 Well, good morning, I've seen you in London. It is my honor to introduce our CNOTEA this morning. 1975 Naval Academy graduate, Admiral Greenert, is a native of Butler, Pennsylvania, and no surprise to this audience, a proud Submariner. It's great to have him back home. His submarine career included assignments aboard Flying Fish, Pawtog, NR-1, and Michigan Gold before culminating in command of USS Honolulu. Additionally, Admiral Greenert commanded Submarine Squadron 11, Naval Forces Mary Alice, 7th Fleet, Fleet Forces Command, before serving as our 36th Vice Chief of Naval Operations. In 1992, he was awarded the prestigious Vice Admiral Stockdale Award for Inspiration Leadership. What he considers those awards associated with the performance of his crews is the most satisfying and representative of his naval service. David has lifelong passion for supporting our Submariners, our sailors, and their families. It comes as no surprise that he would begin our time today by recognizing our people first, re-enlisting six of our Groton sailors. Admiral, sir, we are deeply honored to have you here with us today. Thank you. I take great pleasure in welcoming you to the submarine capital world and the home of your submarine force. Please join me in welcoming the 30th Chief of Naval Operations Admiral. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. ITU Timothy E. Cockrell from the USS San Juan, ET3 Mesla Gallardo from Naval Submarine Support Facility, LS2 Andrew J. Jolly from the USS San Juan, EN2 John C. Kovac III from Subway Support Operations, IS2 Shane L. Machado from Naval Operations Force Center, New London, LS3 Rafael Munoz from USS Dallas. Well, welcome here. First of all, it is wonderful to be back here. And I want to first say thank you to the family members up here. You're all here for these people re-enlisting. Is that that's probably true? Yeah, that's excellent. We're going to ask you to come up, so get ready because we take some pictures. But first of all, let me say thank you for taking care of these folks. And I think I see some parents here. And I want to say thank you for entrusting the Navy with your son or daughter up here, as the case may be. We'll figure that out when you get up here. Because without you, without your support, and all you other people out there who are doing well, doing great, without your families, and you know it, we don't get it done. That's a good foundation. So the first thing I want to ask, tell. I'm the scene. I'm telling you, everybody out there, you better email, call, or text, or whatever you do. Your mother or whoever operates in that capacity this week. All right. So here we go. First of all, you got family here? No, sir. You don't? You're by yourself? Where are you from? Kentucky, sir. Kentucky? Where in Kentucky? Williamsburg. Williamsburg? What's that in there? Southeast? Yes, sir. You blue or red? Blue, sir. Kentucky blue? OK. Where are you from? California, sir. California? Where? San Diego, sir. San Diego? Yes, sir. You a Navy brat? No, sir. No? Just gone on your own? Yes, sir. Are you a family here? Yes, my wife and son, sir. Your wife and son, huh? OK, well, we're going to bring them up here shortly. OK. How long have you been married? Three years. Best thing you ever did, right? I said. All right. I said. You have children? Just the one. Just the one? OK, excellent. Hey, buddy, where are you from? Shake again. Southwestern, yes, sir. Southwestern, Pennsylvania. All right, that's a good start. Where? Pittsburgh, sir. That's a better start. Where from? The downtown is Brownfield, Pennsylvania. Brownfield? Yes, sir. What's that in there? Other than Pittsburgh. Union Town? Union Town? OK, very good. A lot of good quarterbacks out there. You a family here? No, sir. All on your own? Yes, sir. You married? No, sir. Rich? No, sir. What? OK, thank you. Where are you from? I'm from Georgia, sir. Georgia? Your bulldog? Or you like yellow jackets, so you don't care? I don't really care. You don't really care? All right. You have family here? Yes, sir, I do. My wife and my young child there. OK, in the bassinet there, or not the bassinet there, whatever. That one? Yes, sir. OK, very good. Just one show? Yep, just one, most handsome boy in the world. All right. Doing pretty good so far. Hello, miss. Where are you from? Connecticut, sir. Connecticut? Good start. Where? Wolkett. Wolkett? About an hour and 15 minutes from here. All right, 15. So it's like being home, huh? Pretty much. Your family around here? Yes, sir. They don't pop in on you, do they? No. This is actually the first time I've come here, so. But they're here? Yes. OK. And you're an NC? PS. PS? Hopefully NC sometimes. But you got the badge for a career counselor, so you're a career counselor, and let me just say that. OK, very good. Good to have you here. How about you, buddy? Where are you from? Denver, sir. Denver? Yes, sir. It's pretty sweet out there, huh? Yes. All right, they're playing my Steelers first game. Right? All right, so we'll see how that goes. So your family here? Yes, the first five there, sir. First five? You got a brood here, huh? You don't have to share anything with all that money with them, do you, or whatever? No. Unknown, yeah, right? Are you married here? No, sir. No? All clear? So you got a little bit of money, huh? A little bit. A little bit? All right, nice to see you. OK, if I could ask everybody to please stand, we're going to give the oath of office, and it's appropriate. Y'all ready? Read and list? Yes, sir. OK, so raise your right hand, and repeat after me. I, and I'll state your name. I, and I'll state your order. Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. And I will obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the officers appointed over me, in accordance with regulations, uniform and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. All right, shipmates, you're in. Congratulations. Congratulations. Too late. Just give me the oath of office. Yeah, OK, that's good. I got it. OK, so I forgot you don't have any family here, is that right? No, sir. No, OK, so picture. And let me get my coins here. So if I get family members to please, I'd like, I'd love to get a picture, you don't have to. But if you'd please come over here and we'll get a picture of those that you associated with these knuckleheads up here. Thank you. OK, family's making their way up here. All right, what's your name? Charlene. Charlene, nice to meet you. Who's this? This is my son, Gabriel. Gabriel, nice looking man. Boy, nice little head of hair. Those are the days. All right, buddy, you're going to have to move over just a tad. We're horning in here. Boy, you did OK with it for yourself. You're a lucky man. OK, you got that good shot. Here's my coin. Thanks, sir. Gabriel, my coin, buddy. You don't take it up to Foxwood, it won't work. Thank you, sir. Thanks, nice to meet you. Say thank you. All right, you're welcome. Nice kid. Thanks. Thomas, I'll need more coins. You got family? No, sir. I keep forgetting, you're a guy from Western Pennsylvania. All right. Thanks, sir. There you go. Good luck to you. Thanks, sir. All right, family. Hello, ma'am. What's your name? Tina. Tina? Yes, sir. And who would this