Affordable housing, food costs, and finding adequate childcare remain enormous stressors, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy told lawmakers. Image: Katherine Welles/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffSenior enlisted leaders of all six service branches told a House Armed Services panel recently that more needs to be done to ensure that their men and women are adequately trained while their families get the proper attention they deserve. Otherwise, they said, downward trends for recruiting and retention will continue.
Sergeant Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston mentioned the no-notice deployments of several units that have taken place, with no signs of abating because of the high demand for their presence. Training and modernization, to include new gear and support from robotic components, has helped, he said. But those factors alone are not enough.
Grinston called for “understanding the Army life and never forgetting about our families who endure” stress and uncertainty of deployments.
Single soldiers need better barracks and dining facilities, he said. Spouses need jobs, housing and child care. He also expressed concern about polls that show the propensity of young people to enter military service is at 9 percent – the lowest level in 15 years.
“Affordable housing, food costs, and finding adequate childcare remain enormous stressors within our high-cost fleet concentration areas,” Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Honea told the panel. “If we want to retain our professional and qualified service members and give tangible incentives to sustain a military career, I ask Congress to look at pay increases in compensation and retention bonuses to ensure that we appropriately keep them compensated.”
Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Joanne Bass concurred. When the needs Honea and her colleagues outlined are not provided, “Our ability to accomplish the military mission and to deter our adversaries is absolutely degraded,” she said. “We also have to acknowledge that the scope of responsibility of our enlisted force has never been greater. We will be challenged in retaining and recruiting the talent that we need if we are not able to appropriately compensate them.”
Marines at Camp Pendleton, California, are living in barracks badly in need of renovation that has been delayed for 12 straight years, Sgt. Maj. or of the Marine Corps Troy Black told the panel. He added that even as the Defense Health Agency is undergoing the most significant revision in its history, health-care needs of families are not being met – particularly at overseas locations.
“We need help here,” Black told lawmakers. “We know as a society that mental health care is lacking more so in our services because the additional health care that’s provided to them, and military treatment facilities, no longer exists in abundance. We need help here.”
Saying that 75 percent of his force is deployed to places that challenge quality of life, Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force Roger Towberman sought the panel’s help in providing for his people.
“Imagine spending your day providing missile warning to people on the other side of the planet and then punching out to go home and play ball with your child while the news reports on the lives you helped save,” Towberman said. “It’s not a normal military life. And the better we understand and address these unique challenges, the better our hope to maximize their skills, talent and experience, which are critical to our mission – a mission that grows more complex and more complicated by the day.”
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