 All right, so obviously the conference call, we just want to make sure we speak up, and particularly you guys and others, the mics. Oh, this is Emma Rich, thank you, do you hear me? Oh, we hear you very loud and clear, sir. Okay. Great. I'm having trouble hearing the folks in the room. Yes, sir, we're turning the volume up now. Can you hear me now, sir? Can you hear me loud and clear? Probably too loud, right, sir? I agree. All right, well, we'll go ahead and get started. Thank you to everyone for coming today, and thank you for taking the time in Memorial Day Week to come talk to us about the submarine fleet and the fantastic men and women we have here. Hi, can you join us on the line, please? Yes, sir. Admiral, we have Virginia Pilot, the Union Tribune, and we have the AP. In the room here today, we have CNN, we have ABC, both national and DC local. We have Stars and Stripes, and we have Navy times. Did I forget anyone? Okay. On the phone, obviously, for you all, we have Admiral Richardson. He was not able to come up today because of recent events in last night's Fire and War of U.S. and Miami. So, again, Admiral, thank you for joining us on the phone. We'll share what we can. The Admiral will take what questions that you can, that he can answer. If you have anything more specific, please see me, and I can help facilitate that information for you. But, more importantly, we have some really fantastic folks with us today, and they've got some amazing stories to be able to share about their experiences in the submarine fleet. So, we'd like to be able to focus on that. And again, anything beyond that, you can come see me when we're finished here. This isn't on-the-record conversation. We are recording it. So, if you have any questions, we can help facilitate that when we're finished. You can see me here called Chinfo afterward. And everyone will get one question and one follow-up, and I will help facilitate that. And then, once we are sure everyone has had their turn, we can go through again. I would ask, because the Admiral's on the phone, if you could identify yourself when you are asking a question, so he knows who he's talking to. And for those on the panel here today, if you could just identify yourself as you're answering questions. So, those reporters on the phone know who they're here in front today. The Admiral will make some brief opening remarks, and then we'll turn it over to questions. Is there any questions from any of the reporters? Any questions from the panel? Nope. All right. We'll go about 30 minutes. I'll give the last question, and then we'll go from there and do some breakout sessions. So, Admiral, with that, I'll turn it over to you, sir. For this event, but last night events, Chinzo's plan to remain here in headquarters by the few remarks prior to you all engaging the Submariners that you have before you, which is really the reason that we're here. I wanted to start today, you know, as you're all aware, shortly before 6 p.m. last night, the Fed detects submarine USS Miami experienced a fire in the S-Ships 4 department. I wanted to open my remarks by just recognizing that and providing a few details. First, I wanted to start by thanking and providing my respects to all the emergency responders that responded to the fire. There was a terrific team that formed between the S-Ships crew, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Fire Department, and particularly the Seacoast Community Fire Department and other agency teams that all came together and by virtue of their training and teamwork, responded to the fire and put it out. And then her third month of a 20-month maintenance period up there in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in the evening last night just before the ship experienced a fire in the 4 department. The ship's crew, along with the mutual assistance of many of the Seacoast Community Fire Department and other agency teams, responded to the fire and the subsequent damage was confined to the 4 department spaces only. Those spaces include crew living spaces, command and control spaces, and the torpedo room. The torpedo room was empty. In fact, there were no torpedoes or any weapons on board the ship. The nuclear propulsion spaces were physically isolated from the 4 department early in the initial response and were unaffected by the fire. The propulsion spaces remained habitable and were continuously manned throughout the event. The reactor on the ship had then shut down for over two months and it remained in a stable and safe condition throughout the event. The fire did spread to spaces within the submarine and were very difficult to access, presenting a challenging situation for initial responders. So the combination of difficult access and then the fact that the ship's steel hull contains that heat created some very challenging conditions, but the team persevered and demonstrated some real fortitude and resilience to gain control and extinguish the fire. And so it was really by virtue of their heroic actions that they stabilized the situation, protecting the crew and the shipyard workers. There are a lot of heroes that worked together last night to bring this under control from the Navy, the shipyard firefighters, and the entire Seacoast. So a full investigation, as you can imagine, will be done. It's already begun. To determine the cause of the fire, this investigation will be very thorough. And by virtue of that, there it is. So we'll take some time, but we'll do everything we need to do to get that right. So again, just kind of recapping and closing out my remarks on the fire on USS Miami. Just again, close as I open by expressing deep gratitude for the strong support we received from everybody who responded, particularly the state and local partners who have assisted us without the events. We trained vigorously hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder over years to respond to crises like this, casualties of this nature. And that training was key to success last night. So what I'd like to do, having opened with that, is just kind of return to my original intent, which was to sort of tee up this conversation that we want to have with the young sub-readers that are before you. You know, I think that there's a growing awareness in the country right now and in our leadership that America is indeed a maritime nation. You know, we're celebrating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, which is in many ways a celebration of that, you know, that maritime quality to our nation. It really is in our DNA. And here in the 21st century, you know, to be a maritime nation means that you've got to be superior in the undersea domain as well, even dominant. And our C&O has challenged our Navy to do exactly that in his sailing direction and in his navigation plan to continue to be dominant in the undersea domain. I, myself, together with Sub-Rain Force leadership took up that call and issued a design for undersea warfare which organizes our efforts along three vectors. One is, you know, our reason for existing is to provide capable forces to operate and war fight. And so that's, you know, our prime directive. We also have an effort to make sure that we provide those ready forces to the forward commanders so that we can, you know, man train, equip, certify, organize those forces. And we want to do all of those things, provide the forces, operate and fight those forces if necessary, both now and into the future. You know, the key to doing that our strongest and most powerful advantage is our people. And the Navy and the Sub-Rain Force really garner the very best people that the nation has to offer. They come from every quarter of America and we are proud of the diversity and the talent that we have in the Sub-Rain Force. And as I step forward in that diversity and opening up doors to more diversity and more talent, we've recently opened the Sub-Rain Force to women and that's really the opportunity that brings us together today is to sort of recognize and highlight what I think is a very successful program of integrating women into the Sub-Rain Force. And so here on the eve of Memorial Day weekend I thought there'd be no better time since the team has gathered there in Washington, D.C. to recognize Memorial Day anyway that it would be an opportunity for us all to get together with you and maybe just give me an opportunity to talk to our young warriors there and see what's on their minds. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to them and see what they've got to say. Thanks very much. Sam, you want to take the first question? So who wants to volunteer first and tell me what it's like to actually live on a submarine? Very basic question, but in terms of the gender changes that we've been talking about the last few years. I'll talk about it. This is Lieutenant Strobel from the U.S. Department of Justice. I actually had an opportunity to... Both of us are having trouble, but I can't hear. We're having trouble hearing now. Is that better? Can you hear me if I talk louder like this, ma'am? Not much. Not really. Try the microphone. Try this. How's that? Right there. Perfect. Thank you. So I had the opportunity to go on one deployment right before we got women, and then a second one when we had women. And it really... There wasn't much of a difference. It was a very smooth transition because we trained and we... Basically, the whole... that big thing was the head situation, which really wasn't that big of a deal because it's already been done on surface ships, so we just took their model, put it on our submarine. And, you know, I thought that when women would come on it would take up some of my head time, like when I'd be in a shower. But really, I think it took up more of theirs because I'd see them asking, oh, is the head free for one of us? So as far as being a male on a submarine, it really wasn't much of a change at all. Can I ask your wife here? Lieutenant Gigi's trouble for her. This is Lieutenant Tabitha's trouble. I would agree. I think that the transition for us, you know, we came onto the submarine, so we didn't really get an experience of what it was like before, but it was very comfortable and we felt very comfortable in our room and I think it took a little bit for the crew to get used to, you know, coming to knock on our door. Sometimes we'd leave our room and we'd see someone standing there waiting to talk to us instead of just knocking on the door, but it definitely became more and more comfortable as the deployment went on. But I agree, it was a really good transition. Challenges or the concerns we're talking about before we move on? Don't care. Can you hear me okay? Feel free to yell. Okay, I will yell. Oh, not to lose my voice. Of course, you know, before the submarine fleet became co-ed, there were concerns that were tossed around. Now that you've been assigned submarine and gone out, what are some of the challenges that you have faced? With any new situation, there has to be challenges. I mean, there's got to be something that, you know, was an adjustment. It's a completely different environment than you've ever been in before. Hi, it's Lieutenant J.G. Abigail Holt from the USS Wyoming Blue. I think I get to speak for most of the girls because we all know each other from going through the pipeline. It's a challenge to be a junior officer on a submarine in general. So, outside of being female on a submarine, like, all of us are trying to qualify. All of us are trying to support the wardrobe and be a team member. And that is challenging in itself. It's challenging, excuse me, like, going underway with the submarine and being apart from your family for extended periods