The Army is about halfway to its goal of adding 16,000 soldiers to the active-duty force by Sept. 30, but the service is still operating without a budget to match the millions of dollars in bonuses it has promised to current soldiers and potential recruits. 

However, Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey said he is confident that Congress will come through with an appropriations bill that matches what it called for in this year's National Defense Authorization Act, he told Army Times on Tuesday. 

"Well, it's simple – we're going to go back and ask for more money," he said at an Association of the U.S. Army event Tuesday. "The NDAA did come with a budget increase." 

The Army asked for more soldiers, and now they're getting them, thanks to a plan that includes big bonuses for contract extensions and enlistments.

"For the last several years, we’ve been talking about the risk with the size of our force," Dailey said. "[Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley] has made it very clear that he’s uncomfortable with our risk. We’ve been communicating with Congress that we need to increase end strength."

As of last Friday, he said, the Army is at 53 percent of its recruiting and retention goals for the year, with just over seven months to go in the fiscal year.

But increasing the number of soldiers doesn't translate to capability without the right amount of money to train and equip them, he said.

"Not only is it end strength, but we need the resources to accomplish the missions we have at hand," he said, including everything from obligations to combatant commanders in the Pacific, Europe, Middle East and beyond, down to the benefits and Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs at home that provide a quality of life for soldiers.

Those benefits are a main selling point both for keeping soldiers in as well as attracting young Americans to service, Dailey said. The number one way to sell the Army is to appeal to potential recruits' sense of duty and sacrifice. The number two way, he added, is the benefits they can reap.

"We will fight to sustain those benefits. We cannot systematically erode benefits to our soldiers, or we will put the all-volunteer force at risk," he said. "I think we had to make some tough choices in the past because of the fiscal restraints we were in, but we can’t sustain those anymore in the future."

Making a better soldier

On live teleconference from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, one noncommissioned officer asked Dailey how the Army can keep focused on its core missions while offering opportunities like Training with Industry, which allows officers and NCOs to take a yearlong internship-style assignment with a civilian corporation.

"I think those partnerships and those opportunities build readiness," Dailey said, adding that those opportunities will still be limited because soldiers are first meant for fighting wars and must be trained up for that at all times.

To that end, the Army is looking for ways to make its own training more useful to soldiers once they separate.

"Our goal in the future, through Army University, is to become a real university," Dailey said.

Courses at the Sergeants Major Academy should be credentialed as graduate-level classes in the next two years, he said, and there's a plan to do the same at undergraduate-level for the Basic Leader, Advanced Leader, Senior Leader and Master Leader courses.

"When we provide our young men and women with education, we provide them with capabilities," he said. "I think this is going to make, overall, a better soldier."

Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.

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