 Formation, stand at ease. Formation, attention on deck. Good afternoon. I'm Captain Eric Ross, commanding officer of the USS Baton, and I'm honored to welcome you to Baton and to introduce our Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Ray Mavis, for a worldwide all-hands call. Formation at ease. Along with the Secretary, we're also joined by the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert. Unfortunately, the Commandant of the Marine Corps is recovering from surgery, so we have with us today Commander U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command Lieutenant General Dennis Halick. We also have Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Rick West, and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Michael Barrett. I want to welcome those of you watching around the world on the Pentagon Channel. Forward deployed sailors and marines onboard our ships at sea, watching via direct to sailor, and our friends and families watching live on the Internet. The all-hands call will begin with remarks from the Secretary. Then the floor will be open to questions for the Secretary and the uniformed leadership who have joined him here, both from the sailors and marines here onboard Baton and worldwide via our social media channels. Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Ray Mavis. Captain, thank you so much. I'm glad to be back on Baton. It's great to have so many sailors from the waterfront and marines from Camp Allen here as well. I'm honored to be once again standing in the Hanger Bay aboard Baton. Sailors and marines aboard this ship made history a few weeks ago when they came back here to Norfolk after a successful ten and one-half month deployment. The Baton Amphibious Ready Group deployed ahead of schedule last year in support of the NATO-led mission to Libya and went on to conduct several security operations and also provided support in Afghanistan. It was our Navy's longest deployment in over 40 years. Thank all of you here today on Baton. You exemplify the service, the readiness, and the resiliency of all sailors and marines. Readiness and resiliency is what brings us together today. In the time I've had the privilege of serving as your secretary, I have visited with sailors, marines, wherever stationed and deployed on countless ships and bases around the world. Those sailors and marines and the thousands they represent, in other words, the people I'm talking to right now here in this Hanger Bay and around the world, are dedicated to the job and to our nation and willing to do what it takes to get our mission done. Over the past decade, you and the Navy and Marine Corps team have proven you can withstand sustained high operation tempo. The new defense strategy will put increased responsibilities on the Navy and the Marine Corps in the years to come. You, the sailors and marines, are the department's most essential asset, and it is the duty of this department's leadership to do all we can to provide every individual sailor and every individual marine with the resources to maintain that resiliency. The 21st Century Sailor and Marine Initiative I'm announcing today puts together a set of objectives and policies, new and existing, to maximize every sailor and marine's personal readiness. We have the most effective combat force in history now, and it is our job to maintain and to hone that effectiveness. The programs that I'm announcing are divided into five areas, readiness, safety, physical fitness, inclusion, and continuum of service. I'm going to briefly describe some programs in each category, but first, why are we doing this? Being in the Navy and Marine Corps is rewarding, but it's also difficult and it's demanding. All sailors, marines, and their families have to be equipped to meet both the physical and the mental challenges of being in our military. We've had an understanding of the need, but the approach has been too piecemeal. Dozens of programs designed to improve health and well-being of sailors and marines were implemented, but there wasn't enough attention paid to the fact that many of these programs should be interrelated. What was lacking and what we're launching today is a comprehensive and more effective approach. Now one example of a factor cutting across a lot of concerns and a lot of programs is alcohol. I'm going to highlight it and I'm going to talk about it first because it's bound to get a lot of attention. Programs to prevent suicide, sexual assault, domestic violence, and to improve fitness and safety are all directly affected by alcohol abuse. Promoting the responsible use of alcohol comes under the first area, readiness. Sailors and marines have to have the ability to avoid career altering, career ending, or life threatening or life ending incidents with alcohol abuse. We're not telling you not to drink if you're old enough. We are telling you that it's important to keep legal responsible use of alcohol from turning into a problem. Your jobs and your lives are too important. You work in and on the most technologically advanced systems in the world and you have to report to work prepared to meet the challenges that come with the incredibly important work that you do. The effects of drinking, even that done several hours earlier, can affect you and your shipmates in a very serious way. Sailors who drink excessively are too late the night before and report to duty can place themselves, their shipmates, and equipment at risk. So beginning in this year, the Navy will expand a pilot program where duty sections reporting to work will take a breathalyzer test. Other sailors will be subject to random breathalyzer testing. The tests