The True Cost of Defense

[ Birds chirping ] -In 2012, I deployed for my third time to Afghanistan.

On April 10th of 2012, I put my backpack down on top of this bomb.

I woke up four days later in Germany, and I was a quadruple amputee.

I had to learn how to do everything over.

The cutting-edge prosthetics they have out there are pretty expensive.

I'll go through arms and go through legs, whether I break them or parts go out.

Even wheelchairs, you know, powered wheelchairs, are pretty pricey, as well.

But that's how I get around.

My legs are Bluetooth, so when I drive my vehicles, on my phone, I have a little remote that locks my leg so I can drive like everybody else.

There's a price for all this stuff.

It all takes a toll on my family.

-Thank you, Mom.

-You know, they had to pause their lives, too, when this all happened to me.

Morning, morning.

I'm very grateful that I have the ability to have the prosthetic arm and the prosthetic legs.

And it's what helps make my life more independent, but also helps me function.

-It has been more than a decade since Travis Mills was injured, and the costs will continue to mount, even though the conflict he fought in has long since ended.

Today, America's annual defense budget is the largest in the world.

It exceeds the military budgets of Russia and China combined, at over $800 billion.

-There does tend to be a consensus that the defense budget is eye-wateringly large.

It's larger than all other federal agencies combined.

-We spend more than the next ten richest countries combined every year.

-The United States is a global power like no other.

It has personnel costs like no other, and it has capabilities like no other.

And so it should have resources like no other.

-Close examination reveals that America's cost for defense extends beyond the machines and weapons of war, that America's defense budget walks on two legs.

In the next hour, we will visit people and places that reflect the true cost of America's defense.

Since World War II, the United States' military's benchmark for strength is the ability to fight two wars with major regional powers simultaneously and win.

-Warfare is about adaptation in conflict, and the American military is really good at it.

But we're not the only people who are good at it.

-At one time, we were probably much more capable than anyone else.

That advantage had been eroding over time.

-Still, billions of dollars are spent to procure missiles, aircraft, ships, and cutting-edge technology, and those contracts for the weapons of war are often motivated as much by political and economic gain as by fighting capability.

-If you ask anybody that's got a military base in their district, they're going to say that's essential.

-It brings jobs.

It brings economic vitality.

It creates hope for people.

People are going to work.

-Then, there are the costs of the men and women who serve.

-$4 of every $10 spent in the military are spent on people.

-It costs roughly $100,000 a year per soldier.

-The United States military spends vast sums to enlist, train, and retain its troops.

-You don't need to recruit 10,000 people a year, unless you're losing 10,000 good people a year that are fully trained and capable.

That's what we're doing.

Why?

-When you look at the budget and you think that it all buys military capability, it doesn't.

The department runs schools.

It runs grocery stores.

It does environmental cleanup.

As a matter of fact, the department spends more per year on healthcare than it does on nuclear modernization.

-If you start including veterans benefits, it can get pretty large pretty quickly.

-Nonprofits play a role.

They've certainly helped to fill the gaps.

-All of this to prepare for eventual conflicts, and when conflicts occur, the costs to service members and their families will echo across generations.

-What you don't spend in deterring wars, you have to spend in fighting them.

And once you're fighting them, that means lives lost and lives ruined.

-The costs of military might and readiness are also bound up in the need to maintain a global system of military alliances and defense treaties, requiring a deft and delicate balancing act between deterrence and American entanglement in the foreign affairs of other nations.

-We are defending on behalf of the global community, but we are also making sure that the fight does not come home to the continental United States.

-It's shocking that people think, "Oh, well, we can leave Europe, and what's the worst that could happen?"

I mean, World War III, nuclear conflict.

-Yes, there's an alternative to military supremacy, and it's losing wars and having your adversaries dictate the terms on which you can accomplish your interests.

It's a really bad alternative.

-How does the U.S.

manage this precarious balance between the benefits of strength, global stability, and the ultimate costs of war?

How much does the U.S.

actually pay for its fighting ability, and what do Americans get in return?

The human face of America's defense begins with the many thousands of young men and women who enlist in America's fighting forces.

-Americans know very little about their military.

One half of 1% of the American public experiences military service in the United States.

-As you have less of an expectation across the country that you'll sign up, we are leaving it to young sergeants to walk in to high schools, to try and talk young people into serving their country.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

-The thing about recruiting is we're pretty much like walking billboards.

-Hey, tell your friends.

Come do pull-ups.

Depending on how many you do, you'll get an award.

One, two, three... -One of the directives that we get is to be engaged in the community.

-You got it.

You got it.

Push, push.

-You want people to actually see you doing things.

Football games are huge.

-Hey, real quick, I need you to sign one of these forms.

