 Okay, good afternoon PNR broadly programs and resources of folks out at TSO Indianapolis Folks out in Kansas City, Quantico For getting all the way out to the folks that we have McNaphas out in Pendleton Folks across the board if we got folks dialing in from RPX at some of our aviation sites You know Yuma and Buford Miramar all the way out to Iwakuni Good afternoon. Good morning. Good evening. Oh, hi goes on us Hey, it's it's been a while since I've been here in front of you And it's a little mark of the the time I suppose The time of COVID and how it's really colored a little bit of everything Or a lot of everything depending on your own circumstances, so You know, there are many people who've had challenges life events Good and bad during COVID that COVID affects so COVID affects deaths in the family funerals that cannot be had It affects marriages In terms of weddings And it can affect sometimes just the the wonderful events of the birth of a child And so we've all had our circumstances and in my family has had ours and and so I Got to tell you it's very good to be back as odd as this is we did a few of them And I feel pretty comfortable in this virtual environment with you It's it is honestly and truly a pleasure to be back talking to you all today And I wanted to start off a little bit talking about the fact that I'm really pleased with Leadership across the Marine Corps You know, we really said that you know, it's a people business It's a family have done well And that one of the most important things that we can do is to recognize the folks who are working So hard whether it be just by an enduring level of effort a great idea a special project Or even and perhaps most importantly a team So one of the things that we said that we would do is is find more ways and impactful ways to recognize people Through action through deed Not just word and we tried to you know find ways of doing that and I'd really like to thank the leadership in particular You know the the branch heads Supervisors leaders who took the time to reach out and recognize folks and Because it has been some time There's a lot of folks That have been recognized so I will tell you You know, it's I Think it's good for everybody Mostly for me. I suppose to have the opportunity to recognize people who are doing Really great work You know given the time and the number of people who've been recognized I Think it would almost be counterproductive if I took the time to read through The names of individuals and on the spot and impact awards or teams that have been recognized So what we thought that we would do to try to focus on You know that the positive impacts a positive energy And focus on that and not turn it into a chore Where we're you know after the first couple of names it becomes just the reading of a list That we would try to at least for you all publicly to recognize be able to recognize your teammates individually If you have the opportunity by by listing out the people who have been recognized And with a little snapshot of the reason for which they they have been recognized I'd also like you to consider Very positively think about who those people's leaders are Their branch heads their supervisors their directors think about the people who took the time to put them in for recognition to recognize the good work that they're doing and and I'd ask you also To recognize the circumstances under which this has happened so I mean we're all still trying to I mean after all this Time it seems like about a hundred years Still working through processes and trying to understand the best ways to maximize participation to to meet the mission To try to you know do things efficiently and effectively as we can from this very highly very very highly distributed environment so You know, you know, please consider that along those lines You know, we said in here in this environment would be better with a full auditorium here and You know, perhaps I don't know if you know Indianapolis is still going through the you know The practice of going over to the the War Memorial there and gathering as a group and so forth and how it's done and Other smaller geographically separated locations But to recognize people, you know on a more itinerant basis and so we not only for performance, but for achievements in terms of promotions And in other life events so likewise we have a list of a whole host of Marines in here have been selected for promotion You know one of the most rewarding things for all of us whether, you know, whether You know in uniform or out But a sign of advancement a sign of the recognition of our past performance and really the sign of Most importantly of our potential for future leadership and responsibility. So likewise, there's a whole host I mean, there's three pages four pages of You know promotions in there as well and then we have a couple of a couple of life events here in terms of you know, welcomes to the family and You know because this is out, you know over the internet I won't I won't read the names out of respect for people's, you know personal information and Folks we generally check to see if it's okay with them if we put something out, you know emails and so forth, but I ask you to look and we've had some, you know, some Some new members of the family arrive in the world here So I'd ask you to you know consider that and again consider that here and in the time of Of coven so I think they got there's a serum a glockland song about ordinary miracles that kind of seems to resonate lately so So there is that I Thought it really important to start off with that the most important thing which is really you And the things that you