Thank you, Dr. Freeman.

I rise to express my congratulations and best wishes to the people of South Boston, MA, as they honor their community's long tradition of service to country on the 30th anniversary of the South Boston Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Thirty…

each Service has a Chief and Vice Chief, but beyond that there appears to be little consistency across the Services

So essentially in terms of how this process works inside DOD, you have a statutory ceiling in terms of the number of flags that can be allocated among the Services. Is that correct?

Yes, but you are saying that that number has not really changed.

does the presence of a four-star commander unnecessarily lead to inflated grades of the principal staff officers and is further study of this required?

Thank you very much, Senator Graham.

Right. I understand, but you could have a totally different allocation among the Services if the Secretary of Defense, for instance, were to decide--is that a correct assumption--from this statutory ceiling.

how do you justify retaining it as an O-10 position in light of the Army decision that the Commander of U.S. Army Europe is a lieutenant general?

Secretary Stanley, section 525 of title 10, U.S.C., establishes the maximum number of O-8s, O-9s, and O-10s each Service may have in their institutional force.

So it would be your view that the Secretary of Defense has the authority under the legislative umbrella to declare that to be a four star?

What is the plan to review the general and flag officer requirements in the Reserve components?