-When they see us, they need to know that we're available to talk to, and they can ask us direct questions about, you know, what we do, what our jobs are.

-We do everything -- air, land, and sea.

-Because a lot of people aren't really informed on what the Marine Corps provides and the opportunities that are in it.

-Hit me up, man, especially if you're interested in trying to get some information, trying to win a scholarship or something.

-Hey, we got you, bro.

-Yeah.

Thank you.

[ Crowd cheers ] -When the GDP is strong -- growth is strong, jobs are good -- it's very difficult to recruit.

-It's going to take all hands on deck to encourage young people to go into the military.

-All right.

So, this weekend we had the football game.

What did we get from that?

How was it?

-There is a few of the high-school students that actually wanted to do pull-ups.

A lot of them just wanted to do it just to show off.

-We're at the halfway point for the month.

Right now we're sitting at 8 of 12, so we need four more to make our mission.

-We have had an all-volunteer force now for, what, 50 years?

-If you have a purpose, Americans generally, or a significant portion, will ride to the sound of the guns.

They've got that heroic impulse.

They wanted to fight if it was a mission worth fighting for.

I think if you can't get people to volunteer, you shouldn't be fighting the war.

-The Vietnam War saw the last use of conscripts in the United States military.

As mounting casualties were beamed nightly into American homes on television, the public became increasingly critical of what was already an unpopular war.

-Having a draft army, what they call a citizen army, was, one, not fair and, two, not effective.

It was basically indentured servitude.

-This is the genius of the all-volunteer force.

It aligns the risks people are taking, putting their lives on the line for the country, with the people most willing and eager to do it and most proficient at the doing of it.

-You have to pay them more.

You have to train more, and you have to spend more time training them.

And once you've done that, you want to keep them in.

-Hey, what's going on, man?

How you doing?

-Nice to meet you.

All right.

You too.

You can take a seat.

A lot of high-school kids think that the military is a backup or, you know, a last resort, but it is a selective process.

We want to be able to know that you can commit to something and see it through.

Well, we're going to fill out some paperwork, and then we'll set you up so you can go to MEPS tomorrow.

You can take your physical, and we'll find out.

-Sounds good.

-The average cost to recruit and screen each applicant hovers around $22,000.

At this Military Entrance Processing Station, or MEPS, the cost becomes clear.

-All right.

Good morning.

-Good morning.

-My name is Captain G. I'm the executive officer here at Sacramento MEPS.

You're here because you want a job in the military.

Our job is pretty simple -- to see if you're fit for the job.

The first stage is testing.

After that, you have a qualifying score.

You move on to medical.

-And the other side.

Good.

-And then you move on to the next step of the process.

We're going to initiate a federal background check that's conducted by the FBI.

Once you get through those and everything clears and you have all the green lights, you are qualified for military service.

Boom.

You're locked in, man.

You're in the Marines.

I do solemnly swear... -I do solemnly swear... -That I will support and defend... -That I will support and defend...

-The Constitution of the United States.

-The Constitution of the United States.

-Total military recruiting costs reach into the billions each year and continue to rise.

And that's before training.

-Fort Sill is one of four basic training sites across the United States.

-We take citizens to soldiers to give them the basic combat and survival skills they'll need to be a United States Army soldier.

-Back from the front, do you understand?

-Yes, Drill Sergeant!

-Recruits come with the clothes they have on their backs, a small amount of personal items.

95th gives them everything else.

They get the gear, they get the haircuts, they get the boots, and they start their journey.

-Let's go.

Hurry up.

-Yes, Drill Sergeant!

-On average, to have an individual arrive and come through basic training is about $55,000.

Where else do you have this type of model?

The closest probably thing is how they produce athletes and how they take care of athletes at the collegiate and professional levels, and that is millions of dollars to get the talent, to train the talent, and then to have that talent go out and be a productive soldier.

You can't beat that for 55K.

-In 2020, about 150,000 people enlisted, which means $8.2 billion in basic-training costs alone.

After money has been spent to prepare troops for duty, there is an additional cost to keeping them in.

At West Point Military Academy, retention is a central focus of the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis.

-There are tremendous costs associated with people leaving with turnover, with having to train.

At least in our office, we try to think about all of this broadly in terms of end strength and how end strength is really a function of both who you bring in and the retention behavior.

To the degree that you can do both of those things well, you certainly spend the nation's dollars more cost-effectively.

We view, you know, the joining the Army profession as an occupational choice.

-Once we turn them into soldiers and they join the fighting force, on average, it costs the taxpayer $140,000 a year.

That is benefits.

That's medical care.

That's taking care of their families.

And that's also the basic pay for the job they do.

-We are competing in the broader labor market.

What are the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of serving in the Army versus doing something else?

