--- title: Command Post: Can the U.S. Afford Its Soldiers? | TIME description: Is the personnel structure of the Pentagon set up for a 21st century reality? A discussion between TIME and the Center for a New American Security canonical: https://time.com/video/agAklhIo/ og:title: Command Post: Can the U.S. Afford Its Soldiers? og:description: Is the personnel structure of the Pentagon set up for a 21st century reality? A discussion between TIME and the Center for a New American Security og:url: https://time.com/video/agAklhIo/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/agAklhIo/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Command Post: Can the U.S. Afford Its Soldiers? twitter:description: Is the personnel structure of the Pentagon set up for a 21st century reality? A discussion between TIME and the Center for a New American Security twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/agAklhIo/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Command Post: Can the U.S. Afford Its Soldiers? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Command Post: Can the U.S. Afford Its Soldiers? [Watch (HLS stream): Command Post: Can the U.S. Afford Its Soldiers?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/agAklhIo.m3u8) (4:02)  _Published 2011-07-21. Is the personnel structure of the Pentagon set up for a 21st century reality? A discussion between TIME and the Center for a New American Security_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:15 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Pentagon Blames Team, Training and Commanders for Niger Ambush That Killed 4 U.S. Soldiers](/video/bAwO1rPt/) ### Pentagon Blames Team, Training and Commanders for Niger Ambush That Killed 4 U.S. Soldiers [Command Post: Why No U.S. Ground Troops in LIbya?](/video/V1qiTfPo/) ### Command Post: Why No U.S. Ground Troops in LIbya? [Command Post: Why the U.S. Backed off from Leading the Libya Campaign](/video/k7EIIWQD/) ### Command Post: Why the U.S. Backed off from Leading the Libya Campaign --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] This is Command Post, a series of discussions about military matters from Time and the Center for a New American Security. Nora does America's military personnel system meet the needs of the 21st century In a lot of ways it doesn't a lot of the personnel policies that we have today are legacies of a earlier period of time. For example, the 20 year military retirement after serving 20 years in service you can retire with full benifits from the military. that's. [ INAUDIBLE ] benifits. yes. Full retirement benifits have pay and other benifits, that's right. That comes from a time when being a soldier was really hard physical labor, And so when you left the military you couldn't find necessarily full employment. You couldn't count on a civilian job that would provide you with a full salary. That's not necessarily true any more in the current environment. A lot of the compensation systems that are in place in the military, With, with a lot of the total compensation package being differred to retirement at that 20 year mark In not having a lot in place before then may not make a lot of sense in the current environment. Having a promotion system where there's is an up or out promotion requirement. That if your not promoted after a certain time you have to leave the service, may not be fully leveraging the talents of all of the members of the military and may make it hard to develop long term expertise in some areas. So I think one of the things we're gonna see coming up in discussions in this area of constrained resources is a way to perhaps, better allocate funds in our personnel system because it remains one of the biggest expenses of the Department of Defense overall. The single biggest. The single biggest. It's very easy to look at big war planes and naval ships and understand those cost, but personnel are the biggest cost. And we may need to rethink some of those as a way, not just to save money, but more importantly to have a more efficient, more effective fight force that can really meet the nation's needs going forward. Well, John, you, left the military after not a, you know, After 20 years. Early given your background and what not. How do you think it could be fixed? I think that the all volunteer force that we have that we built in the wake of Vietnam has, has been an extraordinary success and no one could have predicted that it would survive the past ten years of war. It got a little bit shaky in the Army in 2006 kind of time frame but the all volunteer force has endured. It was able to do so, I think only because the American people, the Congress were extraordinarily generous with the resources they provided. And, and we're paying an extraordinary amount in, in military personnel cost. I don't think anybody doubts that, that they've earned it. Over the, the course of the past ten years of war but I, I do think that we can find a way while grandfathering in those who singed up during this time of war, who served during this time of war, I think that the deal that they signed up for is absolutely, I think there's a sacred contract between the US government and the folks who have fought for it. I, I think that going forward, we can probably find a more efficient way, to compensate, folks who decide to join the all volunteer military which I absolutely think should endure. and, and can, perhaps be fair in terms of the allocation of, of retirement benefits for instance. So, we have a cliff retirement system. If you serve, 19 months 11, 19 years, 11 months, and 30 days. You've received no benefits at all. 50 % pay for life starting immediately if you make it to 20 years. I think that there's probably a fairer way to do that, so that everyone who serves contributes in some way to a retirement program. And I think that that can both save money and Improve retention and, and, recruiting and also be fairer to, to all. And, and, I agree with Nora that there are some changes that can be made. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Command Post: Can the U.S. Afford Its Soldiers?","description":"Is the personnel structure of the Pentagon set up for a 21st century reality? 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