will be used only as a training and prevention tool. This is a deterrence tool used to identify and direct appropriate counseling or treatment before any of those career or life altering incidents happen. Pilot programs using these tests have shown a marked reduction in alcohol-related incidents. And it's not just young sailors and Marines who are at risk. Poor decisions with alcohol have affected our fleet in all the ranks. In 13 of 20 recent Navy commanding officers relieved, alcohol was a component in the incident for which they were relieved. The Marine Corps will be implementing a similar program in select units before moving it as soon as possible force-wide. I want to stress this is not done to punish but to help. Help sailors and Marines make good choices before something happens that can't be undone. There are several other individual programs under readiness like suicide prevention to help sailors, Marines, and their families help meet the mental and emotional rigors of military service. The second big area is safety. And I want to emphasize two things in this area. The first is enhanced prevention of sexual assault. A sexual assault is an attack on a sailor or Marine and none of their shipmates should tolerate such an attack. They should intervene to prevent it whenever they can. The Department of the Navy is working aggressively to prevent sexual assaults from occurring, to support sexual assault victims, and to hold offenders accountable. All sailors from now on going through A-School will have three 90-minute sessions about how to spot and how to intervene in these cases. Sexual assault hotlines are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by uniform victim advocates, by victim advocates, and by sexual assault response coordinators. They are trained to provide emotional support, advocacy, information, and critical resources to victims. We're coordinating with the Department of Defense to eliminate barriers to reporting such as requirements to report post-assault counseling on any federal application forms. And commanders, COs, have to set the tone and establish an environment of trust and respect. The Marines have hired 18 new full-time sexual assault program managers, and both services are working to implement new standards for training and certifying victim advocates and also sexual assault response coordinators. NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, has hired new investigators with expertise in sexual assault at all major Navy and Marine Corps installations. And we've conducted special training on sexual assault cases for both criminal investigators and military lawyers. Overall, we're working to try to make sure that victims don't lose control of their lives or their privacy and are not stigmatized for reporting an assault. Also, the message that we are sending is that there is no place for sexual assault in the Navy or Marine Corps. All allegations will be thoroughly investigated and where appropriate, prosecuted. The next thing under safety is driving. Statistically, the most dangerous thing a sailor or Marine does every day is drive a personal motor vehicle. Going back to alcohol abuse, drinking and driving cannot be tolerated. One thing we'll do to ensure that our officers set the example of zero tolerance for drinking and driving is we're establishing a formal policy that requires any alcohol-related incident be properly reviewed prior to an officer's promotion. More training is going to be mandatory for motorcycle riders. The Navy had 12 sport bikes fatality last year and one of those, the rider, had not yet attended an advanced motorcycle course. So every motorcycle rider has got to have the basic rider course and every sport bike rider also has to complete the military sport bike rider course within 60 days of completing the basic rider course or you won't get a permanent decal to bring your ride on base. Third, is physical fitness. We have to move from a culture of testing to a culture of fitness. There are some who approach exercise like they do studying for a test. Cram before the PRT, give it up as soon as you pass. We're going to try to change that. First, all waivers for body composition assessment, BCAs have been removed. You're going to have to have a BCA even when you scored an outstanding or an excellent on the PRT or even if you're over 40. Fitness needs to be a more central part of our culture and that means everybody has to meet the fitness standards required. And we're going to provide the tools you need to meet those standards. Naval operation fleet and fueling series, NOFS, provides sailors aboard ships, submarines and other operational platforms with fitness programs designed to replicate the activities sailors conduct in their operational duties. And we even have an app for that, downloadable smartphones. We've developed different workout regimes that can be followed anywhere on submarines, on small boys, or an expeditionary setting with no gym. We're going to improve nutritional standards at our dining facilities with the introduction of fuel to fight nutrition program ensuring that healthy food options are available and understood at every meal. Any effort, any effort to improve or maintain fitness levels have to include efforts toward a smoke-free Navy. There's no question that smoking seriously hurts your physical readiness and your health. So we will be launching a big and unprecedented educational campaign and will provide free smoking cessation, either products or services, a float and a shore to any sailor or marine who wants to quit. And beginning in this fiscal year, we're going to end discounts on smoking products in our