 I appreciate it, and good morning to the swarm. I greatly appreciated the toasts that you made last night to the C&O's design because I think we're going to do some high velocity learning this morning. But funny you should say that, yeah, I very much pine for my time back at sea. Unfortunately all my ships that I was actually serving on have either been decommissioned or on their way out the door here, but I guess I'm showing my age just like the ships that I served on. I also appreciated Mr. Sanger's speech last night, and I thought it said a really good geopolitical context. And I was reviewing your speech with some of my staff and I was talking to Joe Lorenzo who I understood you had the opportunity to ride on the bus back with last night from that great dinner. By the way, that great dinner was over the top. I mean I was really super. But he said that you were not aware that we actually had a Coast Guard cyber strategy. So I'm personally delivering you a copy of our Coast Guard cyber strategy. And not only does the Coast Guard have a cyber strategy, but as I'll talk about a little bit later, I think the Coast Guard is actually of all the federal agencies uniquely positioned to be able to operate and succeed in cyberspace. And it goes to the actual creation of the organization by Alexander Hamilton. So Alexander Hamilton through his wisdom, and we'll talk about that in a little bit, actually set the Coast Guard up to really be a premier agency to operate in cyberspace. We did that all the way back in 1790 when the organization was created. So we'll talk about that a little bit later, how Alexander Hamilton was cyber aware back in 1790. But really good opportunity to be here and thank you very much for allowing the Coast Guard to kind of lead this. I like to think that Coast Guard got the lead here is because we want all the rest of the conference to actually look at the world through a Coast Guard prism. So you can actually get your worldview correct and get everything put in that direction. So thanks for the opportunity to see the ground. Oh, I agree. Okay. I'll take every opportunity to demonstrate the unique value of the Coast Guard. And what I want to do is ultimately show you our four strategies that we have in the Coast Guard, which we think the Coast Guard adds unique and enduring value to the nation and how all those are lashed up through the cooperative strategy and how all this stuff fits together. And so we'll proceed there. And we got to begin here by paying tribute to the man. Okay. Mahan. And we've got a quote here about these great highways that our nation have, a wide commons. I also didn't read the other 800 pages. I only pulled this one quote out, but I thought it was particularly appropriate. And I would argue that the United States maybe sometimes doesn't think of itself as a maritime nation, but I would say that perhaps the defining characteristics of our nation from a security perspective is these great oceans that we have on both sides. And they're really, really good because they provide you with connectivity with the rest of the world. So for legitimate trade. And they're also great defensive mechanisms. I mean they provide real defense for this nation. And we're really blessed because we've got largely peaceful neighbors to the north and the south. And we've got these vast oceans that allow us to take advantage of globalization, but also act as unique barriers or defensive mechanisms to be able to protect our nation. I know you said every sort of military threat can be taken care of at sea. I would argue that many of the security challenges that are not symmetric, but the asymmetric security challenges can also be taken care of because of these great oceans that we have on both sides of our country. And I think Mahan understood that. Another guy who understood that since we're talking about fathers, I know Mahan was one of the fathers of the Naval War College. So this is the father of the Coast Guard, Alexander Hamilton. He's a happening guy right now. Did you know anybody seen the Broadway production? Anybody seen it? Kind of a rap opera? I haven't actually seen it yet, but we in Coast Guard like to think that his creation of the Coast Guard was part of what led him to the super stardom that he now has out on Broadway. But this is the father of the Coast Guard. And we're in the election cycle right now. Anybody know that we're not having a presidential election? It's kind of rough and tumble. Anybody know how Alexander Hamilton died? He was shot by the Vice President of the United States for basically calling him a liar during the election campaign of 1800. So if we think we got rough and tumble politics today, where they're throwing verbal assaults at each other and F-bombs and all this other stuff, these guys were actually shooting each other back in the day. So he was killed by Aaron Burr. The Vice President of the United States kind of makes the Dick Cheney incident where he hit the guy in the face with a shotgun blast while shooting quail or whatever it do. Kind of look tame in regard. What's that? It may have been a relative of Dan Quail. It was Mr. Quail. So Alexander Hamilton also a popular guy. Everybody know he's on the $10 bill? Yes. You guys don't ever see the $10 bill. Alexander Hamilton is on the $10 bill for those of you don't know. But he's only on the $10 bill now temporarily. Does anybody see that there's actually a proposal to have him replaced? Anybody know who's going to replace him on the $10 bill? Yeah, a woman to be determined is what the proposal is. And this actually became an electoral issue in our presidential election. If anybody's been watching the debates this actually the issue of who's going to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill is actually an election issue and it may be very important to you when you go out and cast your vote. So let me just read this article from the Washington Post and this is dated September 17th of 2015. The title of the article is Jeb Bush Wants Margaret Thatcher on a $10 bill. Brits are bemused. I'll be talking to my UK colleagues over here. Here's what it reads. It says, one of the most puzzling moments of CNN's GOP debate was when Jeb Bush named Margaret Thatcher as the woman he'd like to see on the $10 bill. At the end of the three hour debate after covering topics veering from the nuclear cord with Iran to US-Russian relations moderator Jake Tapper through the contenders would appear to be a softball question. Earlier this year the Treasury Department announced that a woman will appear on a $10 bill. What woman would you like to see on the $10 bill? Sharon Stone. Sharon Stone. Sharon Stone, okay. Alright, we got that one. Okay, we'll take a vote afterwards and I'll make sure that those are submitted to the Treasury Department for due consideration. Alright, here's a quote. I would go with Ronald Reagan's partner Margaret Thatcher, probably illegal but what the heck? replied the former Governor of Florida. Upon hearing that Bush had plumped for the former British leader, British Twitter follower Larry the Cat responded quote, Jeb Bush has suggested putting Margaret Thatcher on the $10 bill. Maybe Donald Trump isn't so bad after all. Then it goes further on. It says, Bush's answer certainly stood out from those of the other contenders. Carly Fiorina said she wouldn't change the bill. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz went with Rosa Parks. Rand Paul picked Susan B. Anthony. And Scott Walker opted for Clara Barton. Christie picked Abigail Adams. John Kasich said Mother Teresa. Mike Huckabee chose his wife and Ben Carson chose his mother. Donald Trump chose his daughter Ivanka. So if you're a single issue voter and you want to see Ivanka Trump on the $10 bill then you should vote for Donald Trump. But anyway, ongoing controversy. So Alexander Hamilton, father of the Coast Guard, here's the issue that Alexander Hamilton was confronted with. He was the first secretary of the Treasury after a passage of the Constitution in 1789. For those who know the history we came up with the Constitution because the Articles of Confederation had failed largely because there was no way to fund the government. It was by voluntary contributions from the state. So one of the first things that Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the Treasury was confronted with is how do we pay our bills? Back in those days what was the number one method for funding the federal government? Tariffs. Okay, so we raise tariffs to raise revenue. Guess what ends up happening? People smuggle. People smuggle. They don't want to provide the tariffs. They don't want to go to the customs house and they don't want to pay their tariffs. So Alexander Hamilton comes up with a bright idea to develop what's called the Revenue Cutter Service. Advocates for the purchase of ten vessels to protect our ports from smuggling activities or our country from smuggling activities. Now think about this from the situation we was in at the time. Remember the Navy had been disbanded. At the end of the Revolutionary War the Navy had been disbanded. And it had been disbanded in part because they did not want to see us get involved in any type of foreign conflicts. And they felt like having a Navy around would actually do that type of stuff. So Alexander Hamilton when confronted with this challenge of how do we get rid of the smuggling problem decided to essentially create almost like a Navy. Certainly a federal naval force. Now think about that from his perspective why didn't he just go out and buy some more customs officers who could go out and patrol the beach? You know instead he went for the Cadillac solution here. Think about this. There was no naval force at all. And to buy these big capital assets to train the individuals who are necessary to operate these assets to put those individuals in the faces of the perils of the sea. Why in the world would Alexander Hamilton ever advocate for something like that? Why didn't he just hit the easy button and just get a bunch of customs guys on horseback to go out there and ride on the beach? Anybody have any ideas why not only he would advocate but actually he succeeded in getting the Congress to agree to him? Because if you can understand that question you can understand why those oceans that we have on both sides of our country are so valuable to us. So anybody have any notions why he would choose to build a naval force with all the things that came along with it? States rights. That actually I don't think that was actually part of the reason that they did it because I think they had that actually sorted out by via the Constitution at that point. Well, yes. Essentially they were commercial. They were highly dependent on trade. So the idea of having absolute control or at least some sort of policing control over the local maritime economy was critical to the economic success and Hamilton's coming out as First Secretary of the Treasury. So he's very sensitive to both currency markets as well as trade and needs of securing assets into the economy. We were dependent on tariffs essentially to pay the bill because we had no income tax. So essentially he has to get this under control and have some sort of a disciplined policing action over to make sure that revenues continue to flow to the federal treasury. And that's exactly right. This was ultimately about funding the federal government via tariffs and preventing smuggling problems. Let me just take this down to the tactical level why he would