 We are going to now hear from a Man that I really really wanted to come here and be a part of this Ray Mabus the secretary of the Navy Understands these issues that we've been talking about here for two days He has Tremendous leadership and has shown it throughout his life Embracing the future and the potential of youth Secretary Mabus knows how to not only recognize but to harness this potential Proud of becoming secretary of the Navy. I knew him as a governor in Mississippi I Want to tell you he was one of the best American governors that I've known and I've known them all for 30 or 40 years He did a terrific job stressing education leading them to be one of the States that was being talked about all over this country about what they were doing in education and in job creation He then was after serving as governor He was appointed ambassador Saudi Arabia for the Clinton administration in 1994 I think we would all agree one of the most important places to be an ambassador in the world is Saudi Arabia and he did a terrific job there He then was suck was chairman and CEO back in the private sector of the company called foam X a large manufacturing company Which he led out of bankruptcy in less than nine months paying all creditors in full and Saving equity. That's a pretty good record as Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Navy from recruitment Organization training mobilizing troops and much much more The United States security is of utmost concern for our country as the dangers We face evolve we need to prepare for them and we require the best leadership leadership that understands How to embrace the new how to harness the next generation's potential To better ourselves our state in our country and to put that potential into action Yet we cannot harness that potential if our young people are not healthy enough to serve during World War two Nearly 40% of the recruits Went in to serve. We're rejected because of nutrition issues Today Two-thirds of North Carolina youth are overweight or obese He may say something about that, but I'll tell you that our state and our nation cannot afford this 8% of all the jobs in North Carolina come from the military and Defense spending is critical to our state's economy In order to reconcile these issues We need to be thinking of ways that we can invest in generation Z To ensure that our state's youth can adequately give back to our country in the best ways that they can Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honor For me to present a man who leads one of the vital parts of America's defense We have just been thinking about what might happen just off of Iran We may be in the next few months Looking at one of the most dangerous times Maybe in our history The Navy is well-led by this great leader and I am proud to present to you The secretary of the United States Navy the honorable Ray Mabus take a moment to Thank my friend Jim Hunt and I know that Everyone in this room recognizes what an amazing treasure you have in Jim Hunt Whatever alphabet letter the generation is they owe a debt to Jim Hunt governor for 16 years a governor that the rest of us governors looked up to and tried to emulate and and a governor that Made not just North Carolina, but America better At what we are trying to do the fact that Jim Hunt has dedicated his life To making North Carolina and America better particularly in education and in health care in jobs Speaks volumes about his willingness to serve and His willingness to give back To this great country. There are a lot of people that are great role models or Generations or any other generation, but you couldn't do better Then Jim Hunt There's a role model for this or any other generation There are two other people in the audience and I Can't pick them out right here that I just want to mention one is Dr. Jess White who Is a friend of mine from Mississippi. He was one of my professors at Ole Miss he went on to have a Sterling career as head of the Southern Growth Policies Board as Federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission and Then as director of an Institute on Rural Economic Development at the University of North Carolina And the second is Cal Cunningham who I got to know When he was just coming out of the University in North Carolina Who was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, but then after 9-eleven he volunteered and joined the Army and was deployed to theater for a year and Has just gotten back from another deployment As a member of the Army Jag core attached to some units doing some very interesting things when you look at Those three lives those three careers very different paths, but all with one common denominator service Service to America a service to your state or your community and willingness to do something bigger than yourself and I think that for generation Z or for My generation which may be pre alphabet. It's So long ago Those are people To watch those are people to emulate those are people that we can hold up as models and you just saw one of Generation Z Jeff rider midshipman, you know you you read a lot about The Navy and the projections about our ships about our platforms about where the Navy is going to be but I Think the best projections of our Navy Probably aren't on paper They're the people that are choosing To go into the Navy and Marine Corps future leaders Like midshipman rider Midshipman rider. I look forward to seeing you in the fleet. I am the father of Three members of generation Z. I Have a 21 year old daughter Elizabeth a 19 year old daughter Annie and a 10 year old daughter Kate I don't know if you realize just how tough North Carolina schools are But my oldest daughter Applied to a school in North Carolina when she was looking at colleges and I'm not going to tell you which one because there are so many great schools Higher education in North Carolina But it was the first response. She got back and she was wait listed And she was in tears She's going to graduate in May with honors from