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Webb named to lead personnel subcommittee

One day after he was named head of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee that oversees military personnel issues, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., wrote to Pentagon leaders with his concerns about the effectiveness and reliability of body armor.

Webb, a Marine combat veteran who served as Navy secretary during the Reagan administration and is the architect of the Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits program, was named Thursday to succeed Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, which is responsible for military and civilian personnel issues.

The leadership change is part of a shuffle related to the August death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who was chairman of the committee’s seapower panel. The changes were announced Thursday after final passage of the 2010 defense authorization bill.

Webb has been a member of the armed services committee and the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee for three years, working on a variety of personnel-related issues including the new GI Bill program that took effect Aug. 1 and in trying to increase time at home between combat tours for troops.

“As the son of an Air Force officer, the father of a Marine, and a Marine combat veteran myself, I understand the sacrifices that our service members and their families make every day,” he said in a statement. “I have worked on the issues championed by this subcommittee throughout my life, and it is an honor to be named chairman.”

Webb is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served in Vietnam with the 5th Marine Regiment, receiving a Navy Cross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts for his service. He was a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee staff in the late 1970s and early 1980s, became assistant defense secretary for reserve affairs in 1984, and was named Navy secretary in 1987.

The effectiveness of body armor has been one of the issues getting Webb’s attention in his three years in the Senate, and his new push comes as a result of an Oct. 16 Government Accountability Office report that raised questions about body armor testing.

In an Oct. 22 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Webb sought a commitment to continued independent review of Army testing procedures because there is uncertainty whether protective gear meets performance requirements.

“It is possible that testing deviations had no significant net effect or even ... may have resulted in armor being tested to a more rigorous standard. On the other hand, it is also possible that some deviations may have resulted in armor being tested to a less stringent requirement than required,” Webb says in the letter. “Our men and women in uniform deserve to have the highest degree of confidence that the body armor they are issued meets or exceeds the military’s requirements for ballistic protection.”