 Well to start with the top five was a strategy that I had been using for about a decade That there's a tool so that there was a foundation upon which to have a discussion with the organization and at first it was Destroyer Squadron, so I was an 06 By the time I got to be the CNO. I frankly wasn't sure That the top five would work at that level with an organization that's got several hundred thousand people involved but We worked through it in a transition team Transition team was so incredibly helpful to me. So the number one priority was people Some people call it manpower. That's kind of a programming term to me. It was people Number two was current readiness Number three was future readiness all the investments in the future new ships new airplanes new submarines new combat systems that kind of thing number four was quality of service and This we could not talk about this without also linking it with priority number one winning the battle for people Alignment could be all about the organizational chart and who works for who and there was some of that that We had to work on that wasn't the real thing the most important thing was communications alignment and It gave me an opportunity to talk about these things that We needed to all be in sync about Serving the nation giving options to the president around the world around the clock anywhere anytime options for the president To take credible combat power to the four corners of the world and Because we could use the high seas we could do it without a permission slip So those were the top five Winning the battle for people current readiness future readiness power quality of service and Alignment the biggest issues. I thought facing us was first this people thing We had in my career I've been in the Navy 32 years we had made our reenlistment goals once once We we had to do something about that the most satisfying thing to me that first year was that we broke all the records for Retention in year one. We set a stretch goal not of 38% of 57% We didn't make it. We only made 56.7% and we did it having this conversation about service quality of service thing and serving and Our discussion Was straightforward and direct. Hey, we do hard things But in the Navy we do them as a team and we're here to serve the nation and try to make a difference for the nation And so by the time 9-11 happened we were already winning that in a big way Second and at least as important both of these are critically important When we put the transition team together We said we were going to invest big time in current readiness and I had been a sink Commander-in-chief of the Atlantic fleet Before I got to be the CNO What would happen is readiness would be up like this and then after the deployment It would go way down like this and then when it's time to deploy again They pull poor all the money in it and the readiness would go up like this Well, you know what that proved to us sailors don't want to be in the Navy like that and I said we were going to throw up all the resources We had at the current readiness problem because I didn't believe that we could do the things that we're called upon to do We had a contract with the citizens of the United States of America who invested hundreds of billions in our Navy And that bathtub made it so that a lot of our stuff wasn't ready to go in crisis And I had before on my duty on the joint staff I was the director for operations as a three-star and I had a good site picture of how Challenging the world was and I believe that our readiness posture was totally unsatisfactory And that's what I told the Secretary of Defense when he interviewed me. Well, so what happened here? The president new president came into office and gave us a billion eight and we had program part of the transition We were going to reprogram About close to ten billion dollars the number was actually nine something and and actually in that Day and age that was almost 10% of our budget We poured money into readiness like it was going out of style and so when 9-11 happened our force was more ready than it had been in ages I Remember then After that as Intentions were mounting we were going to go conduct operations in the Middle East. I remember one day. I Was in the tank never forget this and our Our standard requirement was to have one carrier group deployed in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic, right? We were also supposed to have another one ready to go within 96 hours on each coast The truth was we didn't have the resources to do it. We didn't have the ordinance We did not have the spare parts and I could go on and on but the point is the readiness posture that had existed with this bathtub of Readiness we couldn't mess it. We couldn't muster that second and that third and fourth carrier We and so what we started doing is that we would pause in the middle of the ocean in the Atlantic and swap ordinance and all kinds of things After 9-11 and it was in November December before we started conflict In Iraq, I'll never forget it the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff turned to me and he said Vern Can I have four carriers and I said? Yes, you can you can have eight if you want it we had eight battle groups totally in the green ready to go and We built a current readiness posture that was unlike anything we had had and I did I had experience in my entire career well, I believe that the coal was a Shocking wake-up call for everybody For us, you know, I'd only been the C&O for a couple months for us. It was this Gave us an immediate clear understanding of the nature of the new threat the asymmetric threat but also We had to ask ourselves hard questions about had we done enough them for the men and women that were serving on the USS Cole and I believe in addition to everybody having this Sudden awareness of the new threat that we were facing Not a threat. We're you know some task forces steaming over the horizon, but where they're looking to exploit any Situation that they can to their