be? Holy cow, he's got NWUs already. You know, my new rule, he can wear those out and it's OK to stop. Cody, it's OK to stop and do things. I see, where'd you two meet? We met in Virginia. Virginia? OK. At the Christian Science Reading Room? Sure. All right. Excellent. All right, say that for the coaster whenever he gets older. Thank you very much. Thanks for taking care of this young man. Miss? Hello, ma'am. Hi, John Greenert. Nice to meet you, sir. Alice? Alice? Yes. Donald? Must be pleased and really proud of this young lady, huh? Excellent. You should be. Would you mind holding the certificate of re-enlistment for us there, and we'll take this picture up here? All right, excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Again, a coin. I don't know, sometimes women love them. Sometimes they don't. You love it? All right, well, that's good. You want to hold onto the certificate? She'll probably march her way back, all right? Listen, dinner's on her tonight. No problem, OK? So you guys, go think of a really nice place. Is that good? I got one picked. Oh, yeah, please do. Get a shot of this. One more time, you have to do it again and get this picture. All right, that's what we're talking about. Great. Y'all can sit down. All right, you know, we're going to get surrounded here. This is going to be great. So who do we put here in the middle? Are you a sister? All right, we're going to pick you. And so your mom? That and your name? Maria. Maria? All right, and your name? Miss? Ariano. Ariano? Very nice. Estevan? Estevan. Estevan, nice to meet you. Cesar. Cesar. Cesar. Cecil, all right. Did I say that right? No, all right. Mathew? Mathew, OK, one more time. Cesar. Cesar. Close enough? All right. Mom, here's a coin. Thank you. Sir, thanks for your son. We appreciate it very much. As soon as we're done with him, you can have him back. As long as he hangs on and keeps performing, he's ours. Thanks for taking care of him. We appreciate it very much. Thanks for coming up. OK, Mathew, are we done with these guys? Well, you know, it is, I mentioned earlier, it's great to be back here, but everybody has a professional home. If you fly, it's probably Pensacola, Florida. If you're a surface warfare, it's probably Newport, Rhode Island. If you're a CB, it's Gulfport down there, Mississippi, or Port Winemey, and it goes on. Connecticut, I'm a submariner, so this is kind of like coming home, and I love it. I remember last time I was in this theater, I was watching The Matrix, and it taught me a lot, because things aren't always as they seem to be, are they? It's great watching that. So anyway, I got some cards up here, because usually I sort of wing it, but you all submitted some questions, and I'll address some of these on the card. But first, I'll tell you, the bases kind of evolved a little bit. I was kind of shocked that the old softball field was in there with kind of the chain link monster there and left field, that you had to hit the ball over, and you got a nice track there. The peers are much better than they have been. That's good to know. The face lift is taking shape here, and I think this base is gonna be here for a while. We've talked about a base realignment enclosure, maybe starting this year, and that's not gonna be the case. We're not gonna look at that this year being 13. It's just not gonna happen in the budget. And the Secretary of Defense made that point very clear not that long ago. I see in the future that this base will be in our future. Down the river, we build and launch submarines, and they do it well. They do it quality, they do it on time or ahead, and they do it on budget or under budget, and that's a good combination. Here, we build and launch mines, and some of you who are in school, some of you who teach in school, you prepare our future submarine force. Which, by the way, again, I'm proud to be a part of, but your potential adversaries are adversaries out there. They're scared of you, and they should be. You're a good group. Those of you that support some renors, you're a good group. You're the best in the world. And again, if you're an adversary, that's the number one concern they have. If you're a friend, then they take great solace in the fact that you exist. The fact that you are out there anywhere around the world, people don't know. You can go where you need to go on your scale, on your trend, and again, wherever you need to go. And that's our future. The undersea domain is our job. It's unique to the Navy. It's unique to the submarine force, and we're the only ones that can get that done, and we have to own it now and in the future. That's our mandate. That's one of the things that we're after. And remember the things that you're taught in this community, and those of you that support it, the very basics of submarining, of nuclear propulsion, and that don't ever waver, that's what makes you strong. Now, speaking of mandates in the future, 11 months ago, I put together and put out to all of us in the Navy sailing directions. If you're a mariner, sailing directions is the document you go to, and it tells you how to build your charts, tells you how to build your voyage and where we're gonna go over the next four years. That's what I said 11 months ago. About a year has gone by and I stand by them. They're still good. I think they still set the right course for where we need to go. And there are six words in there that remain resonating and remain important. Warfighting has got to be first. That's how we'll be measured. That's what the country wants of us. That's what your joint partners want of you. Warfighting has to be first. We have to operate forward. You all know that because you go forward, you go forward in the undersea domain wherever you need to go. And that's important. But we need to continue to develop this operating forward concept. We need to continue to develop operating in places like out of Rota, out of Singapore, in the Arabian Gulf, in the western Pacific, and of course in the Mediterranean and in southern command. We need to have places that will continue to develop like Guantanamo Bay, like Diego Garcia, like Djibouti, like Singapore where we can rest, refit, and continue to do what we need to do. So operating forward is solid and we need to be ready. We need to be ready with parts. We need to be ready with fuel. We need to be ready with repair. And you all need to be ready. And I need to make sure you got what you need to train that you're organized and that you're equipped to do the things that you need to do. So those sailing directions are there. Those six words, those tenets remain firm through the next year. As far out as I can see. Now as you know, our Navy is, and the entire Department of Defense is rebalancing to the Asia Pacific. The Arabian Gulf remains in the near term today that primary focus pretty much. That's where a lot of the activity is, hey that's where the energy of the world passes through that straight of Hormuz and right now it's kind of a warm area and an area with some tension. But we are rebalancing to the Asia Pacific. Now some folks say, well okay, so we're gonna leave here and that's not the case. I spoke earlier about the importance of this base. The base remains