Political Quotes

“As the Senior Noncommissioned Officers of the Armed Forces of the United States, we feel compelled to state our disagreement with a proposed amendment on recruit training that might be considered during the Senate's debate of the FY99 Defense Bill. A mandatory requirement to house recruits in completely separate barracks is unnecessary. Based on our experience, each Service is different and therefore has different needs in training its recruits to join operational units. The determination as to how to train recruits is best determined by the individual Services based on the specific needs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Any attempt to make a training policy that applies across all Services is not in the best interests of the nation and will impact the readiness of the total force. Their many successes in our gender-integrated all-volunteer force is a direct result of the training the Services currently provide. We are grateful for Secretary Cohen's support of the Services in determining how best to conduct recruit training.”