 Welcome to the CNO's Navy Birthday All Hands Call, broadcasting live from the Defense Media Activity Studios. I'm Petty Officer Andrew Johnson, and I'll be your host as we take questions from across the fleet and around the world. Joining me on stage is CNO, Admiral Jonathan Greener, and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Mike Stevens. Gentlemen, thanks for spending some time with us. We know these shows have a tendency to start slow, so CNO, you mind breaking the ice for us? Well, first of all, I'm glad to be here with my good friend and shipmate, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, and can't believe it's already been a year, and here we are back celebrating our 239th birthday at the Defense Media Activity in Fort Meade, Maryland. Now, we're joined here in the studio audience from 10th Fleet, Nioch, Maryland, Navy District, Washington, the Ceremonial Guard, the U.S. Naval Academy, anybody I missed, VX-1, of course, I almost missed VX-1. But we're joined around the world from folks all around the globe. The Navy writ large and the Navy globally, which reminds me, we are out there, you are all out there, where it matters, when it matters again. So 239 years of legacy, of tradition, and every time the year comes around, we stop and we say, what does it all mean? So many people who went before us and made this all possible for us to serve with the kind of legacy, with the kind of tradition that we have, those that made us able to be the finest Navy in the world as we are today, as you are today making it so. So where are we around the globe today? Can I put up the first graphic, if you might? Okay, as you can see, we have about 290 ships and tonight, today, because we're global, it is night and day everywhere, we're all over the world. As the President indicated, we are continuing operations and will be, for a while, against ISIL, ISIS, as you may, if you may, in the Arabian Gulf, and we have the George Bush operating there with a host of ships out there, but at the same time, in the Mediterranean, we are protecting Eastern Europe and Israel, operating in the North Sea, out in the of Africa and also in the UConn area of responsibility. We're in the Western Pacific, assuring our allies and conducting operations with our allies and making sure that that freedom of navigation that keeps our economy going so strong is open and operating. In the Southern command area of responsibility, we're conducting counter-drug ops and counter-terrorism operations as well, counter-smuggling. Around the world, getting the job done, where it matters, when it matters. And as you can see, the centerpiece of what we do today and what we'll continue to do is sea duty. And we've recognized that recently. We've made some changes accordingly. It's arduous duty for many, and seapay is the center of gravity, and that's why we increase seapay this year. Deployments have increased some, and we should acknowledge that. And we have recently, with hardship duty pay tempo, which we're providing for people who go beyond, again, that seven-month issue, that seven-month period of time. So Mick Pond, why don't you say a few words, and we'll open up and see what people have in their minds. So you know, it's hard to believe that a year, as you just said, that a year went by already. I would just like to say thank you to our sailors, shipmates, family members around the world, whether it's morning, day, or night, for joining us here today for this all-hands call. And I'd also like to thank all the members here in the audience for being here with us, and congratulations to our shipmates that just re-enlisted. Not just to you, but we re-enlist the families as well. So thank you for giving them permission to re-enlist. So you know, these all-hands calls tend to run out on us pretty quick. I know there's lots of questions to be asked, and I look forward to with you to answer some of these questions. So I think I've said about enough, and I'm ready to get started. Before we do the first question, I almost forgot. The theme of our birthday, the theme of our celebration is thanking those who support us, which you absolutely just mentioned. We just spoke to the families, of course, they're the primary. The wind under our wings, as we like to say. But it's our friends, it's organizations, such as the Navy League and others who take care of us. But it's our communities who support our sailors out there all around the world. And you know what makes Seapower the technological piece of it so great are industrial partners. So all of that this year, we're going to take the moment and say thanks for it. But to your point, let's get some questions. We ready to go? Absolutely, gentlemen. All right. We do have a live studio audience. We're also streaming live on Navy.mil. But we encourage you to join the conversation on social media. And standing by in our social media studio, MC1 Brandy Wills. Hey, Johnson, I am standing by here with these four wonderful individuals. We are waiting to take your questions. We're actually already betting questions, getting some answers out as quickly as we can. But I got some questions in already via email, which you can treat us your questions. Email us at socialmedia at navy.mil, tweet us your questions using the hashtag All Hands Call, or hit us up on Facebook on the US Navy's Facebook page and get your questions out there. But on email, I got a question from A.B.H.1 Dennis Delorama from USS Harry S. Truman. And he wants to know if the Navy is thinking about entertaining a 15-year retirement for those sailors who are willing to separate. Well, we are not entertaining a 15-year retirement as we think of retirement pay. But periodically, if we want to make what we call force shaping, and this would be a voluntary, if you will, process or voluntary authorization, we sometimes enable people to retire at the 15-year point. But that wouldn't be a statutory long-range kind of thing where instead of 20 years it's 15 years and we just fundamentally redo retirements. Nick Pond, any comments on it? I'm interested to see what the military pay compensation and retirement commission presents to the president, to Congress and DOD with respects to future retirement. And who knows what they're going to offer? We'll just have to wait and see. Good point. All right. Well, let's take it back to the fleet. We're going to DDG 57. We've got a phone caller from USS Mitchell. Mitchell, go ahead with your question. Hi, with the recent