Unless skyrocketing manpower and personnel costs are brought under control, the armed forces will face a crisis in modernization and training, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said in a Jan. 17 interview with NPR. To meet that end, Congress and the Pentagon need to increase co-payments for medical care, slow down increases in housing allowances, and provide smaller pay raises for service members, Dempsey said. “We’ve got to make the appropriate investments in training, readiness, leader development and modernization and manpower. But I can’t have the manpower account so out of proportion that it precludes me fro making sure that if they go into harm’s way, they’re ready to go,” Dempsey said.