Hearing of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee-Defense Spending

Statement

Hearing of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee-Defense Spending

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REP. ZACH WAMP (R-TN): Mr. Chairman, if I tried to improve on your opening statement, I would surely fail. Sometimes you recognize me right out of the box, but I do agree with everything you just said and I appreciate their service and their appearance here before our subcommittee today, and any inquiries I have will come during the questions.

But thank you both; I look forward to a good couple of hours.

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REP. WAMP: Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Let me kind of make an announcement. We have a very well- attended hearing today, and people must have found out that our witnesses were just really stellar today, and we even have a few colonels sitting at the table.

But Mrs. Granger is out. I just wanted to, as the ranking Republican member, say that she had successful surgery over the break, she'll be out for a couple of weeks, but I just wanted to let the full subcommittee know that we're all thinking of her --

REP. EDWARDS: Thank you. Thank you.

REP. WAMP: -- and in her absence here today lift her name up and we'll all be sensitive to that until she returns.

Also to welcome Mrs. Arny -- Sydney. That's my favorite city in the world and excellent name.

And Secretary Arny, you did give in my office the best explanation of joint basing that I've heard, and I appreciate you kind of reiterating some of that today. We've asked the question with some consternation, but actually you kind of pull it all together to where there shouldn't be so much consternation, particularly the Hickam- Pearl Harbor base, which I think you -- (inaudible) -- understand the Air Force's concern, but under this arrangement they really should have that concern, because flight ops and all will continue.

And Chairman Gates (sp), it's always an honor to be in your presence, sir. This is not the first subcommittee that you've actually -- at MILCON that you've been able to come to, because you're the responsibility -- I just want to make that point out. I've been sucking up to him for a long time. (Laughter.)

REP. DICKS: Ms. Jonas and Mr. Arny, you know, these are stellar witnesses, longtime friends. (Inaudible.)

REP. WAMP: The chairman -- (inaudible) -- now we do have the most -- (inaudible). (Cross talk, laughter.)

And the chairman has been so good to me that I will go as far as to say with tongue in cheek that I hope in the near future that a story coming out of the subcommittee is that Chet and Zach helped you get BRAC back on track. (Laughter.)

And with that said, Secretary Arny, when you talked about BRAC, I think you could even go further. You said that it would be extremely difficult to meet September 15th, 2011. I mean, the truth is you're just -- (inaudible) -- not when you need it without this money, and that's probably the way we should report that -- (inaudible).

And then what are the problems if in this year, in this fiscal year we don't get some money to BRAC that wasn't there? It's like a domino effect, is it not?

MR. ARNY: It is. I'll never say we won't make this because we've tried to look back, you know, a service member myself. You tell me what the time of the -- (inaudible) -- is, and I'm going to be there. I may -- (inaudible) -- but I'll be there. So if you tell them to finish, they'll finish, and they'll get there. And it may not be pretty getting there, that's the problem, okay? And being part of -- (inaudible) -- myself, it's hard to measure that because they'll never say never and they'll be out there at midnight working on the building to make sure it's ready to open.

REP. WAMP: So much good came out of the '08 bill and the baselines are ready, so much better off -- (inaudible). If you can get this money back where it belongs, then the mission will be complete. And I'm grateful that the chairman thinks the same way that we do on this issue.

Either of you all can answer this question. I heard at another briefing yesterday on the Hill General Zinni, who -- I don't agree with everything he says but he's got some interesting input -- said that Iraq would have been much better for us had AFRICOM been set up prior to Iraq, which is a fascinating kind of analysis from a guy who's not been very supportive of Iraq. And we had General Ward here yesterday and the chairman and I yesterday with General Casey were just telling him how swept away I was, anyway, with this whole new AFRICOM mission.

Even though I know you've got to be careful as we go into any kind of perceived presence permanently in Africa -- (inaudible) -- it's just kind of a forward station there, but your all's perspective on AFRICOM and the development and the flow of funds and from the business standpoint, what it really means to our unified command.

MS. JONAS: Well, Mr. Wamp, I can just start it and then I'll let my colleague talk to -- (inaudible) -- construction.

I think that the secretary has laid out on many occasions and I believe I did that -- (inaudible). But this is an important area of the world, and we have concluded over the last several years that we need to have as a department a more active engagement and positive engagement with the continent.