exchanges and our ship stores. It doesn't make sense to promote quitting smoking and moving toward a smoke-free Navy and Marine Corps while at the same time making it cheaper to buy cigarettes. Next, fourth area, inclusion. And this is to ensure that all personnel are given every opportunity to succeed. To that end, we're establishing a new Department of the Navy Diversity Officer with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Juan Garcia, who is here today, serving as the Department's Diversity Officer. Diversity is important for a lot of reasons, but the most important is that we're better warfighters when we have a diversity of ideas, experiences, expertise and backgrounds to fulfill our variety of missions. We've had success in some areas, which is obvious just by looking at the Sailors and Marines here today. And one example of that is women in the Navy. In the last 33 years, the number of women in the Department of the Navy has increased by 240%. But we have to do better in making the Navy and Marine Corps a place where more women want to stay and make a career and move on to the top ranks of our officers and our NCOs. Among the programs to help do this, a 12-month operational deferment following the birth of a child. A career and a mission program that we're now doing in a pilot form which allows men or women to return to service after up to three years without penalty, taking time off to care for a child or a relative. Let's you keep health care during that time, exchange privileges, during that time, so that your career gets restarted after that three years at exactly the point that you left off. We're also doing flex work hours during shore duty and a telework option up to two days a week at some commands. The Navy is the only service where regardless of mission, women are permanently assigned to operational units such as ships and aviation squadrons, afloat staffs, naval construction force units and submarine platforms, and that will be expanding to all our subs soon. Starting this summer, the Marine Corps, under an exception to policy, unrestricted female company grade officers and female non-commissioned officers in the grades of E6 and E7 in open occupational specialties will serve in direct, select combat ground units at the battalion level. This builds on the Marines' highly effective female engagement teams in Afghanistan. The final area is continuum of service. This 21st century Sailor and Marine initiative is focused on the whole life of an individual and that individual's families. When a Sailor and Marine's time in the military ends, whether it's after four years or 40, we want your productive life to continue and for you to leave the service in better health, more trained and better educated than when you came in. While you're on active duty, the Navy's voluntary educational program provides continual academic support to pursue a technical or college degree regardless of location or duty station. Support assistance programs and benefits available to those transitioning to civilian life include educational benefits, transition assistance, career management training, individualized counseling, life work battles programs, and morale welfare and recreation programs. Programs which have been recognized as some of the best personnel support mechanisms anywhere in the country. One example is Navy credentialing opportunities online. Navy COOL. This is a centralized, web-based hub that consolidates the information on certifications, on licenses, on apprenticeships, and on opportunities that correspond to every Navy rating, job, and occupation. It also provides funding to the enlisted ranks to get these civilian licenses and certification. The Navy itself highly values former sailors and Marines hiring a civilian nearly 13,000 in 2011 and more than 3,000 already in 2012. So, as you leave, don't forget where you work now. We have a special, wholly deserved and appropriate commitment to wounded warriors. We're providing tailored lifetime assistance. Again, the Navy is a leader in wounded warrior hiring. The ethos, once a Marine, always a Marine, sums up the Marine's approach to continuing the service. The Marine for Life Network, including employers, educational institutions, and mentors, helps Marines make connections that lead to their success in the community, in the workplace, and in civilian life. The e-Marine website provides information, resource, and support to Marines and their family members 24 hours a day in a secure environment. Commanders use e-Marine to communicate directly to Marines and their family members. The Wounded Warrior Regiment provides assistance to wounded, ill, and injured Marines and their family members throughout all phases of recovery. Now, there's a whole lot more to 21st Century Sailor and Marine, but I'm going to stop before this all-hands call feels like it's longer than Baton's last deployment. There'll be more information about 21st Century Sailor and Marine soon. It's going to include a website that'll be online before the end of this month, which brings together all the things in this effort for use by Sailors, Marines, and their leadership. So talk about this. We want to know what else and what more you think can be done. The new defense strategy is I mentioned that the president announced in January with his focus on the western Pacific, the Arabian Gulf region, the need for global presence using innovative, low-cost, light footprint engagements requires a Navy and Marine coroutine that is built and ready for any eventuality. You prove your excellence, your resiliency, and your endurance every single day all around the world. I hope that the