McCain: Military personnel's 100-hour work weeks must stop

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2017/11/14/mccain-military-personnels-100-hour-work-weeks-must-stop/

McCain: Military personnel's 100-hour work weeks must stop

By: Karen Jowers ?  12 hours ago

Senators made it clear to Defense Department nominees at a nomination hearing Tuesday that they expect action to address problems with military personnel readiness. “I look you in the eye and tell you a 100-hour work week is too long for a young member of our armed forces,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “They are working 100-hour weeks. It has to stop. Otherwise you’ll see more tragedies such as took place with recent collisions.”

McCain described it as a “military readiness crisis” that has affected every branch of service, with ship collisions, air crashes, vehicle accidents and personnel shortages in critical roles like aviation and cybersecurity. “The department is struggling to make do with budgets that are too small, unpredictable and driven by politics rather than strategy,” he said. Unfortunately, he said, personnel and readiness are hardest hit by these budget issues.

McCain said when he recently visited with the families of sailors on the destroyer John S. McCain, 10 of whom were killed in the aftermath of a collision with a merchant vessel, they told him “they believe their young people were not provided with what they needed to effectively operate in defense of this country.”

An example of that, he said, is the 100-hour work week. “Something’s got to change,” he said. "I don’t like looking at those mothers whose children’s deaths could have been prevented. This is a serious issue. It’s pretty obvious according to the chief of naval operations, that this could have been prevented. And Congress is also complicit in this almost criminal behavior.“

McCain pointed to the shortage of pilots, noting that it will be a crisis. “I want a new look at this whole issue,” he said. “If I had a priority for you, I would address that first.” He urged the nominees ― Anthony Kurta, nominated to be principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and James E. McPherson, to be Army general counsel ― to visit pilots and ask why they joined the military.
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