do to contribute To the Marine Corps and what it is that we're trying to do and I'll talk about that here in in just one second Kind of where we're at where we're headed But I would like to talk a little bit as we must about where we're at with COVID And just very quickly To say this You know, we track all of the you know, we've got you know, mr. Levy and his folks have done a wonderful job of You know kind of mapping out and we talked about this before all the trend lines for all of the areas in which we have PNR teammates be TSO or again, Kansas City across the board And we've all seen you pick it up generally in the news, but it's very impactful to see it in a simple trend-lined bar graph But the numbers are coming down significantly But I would like to just remind everybody You know to stick with it here You know, there's a lot of unknowns out there and unknown variants. I think it's pretty it's a pretty good news story it appears the the some of the data that's coming back out about some of the Some of the different types of Immunizations and the the actual effectiveness as opposed to in the lab effectiveness I know Israel's come out with a study the UK's come out with a study I think we're starting to see studies come out of the US and it's all very hopeful and I gotta tell you Nobody wants to get there sooner than me. It's I was walking around today as we were walking through the Pentagon and it just occurred to me that You know, there's just patterns. You don't see here anymore You just in a couple of things and you miss. I mean one is just the people in the passageway I mean there's days it here. It's like the day the earth stood still, you know, you look around you can look down You know get it when you know an apex and you can look down too long Passageways and see not a soul. It's it can be unnerving sometimes when you can you know look in four different directions and see nobody But you kind of miss all of the the Pentagon tours, you know the backwards walking soldier sailors airmen and Marines or backwards walking with their memorized Sticks on you know telling everybody about this, you know all the neat stories about the Pentagon and the wind and the how and the why and All that stuff and you don't see families here, you know families coming to visit families coming for promotions families coming for lunch So Really looking forward to getting back to those patterns, but there's but we're not there yet Is the only point and not meaning to be a downer. I'm just saying that you know a you know Just be smart. I'll say be smart safe, but be smart and And you know, you're never in there till you're in there, you know, he never you know never declare victory early Don't spike the ball to five yard line all those kinds of things. So let's just kind of keep going Okay, so Where are we at? So, you know in in P and R we tend to You know bucket our efforts in in pretty predictable ways and a lot of them have to do with one of the The primary big wheels about the national security Decision-making cycle right and that's the PPBE and we've said the PPBE a so, you know, we'll go over Hey, where are we at and we kind of just work through it temporarily, you know So you can talk about we'll get into talking about the previous year as we get better about analyzing it So there's work on going within PA&E to try and analyze FY 20 Hey, what where do we really spend the money and how did that look relative to how we budgeted? How did that look like relatively programmed? How did that look relative to the plan? But I can tell you right now. We've got very unique aspects of FY 21 Stacked on top of that is a relook at The budget for FY 22 because there's a new administration nothing unusual about that new administration gets in and they say hold On on the budget, you know We'll submit it a little bit later and the constitutional stipulates per se they're allowed to do it and And to make sure that administration priorities in there palm 23 Which is you know kind of in a Critically important mode or modes Relative to Resourcing the commonance force design we'll talk about that and the things that we're trying to do for reform We're already talking palm 24 In the context of 23 all stacked on top of each other And that's not taking into account audit Audit where there's you know, we're really nobody can pressurize ourselves more than us That's the beauty about the Marine Corps. You'd say oh, there's a lot of political pressure to get an audit But there's nothing that a politician can do to pressurize the Marine Corps to get an audit opinion more than we're gonna pressurize ourselves because we're Marines so But there's there's pressure there that from us And then there's a lot of pressure relative to the transition from Sabres our financial management accounting platform into Defense Agency initiative the DAI Platform that's more of a business mission system broader than a financial management accounting platform taking into account a lot more things a lot more keep it, you know There's we're on a clock for that and a lot of these clocks lead towards Really late summer early fall and continue on out past that absolutely no question And then and then there's a lot of efforts Going on across the board for a lot of the things that we're trying to do for Reform efforts for PPBE a whether it be a Marine Corps strategic assessment In May for Palm 24 these commanders organizational risk estimates that BCG is helping us develop We're going into wave two on that. We just had the meeting with all the commanding generals on that this morning big level of effort to try and Get that set To go through a an integration phase between