make certain that the final remedy treats all servicemembers equitably. We simply cannot distinguish between types of service to this great Nation.

CONCLUSION

Through the remainder of fiscal year 2005, and into fiscal year 2006, our Nation will remain challenged on many fronts as we prosecute the global war on terrorism. Services will be required to meet commitments, both at home and abroad. Marines, sailors, airmen, and soldiers are the heart of our Services-they are our most precious assets and we must continue to attract and retain the best and brightest into our ranks. Transformation will require that we blend together the "right" people and the "right" equipment as we design our "ideal" force. Personnel costs are a major portion of the Department of Defense and Service budgets, and our challenge is to effectively and properly balance personnel, readiness, and modernization costs to provide mission capable forces. We are involved in numerous studies regarding human resources strategy to support our military, which requires we must balance the uniqueness of the individual Services. In some cases a one-size fits all approach may be best, in others flexibility to support service unique requirements may be paramount. Regardless, we look forward to working with Congress to maintain readiness and take care of your marines.

The Marine Corps continues to be a significant force provider and major participant in joint operations. Our successes have been achieved by following the same core values today that gave us victory on yesterday's battlefields. Our Active, Reserve, and civilian marines remain our most important assets and, with your support, we can continue to achieve our goals and provide what is required to accomplish the requirements of the Nation. Marines are proud of what they do! They are proud of the "Eagle, Globe, and Anchor" and what it represents to our country. It is our job to provide for them the leadership, resources, quality-of-life, and moral guidance to carry our proud Corps forward. With your support, a vibrant Marine Corps will continue to meet our Nation's call as we have for the past 230 years! Thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony.

Senator GRAHAM. Thank you, General.
General Brady.

STATEMENT OF LT. GEN. ROGER A. BRADY, USAF, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, PERSONNEL, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE General BRADY. Mr. Chairman and Senator Nelson, thank you for the opportunity to be with you here today.

In the years since the fall of the Soviet Union, America's airmen have responded to dramatic changes in our force structure and the world security environment. We continue to streamline our ActiveDuty Force while, remaining engaged around the world at levels higher than at any time during the Cold War.

As we work toward the future, we must determine our personnel needs, shape the force to meet those needs, provide relief for our most heavily stressed career fields, and develop the leaders who will take the reins deep into the 21st century. These are complex and interrelated issues, challenging how we manage the Total Force.

We are on target to meet end strength by the end of fiscal year 2005. We will continue to bring balance to the force by right-sizing and right-shaping specific career specialties and overall officer/enlisted skill sets. We remain postured to use various programs already in place such as Career Job Reservation, noncommissioned officer (NCO) retraining, Palace Chase, and Blue to Green initiatives. Due to the success of our programs thus far, you can expect to see continuing adjustments to our current force-shaping criteria that will ensure we right-size and right-shape our force.

As we return to our authorized end strength, relief is flowing to over-stressed career fields. This is a multi-step process, but our

guiding principle is simple: we must have the right people with the right skills in the right place to meet the needs of our Air Expeditionary Force (AEF). We are doing this prudently, identifying specialties and specific year groups within those specialties where we have more people than we need. At the same time, we are correcting our skill imbalances by realigning manpower and expanding training pipelines.

We are also taking a hard look at where our people serve. We have airmen serving outside the Air Force who do not deploy as part of an AEF. They serve in joint and defense agency positions. While some of these positions require uniformed people, others do not. Through military-to-civilian conversions and competitive sourcing initiatives, in consultation with other agencies, we are returning some of these airmen to Air Force positions.

The Guard and Reserve obviously play a critical role in the Total Force. Today 25 percent of the air expeditionary packages are composed of National Guard and Air Force Reserve volunteers. As we take steps to ensure the long-term health of our Active-Duty Forces, we must do the same for our citizen airmen, and bolstering the ranks of the Air Reserve component is a critical part of our force shaping.

While reducing Active-Duty accessions is one tool currently being used to bring the force down to authorized levels, it is imperative that we continue to renew and replenish the ranks with targeted recruiting. For fiscal year 2005, we plan to access 19,000 enlisted members, and just over 5,000 officers.

This 1-year reduction in our recruiting goal is part of a deliberate effort to reduce force size without jeopardizing long-term health. A 1-year reduction will create a temporary decrease, offset by the number of people accessed, in preceding and subsequent years. Continued congressional support of our recruiting and marketing programs is critical to maintain the Air Force's competitiveness in a dynamic job market. We must all remember that ours is a recruited force, which means we must be competitive in the national personnel marketplace to both recruit and retain our people.

A vital element for success is the ability to offer bonuses and incentives where we have traditionally experienced shortfalls, and we need the continuing authority to use incentive tools flexibly in a dynamic personnel market. Congressional support for these programs, along with increases in pay and benefits and quality-of-life initiatives, have been critical to our success in recruiting and retaining airmen and their families, and we are most appreciative of that.