We're all going to take off the uniform someday.

And the Army is doing the nation, I think, a great credit by training and educating folks and then returning them to the private sector, where they're productive citizens, where they start firms, where they contribute to firms that already exist.

All of that contributes to economic growth.

That contributes to well-being and prosperity.

And so that's a win.

-Once military retirees rejoin the civilian world, a new set of costs arise.

-We're paying about $30 billion a year for retirees in a combination of the pension plan and healthcare.

-The scale of what we're paying for defined benefits for the retirees is growing way faster -- and I think getting larger -- the amount of money that we're paying in salaries for the current force.

-The statistics further underscore the true cost of this disparity.

2.4 million retirees currently receive benefits, compared with the 1.3 million still on active duty.

-I made out like a bandit.

The G.I.

Bill gave me a certain amount of money all the way through my master's.

So all I had to do was work part-time and be able to go full-time college.

-I came into the Army just because I wanted a skilled trade.

Now I'm an IT manager.

The VA is supposed to take care of my health needs, and then pension is important.

-That traditional military pension, you serve 20 years, and you can retire.

-The deferred price of military spending brings up questions of sustainability and the long-term fiscal implications of an aging veteran population.

-We didn't really budget for our pension fund the way we needed to, and we have generated a pretty sizable liability.

-It is precisely what, you know, young men and women deserve who dedicate their life to the service, which has unique demands placed upon them throughout their career.

-They get to the 20-year point, the system says, "Well, now you can get half your pay for the rest of your life if you leave," meaning if you stay, you're basically working at half pay.

You were going to get that other money, anyway.

You're basically bribing them to leave the service.

-I love the Marine Corps and what it did for me.

They're going to have to drag me out of this uniform.

-This crane is one of dozens that tower over Norfolk Harbor in Virginia, site of the largest naval base in the world and home to some of the most expensive hardware in the United States' military.

-We buy so many different kinds of things and very sophisticated pieces of equipment.

It does become an expensive undertaking over time.

-Weapon systems and the submarines and the B-2 bombers, the numbers are so big.

-There is an interest, you know, sort of across the country, in a lot of these big programs.

-Here, over 5,000 career shipbuilders represent the human face of America's defense budget.

Their salaries, benefits, and pensions are also costs in the nation's defense budget.

-The Norfolk Naval Base is surrounded by different shipyards, and there's always ships coming in.

-On any given day, we could have 3, 8, 12 ships in the yard.

I got a picture of this yard with 14 ships in it.

-They come in, and we work them.

And our DNA is on that ship.

-In 2022, Norfolk DNA left the harbor aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, the first of a class of aircraft carriers designed to improve upon and ultimately replace the previous Nimitz class.

-At the time that Ford was built, we were the most expensive object, I think, ever created in human history.

-The aircraft carrier is an incredibly impressive piece of hardware, and when it shows up in a region, it is the epitome of American power.

-We can project power.

We can provide presence.

We're a home base.

-This is a small city.

We've got everything from a post office to a pharmacy, let alone an airport that sits on top of our head.

-This impressive ship came with a price tag of over $13 billion, with operating costs in the millions per day.

Five more carriers have been announced.

-I think it's a core responsibility, actually, of any defense planner to always ask, "How much is enough?"

-Across the board, everything we've got is the best.

Now, does it have to be quite so much better than all the other options?

-You don't want to spend just enough to win.

You actually want to win by big margins when your country's freedom or its interests or its allies are at stake.

-It really has to start with strategy.

For the most part, new programs and spending are motivated by battlefield need.

-In cases where we look at it and we say none of our existing designs can actually perform that function, then we identify what we call a capability gap.

And that capability gap then becomes the genesis of a new acquisition program.

-In the middle of the 20th century, we developed more and more specialized aircraft whose specifications meet narrower and narrower mission sets.

We don't look at procurement the same way anymore as an Air Force.

We are looking for an aircraft that will endure and will handle missions for years to come.

-Today, the plane embodying this new procurement strategy is the B-21, the Air Force's new stealth bomber.

-One of the key features of the B-21 was to build in that adaptability, the ability to plug and play new mission systems into the design so that we could continue to advance its radar capabilities.

We could continue to advance its communications capabilities over time.

-The experience flying the B-21 has been amazing.

It still has that new-airplane smell.

Can't comment on all the details, but I think the B-21 is a game changer, very similar to the B-2 and its stealth capability.

It's just a lot better.

-Early on, people are quite taken with acquisition programs.

They all look great because early on, none of them have hit the challenges that they're likely to hit later.

At the time that the B-21 was going through the early stages, the shadow of the B-2 bomber loomed large.

-We started building them, and we found all sorts of difficulties.

The price kept going up and up and up.

