Sam Gibbons: “yesterday the Washington Times detailed the story of Shane Walsh, a former first lieutenant in the United States Army.…”

“yesterday the Washington Times detailed the story of Shane Walsh, a former first lieutenant in the United States Army. And I say former first lieutenant because Shane Walsh has left the Army. His reason for leaving? Well, the Army he thought it would be and the Army he found it to be were two completely different things. Lieutenant Walsh detailed the demoralizing situation facing our military today. For example, he said how M1A1 tanks sit abandoned with broken starter motors or unused simply because there is not enough money left to fuel them. His story is not unique. Our military is severely burdened by low morale and it continues to lose large numbers of servicemen and women today and every day. The refusal of the Clinton-Gore administration to recognize this and to provide the necessary resources for our military, while still deploying them far and wide, has caused this desperate and disturbing situation. Thankfully, this Republican Congress is truly committed to ensuring our military readiness today and in the future, and we are putting our military back on track with the needed resources to keep it strong and to keep qualified people like Shane Walsh in the military.”