Harvard Couldn't get in here but I watched those three daughters of mine and Just in that age difference that 11 year gap between Elizabeth and Kate You can see a generational difference Elizabeth approaches technology Computers and smartphones a little bit like I do. It's a tool, but It's only that For Kate, it's just a part of life. It's iPads and smartphones and It's something that has always been there and it changes Her way of looking at the world it changes all of our ways of looking at the world I am particularly happy to be in North Carolina in this job one of the top five states in military population and I'm going to talk about Generation Z But I can never pass up the opportunity to talk about our Navy and Marine Corps To tell you some of the things Those amazing men and women are doing for our country We're beginning now to pivot away from 10 years very hard But pretty effective ground combat in Iraq and Afghanistan You are all Very aware because of the military here in North Carolina But across the country of the sacrifices that our sailors our Marines our soldiers our airmen our Coast Guardsmen Have made and the sacrifices that their family have made Whatever has been asked of our Navy and Marine Corps team By the president on behalf of the American people from Afghanistan to Libya From assisting the stricken people of Japan To making sure that the sea lanes are open around the world from bringing Osama bin Laden to final justice to bringing hostages From wherever they are hidden by pirates or terrorists The Navy Marine Corps Get the mission done. They answer the call Navy Marine Corps are the most formidable expeditionary fighting force the world has ever known They have a 236 year heritage of doing this and they will continue to do it for the next 236 years with Generation Z and beyond but it's When you look at the world today It appears to be Getting smaller. It appears to be spinning faster It appears to be More and more different but in some ways that the Navy Marine Corps are very aware of our history is our future the 70 80 90 rule 70% of the world's surface covered by water 80% of the world's population living along the water and 90% of the world's trade Moving by water Those numbers the last two the 80% and the 90% will probably increase So what happens on the water? What happens in the great oceans and seas? Matters it matters to our economy. It matters to our national security. It matters to the preservation of American jobs as we wind down From this 10 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq We had to Reconsider What the American military was going to do we had to take a look at our defense structure. We had to take a look at our priorities We were going to do this regardless of the budgetary situation, but it was given extra impetus because of the need to Be good stewards of Public money because of the need for the military to participate in Shrinking how much we spend Because a strong American economy Is one of the great building blocks of our national defense? So led by the president of the United States Himself who came to meetings who participated in these strategy discussions led by him and by a secretary of defense Leon Panetta Working with all the service chiefs and all the members of the joint chiefs We developed a new defense strategy It understandably focuses on two areas of the world the Western Pacific and the Middle East but it also Calls for global presence using innovative low-cost small footprint Engagements it calls for making sure that We keep the global commons open for everybody It calls on us to be Great in the air on land On Above under the world's oceans and in the vast Cyber-sea this strategy this strategy requires a Forward-deployed Ready for anything Incredibly well-trained Navy and Marine Corps our global responsibilities are significant now and They are likely only to increase in the future and that's why we're building the force for 2020 The impact on our Navy of two ground wars for the last ten years is absolutely unmistakable on 9-11 The Navy battle fleet stood at 316 ships when I came in eight years later We had fallen to 178 One of my top priorities has been rebuilding the fleet Renewing that Navy of the future Now the ships we have today are far more capable than Any ships we've ever had and comparing them to old fleets in terms of numbers is sort of like comparing iPhones to the telegraph but Quantity has a quality all its own if you're want to be global and We are Rebuilding that fleet today We have 285 ships in the battle fleet and by the end of this decade We will have risen to 300 or more now. I served in the Navy over 40 years ago Served on a cruiser And I served with some great people We couldn't touch the force of today But there were a thousand people on that cruiser and there were jobs that were not high-tech jobs Chipping and painting is not a high-tech job Hauling lines is not a high-tech job And I couldn't say that I or anybody else was Particularly technologically savvy we still took Even though we had some Electronic means of doing this we still found our position by taking sun lines and Star sightings with a sextant today The newest ship we have the littoral combat ship Has a crew of 40 but has far more capabilities than my ship with the crew of a hundred Dead 40 years with a crew of a thousand dead 40 years ago. And so what it means is that Generations Z will be called upon those that enter the Navy or the Marine Corps To command Very technologically advanced Ships and systems weapons and we don't have any room for strong backs and weak minds There are no jobs in the military for that and We have to take the long view about this to the midshipman who was up here right before me midshipman writer Could command one of the ships we're building today if he stays in the Navy and the last captain of The ships we're building today Probably have not been born yet Our Navy ships Stay on the water for between 30 and 50 years So the ships we build today We have to be