events in Syria, have there been any thoughts on restoring Hazardous Duty Pay to sailors in the fifth fleet or adjacent AORs? Yeah, I would say Hazardous Duty Pay and the need for it and the requisite, the issues that require it are under review. They'll do this about annually, and they're definitely going to do it as a result of these operations. But as it stands now, it is not determined to be needed. The folks who are steaming today out in the Arabian Gulf and conducting those operations are not viewed to be, and if you will, under the circumstances of Hazardous Duty Pay. But we'll continue to take a look at that year by year. It's really conducted by central command in that regard. All right. And for some pleasant duty, we're going to sunny San Diego via satellite. San Diego, go ahead with your question. Good backdrop. Good morning, gentlemen. I'm Lieutenant-Generate Eccleston from Fibron III in San Diego. I was wondering, with the last year or so, when we've done the SAPRAF and SAPRAL training, and we had to have 100% accountability from all commands across the Navy, have we had a decrease at all in sexual assault cases? And if not, what is the plan to combat this across our Navy? Mick Putt, do you want to go first? Sure. The data that we're receiving right now with regards to sexual assault, sexual assault prevention, shows that we are moving in the right direction. It's certainly not where we want to be, but yes, there has been an indication or the numbers are showing that the numbers of sexual assaults are decreasing. But we should not take that as let's sit on our laurels. We need to continue to work hard, be diligent, and ensure that our sailors are properly educated and the bystander intervention program is working well as we continue CNO to combat this crime of sexual assault. Yeah, this is going to be a long effort. It's going to be a campaign, a year is not enough time. Here's what we do know. More people are willing to come forward to report sexual assault. The events, the assault, the alleged assault we're finding has a legacy. In other words, folks, these are happening well before the event, the date, up to 90 days, sometimes two years. So people are coming forward, the proclivity to come forward is increasing. And so we're finding that that's a good step in the right direction. We find that on surveys, et cetera, folks are willing to discuss it. Folks think the training is better and that the commands are taking it seriously. This is feedback we're getting from a whole number of sailors out there. So the arrows are in the right direction, but we got a lot of work to do. Yeah, CNO, if I could add one piece to that, cuz it's such an important topic. I don't underestimate the value of the direct feedback that we get from our people in the fleet and those that are working to combat this, that are wearing the cloth of our civilian sailors. And I asked the question to our experts, I said, data aside, do you believe that the numbers of sexual assaults that are occurring are going down and what I receive from them as they think about it deeply, they share with me, yes, I believe that we are making improvements. Certainly, we've got a lot of work to do, they tell me, but they believe that we're making improvements. And that's not something we see physically in numbers. But we have to take serious, I think, the empirical feedback that we get from our experts. Well, as many of you know, we just completed a Department of Defense wide survey, which is entitled to gender relations in the Department of Defense. And it's really about what's the prevalence, what's the proclivity, are you willing to intercede, and we'll get a lot from that. But we've got to continue, as you said, to get as much empirical and objective data as possible. Absolutely, that was a great question. For our next one, we're gonna be using Skype. We're headed out to old iron sides. Constitution, go ahead with your question. Good afternoon, sir. McPawn, I'm Seaman Wesley Bishop from USS Constitution. And my question is, is any effort being made to redesign boot camp specifically to refocus it on its traditional role of instilling in recruits the ideal of mission, ship, shipmate self, and the subordination of the self to the unit? I would say absolutely, and I want you to talk about E-sailor. Absolutely, I mean, we review the curricula for boot camp all the time. And in fact, the very, very attributes that the sailor just brought in are being turned and put into boot camp. We look at other recruit training. We look at what do we want in the character of the sailor of today? What do we want in the ethical nature of the sailor today? What are we missing in the fleet? And we've got to strive to get that in there today. So it's about unit not self. The good news is, those that join today, that's exactly resonates with what most of our kids that join the military, and especially kids that joined the Navy today. CNO shares, we're never satisfied with where we're at. And we're always looking for opportunities to get better. As a matter of fact, one of the things that we're doing at RTC right now, in December, we will start to issue a portable mobile wireless device to our new recruits. We're going to start with about 200 sailors. They'll get these devices and all the paperwork, if you will, the manuals like the recruit training manual and then bluejackets manual and those sorts of things are going to be downloaded onto this mobile device so that everything they need is ready and available all the time. We're also working to provide them with a level of connectivity so that you'll have an option to either write a letter and put it in an envelope during your letter writing time. Or you'll be able to shoot an email home and receive an email. And we're going to take that feedback. Mind you, this is just a beta test. We'll take that feedback from our sailors and we'll make a decision on how to best go forward with this data that we receive. But if you don't put your toe in the water, it's going to be very difficult to swim in the future. So we've got to start somewhere. Yeah. All right, thank you, gentlemen. Let's start with our first prerecorded question coming to us from the fleet. Hello, sir, I'm Seaman Michael Brian Kelly, stationed on the USS McCampill in Yakuza, Japan. And I'd like to know what the plans are for bringing back more port visits for four deployed ships. Now he's talking our tune, huh? Yeah, see the world, right? Good question, good