What was supposed to be a $300 million airplane became a $1.4 billion airplane.

We only built 20 of them, and those airplanes are hardly ever used.

It costs about $130,000 an hour to fly a B-2.

-In 2022, Air Force officials estimated the cost of the B-21 program would surpass $200 billion over 30 years.

Much of this cost is for the services of a select number of defense contractors.

-There's an enormous amount of lobbying going on by the five biggest defense firms, but the 500 others, as well, trying to influence their member of Congress or their senator to promote the contracts that they want to get from the government.

-On behalf of the entire Northrop Grumman team, the time has come for you and the world to see the B-21 Raider.

[ Applause ] -Ladies and gentlemen, this is deterrence the American way.

-Thank you, Senators and members of Congress.

Each of you is important to this program and to Northrop Grumman.

-The five prime defense contractors are headquartered in Washington because that's where decisions get made.

-We recognize the imperative need for this development, yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.

-The military-industrial complex -- we get the term from President Eisenhower's farewell address at the end of his eight years as President of the United States.

-We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

-Defense spending was 12% or 13% of GDP in the Eisenhower administration.

It's 3.4% now.

-Back in about 1996, we'd had over 50 what are called "defense prime contractors."

These prime contractors could build things.

We had over 50 of them.

Today we have five.

-Our defense industrial base has shrunk and is not as resilient and as healthy as it used to be.

-When a crisis strikes, people say, "Well, why don't we have something, and why can't we do something about it right away?"

Well, there's one thing dollars can't buy, and that's yesterday.

-Costs are really important.

You can't ignore them.

And so you need to decide what is the benefit.

-A lot of the money that goes into the military and towards modernizing the military goes into the economy, provides jobs, goes into the local communities who work for and with all of our bases.

-The economy of Northeastern Pennsylvania has transformed multiple times.

Coal mining was a huge industry.

We are still higher in unemployment, but nonetheless, Tobyhanna is the anchor.

It is the foundation for our economy here as our largest industrial employer.

-Tobyhanna Army Depot has postured itself to be the top communication and electronics capability for the Department of Defense.

-There's a lot of opportunities.

You can find any field that you want to do -- blue-collar, white-collar work.

-Tobyhanna has the skill set, the equipment, the facilities to allow us to be able to test equipment that's over 50 years old, as well as equipment that's less than a decade old.

What testing are you doing here?

-Checking out some DC toggle- power supplies for our system.

-Are you seeing any problems?

-Yeah.

This one?

Yeah.

This is a bad one.

-What were trying to do here is find the most efficient way to keep these systems running for the DoD as long as possible.

-Defense spending is not by any means a giveaway.

It is employing people here in the United States.

-Tobyhanna is a principal employer regionally, upwards of 3,000 employees at the facility.

Because of the presence of Tobyhanna Army Depot, additional jobs, additional businesses are started.

It's a chain.

It's an ecosystem, if you will, an ecosystem of support that happens.

-It's extremely important for us to do everything we can, from the community side, to make sure that the depot is still here.

-The United States military judges it has roughly 30% more bases and facilities than it needs.

-Back in the '90s, Congress authorized Base Realignment and Closure, commonly known as BRAC.

-It takes a lot to get permission to do a BRAC because of how important local bases are to the community.

-In 1995, the BRAC Commission targeted Tobyhanna for closure, and commissioners were sent to evaluate the depot.

-The response here was tremendous.

The community came together.

People lined the interstates.

They had a firsthand view of all of the folks in Northeast PA who supported Tobyhanna.

-Ultimately, the community and its elected officials convinced the commission to keep Tobyhanna off its list of recommended closures.

But not every base has been so successful.

And once the decision is made to close a base, it triggers a whole host of other costs.

-We are on top of Wildcat Ridge.

This view is the Monterey Peninsula.

In the near ground is the Army-retained cleanup area, our munitions response site.

-This area, and over 27,000 adjoining acres, was once the site of one of the largest infantry bases in the United States.

For decades, these fields and valleys echoed with the sounds of marching boots, the chatter of soldiers, and the roar of munitions... ...munitions that would eventually contaminate the entire area.

No one could safely live here.

In 1991, the BRAC Commission recommended the fort be closed.

The neighboring cities of Marina and Seaside each received a portion of the base.

Most of the land became a national monument, with hiking trails, half of which is still closed due to unexploded ordnance.

-When we're doing our munitions response out here in the former impact area, the UXO techs are looking for unexploded ordnance and munitions debris, and we catalog every single item that we've recovered.

-This is a World War I ordnance that they found here on Fort Ord.

They've been shooting on Fort Ord since World War I. Some of it might not even look like ordnance.

It might look like an air tank or car parts, but these are actual ordnance items.

These are howitzer rounds.