Planning and planning programming which we laid out that said we want to have more sessions with the commandant We're actually doing that all of this is oh by the way actually happening the things that we all talked about we all kind of envisioned Probably two years ago. I'm happy to report are actually happening And they're all happening at the same time. So that's kind of the big news, but So let me touch base on some of those things quickly. I'll talk a little bit of that the context Maybe a few other things and then and then take your questions So I'll just go kind of in order. Like I said, we'd really like to have a better understanding We're take the first turn on the a part of PPBE a and that's the assessment and that really start should start You know when when close out is finished in the three to six three and then another three weeks Whatever, but it takes to actually kind of close out. Is that about right mr. Gardner and after a 30 September you get into somewhere in Early November where you go the money settles and you okay? Hey, this is what we're submitting to D fast Am I getting all this right and we sign off and I'm getting only a half heart. Yes I only got that part right but But anyway, we're kind of signing that off and and and then we can analyze to see where the money went So there's that FY 21 FY 21 right now a Whole host of things going on again simultaneously because when we transition out of the current Continuing resolution into an enacted budget and took all those marks and everything puts and takes Congress You know we lay that in to the budget Which means that money is moving around and now we have people who are less happy than they were less happy before and You start moving up the money around at the very time where you're starting to see where the money isn't and start to aggregate Your demand signals in a mid-year review kind of framework In seeing where the money is under executing funds and all that kind of stuff So we're working really hard, but the news on so that's all standard right all standard But normally the way the timeline goes is that we would do a mid-year review Really kind of in March. We just put out the guidance for that and then you would submit that All the way up and then over to Congress and you know May time frame Maybe June get the money in August. Maybe September what we're doing a reprogramming in March So we're doing a bunch of stuff right now and trying to organize ourselves to take advantage best advantage of the common On some money for the common aunt And try to get that lined out All right now and get that you know socialized through the Department of the Navy and then up to OSD and so forth But it's a pretty I mean we're trying to figure this out pretty fast Along a timeline that's compressed by at least two months, but we're doing it and I think we got a pretty good plan We want to make sure that we don't leave a bunch of Military personnel money mill purse on the table like we have for a number of years past So we're going to take advantage of an asset there. So that's kind of 21 So I really you know thanks to all the budget and execution folks out there who really working hard on that You know Tom Osterhout, you know Colonel Gary Roch, you know, Denny Martino You know, we've got the folks You know major Rogers doing you know a lot of the mill purse stuff Eddie Pagan trying to sort out all the Investments so I really appreciate all the work to try and figure that out because We're kind of doing sort of that same thing for 22 So the budget should have been submitted to Congress in February every new administration comes in and like I said And so now we're trying to go okay based on 21 and based on 23 and Things that we know now that we didn't know we put the budget together. What are the demand signals? since OSD and really the White House asked With their folks in here now set sec des in here depth sec des in here Confirmed and in the in their seats in the office and so forth What are some things that you would want to do to change your budget if you could? So we're looking at a bunch of things that we had marked against us whether it be fuel charges or foreign currency fluctuation all these kinds of things to You know what what me we might want to do to lay in more? sustaining levels of resources for audit or even things that are flowing backwards out of palm 23 for em rocks that we've already had To include demand signals from t-com that they think they need more military structure for our ranges and some of our locations our learning centers and all these to improve our In kind of right size our training education environment in support of the common on in his force design So those questions are all being asked right now as we go into a bunch of deliberate examinations of some things that the new administration wants to take a look at Decisions made prior to them getting in here. So they want to look at shipbuilding. They want to look at nuclear modernization They want to look at decisions made on aircraft whether it be f-35s or tankers the new KC 46 tanker Whether it be, you know, mq-9s and you know, how many orbits around the planet, you know supported primarily and say all that kind of stuff so that's all you know really layered on on top and and really That's that's much more expansive. I really appreciate the work that the rpm is doing on that So, you know, you know, Rick Cruz out of the engine room are you know kind of subordinate engine room is really doing Great work, but across the Marine Corps really it's not just simply a budget review. There's a lot of programatics in that So we're working on that while they're