Hearing Of Armed Services Committee - Nominations Of The Honorable John M. Mchugh To Be Secretary Of The Army; Dr. Joseph W. Westphal To Be The Under Secretary Of The Army; And Juan M. Garcia III To Be Assistant Secretary Of The Navy For Manpower And...

Statement

Hearing Of Armed Services Committee - Nominations Of The Honorable John M. Mchugh To Be Secretary Of The Army; Dr. Joseph W. Westphal To Be The Under Secretary Of The Army; And Juan M. Garcia III To Be Assistant Secretary Of The Navy For Manpower And Reserve Affairs

Senator Reed.

Senator REED. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I want to welcome the nominees and just say I think the President
has chosen very wisely. I had the privilege to work with Congressman
McHugh on many issues and Dr. Westphal as a former
official in the Department of the Army and comes back with great
insights and great experience. And Mr. Garcia, thank you for your
service and look forward to your service in the Department of the
Navy.

Congressman McHugh, one of the traditions of the service is a
respect for the individual's demonstration of their faith, which is
very important. Essentially that is why we have a chaplain corps.
But part of that is ensuring that there is not an attitude preferential
to one denomination versus another, preferential to one set
of beliefs to another, consistent with the Constitution.
I wonder if you have any comments on that.

Mr. MCHUGH. Well, thank you, Senator, and thank you for your
kind comments.

My understanding is every chaplain who goes into the service
has a prime directive, and that is in those instances where it is far
likely that there are multi-denominational attendees, the chaplain
must be sensitive to the nature of that assemblage, and therefore,
do everything necessary to keep away from proselytizing but give
a general blessing, whether that is a deployment ceremony or some
other variant. It does allow them, of course, in their regular duties
on a Sunday, if it is a Catholic chaplain, providing mass or the
Shabbat services in temple for Jews or in the mosque for Muslims.
But when you have a general assemblage, they must be sensitive and not make comments that would be offensive to others in that
assemblage.

I cannot imagine our ever changing that. Certainly in my opinion
any chaplain who does not adhere to that needs to be admonished
and instructed as to their primary responsibility.
Senator REED. I agree with you. I have found also, too, that the
chaplains play a very critical role in informally counseling soldiers
not in any sort of denominational way but as a source of information
for the commanders, as a source of support for troops, and it
is a very important role.

Mr. MCHUGH. Yes, sir.

Senator REED. We have all talked about this, but it is, as Mr.
Garcia pointed out, particularly acute for the Army. The operational
tempo has been exhausting over the last several years. Can
you comment on the effect this has had on retention of mid-grade
officers, captains, majors, and the NCO's, which from my perspective
are probably the real heart and soul of the force?

Mr. MCHUGH. I have two answers. The answer I will give to you
first is the answer I had as a 16-year member of the House Armed
Services Committee and 12 years on the Personnel Subcommittee.
It just seems to me at a minimum intuitively that particularly in
an economy that values the kinds of intellect and experience that
those mid-grade officers have, that the OPS and PERSTEMPO has
a tremendous effect on encouraging them to leave the service. Certainly
the numbers would suggest there is something afoot. We are
about 3,000 short in those middle cadres. It is such an acute problem
that the Army does not estimate it will be able to begin to
catch up until about 2014 or 2015.
The second answer is what I understand, what I was told as a
member of the Personnel Subcommittee, the Army believes that
the retention is not the issue in those gaps, that the problem is the
growth of the Army has left that gap.
There is probably accuracy and veracity on both sides, and I have
not been in a position to be briefed, but the bottom line remains
the same. We have a huge challenge in that cadre of officers that
we have to make sure we can make up. As you know, Senator,
these are the people who instill the values, who instill the training,
who instill all those things that we view as so important in the formulation
of the military, and we have got to work hard to close
that 3,000-officer shortfall.

Senator REED. Thank you, Congressman.

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