programs I've touched on today and the others that will be available will help you with the responsibilities and the readiness you have and will have. For 236 years from sail to steam to nuclear from the USS Constitution to the USS Carl Vincent from triple E to triple E you have upheld a proud heritage protected our nation projected our power and provided freedom of the seas in the coming years this new strategy and our plans to execute it will ultimately depend on your skills, your talents and your well-being that will assure that our Navy and Marine Corps not only perseveres but continues to prevail. Semper Fortis Semper Fidelis Thank you all very much. We're asking the CNO, McPon, General Halick and the command sergeant major of the Marine Corps to come up here to help answer questions both from people here and also people around the world via the internet. So go. Mr. Secretary, gentlemen, the first question comes to us from the web. I am enjoying my service but my husband and I are considering starting a family and it seems that military service is incompatible with being a new mom. Well, I hope that at least a couple of the programs I talked about will help in that regard. One is deferment for 12 months from any deployment after the birth of a child. And the second is the fact that you can take off without harm to your career for up to three years keeping your health care benefits, keeping exchange and commissary privileges, keeping a small part of your salary and then when the three years is up restarting your career it could have to be three years. It could be any amount of time less than three years. When that three years or whatever amount of time is up you can restart your career exactly where you left off because we want people to be able to stay in the Navy but we also want people to be good family providers and good for their children when they're born. And so I hope that these two programs are helpful to feel that the Navy and the Marine Corps are friendly places not only for sailors and marines but also to have families and for those families. Yeah, the news, sir. I was just wondering that I know that DUIs play an important role in PTS and it's very difficult on a chief's continuation board. What does it also do for officers? Come up here a minute. I can't do this on the internet but I can do it here. First person to ask a question gets a coin. I'm going to give you one specific example that I use in my speech and then if the CNO wants to give you some others. But right now if an officer gets an alcohol related incident DUI or something like that it doesn't always come up before the board that's considering whether that officer should be promoted or not. We are now taking a formal action that says before any officer can be promoted if they've got an alcohol related incident it's got to go before that board and the board's got to consider it. Now they may still get promoted but in a more competitive environment it will be something that the board has to talk about, has to discuss in making that decision. Right. If somebody is young they make a mistake they can recover. But we're going to do this in a deliberate consistent manner. Today what happens is the bureau will flag this individual's record and as secretary said when that promotion comes up we review it but it's not deliberate consistent and if you will codified. Now we want to have a consistent board, consistent review with precepts if you will kind of listed there so everybody gets equal clear shot. But the point is people make mistakes at a very young age maybe. That will be different from somebody in a high visibility position experience that should know and has had a lot of time to consider this. It's a very serious offense. Thank you. And the only thing of that I would add to the secretary and Amal Greenard is in the Marine Corps all are treated the same unlisted and officers. Like the CNO said especially if an officer is young makes a mistake that's understandable but they're held accountable and it does impact on that officer's promotion sooner or later. But he or she is given a chance to make sure that they recover and continue on with the service. Good afternoon sir. Lance Colby Wiley with Charlie Fast Company 2nd platoon. I have a question. I understand that the department of Navy is working on steps to aggressively address illegal use of spice. What about prescription drugs? First Marine same thing. Again I'll turn it over to CNO, McPon, General Halick and the command sergeant major of the Marine Corps to give more specifics. But we are testing for prescription drugs just like we do for all drugs. We are going to be expanding our testing for spice. We've got a test now that is reliable for spice. We're going to begin by using a contract service but it's going to move into the Navy, the normal drug testing. But prescription drug abuse is going to be tested for just like anything else. I mean, if you pop for prescription drug and you've got a prescription from your doctor, you're good to go. But if you don't, you're not. The only thing I would add is it's a synthetic compound and we're after all synthetic compounds that are narcotic or a drug if you will. My advice is if you're experimenting and you think you're not going to get caught, think again. I have seen this time and again forlorn people who join the service done so much and they just think they're not going to get caught. Don't do it and we don't have there's not a place in our Navy for people to do that and so get away from it because we're going to get you. And I'm going to jump on board and just tell you this, if you need help we're going to get you help and