Jim Webb

Just let me, as the Chair, make a couple of comments.

First of all, was to include them for the first time in a GI Bill. It never happened before.

I think there should be no doubt in anybody's mind that we are very committed to making sure that our military people are well compensated.

There's been a lot of discussion about the impact of these multiple deployments on employer relations.

I pushed so hard to get this GI Bill through.

As a former infantry rifle platoon and company commander, I think the question needed to be asked.

Actually, when I was Assistant Secretary of Defense, we did----

The one thing that I've learned, that I wasn't aware of before and does concern me, is, as these men and women deploy overseas, the one thing we can't capture--and they don't complain about it, but--is the opportunity lost.

Frankly, we don't see any strain on the force, the way it's working.

General Stultz, what percentage of the Army Reserve has deployed?

That's actually very healthy for the military.

If Congress should enact a law that says, 'Pay money for this circumstance,' typically, it says, under regulations established by the Secretary of Defense...

That's a moral contract. It's a moral contract that goes beyond benefits, and it goes to the life of an individual who spends a career in the military.

It preserves the citizen-soldier concept.

I need a breakdown of who served: ethnically, racially, by Service, by year; and what the casualties were, by Service, by race, by ethnicity, by year.

I found it really interesting, that a majority of the healthcare was going to dependents, retirees, et cetera.

It's very healthy for the military. It's very healthy for the country.

We really want to make sure that people who aren't eligible for these S&I pays are adequately compensated.

This kind of information shouldn't take 3 months. I don't want to be put in a position where I'd have to put a hold on nominations.

Recognizing at the outset that each one of these components has its own personality and its own way of conducting operations, it's a question that varies, just in terms of the way people are used, I fully recognize that, going in.

Business as usual hasn't been done, in many ways, on both sides of the aisle.

I hope and pray the Senate, one day, can get back to doing business as usual.

I'm really concerned that this whole process is bogged down, and we have people waiting around.

I believe it was your written testimony that had the chart on the percentage of military medicine that was being provided to retirees.

What kind of a bonus should they get?