Defense budget.

• Author: Lanman, Eric
• Position: Readers' Forum - Letter to the editor

* Regarding your Defense Insider column (July 2011, p.7), while I agree with retired Gen. Ronald Fogleman's assessment that personnel costs have been a driving force behind the ballooning defense budget, I disagree that it is the size of the force driving these costs. The all-volunteer force was sustainable at higher levels and lower cost prior to the huge pay increases that started in the 1980s and continued into the 1990s. These pay increases continue to have second - and third-order effects on retirement pay and other benefits, not to mention the secondary but direct impact they have had on both contractor salaries and government civilian salaries. The default response to the impact of these costs has been what Fogle-man suggests--namely to reduce force levels...