Obama: I Must 'Earn the Trust' of US Military

Because he hasn't served in the military, Barack Obama says, “I have to earn the trust of men and women in uniform.” In a wide-ranging interview with Military Times, the presumptive Democratic nominee vowed to raise pay and improve health care for service members, promised he would not preside over “precipitous” withdrawal from Iraq, and said the military unfairly received flack for “bad planning on the civilian side.”

"I don’t know a higher priority than making sure that the men and women who are putting themselves in harm’s way, day in and day out, are getting decent pay and decent benefit," he said. "These are just basic requirements of a grateful nation." (More military stories.)