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thedrifter
11-26-07, 07:44 AM
Point of Contact

09:46 AM CST on Sunday, November 25, 2007

Our Q&A with Rear Adm. Jon Bayless Jr., a Dallas native and the Navy's Midwest regional commander. He visited North Texas during a recent recruitment tour.

How is the Navy making a difference in places like Iraq?

Most people don't know this, but there's more Navy personnel on the ground in Iraq than there are on ships under way in the [Persian] Gulf. ... The Navy is very much engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have special-warfare ops, CBs [civil battalions], construction teams, medical boats, intel people. We're using squadrons to neutralize the IED threat there with some special electronic-warfare aircraft. So the Navy is playing a huge role there.

Is the Navy's increased presence in Iraq a direct result of the staffing strains being felt by the Army and Marines?

Absolutely. It is common knowledge that the Marines are either in Iraq, coming back from Iraq or going to Iraq. And they've done several tours. So there's an operations tempo that needs to be supported, and the Navy's doing that – and the [National] Guard and Reserve. Most of the American public is not aware that ... almost 14,000 sailors are there on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan, and close to 40 percent of them are Guard or reservists.

As the war's popularity has declined and talk of war with Iran increases, are the Navy, Army and Marines competing for the same, small pool of recruits?

We're all fighting for the same people. ... We're meeting our goals, but it's not easy. ... There's a certain segment out there that want to be Marines. And they come to the door and look to be a part of that team. So the Marines always meet their goals. ... The Army, I think, has had some problems, particularly with what has been going on [in Iraq]. There was a Gallup poll done this past year [that asked]: Which service do you think is better equipped to defend this country? The Navy came in last, and it was in single digits. The CNO [chief of naval operations] was aghast and alarmed. He said we need to get out there and tell the story, because that is simply untrue.

Ellie