C. W. Bill Young: “What is not mentioned in those debates is that we have an all-volunteer force. Unlike the Russians, unlike the Soviets…”

“What is not mentioned in those debates is that we have an all-volunteer force. Unlike the Russians, unlike the Soviets had, unlike the Iranians, unlike the Chinese, unlike the North Koreans, we have an all-volunteer force. We pay the Members of our military far more substantially than these other nations pay theirs. They pay theirs almost as if it is slave labor. In fact at one point we were asked to provide funding to provide housing for Russian soldiers, which we did not do, by the way, but we were asked to do that. The point is that an all-volunteer service is very costly. Approximately 70 percent of the money appropriated by this bill does not go to buy weapons. It does not go for RDT&E or things of that nature. It goes to provide salaries and allowances and clothing and housing and medical care and training for the members of the military and their families. We are trying to do a better job in that regard. We are trying to take those lower ranked people who live in barracks that really are not fit, in my opinion, I would not want one of my children to live there. We are trying to repair those and renovate them and make the quality of life better.”