 A generation of two or three areas ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States Thank you for that warm introduction First of all, I'd like to welcome you. We're very honored to have you here president Reagan This committee has met this morning I'd like to go back a little over a year When you first formed this remember your comments very well You said that this was one of the most important Presidential committees you were establishing because of the urgency and priority of the area involved and Secondly you indicated in one of your first days in office you had Tested the system, but that you were sitting in the wrong chair and vice president Bush was in kneecap. I Must tell you personally that I think almost all of the members of this committee have been up in the kneecap We flew out to Omaha. Some of us had a chance to sit in your chair even though they kept the telephone away from us It was a good trip out. We spent a day with the strategic air command And through this the committee has been very much involved in the work that's been undertaken You will again receive through the Department of Defense and through mr. McFarland a detailed written reports Very informally and very briefly. We'd like to tell you that we feel very confident that the Two years in which the telecommunications structure in the United States of America has dramatically changed that there has been no negative effect on the Emergency communications of the country is provided by ATT and the common carriers and the operating companies in this country We have recommended and there has been established a national coordinating center for Arlington, Virginia for the national communication system And that will be fully in effect permanently in March of 1985 We have undertaken Satellite survivability studies which have already led to certain changes being made aboard the satellite to protect them from interference And from orbital change we've undertaken major studies in automatic information Processing and the relationship to the telecommunications industry These studies we hope will continue on a major basis for the next year or so Finally, we are now looking at the whole commercial survivability network as it applies for the United States that network being outside the military network specifically and Are looking at making recommendations to the government to the national security Advisor and to the Department of Defense and all of the 22 other agencies involved with respect to Funding priorities for the entire communications program. We thank you for your interest and for your attention Well, I thank you Chairman Harris-Cogh, it's good to see all of you again. Have you here? Much has occurred since we last met in this room Bud McFarland has kept me informed of the work that you're doing and of the considerable activity Generated in the government in response to your input You've been a vital stimulus In the area of national security telecommunications planning and capability enhancement I want to take this opportunity to thank you as a group and to individually as well for the Contribution that you're all making Our nation is more secure and better because of what you're doing the telecommunications expertise in this room is a powerful national security asset and I regard the end stack and your willingness to serve as a model of private sector government cooperation You're demonstrating What this kind of teamwork can accomplish while addressing issues of high National priority and your task is crucial Ensuring the capability the nation's telecommunications assets Which the 30 corporations represented on the end stack largely compose is vital to the national interest. I regard this challenge as a top administration priority The nation's commercial telecommunications assets are key elements of our overall national security posture And your guidance is a necessary part of the equation If our valuable communications assets are to effectively contribute to our nation's security We continue to need your help And I urge you all to stay personally involved I'm pleased to announce that today. I've signed a new executive order to Streamline various agency assignments for national security and emergency preparedness Telecommunications functions It also establishes a more effective White House mechanism for coordinating telecommunications planning and Formally creates the national communications system The preparation of this executive order resulted from end stacks focus on government telecommunications planning All of the national communications system entities most of whom are represented here today Now have an important responsibility to address I Have designated the national communications system represented here today by a deputy Secretary Taft general powers and the heads of several of its member departments and agencies as the vehicle For putting in stack recommendations in practice It'll also serve as the forum to coordinate government telecommunications planning and meeting national security leadership requirements And I'm pleased that a national coordinating center, which was a high-level end stack recommendation is already in the first stage of operation With your active participation It is this at this very moment making a critical contribution to our telecommunications readiness And I have directed the NCS to address your other recommendations with similar vigor Government has to equal industries performance in the end stack process, and I have Asked all NCS member agencies to fully support this task Today we've reached a milestone when the end stack was formed I asked Rand Araskog of ITT corporation to serve as the first chairman The progress we've made to date is a testimony to his leadership and now as we move into your second year I'm pleased that Joe Sherrick of Conset has agreed to serve as the end stacks new chairman Ted Brophy of GTE will be serving as the new end stack vice chairman So that we might appropriately recognize this changing of the mantle I would like to ask Rand and Joe to join me here at the podium. I'm supposed to have some things here There Right well now That you are here Rand you have my personal thanks and the gratitude of the nation for the contribution You've made as the end stacks first chairman your leadership in forging a cooperative spirit enabled us to achieve our initial objectives and Get this operation on the way and I'm very pleased that you will continue to serve as a member the end stack So on behalf of the American people along with your colleagues in the industry I would like to present you with this symbol of the leadership that you provide Thank you the Joe you're taking charge of the end stack with a number of vital issues still before us and You will provide the kind of continuity will guarantee end stacks further success I look forward to working with you and the entire committee and meeting the challenges Given your task, I'd like to present you with something that might be useful on the job So thank you and congratulations You know I shouldn't do this, but I'm just tempted further with all of you and all that you've accomplished But please tell me in case I did it in a previous meeting or not did I ever tell you about my first Sunday Experience when I first came here with the communication system. I know that some of my people here have heard me They'll have to put up with it again well, we were invited to the Virginia farm of Jack Kilpatrick James J. Kilpatrick the columnist and for a Sunday lunch so the helicopter landed in the South Lawn and Nancy and I got aboard and Half hour later. We're down there at his farm and he greets us and as we're walking toward the house He said, you know, your fellas have been here for several days putting in the communications equipment in the phones And I said, what are you talking about? What do you mean? Well, he said they said that it's a system that you can be in touch instantly with anybody any place in the world And I said you mean to go a half an hour away from lunch They got to put in a phone system He said yes, and he said I challenged them on this being able to meet in or get anyone in the world And he said they Told me to name someone well He said I have a son who's on embassy guard in a embassy in Africa and he said they got him and his mother got to talk to him And see him for a long time So then he said I challenged him because I've got a son who's an enlisted man a quarter master on the USS Pratt With the sixth fleet in the Mediterranean and he said and then they told me they couldn't reach him But he said before I could say I told you so they said the fleet is on maneuvers and only the president Can reach the fleet well we went on in the house, and I met the young man's wife Mary sweet young lady, and I remembered what he'd told me so I excused myself went back outside And I said is this right that I could get someone on the USS Pratt with the sixth fleet in the Mediterranean he said yes, and I said get him So I went back in and got her what she got to talk to her husband. She hadn't seen him for a long time And I felt very pleased with myself until sometime later. I got a letter from the young man. I Hadn't thought about everything for example that the last part of that communication was going to be by radio To wherever the ship was and he told me that on maneuvers the air is full of traffic Admirals talking to admirals ships talking to ships, and then he said a voice came on and said White House calling And another voice said what code is that and a third voice said wait a minute. Maybe it is the White House And then he said they came down to a lowly quartermaster on a tin can there with the fleet the air He said couldn't have been silenced faster by Hollywood than it was silenced, and he said I Got to talk to my wife Of course, I hadn't thought about that the whole fleet would be listening in But he added this line which I have treasured and remembered He said it was as if God had called the Vatican and asked to see an altar boy by name. I Just wanted you to have another slant on the importance of all that you are doing here I won't abuse the system anymore. I've learned Thanks very much