make this initial increment of the reduction with minimum involuntary separations.

We have established aggressive programs to help those departing soldiers and civilians succeed in moving to the private sector. The results of that effort are several Army, DOD, Department of Labor and Department of Veterans' Affairs programs to assist departing Army alumni.

ACAP, the Army program now has offices open in 62 sites worldwide. We have so far provided transition and job assistance to approximately 60,000 separating service and civilian personnel.

In recruiting and retention, the Army leadership is committed to maintaining the quality of the Army throughout the downsizing process, a level of quality that has taken us 2 decades to achieve.

RECRUITING

To maintain our combat-ready Army we must have a steady flow of high quality new soldiers. To maintain this steady flow of manpower in a free market economy, we must persuade America's young people to join us. There has been concern expressed recently about recruiting advertising. The concern is an understandable one, for one might question the need for continued advertising while the Army is reducing its size and paying some people to leave.

The key is that almost half of the enlisted force is composed of young men and women with less than 4 years service who come into the service for one enlistment only, gaining skills or money for college and then return to civilian life to contribute to a greater America.

These young people must be continuously replaced by other quality young men and women. Advertising is the proven and most cost efficient market tool needed to reach these smart young people with the Army's message, and that message must be backed by judiciously applied enlistment incentive programs. That is why we need continued authority to pay these enlistment and reenlistment bonuses, especially for skills easily transferrable to civilian life and those with long training lead times.

The authority to pay both the selected reenlistment bonus and enlistment bonuses expires this year on 30 September. A lapse in this authority will result in increased uncertainty during a period of already turbulent change. Therefore, we urge the provision to retain the SRB and the enlistment bonus under a continuing resolution if that should be necessary.

I would also like to highlight two officer management issues. The first is the Reserve Officer Personnel Management Act. The passage of this legislation, already introduced in the House will rationalize Reserve officer management, just like DOPMA did for active forces and WOMA did for warrant officers.

Second, I would like the Congress to rescind the prohibition against assigning active Guard and Reserve or AGR officers to the ROTC program. The Reserve components benefit greatly from this program, and we request that it be restored.

As we reshape the Army it is imperative that we maintain quality of life programs for our soldiers and families and maintain our

facilities at all times. We cannot neglect our commitment to our soldiers, especially during the drawdown years and particularly in overseas locations.

In closing, the Army currently is drawing down in numbers and structure as fast as possible while simultaneously maintaining a quality, ready force and caring for soldiers and their families.

We cannot do it any faster and still maintain our goal of continuously providing the fighting force necessary to achieve decisive victory in combat. Daily, a Boeing 747 is flying from Europe filled with soldiers and families. We must provide these families and all families of soldiers and civilians impacted by the drawdown the attention that they deserve.

They have served their country proudly and have done a magnificent job. We have a great Army, and with your help, and I know we have it, sir, we will keep a great Army. America expects and deserves no less.

[The prepared statement of General Carney follows:]

Prepared Statement by Lt. GEN. THOMAS P. CARNEY, USA, Deputy Chief of Staff FOR PERSONNEL

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this subcommittee today and talk about the Army, its people, and our personnel programs. This is a turbulent and challenging time for the Army and its people-active duty, reserve, civilian and their families. These people are today's quality Army. We remain committed to them as we draw down the force, and we are committed to maintaining the exceptional quality of today's Total Army. Both commitments are central to our ultimate objective—a trained and ready Army.

Uppermost in everyone's mind is our progress in reducing the size of the Army. Today, I will describe for you how we are conducting the drawdown, the impact of the drawdown on the force, and what we expect to accomplish this year and next. In addition, I will cover several other topics important to the well-being and health of your Army, a force made up of America's finest volunteers.