that's all I got to say about that. Gentlemen, our next question from the web is from Dustin Abel. With the Navy removing gyms from DDGs with the AV-15 sonar installation, what is being done to aid these sailors? Well, NAVS, as I said in my talk, has workout regiments for every kind of surface combatant for submarines for small boys, for expeditionary places without gyms. We've got a smartphone app, you can download it. I went and downloaded it this weekend onto my phone. It gives you workouts for every type of ship that we've got for every sort of deployment that we have. We want to make sure that it doesn't matter what the platform you're on, that you've got the ability to stay fit and you've got the ability to meet all the PRT standards that you're going to have to meet. I couldn't improve on that, Mr. Secretary, you kind of laid it out. I'll tell you too with NAVS, it's not about what you can't do, it's what you can do. You're looking at a submarine that's been about 24 years on them and there's a lot you can do to set up plates to keep yourself physically fit. Good morning. Corporal Tramble, Clayton Air and Titan terrorism security team from Trial and Company 2. Sir, I believe the best way to identify problems with Marines personal problems is by fellow Marines who know them, who work with them best recognizing them themselves. Were there any recent requirements for how long deployments could be together or will be together? There are and you're absolutely right. What the Marine Corps has done and I'll let the sergeant major and the general talking more specifics about that but what the Marine Corps has done is said that Marine units are going to stay together will be together 90 days before deployment and at least 60 days after deployment because the people that know you best notice the changes, notice any problems that may come up better than any outside or would. This is, the Secretary is exactly right and you've heard of Oscar the program that's out there for the Marine Corps and the Navy has a similar program. You said it best, Marine, you said we know each other the best. Oscar's part of that. So the timeframe that the Secretary laid out is exactly right. What we try and do is for a first term Marine, if he's with an infiduptality you're with a fast one and so forth, you spend the majority of your first term enlistment with that unit. It builds unit cohesion and lets you get to know one another even better and builds on readiness. And I'm going to jump more on top it's a D minus 180 you're going to come together, you're going to go through the pre-deployment training program, then you're going to go to the fight, you're going to win our nation's battles you're going to come home, you're going to stay together for not less than 90 days and to jump back on top what the general was just saying about the operational stress control and readiness program for your extenders and your mentors, remember it's all about strengthening, providing resiliency prevention and then identifying, intervening treating reintegrating that marine back into the fabric of his unit and then maintaining him. That's the secret behind Oscar, it works and you know your brother better than anybody and so you set it up front. Good job. Good afternoon sir. Hello mania's first class I just want to say hello to Saltcraft Unit 4 a question just for the E6 community when some of us don't get selected for chief, we don't get any feedback as to why we did that advance to the next rank. Is there any plans in the future to take a look at to provide feedback for those service amendments who don't advance to the rank of chief at office? Thank you. I'm going to I'm going to look at the mcpond on this one but short answer is yes you need that feedback. That feedback does happen on the deck plate with your CMC now I will tell you as you probably know we started a new thing this past year called CPO 365 is to bring those first classes up and show them what it is to be a chief and prepare them to be a chief petty officer to get all that in. You get those feedback, you get your feedback through the exam, that's the things that you need to target but as far as that moving target it's about leadership at the end of the day. Leadership doing the job out you know operational. I would tell your first order of business with your chief, second is your CMC develop a plan. If you didn't make it this year, okay what do I need to be where do I need to be at next year to get where I need to be, IE with khakis on and anchors. This question comes to us from the web from chief law officer Matthew Robinson who's an ordinance officer with Marine Corps security force regiment here in Norfolk, Virginia. What is going on with retirement plans? Are they changing? Absolutely nothing is changing about retirement plans the only thing that's been recommended by the secretary of defense is that a commission be formed to look at retirement plans in the future but one of the requirements he has set is that if you've joined under one plan you're going to get grandfathered in under that plan. So of all the things you've got to worry about that's not one of them. Sir, my name is senior chief Shelton, I'm with assault craft unit 4 officer out there. We're already being asked to do more with less, we're losing our sailors to ERB, PTS things like that. With these new family programs can we expect those those billets to be gapped or are we going to have supplemental manning for those billets that are no longer being filled? You mean the family programs where you can take some time off? Yes sir. That the numbers in those billets are small enough that we're not going to send you to