Gates calls for buildup in troops

boston globe

Asks Bush for 92,000 more by 2012



WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said yesterday that he wants President Bush to increase overall US ground forces by nearly 100,000 over the next five years, the largest military build up since the end of the Cold War.


At a White House press conference, Gates laid out a broad blueprint for a larger Army and Marine Corps to bolster an American force the Pentagon says is stretched thin by repeated deployments to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the wider war against Islamic extremists.

"I am recommending to [the president] a total increase in the two services of 92,000 soldiers and Marines over the next five years -- 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines," Gates said, with Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, beside him.

But the expansion will not be cheap, quick, or easy. Recruiting, training, and equipping new soldiers and Marines will cost tens of billions of dollars, and it will take years before they will have an effect on current military operations, senior Pentagon officials said yesterday.

And perhaps the biggest challenge will be finding enough volunteers.

To meet its current recruiting goals, the Army has relaxed some standards, accepting more recruits who don't have a high school diploma or general equivalency degree, and allowing older men and women to join. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has also substantially increased enlistment bonuses and launched a multi million-dollar advertising campaign to draw more young people to the recruitment office.

"I think it will be a hell of a challenge" to find 92,000 recruits, said Alan Gropman , a retired Air Force colonel who teaches at the National Defense University in Washington. "That's a very large number. It will be impossible if you don't raise pay and other benefits. But if we are going to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, then we are going to need a bigger Army."

Gates said yesterday that the expansion plan will begin with permanently adding 30,000 soldiers to the active-duty Army, currently numbering about 480,000, and adding 5,000 Marines, which currently number about 175,000.

"Then we propose to build up from that base in annual increments of 7,000 troops a year for the Army and 5,000 for the Marine Corps until the Marine Corps reaches a level of 202,000, and the Army would be at 547,000," Gates said.

Officials said Bush is on board with the proposal, which is expected to draw widespread support in Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans have tried to persuade the White House for years that the military needs to grow.

The plan was seen yesterday as a repudiation of the vision of former secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who for years resisted calls by members of both parties and the advice of retired generals to expand the military to handle missions in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as anti terrorism operations around the world.

"I just wish it would have been done a lot sooner," said Representative Jo Ann Davis , a Virginia Republican and ranking member of the House Armed Service Committee's military readiness panel. " I believe that we're asking our military to do much more now than we've ever asked of them. And for that reason, I think that growing the force is very necessary."

The plan was also well received among the troops at Fort Benning, Ga., where Bush spoke after the White House meeting yesterday. Soldiers applauded when the president told them he believes "it's important to increase the end strength of the United States Army so it can remain engaged."

A senior military official who briefed reporters at the Pentagon yesterday said the expanded force probably wouldn't be ready for overseas missions until at least early 2009. He said that more ground forces would "set us up for the long fight" in Iraq and elsewhere.

While the expansion will take time, Gates said, "it is important that our men and women in uniform know that additional manpower and resources are on the way."

The Army currently recruits an average of 80,000 new soldiers every year to maintain its troop levels, and military officials were confident they could meet higher recruiting goals.

The Army estimates that it spends about $1.2 billion to train and equip 10,000 soldiers. Expanding the Army and Marine Corps will also require more recruiters, who have struggled recently to attract enlistees.

Even Gates, who left his presidency of Texas A&M University to take the helm of the Pentagon last month, told senators that the prospect of serving repeated tours in Iraq had turned off many of the quality high school and college students the Pentagon wants.

Donald Vandergriff , a retired Army major and Georgetown University professor, said yesterday that any expansion must feature a clarion call from the commander in chief urging young people to serve -- a tough sell when polls show popular support for both the Iraq war and Bush are low.

"He has never asked the public to sacrifice and serve in the military," Vandergriff said.

Vandergriff, who specializes in military personnel and manpower issues, also questioned whether the military would sacrifice quality for quantity when filling the ranks of a larger ground force.

"I am really concerned that we have this PowerPoint mentality that numbers equals success," Vandergriff said. Even if the Army and Marine Corps can meet the new goal, he added, soldiers "have to be competent."

Still, one Pentagon adviser who asked not to be named said the country has to make the plan work. "The more you learn about the current [military] readiness the more your stomach turns," the adviser said.

For now, the Pentagon will have to rely on more frequent deployments of current troops and its new authority to order part-time National Guard soldiers to active duty more often.

"The faster they can get these new units in place the better they will be," the Pentagon adviser said. "Constant deployments have brought the Army to near collapse."