 Every generation wonders if the next generation has what it takes to defend America. As we get older we wonder if the next generation has it. 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. This just in you are looking at obviously a very disturbing life shot there. That is the World Trade Center and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. 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 what happened. When the second one went in I knew instantaneously that this was different. At that point in time I picked up the phone. I called Bob Natter, the commander in 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. 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. This sense of a united pursuit of the challenges 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. Instantaneously there was smoke porn in my office. Today our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. So we had no headquarters. We lost our command center but we lost 80 plus percent of our spaces in addition to the 42 people that were killed there that day and 10 more people that were killed in the members of the Navy family that were killed in the airplanes that were involved in the crashes and I remember walking in that morning. The first thing I did was just listen 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. And what I have in mind for you is to provide the kind of leadership that is required when we are in an all-out war against terrorists who are trying to destroy our way of life and destroy this institution called the United States Navy. Got it? And I got a lot of people nodding vertically. Late in the day on the 12th president comes to the Pentagon. It's a small room no hangar on's. He walked in and sat down at the head of the table. Secretary Runsfeld was sitting to his immediate right. 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 of 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 she said I promise you I will not forget. Missile explosion right up the night time skies and the aircraft's trace over the capital city of Cubs. The first way 50 Tomahawk cruise vessel Vincent and Enterprise launched strikes from the Indian Ocean. So what happened after 9-11? Our people were ready and we had been talking about the readiness challenge for just this kind of thing. It was a time of such consequence. I mean every day really mattered. All of this was staged to a future where we were going to be around the world around the clock ready to go and it was just a wonderful feeling to be leading a group of men and women who were committed to that destiny. I think that the most important thing I can say to a sailor serving today is this your service matters. 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 but I 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 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.