point. What we want to do, we want to get into more ports in the Western Pacific, where the forward deployed naval forces, especially this kid, was talking about from the McCampill. What we want to do is we want to get into ports in Vietnam. We want to get into ports in Malaysia more, in Indonesia more. And these go in the Philippines. And these governments are in favor of that. We have to do it in a deliberate manner. There's a diplomatic aspect when you visit a port. You have to make sure you have proper legal protection, things called a status of force agreement where it applies. So we want to do more of it. It's a matter of budget, time, location, mission, but reassuring allies, building new allies, building new partners, and having our sailors who are the best ambassadors we got going. Interface and show what real Americans are like, what the face of America is, that always works out well for us, is a mission, a big mission, especially in the Western Pacific, as well as in the Indian Ocean through Africa. Well, if hashtag all hands call wasn't trending already, I think talking port visits might have sped us up a little bit. Let's take our first question from the studio audience. Go ahead. Good afternoon, sir, Master Chief. I'm Seaman Kirk Johnson. And I was wondering, Master Chief, please explain the difference between PTS and the Seaway Point, and if you think it should be based more on a command level than Big Navy with the regulations. Well, we have to understand that both of those programs are designed. We're designed to help ensure that we have the proper balance and that we're managing our communities correctly. CNO made a decision along with Chief of Naval Personnel some time ago to step away from PTS and move into something that was a little bit more personal, that afforded sailors and commands to interact in a greater way. And to give NPC, our Naval Personnel Command, greater flexibility when it came to how we determine who is able to re-enlist and continue service. I was just in Millington, Tennessee, getting a good brief, an overview of the process. Not a general overview, but an in-depth overview of the process. We believe that where we're at right now with it is yielding good results, that our sailors are overwhelmingly happy with it. There are still a few of those rates out there that are slightly overman that we're trying to get to the proper size and manage correctly for the good of our sailors and for our Navy as a whole. So I think that what you're seeing across the fleet, again, is general satisfaction to a large degree and that commands do have the opportunity, especially the sailors, to be a part of the decision-making process. And we'll continue to work on it like we do everything, as we talked about with Boot Camp. We'll continue to work on it and help it to evolve and get better over time. So we're not satisfied exactly with where we're at, but we're pretty happy and we'll continue to make improvements. You're welcome. Chair, absolutely. Great question. We're off to a wonderful start. Let's check back in with MC1WILLS and social media. Thanks a lot, Petty Officer Johnson. I am here with Terina Guetherspoon. She is monitoring the All Hands Magazine Facebook page where questions are also coming in. We got a question from Walter Quiñones. He wants to know, is there a new McPond guidance for the fiscal year 16, CPO 365? Funny that you should ask that question. I actually didn't plan it. But I was talking with Master Chief Garrison, my EA there in the McPond's office. And I said to him, I said, Jeff, I don't want to make any changes this year. I said, we're going to change the date. And we're going to leave it just like it is, because we believe, one, that it's pretty darn effective the way it is now. And, C&O, you've heard me share with the audiences before, is that I want to give it some soap time. Let our sailors get used to the process because it is a new process. But I will say I would like to share with our audience that that doesn't mean that I'm opposed to recommendations. I'm not inclined to make changes, but if someone comes to me with an aha type of recommendation, then we'll certainly entertain that. But other than that, I want to leave it alone, let our cheese first classes continue to move forward with what we consider to be a very successful process, and let them get acclimated and used to it before we make any changes. Makes sense. Excellent. All right. Let's move right along to another prerecorded question. This one coming from USS Gonzalez. CTTSN Kelly Atwell, USS Gonzalez, hometown Iowa Park, Texas. Sir, how will the events in the Middle East affect upcoming deployments? Well, for now and for the near future, I don't think that events in the Middle East, and I think you're referring to operations in Syria and in Iraq, I don't think they will affect our deployments in the near term. As recent as last Friday, we had a discussion, will there be the need for more forces, especially more naval forces, in the central command? The answer was no, not at this time. What we have is just fine. We come sort of self-contained. We say we deploy where it matters, when it matters, ready to do a whole myriad of missions. Some of those missions were called upon a few weeks ago as we started this operation out. We started it out with a cruiser and a destroyer and an air wing right after that we're already on deployment. We're continuing those operations with the ships that are there today, and I see that for the near future, perhaps for the midterm. We will be busy over there, but I think additional forces, extended deployments, I don't see that right now. Absolutely, another great question. Let's move on to a live satellite feed from Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk, go ahead with your question. Good morning, sir, Nick Pond. My name is 82 Huell, onboard the USS Harry S. Truman, and my question for you is this. Throughout the fleet, the relationship between officers and enlisted personnel is regarded as a high priority. Through the, over the past few years, there's been a push to reinforce the leadership qualities of the chief petty officers through the CPO365 program. Sir, I would like to know what programs do we have in place for officers to ensure that they receive the same type of training? Yeah, that's a good question. We've taken the lessons actually that we learned from CPO365. We've put this into our NROTC units, our officer candidate school, and our Naval Academy. And