Joint Chiefs Chairman Sees Need for More Base Closings

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday that cracks are beginning to appear in U.S. military readiness, and he declared that only by saving money through politically unpopular base closings will the military be able to buy what it needs.

In a farewell interview before his term ends next month, Gen. John M. Shalikashvili told reporters that members of Congress who have stymied the military-base shutdowns need to “put politics aside.”

“We don’t have the money we need for troops. . . . I don’t see how we’re going to get there from here without a big commitment to close more bases,” he said. “I don’t know how I can say it more bluntly.”

The general said too much equipment is out of commission in some military units because of a lack of spare parts. He also said too many units have fallen below adequate strength levels as manpower has been cut by roughly one-third.

But he said the greatest source of concern is the stressful pace of overseas deployments, exercises and other operations, which has many service members working too long and too far from home. This pace has the military leadership “concerned more than anything else,” Shalikashvili said.

Contrary to the arguments of some GOP leaders in Congress, he said this overwork is not a consequence of the administration’s willingness to dispatch troops overseas. At any one time, he said, the military has 40,000 of its 1.4 million troops in special deployments in such places as Bosnia, Macedonia and eastern Zaire--too few to support an argument that operations are “leaving us breathless.”

Instead, he argued that a major cause of the problem is too many military exercises. He said he has already ordered a 25% cut in joint-services exercises over the next two years and that he has urged the chiefs of each service to reduce their intramural exercises by the same amount.