To achieve the Secretary of Defense's objective of shifting resources "from bureaucracy to battlefield," we are overhauling our personnel services-our Personnel Services Delivery Transformation dramatically modernizes the processes, organizations, and technology by which we support airmen and their commanders. Routine personnel transactions, for instance, may now be done "online." As a result, we deliver higher quality personnel services with greater access, speed, accuracy, reliability, and efficiency.

Our civilian work force will go through a significant transformation as well with implementation of the DOD National Security Personnel System (NSPS), a more flexible civilian personnel

system that will improve the way we hire, assign, compensate, and reward our valuable civilian employees. This is the most comprehensive change to the Federal personnel system in more than 30 years and a key enabler in the Department's achievement of Total Force management.

While we continue to size and shape the force to meet our evolving mission, we must remain attentive to the quality of service for our members. In this regard, we completed an Air Force-wide assessment of our sexual assault prevention and response capabilities. A campaign plan was approved, and we are implementing specific initiatives to better understand the problem of sexual assault, to do everything within our ability to prevent it, and prepare ourselves to provide consistent and continuing care for victims when it occurs.

We re-emphasized and continue to stress the need for airmen to look after one another. We are weaving this mindset into the very fabric of our culture. Our airmen have a responsibility to a part of the well-being of their wingmen-their fellow airmen. This is not a program, it is a mind set, a reaffirmation of our culture to take better care of our most valuable resource-our people.

As we continue to develop and shape the force to meet the demands of the AEF, we will seek more efficient and effective service delivery methods. We will leverage opportunities to educate future leaders and make the extra efforts required to recruit and retain the incredible men and women who will take on the challenge of defending our Nation well into the 21st century. Undergirding this effort will be an aggressive commitment to nurture and sustain our core values of Service, Integrity, and Excellence, which makes ours the most respected Air and Space Force in the world.

Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for calling this hearing and for your continued support for the men and women of your Air Force.

[The prepared statement of General Brady follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT BY LT. GEN. ROGER A. BRADY, USAF

INTRODUCTION

In the nearly 15 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, America's airmen have responded to dramatic changes in our force structure and the world security environment. We continue to streamline our Active-Duty Force, all the while remaining engaged around the world at levels higher than at any time during the Cold War. To prevail in a dangerous and ever-changing world, we transformed ourselves from a heavy, forward-based presence designed to contain communism into an agile, expeditionary force, capable of rapidly responding on a global scale, with tailored forces ready to deal with any contingency. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, our transformation took on an even more urgent and accelerated pace. With safety at home directly challenged, domestic security rose to the forefront and we went on the offensive to attack terrorism on a global scale. While we've enjoyed great success, this transformation is in its infancy and there is still much to do.

The first step in our transformation was to establish a set of strategic goals to focus our personnel mission, and shed light on the specific capabilities our system offers to our airmen and their leaders. We set out to define the force, implementing a capabilities-based requirements system that meets surge requirements and optimizes force mix (Active-Duty, Air Reserve component, civilian, and contractors) in order to produce a flexible and responsive force. Additionally, we continually seek out ways to renew the force, maintaining a diverse, agile workforce that leverages synergy between Active-Duty, Air Reserve, and civilian components, and private industry to meet requirements and sustain capabilities. Throughout the process, we committed ourselves to develop future leaders by synchronizing training, education,

and experience to continuously create innovative, flexible, and capable airmen to successfully employ air and space power. Key to our success, we identified the need to continually sustain the force through focused investment in airmen and their families. We will also synchronize our efforts to implement a robust strategic planning framework, understand the Air Force human resource investment, and link programming and legislative development to the plan. Finally, we will transform how we deliver customer service, creating a leaner, more cost-effective, customer-focused Human Resource Service to support the Air Expeditionary Force.

At the heart of our efforts was the creation of an environment, and the associated tools necessary, to more deliberately develop airmen to be the leaders at all levels in the years to come. Our force development efforts extend across the Total Force, encompassing officers, enlisted, civilian employees, and Air National Guard and Air Reserve members.

As we work towards the future, we must determine our end strength needs, shape the force to meet those needs, provide relief for our most heavily stressed career fields, and develop the leaders who will take the reins deep into the 21st century. These are complex and inter-related issues, challenging how we manage the Total Force.

The success of our efforts is no small measure due to the outstanding support we've received from Congress. You've approved significant advances in pay, benefits, and retention incentives for the men and women who serve in all of the military services. These initiatives made a significant difference in Air Force readiness and in quality of life for our members and their families. In the coming years we look forward to your continued support in helping us develop a force the American people will continue to be proud of; a highly skilled, professional force dedicated to the defense of our great Nation.

Our work in shaping the force is key to honing our combat capability. The core of this capability is the professional airman who voluntarily serves each and every day. Airmen create air and space power, turning ideas, tools, tactics, techniques, and procedures into power projection, global mobility, and battle space effects. With this understanding, the Air Force embraced a personnel vision and strategic planning model to transform airmen management across the Total Force (Active-Duty, Air National Guard and Reserve; officer, enlisted, and civilian). Additionally, we refocused our personnel processes and delivery systems on achieving capabilities and creating effects to develop the right people, with the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to perform their missions in the right place at the right time.