that lesson is right off the bat. You know who your mentor is when you get there? It's your chief. How many, I can't imagine any officer. In fact, I've never come across, certainly a flag officer who hasn't said, you know why I'm here today? You know why I was a successful officer? Because it was chief fill-in-the-blank. For me, it was chief shell hammer. You know, I'll never forget chief Bill Shellhammer, machinist-mate chief, who really embedded in me leadership traits. So it's building a relationship between the CPO mess and the junior officer corps. But it's also making sure that junior officer corps understands just how important they are to your development and also to what you owe to them, the covenant that you have. That's also embedded in as we go to basic training, basic surface warfare officer school, naval aviation, submarine across the communities. We're also looking at modules. I call them modules because as we go from an officer, an 01 to an 04, the expectations for that 04 are different from the 01, just as you have different from an E7 to an E9, very much different. To make sure they understand what kind of character do we expect you to develop, what kind of ethical natures do you have? Do you have to have ethical characteristics, if you will? And what do you now owe? You've learned so much. You've got to roll that back into that CPO quarters. And then eventually, if you're lucky enough to get command, how you nurture and develop with your command master chief, a CPO quarters and a wardroom that operate together as a team to develop the sailors, such as we have in this room and in the sound of my voice. Absolutely wonderful. Keeping with the live trend, let's go to Millington, Tennessee. Millington, go ahead with your question. Good morning, Admiral. Good morning, McPon. I'm IT1 Dimple Bimley, CNRC, Millington. My question is coming from your sailing directions, navigational plan. Once the economy has been restored and the fiscal year has been recovered, will you then increase the number of submarines, which you have stated that you will decrease by 2028? Absolutely. If I have the money, we will build more submarines. But what you can't do is you can't overcome a momentum which is undergoing, which we're undergoing right now, which is we built in the 80s, about 30 years ago, mid 80s, three to four submarines a year. Those three to four submarines that we built a year are now coming up on retirement at the rate of three to four submarines a year. Our industrial base that builds submarines, their sweet spot, is to build between two and two and a half submarines a year. So if we continue to build at two to two and a half submarines a year, and we produce those, we'll eventually catch up. But what we can't stop is a dip, if you will, in the submarine force structure that's gonna take place between about 2024 and about 2034. So you can't overcome that momentum, regardless of how much money you have, because you can only build submarines as fast as the industrial base can do it. But we have to keep at it. We have to build at least two a year to two sweet spots, two and a half, to get to that point where we will recover from this kind of a subtle degrade, if you will, as she mentioned, till we build back up to the force we need, which is 45 to 55 submarines. Absolutely. All right, so back to the West Coast. This time via Skype to Everett, Washington. Everett, go ahead with your question. Good morning, sir. Good morning, McFawn. I am MM2 Lewis, dual-enabled station Everett, Washington. I have heard some information about the female dress blue uniforms being put out soon. My question is, when and how will those be implemented to all hands, as well as how will that affect the pregnancy female dress blue uniform? Sure. So right now with the dress blue uniform for our E6 and below for our women, we're conducting a test. I believe that test is being conducted down in the Hampton Roads area. It's a small test, and when we conclude that test, and we're gonna expand it, we're gonna take what we learned from that, and then we're gonna expand that test. And once we've completed both of those tests, then we'll assess the best way to proceed forward. What we're trying to do is ensure that, we would rather get this right late than wrong early. So we wanna make sure that we don't do something and then have to turn around and do something else because we didn't think through all the challenges. And one of the things that we gotta be mindful of is the maternity uniform. And make sure that we have a uniform that fits those needs and those requirements. So we do not have a date, an exact date of when that uniform's gonna roll out to the fleet. Because again, it's more important for us to get this right than to assign a date to it. Fit, quality, and good wear. And uniform's always a hot topic. All right. Next question, we'll go prerecorded to Guam. Hello, McPon. My name is IT3 Eric McMahon from NTS, N-C-T-S Guam. And I would like to ask you a question. For those of us looking to stay in the Navy for 20 more years, what's your advice? Well, so the question is prerecorded, but let's be clear. I didn't know what he was gonna ask me, right? But I have an answer for you. I would like to share with you what I call the foundation to success. It's about three things. And it's about doing these three things with excellence. Number one, it's working hard. Every single day, regardless of the tasks that you're assigned, it's about doing your very best every time you're assigned a task. Number two, stay out of trouble. You can work hard, you can do the right thing for many, many years. You could get in trouble one time and you can compromise all that hard work. So stay out of trouble. Number three, and I believe to be the most important of all the foundation to success pieces that I talk about is be a good and decent person. Be a good and decent person to yourself, to your family, and to your shipmates, and never to forget to always treat one another with dignity and respect. Work hard, stay out of trouble, be a good and decent person, and shipmate your well on your way to a successful 20 years. Thank you for the question. By the way, McConn, that's what I tell the word. It's a pretty good set of principles. Set you up right there, set you up. So back to the West Coast, this time let's go live satellite feed from San Diego. San Diego, go ahead with your question. Good morning, Admiral, good morning, Master Chief. My name is QM1 Pokel, I'm