US Military Must Improve Pay, Housing

Study Says Military Must Improve Pay, Housing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon-sponsored study made public on Wednesday recommended that the U.S. military spend billions of dollars to improve pay and housing for troops and scrap the tra***ional requirement for at least 20 years in uniform to receive retirement pay.

The study by the private Rand Corporation on military morale and quality of life warned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld there was a declining desire among young Americans to serve in the military and that the armed forces were losing a recruiting battle with the private sector.

``There are billions of dollars (in costs) associated with this,'' retired Navy Adm. David Jeremiah, who headed the study, told reporters at a news Pentagon conference. He declined to be more specific.

But Jeremiah said the study made more than 60 recommendations to Rumsfeld, who is conducting broad reviews of strategy, weapons and quality of life issues aimed at transforming the Cold War U.S. military into a modern force for the 21st century.

Jeremiah, a former vice chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the rule calling for at least 20 years of service to receive retirement pay was a half-century old and needed to be changed along with the requirement that officers either be promoted on a regular basis or forced to leave the service.