These are different rockets.

These are different types of 40-millimeter projectiles that fired here.

Things may look like they're empty out there, but there's enough explosives to take out a tank.

-Since the cleanup began in the early 1990s, the Army has found over 79,000 munitions and explosives of concern in the Fort Ord area.

And the work goes on.

-We expect for munitions cleanup, there are about 8 to 10 years of additional work to be done.

-The Fort Ord story is not unique or new.

This is one of 800 military bases, large and small, across the United States, that have shut down since 1998.

-Having a sudden "This is the day."

Lower the flag.

Everybody move out.

That's just catastrophic.

There's no real recovery from that.

-This neighborhood right here is very reflective of a lot of the property that was transferred to the city of Marina.

And we have about 250 blighted homes.

And it was a thriving military community.

When the military base closed, population went from 30,000 to 19,000.

A lot of businesses, small businesses, closed at the same time.

Today they are just starting to really turn around.

That's almost 30 years.

-There's a fluid nature to military infrastructure.

That sometimes means completely shuttering something that cost billions and will cost billions more to destroy.

-Fort Ord is in Monterey, and I was born there, actually.

My grandpa was in the military, and he actually met my grandma there during the Vietnam War, and they got married, had kids, and he retired there.

-Charlynda Propst, her husband, Raymond, and their children are a long way from Fort Ord in California.

-That looked like a good snack.

-Now we're in Korea, and my daughter is, like, loving it already.

-Thank you!

-Yummy, right?

-Yeah.

-The family is only on their third week of Sergeant Propst's three-year assignment in South Korea.

-Good morning.

Good morning.

I maintain Apache helicopters.

Everything good so far?

I decided to join the Army to better my family's future.

Here, being in Korea.

everything has been awesome -- the food, the people, the culture.

The family are just very excited about experiencing all of it.

-The Propst family lives on the largest United States overseas military base in the world.

-We're at Camp Humphreys, which is in Pyeongtaek, Korea, a little south of Seoul.

Camp Humphreys is the home of about 40,000 people.

-Over 200,000 United States military personnel serve overseas in 750 installations in 80 countries around the world.

-When you put American soldiers on the ground in a country, that's a commitment, and that builds a lot of confidence, a lot of trust.

-We care very much about what happens everywhere because it impacts our way of life.

It's in our naked economic and national self-interest.

-Overseas United States bases are home not only to troops, but in many cases to their families, as well -- another cost of America's defense.

-When Americans are stationed overseas, we don't want them to feel too overseas.

-We are definitely like a small American city.

We have every municipal service that any city would have, from police and fire.

We have schools, churches.

We have retail sales, food sales.

-You've got bowling alleys.

You've got activity centers for the kids.

You've got gyms.

-There's so much stuff here, and we're still discovering it.

-Whoo!

-It's nice to have on-base communities.

I was on one when I was stationed in Korea.

But a lot of the costs are costs for these extras.

-And so you kind of get into a conversation about, like, what's the main mission of that location?

And is it one that is conducive to having families along?

And do we want to bear that expense?

And if we don't, what does that do to the willingness of people to deploy there?

People like to be with their families.

And, you know, separation can be a problem.

-Soldiers aren't going to serve if we're not taking care of them and they are certain that we're going to take care of their family members.

-Better than I normally do!

-It also enables us to have more continuity.

When a soldier comes here with their family, they're going to stay two or three years.

If they come here by themselves, they're going to stay one year.

-The need for overseas installations is still necessary to support missions.

But are the days of garrisons of troops and their families permanently living on city-sized bases behind us?

-Where it makes sense, what we want is a return on the investment.

South Korea and Japan -- it's cheaper to have our troops in those two countries, because those two countries pay so much of the basing costs, of the training costs.

They pay billions of dollars to help us keep our troops there.

-Us being here in Korea, we're tasked with defending this homeland, as well as our own.

-We have the good fortune to have a military that fights its wars as away games rather than home games.

-Camp Kosciuszko in West Central Poland is the new forward headquarters on NATO's eastern flank.

The permanent presence of U.S.

troops stationed there was announced in 2022, amidst geopolitical shifts triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

-Bases are where they are because of the threats bad guys pose to our interests and our allies.

-The buildup in Poland was instigated by one person, Putin.

-We are here with a part of Fifth Corps Forward, or VCF, while our main headquarters sits back in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

It's a little bit of a construction zone right now, but this is our home.

It's a permanent home here.

-It's developing very quickly.

Oh, here we go.

Long-term, we will be able to have families come here.

So we're less reliant on individuals coming back from Fort Knox.

-Fifth Corps' mission here is to assure our partners, to deter our enemy, and to defend if threatened.

