Stripped & Shortchanged

Under heated Washington discussion last week was an inch-thick report stamped "Secret." Written after a six-month investigation by the Senate's Preparedness subcommittee, headed by Mississippi Democrat John Stennis, the report is highly critical of the U.S. Army's supply and equipment situation.

Many of the Army's 16 active divisions, the report says, have been stripped of certain categories of existing equipment and shortchanged on new gear because Viet Nam, understandably, gets top priority. As a result, there are "significant" shortages compounded by problems of equipment obsolescence.

While there is "no evidence of any significant or serious shortages in Viet Nam itself," said Stennis, in commenting on the report, "the continued drawing down of our assets and resources for Viet Nam could create an unacceptable and dangerous degradation in the Army's ability to meet other contingencies." Added Stennis: "To permit this to happen would be a perilous and risky gamble with national security." Specifically, the report finds problems in three general areas:

>COMMUNICATIONS. A shortage of radios required to maintain combat communications, whether at the walkie-talkie level of squad leader or at the more sophisticated level of division headquarters. Also in short supply: spotting equipment for mortars; warning systems to detect approaching air craft; good guidance and control systems to give fast, low-flying bombers pinpoint accuracy.

> TRANSPORTATION. Obsolete equipment, notably trucks and troop carriers of World War II and Korean War vintage, and shortages, particularly of helicopters. The Army has 400 helicopters in Viet Nam, keeps them at full strength only by scrounging replacements from three Stateside divisions, all part of the Strategic Army Corps, which is held in reserve to cope with emergencies anywhere in the world.

>ORDNANCE. Shortages of .30-and .50-cal. machine-gun rounds, of ammunition for 20-mm. antitank guns and, most important, of 7.62-mm. ammo for the M-14 rifle. Most of the ammunition now being turned out goes straight to Viet Nam, leaving such units as the U.S. Seventh Army in Europe in short supply.

To Stennis, the report showed the need for "vigorous and prompt corrective action," but he emphasized that "we're not in any peril point." With that, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara heartily agreed. Moreover, McNamara argued, in closed-door testimony before the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee last week, that the shortages cited in the Stennis report are exaggerated in some cases, nonexistent in others.

In other testimony before the committee, McNamara requested a $1.7 billion supplemental appropriation to help finance the Vietnamese war buildup announced a few days earlier by President Johnson; he also said he would be back in January to ask for more. He specified a 340,000-man increase in the armed forces, bringing the total to 2,980,000, proposed reinforcing the Army with a new 15,000-man division, three 4,000-man combat brigades, 15 helicopter companies.

The appropriation is certain of swift approval. Fact is, most Senators doubted whether $1.7 billion would be anywhere near enough. To correct the Army's equipment situation, suggests the Stennis report, may take an additional $12-18 billion over the next five years.

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