want to do something like this. Think about what you get when you buy a naval force. You get the ability to actually go out and seize the initiative from the adversary instead of waiting for them to just sort of pick whatever beach they're going to be able to land at. You also get the best use of sensors available at that time. Some guy in a crow's nest with a spyglass. But think about that. You've actually got control of a very large space from just that type of visual sensor. Plus the adversary on the other side. You get his boat. You get his concentrated goods for shipping. You get a view inside his smuggling network and all that pertains there. If you're just sort of going to sort of wait for them to deliver things on the beach you can never have the initiative. The adversary always decides where they want to land. That's what you get in a continental power like Switzerland. If you're Switzerland you don't have these great oceans to protect. You just wait for things to come to your border. And the adversary always has the initiative. They're operating from foreign territory. But these oceans that we have on our sides provide us with this tremendous tactical advantage to actually control that battle space. But it requires ships in order to be able to do that. And he asked for ten cutters, all of which were built in ten different congressional districts. Every single one of those cutters was over budget and behind schedule. But he created a naval force that endures to this day. And it has a number of characteristics that are unique in the federal inventory. And it all becomes about because of the creation of this organization to be able to stop smuggling activities. So the key attributes of what he created in the United States Coast Guard is he created an agency that is military and law enforcement and regulatory in these other things all at the exact same time. People have said it's like a paramilitary force. It is not a paramilitary force. It is a military force that it also at the exact same time is a law enforcement agency. And that is one of the key aspects that Alexander Hamilton created. And it goes all the way back to the creation of the Revenue Cutter Service because remember, there was no Navy at that time. This was the nation's naval force. So later the Navy was created in 1797, 1798. Anybody know why? Our Navy was recreated. I'm at the Naval War College, yeah. That's perfect. And that's exactly right. There's a quasi-Warworth France and French depredations. When we decided we were not going to pay the post-revolutionary government back their debts and they were out there grabbing US ships and also the Barbary Pirates. That's exactly right and they were created for that. But the Coast Guard, well Revenue Cutter Service at that time, actually operated during the quasi-Warworth France and also operated against Barbary Pirates and has fought in all the nation's wars that have had a maritime component ever since then. And it's also provided law enforcement functions ever since 1790 when Alexander Hamilton created the Coast Guard. So you really do have a very unique instrument here with some different characteristics that don't exist anywhere else in the government. And what I'd like to spend the rest of my time on, I want to show this is, so I'm not going to be talking mostly about symmetric cooperation. So what I mean symmetric, I'm talking about nation-state war. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that area although the Coast Guard like I said has fought in all the nation's wars. I'm going to spend the bulk of my time on the rest of the Coast Guard portfolio which is all the asymmetric pieces. So this is law enforcement, counter-terrorism piracy, regulatory activities, environmental protection and all the rest of that stuff. But we also operate in the symmetric realm as well as you can see from the slide. So here's the cooperative strategy and my personal opinion is this is light years above its prior version. I can ask questions about that if you have a different view but in my opinion a much more mature document and a much more responsive document to today's set of challenges which are really a mix of sort of symmetric things and asymmetric things as I talked about before and this strategy is kind of set up in that direction. So when it starts in the global security environment here at the top it talks about both those symmetric and asymmetric challenges and how maritime forces, whether they be law enforcement forces or military forces can begin addressing those problem sets. Then there's a heavy international component which I can tell you is just a reflection of the world that we live in today and I can tell you the United States Coast Guard and any of our international pieces almost never operates alone. It operates with partners and every single one of the partners here. I know the Coast Guard has an ore in the water particularly with Columbia. I mean we have been working together for many many years. Same thing with the UK, Australia and everybody else on the different problem set. So I think that's a really wise thing to actually lead within that document because almost everything today is done through international coalitions and I can describe the reasons why that is. Then we have the various different types of activities that were out there. The two I want to focus on are all domain access and maritime security. The other ones deterrence to a certain degree. Power projection and sea control that's kind of on the symmetric side of the house. And then the last part I think is also extremely wise about flexible forces. That's where we're at in the Coast Guard. Very fiscally challenged and the ability to attract talent and buy the right equipment to actually get at the