a station on board the USS Boxer here in San Diego. First of all, I just want to thank you both for the visit on our last appointment. We definitely appreciated the encouragement during the holiday season last year. My question is for the CNO, sir. With the Navy's changing budget and personnel needs, do you see an increase in programs like State 21 for the Navy to develop that leadership within the enlisted ranks of the Navy? Well, I see an increase in that program commensurate with a change in our personnel. We have been growing, frankly, the amount of people in the Navy, the officer corps as well as enlisted to where we are today at about 325. So that's something that really is set upon the force structure in the Navy. In other words, we man equipment. We buy the number of ships and aircraft and CB battalions, NECC, squadrons, all of that. We buy what we need and then we man that. So we man equipment. So again, it's really commensurate with what is the size of the Navy? And so State 21, ratio-wise, it's about right now. I don't see a big change in that. So follow, if you will, the force structure of the Navy and you follow the changes in that program. All right, thank you, gentlemen. All right, moving on to the fleet, let's go to a prerecorded from Japan. Hello, McPon, hospital corpsman Christopher Rivera, stationed in Neville Hospital, Yucosca, Japan. My question is, will there be any incentives for people to score higher in the PRT? And also, will the PRT results weigh more in the evaluation and the advancement exam in the near future? So good question, shipmaiden. I enjoyed my visit out in your area in the spring and thanks for bringing up this topic because there's some information floating around out in the fleet that's talking a lot about changes to the Navy's PRT program. And what I'd like everybody to know is that, right now, there are no planned changes with our PRT program in any way. Doesn't mean that we're not looking at how to make improvements and that something may come in the future, but what we're not doing is making changes today. We've got some important things that we need to be focused on. This is obviously an important area, but we don't believe that we need to make changes at this particular time. So rest easy, what's in the instruction will remain in the instruction for the foreseeable future. And if we decide that there's changes that need to be made, we'll vet that through the fleet and leadership properly and make sure that you have plenty of advance notice. So you know, there's a lot of angst about this discussion that's going on out there with changes to PRT and we keep talking about it, but they keep asking the question. I know. I think this will go on forever. As long as people are studying. Absolutely, we're just getting started and we've already hit half the good button topics. We'll just see what, I'm sure we got some more for you. Moving next, let's go to a live satellite feed from Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk, go ahead with your question. Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon, Master Chief. This is E.M.3 Yerger from the USS Harry S. Truman. In light of the end of our recent 2014 deployment, sailors on the USS Harry S. Truman were wondering if there is any chance of the retroactive benefits that the George H.W. Bush is enjoying for their extended deployment, being transferred to the USS Harry S. Truman, if we're being considered for that. Well, trust me, if I could do that, I would do that. We've been working on the ability, as I mentioned in my opening, to be sure that we reward C-duty appropriately and that we accommodate folks who are on longer deployments, greater than seven months as a notional term. But regrettably, until we have to only reward, we're only authorized to award that period from when it goes into effect and forward, which was just a few weeks ago. So, sorry about that, but it's something that we would love to do if we could, if we had the authority. Absolutely, moving right along, let's go check back in with MC1Wills over in our social media studio. Hey, MC2, social media is just absolutely on fire in here. We got questions coming in left and right, and we got one that came in via Twitter. I am not even gonna try to pronounce this name because I don't wanna butcher it, but he wants to know, are cyber warriors to information dominance like battleships are to mayhem sea power? Yes, yes, cyber, people are our weapons in cyber. Cyber is alive today, I mean, is active today. If we go on over, we got NIOC here, right? Can I hear from NIOC, Marilyn? Ooh! You see these people are animals. Today there is a lot of activity. Our networks, let me make it simple, our networks are under, if you will, attack, they are being probed every day, all of our networks, official and unofficial, are being probed every day, attempted to be exploited and to extrapolate information from it's done by hackers, it's done by national, and there are people, cyber warriors, every day out there protecting those networks. These networks are combat systems. They are the means to command and to control. They are the means to deliver information. They are the means to deliver a sensor information to be able to deliver weapons. If they are hacked into, if they are contaminated, if they are exploited, we're in trouble. We will not be able to do our job. As I look into the future, I am positive that he or she that controls information will control, will have the upper hand, if not control, the outcome of future conflict. Cyber warriors are, if not the battleships, because remember, battleships are replaced by carriers, not long after Mahan, but for what it's worth, they are truly a major, major part of our Navy and of our Navy capabilities, offensive and defensive for the future. All right, our next question, we've got a caller from Kuwait at 11th, our Marine Expeditionary Unit. Caller, go ahead with your question. Good afternoon, Admiral McPund. HMC, Timothy L. Whitaker, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit 11, Kuwait. Sir, and my question pertains to the SAFRA program, and I know that we've made great strides over the year to address sexual harassment and sexual assault, but do you have anything in the works to better, to better inform junior and senior officers in LISTI on the rules and regulations and possibly a training team that will help to better assist our sailors and Marines in understanding the rules? Sure, well first let me