able To upgrade to change technology and the people who manage them who run them who command them have to be Flexible and technologically Way ahead of the curve The jobs that our sailors and Marines do Are incredibly complex and they don't know what they're going to face from day to day I Try to talk to every strike group commander an amphibious ready group commander before they go out to see And one of the things I say is the only thing certain about your mission over the next six or seven or for the USS Bataan 11 months they're coming in this week Over these next months the only thing I can tell you for certain is you will face something unexpected You will face something you have not prepared for you have not planned for But you will be forced to fall back on your intelligence on your training on your skill to meet this and There's a lot of examples of that USS Ronald Reagan strike group was heading to do Close air support over Afghanistan For our Marines and our soldiers when the tsunami hit Japan They turned in a matter of hours and went to Japan using the same targeting techniques using the same platforms the same aircraft They made sure the right things got on the right aircraft going to the right place And we're incredibly effective helping after that devastating Natural disaster and then when they finished that They turned again and completed their mission over Afghanistan But the jobs of our sailors and Marines aren't just Technologically complex They require critical thinking skills to our sailors and Marines have to know Where they are and why they're there and what they're doing what their job is and how it advances American security And I'll give you a couple of examples. You've been reading a lot in the last year about our seals And I couldn't be more proud of a group of people I'm gonna say this as an aside before I get to this example as Skilled as trained as ready as honed as those seals are That's what our entire navy and Marine Corps is There's nobody That's not that well trained There's nobody who's not that skilled now the seals have some special Attributes and they are More physically fit than almost anybody. I know and they're called upon to do very specialized and very different sort of work But so's everybody in the military I Went to Bud school in In Coronado, California where our seal recruits go through training And I saw some of that physical training. I'm 63 years old. I couldn't have done that when I was 23 or any age of my life and 80% of the people who start don't finish in Every class but that's you've heard that what I thought was more interesting is When that 20% makes it When they Can be called a seal The first thing they do is go to 12 weeks of language school and Then in their career Whether that career lasts for five years or 30 years They will spend as much time in the classroom As they do in the field They will not only learn about the things you would think about weapons and tactics They will learn about ethics and Geopolitics They are Warriors in every sense of the word and They have the ability to be everything from a diplomat to the most lethal person in the world and They're the same people They're that well-trained, but they're that well educated too a second example As I've now been to Afghanistan seven times And every time I go there I Try to spend as much time as I can Talking to Marines and I always get to eat Virtual ever meal with the Marines If any of y'all ever go, let me give you one one little heads up If it's 120 degrees in Helmut Province, which it is in the summertime Don't get the barbecue Meals ready to eat. I'm not gonna tell you why but just don't do it But one of my first trips there. I was sitting talking to a marine corporal and I asked him I just said hire hire things going And he's he proceeded to explain to me the some of the history of Afghanistan He told me about tribal Relationships in the area. He told me what he and his fellow squad mates had to do on patrol to stay safe and What the local insurgent network? probably look like The Marines call this a strategic corporal Every corporal in the Marine Corps has to know what his job is or her job Why they're doing it? What it means to the bigger picture? The strategic corporal in our fleet sailors and Marines are called upon to operate and to fix some of the most complex technology on earth whether it's an aircraft carrier with 5,000 people on it or An unmanned vehicle being remotely piloted from somewhere far away They're called upon to hang ordinance from planes. They're called upon to go under the polar ice cap They're called upon to do hundreds and hundreds of other missions and as I said every one of those requires not just the training and not just the Desire It requires the ability to think Governor Hunt Mentioned the number of young people in North Carolina. I'll give you a nationwide number It ought to make you worry a lot three out of four Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 cannot qualify for our military 75% 75% of our young people men and women Cannot qualify for the honor of defending this country There are three reasons One that Governor Hunt mentioned obesity the the toll That obesity is taken in public health and on the economy Is staggering The first lady Michelle Obama has highlighted this issue with her less move campaign and with nutrition and with Talking about ways to be more active and more fit The second reason is a criminal record. We're not gonna let you in if you've got a criminal record We give no waivers for that Long gone are the days of when I was in when judges would Give folks a choice between going to jail or joining the Navy. So if young people Because of lack of opportunity because of Lack of education because of whatever reason Get a criminal record. They're not gonna be part of our military force but the third reason is education You will not join the Navy or Marine Corps or virtually any other part of the American military without a high school diploma Again, we don't give