RADM Casey Coane Luncheon

RADM Casey Coane Speaks at Chapter June Luncheon

RADM Casey Coane, USNR (Ret.) - National Executive Director – Naval Reserve Association, and Vice President Youth Activities, Atlanta Metropolitan Council Navy League United States, was our guest speaker at the Chapter June luncheon.

Though Admiral Coane could have provided current information on a number of topics, he focused on two things that he said are true today in Washington that were not true just a couple of years ago.

The first is that the GWOT (Global War on Terror) is now being referred to as the “long war”. No one discusses this issue in short-term time frames anymore, but rather in terms of decades and longer.

The second is that what used to be called the “Strategic Reserves” and utilized as such (on a temporary fill-in-as-needed basis), is now being called the “Operational Reserves” and being utilized on a regular operational basis to supplement Army forces that are stretched way too thin.

Admiral Coane said that, after Vietnam, the reserve force gradually built back up to an acceptable level by the time Operation Dessert Storm came to pass. However, by the time Operation Iraqi Freedom started, that force had dwindled to 1/3 of its pre-Dessert Storm size!

The reserve force is currently being used at an operational level, with typical one-year deployments vs the usual 2 to 4 week per year temporary duty that a reserve commitment usually involved. This is causing great hardships on families and businesses. The bottom line is that this is causing reservists to leave the reserves and resulting in a shrinking of the reserve force and the loss of the military’s relationship with society through the reserves.

Regarding the Navy specifically, we are currently meeting our recruiting goals today. However, the Navy Reserve is not. The Reserve has to offer thousands of dollars in incentive pay to get positions in certain critical rates filled.

The Navy is being asked to supplement the Army’s efforts by being a brown, green, and blue-water Navy and perform all of the tasks associated with those specific missions. To do so, the Navy would need a greater variety of forces and more agile forces. Unfortunately, the Navy’s budget simply won’t support such a combined mission. (An interesting side note is that it is the Navy’s budget that is being tapped to send reserve forces to guard our southern border!)

Many thanks to Admiral Coane for making time to visit with us and educate us as well!

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RADM Coane starts his presentation.

Chapter VP Mitch Rowland, '71, thanks RADM Coane for visiting the Atlanta Chapter.