their families assigned to early deploying Selected Reserve units will have medical and other benefits available to them upon

mobilization. We are actively pursuing plans to pre-enroll the remaining Selected and Ready Reserve as previously recommended by the House Appropriations Committee.

Real Time Automated Personnel Identification System

The Congress and the General Accounting Office have both expressed concern over waste and fraud in the delivery of benefits to military sponsors and their dependents. The Real Time Automated Personnel Identification System (RAPIDS) was established to streamline the process of identification card issuance and to improve the timeliness of confirmation with the DEERS data base. RAPIDS and DEERS will serve as the vehicles by which all components, including the Reserve components, determine identification, eligibility and access. Programs such as commissary benefits to the Selected Reserve, Reserve component Family ID Cards, exchange privileges and retirement accounting for the Reserve components can be greatly enhanced by full implementation of pre-enrolling the reserves into the DEERS and

RAPIDS systems.

Reserve Component Family Identification Card

The Reserve Forces Policy Board recommended the creation of a common DoD Reserve Component Family Identification Card to facilitate access to military installations and to document entitlements to benefits. Although all of the Reserve components now have their own Family Identification Cards, we are proceeding with this initiative since the application procedures for the common DoD ID card would be used for DEERS pre-enrollment. We believe, therefore, that this would enhance individual personnel readiness for mobilization. We hope to have these cards and the implementing directives printed and in distribution by the end of this year.

Family Policy Issues

As the importance of the National Guard and Reserve contributions to the Total Force increases, the families of guardsmen and reservists are affected in important ways. The results of the recently released member portion of the Reserve Component Family Survey demonstrate that the presence or absence of family support is a very significant factor in the retention and readiness of the Reserves. It is incumbent on us, therefore, to develop programs which include and directly support the

families of reservists.

The soon to be released results of the spousal portion of the Survey will further reinforce the importance of the family in this equation and will provide areas of specific concern that can be targeted by future initiatives. The two portions of the Survey are the most comprehensive and accurate appraisals of Reserve and National Guard attitudes ever taken, and I am confident that they represent a blueprint for issues and action for years to come. We must ensure that Guardsmen, Reservists, and their families are appropriately considered in all quality of life issues. They must be part of the Department of Defense family if we are to retain the kind of high caliber reservists who are necessary for the expanding missions.

Reserve Component Medical Readiness

Achieving the ability to respond quickly and adequately to a wartime casualty flow has been one of the most critical goals of my office and of the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. Members of the staffs of both offices serve on all of the major medical readiness related groups within the Department and they continue to work together. The Department and the Services have taken a variety of actions to resolve this serious problem.

Each of the Services has committed significant recruiting resources to increase needed medical manpower. All of the

Services programmed substantial growth in the number of medical recruiters beginning in FY 1988. The recruiters' efforts will be targeted toward wartime specialty requirements for officer and

enlisted professionals.

Two personnel incentive programs, designed to increase the number of Reserve component health care professionals in critical wartime specialties, were approved by Congress during FY 1986. The Congress authorized a stipend program for selected specialists in training and extended the educational loan repayment program to critically short health care professionals in the Reserve components, and provided authority to award constructive service credit for nursing experience. I believe that these programs, coupled with the age and experience authority, will greatly assist us in reducing critical medical wartime shortages.

During the course of our work with the professional medical associations, we discovered a lack of awareness about

opportunities in the Reserve. This lack of awareness has surely been an obstacle to reducing the shortfalls. In order to address this concern, the Office of Health Affairs will begin a Direct Mail Marketing Campaign in March, 1988. Physicians and nurses will be contacted through a personal, signed letter from Assistant Secretary Mayer. Each letter has been designed for the specific physician and nurse population needed to overcome the wartime shortage of medical personnel. The letter will advise each addressee of the Department's shortfall, the opportunities for Reserve participation, and the benefits associated with Reserve service. The letter will also provide addressees with an 800 telephone number and a business reply card in the event that they desire additional information.

The professional medical associations assert that there are a significant number of physicians and nurses who will join a Reserve component if the time required is minimal. We have explored this need in the context of the Individual Ready Reserve

and the Air Force is conducting a pilot program to test this type of participation option. The member would train five days annually for indoctrination, medical readiness training, contingency hospital familiarization and active duty facility tours. In conjunction with this concept, the Air Force is exploring the recruitment of surgical teams. This is similar to the civilian hospital unit utilized during WWI and WWII that was so successful. We are continuing our vigorous efforts to explore these and any other programs that will provide a readily accessible pool of qualified medical professionals who could be utilized to meet wartime requirements.

Coast Guard Reserve

We remain concerned that the shortfall in the Reserve Training Appropriation for Fiscal Year 1988 will make it

necessary to reduce Coast Guard Reserve strength level to that of The Coast Guard Reserve's fill rate of

two years ago 12,000.

mobilization requirements is far below that of other Reserve components. This poses a serious National Security problem in their mobilization missions of Harbor Defense and Port Security which are critical to strategic mobility.

and

Section 507 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 1988 and 1989 expressed the concern of the Congress in this vein and required submission of a ten year plan to enable the Coast Guard to meet 95% of its wartime mobilization requirements for Selected Reserve strength, recruiting and training resources, equipment and logistic support. The President's Budget for 1989 proposes a funding level that will permit the Coast Guard Selected Reserve to grow back to 13,000 by the end of the year. I believe it imperative to National Defense planning that this partial restoration of Coast Guard Reserve strength receive your support in the Fiscal Year 1989 authorization and appropriation process.

National Guard and Reserve Equipment

During FY 1987, the Department of Defense and the Services continued to improve the equipment status of the National Guard and Reserve Forces. The impact of DoD and Congressional funding of Reserve component equipment in recent years is being reflected in both improved capabilities and equipment fill rates.

Our FY 1989 report to the Congress on the status of National Guard and Reserve equipment, which is based on a representative sampling of 1,443 major line items of Reserve component equipment, shows that equipment valued at $9.9 billion was delivered to National Guard and Reserve Forces during FY 1987. This included 286 aircraft, 231 helicopters, four ships, 740 tanks, 72 howitzers, and more than 12,000 tactical and support vehicles. Current projections from this report also indicate a continued high, albeit declining in the out-years, level of distribution to the Reserve components, averaging $8 billion annually over the next four years.

Based on this representative sample, if the National Guard and Reserve forces were mobilized at the beginning of FY 1989, they would be able to field approximately 80 percent of their required equipment, in terms of dollar value. Through the use of available substitute items, this capability could be raised to approximately 84 percent.

The outlook for further progress in reducing National Guard and Reserve equipment shortfalls is becoming increasingly uncertain in light of evolving budgetary constraints. Overall Service planned procurement for FY 1989 is down by more than $14.0 billion compared to that planned for FY 1989 in the President's Budget last year. This reduction, which exceeds 15 percent, will adversely impact the equipment status of the Reserve components in two ways

first, in reduced funding for

new procurements specifically for the Reserves and, second,

through a reduced flow of combat serviceable equipment from the Active components.