solid, the schools remain solid, the location is solid. This is where we'll be. But this rebalancing to the Asia Pacific is it is about ships a little bit. Any given day today, we have about 50 ships in the western Pacific on deployment or home ported out there, ported out there. As we migrate to the end of this decade, we'll have about 60 ships. So we're gonna rebalance toward there where we go from about 50 on deployment to about 60. But it's not just ships. Our newest aircraft are gonna move to the west, we'll operate out of the western Pacific first. Our broad area maritime surveillance, that's a global hawk on manned system that can see and will measure and will sense around the oceans that will deploy in the western Pacific first. Our upgrades to our equipment generally go to the western Pacific first. Our investments in this budget in electronic attack, counter missile defense, ASW, ASA surface warfare, all of those sorts of things. Cyber have a western Pacific focus. So it's not just things, it's capability, it's mindset. Who are the partners that we want to continue to nourish and continue to nurture and continue to reassure. And then where do we wanna build more partnerships? The focus is the western Pacific. That doesn't mean we're walking away for others. It will continue to be the western Pacific. And then lastly, I would say as we lay down our ships in the future, where are they gonna be located? And things, we're gonna go toward a 60% Pacific, 40% east coast, if you will, lay down. By the end of the decade. So that's kind of what that means as we move out there ahead strategically. And I'll take questions in a strategic nature here in a few minutes. Let me talk about a few concerns that I wanna share with you. And some of these are yours. But first, spice. Some of you out there use it. Statistically, you do. And I'm telling you, you're gonna get caught. The testing is increasing in complexity. It's comprehensive. We can do, very shortly, we'll be doing urinalysis. Like we do urinalysis for marijuana, for cocaine, for heroin, for all the other drugs. You're gonna get caught eventually. You'll get thrown out. It's against the law to use spice. It's not free. Two, watch your shipmates and watch your own alcohol consumption. We're having an okay summer and safety-wise, but we're still having too many vehicle situations, bottom line, causing deaths. We're approaching a holiday here coming up. I want you to be safe. Look out for yourself, look out for your shipmates. Watch your drinking. Watch what you're drinking and driving. Watch the drinking doesn't cloud your judgment. Number three, sexual assault. Still an issue, has been an issue, remains an issue. Today, one or two, folks wearing an NW or something else will sexually assault another person wearing NW or another Navy uniform. Those are the statistics out there, one to two a day. I want you to think about that. That should bother you. It bothers me, doesn't have to happen. If everybody treats your shipmate with dignity and with respect, somebody you're willing to go to see and in this community, you ought to certainly get it. The dependency that you have on a shipmate, certainly in a submarine, it's not all that different in all other areas across the Navy. There's something inherently wrong that we would commit sexual assault, that we would assault somebody. It's a safety issue who we depend so much about. So we've completed training on sexual assault with the supervisors. So all you out here wearing khaki and CPOs and otherwise, you've had the training, about 11,000. We will now roll out training which we feedback we're getting is, it's quite effective. I'll be very interested in your feedback on this. And we'll train everybody to make sure you get it. And I'm telling you, we're gonna be held accountable for sexual assaults. So, a word to the wise. All right, a few questions that I've gotten ahead of time that I wanna talk to. First is manpower. What's up with that? What's kinda going on here? You know we had an enlisted retention board. It's the hot topic. It was a year ago. It's done. I'm not gonna do another one, okay? That's one. Two, perform to serve, it will be around. Perform to serve is our way of tweaking in small numbers where we are over manned in a rating. We can ask somebody to shift to another rating. Over manned 101%, maybe 102%. We can do that tweaking thing. We can't use perform to serve when we're over manned at 106, 789%. That's too much. We'll be saying no way too much. Perform to serve is improving. We are approving nine out of 10 on average now. A year ago I would tell you we were probably at five out of 10. So we're not saying no. We have also taken perform to serve and we're doing a three year average in the given rating. So if you apply in perform to serve, you wanna re-enlist. We'll look at your skill set over the next three years and that way we don't have to say no. So if we've got a good sailor, we won't get into a situation where we have zero quotas. We can average this over three years. So if we have a tough year, the next year we always have a better situation. So the improvement is there. I think it'll be sustained there. Don't plan to do an ERB. What about up tempo out there? Well, if you're a sub-rener, your up tempo is somewhere between, when you do a deployment, it's about five or six months, maybe six and a half months. That's the situation I see out there in the future. The submarine community will kinda move a pace. But our carriers are under huge demand. The world has a vote out there. And right now the need is to have two carrier strike groups in the Arabian Gulf and one in the Asia Pacific region. So that's three fully deployed. There's always a fourth underway who's either going there or just coming back. So we typically have four carriers underway at any given time. We have four in deep maintenance or overhaul. So that's eight, and there are 10 total. So I think you get the total. The other two are working up to go over there. So our carriers are in high demand. We have a plan to sustain that through March. Stennis will get underway soon. In fact, the Secretary of Defense is, just about as we speak, probably in an hour, gonna talk to the folks on the Stennis and tell them why, what's going on. But it'll be that way through next March. We could probably sustain this. In fact, I've just talked to my leadership. We could sustain two carrier strike groups in this kind of pace, if you will, the carriers through FY 13. But there are some changes that we would have to look at beyond that. Number one, we gotta understand the effect on the force, on manning, and that kind of deployment length. Number two, we'd have to look at the shipyard loading because it's gonna change dramatically. And right now we have carriers going in one after the other, almost by appointment. It's sort of like one to the dentist here with you guys. You know, you go to the dentist, that's good. You gotta go in right after the other. If you don't show up, that's not good. The XL finds out and it's not good, right? So we've gotta have our ships there on time and we've gotta have, that is in the overhaul and do that. Third, the training cycle. Well, if we're