I'm not the policy expert here, but I do know that it's very important that the secretary knows it's high on the chairman of the joint chief's line, and Kip Ward, who is the new -- will be the -- that's the new commander there -- is an extremely competent Army general and I think he'll do a terrific job.

So in our shop and in Wayne's shop what we're doing is trying to make sure that they have the resource that they need to be successful, and I think with the Congress's help and understanding, we will -- and support, we'll get this under way and I think -- (inaudible) -- for our engagement, our positive engagement, in that area of the world.

REP. WAMP: Mr. Arny, do you have anything to add?

MR. ARNY: Yes, sir, I do. Actually, I have a -- (inaudible).

I will say that -- I can't say that General Zinni was wrong; I was working for Senator -- (inaudible) -- back in the early '80s on this task when we helped create CENTCOM, so understand a little bit about what we're trying to do. And it would have been better -- (inaudible) -- going back in -- (inaudible) -- saying that we fought history, you can change history, because back then, PACOM thought that they could handle all of CENTCOM as well, but Congress disagreed and you ended up with a CENTCOM.

My older son was the aide to Chuck Wald, who was deputy EUCOM for two years, two and a half years, and they were -- (inaudible) -- and just listening to my son talk about it, the importance of the region opened my eyes as to what needed to be done.

And I think from an installation point, we are moving very slowly -- I wouldn't say slowly, but very, very -- with due cautious -- with due regard for the sensitive -- (inaudible) -- in the region to establish a presence to be able to assist. We're not there to build huge bases -- (inaudible) -- our colleagues at the State Department and other agencies to establish a presence and kind of go one step at a time to make sure we're doing it right.

And I think having a date set -- ordinarily people say, well, why base it out of EUCOM? Given that my son was stationed at EUCOM and the deputy EUCOM was probably the most active in the African region, and Jim Jones is a good friend, and he would talk about it as well, too. He and Chuck Wald were very close on this issue and understood, I think, the importance of it before many other people did.

REP. WAMP: Mr. Chairman, I'll reserve till the next round, thank you.

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REP. WAMP: Secretary Jonas, shortly after General Casey became chief he said that the Army is out of balance. What is Secretary Gates, yourself doing, and what can this subcommittee specifically do to rebalance the United States Army?

MS. JONAS: Well, I think, first of all, the budget that we put in front of the Congress was a significant amount. And there's various elements of that regarding the -- (inaudible) -- mix of the force, active versus Reserve and Guard. Just as an example, in the Guard now, we've got over $45 billion that we've added from the period of '07 to '13 in the program. So that's a good area that we're working to get them the equipment that they need to do the missions that we believe that they are -- need to be doing. So the Guard unit -- (inaudible).

Actually, what this committee is doing is enormously important. And what you stated at the outset of the hearing, which was to do your best to provide the resources that are needed to keep the BRAC moving successfully, it's important because of the basing -- (inaudible) -- that involved in -- (inaudible).

So those are -- that's a very specific example. The chairman and I were discussing the other day which -- (inaudible) -- on child care. We're very grateful for -- (inaudible). That's very important. (Inaudible) -- support the force and the composition of those who are not serving, some spouses, man or woman, you know, you get home and in trying to maintain the family life in a way -- (inaudible). So it's got to be very complex.

We -- the supplemental requests also are very important to us. And so that -- I think those are good ways that the Congress and this committee have -- (inaudible).

REP. WAMP: Secretary Arny, you gave in my office the other day a unique insight into Guam. And that's one of the big-ticket items on the horizon for the subcommittee. And I was fascinated by what you shared with me. You shared just a little bit of the specificity, even of Saipan and the other area around Guam that we -- I didn't know very much. And I learned a lot just listening to you in brief but just the importance of Guam and the transition in Guam and how unique that whole situation is.

MR. ARNY: Yes, sir. I'd be glad to -- as I mentioned to you, I had the good fortune of representing the government of Guam for a period of 10 years in the '90s as a consultant and worked on privatization of the phone company BRAC -- did BRAC actually -- one of the few communities to seek the closure of an air base because Guam had no international airport, even on the corner of a naval air station.

Guam is a unique place. It is, in my opinion, one of the most strategic assets that the country has. It is a U.S. flag within three hours by air of almost every part of the Pacific Rim.