say that it's important for all of us to be familiar with the policies that are currently in existence, and also I want you to know that CNO and I get an opportunity to sit on meetings and be a part of discussions on a regular basis where we're always looking at how to make improvements. I've never heard anybody say we've reached a point where we believe we've got it right. We're always saying what else can we do and how can we do it better? One example is the new training that's being rolled out where we're doing more peer to peer and small group discussions. I remember CNO, you and I talking about that in one of the meetings about what are sailors interested in and how they want to see this training, and we talked about the small group. You talked with leadership and leadership came back and provided you feedback and now here we are doing the small group training. So everybody's open to suggestions and ideas because hey the fleet knows better than anybody what it is we need to do and how to get this right. So please continue to provide us with your feedback and understand and believe and know that we're gonna continue to work on this as CNO has told me many times, it's the challenge of our time and we can never stop working on this and we will continue that effort. I meet with my four stars once a quarter, virtually we do a video teleconference, vice chief of naval operations, head lawyer, chief of information and fleet forces command, compact fleet, commander naval forces Europe, you get my point. And we talk about, so how are we doing? What do we need to do at headquarters to make the situation better to enable our leaders out there to deal with this challenge better. It's an uncomfortable topic and people are not as free to talk about it as we would like. So we depend a lot on surveys, we depend a lot on feedback from SAP representatives, from training teams that go out into the fleet. And frankly some say, I'm kind of, we're talking way too much about it, you're overwhelming me with all this. I would tell you, I'm happy to dial back any kind of policy changes, any kind of other to and from back and forth whenever things sort of are proceeding along and there's nothing more we can do. There's, as you said before, that the dynamics slow down and now we just get after this thing in a slow, methodical manner. But until that time, we need to be listening, we need to be willing and ready to help enable those who are trying cases, adjudicating cases to enable victims to be able to come forward to feel comfortable and to train folks out there to understand the significance of the challenge. So the quality of the effort, more than the quantity of the effort? Yes, yes sir. Absolutely. Absolutely great question, one that we probably could have done the entire show on. We're gonna head back out to San Diego. San Diego, go ahead with your question. Good morning, Admiral, McPond. My name is Operation Specialist 3rd Class Nicholas Mahon. I am on the USS Russell DDG-59 based in San Diego, California and my question was for the Chief of Naval Operations. Sir, we understand that Optempo has double in the past six years and at the same time the Navy has continued to downsize and so we understand that puts a lot of stress on sailors maintaining their mental and physical preparedness as well as their family lives and we know there's a greater need for more ships to be in theater and we're just wondering, sir, with the ever growing dire need to defend the nation here at home and the global front, what exactly is being done to reciprocate those sacrifices made by the sailors who are doing their duties and having to work more hours and doing what is basically more demanded? Okay, I would, I need to understand the facts and figures but Optempo Dublin is not what we're seeing right now but it is higher than it has been. Our Optempo represented, if you will, by deployment life and deployment length, excuse me, and time away from home is actually grown from roughly home tempo, in other words, time home from about 63, 64%. It's down to somewhere like 51, 52% and our red line is 50%. So we wanna get that back up to 63, 64, 67% time at home in a 36 month, that's our measuring, 36 months of operations, that's maintenance, that's training, that's preparation for deployment and deployment. How much time are you in your home should be in your home port for sure and hopefully in your home of residence. So we wanna increase that so we need to stabilize the process. So I mentioned this a little bit as we opened it. Make sure we have enough time for maintenance, make sure we have enough time for training. Make sure the people who are gonna get to the unit, get to the unit not right before deployment but in time to work the team up so that you can cycle through and get your schools done. And then as we get through this period where we had sequestration, where we had really unstable budgets, the world always gets a vote and we are able to accommodate all that and get out into the late 15 and 16 and 17 timeframe to lay those deployments in with this optimized fleet response plan to get a more predictable schedule. We are laying that in, we have the people numbers right, we have to now distribute them and reduce the gaps at sea, that's on track. We have to make sure we got enough maintenance capacity in the shipyards, public and private, nuclear work and private work. We have funded that. We have to now sit down and make sure that our training is not duplicative, we're not doing one inspection on top of another so that you're not doing pre-deployment underway time willy-nilly and needlessly. We're on track to do that. So all of these have to be in place but in the end, as I mentioned at the opening, sea duty has to be the center of gravity and folks have to be compensated for it. They should be promoted for sustained superior performance at sea and you've worked with that with our performance specifications and promotions and in sea pay has recently been increased and then if there's the people on deployment beyond the notional time of seven months they should be accommodated and that's hardship duty pay which we just recently put in fact. He mentions, I think he mentions what we're doing for families as well as sailors with these increased deployments the lengths of deployments in periodicity and you've mentioned C&O on a number of occasions that you're not willing to accept risk in the areas of family readiness those support programs given the budget