rotating to training one after the other, we need to understand the impact on the fleet response training plan and what that might do to it. So we have, as a result of VRB, I think we're settled down. Our advancements are showing it. Many more chiefs making it this time. Many more E4s, many more E5s, more along the line of what we're used to. We have some gaps at sea today and we're encouraging people to go fill those gaps. Many of them are in senior areas. Many of them are in skill sets that we frequently have manning issues with. Aegis techs, IT, nukes, and some others where we have that issue. Okay. Quality of life cuts. I had a question. If the defense budget is cut in January of 13 and I think this means sequestration, how will it affect the quality of life programs? I think something you need to understand. If sequestration, as written into the law, goes into effect, we can't alter those, we can't change that impact. It just, it happens. And what that means is other than your pay and other than civilian pay, every single budget line item, every project, every account gets a reduction of about nine or 10%. So that means, well you can figure that out, every single account. If you're gonna buy something, if you're gonna operate something, if you're gonna do whatever. So will it affect quality of life programs? Yeah, it'll affect MWR like it affects everything else except for your pay, because personnel pay and allowances has been exempted. If on the other hand, we're given the option, if there's a deal cut, if you will, to do with the deficit, which we very much hope so. If I'm given the option to affect the budget, I will not reduce family programs and I will not reduce those quality of life programs that support and nurture your development and your family support. Okay, retirement. Some people still think gee whiz, what about retirement? Hey, if you wear a uniform, your retirement will not be affected. No matter what comes out of any shape, form or study out there, it's not gonna happen. President has said it, the Secretary of Defense has said it, any future retirement and they're out there studying it, but it's going on at a very slow and deliberate pace as it should, this is a very serious issue. If you're in, you're in today's retirement system. Based realignment and closure, what about a BRAC? Well, as I said earlier, there won't be a BRAC this year. I don't really see the need to address this base, although I can't say it won't be. I'd say that I don't see the need to address this base from a strategic issue. This base, this area is necessary for security and we have a nice balance in our basis. Command advancement program and what someone called the Meritorious Advancement Program, what about changing this? Here's the deal, the Bureau came and said, listen, as we look at the Command Advancement Program, people getting capped. If you get capped, that's a good thing, because it's good for you, you got capped, your CEO is able to help you out and get you capped. You are probably in an over-manned rating, so now we're over-manned in that rating one more within that and so that makes it harder for those getting promoted through the board. Now it is what it is, but that's the facts of the matter there in that regard. So some say, well, we ought to visit that and take a look at that and we ought to adjust this and reduce the number of Command Advancement quotas out there and allow the boards and the purity of the board to take care of that. So they came to me, I said, all right, well let's ask the fleet, because they're the ones that have to implement it, because if they're not in, I'm not in and the fleet's not in, so I'm not in, so we ain't changing it and that's where we are. So if it's gonna be visited again, it'll get visited again and we'll ask the fleet, so is this the right thing to do? What is the right thing to do on Meritorious Advancement? What provides you all the right balance out there of promotions by board and by exams and Meritorious Promotions by someone in command deciding that that's the right thing to do. Lastly, educational benefits. The Post-911 GI Bill, very, very small changes. You'd have to go read it, go on the site, but it's solid the way it is. Post-911 GI Bill is solid. Tuition Assistance, some reductions were put in the last budget request. The reason for those reductions were a couple. Number one, we were paying a lot of money in this thing, almost $100 million. Okay, that's okay if it's going for the right thing. But we had folks, number one, signing up for courses, flunking and then signing back up for the course. I can't afford to do that, we all can. Number two, we had folks signing up with sometimes fly-by-night university who said, hey, Billy, I'll give you a degree, sign up here. And it was quite expensive and it was questionable and it's accreditation. So we said, number one, if you fail, before you can get it again, you're going to do some remedial work before you sign back up on some. Number two, your university that you want to sign up with has to be accredited by DOD. It's got to be a good school, one that will provide something. There's a lot of for-profit-only institutions. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good. And then lastly, there's a limit to where we can really afford, if you will, to provide education. Associate's degree, good for that. Bachelor's degree, good for that. Master's degree, pretty good for that. Doctor's degree, don't know that I get that much return on investment when I send that out for everybody to go out there and get their doctorate. In some areas, it's very good and we got a lot of programs for people to go get their doctorate because we'll get that payback and that replay. So that's my spiel. I'm ready to open the floor for comments and questions and actually out there in the hinterlands, some folks will call in or write in or do whatever. And let's take some Qs and As. Yes, sir. Okay, the question is, when will the next ballistic missile submarine be out? You mean constructed? Okay. Construction will start about 2021. Construction will complete in about 10 years. And when I say construction, you're getting into very early stages of that. And then it takes about 10 years to get that done. We were gonna start in 2019, we shifted it two years. So it has to be out by the end of basically that decade. And then it'll have, then we'll start incrementing them into the fleet one year and then the next year none and then one a year following after that. And it's very much tied to the drawdown in our Triton submarines, okay? Questions? Okay. Sir, we're learning the force of record for on a 688 and it's going to come to which boss on it. Well, I don't know what your back of the envelope figures come out. The ones that I have show that about 2022 will go below 48. I'm curious. Okay, and then we're, is that what you have? Yeah, okay, but I'm saying 2022 we drop below 48 and we dip down to around 42. And then somewhere around the late 30s will come back up. Is that what your figures show? Yeah, yeah, okay. So what's the plan? You know, well, there's a couple of plans. Number one, as we look out there what the Virginias are showing now, the maintenance time in