mission sets is absolutely vital in today's world. There's no question about it. So here's the four areas, four strategic areas that the Coast Guard is focusing on and we've focused on these areas ever since Admiral Zucumft took over almost two years ago. And he's been focusing on these four strategic threads. And there are four strategies to address these strategic threads. And why were these threads chosen? Each one of these threads were chosen for the Coast Guard is because these are areas where the Coast Guard adds often unique value to the nation. And these are enduring strategic threads that are going to carry on for many, many years. And all four of these strategies are actually threaded up through the cooperative strategy and I'll show you how they all kind of fit together. But that's the reason why these four things were chosen. So the first one is on the Western Hemisphere and I don't have to tell Admiral Barrera anything about this, but we've got some serious challenges here in the Western Hemisphere. And the border security discussion that you're seeing in the presidential race is a symptom of the instability that exists here in the Western Hemisphere. Largely created by transnational criminal organizations. This is an area where almost all the threats are asymmetric in nature that exist here in the Western Hemisphere. There's no real serious threat of nation state war here in the Western Hemisphere. But I can tell you there are nation states right now fighting for their lives and their existence because of the existence of transnational criminal organizations. Largely fueled by the drug trade but also engaged in human trafficking activity and other things. Anybody see we had 50,000 unaccompanied children show up at the southwest border and that is a symptom of the instability that exists in Central America. Can you imagine if you're in a country like El Salvador, which has a murder rate I think last year of about 105 per 100,000, it's 5 per 100,000 in the US, where you as a parent make a decision to turn your child over to a coyote, a human smuggler, rather than live in a country like El Salvador. That should concern each and every one of us. And that's where you hear things like build a border wall and make the Mexicans pay for it and all the other things that come in there. And I'll talk a little bit more about the Western Hemisphere strategy. The Arctic. So lots of things happen in the Arctic. The Admiral and I were talking this morning. Anybody know there's a 1500 passenger cruise ship that is actually going to make the Northwest Passage this summer. The minimum price for like an interior room on that is $20,000 of passenger. So they're making big bucks on this. So we'll see more of this in the future. But you can imagine this. How much SAR infrastructure is there in the Northwest Passage? How much environmental protection stuff is there in the Northwest Passage? If a ship like that got stuck in the ice, how many icebreakers are there out there to be able to take care of? And there's a whole another world of increased shipping, resource exploitation activities, and a bunch of things in the Arctic. Anybody read the Navy's Arctic Roadmap? So my take on the Navy's Arctic Roadmap is ah, we've got other priorities, that's a long way in the future and that's kind of it. That's my personal opinion on it. When you read the Coast Guard actually has an Arctic strategy. We were right there in the middle of this thing. We've been in the Arctic since 1867 when the territory of Alaska was purchased from Russia. We were there from day one operating the Arctic. And this will be a continuing demand signal for the Coast Guard. Okay, here's the ice breaking fleets. Just some ones here. So Russia has over 40 icebreakers including some nuclear weapons, 11 under construction. United States has 140 year old rehabbed icebreaker, heavy icebreaker, and that's it. And a medium icebreaker called the Healy. We're actually looking to construct and we've got $150 million in the presence request, a new heavy icebreaker for operations in the Arctic and Antarctic. So I had to just read this one article which came out over the weekend because the British are actually building an icebreaker, a polar research vessel. And here's the article and it says they've actually crowd sourced the naming of their icebreaker. So here's what happened. It says the good news for the natural, and this was over the weekend, the good news for the natural environment research council's decision to crowd source a name for its later Polis research vessel is unprecedented public engagement in a sometimes niche area of scientific study. The bad news sailing due south in a vessel that sounds like it was christened by a 5 year old who has drunk 3 cartons of Capri Sun. Just a day after the NERC launched its pole to name the 200 million pound vessel which will first head to Antarctica in 2019. The clear favorite was research vessel Bode McBoat Face with well over 18,000 votes. This is a true story. NERC's website kept crashing on Sunday under the weight of traffic showing dozens of serious suggestions connecting to inspiring figures such as Sir David Attenborough or names such as Polar Dream. But the bulk of entries were distinctly less sober. Aside from the leading contender, ideas included its bloody cold here, what iceberg, Captain Haddock, big ship in it, science and my favorite, big metal floaty thingy thing. So anyway just a little humor there from our colleagues across the pond. But that's the state of the nation's ice breaking fleet, really a long and sad story as to why we find ourselves where we do with the ice breaking capability. On cyber, so here's Alexander Hamilton on cyber. If you can just very quickly, the Coast Guard is the only federal