During a brief stopover en route to international security talks, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel fielded questions Thursday from troops in Hawaii worried about how budget cuts might affect their retirement and future benefits.
To trim defense spending "we are looking at everything across the board," Hagel told more than 200 military personnel representing all armed service branches gathered in the towering Hangar 19 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
However, the troops’ well-being takes top priority as military and civilian leaders consider the best way to reduce costs, he added. Putting people’s interests first, Hagel said, benefits national security.
"It doesn’t make a difference how sophisticated your equipment is or anything else. If you don’t have good people, then you can’t keep good equipment," Hagel said in his first visit to Hawaii since taking the job three months ago.
His comments, which also touched on the military’s "re-balance" of forces to the Pacific and potential cyberthreats to national security, came during the first leg of a round-the-world trip in which Hagel will visit Singapore and Brussels to meet with defense ministers and top military leaders from across the globe.
The Vietnam War veteran and former Republican senator from Nebraska took the job in February, replacing former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
The nation’s defense budget stands at more than $500 billion, with military pay and benefits making up $170 billion — or roughly a third — of the Pentagon’s 2014 budget request, Hagel said in separate, recent briefing.
The former infantryman was dressed casually in a T-shirt and khaki pants Thursday and showed a folksy touch, asking the troops to offer any trick plays the Nebraska Cornhusker football team could use.
Hagel said he has asked Congress to consider increasing prescription co-pays and fees for Tricare, the health care program for military personnel, retired military and their families — "but not by very much."
"We can do it smartly, we can do it wisely without hurting anyone and that’s the way to do it," Hagel said of defense cutbacks in the coming years.
In a recent briefing in Washington, Hagel said the Defense Department has also proposed slowing the growth of military pay, with a 1 percent pay raise requested for service members in 2014.
Hagel fielded a question Thursday from a service member who said he’s about to leave the military and is concerned about the backlog of disability claims at Veterans Affairs.
Hagel said he discussed the problem with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki shortly after taking office and that he recently provided Shinseki with proposed initiatives to help fix it.
Much of the backlog, involving more than 800,000 cases, deals with veterans records that predate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hagel said Thursday.
"We’re not where we need to be, where we should be," Hagel said of the backlog. "It needs to get fixed. We’ll do more. You have my word on that."
Nathan Miller, a Marine Corps sergeant stationed at Kaneohe Bay, said he appreciated Hagel taking the time to meet with service personnel on Oahu.
"To be honest, I think he kind of got into a situation that needed some fixing, and I feel he’s doing a good job at it," Miller said. "He’s been in our shoes. It’s kind of nice to know that you have someone representing us at such a high level that actually cares."
Hagel also touched on the re-balance of forces to the Pacific, a move that he said recognizes that "opportunities in the world are centered in the Pacific area" and that the U.S. should forge strong partnerships with other nations.
Unlike the post-World War II period, "we don’t hold all the cards this time — and by the way that’s good," he said. "It allows other countries to share responsibilities. It allows other countries to prosper. And only when we accept that premise will the world prosper."
He called cyberwarfare a growing threat, noting that the Pentagon was increasing its budget to deal with the problem by adding manpower and making federal agencies such as the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security more interconnected to respond to the threat.
After speaking with the troops, Hagel posed for photos with service members and handed out special coins with his Secretary of Defense insignia. Hagel even flashed the shaka sign in a photo with a service member.
He then walked past two giant Air Force planes parked outside the hangar — a KC-135 Stratotanker and a C-17 Globemaster III — and boarded a department jet.
Within minutes of meeting with troops at Hickam, Hagel was on his way to Singapore, where he will deliver the keynote address at this week’s annual Shangri-La summit of defense ministers.
