THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 6, 1995 TAG: 9502060062
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ESTES THOMPSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CAMP LEJEUNE LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The Marine Corps is better off under President Clinton? The president who's vilified in bars outside every Marine base as a draft-dodger? The guy despised by Marines for supporting gays in the ranks?
It's true. Even the corps agrees.
If you examine the figures, said Navy Secretary John Dalton, the corps didn't suffer the personnel cuts other services got. And the corps is receiving a new fleet of helicopters vital to its mission.
Under President Bush, the corps was destined for a personnel cut that its commanders felt would hurt their ability to respond to world events. Former defense secretary Les Aspin was appointed by Clinton to review the armed forces in what is called a bottom-up review.
``Prior to the bottom-up review, the base force of the Marine Corps was 159,000,'' said Chief Warrant Officer Bill Wright, a spokesman at Marine Corps Headquarters.
``Under the bottom-up review during the Clinton administration, the Marine Corps went back and said we really need 177,000. ... It was determined that the Marine Corps would be better served at 174,000.''
Some 70 percent of the corps' $8.9 billion budget for 1994-95 is spent on personnel, Wright said.
Some of the other 30 percent will pay for the desperately needed MV-22 Osprey helicopters, which will replace the CH-46 Sea Knight fleet, which has been in service since 1964. The new choppers, which fly some Marines from ships to shore when they're entering a foreign country, were approved and funded under Clinton.
Eventually, the corps will get 425 Osprey aircraft, which are twice as fast and have four times the range of the CH-46. The first Marines probably will begin using them by 2001.
``We are pleased the V-22 is going to be funded,'' Wright said. ``It's our number-one aviation priority.''
But Rep. Walter Jones Jr., the 3rd District Republican whose district includes two Marine installations and an air force base, said Dalton's comments were pure politics. Since the Republican Party took over a majority in Congress, he said, military people from officers to enlisted personnel feel better.
``Now they've got friends in key positions who understand they need a strong defense,'' Jones said.
Dalton, during a news conference last week after touring Camp Lejeune and the Marine Air Station-New River, described the corps as a vital policy tool for any president, Democratic or Republican.
``The Marine Corps is the 911 force,'' he said. ``They're there to respond, typically the first to arrive and the last to leave. . . . There is a threat of a lot of wars around the world and we need to be ready for that.''
With fewer forces in the Pacific region and Europe because of troop reductions following the demise of the Soviet threat, the Navy and Marine Corps become more important, he added. The corps is part of the Navy Department.
While it may be hard for some Marines to swallow, Clinton has helped the corps, said former congressman Martin Lancaster, who now is North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt's advisor on military affairs.
``The message has not been told very well and people don't believe it when you tell it. People can't get beyond the perception of the president to the substance of the president as it relates to the military in North Carolina.'' by CNB