that we receive you've always pushed to support that to the highest degree possible to make sure that the families are taken care of as well when they're deployed. It's not a lot of money, it's high payback. Those same support programs, you're right. Absolutely, Incentive's another one to help us get trending with that hashtag all hands call. Our next question is coming from Millington, Tennessee. Millington, go ahead with your question. Good morning Admiral, good morning McPawn. IT3 Dennis Ward from Millington, Tennessee and RC. I have a question that goes to the C&O. In recent years our allies in NATO and the European Union have been scaling down their defense spending. Do you think this is a move towards increased reliance on US military might? And if so, do you think that we can convince them to be more self-reliant in future conflicts? Well, I don't know if it's been this reduced budget which is factual with our NATO allies is purposeful to shift the burden over to the United States but it certainly has occurred that way. Recently there was a NATO summit after the Russian incursion into Crimea and into the Ukraine. The NATO nations came together and had a summit. They had it in Wales and the United Kingdom. And coming out of that was a commitment by the NATO nations to arrest the reduction in their defense budget and in many cases to increase. We'll see how that transpires. That's something that our nation, that our president, that our secretary of defense, all of it try to encourage our NATO partners to increase their defense budget, to strengthen them and to show the resolve that is so important to make that alliance, the NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a strong and a good deterrent for future instability in both in Europe and in Africa. All right, our next question is coming to us from USS Arlington. Caller, go ahead with your question. Good afternoon. Is there any plan on the part of the Navy to have an expanded presence in the Middle East to counteract the efforts of ISIS in Iraq? No, there's no plan right now to have an increase in presence. The distribution of forces today is good. We have just over 100 ships deployed. About 30% of those, that is about 30, 32, I think is the number, are in the Middle East. And that's about right. We are where it matters, when it matters. We have the requisite forces but more important capabilities to answer the call for those capabilities that the central commander says is needed for this ISIS campaign that is ongoing. All right, let's take another question from our studio audience. Go ahead with your question. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Master Chief. My name is Seaman Brachi. I'm with the ceremonial guard. Master Chief, this is a question for you. Understand that the female uniforms are changing. Is there any thoughts about the male uniform? We don't have any big changes in store for the uniforms that our male sailors are wearing. I think it's important, as I've mentioned throughout this all hands call, to understand that because there is no change as planned, doesn't mean changes won't come because we have a responsibility to always be looking at how to improve the process. There is some work that's taken place right now with the flame-resistant coveralls. We're trying to determine the best product to roll out with that particular uniform. There's some minor changes that are gonna be occurring with the jumper, the dress blue uniforms. But I take your question more so as a significant uniform change, new types of uniforms. And that's not occurring, but we're certainly looking at ways to make the uniforms you're currently in better to wear, when I say better to wear, I mean comfort and fit, and ensure that it provides you with the safety that you deserve, and frankly that we should be providing you. All right, headed back to Norfolk for another live question. Norfolk, go ahead. Good morning, sir. Good morning, McPond. Ellis Threemore from USS Harry S. Truman. My question for you is, in regards to current world events, what is the possibility of going to a two-carrier presence in the Central Command AOR? Well, I don't think it's likely, in the near term, the number of aircraft that our air wing on A-carrier, one carrier provide, has been adequate to meet all of the air support that the Navy has requested to provide. I would not be in favor of going to two carriers, an Arabian Gulf that's hard on our ability to do sustained presence worldwide. However, we'll see what portends out there, but I don't see it right now. We have a lot of the right forces in theater, a lot of capability, especially with one air wing there. So for now, one carrier strike group. All right, our next question is a caller from USS Macon Island. Macon Island, go ahead with your question. I'm CCT-1 Peter from USS Macon Island. Our ship is very proactive with the women at sea program, and I feel as though the women on board, including myself, have benefited from the program in some way. And I have, however, asked several women if they have seen this program active at other commands, and the answer is usually no. With retention rates low for women in the Navy, this program may be one way for us to boost those numbers by increasing advertisement and awareness and encouraging commands to take a more active role with this program. What are your thoughts on the women at sea program? It's a terrific program. I, frankly, was not aware of it until about six months ago, and it's a terrific way. You have to have sort of what some call the critical mass, enough women to make it worthwhile such that they will come together, they can come together. There are enough of them periodically. Talk about what they want to do, how to interact, deal with unique issues. You have to have a decent rank structure. Experts tell me so that you can do nurturing, you can do mentoring and make it worthwhile. However, the Macon Island is an example of it working correctly. I've seen your logo, I've seen your process, I've seen your results, Macon Island, and congratulations on that. It should be exported and we're working on that, but again, some of these attributes that I speak to to make it effective are not necessarily easily laid on a smaller unit. But if you're talking about probably an LPD kind of size, that kind of size grew better, it's a good idea. But how to develop that to a smaller unit we have to look at. But the characteristics and the endeavors are definitely, they speak for