WHERE WE ARE HEADED-THE BASE FORCE

The Army must always be ready to fight-today, throughout the drawdown years, and once the Base Force is established. We proved in the sands of the Arabian peninsula that we have the world's finest Army. Our new, smaller Army must be as good as, if not better than, the outstanding force that helped defeat Iraq. Our challenge-sustain Total Army excellence in our active, reserve, and civilian components throughout the drawdown. By 1995, our Nation needs 536,000 active duty soldiers in 12 divisions fully manned, trained, ready to deploy, and capable of achieving decisive victories. In addition, we need six fully manned reserve divisions, two cadre divisions, and robust reserve and civilian support elements. In short, we need the Total Army Base Force. The careful management of change in the evolution of our current Army to the Base Force will retain our capability to win conflicts quickly with limited loss of life and resources. To achieve that end, we must have the flexibility to manage our force in order to keep the Army fully prepared. While we must selectively separate many, we must continue to recruit new soldiers; the Army is youth oriented, with 46 percent of the enlisted force having fewer than 4 years service. This group must be continuously replaced as they complete their initial enlistments and return to civilian society.

We ended last year with an active strength of 710,000, after discharging most of the soldiers called up for Desert Storm. We are programmed to have a force of 640,000 by September 30, 1992. Our very steep decline this year cannot be continued, as we are pulling forward some expected fiscal year 1993 losses into this year. We expect to reduce by another 42,000 soldiers in fiscal year 1993. This reduction will put us at an active strength of 598,900 at the end of fiscal year 1993, as we head to our fiscal year 1995 goal of a 536,000 active force.

We are on a steep decline. We are cutting faster and deeper than any other service. We cannot go any faster without risk to the Nation.

The plan I will present here today will allow us to accomplish our goals. You have been generous with your support in the past, and I ask your continued support to help the Army and its people.

HOW DO WE SHAPE TO THE BASE FORCE?

One of the keys to readiness is a balanced force. By this, I mean an Army with the proper mix of grade and skill to man our units. We must maintain this balance throughout the drawdown. To accomplish this balance we must have the tools to recruit and retain quality personnel, as well as the flexibility and incentives needed to separate soldiers whose skills are excess to our needs. I will be asking for continued support of current initiatives to allow us to accelerate and better program losses, and to help those whom we must ask to leave. This concern is indicative of our commitment to those who have so selflessly served for some time. On the other hand, we ask for continued authority to pay enlistment and reenlistment bonuses for both the Active and the Reserve component forces to attract and retain quality soldiers. This represents our commitment to provide the Nation a strong and ready Army. These seemingly incongruous measures are reconciled when you remember that we must maintain a trained and ready Army at all times, for we never know when we might be called to fight. There is no time out from readiness to allow regrouping while America reshapes her defense forces.

MANAGING THE DRAWDOWN MILITARY

Our overarching goal during the drawdown is to maintain readiness, while taking care of our people. Our plan is designed to protect those who have the most time invested with financial incentives, such as the Voluntary Separation Incentive/Special Separation Benefit (VSI/SSB). While we endure this difficult period, we must maintain the morale and quality of the force. Although some will have to go early, we will assist their transition through VSI/SSB, retirement, and the Army Career and Alumni Program (ACAP). Our message to the remaining force and to America is that the Army is still a great place to serve. Great opportunities exist, and a reasonable promotion flow will be maintained.

We continue to encourage volunteers to leave before any involuntary separations occur. Congress gave us both the mandate and the tools to adopt this policy. We are appreciative of these tools, for we believe that the volunteer first policy is the correct one. To that end, we created a voluntary release program for soldiers with more than 3 years service, and are making full use of the VSI and SSB.

Unfortunately, some involuntary releases must still occur. Here, our policy is designed to affect first those with relatively short time invested, and those who have vested retirement. We hold lieutenant retention boards to select only the best lieutenants for continuance on active duty. Those asked to save are relatively young, and have generally between 3 and 6 years of service. They are at an excellent point in their lives to translate the leadership skills gained from their military experience to a civilian career. On the other end of the spectrum, we are asking some retirement eligible officers and noncommissioned officers to retire early. Just last week we notified some 1,738 officers of their selection for early retirement, and had previously notified 160 senior noncommissioned officers selected by a similar board held in January. While these soldiers have some vested retirement, there is still significant pain in being asked to leave the Army early after they have served so loyally, and so well, for each and every one is a great soldier. Even with our transition assistance programs in place, there is also significant economic pain, as these 40ish mid-level managers with high school and college age children are thrust upon an uncertain economy.

