The Navy's top officer cautioned legislators Wednesday about falling sounded the alarm Wednesday that retention numbers among the Navy's most skilled and highly -trained sailors, and he pointed the finger at budget cuts that are again looming.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert told the Senate Armed Services Committee that across-the-board cuts known as sequestration cuts in 2013 had started to eat away at historic highs in retention, and urged Congress to act to avert the cuts set to again take effect in October. reverse the cuts.

"We are already seeing disconcerting trends in our retention, particularly our strike fighter pilots, our nuclear trained officers, our SEALs, cyber warriors, and some of our highly trained, highly skilled sailors in information technology, AEGIS radar and nuclear fields," Greenert said during the closely watched testimony.

Greenert said tThe numbers are were reminiscent of previous eras, like the mid-1970s when the force was stricken by manpower shortages, decrepit readiness and plummeting morale.

"These retention symptoms remind me of the challenges I had as a junior officer during the post-Vietnam War era, during a downsize," said Greenert, who entered the submarine force in 1975.

The retention alarm was first sounded last year by a career fighter pilot, Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, who argued in a paper that both senior and junior officers were beginning to walk. Snodgrass pointed to erosion of trust in senior leaders, budget cuts and high operational tempo, among other factors, as the cause of what he called a coming retention crisis.

Greenert also bemoaned the maintenance issues caused by sequestration, and said the service would still need three years to dig itself out of the delays caused by the first round of budget cuts.

Longer deployments are a direct result of budget cuts, and they're hurting sailors and families, he said.

"The first round of sequestration forced reductions in afloat and ashore operations, it generated ship and aircraft maintenance backlogs, and it compelled us to extend unit deployments," Greenert said.

"Since 2013, our carrier strike groups, our amphibious ready groups and most of our destroyers have been on deployments lasting eight to 10 months or longer. This has come at a cost of our sailors and our families' resiliency, reduced the performance of our equipment, and it will reduce the service lives of our ships."

Cuts have also cut the number of forces ready to deploy in an emergency, he said.

"Due to sequestration, our contingency response force — that's what's on call here in the United States — is one-third of what it should be and what it needs to be," he said, adding that continued cuts would pare the number down ever further.

About David B. Larter

David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.

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