-Against the backdrop of heightened tensions, Poland has welcomed its role in deterring Russia, acting as a bulwark within NATO.

-They came and offered to NATO, first to President Trump, but also to President Biden, the notion of putting more military facilities in Poland.

It's a very welcome message from Warsaw.

-We have Polish-provided logistics support and Polish-provided infrastructure.

They really, truly have invested in the United States here.

-NATO member states really like to host NATO facilities on their territory because, frankly, it means jobs for them in many cases.

So there are economic considerations.

But it is also a way for them to convey their strong conviction to the NATO alliance.

-It's almost like an additional security blanket for them.

"No one's going to invade us if America's here."

I'm like, "Yeah, that's probably true."

-You know, there's not many truisms in history, something that's always true, but I know one -- nations with allies thrive, nations without allies wither.

-Across our area of Operation Victory, we have roughly 30,000 service members.

We span from the Baltics to the Black Sea, training next to our partners in each of these nations.

The threat to them is ever-present in their lives, and it is very, very real, and they see it on a constant basis.

-So, this apartment building was destroyed by Russian missile on September the 5th of 2024.

That night, around 200 buildings were destroyed.

It was terrifying.

-Lviv, in the northwest of Ukraine, is more than 300 miles from the front lines with Russia but still subject to drone and missile strikes.

Six months after the invasion began, a Russian missile strike killed seven Ukrainian civilians, including 18-year-old Daryna Bazilevich.

-NATO saw it as highly necessary to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine... but to do so through assistance.

-By mid-2024, the United States had committed $175 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including logistics and intelligence, air-defense systems, weapons, aircraft, and tanks.

-People say, "Oh, we're sending $100 billion to Ukraine."

Not what's happening.

We're not, for the most part, even spending money in Ukraine.

-A lot of the money that we allocate to military assistance, the money never leaves America.

-70% of the aid that we've been providing to help Ukraine goes back to American businesses to produce the weapons and equipment that we're providing.

-Where did Poland get F-16s and now F-35s?

They were built here.

We didn't build them in Poland.

-NATO countries Germany, Great Britain, Norway, and others have also contributed billions in aid.

Since Ukraine is not a member of NATO, none of these nations providing aid to Ukraine are required to assist by agreement.

-Article 5 of the Washington Treaty I call the kind of "all for one and one for all" article because it basically states that if an ally of the United States in NATO is attacked and asks for help that NATO allies must come together and agree to help that country.

-When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949, the original intent was to provide collective defense against the Soviet Union and prevent the spread of communism in Europe.

-Article Five has only been invoked once -- at the time of the 9/11 terrorism attack.

NATO was patrolling U.S.

skies.

And that was a big deal.

-There's the ultimate irony, that what was set up to protect Europe, the first time NATO went to war was for us.

You want to deter war.

And the way you deter war is by being ready for war.

-The hard thing about assurance and deterrence is if you're doing it right, nothing's really happening.

-The United States is uniquely capable of flowing forces stationed in the United States into an allied country quickly.

-Get this CROWS turned on.

-My unit's stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Mine's an armor battalion, so we have 29 tanks and 25 Bradleys.

-We moved two battalions worth of equipment, which was over a thousand pieces of equipment, including tanks, Humvees.

It was a lot.

-Every bean, every bullet, every soldier has to be shipped out and over, flown, sailed, and sustained.

It's extremely expensive.

-My tank came with me from Fort Bliss, traveled across the ocean.

Saw it roll off the boat in Portugal.

Put it on another trailer to come over here.

And now here it is, sitting right here, ready to shoot.

-NATO is extremely important at doing what it does very best, which is making sure that all the member states of NATO can fight together.

-When our rotational units come through here, they are constantly training and go home better prepared than when they arrived because they get to train at a level that we just can't replicate back in the United States.

-We'll do a lot of practice drills.

-Scouts report enemy armor with light armor support operating in your sector.

-[ Beep ] -Roger that.

There's a tank right there.

-Tank identified.

-Target's locked.

[ Radio chatter ] -We're looking how to identify targets, that that looks like in, like, adverse conditions, for example, fog like this... and, if our weapon systems malfunction, how we troubleshoot those so we can get back up on the line.

-In addition to ground forces, air-defense systems operate around the clock, and fighter jet patrols run constantly.

NATO allies rely on the United States for satellite surveillance, unmanned reconnaissance, air-to-air refueling, ballistic missile defense, and airborne electronic warfare.

And this all comes with a price tag.

The NATO budget is usually presented as the total defense spending of all member nations.

For 2023, it was $1.3 trillion.

-Prosperity rides on security.

We couldn't remain prosperous if Europe were conquered.

-Europe is the number-one region in terms of investment in America.

I assume we still want investment in our country.

-What you don't spend in deterring wars, you have to spend in fighting them.

