Robert Gates: “The costs of healthcare are eating the Department alive.”

My staff and I have learned that it was nearly impossible to get accurate information and answers to questions such as, 'How much money did you spend?' and, 'How many people do you have?'

Without proper and predictable funding, no amount of reform or clever reorganization will provide America with a military capable of accomplishing the missions it's assigned to.

I think the only thing I would've said is that a lot of this could've been done sooner.

I soon learned that the only way I could get significant new or additional equipment to commanders in the field in weeks or months, not years, was to take control of the problem myself through special task forces and ad hoc processes.