earlier about recruiting um you you've said that you don't want to be overconfident but you think we have a good shot at making that goal this year the goal being 55,000 but isn't it the case that you dropped your goal this year because not many people are joining the Army since you joined or since you became the secretary it's true that our goal last year Senator cotton was 65,000 General mcconville and I set that as a stretch goal that's how we characterized it so this year between 55,000 new contracts and 5,000 in the Deb it's 60k La last year you forecast that you would need 62,6 for this year why did you cut that again we we look at what's possible and we set a goal that we think is both do you look at what's possible or what's needed well we General George possible is pretty low since you became the secretary there's a question what's needed for our army to defend our nation Senator cotton the chief and I are both committed to growing back our end strength we are aiming to get up to 470,000 by 2029 and our recruiting is improving consistently well well if it's improving because you're throwing a dart at the wall and then drawing the bullseye around it in your first full year on the job the target was 60,000 you didn't even get 45,000 last year it was 65 you got 55 you had projected last year for it to be 62,6 this year and conveniently you decided to change the goal to 55,000 which is exactly what you got last year you don't you don't think that is a little suspicious that you're simply trying to avoid negative headlines once again for your failure to meet basic recruiting goals goals that we've met almost every single year since 2005 I'm not focused on headlines Senator cotton what I'm doing is doing everything possible to help the Army improve its recruiting and that's what we're doing does the Army need SE 7,600 fewer soldiers than you expected this year than you expected it would me the last year the Army has been able to meet all of the requirements that the combatant commands have levied on us at our current end strength and our end strength is going to start going up what are the require what are the requirements that have changed in the last year from those combatant commands that allowed you to drop your goal not just from the 65,000 it was last year to 55 this year but from the 62,6 that you predicted last year that you would need this year what requirements have decreased on the Army's uh the requirements haven't changed and we were would think so since the world was going up in smoke because of Joe Biden's failed policies we were able to meet all of the combat and command requirements last year we've been able to meet them this year but we're still focused on growing our end strength I mean we we we met our recruiting goals at the height of the pandemic in 2020 in 2021 you can't meet your recruiting goals now without dropping them by 10,000 from one that they were last year all of the services are facing challenges but I'm proud to say we have service is acute your the challenges for your service are acute yes we have because we have the biggest force and we have to recruit the largest number but we are doing considerably better this year I'm looking at every single year here 625 685 765 68 612 this is not a systemic problem until you became the secretary Senator cotton I don't think that there's a correlation between me becoming secretary and the recruiting headwinds that the entire department has been facing okay I want to touch on another recruiting matter or I guess a for strength matter I noticed a story in stars and scripes from January that there's a shortage of about 250 officers in adant general finance and Signal Corp and the Army was going to ask infantry and armor officers to transfer has that happened I'll have to take that for the record General George you know any more dets yeah um typically as you know Senator we have uh typically have more combat arms yeah lieutenants umu typically we do tip um we've this was a done a little bit earlier that we knew because of our structure we've actually growing some additional mdtf which came up earlier signal is for example is one of them or Mi where you typically have more captains and Majors than you do lieutenants so that that was what that was and what we did is took volunteers um we just put the message out um because we want to keep talent and it's actually really good for us to infuse those branches with people that have experience in combat arms yeah normally things like signal and AG are donor branches at the lieutenant ranks to infantry but I is infantry officer ranks whatever the Army is a whole infantry armor officer ranks are healthy right now at the company level they're we're very healthy for for lieutenants Senator we're doing okay well one final issue um secretary War up The Quon platoon the Army just acknowledged that they're not on track to get K on operations back up at Arlington National cemeter this has been an ongoing issue now for more than a year we directed you and the ndaa uh to make sure the Quon platoon remains in existence you fought that tooth Andel last year what is the issue here it's horses pulling wagons it's been happening since before recorded time why can't these families who have a right to a h drawn qu on at their funeral expect that's going to happen Senator cotton first of all we didn't have any plans to get rid of the qu on platoon we've actually spent a lought my Amendment tooth and nail about it so I don't know what I mean I don't know if you have a animal rights activist from peton your staff handling this issue but why can't you get horses pulling wagons in the cemetery there's a range of challenges and we can come and talk to you in did this for decades and the horses that did that for decades are now old and lame they've always been old they've always been retired from other activities well we are now trying to grow the herd we have we have been focused on this incredibly hard we're looking at additional pasture land we're going to have to rebuild the state tables that you probably remembered but we are very focused on trying to get to a point where we're able to offer again the Kon service with the funerals if the Army under your leadership can't figure out horses pulling wagons it's not a surprise they can't figure out increasing Munitions manufacturing or drone Warfare thank you Senator cotton Senator petus please thank you Mr chairman