working putting issue teams together For the strategic portfolio reviews for palm 23 So as you can see 21 stacked by 22 in the ways that normally does not happen and then stacked by 23 because of You know what we've done with our reform efforts and you know sessions with the common aunt and stacked 24 because we're already starting to talk about that Really kind of pressurizing I'm gonna tell you really appreciate again Jennifer Bumer and her leadership of DAI and all the folks that are working hard on that I know Colonel Gary Rogers Personally committed himself to that and a bunch of you people are working on that To really great ends because that that is a heavy lift You know, there's areas right now that we're looking in terms of you know constant You know kind of it kind of goes in waves in terms of concerns about Interfaces and how that's all going and getting past You know how we're handling big tranches of data in ways that they haven't had to before and you know, it's a big deal It's a big deal and you know, it's a big deal when you have a you know service level enterprise. I mean we it's somebody else's Program, but we decided to do it, but it's really being driven hard in partnership with us Out of the office secretary defense and you know, mr. Greg little is really a good partner there And then we have folks out of the Department of Navy really helping out. So, you know, we're looking to implement that In FY 22 and so going hot on it in 22, and then I think we it's mature by July or something like that in actual July of FY 22 calendar year 22 So lots and lots of work and very grateful for that And and again grateful for Jen for your steady leadership And you know real steady hand on that it's been it's going really well and then audit I Could not be happier about where we're at with audit and not sure where to said that about an hour ago we just had a really good meeting with The the lead for Ernst and young the independent public accountant mr. John short who's phenomenal by the way He was a enlisted soldier, you know when he was a young man and Then he made his way into what he's doing now And he's doing very well for by himself. Thank you very much at the Ernst and young and now the lead for our audit efforts But you know, he talks like a Marine He acts like a Marine. He's just really biased for action I'm not going to say he's aggressive because he can't be he's a he's a certified public accountant He's got to watch out for his license, but but he's really biased for action and they've got a very Adaptive way of approaching sampling and testing and all that stuff for audit Using get wait for it data. Hey and letting data queue you and be much smarter about how they're doing their approach So very pleased with that very pleased with general charati is D reared in their team Very circumspect about, you know, what's in the realm of the but anyway, we had a really great meeting So that's kind of audit right now is you know, you're Your thoughts about where you're at an audit kind of ebbs and flows as well And so what I've told the team is is how I don't want you all worried about whether or not, you know We're going to get an audit opinion. You know, that's really on me so So really happy with where we're headed with that So I think you know, those are some of the big really big rocks I'll tell you I'm really I'm really pleased with where we're at with some of the knowledge management pieces that continue to advance I really, you know, thank the folks who started it really got us going You know, mr. Dave sco sick and all the folks who worked on that, you know, the partnership You know now with Captain Jenny Blonio who's really working You know some of how we're trying to take advantage of the work that's been done for knowledge management information management and take advantage of teams and work our way Into something where you know, we communicate better faster more completely and really quite frankly be able to take advantage of our Of our own information to be able to get at Products get it insights that were previously created that we shouldn't have to keep Rebuying through work and analysis the same insights over and over and over again, which we've all seen in the Pentagon constantly reinventing the wheel and Re-engineering the same information sometimes over and over and over again So I think You know lots of other work going on we're gonna have an FM summit Major Moore is really excited about that his face lights up every time he talks about it But that's gonna be a big deal. I think for the Marine Corps And and we just really want to you know a PNR oversees the financial management community For the Marine Corps, you know Marines and civilians alike and there's a lot of exciting stuff to talk about it We just talked about a lot of it here. I'm not going to go over it, but really excited about that There's folks who are really excited about setting up a Headquarters Marine Corps Comptroller to kind of clean that up. We want to get some of the you know Headquarters Marine Corps non-discretionary budget items off of our the PNR budget But more importantly we want to work as a team. So there's a lot of great work done there blue dollar Transformation looking at that. There's a lot of synchronization efforts going on with respect to how we understand Congress and their RFIs And there are briefs to them and and so forth. So I think that's probably Probably some of the big picture stuff I will mention because we kind of oversee a little bit participation as a Kind of a third-party Neutral so to speak is Marine Corps community services and you know a lot of great work being done there. So