What do you feel are the top five military-related issues that need to be addressed by the next administration?

Rebuilding the military to erase the effects of Sequester.

Manpower increase.

I'm sure there are more pressing matters, but personally I'd like to see CCW reciprocity and allowing CCW holders to carry on base.

1. Reverse social experimentation policies in the military.
2. Restore firearms freedoms to our SMs by reversing registration requirements for privately owned weapons on bases, and expanding concealed carry policies to allow all SMs to carry on base without the current permission requirements.
3. Restore firearms freedoms to our SMs' spouses by making them free to purchase and carry weapons in the States in which their SM spouses are stationed.
4. Revitalize the institution of the Constitutional Militia in each State. This is not strictly 'military-related' but it is 'national defense/security-related,' and it pertains to the role of Commander-in-Chief.
5. Concurrently with #4, transition the military to a primary role of supporting and training the Militia in each State, rather than it's current role of acting as a global police force.

1. The VA. It needs to be completely rebuilt and policies need to be re-written. Veterans deserve the highest quality of care, and they deserve care NOW. They deserve care for both physical and psychological issues. Men and women are most prone to mental health problems in their mid 20s during periods of high stress. This is something we should be taking care of. Veterans should be able to afford health care and get the quality care they need. Retirees should continue to receive the same health care benefits they had when they were active duty. If you serve until retirement, I feel you've earned your right to keep your benefits.

2. Training. The military as a whole should reassess training from a basic recruit level to the General level. We should be training our troops to be physically strong and mentally harder than the enemy. If we invest in producing quality service members, we are setting ourselves up for success. We need to find a way to "break" them down and build them up. What I mean is that when the military receives an emotionally weak and easily offended recruit, we need to find a way to build them into a strong minded TEAM oriented person. Combine that with a strict regimen of physical training and you've got yourself a quality service member. The military should adopt a strict PT regimen and keep their service men and women in outstanding shape. If you do not stay within standards, you're out. Instead of keeping these INDIVIDUALS in for years while they wait to fail X many PTs or while the paperwork goes processed for their discharge, we should either 1. kick them out immediately, or better 2. send them through a "basic training" type camp where they are re-processed to build them up on a physical and mental disciplinary level.

3. "PC" in the military. It seems that our top leadership has become totally focused on adopting a position of political correctness. This PC mentality has done nothing, but hurt our war fighters. PC has infiltrated training, leadership, discipline, promotions, and how we as a nation fight in wars. Ronald Reagan gave an outstanding speech, and I'd like quote it below. Though he was talking about "peace" I feel the point he was trying to make can be applied to MUCH of what is going on today.

“Now let’s set the record straight. There’s no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender. Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand—the ultimatum. And what then—when Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we’re retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he’s heard voices pleading for “peace at any price” or “better Red than dead,” or as one commentator put it, he’d rather “live on his knees than die on his feet.” And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don’t speak for the rest of us.

4. Rules of Engagement (ROEs). If there is anything that needs to be changed, it's this. I recently finished reading "Betrayed" the story behind Extortion 17 - the greatest loss of life in NSW history. The author brings up a good point.
1. Our enemies have no ROEs.. yet we do. The enemy knows our ROEs better than we do, and they use them against us both tactically, but politically. The enemy does not care if you're a medic saving a mother in the entrance of an orphanage, he will still probably fire that RPG in your direction to achieve his mission.. Yet we have ROEs that prevent us from doing our duty, protecting others, and more so protecting ourselves.
2. The ROEs have been written in such a way that they do not allow for us to WIN a war. What's the point of going to war if the end goal is not to win? We need to change the ROEs so that our men and women, Soldiers and Marines especially, can fight, win, and survive when they are fighting a war that they were thrust into.
**I highly encourage anyone to pick up and read, "Betrayed".

5. Base pay, COLA, BAH. Not to say that we do not get paid well as it is, it would be nice if a system was in place to ensure that our base pay follows as close as possible to inflation. COLA and BAH should be watched carefully as well. Junior service members tend to split rent between one another and that is fine, but for the married service member, affordable housing may be tough to come by in some places. COLA can most definitely help offset expenses, but recently I've seen COLA drop in many places, yet there was no real indication as to why.

They need to make the military a fighting force again and not a welfare force. the focus should be fighting and winning wars in the most efficient ways. Stop the worrying about paying out for pay raises, health care for dependents and geographic BAH.

Life skills training to include financial counseling.

Improved End of Service Transition programs.

ROI, PC, More Indians and less Chiefs, Having actual plans and end games....I did stick to operational issues but the VA has to be in there as well.

My thoughts carry no weight, and it's not my world anymore. However, I'll bet every division commander has a list.