Pete Sessions: “I would like to add a few thoughts in general on the subject of the Army, its restructuring which is ongoing, and how we…”

“I would like to add a few thoughts in general on the subject of the Army, its restructuring which is ongoing, and how we best can deal with it and what our policy about it should be. We are in the process of a major restructuring within all of the Department of Defense, but particularly the Army. In dealing with that, they are in the middle of it right now. General Schoomaker, who spent his career as a combat officer and a special forces officer, is a man of decisive leadership skills. He is working very hard to determine how to get the Army in the posture we want it to be. With Guard and Reserve, we have over 2 million personnel in uniform, but we are finding it extremely difficult to maintain 150,000 or less soldiers in Iraq. General Schoomaker has a story which he tells. It is about a rain barrel. He says the way he sees the military, the Army's rain barrel has a spigot and the spigot is about two-thirds of the way up. Whenever we have a demand, we draw down the water, but we are only drawing the top third of the barrel.”