I Really appreciate the leadership out at Indianapolis You know really done a phenomenal job of managing through a whole host of issues I appreciate You know Tony pretty and Kathy Maloney and really the communication that you've had in terms of your people And how they are doing and how you're taking care of them In notifications and so forth for a whole host of reasons. So really appreciate that Know that we're all going through a lot, you know even out at, you know, Kansas City and You know weather and COVID and so forth. So across the board. I really appreciate it And is there anything else that you think I ought to talk about? Okay, okay Michael anything else. We have a couple of questions in the Q&A, sir. Okay over to over the Q&A First question is has there been any decision on changes to telework for looking at the post pandemic? cycle Changes to about decisions for telework post pandemic. I I'd say Clearly the answer is no like we haven't set policies I think I Think what and I'm just kind of thinking out loud here Because it's a really good question is I think we are going to need to sit down and have conversations with leadership about, you know Taking a look at what, you know, what works well How to best take advantage of that and you know where some of the limits may be Relative to communication participation in those types of things I Don't know Michael. Is there anything else you think that people may be interested specifically in hearing about? Well the distributed work environment OPT continues. I know that the presentations have been made to dimmicks and above But there's not been a decision at this point that I'm aware of. Yeah No there hasn't And So I need to get I need to get caught up on on where they're at because it's been a while since I've seen I've had a touch on that So I'm glad you I'm whoever asked the question. I really appreciate it Because you know, I'd like to I know it's you know briefs already. There's an OPT, but Senior leadership in the headquarters Marine Corps can tell you have not we have not been engaged meaning both Passively and aggressively like we haven't been present in it, but neither has anybody engaged us for our perspective on that So I'll reach out to Major General Olson and The director of the Marine Corps staff just see where we're at on that and at least see what the timelines are for decision If you could remind me, please to get back out I'll personally send email back out to the team because that's a good question and people are very interested in it and Deserve an answer at least where we're at in the decision-making process that sound fair. Yes, sir. Okay Next question is is there any additional or new information regarding the possible move to the DFAS building? No, and I think that's something this so TSO moving to the DFAS building at Fort Benjamin Harrison there in Indianapolis. So I think the answer is no. I think the the decision So I was just talking with mr. Gardner about that. I Don't know Ed was yesterday or What day is it the So we're just talking about that and I think the near-term concern for me is Because there is an expectation of greater telework and what we've seen especially with the you know TSO workforce That my near-term desire is to understand what the possibility is for scaling down after just scaling up in the new contract But just take a look at how we might right-size in the near term, but We need to revisit Where we're at in that decision, so I think the There's two pieces of that decision point One is does it make sense standing on its own merit? And then the other one is does it make sense relative to the Estimated moving cost so if it costs eight million dollars to move from you know downtown Indy to the north side Into the DFAS building. What's the break-even point on eight million dollars relative to the marginal cost savings per square foot? kind of thing comparing the two locations and then you got to do the qualitative thing too, you know, so how does the What's the name of that building? It's a new the building the bean building so the bean building in The DFAS bean building is you know, what's the layout? There's been some You know initially prior to COVID there's some concern about it not being kind of a unitary place not having integrity for the workspace just kind of you know TSO members kind of spread throughout the building with COVID you kind of go. Oh, does that matter? I don't know I mean we're doing all this distributed anyway, so I don't know But what I do know is I've lost track of What the disc where the decision point is so do we need to decide? Today next week next month sometime in the fall. I don't know so we have been talking about that It's been part of our conversation But again, I think we need to revisit that with With the leadership team and at least understand where we're at with respect to a decision space and then make near-term mid-term long-term decisions Hope that help Sir the next one. Can you speak to the COVID vaccination plan in the Pentagon with respect to? How vaccinations are distributed and expected time frames? I have some information if you don't I'll take it from a kind of a personal perspective and how I understand through my own Experience since I have received the jab as the Commonwealth people would say So The the vaccination so you know my folks, you know, I think it was major more came to me and said hey Do you want to get the vaccination? And I said, well, no, I'd you know, you're a Marine You're like I'd prefer other people get it first. I mean I I took it I don't have any problem with the vaccination if if you do that, you know personal thing and you know, that's