President Obama expressed sympathy to the families and colleagues of the 12 victims who died during the Sept. 16 shooting at Washington Navy Yard, and renewed his call for a commitment to end the spate of mass shootings. Those who died were "fellow Americans who were just going about their day doing their jobs, doing what they loved – in this case, the unheralded work that keeps our country strong and our Navy the finest fleet in the world," during a Sept. 22 memorial service at the facility," Obama said. "If we really want to honor these 12 men and women, if we really want to be a country where we can go to work, and go to school, and walk our streets free from senseless violence, without so many lives being stolen by a bullet from a gun, we’re going to have to change," he said. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also spoke, affirming the Defense Department’s commitment to stand by "those injured and scarred by this senseless act of violence, to help them regain their strength, hoping the horrors … will soon recede and together we will recover." Police killed the alleged shooter, former Navy reservist Aaron Alexis. Here are the names of the victims, all of whom were civilians:
* Michael Arnold, 59, of Lorton, Va.
* Sylvia Frasier, 53, of Waldorf, Md.
* Kathy Gaarde, 62, of Woodbridge, Va.
* John Roger Johnson, 73, of Derwood, Md.
* Frank Kohler, 50, of Tall Timbers, Md.
* Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46, of Waldorf, Md.
* Vishnu Shalchendia Pandit, 61, of North Potomac, Md.
* Arthur Daniels, 51, of Washington.
* Mary Francis Knight, 51, of Reston, Va.
* Gerald L. Read, 58, of Alexandria, Va.
* Martin Bodrog, 54, of Annandale, Va.
* Richard Michael Ridgell, 52, of Westminster, Md.
Odierno: Budget Constraints Threaten Readiness Gen Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, delivered a stern warning to lawmakers on Capitol Hill Sept. 18. If Congress fails to curb spending constraints imposed by the Budget Control Act and sequestration, 85 percent of the Army’s brigade combat teams will not be able to meet contingency requirements when fiscal year 2014 ends next Sept. 30, Odierno told the House Armed Services Committee. Key modernization programs, including the ground combat vehicle and armed aerial scout, would face drastic curtailment and a possible halt altogether, Odierno told the panel. Active Army end strength, already set to drop to 490,000 soldiers by the end of 2017 – down from 570,000 at the height of the war – could drop as low as 420,000, he said. Combined with reduced reserve and National Guard force reductions, total strength could decline by more than 18 percent in seven years, Odierno said. Assuming that the smaller force would be able to fulfill contingency requirements that could arise is a flawed notion, Odierno said. "My problem with that is we just got done fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan … we never disengaged from Korea … we didn’t disengage from the Sinai … we didn’t disengage from Kosovo," Odierno said. "So why is there a belief that we will disengage in the future?"