And once you're fighting them, that means people are dying in order to defend liberty.

I think it's a mistake to assess wars only in their material cost, and not also in their lives-lost and lives-ruined category.

-In the last decade alone, America just paid out its last Civil War beneficiary.

That is the long tail of war.

-In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the United States embarked on the longest war in American history, the War on Terror.

The conflict would last nearly 20 years, cost trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives.

-Intuitively, America understands that it's extremely expensive not just to fight the war, but to take care of those who come home from it.

-The nation has decided that taking care of its veterans is so important that the VA has its own budget category outside the national security budget category.

-The Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, has a duty to assist veterans and is responsible for administering benefits, including medical care.

-For most of our nation's history's wars, we've not been ready when people get home.

18 million veterans in our country.

5 million disabled veterans in our country.

They need a voice.

They need someone who's going to be there to fight for them.

-The VA is under ever-expanding demands as the full picture of what troops in war zones are exposed to comes into focus.

-There's always been these toxic exposures that the world recognized.

Mustard gas in World War I. Atomic weapons used in World War II.

Agent Orange used in Vietnam and Korea.

Even within the last 20-year war, many of those toxic exposures, the conditions that cause an actual disability are just now surfacing.

-We know just from how many people have come in to file claims that there's a lot of sick people in our country.

-During the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, the most secure and efficient way to dispose of waste was to burn it.

-It was the smell.

You can see footage of Iraq, but you can't smell it unless you were there.

-We're talking about burn pits the size of small cities that was burned, you know, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for years on end.

-It wasn't just regular trash.

This was military-grade stuff.

Fuels, chemicals, body parts.

You knew it was bad.

You could -- You could tell it was bad before you ever saw any data on it.

There was a bioenvironmental engineer named Darren Curtis.

He was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force.

And he said that this was the worst disaster he'd ever seen in terms of public health.

-In short order, cancer started to take hold.

People's disabilities started showing up.

90% of Americans, they assume if you serve and you get hurt that you get benefits.

That's not the way it works in America.

You have to demand your nation compensate you for your economic losses because you got hurt in service.

In 2022, Congress finally did a catch-up bill called the PACT Act -- Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins Act.

The PACT Act really reached back to say, hey, all generations of veterans now could receive their due.

-Those are the decisions that are saving lives right now, where people are able to get the care that they earned.

You're glad for the victory, but then you're worried about holding onto it and being able to take care of all the people who now are going to be coming in and needing help.

And then as that cost goes up, are we ready to still pay it?

-Future medical and disability costs for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been estimated at $2.2 to $2.5 trillion.

-We've seen the VA budget go up and up and up and up, but the public's not thinking about the war anymore.

-Too frequently, when the guns of war fall silent, so does the recognition of the sacrifices made by those in service.

-My great fear is that we're going to lose the momentum at some point and we're going to see budget cuts or something like that that can devastate a very vulnerable population.

-More than 40% of veterans of post-9/11 wars are entitled to lifetime disability payments.

This number is expected to increase to 54% over the next 30 years.

-With the kinds of advances in medicine, there are so many more coming home than would have in any other wars that we've ever seen in any of our lifetimes.

-There's a very strong emphasis on medical research for treatment of combat injuries.

Injuries that previously would have resulted in death have not, and so people are more survivable, which is terrific, but then we also have to care for them.

-I woke up in the hospital wondering why I didn't just die.

Like, how is this better for anybody?

You know?

I need help with everything.

I was happy I made it, but at the same time, I was like, "Why did I make it?

Because I'm not going to have anything to offer anybody."

For six months, I couldn't look in the mirror at myself, but nobody knew that.

I suffered kind of in my own silence.

-As a result of modern conflict, cases like Travis Mills are numerous but pale in comparison to the unseen wounds of war.

Post-traumatic stress affects huge swaths of the veteran population, and the ultimate cost is an estimated 17 military suicides every single day.

-I went to hours and hours and hours of therapy, and when I got out of the hospital there at five weeks in, like, I finally had a prosthetic arm.

But before that, people had to help me use the restroom, which was the most embarrassing part of my life probably.

Every day I was like, "How can I get better?"

-Today, Travis is remarkably capable with his prosthetics.

He can even drive a specially modified vehicle.

Millions of dollars have been spent to provide Travis with this cutting-edge technology.

-You're lost.

You don't know what to do.

You don't know how to react to this, how you're going to find a way through.

And then people step up.

-With the millions and millions of veterans that are out there, I think it would be difficult for the government to handle all of that.

Should they?

Yeah, they should.

The government should do as much as possible to support the men and women who serve our country.

But I also think that citizens have a role to play.

-Gary Sinise Foundation came in, was like, "Hey, look, we understand that you have new needs that you probably don't even realize.