of time. And so, some of us have experienced a small part of that, but it's just been a challenge in general, trying to become a member of the submarine force to be a team player. I mean, I wonder about the space constraints being on the submarine. What's that been like for you? Well, on our submarine, there's three women and there's a three-man state room, three-person state room, excuse me, which is probably one of the biggest rooms of the state room. So, we got really lucky with that and we have a good amount of space for ourselves. And honestly, it wasn't really an issue. I don't know if it's just because we're on boomers and they're pretty large to begin with, but I did some summer cruises on destroyers and LSD and it really doesn't feel much smaller than the surface ships that I've spent time on, really. So, I don't know if anybody else has any opinion on that, but... The shot. Lieutenant Kolchitsky. I just want to ask for a suggestion on general background information. In the pipeline, like attending the submarine officer, basic course, just where does the whole program stand now? Thank you. Admiral Sir, you want to take that? Can you...this is Commander Russel. Can you hear me? Yes, we can, ma'am. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to work this phone, but... Okay, so we have 24 already reported to... to the submarines and those are the SSBs and the SSGNs. At our next phase of the integration will take place in January of 2013. We have 10 women who are graduating from the submarine officer basic course in June of 2012 and they'll start the prototype in around August. They're scheduled right now to graduate around January of 2013 and then we'll, you know, shortly after that report to their submarines. And then we have five... So, by this time next year we're talking about there'll be 34. I don't know what the prototype means. Let me just step in here. So, just in general, to execute the plan we're assessing roughly 20 women per class per year. A little bit over a year, maybe 15 to 18 month training program from the time you graduate from your college and start the pro training before you report to your first ship. And so, you know, and those classes can be sort of spread in a number of different classes that are, by taking a number of different classes that are spread throughout, you know, that 18 months. So, roughly, you know, we're assessing about 20 per year and so you should sort of see roughly, again, 20 per year reporting to their submarines every year after this one. Does that help you? Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Alright, touching on the question of claustrophobia, being a little bit larger than the average Submariner, I find it's a lot roomier than I had expected. I had gone on the VIP trip for when I did the new pock and got picked up that way. And I had walked through, had a hard hat on, which had a little bit more height and was really uncomfortable with being on the sub. But after I was underway for just 12 days or a little bit more than that. And in that short time, you learn to where you can stand, where you can't, and you realize there's a lot more space. And if you find there's spots that you can find your own little personal space and get your work done or study. But along that line you also have to be very comfortable being close to somebody else because you're standing shoulder to shoulder with them often. So, it's just an adjustment. Do you have the size of your room? Well, I was assigned to one of the bunk rooms and it's about the size of one of these tables is the center area. And not the whole thing, just one of the three sections. And your rack is about the size of say a small coffin. I assume I've never actually laid inside a coffin. But overall it was I was comfortable and you're doing so much work all the time. For me, I didn't have a division yet, so I was just working on my qualifications. For others, they're staying up late, working with divisional paperwork, then doing qualifications and you're trying to fit in maybe a work out here and there. And so you, by the time you hit the bed, or the rack, you are ready to fall asleep instantly. And, you know, I tried reading a book once and I think I woke up the next morning and found it on the floor next to where I was sleeping. So, you just you're so tired you just fall right asleep. It doesn't ever register again. For any of the reporters we're happy to bring you down on board any of the submarines and tour you around and you get to see firsthand kind of the dimensions that we're talking about, okay? You've been on a service ship and a lot of people have probably done ship tours. Can you maybe give some comparisons there? Yes. Lieutenant Esch, I'm on the USS Ohio Blue. So, I was on a destroyer and the submarine that we're on is actually a few feet longer than the destroyer was. So, that gives you an idea that it's really not much different and a lot of the spaces in the submarine are more roomy than they were on the service ship. My state room on my ship was a three-man and my state room on the submarine is also a three-man. And really the living space is about the same in both of them. I do have one story though. When I first got to the submarine I was doing my check-in with my Sea Dad as they call them. He's a qualified submarineer and he had the rack that I was going into and he said the most important things are one. You bring a big blanket because the fan is right above it and that top rack is very cold. So, that was the most important thing and then the other one was he was the electrical officer and I was taking his job as the electrical officer. So, as that division officer role we're responsible for being the phone talker for the XO during fire drills. And so, he said although you normally lay in one direction I'd recommend laying the opposite way