Claire McCaskill

It is whether or not the execution of the program was done in a way to prevent fraud.

OK. What is the most that any single recruiter defrauded that you have been able to uncover at this point in time?

How many investigators do you have working this right now?

It is almost like word got out and nobody was paying attention, and all of a sudden everybody thought, OK, the bank is open.

There is evidence that one major general committed fraud, 18 full colonels, 11 lieutenant colonels, and dozens of other mid-level and junior officers.

I am really concerned that there are going to be people that wear our uniform that are going to beat this by virtue of the statute of limitations.

Thank you for the time and interest in this matter.

This hearing will now come to order.

The amount they ripped us off for was pretty darn big.

There is no way that there was not a culture of people saying, hey, here is the deal.

I need to be clear here that it was, in fact, command pressure that brought this about rather than a thorough vetting of this program.

There is no question, and I agree----

What I would love to do at the end of this whole process is to come up with some recommendations...

I do not think you think that is acceptable, that level of fraud.

Well, once we finally began to open the spigot, you all have been very cooperative.

I get the kickback part. I get that a recruiter could easily set up 15 recruiters' assistants who were all his good friends or family members.

So, that is why we see a wide disparity between some States and other States?

To assist in bolstering military retention and recruiting, the DOD supported Congress's repeal of mandatory REDUX.

Congress subsequently raised concerns about how REDUX had negatively impacted military retention and recruiting efforts.

The Military Retirement Reform Act of 1986 reduced retirement benefits for those entering Active Duty after enactment.

We strongly urge the FSOC and other governing bodies not to base any policy or regulation actions grounded on the information in the OFR study . . . .

I believe and I believe our Government shares my belief that this is a flagrant disregard of the principles outlined in the MOU.

I really hope that it is a gut-check moment at the War College about COIN and what has worked and what has not and why the failures have occurred.

I admire all of you so much. I am so proud of our military and what you are capable of.

I do not want to see what is happening in Iraq today happen in Afghanistan in the future, and I will work hard at that.