But we understand it.

We're going to help you out."

-Let's go see Travis.

Hi!

-They built me a house that has a lot of different amenities.

They help people find their new normal and get back on their feet.

You can have an elevator view if you want.

-I'll go with you.

Going up.

We don't want anybody to fall through the cracks.

And I wanted to always do a little more to help a lot more people.

This is your house!

-Yeah!

-[ Laughs ] In the military nonprofit space, there's over 45,000 different military charities out there that are serving a lot of various needs.

If those nonprofits were not in this space, I think there'd be a catastrophe in our veteran community.

-I thought, okay, well, I can't serve my country anymore, but I can still serve people.

-Travis decided to take his circumstance and capitalize on it to make a difference in other people's lives.

-So, welcome to the Travis Mills Foundation.

We host families that have been through physical injuries due to service.

Um, you know, it can be paralyzation, amputation, something to do while they were in service that physically limits their mobility.

We say, hey, look, we know that you've been injured, it's a physical injury, and we want to help you adapt to anything.

So kayaking, boating, tubing.

You know, wintertime, we have dog sled races.

Just a whole wide array of things that we show them.

Like, you don't have to live life on the sidelines.

You can be active with your family and active with your society.

We also have a post-traumatic stress program.

-So, Justin, can you maybe identify some of the unhealthy habits or negative influences?

-Bad eating habits.

Substance abuse.

-And, Bobby, can you think of any wellness practices perhaps?

-I like taking time and getting outside, if it's just going for a walk, clearing your mind.

That helps me, being out in nature.

-We opened the doors in 2017, and we've slowly expanded and built onto the property, and it's been truly incredible, you know, what we've been able to do here.

-There are nonprofits which provide care packages to deployed troops.

There are nonprofits which provide mental health care, pay bills, provide vehicles and housing.

Since 9/11, Americans have chosen to give $2.5 billion per year to charities that support veterans.

The funding for these charities may not be coming from taxes, but it is still coming from taxpayers.

If veterans and their families rely on these nonprofit services and support, then they are also a cost of defense.

-People tend to favor support for defense and support for defense funding, but they want to understand clearly what's the purpose and what's the goal.

-The real cost of defense goes beyond the price of bombs and bullets.

It is a headlong race to stay at the cutting edge of technology and vessels.

It is the building and eventual closing costs of bases.

And it is the human cost -- investing in the people who serve the country.

It's a high price that starts before, continues during, and trails off long after any military conflict.

-Most of what we spend in the defense budget is spent on the people.

-2 million people on the direct payroll and arguably 2.2 million people in the aerospace and defense and shipbuilding workforce of America.

-The United States spends $200 billion on active-duty service members.

The $260 billion spent on procurement and development don't only benefit the industries and communities that receive them.

-It's not an overstatement to say that American military research and development spending has changed the planet.

The computer, e-mail, and the Internet.

Every one of those were developed originally by the Defense Department.

-Procuring equipment costs less than putting it into use.

Operation and maintenance costs the military about $300 billion.

And this covers myriad line items that aren't directly involved in warfighting, like housing, pharmaceuticals, and schooling.

Funds are spent to deter enemies and protect allies abroad.

An estimated $100 billion is spent actively supporting NATO efforts alone.

-It's in America's interest to always stand on the side of people fighting to defend their freedom against tyranny.

-The trade-off of that is, you know, what are we facing in terms of loss of treasure and life?

-There are additional costs to ensure veterans are cared for.

The Veterans Affairs budget for 2025 is over $400 billion.

Future medical and disability costs for post-9/11 veterans are estimated to be nearly $2.5 trillion.

Still, many Americans are convinced that gaps in the VA's care exist, so much so that they donate a few billion dollars a year to veterans charities.

Many wonder, is it worth it?

And is it necessary to spend so much?

-I don't think it is.

I think it's a train that we don't know how to stop.

-If you start with the idea that we want the best weapons, the best troops if we're going to defend this experiment we call America, then you start with the idea that you're going to provide what is enough.

By the end of the Cold War, we were paying about 6% of our GDP for national defense.

Today we're paying about 3%.

-The per-capita burden on the taxpayer, adjusted for inflation, is about $7 a day.

People think in terms of planes and tanks and satellites and ships... and not in terms of how much we're spending on people and healthcare and pay and benefits for those people.

-And so the true cost of defense, the total cost we pay is a people cost -- willing young recruits transformed to serve their country... defense workers who build the modern weapons and machines that keep America safe... scientists and companies that create weapons of war to keep the peace... and the doctors, nurses, and health professionals who care for America's veterans home from conflicts in battlegrounds around the world.

These are the faces of America's defense budget, the true cost of defense.