“While we are not out of the woods yet, we are better positioned now to accept some increased demand than we were two years ago. I’m very, very pleased with the progress that we have made as an Army and I believe we will continue along those lines. We’ll get very close to our initial objectives by 2011.”

John McHugh, who succeeded Geren as Secretary of the Army in September 2009, echoes Casey’s assessment, but also looks to the challenges still to be met.

“We have indeed made significant progress in restoring balance, but we have to do more. This era of persistent conflict requires continued flexibility and adaptability, but we have to as well ensure that we retain our ability to meet both current and future asymmetric threats,” he said. “Our future readiness will require that we continue to modernize and adapt our institutions and transform soldier and leader development while at the same time sustaining an expeditionary and campaign-capable force.”

In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, McHugh described the U.S. Army in 2009 as “a force fatigued by some eight years of uninterrupted combat, now on two very dangerous fronts … strained by the frequency of constant deployments and stressed by the pressures levied against their families.

“Too often – far too often – they return home only to be disappointed by a network of support systems that, despite high intentions and constant effort, continue to fall short of the level of support they so richly deserve and each and every one of us so deeply desire. There are no easy answers to these challenges, but answer we must,” he told lawmakers.

A major part of that answer, he added, is “balancing – the recognition that resources, ample in recent years through wartime supplementals, are likely to turn downward, the requirement to make the hard, necessary choices to strike an equilibrium, prevailing in current conflicts and preparing for future challenges.”