advantage It changed the way we did everything huge focus renewed focus on force protection From every single day every kind of an event event that is occurring wherever you are in the world Including at home and so now they're major major increases in The protection forces that have to be around even sitting in home port Everybody became Immediately much more attuned to a bigger and wider spread threat than we really had focused on before in addition to that it prepared us for the Con to it prepared us thinking about confronting enemies This isn't something that in the older days. I would tell you we thought about it when we're getting ready to deploy. We're you know, we're going Always we were going to places around the world where the tension level was a lot higher than it was at home Because the United States of America was an island nation and we really Accounted that as part of our part of our own defense everybody had to have You know had to really give serious consideration to the way we were thinking about them the challenge in the problem in addition to that It called on every sailor Every sailor to Think about their own personal commitment to the United States Navy into the United States of America So I'll never forget October the 12th Right after I took over as CNO in the year 2000 At five minutes till six in the morning my hotline rang. It's the commander of the fifth fleet and He tells me that the coals been attacked and I said, what do we know about it? He said that's why I'm calling you I have no communications with the ship. I do not know if the circumstances down there yet. They're in Aden, Yemen and I'm working to get that information but all the information I'm getting is coming from the embassy They're in Yemen Wow, this was a shock. So we didn't know how bad it was, but we knew they couldn't communicate Over the course of the next few days, you know, we began to understand exactly what had happened How did sailors react that I believe that all of us reacted With a sense of determination they killed 17 of our sailors and I'll never forget it at the end of the week I believe that the 12th was on a Tuesday. It was Thursday or Friday. We were having a memorial for them The and a number of the sailors had been flown back to the United States and a number of injured sailors We're also flown back and that morning the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary the Navy and myself I Were part of the memorial service on the pier in Norfolk, Virginia I'll never forget it as long as I live Because before we went to that ceremony. We met each of the families And I'll tell you that was a sobering day for one guy named Vernon Clark and there we were the president went in first and wanted to be with the families privately and Pretty soon the national security advisor Sandy Berger came and said Vern you got to come in here right away There's a mother in here who's having a real hard time And I went in and there was the family collected together her two of her sons a couple of cousins and maybe it was grandma was there and she looked at me and she said where's my son because we hadn't brought him home yet and and She and I you know I just wrapped my arms around her and began to tell her how thankful that we were that she had Decided to share her son with the United States Navy and with the United States of America How sorry we were for the loss of life that he was greatly respected and His service was so important and his example was so important and I want to tell you I Had this incredible sense of loss for those families and I think all sailors really felt that that day and that Week and that month and that year and then of course 9-11 occurs and we have more things to focus on but the Navy went through that crisis before 9-11 and I want to tell you on that particular day I turned to the director of the Navy staff vice admiral Patricia Tracy and I said Pat find our people When when the USS Cole occurred finding our people was an issue. We didn't have communications Who was it? Who had we lost and all of those pieces? I want to tell you when 9-11 occurred She called me at 1 o'clock in the morning and said Admiral we've found them all we lost 42 We had learned that from the experience with USS Cole we had an obligation to families get the information to them as soon as possible and It further than sharpened Focus that we had on all Aspects of the top five that we had to be successful in all of these areas for us to have the kind of Navy That was as needed in the challenging days that we were living in so we had no headquarters We lost our command center, but we lost 80 plus percent of our spaces I'll never forget that morning I didn't have a place to have a meeting with them and the staff had arranged and the Marine Corps had agreed to Let us use their spaces Up at Navy annex where the Marines also had Part of their component headquarters was located up there. They were also in the Pentagon. They were in both places And so they offered their large conference room to us and I remember walking in that morning and I had to ask invited direct reports and some key people including SES civilians and Flag officers so it was all that abrol level people and when I went in that morning The first thing I did was just listen. I said, okay Let's go around the room. Tell me where you stand Let's focus on what we need what you have been working on since yesterday morning fundamentally it was 24 hours after the After they hit the hit the building And so we went around one at a time and I listened to each of them tell me what they had done Where what their posture was and so forth? and then I Began my comments and I said Okay, first of all What's the most important thing we have to do we have to come to grips with the fact that we are at war War has not been declared. I want to make sure every single person in this room understands. We are at war Number two We do not have a Navy headquarters in Washington, DC where it's supposed to be it's