And we always hear about the tyranny of distance in the Pacific, but you don't experience it until you sail across it like I did one time, and -- in a carrier, and every two or three months, I'd fly out there. You know, as I was telling you, I took a couple of guys out to do some work for me out there and we'd go, you know, three-hour flight from here to Houston, walked out of the gate, get to the next plane, just seven and a half hours to Hawaii, out of the gate and get onto the next plane to Guam. And one fellow looks exhausted -- I learned to sleep on airplanes a long time ago.

And he says, "God, this is awful." He said, "How much more do we have? Do we have a couple hours left?"

I said, "No, you have another seven and a half hours. Guam is seven and a half hours on the other side of Hawaii by, you know, 747."

And we have -- it has a unique history. I mean, we'd taken it in 1898, took it from the Spanish. And matter of fact, when you come into the harbor there, there's a breakwater there. It's called the Glass Breakwater. And I never understood why you would name a breakwater that's supposed to be strong after something that's breakable. Well, it turns out it was Captain Glass. He was sent by Dewey up to capture Guam, which was a Spanish possession; it had been in Spanish hands for 350 years.

He comes rolling into the harbor and, the way the story is told, he -- (inaudible) -- and the commander of the port comes out and says, "Thank you very much for your salute, but we don't have any ammunition, so we can't return it for you." (Laughter.) So that was the sum total of the cadre on Guam.

And from that moment forward, it was governed by a Navy captain. Now, I was a Navy captain, okay? I'm no more -- (inaudible) -- to be the governor of a group of than anybody else, especially -- (inaudible). But from 1898 until World War II, we had a Navy captain governing the island.

And so when people complain about infrastructure and blah, blah, blah, when you trace that back, when you scratch the surface, you discover that it's Navy Public Works. So if you get upset -- and -- (inaudible) -- if you get upset with things, it all goes back to the Navy Public Works. And I have to remind my colleagues in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, most of whom are too young to remember all this, that a lot of the problems that we have discovering things with Guam is because we never let them be a nation, never let them be an independent political body.

Then it was the only community captured by the -- only American community captured by the Japanese. The wife of the governor -- second governor I dealt with, Governor Carl Gutierrez, his wife Geri -- her mother, she was -- when the Japanese came at the end of the war, they became much more brutal.

They brought in troops from the Manchurian campaign. The first troops that captured Guam were naval troops and they were much more benign. Then they had labor camps, and she watched her mother rifle- butted to death in front of her eyes.

One of the legislators' wives was a young girl who was brought in with a bunch of other students to witness the (bayoneting ?) of Father Duages (ph), who was a Roman Catholic priest who was on the island.

So they have a unique perspective. And the other thing, too, is we never -- when we took Guam from the Spaniards, we never had a chance to buy the rest of it from the Germans -- the rest of the Marianas chain. We didn't do it. So the Japanese had the Marianas chain.

And we have facilities on all those islands. And the Chamorros are related to each other. But after the war, there was a lot of hard feelings between the Saipanans and the Guanatians because the Saipanans were used as guards, in some cases were brutal to their -- to our neighbors. And the current chief of staff to -- (inaudible) -- governor is a good friend -- his parents were both legislators. They tried to introduce a provision in the congress, in the legislature, to bring Saipan and Guam back together. It was defeated because feelings are still there.

Very interesting question. We have a large presence, and an even larger one in Vietnam. We had 150 B-52s and their tankers all stationed at the -- (inaudible).

So Guam can handle -- look, it's strategic. (Inaudible) -- infrastructure problems that we can work together and figure out how to do. It's unique because it's an island, so if you think of electric power, around here when we generate electric power, you have to cover a certain -- (inaudible) -- and then you have a rolling reserve on top of that, and you have to have a peak in the summer and winter and you do your maintenance in the spring and fall, okay, because you have stuff offline.

But if it all fails, you can plug in West Virginia, Pennsylvania -- you've got places to go. On islands, you don't have that. But even Hawaii has peaks and valleys. Guam is 80 percent year-round. And it's small. It's 150,000 people. And we ask them to do -- (inaudible) -- maybe -- (inaudible) -- or something, but we ask that community to act not only as a city but also as a county and a state and even have that immigration issue. So we piled a lot on them. And so sometimes, they -- the abilities aren't as deep as you'd like because the bench is shot when it's only 150,000 people.

But strategically for the Navy and for the country as a whole, it's absolutely the right place to be. We may not get there in the time that we're all talking about, but I think it's essential for us strategically to build that facility. And I'm working -- (inaudible) -- sir.

REP. WAMP: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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