Shinseki: Help Army Attract More Leaders.

• Position: Army Chief of Staff General Eric K. Shinseki - Brief Article

Don't take the quality of the young men and women who serve in the armed services for granted, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki urged the nation.

"Every day in the Army, we do two things," he told a recent luncheon of the Washington Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). "We train soldiers, and we grow them into leaders. All of our missions are subordinate to that imperative."

The Army "must improve our leader development programs and declare war on the [service's] operating pace, Shinseki said. "It's our duty to develop soldiers and leaders who have the skills necessary to succeed today and in the future.

Shinseki urged NDIA--and the defense industry, in general--to "help us attract more young Americans." He added: "Tell them we are about leadership and that we offer opportunity."

Backing up his words with action, Shinseki paused at the luncheon to present scholarship awards to university students participating in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs in the Washington, D.C., area.

The scholarships were...