American Legion National Security Commission members hear from military leaders about the call to service and reversing the decline in Air Force readiness.
Growing up, Tim Dill lived across the street from a Silver Star recipient who served in the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II. The veteran showed Dill his medal citation and lent him his unit history book to read. That put the 82nd Airborne Division on the map for Dill as a young man. So when he joined the Army post-9/11, it was no coincidence that he listed the 82nd Airborne Division as his unit of choice.
“I’m always struck by when I ask people what pulled them into service. (Whether a family member or close friend, it was) someone who modeled service for them and framed for them the value of military service,” Dill, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said to Legion Family members attending the National Security Commission meeting at the 65th Washington Conference on Feb. 24. “We can’t afford to lose that generational link. It’s so critical that when we convince young people to come and serve that we do right by them in service and when they leave that they are able to wholeheartedly recommend it to their children, their friends, their grandchildren.”
Military recruiting is “top of mind” for the Department of Defense, Dill said. And while each branch of service met their recruiting numbers for the first quarter of 2025, “we need to be prepared to fully support the services and what they need to continue to present an attractive value proposition to American young people. We need young men and women to step up and be willing to take the oath for our country. I feel very convinced that part of a strong value proposition to serve is the why.”
Dill joined the military following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Yet, his why to join was framed at a young age from his World War II veteran neighbor.
“I was drawn to the fact that we had a pressing need as a nation,” he said. “It did not deter me that we were in a time of conflict. I was confident that I was stepping forward into an Army that would train me and prepare me to go do that mission. We need to make sure that we convey the same thing to young people today. We need to present the need. They need to be aware that not only is it an option to join the Department of Defense to serve but that they are needed.
“It is a time when our nation must be ready for a variety of scenarios. And we owe them the knowledge that they will join a force that will solely focus them on doing their mission and prepare them to succeed in that mission which is a high calling and a dangerous one. We owe them the training and the equipping and the decision-making to put them in a position to win the nation’s wars as called upon.”
Dill added that President Trump has issued an executive order to return to service the over 8,000 servicemembers that were discharged because they did not want to take the Covid vaccine when it was a mandate for service, as it no longer is.
National Security Commission Chairman James Grenier asked Dill about initiatives being implemented to improve miliary quality of life. The first one he addressed was the new Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts available to servicemembers and their family members starting in March where they can set aside up to $3,300 tax free for health care and even childcare expenses. The special enrollment period is from March 3-31. Enroll at www.fsafeds.gov.
“Despite the fact that Tricare is there and is a wonderful resource, there’s inevitably some other cost you might incur where you go out of pocket,” Dill said. “We are continuously looking for things like that where we can better support servicemembers and their families. We are very excited to offer this for the first time.”
The second quality of life initiative Dill addressed was basic allowance for housing to ensure servicemembers are provided quality, affordable housing. “A lot of them are drawing basic allowance for housing and spending that on the economy instead of being provided with DoD provided housing.” The DoD is looking at housing cost data for the different ZIP codes along with military compensation. “Overall, military compensation compares very favorably with the civilian workforce,” Dill said according to the Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation which is helping to provide basic housing allowance recommendations.
Air Force Readiness. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula with the Dean Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies spoke to the National Security Commission about the challenges the Air Force faces today.
“Today, the USAF is the oldest, the smallest and the least ready in its 77-year history. At the same time, the Chinese air force is the newest, largest and most ready in its history,” Deptula stated.
The Air Force’s decline has been happening for the past 30 years under multiple administrations who “cut the Air Force to net a ‘peace dividend’ and later to fund the Army during the global war on terror,” he said, adding that the Army received a total of $1.3 trillion more during 9/11 than the Air Force.
Plus, the Air Force will lose about 1,000 planes over the next five years without complete replacement. “If we continue to retire more and more aircraft without buying replacements, your Air Force is going to go away,” Deptula said. And of the 10 major aircraft types of the Air Force, they first flew over 50 years ago and account for over 2,600 of the Air Force aircraft. “In comparison, the Navy has only one operational warship on duty over 50 years old. The rest of the world has continued to advance, and we need to fix this, and we need to fix it fast.”
Deptula shared a few numbers that tell the Air Force readiness story:
· 54 fighter squadrons now compared to 134 in 1991.
· 8.2 hours of flight time a month for pilots compared to 22 hours in 1991. “Readiness means you are sufficiently trained and ready to be able to operate whatever system you’re associated with. In this case we’re talking about fighter aviation,” Deptula said. “Don’t confuse taking off from Washington, D.C., and going to San Francisco in a commercial airliner with flying a fighter. When you jump in a fighter, you put 8-9Gs on that jet all the time. So training is extremely important.”
· 2,000 pilot shortage
· 500 aircraft grounded on any given day because lack of spare parts
Deptula laid out a few, among many, priorities to reverse the decline in Air Force readiness:
· Raise the annual buy to 72 F-35s and 24 F-15EXs
· Ramp B-21 acquisition to 20 per year by 2030
· Increase fighter pilot flying hours to a minimum of 200 a year to restore readiness
· Fully fund weapon system sustainment requirements
“If we don’t fix this, it’s going to get worse,” he said. “We are well beyond time of we’ll just do more with less. You can’t do more with less when you can’t fly sufficient numbers of hours to stay proficient in your jet. That’s going to be the key between whether we win or lose.”
- Washington Conference