because I found it really easy to swing off of this one pipe above the rack and get out of that really fast whenever there's a fire drill. So, those are my moving in experiences on the submarines. So, yeah. I'll take that one. Lieutenant Mayor USS Wyoming Blue was here before the integration here after the integration and my role on the submarine now is the senior J.O. per se. And it's been really interesting because now as a senior J.O. one of your main job is to train the newly reporting J.O.'s on board. And they have the experience to train the new female the first wave of female officers is awesome to teach and train on the legacy, the responsibility and just the extreme hard work it takes to be successful as a junior officer is great. I can say from my perspective on USS Wyoming that the first wave of female officers have been fantastic and just they're giving us a run for money. I mean, us as the rest of the J.O. is not just males, so very smart and just being in charge of training I know that they've been very they're hitting the ground running pretty hard. So, to be able to teach the awesome responsibility to drive a submarine when they get qualified and get their fish, be responsible for over the captain's director representative and be responsible for over one time, maybe over 150 lives a nuclear reactor nuclear weapons and torpedoes that's the ultimate responsibility and it's awesome and to be able to get to train these junior officers is in the first wave to be a part of it is awesome. So, not to answer that for you guys. Can you please identify yourself again? I missed your name. I apologize. Lieutenant Max Mayer USS Wyoming Thank you. Lieutenant Martindale, do you want to chime in? I know you've been on board for a while Your vote. Can you chime in on the qualification process? Yes, ma'am. I came to Maine in November and I have been there so approximately six months and I can say that the training is intensive and extremely rewarding that our boat, Lieutenant Kochitski and I are on the same crew that our chain of command aggressively pursued our qualifications that the number one goal for all junior officers is to qualify both expeditiously but obviously with the highest level of skill and knowledge and I can personally say that I was given every opportunity to qualify and every single person on the boat from someone who had reported after me to the exo and captain themselves were eager to train us, to teach us, and to give us opportunities to ask questions and to perform at watch standing. Lieutenant Straubel I also reported to the USS Georgia in November and I completely agree I think that so far the qualification process has been rigorous but it's also been a lot of fun and that's the best part at the end of the day what we want to do is drive the submarine and the chances that we get to do that are extremely rewarding and definitely a lot of fun so it's been difficult but I look forward to continuing the process in one day qualifying. Lieutenant Matter Yes ma'am talk about getting to the ship getting to the submarine just starting your qualification process This is Lieutenant Joshua Matter on the USS Ohio Gold qualifications is the same for both of us it's very difficult as Ms. Martindale said it's very rewarding as well we're about to be the direct representative of our captain at times when we're driving the boat we're ultimately responsible but we're going to be the ones giving actions and making decisions along with him so this qualification process is designed to make us ready for that situation when we're standing watch driving as Officer of the Deck standing, engine out of the watch back yaft for the engine room all these things are getting us ready for what we want to do and what we signed up for and it's very exciting we're doing it together all the JOs are one big family one big group we're all trying to qualify the same thing to do the same job and I'm enjoying every bit of it as much as everyone else is what's your job on the submarine? my job on the submarine is the reactor controls assistant I am the division officer for the division that is in charge of all the reactor safety equipment in the engine room getting through this obviously is probably the most active and challenging training pipeline what would you tell them? I'll take this one if you want to pass to you good afternoon I'm Lieutenant J.G. Lorenas I'm the supply officer of the USS Wyoming blue we've actually had some reach out from women at the academy that have asked us questions that have been selected for the submarine program or selected to go submarines so we've been able to let them know what we're going through now some of them didn't know just questions, just general questions about school where you were living on the submarine, how many people were there just general questions we were easily able to address those and I think it helped them a lot and we're still in communication with a lot of those women that have reached out to us I was just going to Lieutenant Freda Christensen USS Ohio Gold I was just going to add for my two incidents they aren't here right now they were stacked on the boat but whenever we're on the boat and we're training, studying, studying kind of sometimes you get down in the dump so you think oh my god this is so hard, I have so much to do but then when you hear the clacks and go off that's the alarm you sound before you dive the ship and then the ship you dive the ship and then that's the time to think oh my god I'm on a submarine this is so cool or like for the chops we stand dives that's like our big watch we won't ever stand off the deck like this all of the new swells so we control the depth of the ship and stuff like that for them while they're driving in the same direction we can do angles and dangles like taking 25 degrees up and down and stuff that's