 All hands up date was recently given the opportunity to sit down with the chief of naval personnel Vice Admiral Scott Van Buskert to discuss numerous topics of concern to the fleet. One of the topics discussed was the status of the Navy's workforce. What we're really talking about is in this time frame of stabilizing the workforce is getting that workforce to the right numbers to match the fleet needs, the force structure of the fleet. And I think we're doing a very good job of that. Right now we're stabilizing the workforce at about just over 320,000 active duty component in there and about 60,000 reserve component. And we're doing a pretty good job of doing that. I think we've invested well in all of the programs to help us do that and we've put a lot of initiatives in place to stabilize the workforce. Van Buskert said that stabilizing the workforce has been a challenge because it hasn't been done in more than 20 years. He added that the Navy has been in a downward trend for personnel, bringing numbers down for more than 560,000 in 1992 to where it is now. He also said stabilizing the workforce isn't the only goal. The focus is also on balancing and distributing the workforce properly. As we stabilize, it's about getting that balance right. And what you'll find is that we lag a little bit as we get that balance right. As we adjust our sessions to now man up where we've had under man ratings and where we balance and bring down our over man ratings and that's what we've done over the last couple of years is getting that balance right. Still working very hard at the balance and then it's about distributing that workforce to get the right sailor out there to the right job and where they're needed. From the Defense Media Activity, I'm Petty Officer Matthew Halls.