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MOAA Urges Congress to Fund 30,000 More Army Troops Now

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 15:07 CDT

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Having 30,000 more soldiers funded now is now America's greatest procurement need. Our soldiers and families are overstressed, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel," according to retired Navy Vice Admiral Norb Ryan, Jr., president of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA)

In a full-page advertisement in the July 14 edition of The Hill, an influential newspaper widely read on Capitol Hill, MOAA outlined why it is important that 30,000 more soldiers be added to the Army now. Congress has approved the number, but will not fund it until 2011 and 2012, and only if the Administration puts the increase in a future budget request. The number 30,000 is the quantity of soldiers currently not available for deployment due to the wear and tear of years of war.

The ad, placed in support of an amendment to the FY2010 budget by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) that would fund the additions next year, outlines that thousands of military people are on their third or fourth combat tour in seven years, and defense leaders see a decade of conflict ahead.

Adm. Ryan, who recently returned from his third trip to Iraq, said that time at home with families between deployments won't exceed 15 months for at least two years, and that is putting a major strain on personnel and families. The ad says that "it is callous and contrary to our national interests to expect this one-half percent of Americans who already have borne 100 percent of national wartime sacrifice for most of this decade to continue bearing such grievous burdens."

MOAA says a Congress that offered trillions to banks, insurance companies, and others whose bad performance sowed the seeds of the current economic crisis "has an even greater obligation to rescue the troops and families who have sacrificed so much for so long for the national welfare."

Failure to correct that situation immediately, said Ryan, "jeopardizes our troops' and families' health and welfare, and risks a retention and readiness crisis that could be catastrophic in wartime, even as other unfriendly countries pose new potential threats."

The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is the United States' largest veterans' organization for active duty, National Guard, Reserve, former, and retired military officers and their surviving spouses. MOAA is a full-service association with two magazines , benefits information, an officer placement service, and lobbying . The association promotes a strong national defense by lobbying for equitable benefits for those who serve and have served their country in military, including health care, pay, allowances, and family issues.

SOURCE Military Officers Association of America

Source: PR Newswire

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