Joe Cunningham: “I just a left a meeting with Secretary Cohen, Chief of Naval Operations, and General Shelton. I know people are talking…”

“I just a left a meeting with Secretary Cohen, Chief of Naval Operations, and General Shelton. I know people are talking about Social Security, they are talking about education, they are talking about Medicare, but I want to read something to my colleagues, and I want to quote. Quite often our military leaders have been remiss in stating what the actual needs are so that they do not get in trouble, and I would like to read this to my colleagues. This was taken from a hearing in Las Vegas, Nevada. It said, ``Displaying unusual candor, the commanders of combat training centers for the Army, the Air Force, the Marines, the Navy and Coast Guard described poor training conditions, outdated equipment held together `by junkyard parts', and an underpaid, overworked cadre of service workers who cannot wait to get out and find a better job.'' What is happening is our overseas deployments are 300 percent above what they were at the height of Vietnam. We are driving our military into the ground but not using the reinvestment into the parts, the manpower, or even the creature comforts for our military folks. This goes on to say, ``We have a great military filled with terrific soldiers who are suffering from an inability to train at every level with battle focus and frequency necessary to develop and sustain its full combat potential.''”