The Defense Department Is Top Heavy

Congress wants to cut the ranks of generals and admirals. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee's personnel subcommittee, said it's time to fix what he called brass creep. He said the ratio of flag officers to the rest of the uniformed personnel is higher than at the end of World War II. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently cut 100 flag positions, but Webb and others think there's more room to cut. The Project on Government Oversight studied the issue and found that Navy admirals nearly outnumber the service's ships.