DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997               TAG: 9703050661

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: MILITARY

SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  119 lines

IS MILITARY READY FOR FUTURE? POOR QUALITY OF LIFE MAY BE THREATENING THE NATION'S READINESS.

The outlook was bleak: A steady decline in the ranks of petty officers and sergeants, the backbone of the nation's fighting forces. An exodus of Navy and Air Force pilots to commercial airlines. Shortages of cash for equipment maintenance and modernization.

The seers were a procession of officers and enlistees from the armed services; their audience a House National Security Committee subcommittee.

By the time a field hearing at Hampton's Langley Air Force Base ended Monday, the subcommittee's four attending members had been left with a picture of a military culture on the brink of trouble - of a tangle of interrelated vexations that might require big money, and big changes in the way the military does business, to fix.

Here are some of the problems, and the reactions from the subcommittee members: ENLISTED BRAIN DRAIN

The military isn't as attractive to its midlevel managers and technically trained experts as it has been, thanks to a decline in the quality of life, speakers said.

Army Lt. Gen. John M. Keane, commanding general of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, N.C., told the congressmen that many of his young soldiers, married and rearing children, are deeply in debt. Not only do their finances drive them from the service, but money woes distract them while they're in it.

But pay is only part of the equation, Keane and others said. General living and working conditions - housing shortages, long periods far from home, decaying work spaces and horrendous hours - are contributing to an exodus-in-the-making.

One Army sergeant told of barracks with ``leaking ceilings, leaking pipes, cracked walls in which insects are infested,'' and Keane said some of his soldiers work in buildings designed for temporary use during World War II.

``Here we are, still using them 50 years later,'' he said.

Facilities to ease the strain of military life - pools, gyms, day-care centers and the like - aren't coming fast enough, if at all.

``We push physical readiness,'' Master Chief Michael Tsikouris of the Mayport, Fla.-based guided missile cruiser Vicksburg said. ``We push alternatives to drinking. We have to provide them with services like this.'' TOO MUCH WITH TOO LITTLE

The post-Cold War military's drawdown has left fewer soldiers, sailors and airmen to do its work - which has translated into crushing workloads at home and away.

This high ``op tempo'' promises, over time, to have a disastrous effect on morale. Keane said the services need to offer ``a little more predictability in their lives.''

Master Chief Robert R. Hallstein, the command master chief on the Norfolk-based carrier Enterprise, agreed: ``We must continue to be committed,'' he said, ``to maintaining a reasonable at-home time for our sailors.''

The congressmen seemed to hear. ``Something has got to be done about the op tempo,'' Virginia Beach Democrat Owen B. Pickett. said. ``Somehow the situation has got to be brought under control, because each of you has said you are as stretched as you can go.'' ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL

Money is at the heart of fixing quality-of-life problems and maintaining aging equipment. But several witnesses said budgets forced them to choose between devoting cash to those concerns and spending it on operations.

``It makes me choose between air-conditioning our workshops and repairing weapons elevators,'' said Capt. Mike Malone, the Enterprise's skipper, ``and I have to go with the weapons elevator choice.''

Lt. Gen. Charles E. Wilhelm, commander of the Marine Corps' Atlantic forces, called the Corps' growing need for modernization ``a spreading stain that taints every aspect of our readiness.''

And Air Force Gen. Richard E. Hawley, commander of Langley's Air Combat Command, said he has been able to keep planes in the air only by letting the condition of base facilities slide.

Hallstein's solution: Fence the money, so that such spending cannot be transformed into operational cash. ``Don't make them choose,'' he said of operational commanders. PILOTS FLYING AWAY

Air Force Brig. Gen. Steven A. Roser, commander of the Charleston-based 437th Airlift Wing, predicted that 40 percent of his majors soon would leave the service.

``Eighteen months from now,'' he said, ``we're going to be having significant problems in terms of pilot retention.''

The difficulty in keeping non-commissioned officers is compounded among aviators by the lure of commercial airlines, he said - an observation seconded by Capt. Kolin Jan, skipper of Carrier Air Wing 7 aboard the John C. Stennis.

Private companies offer pilots higher pay, 11 workdays a month, a stable home life and free travel for family members, Jan noted.

``Now, it's flying a bus - it's not much in the way of excitement - but your family doesn't have to worry about your not being home,'' he said, adding that boosting the attractiveness of military service for pilots would save money in the long run.

``If you pay a pilot a couple thousand dollars more a year, and that means you don't have to spend a million dollars to train a new pilot to take his place, to me it seems you come out ahead,'' Jan said.

The hearing's listeners seemed a bit overwhelmed by the testimony. ``It's not what we're hearing in Washington,'' Democrat Norman Sisisky, whose 4th District includes Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk, said. ``You have certainly gotten my attention with your answers.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Photo]

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Lt. Gen. John M. keane, commanding general of the Army's 18th

Airborne corps, said financial woes drive young soldiers out of the

service and detract from their ability to perform their duties well.

[Photos]

Lt. Gen. Charles E. Wilhelm told the panel that the Marine Corps

needs to modernize.

``You have certainly gotten my attention withy your answers,'' said

Norman Sisisky, D-Va. KEYWORDS: MILITARY