We have reduced the length of time our senior enlisted soldiers are allowed to serve before being asked to retire. Again, early retirement is a heavy burden at this point in their lives.

Finally, as a last resort, we have planned involuntary reductions in force, or RIF, for the mid-level officer corps. Thanks to the success of the VSI/SSB program, we will not have to RIF captains this year, but it now looks as if we will need to RIF about 300 majors. This number reduces each time a major in the target year group volunteers to leave with VSI or SSB. We must have officer RIFS in each of the drawdown years, so a continued, robust VSI/SSB program is needed to lessen the impact of or possibly avert the need for these force-outs. At our current end strength goal of 536,000, we will not need an enlisted RIF at any time during the drawdown.

The drawdown is painful, very painful. Careers are cut short, other careers never get started, families are disrupted. While we do not have room for as many soldiers

as before, we are committed to having a great Army, recognized by the world as a trained and ready force capable of decisive victory—in short, a great place to serve.

VSI/SSB

We were very grateful that Congress authorized the VSI/SSB this year to help with the reduction. So far, about 16,000 soldiers have taken advantage of this generous program, and we expect about 27,000 total to accept the offer of VSI/SSB this year. As I previously noted, because of this program, we were able to avoid a captain reduction in force, and have so far reduced by three quarters our need to force out majors this year. That's good news, and we will need this great program throughout the drawdown years.

CIVILIAN DRAWDOWN

The Army drawdown involves substantial decreases in the civilian work force as well as the military force. We project a decrease in civilians of over 108,000 (approximately 25 percent) from fiscal years 1989 through 1995. This reduction is directly related to the military drawdown and significant budget reductions as well as base closure and realignment.

Our goal is to manage the civilian reduction with the least pain possible to the Department and to individuals, but without compromising on the quality of our civilian force or the accomplishment of the Army mission.

The Army has made significant strides in the civilian reduction. As of January 31, 1992, civilians in military functions numbered just over 357,200. This reflects a decrease of 45,800 or approximately 11 percent since October 1, 1989. Effective use of attrition, hiring limitations, release of temporary employees, and voluntary early retirement, has enabled us to make this initial increment of the reduction with minimal involuntary separations.

Since the reductions are particularly precipitous during fiscal years 1992 and 1993, we have tightened the freeze on hiring by directing that commanders may hire only one replacement for every four employees lost as opposed to two hires for every five losses. Some commanders have imposed much tighter restrictions consistent with their funding situation and workload. Commanders are expected to resort to RIF only after exhausting the less severe options and they are expected to conduct strong priority placement and outplacement programs to help employees who must be separated.

When involuntary separation is unavoidable, we are committed to providing departing civilians the attention and assistance necessary to ensure a smooth and dignified transition. We fully recognize that the manner in which we assist separating civilians will significantly influence our ability to recruit and retain a quality civilian work force in the future.

A variety of established programs are available for separating Army employees. I will describe the transition programs established to help both military and civilian members, and their spouses departing the Army family.

We are also working actively with the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to continually monitor existing civilian personnel policies and systems, and to assess their effectiveness in meeting the challenges ahead.

ARMY CAREER AND ALUMNI PROGRAM (ACAP)

We have established aggressive programs to help those departing soldiers and civilians succeed in transitioning to the private sector. The results of that effort are several Army, DOD, Department of Labor and Department of Veterans' Affairs programs to assist departing Army alumni. Last year, ACAP, the Army program, was new, just coming to fruition after much hard work and congressional support. We have made tremendous progress over the past 8 months in getting ACAP up and running throughout the Army. Through ACAP, we have implemented preseparation counseling requirements; established and operated job assistance centers complementing the Department of Labor Transition Assistance Program; counseled on the benefits of the Montgomery GI bill; and made available a number of other valuable transition services, including access to the Army Employer Network, a geographical listing of over 4,000 employers who have expressed an interest in hiring Army alumni. In addition to ACAP, we use the Department of Defense Priority Placement Program (PPP), which gives displaced civilian employees referral priority for appropriate vacancies, and the Defense Outplacement Referral System (DORS), a voluntary outplacement mechanism that allows separating soldiers, civilians, and their spouses to register for referral to other DOD installations, other Federal agencies and the private sector.