agency that operates substantially on dotmil.gov and dotcom. Dotmil because we're a member of the American military member. Dotgov we're a member of the Department of Homeland Security and have law enforcement responsibilities and dotcom because we're a regulatory agency responsible for all the cyber infrastructure in the nation's maritime transportation system. Which I can argue the maritime transportation system is probably one of the most complex systems that exists out there because it's international, intermodal, just in time, carries all different types of products to be people, petrochemical products and so on and so forth. And the Coast Guard really is uniquely positioned at regard plus we're a member of the intelligence community and we bring all the stuff that goes along with being a member of the intelligence community. And we have a cyber strategy which you have a copy of that actually addresses all that. Okay. Energy. Tremendous changes in the world's energy situation. I would argue I don't know David what your view this certainly has energy and energy production movement of energy products has to be probably within the top three global geopolitical drivers. There's almost no question about it. And technology there is going gangbusters. I'll just give you one example. 15 years ago there was no real liquefied natural gas market. It was very expensive. It was kind of a local market. Now there's a global LNG market. And guess who's one of the largest producers of natural gas is now the United States and a net exporter. It's going to be a net exporter of natural gas. Imagine the implications of that when Russia is currently reliant for natural gas or Europe is currently reliant on Russia for natural gas. You can imagine the geopolitical implications. And almost all these energy products move by water. And the Coast Guard's got an ore in the water on all those different things as well as development of fracking technology, deep water drilling, whole bunch of things that are happening in this energy space that will change the entire geopolitical picture as we go forward. We also have a human capital strategy. I'm not going to take too much time on it, but this is responsive to that part of the cooperative strategy where it talks about building flexible forces. Certain of these strategies, cyber for an example, that probably is not going to be one just on technology. That's going to be one on human capital and the gray matter exists in between people's ears. The ability to recruit, develop and retain that workforce will be a challenge for all the military services going forward. No question about it. Okay. Let me show you how these things work. We were blessed to have a commandant come in and said I want strategies to drive my organization. Every part of my organization. All my operations, all my budget, everything else. And he directed us to create these four strategies. Unique areas where the Coast Guard can add value and enduring areas where the nation will continue to be able to focus on. So we developed all four of these strategies. All of them look the same. They're designed the same in their lines of effort and they're designed to actually work together. So the Western Hemisphere strategy, you can see the three basic lines of effort combating networks. That's network centric warfare but on an asymmetric matter like against transnational criminal organizations where your end games typically not a smoke and hole in the ground. It's a law enforcement action, including collection of evidence pulling apart the networks that work in that area. Securing borders. These are extended border concepts like making sure you protect your borders from things way out. Way out into the ocean spaces where they actually come in there. And then safeguarding commerce which talks a lot about energy development and some other things. The Arctic strategy, improving awareness, modernizing governance and broadening partnerships. Almost everything that's done in the Arctic is driven by the environmentals there. Very little infrastructure. All of it done by partnership. All of it challenged by what's actually going on up there including the ability to communicate and operate as teams. That's what the Arctic strategy is about. Cyber strategy. We talked about the unique positioning of the Coast Guard. Three basic lines of effort there. Defending cyberspace and that means the Coast Guard relevant cyberspace. Enabling Coast Guard operations and then lastly protecting infrastructure. That's all about the marine transportation system. Then the last one is on the energy action plan and this is all about making sure we've got the capacity and competency to operate and not be a hindrance to all the as a regulatory agency to all the energy activities that are occurring out there. Whether it's development, transportation of energy products and so on and so forth. And all undergirded by human capital strategy and all these strategies are designed to dovetail together. So for example if you make an investment in improving awareness in the Arctic you can take that exact same thing and apply it to the combating networks that are enabling operations in their cyber strategy. All designed to work together. So for a small agency like the Coast Guard this actually provides strategic effect to my organization, allows my organization to fulfill these strategies in a coherent manner and bring them all together. And then the last part every one of those strategies you can thread up through the cooperative maritime strategy. So when you read the Coast Guard pieces that are in that strategy, Coast Guard unique pieces whether it's Western Hemisphere contributions or Arctic it's threaded up through that strategy. It's like I said chosen for areas where