gone Your calling today is this each of you. There's no new building space waiting for us We won't be able to put our whole staff together Tomorrow is going to be different and for months. It's going to be different than it's ever been We won't be able to walk down the hallway to one of our cohorts and talk over a challenge or a problem or a solution That's not going to happen that way, but by tomorrow You need to have a headquarters. I don't know how you're going to do it, but I'm giving you full authority to act and Don't ask for for permission Just go build a headquarters Because we have four hundred thousand sailors out there They deserve a headquarters. This isn't for us. This is for them and Then we're going to be able to provide the support that they need and that our nation needs so that we can keep our Navy moving forward and so And you know we started and then I said now look We have identified the 42 people that have lost their lives and We are going to take better care of those families than anybody ever dreamed But I want to make sure we understand the vision of responsibilities The people in this room aren't going to do that job because you have another job to do and that is to lead The United States Navy in your areas of responsibility So my charge to you today is find the best men and women in our Organizations globally find the very best people we have that we believe will be the most expert at Helping every family through this season as we go through 42 families that have lost their loved ones That's their your responsibility to get the right people to do that That's not your responsibility to personally do that I have other things in mind for you and what I have in mind for you is to provide the kind of leadership that is required when we are and in an all-out war in Against terrorists who are trying to destroy our way of life and destroy our this institution called the United States Navy Now I do want to tell you something else that happened on the 12th at 6 p.m. The president came to the Pentagon. I Don't know if you remember but he was out of town that day in fact in Florida when the Towers were hit late in the day on the 12th president comes to the Pentagon He walks in it's a small room no hangar on I Believe that I'm trying to remember in my it there were eight people seated at the table or 10 That's how small it was and it was a very small conference room He walked in and sat down at the head of the table secretary Rumsfeld was sitting to his immediate right He turned to the secretary. There was no happy-to-glads. No. How are you union of that stuff? That's not what was going on that Afternoon he turned to Rumsfeld and said you have an update for me And Rumsfeld gave him an update and I could tell by the way the nature of the update that they had been talking Regularly and had talked within the last couple of hours because of the timing and the things that the secretary mentioned This is very brief and then the secretary Then the president turned to the secretary and he said finger out like this Don't you ever forget yesterday? And then to the next person Don't you ever forget yesterday morning? And one at a time to each of us at the table Don't you let the tyranny the urgent and the busyness of the day cause you to forget what happened yesterday and Went all the way around the room And when he finished he said I promise you I Will not forget there's one other thing I want to share with you about The communications with the president I Don't know if you remember but The attack occurs on the 11th and on September the 20th there was called a Session of joint session of Congress where both the Senate and the House come together and the president was addressing the nation and addressing the Congress and this was an incredible evening for us and Again, you know the sense of tension globally was Just incredible it was palpable you could feel it everywhere and everybody still has a remembrance of where they were on 9-11 on the 20th the president gave what I believe with the greatest speech he ever gave in his life and It was such a wonderful environment because there was such a sense of unity I mean you remember right after the attacks on the evening of the 11th of the 12th I I'm not sure now if it was the first day or the second day Members of Congress are standing on the steps of the Capitol singing God bless America I mean, you know, it was such a moving time on the 20th He's giving this speech before the speech The Joint Chiefs are always over there for the state of the Union address And we're always sitting on the front row or the front two rows all the way over on the left that night and The Supreme Court sits in the center and the cabinet is right behind them that night. There was only one member of the Supreme Court there We weren't all the way over on the left. We were right in the middle next to the Supreme Court Halfway through the speech the president There was a pause in his presentation and then he said I Have a message for our military and there we are each of us members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sitting on the front row I have a message for our military Your time will come and You will make us proud Be ready. I told that story to sailors All over the world. The president gave us direction Be ready and we're more ready than we've been in years and years and we are going to answer the call Then I want to tell you this story about They asked me to come to the Arizona to do the commemoration for the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor Now I've been out there a number of times, but I hadn't been on the Arizona Memorial and It was an incredibly moving day and I remember this day like it was yesterday because of the things that happened out there that day First there was this occasion. There was that there's a Navy pier there that Navy only boats can come and go For whatever need but in this case going to the Arizona that morning and they were going to take us out there