waivers for this You have to have that diploma Before we'll talk to you now nobody Made education a higher priority Than Jim Hunt, but I have been talking about education for 25 years now Jim Hunt for far longer than that in this world today Mississippi is not competing against North Carolina. We're both competing against Singapore Germany and countries that are on the rise that a lot of Americans Can't find on a map and the bad news is we're not doing very well More than nationwide more than 30% of Americans do not graduate from high school on time now. I would argue that You cannot remain a great country Forever if you're losing 30% of your folks and you certainly cannot maintain the world's greatest military if 30% Right off the bat can't apply and if three out of four Don't qualify a report was released about a year ago that said we had fallen to 14th in world education And it said America's education system could be described as average America should never settle for being average in anything but particularly in education now y'all have read a lot about the tight budget situation and we in the Pentagon are Working every day To cut 487 billion dollars out of our defense budget over the next 10 years You have to perform well a program has to do well or it's going to be canceled We're trying to be more efficient in everything that we do We have to watch our spending. We have to be careful with every dollar and we have to get a good return on investments But tight budgets can never be the justification for poor education. It just can't education Programs like every program needs to be accountable for results But all of us every one of us knows that if it's done, right The dividends that a great education Bring you are enormous I'm gonna give you one example of something we're doing in the Navy that we're beginning to move to our schools Our office of Naval Research which is one of the Great research institutions that nobody's ever heard of there are Nobel Prize winners that work in O and R They get more patents Than almost anybody else But they have come up with something called the digital tutor now Usually I'm not for spending a whole lot of time in front of video games but O and R's develop 3d video and allows people to drive ships fight fires respond to floods on board Fly aircraft Long before they step on there on board their first ship or into their first aircraft and The results are pretty amazing. There's a one-third reduction in cost in the time that it takes to learn the material and They're 50% fewer errors and they retain the information four times as long It's a program that has worked wonders for our sailors and we're beginning to work to Apply that same underlying technology to help high school students Master mathematics and we're not doing this Just to be good citizens. We need those math skills in The Navy and the Marine Corps. We have hard choices to make Both in the military and in our country and it's not just the military Fewer than 1% of America Where's the uniform of America? It's about all 100% of America that our military keeps safe It's about Remaining a great country It's not about politics. It's not about partisanship It's about patriotism. It's about doing what's right It's about our ability to sustain our economy. It's about assuring our freedom Now virtually everybody you meet everybody I meet wants to support The United States military wants to support our men and women in uniform Well You here in this room have the ability to do just that Make sure everybody finishes high school Make sure the obesity epidemic that we have is reversed Make sure that people have opportunity outside of crime Make sure that people have the opportunity to be in the armed forces of the United States of America One thing that I am absolutely confident of is we can do this Convinced of that because of what I see every day in our fleet in our sailors and Marines I see it in the eyes of my three daughters and I see it in People like men shipment rider and the other members of generation Z the next generation and The Navy are linked We both see the world for its possibilities just as The Navy and Marine Corps are the greatest expeditionary fighting force we have ever seen They they are that because of their education they are that because of their training their dedication their flexibility their ability to meet any challenge their adaptability and willingness to think We are a great country because of exactly the same qualities that the Navy and Marine Corps bring sometimes takes somebody from outside to really bring America into focus I Hosted the president of Georgia know the country in the caucuses Not the one to the Southwest here Last Friday at the Naval Academy he had been in Washington most of the week He saw the president the vice president most of the leaders of Congress, but he wanted to go see Annapolis because he had four Midshipmen there and he got up and he spoke to the brigade of midshipmen and in Annapolis all 4400 midshipmen eat together at the same time He said the importance of America is the idea of America the idea that democracy and freedom Work and endure The idea that we are willing to help protect the world The idea that we don't just open sea lanes for our own ships But for all ships the idea that we are willing to go in to do humanitarian assistance and disaster relief for people who Have suffered the idea that we are willing to do medical and veterinary and dental work in South America and Africa and the South Pacific For no great gain no great strategic reason, but just because We're America and it's right We have to continue to be the world's greatest expeditionary fighting force, but we also have to continue to be representative of the idea of America for most people in the world the only American they will ever see as a sailor or a Marine We are America's away team when we are doing our job We're a long way from home and so in the words the great Marine Corps motto Semper Fidelis always faithful. Thank y'all