Fiscal 1992 Cut of 178,024 From Armed Forces Largest in 20 Years

The Pentagon cut 178,024 sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines from active duty in the past budget year--the largest single-year cut in two decades, a spokesman said Tuesday.

That leaves about 1.8 million men and women still in uniform. Current plans call for 160,000 more to be trimmed over the next three fiscal years, Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said.

The record year for military cuts was 1972, when 391,000 men and women in uniform were let go, he said.

“It’s the single-largest decrease in any fiscal year in the total active duty military strength since the end of the Vietnam War--since fiscal ‘72,” Williams said.

The reduction follows plans laid out several years ago by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to trim 25% of the military force by 1996. Their goal is a force of 1,644,200, Williams said.

President-elect Bill Clinton has advocated bringing the force down to 1.4 million men and women, but he has not set any target dates for the cuts.

Cheney and Powell have argued that swifter cutbacks would harm the military’s readiness to do battle and would break the morale of the troops and their families.

Williams said fewer people are being brought into the armed services, and programs designed to trim the middle ranks are working well. Some personnel in certain ranks are being offered bonuses to leave. Another program targets higher-level officers for early retirement.

Fewer than 300 people were cut involuntarily in the past year, Williams added.

About 52,000 men and women with more than six years of service but fewer than 20 years of active duty have chosen voluntarily to leave through one of the programs, Williams said.