people are dealing with that right now and We handle that especially with operating operational units But then, you know, he helped me major more helped me understand. Well, hey, there's actually a framework there in a framework in terms of You know people who are mission critical all the time And I'll probably get this wrong. You can correct me. So I'll apologize up front if I get this wrong He will correct me but So you get people are working in the National Military Command Center, for example And then you kind of take it down. I mean, I'm in like category three a which means anybody who is in a continuation of operation status meaning if something bad happens the Pentagon either it's just, you know, the power fails for a long time No malice or something other, you know bad actor thing Then people go to alternate locations And I know the people on the P and R team are on that list. So that puts us in category three a So all I can tell you is I know there's a framework. I know that we're working really hard to adhere to that to not make it a matter of preference about When you go but to simply go when it's your term relative to the priorities and Michael can you fill the in the gaps there? Yes, sir a couple of other details. That's correct There's there's a schema for all personnel and you fit in some place in the schema one a b one c two three three a b etc And and broadly and generally you write there's the high priority individuals such as yourself or critical to keeping the Marine Corps operating High risk individuals are of course very high on the priority list for getting vaccinations Then we have other high priority Uh personnel and then the the general population if I think of it in those terms In terms of what's practically happening boots on the ground Is there is some limited number of vaccines available distributed and allotted to P and r each week. We don't typically get a lot of advance notice for them But we maintain the list and m and p and we immediately Notify those personnel and check on their availability and see if they can make it because as you know Once the in accordance with the schema in accordance with the schema Because there's a limited amount of time that the vaccine is viable once thought So we try to make sure that we don't waste any and we'll run through the list based on the schema And ensure that we use every one of the shots allotted to us each week Yeah, okay. Yeah, it's kind of funny when we went down there to get the shot They had the first wave that had come through the Pentagon just in terms of delivery was uh, Pfizer and then the second wave was uh, Moderna So the the marines were the first to get to Moderna. So the the rumor was going around They're they're only given Moderna to marines. What the hell is that supposed to mean? So we just started shouting that it was a conspiracy theory and moved on The fact of the matter is it doesn't it obviously doesn't matter. It's you know in in nowhere in our history At least I can recall growing up what I have ever known the brand name of you know, you know, I think is a You know, I can rightfully claim that if I've done You know nine overseas deployments and then been Additionally been stationed overseas twice that I've probably jabbed as much or more than anybody else But never once can I quote you who manufactured any of those? So we're just grateful to have them whatever the brand is And grateful to to be able to move us past what I ask Michael is let's take a look as long as there's nothing Sensitive and anything we send out. Maybe we just send out to the team that that schema that priority Part of I'm sure it's already been out there But maybe because somebody asked we could send it back out if it hasn't already. Yes, sir. We'll we'll we send it. Okay. Thanks Anything else no, sir, okay Do you all have any questions? Okay, Ed anything else we ought to talk about Okay, all right. Well, I'll go ahead and and wrap it up from here. Those were Those were three good questions The questions here I got to tell you have really picked up over time. So I really do appreciate the engagement I hope you Had no problems dialing in and that it all worked pretty well We'll see if we can't get some feedback on that I was wrapped by saying that You know, I'm really grateful for a lot of things Given all the perspective that's going on In all of our lives, nonetheless mine personally And right at the top of that list. I'm really grateful for you all I don't think we we should forget about the fact that You know, we've been we've all been working in one way or the other throughout this entire thing Because you can say mission critical mission essential But hey, this is this is the backbone of defense For this great nation. And so I really do sincerely appreciate the way that you've all Worked together as a team try to fight your way through all the calm You're always fighting your way through calm always whether it's at home in the pentagon, you know out in operational environments Is fighting calm fighting your way through it? So I appreciate that you have and thanks for all the great work That's reflected. I would You just take some time If you could I mean it'll take you a whopping one minute and 45 seconds But just kind of flip through and reflect on some of the names in there Even if you don't know I'm gonna appreciate all the good work that people have done You know, say a prayer for the you know, the people who right now are afflicted with covet and other things that make That you know, covet has made very challenging, you know be grateful for you know, uh ordinary miracles and And thanks really appreciate it. Semper fi