THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503310509
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY AND DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Military commanders representing nearly 80 percent of all U.S. combat forces said Thursday they will start shutting down training and maintenance operations in July if Congress does not give them money to pay bills accumulated in Haiti, Somalia and for other crises.
``Training opportunities will be lost. Maintenance is going to be deferred, and real property maintenance is not going to be taken care of,'' warned Marine Corps Gen. John J. Sheehan, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command.
Flanked by four other senior officers who represent the top component commanders in the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps, Sheehan said he was not making his comments lightly.
``This is not a game,'' he said at a news conference at the Joint Training, Analysis and Simulation Center in Suffolk.
``The supplemental has got to produce real dollars in the operating budgets of these commanders, or in July we are going to start shutting this place down.''
Sheehan's comments, echoed by Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon at a Pentagon briefing, appeared to be aimed at securing approval of adjustments to the military budget before Congress begins a three-week recess on April 7.
The Pentagon's requests for additional operating cash have strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, but the House and Senate have taken different approaches on how the money should be provided.
On both sides of the Capitol, lawmakers are insisting that the extra money the military needs should not add to the federal debt. Much of the ``new'' money they would provide actually would come from other Defense Department accounts.
The House, for example, has approved a $3.2 billion supplement to the 1995 defense budget. About $1.4 billion of that would come from cuts to nondefense programs, with the rest coming out of defense accounts unrelated to operations.
The Senate, meanwhile, has approved a $1.9 billion supplement for peacekeeping operations, offsetting all of that increase with cuts in other Pentagon accounts.
Congressional staff members said they hoped a conference committee would reach a settlement by Thursday night.
Deputy Defense Secretary John M. Deutch, in an emergency appeal to Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Mark O. Hatfield on Wednesday, said additional operating funds are needed to avoid any long-term impact on the defense program.
``I urge you to designate our request as an emergency,'' Deutch said.
Pentagon officials on Thursday released a chart showing the immediate effects the service branches would feel if the House and Senate can't reach agreement on the supplemental spending by April 7.
The Navy would have to save $73 million by deferring some overhaul work on the aircraft carriers Eisenhower and Independence and the submarine Salt Lake City.
Elsewhere, the Air Force would reduce flying hours and delay maintenance to save $116 million; the Army would cut flying hours, defer maintenance and reduce the use of vehicles to recoup $127 million; and the Marine Corps would cut $6.6 million.
Meeting with Sheehan at the Suffolk press conference were Air Force Gen. Michael Loh, commander of the Air Combat Command, headquartered at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton; Army Gen. Dennis J. Reimer, commanding general of the U.S. Army Forces Command; Adm. William J. Flanagan Jr., commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet; and Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Robert B. Johnston, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Atlantic.
Together they command about 1.2 million personnel, or about 80 percent of America's combat forces.
Sheehan said he would not disclose his contingency plans for shutting down training and maintenance operations.
He did say that part of Thursday's meeting with the component commanders was devoted to the topic.
``You can't shut a base down and you can't let (troops) go home,'' Sheehan said. ``So clearly there will be trade-offs in this process. That is part of why we are having this meeting today, to discuss what those trade-offs are.''
Johnston, who commands 50,000 East Coast-based Marines, said that if such decisions must be made, he will still be able to provide troops for amphibious ready groups in the Mediterranean Sea.
``But we will see some loss of training and certainly degradation of equipment and readiness that will roll into 1996,'' Johnston said.
``All we are doing is, `Pay me now, or pay me later.' We will certainly have significant degradation of readiness, probably in the July to August time frame, if we don't get a supplemental.''
KEYWORDS: MILITARY BUDGET MILITARY APPROPRIATION by CNB