overhaul, et cetera, we'll be able to reduce that a little bit. So that's kind of one. Two, we'll probably look at taking deployments the six and a half months. Okay, number three, we're looking at some of the later Los Angeles class, the ones that have full life core. We're looking at the core and we're looking at the hulls and the early returns are, we might be able to get three, maybe four years, something like that out of those. So they'll be there a little bit longer. So this divot, this period of time from 22 to 34 to 2022, that we'll be able to build some of that back up and get more SSN years. But this, I will tell you, as I mentioned about the carrier, you know, you're the engineer, right? So you know, certain maintenance gotta get done. You gotta certify the reactor, you gotta certify the crew, the engineering plant, excuse me, the engineering department. That's one, but you also, there's the entire submarine. It's sub safe and it has to be done right. And we will not be able to, we don't have the flexibility that we have in some of the rest of the Navy. Number one, you're smaller. And number two, you've got these standards that we have to maintain to make them what they are. So we can't go through the roof. What happens is, we'll have less available and we'll have to be much more judicious with the use of them. Yes, Jennifer. Where are you? There you are. Yes, we're, how, OS2, is that correct? Yes, sir. Feedback I get on OS, the skillsets that OS is that they do reasonably well in the job market. That's kind of one. Two, I am astounded at the amount of companies, large companies, and then large companies getting together in consortiums that are coming forward and looking for people in the military who are looking for jobs. You gotta pay attention to the economy. The economy is slowly coming back. Some say on schedule, some say not fast enough. But here's what I would say to you, OS2. Number one, make sure your portfolio is accurate. Make sure that everything that you did gets documented. Use cool, and I didn't forget the, you know what I mean, OS2, go look it up if you don't. Where your credentials, credential on line, something like that. Make sure your credentials are up to speed. Get everything you can education-wise and opportunity-wise out of the Navy so that when you go to transition, whoever you apply with can understand and they sync up, they speak English, if you will, to each other on what your capabilities are. I would say that as a member of the armed forces, and I'd like to say the Navy, of course, that you come to work on time, you understand the mission and task, you understand leadership, and you're a good person with good values of honor, courage, and commitment. And that is what America's workforce is looking for. Yes, I got you. Yeah, the question is just completed IA from Kuwait. There is a, at least rumor, if not maybe true, that tax-free pay will go away for Kuwait. Why would that be? Kuwait is just as hazardous as Bahrain in your view, right? Yes, sir. Okay, I don't know the answer to that question, but I'll post it. The wherefores and whys of hazardous and not, I would tell you one thing for sure, Bahrain is in a hazardous zone, based on the situation that we are there, there are people in the Gulf that don't want us to be there, there are people in the Gulf that openly threaten your spaces down there, but I don't know about the threat level in Kuwait and that business of hazardous duty. So I'll look it up and I'll post it. Thank you for the question. All right, go ahead, whoever's got the mic, go. Morning, sir. FT2 Davis, PC, North Dakota. Okay. My question is with the newer Virginia classes that are being built having similar launch systems to the SSGNs, is there a possibility in the future that we'll be seeing Virginia classes boarded out of Kings Bay, Georgia and Bank of Washington? Yes, I don't know about the porting out of Kings Bay, Kings Bay, Georgia or Washington, but yes, we are looking at putting what's called a Virginia payload module. It's a Trident missile tube in a 100-foot section, take a Virginia, open it up, put a 100-foot section in and put four basically Trident tubes in there and then you put cruise missiles or whatever you want to put in there, special operating forces. So that concept is funded in the research and development. Right down the river, electric boat, we've asked them to do the design on that. As you all configure, they know how to do this stuff. The question would be on your question is, so where do you port these things? I tell you, as the home ports are laid out today, Kings Bay is not, you know, they're not configured to support more Virginia-class submarines, nor is Banger. So we would have to fundamentally change that. I don't see that right now. Okay. The Navy is testing new PFA standards. I don't see these hitting the fleet anytime in the future. I haven't even seen the results of it. Look, we need to be more stable in things like the PFA. I think it is okay the way it is right now. And so I'm not in a big hurry. I got other things on my mind to change, you know, the PRT, the physical readiness test and all that. But, you know, I'm open. I'll wait till there's results come in. But I wouldn't hold my breath. That based programs and policies and mandated sailors to use it. The submarine environment where sailors don't have ready or easy and consistent access to the different end while operating in a separate environment. As these programs are considered to roll out to the fleet, as consideration being given to a large portion of the fleet, being a submarine force in some of the smaller surface combatants where sailors cannot access these types of programs such as an E-Leaf in their working environment. Yeah, it has, but probably not enough or you wouldn't ask me the question. I'm not trying to be cute. But let me take that and go back because yeah, we gotta do that right. If we need to put it on zipper or we need to figure out a better way to do it, then so be, that's the case. Tell me again the acronym of a couple of the programs you're referring to, senior. All right. A, A, B, or F, all right, well, what I need to do is I need to ask, you know, your representative, Admiral Richardson and his staff. So, you know, what do you guys see in the future? Because for all I know, there could be improvements coming, and if they're not, I need to look Navy-wide. I gotta believe the submarine community is not alone. Typically, you tend to align with situations like this with frigates and maybe the little combat ship and we're getting a lot of those coming in. So I'll take a look at that, senior chief. Thank you. You're all simply to forward from target against the 688-5s of the fleet mission. No, we'll backfill with Virginia-class, it's in our folks. She'll be a submarine home port of the future. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. Since it's very, you were wondering about the 15-year retirement and what all was going to do with that and what it was going to be. Okay. The 15-year retirement is an authority that we have to ask for. And you ask for it when you say, look, we'd like to offer people to go ahead and leave the service at this point because we have too many in the upper ranks, if you will. And again, it's an authority. We asked for this authority in the case of, most recently, in the case of those affected by ERB. And we will, we have asked for that authority in the future. I asked for a lot of authorities, if you will, to shape the force, anywhere from reenlistment to encourage mentor, how we want to subsidizing people to retire maybe a little sooner. So again, I've asked for it. And then, you can think about it as an arrow in the quiver to be able to shape the force. It keeps us away from things like ERB because we can encourage people and then they voluntarily do things and we can balance across. So I've asked for it, it's up on the hill. We'll use it as appropriate, but first things first. Good morning, Emma. Good morning. I'm Lieutenant Chris Mearns, AOIC of Niagara. My question is, where do you receive the Navy and what is your vision in incorporating more and more cyber into not only our submarine forces, but the rest of the Navy in order to enhance our submarine, excuse me, our cyber defenses? Okay, you mentioned, let me, the last statement you mentioned is probably the most important. We've got to get our cyber defenses right. Ladies and gentlemen, we are under a kind of cyber attack all the time. The country is and we in the Department of Defense are and we in the Navy are. There are people trying to hack into stuff all the time. Number one, you got to get your cyber hygiene right, okay? And what that means is simple things like your password, correct. Simple things like paying attention to somebody like your programs are starting to have perturbations here or there and they ask you would you like to report this and say yes you would because every time you report those somebody follows up on that and that could be somebody coming in. Keeping thumb drives out of unauthorized areas and not inserting viruses and other ways that you could insert viruses. That will take care of about 70% of our problems. But then again, there's more. We have to have the right people in place to be able to protect our networks. We have to move our important stuff out of vulnerable databases and maybe to a cloud technology or things of that nature. Defense has to be first and it's a defense in depth. And every one of you that operate our IT systems which are really our combat systems are part of that defense. You got to get the defense right. Number two, exploitation or offense. We have to have that capability and we have a cadre of people at Fort Meade and in our Navy Information Operations Centers, our NIOCs around the country. These are cyber warriors. They look like, a lot of them look like you. Well, not like me, I'm too old. A lot of them look like you and a lot of them don't look like you to some of the civilians. These are great people. They're young like you and they're doing an amazing job. Well, moving that capability now to from these buildings, from these centers where we get access to the networks out to places where we can also get access to other networks. Places and things like submarines, like surface ships, like aircraft. That is next. Anything in the EM spectrum, the electromagnetic spectrum that you can get into a network by whatever means are things we need to develop and bring forward. So step one, get the culture right, get your head right on the significance of IT systems and their vulnerability. Step two, find out the different and various and sundry ways we can use to go be exploiters and as necessary, computer network offense. And in step three, find the tactical means to do it. All the instruments we have in there. These are the things being brought together by cyber command and fleet cyber command, which is your Navy component of that who are, they're both located, cyber and fleet cyber in Fort Meade, Maryland, outside the Beltway there, just about where the Beltway is. That's where it gets started and initiated. Where the submarine community will come into effect of this is you have great potential. You can go anywhere around the world in the undersea domain and pop a mast up, which very well may have that capability to operate and get into networks. The question has to do with officer promotion. Apparently it's a submarine who's in it. If I were a regular transfer to the EDO community or any other restricted black community, I'd have the opportunity to go to a port one to two years faster. Is there any looking at big Navy and changing the promotion policies to under source of ballots to allow a port promotion? Well, we do, we will look toward that. Frankly, we have a shortage of EDOs and engineering duty officers. People that repair our ships and acquire and nurture and bring along repair and construction of our submarines and our ships. But we look at that balance. We look, we'll look at the balance of how long does it take to make O4? When's the right opportunity to do it? And it goes for how quickly we wanna get somebody to generally it's command. And then we back it up and work it through there. Yes, we do look at the balance right now. EDOs are short. That probably is why you see what you see out there in that kind of phenomenon. Yes. There will be changes made to the seashore flow for many ratings because we're gonna look at the seashore flow. But we've got to make sure that we provide the right entitlement for kids that are at sea and that they can come ashore and still get not only a respite for a little bit, but professional development, especially in the skill sets that they need to come ashore and become, if you will, better sailors, if you will, more skilled sailors. So the answer to that is yes. But we don't just similarly change at all. We look at each and every skill set. Good morning. As usual, my questions. How would you anticipate the plans of the military change for the potential change in the political party power shift? For example, would a Republican be able to come into office and would they be able to either stop them, shift them, or how far out would those plans change? Okay. Well, number one, the individual that occupies the Oval Office is the commander in chief. That's pretty straightforward. So he or she can change anything they want in that direction. The reality is we've had through the years, how long have you been in the Navy? 14 years. Okay, 14. That's three at least, three plus, probably going on your fourth presidential four year period. And you find that the day to day doesn't change all that much right away. That policy changes or directions that the country or the armed forces want to go in. And that's part of my job is to see that you are organized, trained, equipped, and that you've got what you need and that I'm listening to you. And then my job is to provide advice to the Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of Defense, and to ask the President of the United States who might, you know, that's the change that we're talking about, I think, predominantly. But I'd say day to day, unlikely to see much change. Overall, and over time, you may see dramatic change. We'll see. Good morning. I think he's ever needed to regulate ourselves. My question is, what is the possibility of maintaining these records in digital