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

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SEN. ROGER WICKER (R-MS): A random act of kindness by my colleague.

General Bell, we appreciate that high level of commitment and morale that you just testified about. I want to follow up on a conversation you and I had last year when I was in the House of Representations and you testified before the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction. And at the time, you mentioned a need for a TRICARE representative to assist all the service members' families you have living in Korea on the economy. Can you provide me with an update on that situation?

GEN. BELL: We're making progress. I don't have the full TRICARE service contract in place yet. It's coming. This is a competitive process. I just can't order it one day; there has to be a request for proposal through the contracting agencies, and then different companies have to bid for it, et cetera, et cetera, but we expect that in the very near term, Senator.

The good news is that, in the interim, the Army has committed several individuals who are wearing Department of the Army civilian hats as administrators for me. So now I've got people in critical locations across the peninsula who are fundamentally doing the job of TRICARE contractor in an interim way. They are coordinating with the local hospital, the local Korean hospital. They're setting up hotlines and phone lines with them. So when a patient comes in and they need care at the local hospital, we have that liaison working for us.

And then the reimbursement of the service member is handled in an expeditious way. We had a situation there for a while where the service member was expected to pay up front. Can you imagine something like that, walking in and saying, I need, you know, an appendectomy and having to reach in your pocket as a staff sergeant and pay for your appendectomy before you've had it? It was completely unacceptable.

We've fixed all that.

SEN. WICKER: Has the Congress given you everything you need in this regard?

GEN. BELL: Senator, they have. I'm very pleased. I'm working inside Department of Defense now. I think we're on the right track, and I'll report back to you if it comes unglued. But I think we are on the right rack.

SEN. WICKER: Thank you.

Now, another thing we talked about at that hearing last year was your concern for ensuring that you have a MEDAC hospital instead of a combat hospital.

GEN. BELL: Yes.

SEN. WICKER: Could you update us on that, also?

GEN. BELL: We activated the medical activity about five months about, which gives us all the authorities to requisition the right kind of doctors, the right kind of practitioners, the right kind of nurses for our clientele, and embedded in that remains the combat support hospital. So we have exactly the right organization now, and that was, you know, something I look at very positively. And I'm very excited about that.

SEN. WICKER: Well, congratulations on that.

Now, let me then follow up on something that I'm told you testified to earlier before I was able to attend, and that's the need for up-armored wheel vehicles. Now the Congress has made quite an investment in the MRAP vehicle. Would that meet your needs?

GEN. BELL: Senator, I am concerned about not having up-armored vehicles there in the Republic of Korea. I agree with the prioritization that the Army has now. For example, in the old days a National Guard unit would never be prioritized over an active unit, but National Guard units are going to Iraq. They need them before I do. And so we have a requirement in for various types of vehicles, including the MRAP, to meet our needs, and I believe we'll start seeing that fielding here in about the next year. But we are at the tail end of that fielding change, and I think rightfully so. I'm not complaining at all because I'm not facing imminent combat.

So the answer is yes, MRAP is part of our future, so are other up-armored kits, whether it's on our, you know, two-and-a-half and five-ton vehicles or even our humvees, and we don't have any of that right now of merit.

We've got about 2 percent up-armored, which is not really satisfactory. So, good program laid out, not resourced yet.

SEN. WICKER: Okay. Well, thank you very much.

Now, Admiral, let me quote from page 6 of your testimony. "Southeast Asia remains the central front against terrorism in the Pacific." It strikes me that many people, many Americans don't understand that the war on terrorism affects the region that you have charge over. Could you give us the status on the fighting of terrorism in -- specifically in the Philippines and its impact on regional stability?

ADM. KEATING: Yes, sir, I'll try. We were there two weeks ago and met with Ambassador Kenney and the leader of Joint Special Operations Forces Philippines, an Army colonel. He is in charge of about 500 Special Forces personnel, Army, who are deployed throughout central and southern Philippines in support of -- very important to emphasize -- in support of the armed forces of the Philippines in their -- the AFP -- war against violent extremists and terrorists in the southern Philippines. Progress is being made. It is measurable, it is discernible, it is palpable as we travel throughout the southern Philippines. The support expressed by, demonstrated by young men and women, kids, who greet the AFP forces as they are moving through the very dense jungle in the Philippines is a visual demonstration of the support enjoyed by the armed forces of the Philippines.

That said, they're also -- they, the armed forces of the Philippines -- are killing and capturing a significant number of Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiyah leaders and -- lieutenants, if you will. Work to be done, to be sure, acknowledged by the Philippines and by our armed forces who are there now, but the progress is measurable, demonstrable, and I'm very proud of the work being done by those 500 soldiers, who have been there for a while now and are there for the foreseeable future.

SEN. WICKER: What would be the consequences of not getting the job done in the Philippines, to the average American citizen?

ADM. KEATING: To the average American citizen who might be in the Philippines, we have seen American citizens kidnapped there and some killed.

SEN. WICKER: To my constituents back in Mississippi.

ADM. KEATING: To your constituents in Mississippi it would be a gradual erosion of peace and stability all throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It would have an economic impact, it would have a social impact and it would have an impact on one of our longest-standing allies in all of the world, and that would be the Republican of the Philippines.

SEN. WICKER: Thank you very much. And thank you both for your service.

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