In case you missed it – Today, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) questioned Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth about the Army’s failure to meet its recruiting targets since she became secretary during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Senator Cotton’s questioning included:
On the Army failing to meet its recruiting goals: “In your first full year on the job, the target was 60,000. You didn't even get 45,000. Last year was 65. You got 55. You had projected last year for it to be 63,600 this year, and conveniently you decided to change the goal to 55,000, which is exactly what you got last year. You don't you don't think that is a little suspicious, that you're simply trying to avoid negative headlines once again for your failure to meet basic recruiting goals, goals that we've met almost every single year since 2005?”
On Secretary Wormuth’s leadership: “If the Army under your leadership can't figure out horses pulling wagons. It's not a surprise they can't figure out increasing munitions manufacturing or drone warfare.”
A video of the exchange may be found here. The full exchange is below.
Senator Cotton: Secretary Wormoth, I want to return to the line of questioning earlier about recruiting. You've said that you don't want to be overconfident, but you think we have a good shot at making that goal this year, the goal being 55,000. But isn't it the case that you dropped your goal this year, because not many people are joining the Army since you joined or since you became secretary?
Secretary Wormuth: It's true that our goal last year, Senator Cotton, was 65,000. General McConville and I set that as a stretch goal. That's how we characterized it. So, this year, between 55,000 new contracts and 5000 in the depth, it's 60k. Last year, you forecasted that you would need 62,600 for this year. Why did you cut that? Again, we look at what's possible, and we set a goal that we think is both--
Senator Cotton: Do you look at what's possible or what's needed?
Secretary Wormuth: Well, we, General George--
Senator Cotton: It's possible it's pretty low since you became secretary. It's a question of what's needed for our Army to defend our nation.
Secretary Wormuth: Senator Cotton, the chief and I are both committed to growing back our end strength, we are aiming to get up to 470,000 by 2029. And our recruiting is improving consistently.
Senator Cotton: Well, it's improving because you're throwing a dart at the wall and then drawing the bullseye around it. In your first full year on the job, the target was 60,000. You didn't even get 45,000. Last year was 65. You got 55. You had projected last year for it to be 63,600 this year, and conveniently you decided to change the goal to 55,000, which is exactly what you got last year. You don't you don't think that is a little suspicious, that you're simply trying to avoid negative headlines once again for your failure to meet basic recruiting goals, goals that we've met almost every single year since 2005.
Secretary Wormuth: I'm not focused on headlines, Senator Cotton. What I'm doing is doing everything possible to help the Army improve its recruiting. And that's what we're doing.
Senator Cotton: Does the Army need 7,600 fewer soldiers then you expected this year than you expected it would be last year?
Secretary Wormuth: The Army has been able to meet all of the requirements that the combatant commands have levied on us at our current end strength and our end strength is going to start going up.
Senator Cotton: What are the requirements that have changed in the last year from those combatant commands allowed you to drop your goal, not just from the 65,000 was last year to 55 this year, but from the 62,600 that you predicted last year that you would need this year? What requirements have decreased on the Army's--
Secretary Wormuth: The requirements haven't changed. And we were able--
Senator Cotton: I wouldn't think so, since we were going up in smoke because of Joe Biden's failed policies.
Secretary Wormuth: We were able to meet all of the combatant command requirements last year, we've been able to meet them this year. But we're still focused on growing our end strength.
Senator Cotton: I mean, we we met our recruiting goals at the height of the pandemic and 2020 and 2021. You can't meet your recruiting goals now, without dropping them by 10,00 from what were last year?
Secretary Wormuth: All of the services are facing challenges, but I'm proud to say we have--
Senator Cotton: Your challenges for your service are acute.
Secretary Wormuth: Yes, because we have the biggest force, and we have to recruit the largest number. But we are doing considerably better this year.
Senator Cotton: I'm looking at every single year here: sixty-two five, sixty eight five, seventy six five, sixty eight, sixty one two. This is not a systemic problem until you became the secretary.
Secretary Wormuth: Senator Cotton, I don't think that there's a correlation between me becoming secretary and the recruiting headwinds that the entire department has been facing.
Senator Cotton: Okay, I want to touch on another recruiting matter, I guess for strength matter. I noticed a story in Stars and Stripes from January that there's a shortage of about 250 officers in adjutant general finance and signal corps and the Army was going to ask infantry and armor officers to transfer. Has that happened?
Secretary Wormuth: I'll have to take that for the record.
Senator Cotton: General George, do you know any more details?
General George: Typically, as you know, Senator, we have typically have more combat arms, lieutenants. So typically we do v-tip. This was done a little bit earlier than we knew because of our structure, we're actually growing some additional MDTF which came up earlier. Signal is, for example, is one of them or MI, where you typically have more captains and majors than you do lieutenants. So that that was what that was. And what we did is took volunteers. We just put the message out, because we want to keep talent and it's actually really good for us to infuse those branches with people that have experience in the combat arms.
Senator Cotton: Normally, things like signal and AG are donor branches at the lieutenant ranks to infantry, but is infantry officer ranks, whatever the Army as a whole, infantry armor officer ranks are healthy right now at the company level?
General George: We're very healthy for four lieutenants, Senator, we're doing okay. for that
Senator Cotton: Well, thank you. One final issue, Secretary Wormuth, the Caisson Platoon. The Army just acknowledged that they're not on track to get Caisson operations back up at Arlington National Cemetery. This has been an ongoing issue now for more than a year. We directed you in the NDAA to make sure the Caisson Platoon remains in existence. You fought that tooth and nail last year. What is the issue here? It's horses pulling wagons. It's been happening since before recorded time. Why can't these families, who have a right to a horse-drawn caisson at their funeral, expect that's going to happen?
Secretary Wormuth: Senator Cotton, first of all, we didn't have any plans to get rid of the Caisson Platoon, we've actually spent a lot--
Senator Cotton: Well, you fought my amendment tooth and nail about it. So I don't know if you have animal rights activists from PETA on your staff handling this issue. But why can't you get horses pulling wagons in the cemetery?
Secretary Wormuth: There's a range of challenges and we can come and talk to you in detail.
Senator Cotton: The Old Guard did this for decades.
Secretary Wormuth: And the horses that did that for decades are now old and lame.
Senator Cotton: They’ve always been old. They've always been retired from other activities.
Secretary Wormuth: Well, we are now trying to grow the herd. We have we have been focused on this is incredibly hard. We're looking at additional pastureland, we're going to have to rebuild the stables that you probably remembered. But we are very focused on trying to get to a point where we're able to offer again the Caisson service with the funeral.
Senator Cotton: If the Army under your leadership can't figure out horses pulling wagons. It's not a surprise they can't figure out increasing munitions manufacturing or drone warfare.