form versus armed armies? You're talking about a reactor? Yes, sir. I think that, first of all, you know, that's a good question probably posed to NAVCOA. But the way NAVCOA has brought on the digitalization of the propulsion plan has been, is it easy to put in, to enter? Is it accurate so that what you put in for A2, actually will always come up for A2? As you've said, that's pretty important. Can it be archived so that you can go back and look at it? Because that's important, too, is we, because we, these are all official records and they have a life that goes on forever. So it has to be, the fidelity has to be good, the precision has to be good, it has to be accurate, it has to be reliable. I think if all of those can come into place, if somebody has a program that can do that, affordably, then I believe we can move to that direction, sure. Good morning. Q is, with us moving to car forces over the road to Spain, what is our timeline schedule, intention, time we vessel to account a little bit of that, sir? Okay, the question involves an offer by the government of Spain for us to Homeport, that would be families and the ships for destroyers. Now these would be Arleigh Burke destroyers, DDG 51 class. These would be ballistic missile defense capable and they would have probably the most, well we will have the most modern, if you will, or the most cutting edge ballistic missile defense software and systems on board. So the timing is 2013 and 2014, okay? So that, I'm pretty sure that's right. And so what we want to, no, that's not right, what are the years? Thank you, 2014 and 2015, something, you get old enough, something in the back of your head helps you out, 2014 and 2015, so two and two. And so what we got to do is prepare the peers and all that. There are peers there, there's an exchange there, a commissary, there are schools, there's housing. We've been in Rota, Spain for a long. Some of you out there, if they're retired, they may say, yeah, I had an SSB in out of Rota, Spain. This is a long time ago. But yes, we've been there before. So those are the years, okay, and the systems. The question, I think you mostly heard it, will there be an increase in IAs and global support assignments? No, I don't think so. The plan that we have right now for ground operations, which we provide, IAs, individual augmentees that go over there for logistics, for medical, for engineering, for counter improvised explosive devices and things like that, those were enablers to support that. We're drawing down that ground element and therefore the enablers draw down too. And there's currently no plan to put boots on the ground in other areas around the world. That sort of gets to, well then, how do we influence events on the world? And that gets to, from a float, things like the Navy and the Air Force to a certain extent, okay? No, I'd love to follow up with it, but seriously, we need to learn to live with them. That's number one. And I think if you get it in your head right, unless these things you're in there putting bugaboo out there but they're not, then it's just a matter of learn how to get it right culturally. How soon, I'm sorry, how soon can we see? I need a couple of signatures, okay? So, and those signatures would be to, number one, it's a matter of how many quotas I can get for to put the drug lab so I can take samples. Let's face it, your analysis is a search. It is a search of your bodily fluids. Are you medical? I can't see anything. Are you a medical person? Okay, all right. So, it's a search of your body fluids, in this case urine, for stuff, and so you go test it. So, there's a legal aspect to go get a search. Number one, two, you have to be sure that you take it and be effective and it's not another fluid. It's that person's fluid, the urine. Three, you got to make sure that the lab can be accurate and that the custody, well, we can do all that, right? Because we've been doing it for years. So, this ought to move along quickly. And in kind of four, is the test accurate? Is it effective for the substance that you're looking for, in this case, spice? And there's many, many variations of spice. However, the NCIS has done some great work with the other services, requisite and criminal investigative services, to capture a lot of those synthetics and the labs are saying, yeah, I think we can do that. So, I need some signatures to kind of roll this into the overall urinalysis program. In the meantime, we're saying, well, I just need some more quotas before I roll it into that program and they say, sure. And so, it's ramping up. It's hard for me to tell you when. I'm just telling you it's coming. Do you want to know the USS California? I was wondering if the Navy is considered making any other nuclear power vessels outside of submarines and airbag triggers? Not at this time. The issue becomes, it's heavy. How much power do you need? How big will the reactor plan be for the size of the vessel? And right now, those balances, we don't seem to need it right now. Okay. Good morning. My question is in regards to them and we'll see them aboard in the past some reason. Okay. The issue is sort of two-fold. One, we have today, we take about 56, I think, is that the number? 56. 56 females into the submarine force. That's what we have today. I gotta tell you, they're not breaking the doors down. We're getting great quality, but females applying are in the 60s. Okay. So that's just out there. Hold on to that. But it's going very well in SSBNs and SSGNs. So now, we're ready to move to the Virginia class. I think next year, we're gonna bring some officers in to the Virginia class and move them in. Because you're in the smaller state rooms, you gotta bring them in incrementally. So here's what we're trying to figure out. Number one, if we're gonna get 60-some interested in this, where do they go? Because, as I said, 56 are fitting nicely in the SSBNs, SSGNs. We could expand that, because we've only picked four and four submarines with two crews. So we say, hmm, should we just continue this based on the size? If you see what I'm saying. Or should we move into SSNs? And you wanna get enough so that there's a cadre so they can talk. They're not just ones and twos here or there. You need a, they can talk, share lessons, learn, support. And we've found that's a lesson learned from when we brought women into aviation and brought women into surface vessels. So that's kind of that piece. You say, well, what about the enlisted? The other piece we've found is you gotta have a good set of mentorship. You gotta have a good leadership kind of triangle, if you will. So we need chiefs and first-class females that would be willing and ready to go into submarines. And do we say, well, no nukes, because we don't have that many. You say, okay, so that means you can't be a nuke? How good is that? Do they care? Why would they wanna go in submarines if you can't be a nuke? Well, they do wanna be a nuke. Where do I get nuke chiefs and nuke first-class and whatever? Why you gotta go to the carriers? Are you kidding me? You're dying with numbers in that regard. It takes about 16 females nukes to come in to get one chief. It may be higher than that, but it's somewhere in that. You get my drift, it takes about eight male. So it's not just a numbers game. I'm just trying to relate to you the sort of the challenges we have. Mentorship, a good seniority hierarchy. We've gotta go out and do the right recruiting. And then we've gotta make sure that we don't have little pockets where we have too few over here and maybe too many here. So answer your question. You say when, next year, we'll be ready to do it. We've gotta look closely and see, well, who's interested? What are those numbers? They're not quite as high as we thought they would be, frankly. In the officer ranks, anyway. Want me to pick? Okay. Good morning, everyone. I'm Eric. