The Army’s process of rebuilding, begun under such difficult circumstances twenty-five years ago, continues today. This transformation created the volunteer army from the draft army that fought in Vietnam and forged it into a superb professional force. It created the force that made such an important contribution to our victory in the Cold War and that won so decisively in the Persian Gulf War. It then transformed that Cold War force into the force at work in countless places around the world today, places unimaginable four or five years ago.

We have not tried to write the history of those decades of change, nor is it within our ability to adequately acknowledge the many leaders who made the transformation a reality—men and women who lived their professional lives believing that “Hope is not a method” and who acted to make a difference for the Army. The nation owes them a great debt.

Six years after the Berlin Wall came down, the Army is smaller by one third. The difficult, traumatic process of downsizing the Army is nearly complete. The Army, taking a lesson from the most successful examples of corporate downsizing, released people with dignity and respect. The Congress, two administrations, and the American people supported rational downsizing, providing both incentives and assistance to those leaving. Army leaders were able to focus on those remaining, recruiting and keeping the best and making every move with an eye to future personnel requirements so that we would have the right mix of experience and skills in the force at every step in the process. Today’s young soldiers, both officers and enlisted personnel, are as good as or better than ever, and their opportunities for advancement and responsibility are also as good as or better than before the drawdown began.

The troops have come home from overseas in great numbers. Today, the U.S. Army has as many troops in the Pacific basin as in Europe, reflecting the shifting balances in the world. The Army has brought home more than a quarter-million soldiers and family members and hundreds of thousands of tons of ammunition and equipment, including all the Army’s nuclear and chemical weapons. All of that was accomplished without degrading readiness unacceptably.

Nevertheless, there remains the question of size—of both the active and reserve establishment. Today, the uniformed force stands at about 1.1 million active and reserve, with about 500,000 in the active force organized into ten divisions and other units. Today the Army is spending less, as a percentage of GNP, than at any time since the late 1940s. It is smaller in proportion to the population than at any time since the Great Depression and, depending on who is doing the counting, is about eighth or ninth in size in the world.

In a free society, there will always be many opinions about the appropriate size of military forces and about defense spending. Our opinion is that the Army now needs to level out in strength and to begin to infuse resources into a program to recapitalize major equipment and infrastructure.

We must, not be beguiled into thinking that we can win our wars and defend our interests without putting our young men and women on the ground. Numbers do count. As long as people take up arms, that will remain an immutable fact. Given the demands being placed on America’s Army today, it is perilously close to being too small.

Throughout this difficult transition, hard work, adherence to quality standards, concern for families, and good training have kept recruiting and retention at record levels. By all quality measures,today’s is the best Army America has ever fielded. It is a drug-free, equal opportunity environment, and America’s soldiers are virtually all high school graduates with above-average test scores. They are fit, disciplined, and highly motivated. Whether they stay for an enlistment or for a career, they return to civilian society enriched by their experiences in uniform and by an ethic of service.

The Army’s transformation has also had a major impact on its infrastructure. Reengineering has been a remarkable success. New and changed processes have made the Army a true power projection force that is capable of going anywhere in the world to do, it seems, almost anything.

But the real reengineering story is not in the fighting part of the Army so much as in the sustaining base, the more bureaucratic and industrial part of the Army. It is in the Army Material Command, the Medical Command, the Training and Doctrine Command, and the other major commands that we find the unsung heroes of the Army’s transformation. These are the men and women who give us the capability to raise, train, and equip the United States Army. Transforming that infrastructure in the difficult political environment of base closures and federal jobs has been very difficult, but significant progress has been made. Progress has also been made in reengineering basic processes such as those for developing and fielding new equipment. Logistics processes have been completely reengineered since the Persian Gulf War. The Medical Command is making enormous strides in telemedicine and other advanced information-sharing techniques that have already proven their utility on the Army’s battlefields and that have enormous potential for civilian applications.

Much remains to be done, but when we look back over the last decade, we see that progress has been made in virtually all the sustaining functions, large and small. The measure of success has been in maintaining a level of readiness that supports today’s increasing operational commitments. Today, readiness, as measured by the Joint Chiefs, is as good as or better than it was the day Saddam Hussein moved into Kuwait. The number of soldiers deployed operationally has increased threefold in the six years since the Berlin Wall came down, and they are literally going all over the world: to Macedonia, the Sinai, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Mongolia, central Africa—some places that were not even places during the Cold War. On a typical day, soldiers are deployed on operations and training missions in seventy to eighty countries, sometimes more than one hundred different countries. Three times they have returned to Kuwait to deter aggression, and they still stand guard in Korea. As we write this, they are in Bosnia. It is impossible to predict the success or failure of every aspect of that extremely difficult mission, but America has never sent better-prepared or better-led soldiers into harm’s way. They will do their part. Their sacrifice and heroism speak for itself. The nation has awarded soldiers more than seven hundred Purple Heart medals, the decoration for wounds received in action, since November 9, 1989, and two soldiers, Master Sergeant Gary I. Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall D. Shughart, were posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their heroism in Somalia.

In today’s world, America’s Army is America’s strategic force.

We don’t know what lies ahead, but today’s Army is focused on the future. Experiments going on now and continuing into the remaining years of the decade are enabling the Army to continue its move into the Information Age, to achieve an unprecedented level of effectiveness across a wider spectrum of missions than ever before.

But there are no silver bullets. The business of America’s Army has always been about sending America’s sons and daughters into harm’s way when compelled by the national interest. Nothing will ever replace that human dimension. In the end, service to nation is not about good management or technology, it is about putting our young men and women into the mud and leading them to victory. America’s soldiers will accomplish their mission as long as they have the resources and the support, as long as we sustain their training, leader development, and modernization, and as long as we continue to recruit and retain men and women of the quality we have today.