and then there was the commercial Platform it's not a big pier it's a platform where you could board the boat and there was a big crowd of people over there and You know, I kind of we were waiting for the boat And I kind of wondered what it was and I just it was only a few, you know I don't know maybe 50 or 75 feet apart and I decided to walk over there and introduce myself and I'm in full dress white and And but I walked over there and and I've met this family and and this group there was close to 20 of them and They were there because Grandpa was a survivor of Pearl Harbor and it was really clear that what they wanted to do Grandpa wanted to come back one more time. He was getting up in years and his One of the family members told me he said He wanted to come back one more time and we all know that he doesn't have too many years left And so we all decided to come with him It was such a Powerful example of how much that day meant to a survivor of a previous attack I gave the speech that day, but at that during that speech my closing thought with all of these Pearl Harbor survivors was this that I know every generation Wonders if the next generation has what it takes to defend America, right? As we get older we wonder if the next generation has it One of the greatest thrills of my whole time as the chief of naval operations was that I got to tell this story to them about the incredible greatness of the young men and women of the United States Navy who wore and did wear the cloth of the nation Rhett that whole uniform the cloth of the nation Representing their sense of commitment to and service and sacrifice to the to the United States of America To make a difference, but that day I got to tell them 60 years ago. It was your turn this generation of America knows that it's our turn now and We will fulfill the calling and purpose of the United States Navy Taking the sovereignty of the United States of America to the far corners of the earth to defend the principles of freedom and liberty It's our turn now and Again for four more years after that. I got to go around the world talking to sailors and saying It was their turn then It's our turn now and it's yours and it's yours and it's yours It's our turn now. I think that the very first operations really set the tone for the way this Campaign against global terrorism was going to be performed and I do believe also that there were an awful lot of people that use the Role of the United States Navy as an example of how it was going to have to unfold So how did it unfold? Well, it was going to be a lot of special force kind of activity working in Afghanistan and Afghanistan was an incredibly long ways away from the edge of the ocean Never in history had we conducted Flight operations and strike operations at a distance that was that far away? Oh, you'd make one sortie and a longer distance than that But I'm talking about the tasking we got from the president This was a challenge to respond to the direct orders of the president who made the decision to send small special force units into Afghanistan and Use our stealth advantage that we have with that kind of a kind of force But the president said They will never be in there without having a United States of America Combat airplane on top of them. That was the tasking there will always be somebody there Plus in order for them to execute their mission. They're going to have to have Air vehicles themselves that they can use and so the mission came for us to provide an aircraft carrier That would have the special forces helicopter Helicopters that could go execute a task at a great extended range and The call was to have combat power overhead all the time And so we took the USS Kitty Hawk from home base home base in Yakuza, Japan We cleared the decks except for The F-18s that were going to be part of the challenge We got our fueling from the United States Air Force from Incredibly extended ranges and I won't talk about sites and facilities. That doesn't matter and for the next number of months We conducted these Operations at ranges that we had never in our history Executed and I'll still remember some of the stories that I would get reports back from our fighter pilots that were Yeah, you know on top of these special forces doing these incredible covert missions all over Afghanistan that set the tone for how it was going to be done and I think what it meant to all of us in the Navy was this this is a different kind of a war I Don't think conventional wisdom. I think outside the box when we have to think outside the box But what is our call the commander-in-chief gave us this this to a call be Ready that was our call and we had great examples from the very beginning About how to answer that call and I believe it was a real inspiration to the whole Navy Well, my very first thought and when I got the report that the first airplane went into the towers. I Think I have heard other people say that they had a thought similar to mine. I really thought some poor Soul was in a small airplane and had some sort of a medical emergency and you know it happened and I usually had my Television on in my office I never had the sound on unless there was something going on and we turn the sound on but there was a Plat in the camera and the camera you've seen them where there are four squares There's four different things popping up and I could look at that, you know Just in passing and see kind of what was going on in the world and I didn't spend much time But it was always on the turn on That morning the sound was off because I was having a meeting and and so I didn't and also I had moved away from my desk and I was at the table. I didn't see any of this stuff happening When it went down, but the first plane went in and my executive assistant came in and told me and I thought it was Some tragedy some event with somebody had a problem small plane I didn't think anything about what it really was when the second one went in I knew instantaneously that this was different and