we think the Coast Guard can actually add unique value to the nation in those four strategic efforts and you'll see that threaded through the entire strategy. So the last part we think we're a unique instrument of national power designed by Alexander Hamilton to be such and that we're responsive and relevant to today's world because we can operate with symmetric forces, symmetric naval forces, but we can also operate with that asymmetric realm so where your endgame is not a smoking hole in the water. It is a law enforcement action and intelligence action and so on and so forth. Each one of the strategies that the Coast Guard designed is designed to be enduring and to showcase the unique value that the Coast Guard brings to the nation and all four of those strategies are designed to dovetail with the cooperative strategy and work their way up so that we can become part of a coherent naval force for the nation. So again we incredibly bless nation with these giant water spaces on both sides. They provide us with advantages that almost no country on earth actually has. And our ability to operate as naval forces together across the entire spectrum of conflict or security challenges all the way from basic small smuggling challenges all the way up to nation state warfare I think is an incredible opportunity for us to do that and I'm incredibly proud to stand with the other sea services in this document because I think that it is really a demonstration of not only what our naval forces bring to the nation but leverages those key oceans on both sides to the benefit of our country. So with that I'd be happy to take any questions that you might have. Yes? Who's the head of the CAG? Very sharp individual and we were talking about our various documents Does it bother you in the sense that U.S. military is not paying more attention to the trans-regional criminal organizations and is spending a little too much time on the four and not necessarily on the one and those criminal organizations that are enabling capital flows and doing so on the download. Do you think we should do we need to put more emphasis on DOD on those kind of organizations? I think the answer is yes increasingly so because those organizations become more sophisticated every day and when you look on the presence of that correction on transnational organized crime it actually declares certain of those organizations to be a national security threat and I can tell you for nations in the western hemisphere nations like Guatemala or Honduras it is the number one national security threat it's not a law enforcement problem for those people it is an existential threat and even beyond those small countries think about in Mexico who's taking down Chapo Guzman every single time who killed Trevino Morales and who killed all the other bad guys that they got down there it was not a law enforcement officer that's exactly right it was the Mexican Marines the Mexican Marines on the streets of Mexico taking down these transnational criminal actors because there's no all their federal law enforcement has either been out corrupted or outgunned and that should scare the heck out of everybody that's one of our major trading partners right next to us who has to bring their military forces out in the field to be able to get these guys and capture Chapo over and over and over again that's how we roll but yes absolutely so I showed you that picture on my western hemisphere strategy do you see that vessel there that's a semi submersible vessel prior to these bad drug guys getting enough capital, enough experience only nation states would have operated platforms like that I remember and I were talking about whether fully submersible vessels exist out of south and been through the 3D virtual tour of the fully submersible vessel they've got fully submersible capability think about that of transnational criminal organizations with those attributes of a nation state I can tell you not every one of these things is a I think should be bended in the national security category but there's a number of these an increasing number of these sophistication of transnational criminal organizations that can constitute national security threats like that semi submersible role for DOD I can tell you there's no law enforcement agency out there at all that has the capability to detect and monitor a semi submersible vessel that doesn't exist our taxpayers have only invested one time for that type of sensor capability and that's our department of defense so there is definitely a role there there's some constitutional other lines we need to think about you know should DOD really be in law enforcement problems I mean there's a whole body of work there but I think there is increasingly a role in that area because with globalization increasing sophistication of these transnational criminal networks their ability to rock governments from the inside out yeah there's a real area increasingly so for military forces to be able to operate in an area where the lines are you're going to have to get it you're going to have to see at the end of the day where those lines because there's some very important lines there and things that law enforcement agencies do and things that are set aside for military but an increasing role. Yes Lee. Thank you for your eloquent overview of the Coast Guard one question that popped out as I was listening to that and in the context of the US maritime strategy where does the Coast Guard fit into the pivot to the Indo-Asia because you really didn't mention any of that in what you've just outlined that actually is intentional and I appreciate you raising that question it goes to the design of the strategies Coast Guard is only about 40,000 people does not have a lot of capacity to do this