We reported last summer that seven ACAP pilot sites were operational and had assisted over 8,000 soldiers. ACAP offices are now open at 62 sites worldwide and have so far provided transition and job assistance to approximately 60,000 separating service and civilian personnel. We are committed to keeping this outstanding program in full operation to help soldiers, spouses, and civilians. It is an indispensable tool for the morale of the force. We owe transition assistance to all those who served the Nation so well.

While the drawdown rightly occupies a great deal of the Army leadership's time and attention, there are many other important issues that I would like to address.

RECRUITING AND RETENTION

Army leadership is committed to maintaining the quality of the Army throughout the downsizing process; a level of quality that has taken us two decades to achieve. To maintain our combat ready Army, we must have a steady flow of high quality new soldiers. Nearly half of the enlisted force has less than 4 years service, and must be continuously replaced and trained as we expose the best young men and women in America to the Army, and return most of them confident and productive to civilian life.

To maintain this steady flow of manpower in a free market economy, we must persuade America's young people to join us. Consequently, adequate resourcing of incentives and awareness programs is essential. Twenty years of research and experience, including our recent success on the battlefield, support this commitment.

The Army Recruiting Command continues to streamline its structure to improve efficiency, and plans to reduce its structure from five to four brigades and from 55 to 42 battalions. Program levels in the fiscal year 1993 budget are the minimum needed to maintain the ability to recruit quality soldiers. While both the Army Reserve and Active component are having excellent recruiting years, we remain sensitive to how fragile a quality force is. Propensity to enlist, as measured by the DOD Youth Attitude Tracking Survey (YATS), is down for 16-21 year old males from 16 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 1991. This is the first decrease for the Army since 1986. Overall DOD (any service) propensity mirrors this trend. We learned in the late 1970s and early 1980s the impact of low accession levels and poor quality cohorts; we spent the 1980s building our successful volunteer Army; we want to ensure that we maintain it during the downsizing of the 1990s, and beyond.

We have found through the years that the single most accurate predictor of recruiting success is the state of the civilian economy. High unemployment has contributed to this year's recruiting success. However, as the economy improves, these variations in the employment market can be overcome by the judicious use of the enlistment incentives now available, and of selective advertising to keep quality potential recruits aware of the Army as an option after graduation.

There has been concern expressed recently about recruiting advertising. The concern is a good one, for one should question the need for continued advertising while the Army is reducing its size and paying people to leave. The key is remembering that a large proportion of the Army is composed of young men and women with less than 4 years service, who come into the service for one enlistment only, gaining skills or money for college, and then return to civilian life to contribute to a greater America. These young people must be continuously replaced by other quality young men and women. Advertising is the proven and most efficient market tool needed to reach these smart young people with the Army's message.

Advertising has a direct and immediate impact on quality recruitment and promotes market awareness of Army opportunities, incentive programs and enlistment offers. A clear relationship exists between recruiting resources and the Army's ability to attract and enlist the highest quality people.

It is this advertising that Army recruiters have relied on to maintain the proud and capable force that succeeded in Southwest Asia. Continued success is threatened by budgetary actions which do not keep pace with inflation, resulting in significantly reduced buying power. National media advertising costs continue to rise and typically run 4-5 percent above the Consumer Price Index. Current fiscal year 1992 funding has reduced media weight to the lowest level in 13 years, jeopardizing the ability of Army messages to be heard in the marketplace. At current funding levels, the Army is realizing fewer marketing opportunities to target 18-24 year olds and their influencers their parents, guardians, and peers.

Since advertising supports more than just Regular Army and Reserve enlistments, reduced funding means less advertising support for Army specialized programs which promote officer accessions. These programs include the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, the U.S. Military Academy, and Officer Candidate School, in addi