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I'm a senior department of Illinois Resources for selling special needs kits. Specifically, maybe we'll be into making the programs more readily available, increasing number of programs, and giving them programs that are not the expenses for special needs children. You're talking about exceptional family members, right? The EFM program? Yes, the special family member and the ECHO program. Okay. Do you have something in particular that you view of concern? I'm not asking for your personal situation, but what area are you talking about? Okay, so are you talking about treatment locally or the ability to move and support? What? Treatment locally, sir. Treatment? Okay. Well, we do scan, if you will, or canvas areas. We say what kind of, first of all, what is out there that we would need to make sure we have the ability to treat? Kind of one. What areas do we find we will detail people with exceptional family members so that they can go get that treatment? So you want to send them somewhere where there's no treatment or you got to go hundreds of miles or something to get that treatment. And then we got to make sure that we can do the transfer, make, you know, that you have the handoff from one caregiver to another as this goes. So these are the things we've been working on. If you and I were having this conversation two years ago when I was the vice, you know, I'd say, well, we've got a lot of work to do. We have done a lot of work, but maybe we have more to do. You can email me to my Facebook or email me, and there's a guy here with a suit down here, raise your hand, Brian, former Submariner, who can take your specific question if you want. Are you okay with that? Yes, sir. Okay. Good morning. As mobilizations and IAs have been very beneficial for the reserve force for training and they recognize as part of the Navy. With not doing as much as on ground, where do you see reserve infiltration into active Navy? Okay. You said infiltration. That's a good tactical term. I say integration if you don't mind. That's good. Good question. I'm glad you asked that. Literal combat ship detachments for the mission modules, we think is a skill set we can develop within the reserves and they can develop that skill because it's repetitive, be it mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare, or surface warfare, just to say a few. We are putting more, I mentioned broad area maritime surveillance. I think I did. That is coming in. It's a global hawk, big 70 foot wing thing. Goes on missions for 12 hours, can survey large areas. That data comes back and somebody has to analyze that data quickly and distribute it out what they're finding. That's probably a pretty good mission for reserve, we think, that skill set. We have these rotary wing unmanned vehicles. If you will, unmanned aerial vehicles are called fire scout and they're helicopters that are unmanned. They'll fly from the literal combat ship. They're today flying from destroyers and frigates. Those detachments and those analysts, we think, who deploy out to the carrier could fit in pretty well in that. So that's just to name a few of some of the things we're integrating, some of the systems, programs we're bringing into the Navy that we think could be useful. And these are not real, real small numbers. These are some fairly large things. We're going to buy eventually 60 some. In fact, we already have half of those under construction of these fire scouts and then we're buying a lot of broad area maritime surveillance. So there's a lot of things like that out there that I think are open for reserves. Okay. Good morning. Is there a payback for our own PC and our Toyota? Earlier this year, I read that there is changes, possible changes to the PFA and then for their updates. Now I'll take one more question. No, there just isn't right now. It's just, it's a bunch of study. Good morning. Chief Select was sent from high school with the Navy bringing back the IMAs in Florida. Do we intend to put the IMAs where they were in the late 80s and 90s where sailors were fixing ships instead of contractors? Yeah. And you meant in Florida, Mayport, Florida? Yeah, IMAs is Intermediate Maintenance Activity and I'm glad you asked that question. Some of you were plants but you didn't really, you weren't really. Yes, we are this year and we are gonna follow on, put more sailors into our regional maintenance capability and including IMAs. We went too far, contractors. They did fine work, they do well, but the system that we gave them because they have to work under that system is too bureaucratic. Whereas there are just some areas that we can keep within the Navy, within sailors and we say, here's my two kilo, get it on the, get the work order, get a thing and we can move much faster. The depot, the big work, stuff where you need shipyards, very specialized welding, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, we need to find the right balance. We swung too far in that direction. Too much bureaucracy. We gotta be able to cut through it. Yes, we're moving that direction. And I need to hear from y'all, give us a year or so, then I gotta say, well, I ain't seeing any change here, seeing no, I need to know that because NAVC and I need to work that. Okay, so let me ask you, I think the Mcponds listening in, I love to go out with him and do a two for show. And you know, he was professionally born here in Groton, Connecticut, Rick West. And he's retiring now because he has to. Otherwise I'd never let him retire. It's time for him to finish. And I would tell you, you were, you have never been served better by a Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy than Master Chief Rick West. He is fantastic. I love going on the road with him because he's got all the data and he's very challenging to those of you. And he says frequently, you all don't wanna be, sailors don't wanna be taken care of. They wanna be enabled and empowered. And I completely agree with him on that. So I wanna ask you a favor. I know he's listening out there. You all know he loves this who-ya stuff, right? I gotta give in here and get out to him a who-ya. So I'm asking to give me Groton, Connecticut, New London, Connecticut, who-ya on three. Yeah. Well, sir, I take you for a who-ya Mcpond. You can resonate pretty well. Who-ya Mcpond. Okay, you can be good with that. You all ready? All right. Ready? There we go. Okay, one, two, three. All right, you all take care of yourself. Take care of each other. Have a nice weekend. We'll see you. Thanks, Nonday.