Reserve Officers Association

Dept of Defense ^ | 6/20/02 | WOLFOWITZ

[Hipixs]

Remarks Prepared for Delivery by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz,
Philadelphia, PA,
Thursday, June 20, 2002 (Check Against Delivery).

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Colonel [Charles] Holsworth, this has been quite a year for you. As ROA’s "elected national president," I understand you’ve been hobnobbing with other "elected national presidents"—including a former National Guardsman named George W. Bush. It’s just like the Reserve—always in the thick of the action.

This is quite an audience, and it’s good to see you all here. I bring you greetings from Secretary Rumsfeld and from our Commander in Chief, President George W. Bush.

A special thanks to Admiral Loy, who has provided our Coast Guardsmen such fine leadership. In a few minutes—as soon as I finish this speech, in fact—he will receive well deserved recognition when he receives the Minute Man award. Now, President Bush received a similar award in January, resulting in the aforementioned hobnobbing. So, Admiral, you, too, will be hobnobbing in good company. And Colonel Holsworth, allow me to commend you once again on your ability to identify truly outstanding leaders….

And I might add, you don’t do too badly either when it comes to picking historically appropriate conference sites. America has always been blessed with extraordinary leaders and dedicated patriots during our nation’s most challenging hours. The great city of Philadelphia, where our nation’s independence was declared, attended by titans of the ages, attests to this fact.

One of those titans, a citizen of Philadelphia, played a unique role in the founding of our new republic. That man, of course, was Ben Franklin. A man of remarkable diversity, we have: Ben Franklin the scientist, Ben Franklin the philosopher, Ben Franklin the Founding Father, and—yes—Ben Franklin the citizen soldier, a proud tradition that each of you now upholds.

During the French and Indian War, Franklin left his job as leader of the Pennsylvania Assembly to don a uniform in the Pennsylvania militia. Like today’s reservists, Colonel Benjamin Franklin left hearth and kin, to not only organize Pennsylvania’s frontier defense, but to command a construction battalion as well. So we also have Ben Franklin, Red Horse engineer.

In typical fashion, the new officer approached his military career with the zeal and intellect characteristic of so many of his other endeavors. Colonel Franklin led his men by appealing to their reason and to their self-interest, an approach that came in particularly handy one day when a chaplain of Franklin’s company came to him with a vexing problem. The men, it seemed, were not paying enough attention—to their prayers, or to his sermons.

Now, it was a fact that upon enlistment, each soldier was promised four ounces of rum each day. So, Franklin said to the chaplain: "It is perhaps below the dignity of your profession to act as a steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out, and only just after prayers, you would have [the men] all about you." Well, after recovering from what must have been … the sheer novelty of this idea, the chaplain took the colonel’s advice.

Need I tell you that attendance at the chaplain’s prayers improved at once? But, history doesn’t tell us whether the men’s attention to the chaplain’s sermons showed a similar improvement. Since I can’t promise you similar recompense today, I will appeal to your reason by talking about the Reserve and to your self-interest by trying to be brief.

Last Tuesday, June 11th, we put in place the final piece of limestone to complete reconstruction of the Pentagon’s outer wall—a testament to the remarkable patriots who are rebuilding in record time what the terrorists tried to destroy nine months ago.

Over the course of those nine months, our country’s men and women in uniform have given their own response to those terrorists who seek only to kill and to destroy. And as our Armed Forces have conducted their missions, bravely and skillfully, they have made tremendous progress. They have defeated a vicious and repressive regime in Afghanistan, depriving the terrorists of a principal sanctuary, and offering freedom another new birth, so that the people of Afghanistan, a country that has lost a million lives to war in the last decade, can go back to their homes and their schools, and have a chance for what we have here in America.

And in this noble work, another very positive thing has happened: Americans have come to appreciate more fully just how vital our Guard and Reserve are to our country’s security.

America will always remember those who responded first on September 11^th. In the thick of the action from the very first were our nation’s Guard and Reserve. New York Guard and Reserve members took to the streets of lower Manhattan helping emergency units and standing guard. Guard and reserve members from Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. went to the Pentagon, before they got an official call to duty. And, they were among the first on the scene in Pennsylvania.

By noon on September 12th, more than 6,000 Guardsmen and Reservists had answered our country's call. We would see these men and women on duty across the country providing medical and technical assistance, securing our coasts and our borders and our airports, patrolling our streets, and flying combat air patrols to protect America's skies. Soon after September 11^th, as Admiral Loy can well attest, the Coast Guard began its largest mobilization since World War II.

