Charles Skelton: “Mr. Chairman, for our men and women in uniform, I ask for support of this authorization bill. For our soldiers in the…”

“Mr. Chairman, for our men and women in uniform, I ask for support of this authorization bill. For our soldiers in the U.S. Army in places like Sinai, Ecuador, Peru, South Korea, Haiti, and the Balkans, I ask for support of increased spending for equipment and maintenance accounts. For our sailors and Marines off the coast of Liberia and places such as the Arabian Gulf Coast, East China Sea, and the Adriatic, I ask for support of increased pay and benefits. For U.S. Air Force airmen, 81,000 of whom are deployed abroad and 9,300 are on temporary duty, I ask for support to improve operations and eliminate fatigue. For the talented and highly specialized men and women of our Special Operations Forces currently deployed in over 60 nations, some in excess of 200 days during the past year, I ask for support of the modernization priorities contained in this bill. If we must talk about quality of life, let us speak of providing the most capable and modern equipment available as we ask our troops to go into harm's way.”