[Boats]

Army Priorities 9-30-16
RE: VFW Action Corps


Army Priorities:

The VFW met with Army Secretary Eric Fanning at the Army’s quarterly veterans and military service organization conference inside the Pentagon on Wednesday. The detailed briefing included Army Discharge Review Board updates, installation access, soldier support, and an operational overview. Primary takeaway is the Army is stretched thin from less manning but increased requirements. Meanwhile, Iraq and Afghanistan still continue, as do other requirements in Africa and Asia. The Army currently has almost 190,000 soldiers assigned to 140 worldwide locations. All headquarters staffing has reduced 25 percent, but the stress this puts on field leadership and combat-coded units has resulted in dwell times of 1:1 at division level and 1:2 for Brigade Combat Teams, which means units are either just home, getting ready to deploy or already deployed. The continued sequester exacerbates the manpower issue, in that the active Army would reduce from the current 490,000 to 420,000, Army National Guard from 350,000 to 315,000, and the Army Reserve from 202,000 to 185,000. Eliminating sequestration has been the VFW’s top legislative priority ever since Congress created it with the Budget Control Act of 2011.