Today more than 85,000 service members from the Reserve Components are taking part in Operation Enduring Freedom, the overseas war on terrorism, and what we call Operation Noble Eagle to protect the skies over the United States. Operation Noble Eagle, as well as all of our other operations, are providing 50 percent of the force protection for our bases and installations around the world. And here at home Guardsmen and Reservists provide 25 percent of warfighting support; and 25 percent of command and control, communications, intelligence and mobilization support. Over 77,000 people, including about 1,500 members of the Coast Guard, are mobilized under Title 10 authority. Over 9,000 Guard members provided security at our nation’s airport. That mission has now been transferred to the Transportation Security Administration, but support from the Reserve remains vital in guarding critical infrastructure and our borders. We are looking for ways we can reduce the people we need while providing the same level of security.

No one knows better than this audience how diverse is the support from the Reserve Components across the entire spectrum of operations: They are flying air combat patrols and conducting vital civil affairs missions keeping peace in Bosnia, providing logistics support in Kosovo, flying Operations Northern Watch and Southern Watch in Iraq, protecting Patriot missile batteries in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, securing ports in the Middle East. And, I might mention a local connection, the 193^rd Special Operations Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard out of Harrisburg has conducted Commando Solo missions in Afghanistan—broadcasts that help protect and inform the Afghan people.

In all these operations, we have seen truly remarkable achievements by citizen-soldiers. Men and women who willingly give up the comforts of home to answer their country’s call.

One colonel in the Army Reserve recently returned from Afghanistan, and reflected on how stark the transition can be for those sent to a front. "Some were students a few weeks ago, sitting in a classroom reading Chaucer," he said. "And, all of a sudden they’re in a place called Kabul or Kandahar, where they have to worry about whether they’ll get a hot meal, where there are no showers, where toilet paper is a luxury and every square counts." But, he said, they are glad to be there … gratified by children they see who are going to school for the very first time.

Conditions in the Philippines—a place I recently traveled—also lack some of the comforts of home. There I met Reservists in Zamboanga who are supporting our forces on Basilan Island. Everywhere we went, we heard of gratitude for the American assistance to the Philippine Armed Forces that was producing a climate of security and improving, in important and dramatic ways, the daily life of ordinary people whose lives had been previously disrupted by terrorists.

Improving the daily lives of people. That is a familiar theme when you talk about our Reserve forces. And it applies to both fronts of this war. Here on the home front, people were able to sleep once again after September 11^th when they heard the reassuring sounds of fighter jets overhead. They went about their business feeling safer knowing men and women in uniform were guarding bridges, tunnels, and train stations, power plants and airports.

In the war in Afghanistan, along with removing the Taliban regime, our Reserve and Guard forces helped provide humanitarian assistance that saved many lives.

Between October 7^th when the campaign began and December 21^st of last year when we were able to turn the relief mission over to people on the ground, our forces dropped 2.4 million individual humanitarian daily rations. Those who have eaten MREs may question the term "humanitarian." Nonetheless, it is real food, and life-saving food for those in need.

Let me give you another example—this from the Army Reserve’s 1980^th Forward Tactical Surgical Team from Salinas, California. While treating American battle casualties, they also treated an Afghan shepherd, who was severely wounded in a land mine blast that also killed 20 of his sheep. Not only did the doctors and nurses treat the man’s injuries, they collected enough money to buy 20 more sheep.

That is the sort of heart you find in America’s citizen soldiers. They are willing to put their careers on hold and say goodbye to their families when their nation calls. Your nation has called. And will continue to call. And you have responded magnificently. The truth is, we simply cannot do our job without the jobs you do.

That is why we are committed to addressing some of the challenges in the mobilization system revealed after last September. We faced an unprecedented national tragedy, and, characteristically, we got an unprecedented response from our Reserve Components. In handling the transition to active duty for some of our people, we know some things could have gone smoother. We are looking at the entire mobilization and demobilization process for both the Reserve and the National Guard. We have heard your concerns. We are working to address them.

It is still too early to know the long-term effects of the increased deployments on the Guard and Reserve, but we are watching those, too. We know we can’t keep people on active duty for extended periods without severe impacts. It’s a challenge for families. It’s a challenge for employers.

