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McHugh can do good

“What makes your life miserable because of our actions?”

That’s what newly installed Army Secretary John McHugh plans to ask the troops.

If the former Congressman can ditch his platoon of handlers to get an unfiltered earful from soldiers, he is likely to hear one key complaint: Deployments. Nothing affects the troops and their families more than constant rotations to the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a recent member of the House Armed Services Committee — he left Congress and was sworn in as Army secretary just last month — he can have particularly strong influence in critical decisions about how many troops to deploy, Army end strength and funding.

From the ground up, there are a number of other areas in which McHugh can do good for the average Joe who is humping the load and doing the fighting:

• See to it that soldiers are outfitted, ASAP, with the camouflage pattern that does the best job of concealing them in whatever war zone they are operating in. The fact that the Army spent $5 billion on a pattern that is not the best and allowed its soldiers to wear it into harm’s way is unacceptable and must be fixed with urgency.

• Demand that noncommissioned-officer promotion tests are made bulletproof against cheating. That has been an open, rampant problem for years and the Army has done nothing significant to stop it. That has been to the detriment of those who play by the rules and to the Army’s image.

• Lend the full weight of the secretary’s office to getting war vets the help they need to return to their lives at home. Many are haunted by their combat experiences; post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide rates are shameful.

McHugh is in a position to help see that the nation gives back in full measure to those who have given so very much.