Time and time again, the extraordinary ability of our men and women in uniform and all the people who work to support them has been demonstrated.

I am pleased that the Army is responding to the stress of overseas deployments by temporarily increasing end strength by 30,000.

I find that there are two elements involved in the development of a combat soldier. One is morale, naturally; and the other is the sense of belonging to a unit.

I suspect that these concerns will again be the subject of debate in Congress.

However, these ongoing operations have strained our troops.

I commend everyone who has played an important role in these operations.

When I tell that to the Puerto Rican Americans, their eyes light up and they say: My God, we had our men in there?

Climate is part of our way of life.

What is Government doing, or what can Government do, or what can we do to increase this industry?

Well, Mr. Chairman, we all recognize the heavy reliance upon Reserves and Guards in this war, so I can assure you that we are looking at this very carefully.

The military has done well in developing body armor technology, and as a result, comparatively there are very few thoracic injuries.