Military will have to help reduce nation's budget deficits, general says

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 11:53 PM Monday, March 1, 2010

DAYTON — The military will have to do its part when Washington makes decisions on how to reduce the nation’s growing budget deficits, the commander of the Air Force Materiel Command said Monday, March 1.

“At some point, we’re going to have to start addressing debt. We’re on an unsustainable path as a country,” Gen. Donald Hoffman told the Dayton Rotary Club during a speech at Sinclair Community College. “As the military, we’re part of that.

“Right now, we’re at war. The funding is there to support the war.”

If the war on terrorism should abate, the military would have to closely examine its spending priorities to reduce operating costs wherever possible, said Hoffman, a four-star general who oversees the AFMC, its acquisition, sustainment and research and development missions and its $52.5 billion annual budget and 79,000 employees. The 10-base command has headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Hoffman declined to be specific about where cuts in military operations would be made.

He also said that the Air Force faces challenges in maintaining free admission to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, in light of increasing funding demands for the service’s major missions.

“It’s still free,” he said. “But it’s getting tougher and tougher to keep it free.”

There are no discussions about charging admission to the museum, Hoffman told a reporter after his speech.

It costs about $750,000 annually just to heat the museum’s massive buildings, Air Force officials said.

The museum, the Air Force’s primary archive, bills itself as the world’s oldest and largest military aviation museum. It receives about 1.3 million visitors annually.

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