It’s a dilemma, by the way, that has been with us since the founding of our country. When the winds of war began to stir in May of 1776, John Adams wrote to a Boston minister: "We must all be soldiers." Just a few weeks later, a young apprentice in Adams’ law office was drawn to the cause and told Adams that he wanted to enlist. For him, Adams had different guidance: "We cannot all be soldiers."

Thankfully there are many who can and do. The willingness of the members of our Guard and Reserve to serve has been remarkable and heartwarming. And I would add that employer support so far has been strong. Hundreds of employers have extended continued medical care, made up salary differences, established support mechanisms for the families and taken extraordinary steps to show corporate support for reservists.

The Defense Department is dedicated to focusing significant efforts and energy to strengthening that employer support and we are looking hard at our long term requirements. Secretary Rumsfeld has been pressing people not to simply call up extra people to do extra tasks, but also to identify where there are things that we're doing that we don't need to do any more so that we can meet the new demands, not simply by adding people, but by reducing some unnecessary missions.

We are committed to getting this right. And while we face the enormous challenge of winning the global war on terrorism, we must also address the equally large challenge of preparing our forces for the future. We cannot wait for another Pearl Harbor or 9/11, either on the ground, in space, or in cyberspace. Our ability to deter or defeat aggression will continue to demand unparalleled capabilities—from technology to decision-making. And our Reserve Components will be in thick of this transformation process as well.

In Afghanistan today, brave Special Forces on the ground have taken 19^th century horse cavalry, combined it with 50-year-old B-52 bombers, and, using modern satellite communications, have produced truly 21^st century capability. When asked what he had in mind in introducing the horse cavalry back into modern war, Secretary Rumsfeld said, "it was all part of the transformation plan." And it is. Transformation can mean using old things in new ways—a natural result of creative innovation.

Some of the greatest military transformations in the 20^th Century were the product of American innovation—the development of amphibious warfare, aircraft carriers, stealth and nuclear-powered submarines, to name a few. Our fundamental thinking as we approach transformation is that we want to encourage all those willing to think about war of the future and their role in it. We want to encourage those who look forward so we can continue to lean forward when necessary.

We will look for this sense of innovation from the Reserve Components as well. Transformation must encompass not only technology, but organization, leadership—and how we manage our force, including how we manage our Total Force—how we bring Reservists onto active duty and how we use their skills in order to balance the need for military flexibility with the real-world commitments of our Reserve Components.

We are looking for better ways to integrate our reserve forces into the Total Force. We will emphasize balancing skill areas. We will emphasize how we use our people—for 39 days to 365 days per year. We are committed to reducing mobilizations by how we balance our commitments throughout the Total Force. We are committed to a prudent and judicious use of our Guard and Reserve. And we are interested in what you have to say. In all aspects of transformation.

How we manage our Reserve Components will determine how well we are prepared to fight. Today and tomorrow. Make no mistake: this war is far from over. As the President has said, this war will be long, hard and difficult.

Recent days have reminded us that there are still dangerous people on the loose willing to do us harm. A recent newspaper article reported this from Suleiman Abu Ghaith, who appeared in some of the video tapes with Osama bin Laden: "What is in the waiting for the Americans will not be inferior to what the United States has already gone through. Let America be prepared to fasten its seat belt because we are going to surprise it in a place where it is not expecting."

Jose Padilla offers us another reminder that, indeed, the threat is real. Terrorists here and abroad will not stop until they have obtained the most destructive weapons they can.

But, there is hope. It’s here in this room. It’s In the mountains of Afghanistan. In the skies of America. This hope resides in those who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to defend our great nation.

Ben Franklin knew that the success of our country depended on the character of our nation. "Only a virtuous people," he said, "are capable of freedom."

I have long believed that America’s greatest power, even more than our vast resources, more than the beauty we see all around us, more than our great melting pot and our military might, America’s greatest power is what it stands for.

Now we face another hour of great testing. And liberty, our way of life, is once again in peril. And we remind ourselves once more who we are, what we stand for, and what we are fighting for.

We are fighting for a nation, a system of government that "holds out," as Abraham Lincoln said, "a great promise to all the people of the world for all time…."

As long as America’s citizen soldiers will answer her call, I believe that promise will be safe.

Thank you and God bless you. God bless all the men and women who defend our nation so faithfully and so well. And God bless America.

[LiteKeeper]

Army retiree bump for later reading