I walked over to that big bank of phones I was telling you about and I hit the command center. I can hit the chairman's office I said and the EA answered the phone. I said, where's the chairman? He said he's out of town I didn't even say anything. I just hit the next button the vice chairman and he was not there and And and the EA answered the phone and I said, where is he said he's on Capitol Hill making calls And I said, so here's the question. Have you guys changed Defconn yet? I had been the director for operations I knew all of the various things that were supposed to start happening now At that point in time I picked up the phone. I Called Bob Natter Admiral Robert Natter The commander and chief of the United States Atlantic Fleet I said Bob, what do you got out there? He said I've got a carrier doing carrier calls and I said, do you have any air defense missile shooters? He said, I know I've got two of them that are supposed to be underway. I don't know if they are yet I said get them up off New York. Don't wait for direction go get some Ordinance on that carrier get some qualified fighter pilots on that carrier and get that baby moving north and you know what to do next I Mean it was the time to move out It wasn't the time to cogitate about you know how the world was going to unfold It was time to take action and I want to tell you our people were so fabulous in this moment So my feeling entirely was And I'm a person of faith and my prayer was Lord give me wisdom in this moment Haven't ever experienced anything exactly like this, but quicken our minds all all of us and you know and so this sense of United pursuit of the challenges that we're going to face and then of course You know it was just a few more minutes when we got here And I'll never forget it as long as I live the feeling of that percussion. I mean It was an amazing moment So it was a thrill of a lifetime because for One thing it was a time of such consequence. I mean every day really mattered every kind of capability that we could advance and pursue and then have in on the Grips of our hands to go apply for the nation that was the call and There was this was not about Meeting some task in the past all of this was staged to a future Where we were going to be around the world around the clock ready to go remember The way I said this we've got to give the president of the United States options and our option And the United States Navy is we don't have to go get permission from another country to go bring our stuff to their country to operate We have this thing called the freedom of the seas and we take our sovereignty with us and we must figure out how to maximize the Effective combat power that is possible to withdrawal from a force like the United States Navy and apply it at the point of attack and that was the It was so exciting to see that and I want to tell you I would get reports from What the fleet was doing on day one on day one the enterprise is on its way home I'll never forget. I'll never forget the message the flash message comes in and says from the enterprise group We are reversing course and heading back to the Middle East. Nobody I told them to do it It was just what we were talking about. This is our calling. This is our moment We have prepared for this all of our lives now. Let's make the nation proud And it was just a wonderful feeling to be leading a group of men and women who were committed to that destiny Well, I think that the most important thing I can say to a sailor serving today is this your service matters and The word service became one of my favorite words and I will tell you I believe when the consequences were the highest It'd be that word became even more important every day it became more important Because none of the things that the Navy can do or it that it's possible for the Navy to do is Is possible at all Without people who will make it come to life and make it work. So I want every person serving today and remember I'm one of those Generations past and so but I had was gifted with the opportunity To watch our young people respond when the chips were down and when the need was the greatest I got to see that firsthand and I want a sailor serving today to know that their service matters more than anything And I want to thank them for being willing to wear the uniform the cloth of the nation and to represent our nation where duty calls and I want to thank them for being the next generation that takes on the challenges of defending democracy and Committing for the United States of America to be the lighthouse of hope and the beacon of liberty around the world Well, I think the most important thing for sailors to understand is that there's no way for anybody to predict what tomorrow brings And so that means that we must be prepared for tomorrow and That means that we must pay the price in these moments of peace before the crisis hits before the Attack occurs we have to pay the price to make sure that we're ready to answer the call and that then requires an incredible amount of Determination and commitment I think that our The value code that we talked about in the United States Navy is a good one Courage honor and commitment examine those words the moral courage to step forward The commitment to honor and doing things right But the word commitment all by itself says so much to us and we can't know what tomorrow is like and Every dawning of a new day when the sun rises Every dawning of a new day gives us another opportunity to be ready for the unexpected and to ensure that we have paid the price So that we will in fact be ready when the time calls And I want to encourage every person serving to remember that every day What does tomorrow bring am I ready are we ready is our team ready is our squadron ready is our total force ready We're committed to making it so and Thank you for what you do the young men and women who are wearing the cloth of the nation Representing the United States Navy in the far corners of the earth Thank you very much