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1976 Army Law. 1 (1976)

handle is hein.journals/armylaw1976 and id is 1 raw text is: January 1976 1W THEARMY y DA PAMPHLET 27-50-37 HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, WASHINGTQN, D.C. 1975 Army JAG Conference Features Secretary Hoffmann Adapted From the Remarks of. The Honorable Martin R. Hoffmann, Secretary of the Army, Deliv- ered to the 1975 Army JAG Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, on October 16, 1975. I would like to talk to you basically about what I see to be the three main circumstances that affect your client-the US Army-in the present climate. The first of these elements is pretty obvious- it is the fact that we are now a standing Army in a peacetime mode of operation. You are all familiar with the saying: God and the soldier we adore in times of conflict and no times more. I think that summarizes fairly well the essence of what we have to contend with as a peacetime force. I will come back to this general subject, but I would underscore the increased need to get our story to the public at all levels. We should have clearly in mind as a conscious part of our management ap- proach the implications of a ready Army in peacetime. It has probably never been as impor- tant as it is now. The second circumstance which has a tre- mendous bearing on everything we do is the in- stitution of the all-volunteer Army. The Army is becoming an employer of individuals rather than a user of undifferentiated conscripted numbers of various talents. It has various implications- some immediate, some subtle and some of which apply directly to your legal business with respect to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The third phenomenon which we need to rec- ognize and deal with involves the Middle East War. This is interesting to us on several levels. The first is that the Middle East War is a promi- nent engagement of arms that intervenes be- tween the present time and Vietnam. This has a number of pluses. I think the statement should be made and repeated that following Vietnam it was still true that the military arms of the United States had never failed a task assigned it by its civilian and political leadership. That remains true today. Whatever may be the public's per- ception of a failure of national purpose or policy does not detract from the statement that the objectives of the military as they were assigned have not failed. The intervention of the Middle East War on the political and the perceptive level is an impor- tant one for us to keep in mind. It says a lot to us about such things as winning when you are both outgunned and outnumbered. But the fact is, it was a victory to which we can be very properly associated and it has had a very profound effect on what the Army is doing in other respects. In addition to being a counterweight to Southeast Asia, it has had a profound impact on the doctri- nal aspects of how we will fight the next war. The lessons learned from the Middle East are quite graphic. They give us an almost unique perspec- tive on the war that we may have to fight in the future. The implications for readiness, the need to fight the first battle, is a universal recognition within the Army. The implications of that need to win decisively the first battle on training, on how we train, on how we utilize our forces is inextric- ably bound up in this. But the drive from the perceptions of the Middle East War as a preview of the future has rapidly permeated the entire force. Anyone who has a chance to study the new training and readiness doctrines will quickly per- ceive that this is a great plus as far as the US Army is presently concerned. Let me skip back to our first circumstance, the peacetime mode of operation. To generalize, in time of war, the report card for the military forces is usually combat success. We saw it in Vietnam and throughout the Middle East War. Other things tend to fall far into second place, depending on the intensity or identification with the national purpose behind the objectives of a war. In peacetime, however, past victories are forgotten. Prior accomplishments do not count for much; present management and management ability become the score card. This results in an increased emphasis on such things as logistics

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