our commandant has a basically a standing request to provide forces out to Paycom to work on the problem sets think about the relevance of the Coast Guard in an area like the South China Sea my opinion uniquely relevant let me show anybody see what are the Chinese leading with for their ships that are around those little great wall of sand islands in the Coast Guard their civil agencies and they understand the value I think their use is masterful for two reasons one it's a great optic when you get a white thing that says China Coast Guard and oh by the way they stole our stripe too so they even brand themselves after the Coast Guard but I think even the more masterful part about it is it is a statement from them saying these things are so much our territory we don't even have to send our Navy out there we'll just send our Coast Guard out there to do this stuff I think it is an absolutely masterful use of the Coast Guard and we could do the same thing that's in the national kit. Admiral Zucumpt has been asked that question he said I got my hands full in the western hemisphere and in the Arctic and all the other Coast Guard missions that we got there ain't enough Coast Guard to go around so unless somebody comes up with some additional resources and so on and so forth that he's not willing to commit to that that set yet but you can see this is a tool that's in the national kit that's why I think it's a great lead in with Coast Guard because this is a unique agency that can be brought into a bunch of different areas and the Coast Guards are the ones who are out there by and large doing the business down in the South China Sea. Of course and in that engagement with the operation idea I mean many of the smaller Navy's and so on around the you know the agents of the bridge and I guess in South America and elsewhere are going to have more in common with the Coast Guard than with the big grey Navy that's around. Yeah I'm in agreement with you I'd say I don't know 12-15 countries around the world may have relevance with a real true blue water Navy but almost everybody needs this basket of constabulary activities that exists there so we're highly relevant to lots of different nations we had to send small teams all around the world but again there's never really enough Coast Guard to actually go around. Don't feel too bad about 40,000 I mean my Navy has about 13,000 so keep it in perspective. Yeah I keep it in perspective. Peter. I don't want to bring it to a less pleasant topic but I've been around long enough to talk about national fleets I've seen what's happened with the LCS, the Navy and the National Security Cutter in your service. What do you think about the future provision of four-structure for both services? Are the commonalities, are the way to collaborate better? Is it necessary to provide the kind of four-structure to do both the whole Navy? Yeah. So National Security Cutter is the best ship that the Coast Guard has ever fielded and for those you actually follow Congress gave us a ninth NSC. Coast Guard didn't ask for it and now there's Cocktail Circuit for a tenth NSC. But the NSC is an incredibly effective platform. I do, my personal opinion, I do believe there was a missed opportunity there between LCS and the National Security Cutter where we just couldn't get the Venn diagrams to come together. I would like I said lots of advantages but I'm having commonality between our two services but you know Navy build ships, you guys have your category of things you want to go to and Coast Guard has its category of things it wants to go to and I wish we could have actually put those together because I think it was kind of a missed opportunity but haven't seen the negotiation, I wasn't in negotiations directly, but haven't seen negotiations from far, it's just kind of too far apart. I think the Navy just had a little bit different vision for its ship than the National Security Cutter. But I will say on the National Security Cutters, Nick Price in here Nick Prime. I'm sorry, Nick Prime. We were having discussions last night and Nick was saying the number one ship that the United States needs to build more of is the National Security Cutter and for many of the same reasons that we talked about so I know Nick you'll have to be on a panel later to talk. Yes. My name is Brian McGrath. I would like to push back on something you just said a few minutes ago. I'm not sure that China's use of its non-military naval force necessarily is an argument for us to do the same. Fair enough. There are nations in the region that do feel Coast Guard and Navy that seem probably more well positioned to provide that symmetric tip for TAC approach. As our two services face a common foe which is these restrictive budgets it seems to me that minding our own meaning might be something that we should be concerned with I recognize that Coast Guard has great many jobs that it is poorly resourced to do. I don't want to add that stuff trying to see mission into that list. It's a question of how you want to do things. The navigation rights and things that we have said are important to our nation if we think that those can be taken care of by Japan Coast Guard or Vietnam Coast Guard or Philippine Coast Guard or the US Navy. Like I said in my opinion the optic that China has put out there they're not putting their gray holes out there. Maybe they're over the horizon somewhere but they're not putting their gray holes out there with water cannons doing all this stuff. They're putting their Coast Guard out there and in my opinion I think that actually gives them an advantage in the way they frame the problem set. Whether we would want to do that and with our own organic naval forces Coast Guard naval forces is up to us. It's a tool in the national