Nominee for Top Marine Post: Arming Recruiters 'Most Extreme' Response to Chattanooga
Senators criticized a Marine general for his comments over arming recruiters.
— -- A week after four Marines and a Navy sailor were killed by a lone gunman in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the nominee to take over as the Marines' highest-ranking officer expressed skepticism about arming military recruiters across the country.
“I’m not going to discount it, but I think that’s probably at the end and the most extreme measure we could take to do what we need to do, which is protect those service members out there doing their mission,” Lt. Gen. Robert Neller told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.
Just Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said the Department of Defense does not support arming all military personnel because of “safety concerns, the prohibitive costs for use of force and weapons training, qualification costs, as well as compliance with multiple weapons-screening laws.”
Neller, however, offered a different reasoning, worrying that it could create a potential rift between recruiters and their communities.
“I have some concerns about the second- and third-order effects of that,” Neller said, “particularly on the recruiters and their access and the things they need to do.”
Neller said that despite the “potential consequences,” however, he agreed that it’s an approach that should be under consideration.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pounced on Neller’s response, calling his answer “disappointing.”
“You know what happened in that recruiting station don’t you?” McCain asked. “The guy walked up to the door and shot and killed four Marines. Shouldn’t we have had those Marines be able to defend themselves?”
Neller noted that the four Marines and sailor were killed at the Naval Operations Support Center, while only one person was wounded at the recruitment center, but said he agreed the Marines should have been able to protect themselves.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a GOP presidential candidate, asked Neller whether he thought things would have been different if the recruiters had been armed, to which Neller responded, “I don’t know.”
“I think they would have been, and ... [that's] the answer I don’t ever want to have again: ‘I don’t know,’” Graham said. “I think it’s time, in my view, to get real with where we stand as a nation. They’re coming after us here and everywhere else, and we better get ready to be able to defend our people.”
Earlier in the day, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter made his first public comments on whether or not to arm military recruiters to a group of U.S. troops on an unannounced visit to Iraq.
“Should people in recruiting offices be armed or not?” Carter asked. “I'll tell you, I don't know the answer to that yet. I'm waiting to hear back from the services about that. We need to recruit, but we can't put people at unnecessary risk, as well."
Carter is set to receive a set of recommendations over security measures he requested in the wake of the Chattanooga attack by Friday, though the Pentagon has not said whether those recommendations will be made public.
Neller is in line to replace Gen. Joseph Dunford as Marine commandant, as Dunford moves to replace Gen. Martin Dempsey as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.