see, we're not going to send you to deploy without filling those those those billets regardless of what kind of unit you're in regardless of where you're going. So I guess a real short answer is yes those will be filled. Absolutely and every billet that was gapped as a result of the ERB is being tracked by fleet forces to be replaced. It's not happening fast enough, I'm not satisfied Chief Enabled Personnel is not satisfied Admiral Harvey here is not satisfied that's on me, I'll get back on that, Mick Pond and I from that perspective but yes we won't gap the billets due to this program. For the Marine Corps we have 380 paid positions, we call Family Readiness Officer but there's a command team, which is commander, sergeant major and then whomever he or she selects to be on that command team. Right now 380 remember this, we've got the MCCS program out there depending on where you are has 80 different programs that supports the Marine in his family so don't forget to take advantage of that, go online it's all there. Who's next? Good afternoon sir, Corporate Yoder Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team Charlie Company's Secupatune. I was wondering sir, how will the troop drawdowns affect the country's readiness and security posture? Well it's new security it's new defense strategy that the president announced last week or last month as I said put some additional responsibilities on the Navy and the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is going to have to get smaller we've known that because the Marine Corps got larger in 2006, 2007 went up 27,000 Marines for the search in Iraq. As we come down a couple of things one is we're going to be able to meet all missions and two is we're going to do it in a way to the maximum extent possible we keep faith with Marines and their families that have signed up and born the fight. The new Marine Corps of 182,100 Marines has been built from the ground up in terms of what we are going to need in the future. So some jobs like cyber special operators, special operator enablers, things like that you're going to have more Marines in them in the new Marine Corps at the end of four years when we get to it. But we're going to be able to meet every single mission, we're going to be able to do every single job that the country and this new strategy calls on to do. We're still going to be larger than we were pre-911 at 182.1 next in concert with our closest joint partners the United States Navy. We're still going to be on ships, we're still going to be forward deployed we're still going to be around the world and the international daint line in the Pacific we're not going to be able to miss a beat we're there. And I'm going to quote the sergeant major of the Marine Corps. Your Marines you're magnificent. We're going to go south. The Navy Forces Command G6 with the Marine Corps moving back towards its naval routes do we have a current plan for putting more ships in the sea and more Marines on such ships? Marines are going to move back to their maritime routes Marines have fought hard and well in two ground wars over the last decade but they've been used in a different way from the way the Marine Corps is intended to be used. Marines are going to go back to being the middle weight force that can get anywhere fast do whatever they have to when they get there including win any fight that they have to and be able to do small footprint low cost engagements. We're going to we're moving toward building 32 amphibious ships for those Marines to be on it's like the sergeant major just said the Marines are going to be out there. You're going to be worldwide you're going to be globally deployed they're going to be at least as many Marines west of the international date line in the future as there are today. You're going to be doing the things that Marines do so well engagement, humanitarian assistance disaster relief irregular warfare high-end warfare whatever is called upon Marines operating from sea and sea bases are going to be there to do it that's what the Marine Corps historically has done and that's the Marine Corps future. I think for most of you here we just finished bold alligator 12 largest exercise on the east coast in the last 11 years that was initiated by General Amish and Ambel Greenart and it came down to fleet forces command Ambel Harvey and myself Marine Forces Command expeditionary strike group 2 in the second map out of Camp Lejeune. So we are returning to our core roots back to the amphibs where we belong but it's not your father's or grandfather's amphibious force. It is not your grandfather's Marine Corps leaner meaner forward deployed with our Navy brothers. By the way you're from the G6, you're a communicator I'm putting you back aboard the amphibs got it? Aye sir. Ok report tomorrow morning. We'll do sir. Yeah real quick if you see a little combat ship up here check it out because that could be your future I've talked to General Amish about putting Marine teams on a little combat ships, establish an expeditionary module. We used to have things called Stinger teams and these were Marines on destroyers, on cruisers and whatever and we have sized, some don't like that size our crews such that we have room on some of our surface combatants and we're looking hard at it where would that come in? Maritime intercept operations, swarm counter swarm tactics things of that nature VBSS visit board search date goes on so check out your swimming quals ok. We'll do. Thank you gentlemen. Right gentlemen this is our last question from the web and the last question for this event from FC1J Marks last year the enlisted retention board ordered the removal