazing grace playing, bagpipes

philipally, general fel breedlove. >> thank you for the opportunity to be here today. these are challenging times. i commend you for your efforts to ensure we have the best equipped and best trained military on the globe. it is an honor to serve on behalf of our 690,000 active- duty guard and reserve civilian air men who serve our nation alongside with their fellow soldiers, sailors, marines, and coastguardsman. i want to share a few important items with you today. first, the readiness of your air and after 20 years of continuous combat ops. second, the steps we are taking to guarantee a force that can avoid a hollow force while balancing risks. the american people are fully aware that our nation has been at war for nearly a decade. the air force has been conducting combat operations continuously for over to the a decades. december 17, 2011, marked the first time in 20 years the airport did not like a sortie into iraq there will work -- over two-thirds of our uniform herrmann have taken an oath to protect our nation enjoyed the service during a time of continuous opera