The U.S. military is enormously capable and operating at a high state of readiness, but the cost to service people is becoming too dear. Many are overworked, poorly housed, denied decent allowances, and reliant on second-rate support services. Conditions are only a little better if a service member is married or wearing Air Force blue.
This disturbing portrait of America’s armed forces emerges from the final report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Quality of Life. Without swift reforms to ease the strain on personnel, it says, gains in readiness over the last 15 years could evaporate. “Unless the services act now to enhance the quality of military life, they soon may be unable to attract and retain enough volunteers,” the report says.
The 19-member panel, led by former Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh, Jr., spent ten months examining living and working conditions for military personnel. The research included interviews with all ranks and visits to 29 bases. Defense Secretary William Perry formed the task force in December 1994 to recommend ways to improve housing, enhance community and family services, and reduce personnel turbulence. He accepted its report 19 October 1995, promising that the recommendations “will not sit on the shelf.”
The findings, Secretary Perry said, reinforce his concern that quality of life is declining. While service people continue to respond well, he said, “I don’t think we can count on morale staying high forever in the face of these problems.” Military people “don’t expect us to solve all these problems next week, or even next year,” he said. “They do expect us to be working hard. . . . They want to see light at the end of the tunnel.”
Recommendations of task force findings follow:
Housing
“We have an inherently flawed housing system in all of its dimensions,” said retired Rear Admiral Roberta L. Hazard, co-chair of task sub-panel on housing. Two thirds of persons living on base, whether married or single, are “unsuitably” housed. Fifteen percent of families off base have inadequate shelter, using very conservative estimates. Chairperson Hazard said she was “stunned by the number of people hurting.”
“The bill to get well,” Chairperson Hazard said, “is shocking.” The construction and maintenance backlog totals $29 billion, representing a mountain of neglect that would take 40 years to eliminate if the services must rely on their own housing budgets. Instead, the task force proposes enticing the private sector into solving the problem. The most ambitious step involves transfer of responsibility for housing from the services to a new Military Housing Authority (MHA) set up as a nonprofit government corporation. The MHA would be operated by private-sector housing experts but report to a board of directors of defense civilian and military leaders. The new agency would receive housing allowances that members forfeit to live in government units. It would leverage these assets using new legislative authorities to build new housing and repair the existing inventory.
The task force wants MHA established within three years but acknowledges the job is complex and difficult. To provide immediate relief, it recommends the following:
- Increase Basic Allowance for Quarters.
- Make routine adjustments in housing allowances.
- Pay a partial housing allowance to members residing in unsuitable military quarters.
- “Fence” budgets for bachelor housing.
Personnel Tempo
The services are over-exercising sailors and troops, keeping too many deployed and for too long. The task force largely blames the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which imposed new “joint” training requirements and gave regional commanders-in-chief greater responsibility for operational readiness. With service chiefs still responsible for service-unique training, the result has been more time away and greater strain on family life. The task force recommends the following:
- The Joint Chiefs of Staff should assume greater oversight of deployments and exercises to strike a healthier balance between readiness needs and personnel turbulence.
- Adopt a simple, uniformed standard for tracking personnel tempo: “One day away equals one day away.”
- Rely on new technologies, including computer simulation, distance learning, and gaming concepts, to reduce turbulence and deployment costs.
- Start separation allowances on the 1st day of deployment.
- Replace at no charge worn out fatigues, utility uniforms, and boots turned in by operational forces and support units.
- Expand the operational role of reserve forces to reduce demand on active forces.
Community and Family Services
An all-volunteer force deserves better support services, the task force found. Demand for child care, for example, exceeds supply by 144,000 spaces. Key recommendations in this area are as follows:
- Restore taxpayer support for military child-care programs.
- Standardize reimbursements for tuition assistance.
- Upgrade fitness centers.
The task force makes many more recommendations. Some will be easy to adopt; many, like those above, will cost money. Secretary Perry has not explained where he will get it. In his quest to improve quality of life, the easy part is over.