of over 3,000 sailors from service who did not have the chance to finish their contracts before implementing any future ERBs will the Navy consider allowing early retirements or voluntary separations from interested personnel? Well number one we're not looking at any future ERBs right now. Number two under this ERB we have we do have consideration you can early retire if you meet the 15 year requirement before the 1st of October of this year so there is that early retirement but for in terms of the enlisted retention board number one is something we did not want to do it was the only way we could be fair though to certain ratings certain ratings were over man to get an ERB it had to be more than 103% manned and so you're having people come into the Navy that couldn't advance because everything was full in front of them we did the ERBs based solely on records the board looked at every record in a rating to determine who was chosen who was not for those people chosen for the ERB we're trying to make extra sure that the transition services they need are there number one if you qualify you can go into the reserves to get your 20 years number two one on one counseling we'll send you to any job fair in America and pay your transportation we'll guarantee you 60 days back in the United States back in the continental United States if you're deployed or if you're overseas we'll make sure that whatever benefits are out there if we'll make sure that your skills in the Navy whatever they line up with in terms of licensing or certificates or things like that we'll help you get that and we'll pay for the licensing or certificate that you need there are a lot of other programs for people who were selected by the ERB but it wasn't something we wanted to do but we've tried to do it in as fair and a transparent way as humanly possible and I hope that as people leave the Navy yet whatever help they need to make sure that they are successful in civilian life the only thing I would add to that is you know we had an ERB for officers earlier this year it's called SERB, Selective and it wasn't a list of retention it was early retirement and what we had to do is we asked officers to come home that was shaped by different force shaping tools which is what early retirement is so the answer to the question is Secretary said it best, we don't plan to have another ERB we were overwhelmed with low attrition, high retention and 34 of about 85 NECs that were just over manned up to 120, 130% we had to act really fast because PTS performed as SERB was choked and it was really we were starting to shape the force with something that was designed to tweak the force and we had to say no to about half of the PTS that was wrong and now we're at like 9 out of 10 yes in PTS, promotions are where they need to be so like Secretary said, we didn't want to do it but we had to do it it's kind of done, we'll look very closely in the future and force shaping is the preferred method, McPung? Yes sir, as a secretary and both a secretary and CNO said not something we wanted to do, something we had to do had over 30 ratings that were over manned, we've got those sized down, I think you'll see more advancement I think you'll see better promotions as we move through, a good thing the other thing, and to your point you ask about Terra, whether it's available if you have 15 years in by one September, that's the the date there that we're looking at and if I can speak on behalf of the Marine Corps, not to answer the sailors question but to talk to the Marines we're going to naturally draw down by 5,000 per year between now and 2016 until we reach our end strength of 182.1 meaning we're going to maximize all of our voluntary separations meaning to keep faith with you Marines and I'm going to quote the comment on here keep faith with the Marines, you will not be reduced out of the force involuntarily unless you just happen to be one of those Marines that needs to go home for a special reason, you with me? Okay, so we are going to naturally go down by about 5,000 per year between now 2016 until we reach our mark of 182, we will not reduce in force, we are going to go down and we're going to draw down through natural attrition. All right, I want to thank sailors and Marines here on Bataan and I want to thank the sailors and Marines all around the world who have tuned in to this all hands call. I was serious about what I said if you've got ideas of things that we've missed if you've got ideas about things we need to be doing that we're not doing let us know there'll be a website up by the end of the month but if you've got something before then go to the Navy Facebook page put it on that we have the most formidable expeditionary fighting force the world has ever known in the United States Navy in the United States Marine Corps we are going to keep that we're going to keep that on behalf of America thank you sailors thank you Marines Mr. Secretary on behalf of my crew the crew of the big five Mighty Warship Bataan it's an honor to have you on board and we're very thankful that you selected us to host your all hands worldwide call. I know you've been on board before but there's a small token of our appreciation if this could find a place a place in your office or if you'd be happy to wear it I'm very honored okay and what we're going to do here is the Secretary and the distinguished guests are going to be mingle with the crowd so formation attend Hutt formation at ease test test how are you doing? doing alright Hutt, who are you with? our PAX security forces who are you? so are you a hot middleman? I'm a cold guy I'm a hot middleman but damn worth it good look great bro