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Defense Secretary Carter Calls on America to Provide Services to Troops and Veterans
As the nation's military adapts new strategies and personnel policies, Defense Secretary Ash Carter today asked counties and communities across America to consider new ways to provide service to troops and veterans.
Carter told the National Association of Counties conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, that as strategies change to keep America safe, personnel policies will change, too. Counties, cities and towns across America will be affected, he said.
"Our men and women don't come from the Pentagon," the defense secretary said. "They come from your communities. We recruit from your communities. Our service members and their families live in your communities while they're serving, including our Guardsmen and reservists. And when they leave military service, they are, once again, in your communities."
Beginning in 2016, contracting officers and the newly instated labor compliance advisors in each contracting agency will be required to assess whether each contractor has a "satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics".
This is happening at a time when fewer Americans have a personal connection to the military, Carter said. From World War II to the advent of the all-volunteer force in 1973, three out of four Americans had a personal connection to the military. That number is now one in three and is likely to go down. Put another way, at the end of World War II, 10 percent of Americans were in the military. Today it is around 1 percent.
Source: Jim Garamone, DoD News, Defense Media Activity
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