This vision succinctly defines the role of our manpower, personnel, and training professionals: detailing mission requirements; continually refreshing the pool to maintain an effective balance of youth and vigor, age and experience; deliberately developing the skills, knowledge, and experience required by our combatant and support missions; sustaining the force by meeting the needs of our airmen and their families; and providing integrated program management and service delivery systems.

Important to note, our transformation doesn't end with military members. With the increasing threat of an enemy untethered to national borders with the flexibility and speed to attack without warning, it became obvious to all, that the institutionalized bureaucracy, which served us well throughout the Cold War had to transform as well. The National Security Personnel System (NSPS) enables our civilian force development initiatives in putting the right person in the right job at the right time. It provides the flexibility to address emerging threats quickly by freeing up essential military resources and allows for increased integration of military and civilian roles, ultimately translating into a more versatile, more responsive ability to provide national defense.

All of these initiatives are designed to do one thing-take care of people. Our force thrives due to the expertise and professionalism of its airmen. Unfortunately, recent events revealed a longstanding societal problem that threatens everything we hold dear. To address this issue, as well as others such as suicide and accident prevention, we are embracing a cultural shift to better take care of each other personally and professionally. Our commanders have increased the emphasis on the manner in which professional airmen relate to each other, including a zero tolerance acceptance level for inappropriate behavior of all kinds, and a focused effort to take better care of each other.

This statement represents our vision of the way ahead for Air Force people. To place these issues in context, we will begin by discussing the Air Force core competency directly affecting every Air Force member: Developing airmen. This core competency is at the heart of our strategic vision for Air Force personnel.

DEVELOPING AIRMEN

To adapt to dramatic changes in force structure and the security environment, we established a set of strategic goals to focus our personnel mission.

Force Development: Right People, Right Place, Right Time

Over the past 18 months, the Air Force implemented a new Force development structure to get the right people in the right job at the right time with the right skills, knowledge, and experience. Force development combines focused assignments and education and training opportunities to prepare our people to meet the mission needs of our Air Force. Rather than allowing chance or ad hoc decisions to guide an airman's experience, we will take a deliberate approach to develop officers, enlisted, and civilian employees throughout our Total Force. Through targeted education, training, and mission-related experience, we will develop professional airmen into joint force warriors with the skills needed across the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of conflict. Their mission will be to accomplish the joint mission, motivate teams, mentor subordinates, and train their successors.

One of the first steps in implementing our development efforts was the creation of individualized development plans. These plans are a critical communication tool capturing the member's "career" development ideas, including desired career path choices, assignment, and developmental education preferences. These plans flow through the chain of command, to include their most senior commanders, for endorsement. The newly created Development Team (DT), comprised of senior leaders from the functional community, carefully reviews each individualized career plan, along with commander's comments, and Senior Rater input. Targeting Air Force requirements, the teams place a developmental "vector" into the plan as input for our assignment teams, and immediate feedback to the member and commander regarding their expressed development plans. Assignment teams match members to assignments using Developmental Team vectors; thus, "developing" our people to meet Air Force requirements.

This year also saw a continued focus on developmental education with continued expansion to include not only traditional Professional Military Education (PME), but also efforts to reduce resident PME time through Automated Distance Learning (ADL) as well as advanced academic degree programs, specialty schools, fellowships, education with industry, and internships. Our development teams are using the individualized development plans, along with the member's record and Air Force requirements, to make educational recommendations to the Developmental Education Designation Board. This board designates the right school for the right member at the right time. Intermediate Developmental Education and Senior Developmental Education prepare members for a developmental assignment following the respective schools. This two-dimensional process facilitates the transition from one level of responsibility to the next. All developmental education assignments are made with the emphasis on the best utilization of the member's background, functional skills, and valuable time, to meet Air Force requirements.

One of our most recent development efforts has been broadening the focus to include our enlisted corps. Beginning with the next promotion cycle, we will stand up a new top-level course of enlisted PME designed specifically for those selected to serve as Chief Master Sergeants. The course will focus on leadership in the operational and strategic environments, and will constitute a substantial leap forward in the development of our Chiefs. Another segment of warriors requiring special attention is our cadre of space professionals-those that design, build, and operate our space systems. As military dependence on space grows, the Air Force continues to develop this cadre to meet our Nation's needs. Our Space Professional Strategy is the roadmap for developing that cadre. Air Force space professionals will develop more in-depth expertise in operational and technical space specialties through tailored assignments, education, and training. This roadmap will result in a team of scientists, engineers, program managers, and operators skilled and knowledgeable in developing, acquiring, applying, sustaining, and integrating space capabilities. The bottom line of our Force development efforts is to provide an effects and competency-based development process by connecting the depth of expertise in the individual's primary career field (Air Force Specialty Code) with the necessary education, training, and experiences to produce more capable and diversified leaders. Every aspect of the Total Force development environment is designed to develop professional airmen who instinctively leverage their respective strengths as a team. The success of this effort depends on continued cultivation and institutional understanding of and interest in Force development, promoting an understanding of the competency requirements of leaders, and funding for the associated development ini

tiatives.