inventory but I mean that's a value judgment. If you're comfortable with the way things are right now which is the US Navy and whatever foreign Coast Guard you can put in there that's fine. I can tell you Admiral Zuccott has said that we're not going to be sending any Coast Guard chips down there absent some change in resourcing and some other things to do. Yeah I think it's well and none of our strategies focus on that. It goes to the question why didn't you guys put that in strategies because these are the ones we're putting all our effort to right now because there ain't nobody else there like in the Arctic there ain't nobody else there in the western hemisphere there are large there ain't nobody else there and in the other areas I think we add unique value but yeah but I don't think it should be lost that this is part of the national tool kit and under the right circumstances should be considered. Sir my name is Tyler Jones to further this discussion what exactly would the Coast Guard do in the South China Sea and how would it be better optimally than the Navy? Well that's what Admiral Zuccott has said. I'm not sending any naval forces down there until I see the Conop and there hasn't been any Conop put out on how those things would be used but think about just from a fond perspective maybe you want to send a naval destroyer through there maybe you want to send a Coast Guard cutter so it's a little bit different message when you think about the way that you're shaping things and if you're in a situation where people are taking pictures of each other with water cannons and stuff like that you want that to be a China Coast Guard vessel on a grey hole by the way China Coast Guard is not in queues either which is an interesting situation I could talk to you more about that but what do you want your optic to be? That's part of it and I can tell you you know some of the stuff is being played out in the court of public opinion you know we think that naval rights and stuff like that are played out just amongst lawyers and things a lot of it is played out in the court of public opinion and how are you leading as a nation and what type of optics do you want out there to be able to do that so the answer to your question is I need to see the Conop too and how we would use it and it goes to the question this is an option that's available in the National Inventory right now the option is not being taken but I think it's very interesting that all those countries down there are largely not fielding their navies they're fielding their Coast Guard they got a Coast Guard cutter China Coast Guard cutter is 14,000 tons that they built these are huge vessels and their Coast Guard is many times the size of the United States Coast Guard in the number of vessels it's probably four times the number of vessels that the Coast Guard has and their EEZ is one 17th the size of the United States EEZ I mean these countries are serious about this and we have to ask them why are they engaging in the activities I assume because they think it gives them an advantage to be able to do so Sir, Christian Smith, I'm from U.S., PAYCOM and so I'm very interested in this I believe personally that there is a huge role for the Coast Guard in the South China Sea not least of which because many of the nations we wish to engage with through the recently announced Maritime Security Initiative are far more induced by cooperating with Coast Guard because their interests reside in the Maritime Domain Awareness Arena where I think you are perhaps as we are better practitioners when we start talking about police and media things I also believe there's some inherent risk to over militarizing the approach to security cooperation in the region with that in mind how do you think the Coast Guard can buy down risk outsourcing this mission into the U.S. Navy? How can we buy down risk out? Based on the practitioners we probably have more applicable tools in the South China Sea with the way we wish to shape the security environment to not over militarize we only have at our disposal naval forces as you told us how can the Coast Guard buy down the inherent risks? We've been doing a lot of lighter footprint stuff we've been engaged in foreign military sales some of the big flagship fleets from the Philippine Coast Guard our ex Coast Guard cutters we also send MTTs down there maritime training teams mobile training teams talk to them, build capacity for law enforcement or search and rescue environmental protection or command centers and all the other stuff some real light footprint stuff plus we operate forum like the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum is everybody familiar with that? So that brings China, South Korea, Japan Russia, the United States and Canada together actually in a forum where Coast Guards work on missions it's almost unheard of, particularly with the participation of the Russians so we bring that light footprint connectivity we've got a liaison officer in Hanoi works with the Vietnam Coast Guard so we do a lot of light footprint stuff we haven't been putting the naval forces Coast Guard naval forces down there but we've been engaged in the region actually for a long long time building trust in the area building expertise and competence and all that and that will continue whether there should be more of that to fit the bills to pay we're not there with the white holes we're there in a bunch of other light footprint modes as you know I hate to cut you off and I know we can go to two days with your wonderful presentation so we appreciate you deeply kind the Admiral is going to be in the area for a little while so all those did not have a chance to ask questions please hit them up over coffee but please join us in thanking Admiral Michelle