Hearing of the Senate Armed Service Committee - The United States Pacific Command and United States Forces Korea Budget

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SEN. JACK REED (D-RI): Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, gentlemen, for joining us today.

And General Bell, I want to thank and commend you for your extraordinary service to the Army and the nation.

GEN. BELL: Thank you, sir.

SEN. REED: And you have inspired great confidence in many. And good luck as you move forward, and thank you.

GEN. BELL: Thank you.

SEN. REED: Admiral Keating, you say in your statement that your -- anti-submarine warfare is the top priority of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and that PACOM requires pervasive and persistent surveillance to understand the adversary plans, et cetera. Do you have a sufficient number of submarines in your AOR to do that?

ADM. KEATING: I do today, yes, sir.

SEN. REED: And looking forward, in terms of your longer term, medium term?

ADM. KEATING: Through the mid-term, I -- through the FYDP, Senator, five to 10 years, we have sufficient numbers.

SEN. REED: Of U.S. attack submarines.

And -- but I would -- I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you probably have missions that would like to run but you can't at the moment, that you have excess demand?

ADM. KEATING: That would be true, sir.

SEN. REED: Thank you.

General Bell, you are recommending, I believe, the -- departing from the one-year tour in -- excuse me -- in Korea and going to a three-year stabilized tour with families. Can you talk to that recommendation, but also the impact in -- on your plans on the constant draw of troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, and just generally the whole sort of flow of troops back and forth?

GEN. BELL: Senator, I'm an advocate of what I call "troop normalization." I am convinced, after serving over there for over two years, that one year unaccompanied tours that we've pursued over there sends a message of temporary commitment by the United States, just one year in and we can be out. I believe that a three-year tour would send the right message of commitment of the United States to that area of the world, first.

Second, it adds measurably to the personnel-tempo of our military services right now, unnecessarily, in my view. I admit that I've advocated a 10-year transition period to a normalization policy over there because there are a lot of issues to be dealt with. You just can't, one afternoon, say, "Bring another 15,000 U.S. families over there." But over time, and with the help of our allies, who I believe would help us resource part of this, I believe it is best for our families. It's best for our readiness -- if I had a servicemember over there for three years, he or she would be awfully ready as a -- I mean, very ready as opposed to just being one year. And I think it sends the right message to our allies of a commitment to that area of the world which is of vital interest to the United States of America.

Now, there are a lot of details to be worked out here, and I have not yet gotten a policy decision out of the Department of Defense yet, and I certainly haven't even had a formal request from my Korean ally yet. But I believe those may be forthcoming. And then, with that in hand, we could lay out a program to achieve this. I do believe it's necessary for the United States to send a message to all of our friends in that area of the world that that area of the world is important to us,and that if the North Korean issue is resolved, through whatever methodology -- peace treaty, reunification, or otherwise, that that does not mean the end of U.S. commitment, and we're not going to just take our troops and go home. As long as we're welcome and wanted by the Republic of Korea, and they desire our alliance to continue, I believe it's in our interest, and the best way to demonstrate that is through normalization.

SEN. REED: Thank you, sir. The Second Infantry Division --

GEN. BELL: Yes, sir?

SEN. REED: At this juncture, and correct me, but my impression is they have one brigade in Korea and two-plus brigade in Iraq and Afghanistan, one combination. Is that correct?

GEN. BELL: Sir, it's true. We have one brigade that is permanently stationed in Korea with the division headquarters. The other brigades are permanently stationed now in the United States, and there is no desire to bring them forward, unless, of course, we had a conflict break out. In addition to the one maneuver brigade, we have other important brigades there in the Second Infantry Division -- an aviation brigade with attack helicopters, a fire brigade, artillery, military intelligence, engineers, et cetera, et cetera.

It's still a pretty good sized division, but it only has that one maneuver brigade. And I deem it essential to force protection, quick reaction force capability, and believe it or not, if I had to do a noncombatant evacuation, there are 100,000 U.S. citizens that live in Seoul pursuing American business. I would need those maneuver troops to help run an evacuation. So we're at about the lowest level I'm interested in getting to on Army troops right now, sir.

SEN. REED: And that brigade is -- and so far have been immune to deployment as a brigade into Iraq and Afghanistan.

GEN. BELL: It has. We had two maneuver brigades there until two years ago. One of them was withdrawn, went to Iraq, and it's now stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado. This brigade is not on the deployment list.

SEN. REED: But are you seeing some personnel turmoil -- not brigade units, battalions, but individuals who are moving in and out of division because of Army-wide demands? And is that affecting your readiness at all?

GEN. BELL: The Army does a good job of keeping up with the one- year rotations. What I think is the fallout from the current commitment to Iraq and Afghanistan is it's very normal for me to get a service member, a soldier mostly because this does affect the Army more perhaps than it does the Air Force -- but it's not unusual for a soldier to show up, a young specialist or a staff sergeant or a master sergeant, having just returned from Iraq five or six months ago. And here they are with another set of orders for a short tour in Korea and continued family separation. That is fairly common now. And, of course, I would like to end that practice by a normalization tour.

SEN. REED: Right.

GEN. BELL: So the issue is that they're not getting much time at home before they're ordered on forward to Korea, having come out of Iraq. Same thing happens when they're going back, Senator. They'll leave Korea after a year, end up in a unit, and then off they are to Iraq or Afghanistan, perhaps fairly quickly.

SEN. REED: We have -- I have read in news accounts of incidents of depression with troops based on service in combat, Iraq, Afghanistan -- troops that are being medicated with Prozac still in combat areas. Are you detecting that in terms of your soldiers and airmen who are coming back through Korea?

GEN. BELL: I'm really not seeing that in Korea. I think this is an issue for our military; I'm not trying to minimize it. But I can tell you that, having been in this business now 39 years, this Army that we have remains an Army of great morale, great commitment, brotherhood and sisterhood. It's very special. It is different than some of the issues that we had during other wars, Vietnam, et cetera, et cetera. And I can tell you in Korea, these troops are high spirited, they're committed, they're dedicated. And I'm very proud of them. And I do not see a degradation in their morale or their readiness because of Iraq or Afghanistan.

SEN. REED: Well, my impression is similar to yours, but I think there is a -- this is a fault line in terms of some of the mental health issues that our troops are -- and it's something, as you suggested, I think the Army particularly and the Marine Corps and all of our services have to be acutely aware of because, you know, we're asking these young men and women to do some extraordinary things repeatedly and it adds up. So --

GEN. BELL: Yes, sir. It is. It is.

SEN. REED: Admiral Keating, we spoke briefly about the renewed relationship with Thailand. Can you comment on your efforts, cooperation with the Thais, particularly anti-drug efforts?

ADM. KEATING: Yes, sir. We were just there two weeks ago, met their supreme commander, General Boonsrang, who was a good friend from previous engagements. The Thai military remains strong. They are solid. They're aware of some concerns we have had about their observing what the rest of the world would regard as appropriate human rights measures and expectations.

And I have the assurances of him, General Boonsrang, that they have that in hand, and our trainers who work with them agree. We have a Joint Integrated Task Force West headquartered in United States Pacific Command, headed by a Coast Guard one-star, and they work extensively to counter drug challenges throughout the Asia-Pacific AOR.

The Thailand military is certainly aware of their position and the flow and the -- flow points for narcotics. They are actively engaged. They did not share with me any particular efforts they have under way, but I did know that General Boonsrang mentioned his concern and his active involvement in trying to stem the flow of those drugs; so too are Coast Guard-led forces at JIATF West.

SEN. REED: Thank you very much, gentlemen.

My time has expired.

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