themselves. So you know, I'd like to ask a question with a question or answer a question with a question for a shipmate on the Macon Island in 10 seconds or less, 15 seconds or less, since you're a part of an active program and it's working well for your ship, what is something that you would recommend to our audience during this period of time? We've been definitely meeting regularly. On board Macon Island, we meet regularly as a group. We discuss topics that we think that would benefit women at sea or on shore. I really think just the advertisement of getting women involved is where it starts. And so if you have a productive team that are willing to do that, I really think that's where it starts. So get the team together, start a discussion and see where that takes you. And get command support. Get command support. See, I believe, my understanding is you've got pretty terrific command support, commanding officer on downs. That sound right? Yes, very much so. So let your CMC know that I'd like to give him a call maybe and get some pearls from him. Do that. All right, thank you, shipmates. Love it, great conversation. Let's see how that conversation is transitioning into social media. MC1, how's it going in there? It's awesome, and that was a great question from Macon Island, and I actually have one that can almost relate to it. It came from Mandy Hadley-Ecklin, and she wants to know, why can't we start a program for dual military parents who aren't married for co-location? That's almost hard to understand. Dual? Yeah, dual military, so they're two people together with a child. Not married, not married with a child. Right. Okay. With a child without a child. With a child. With the child. With a child. So a couple with a child unmarried. A program. So we have the co-location, spouse-colo programs to help the detailers better assign them together for duty. Right now, if you're married and you say that, hey, I'm going here, can my spouse or the detailers work that out, but we don't have that for unmarried couples. I don't know. I guess we take that one back next million. Yeah. Got it. Good point. Good point, thank you. All right, it is the playoffs. We started with the softballs. We're throwing some heat now. We're a little different. All right, our next question is coming to us from a naval aviator who's seen the world from a view that most of us have just dreamed about. I'm Navy Commander Reed Wiseman and crew member of Expedition 41 on the International Space Station, orbiting 260 miles above the Earth. My heartfelt greetings to Admiral Greenard and to Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Stevens and of course, to all of my shipmates currently deployed around the world. First and foremost, I want to wish everyone back on Earth a very happy 239th birthday of our Navy. I can assure you that our pride and traditions are living strong here in space where I am conducting research with my crewmates, including fellow fighter pilot and Navy Captain Butch Wilmore. Over the past five months in orbit, I've had time to reflect on my good fortune and I am grateful more than ever for my experience in the Navy and what it has done to prepare me for this most unique opportunity. As US naval aviators, we have continued to reach new heights and have paved the way for generations to come. I am very honored and proud to be part of our unique naval heritage. I will close today with a question. As the naval aviator currently stationed furthest from where you are located, what is your vision for the future of unmanned aviation platforms and how will that impact flight officers? Well, I think the simplest way to describe that is to go to the highest altitude and work our way down for unmanned aerial. So today we are building and testing, we have built and testing an unmanned aerial vehicle called the Triton which has about a 70 foot wing span, flies very high, 50,000 feet and they're about broad, broad aperture out and around, looking predominantly on the ocean front to find various and sundry things. So it's a tune that looks kind of like a global hawk which has been out there for years and years but it has more capability, can fly high, can fly low and it looks broadly out there and has a lot of different sensors. So that's your higher altitude. Then you move down, we have tested off of our, off the theater of Roosevelt and the George Herbert Walker Bush and unmanned aerial vehicle launch and recovery. So it's a carrier launch. So imagine you go anywhere in the world and launch this thing out there. If you don't have a person in there, if it's unmanned, that's a lot of weight saving. You can put fuel, you can put ordnance, you can put sensors in there. So that is out there and we are looking at that follow on. And then lastly, we have out there today, rotary wing unmanned. It's called the fire scout and we have two versions of it. One that goes about 100 miles, one that goes about 200 miles. And those are in production. We have lastly a smaller scale. It's called the surface tactical unmanned aerial system, STUAS. And our Navy SEALs use it, our special forces. I apologize, we're running about out of time. I'm finished. Perfect, perfect timing. If you've got a couple closing marks before we get to the celebration ceremony. Yeah, I wanna say happy birthday. I wanna say thank you for making your Navy the greatest Navy in the world. We will continue to be where it matters, when it matters and what makes it all come together are the families, friends, organizations, communities and our industrial base. Yes sir. All right, well other than re-enlisting everyone, I know you, this is a special ceremony, bringing out the cake and something that we enjoy doing with the Navy. It's personally one of my favorite parts of the Navy birthday celebration. And in order to meet the great guests we have in the live studio audience, this year we're gonna be doing it a little bit different. Cutting the cake will be using a cutlass that belongs to the Naval History and Heritage Command. It's been attributed to Admiral Farragut. This naval officer's sword from the early 1800s has a gold covered metal hilt forming the shape of an eagle's head. The handle is made of ivory bone with carved decorations and the blade displays an anchor and a ship on stormy seas. That was pretty good. All right, well gentlemen, thank you very much. On behalf of the Defense Media Activity, I'm Petty Officer Andrew Johnson. Thanks for watching. Now which section is mine?