when it's cool like stuff flying everywhere because people didn't stow it correctly but you're like holy cow look at what I'm doing you're like standing like this but you're standing up it's pretty crazy you got to remember that things like that that make it so awesome things that people would pay millions of dollars just to experience once and we get to do it for our job Lieutenant Freda Christensen USS Wyoming a follow on sir when you asked what advice would I give women I don't think the advice that I would give women would be any difference in the advice I give males in fact I've been I've reached out to the mechanic grad and some graduates that were selected for submarines after me contacted me hey what's it like in power school and what should I expect what routine work for you and they were males and it's just a matter of you're a submarine or the pipeline as far as mentorship not to attract them the efforts that have been put in place to ensure that we have senior females on board to provide that mentorship capability I think I've had just as much mentorship from the male members of the ship and that's important that we recognize that because it's not the integration of women it's only going to be for a certain kind of period until it's just the seven readers on a boat and it's not going to be about females getting mentorship from females or males mentoring males it's going to be about the longevity of the program and incorporating a junior senior officer development so I don't think I would say anything different to a female or a male it would be just as the tenant said bring a blanket be ready with quick be ready to put in a lot of long hours regardless of gender I'd like to go Jen Steele from Union Travian do you have any questions for the group Jim we're after we're hearing you Jen can you please speak up a little sorry I'm full so we have this snug fast attack summary here and my question is what are the plans to possibly integrate women on boats yeah so this is Edward Richardson we're giving that every consideration I think that one of the main elements of we want to proceed very deliberately we take great pride in the program that we have right now the pace and the tone and everything of the program is just the way we want it I credit all the success for that community management considerations there's configuration considerations and then there's also we want the benefit of the experience there the integrated teams that you're talking to right now are coming back and we want to make sure that we've learned everything that we can from these initial steps before we take an additional step to expand the program to as a sentence does that answer your question do you think that means timeline that well I think that we're going to move on as for the discussion and at that point we can come forward to the CNO regarding expansion of the program let me just clarify I think it's going to be a go at some point to put women on fast attack that's one step too far I would open this opportunity as widely as we can but we want to make sure that it's sustainable and so I just want to make sure that I understand the decision space as completely as possible so that when I make a recommendation to the CNO you know I can back that recommendation up and we'll be standing on on foot characterize my approach to this is we want to be as we want to open this up as widely as we can as long as it's a sustainable program Pauline did you have a question I wanted to follow up so far we're talking solely about women officers are there any plans in the work to have limited sub-mariner positions open to women Kate the exact same answer really so that would be an expansion in another direction and again we just want to make sure that we understand the decision space before we make any recommendations sure I can use one more question I wanted to ask within at Cretcheson is she there right yes ma'am she is yes I saw in your bio that you were an NFO with the Hawker supply I was going to ask you a little bit to contrast what it's like being sub marine versus well when I was at E2NFO my squadron got back from deployment and when I got there and then I transferred so I never served on a carrier but being in the squadron I was one of few females there and they just treated me like one of the guys there when I was on my DDG as the supply officer on board I was a senior female on board we had females listed of course but like Vanessa said the DDG is a lot like the submarine it's just as big I was surprised when I got on board actually that it was so big and my state room on the submarine was bigger than my one on my DDG at first the guys were a little more timid just because they hadn't worked with us or worked with females on a day to day basis but you know after a week they warmed up and we were just like brothers and sisters fighting for the bathroom to get in in the morning so you know it's we're all sailors if I'm on a surface ship or a submarine I'm still just trying to sustain that ship getting them parts and food to do the mission AVC has a question this is for the Admiral can you hear me sir excellent you mentioned lessons learned about this ongoing program can you describe what some of those lessons are right now sir well we're still just gathering though you know the team is really just getting enough seat time and experience then on board really sense the sea shore rotation inside of that station we're getting all the feedback that we can so far it's been very positive and very encouraging and so the program that we put together seemed to be working pretty well and so if we were going to expand and we want to make sure that we preserve that same approach you know if we wanted to open up to SSS for instance CNN Hi this is Lindy calling or Lindy from CNN I just had a quick follow up on the USS Miami I'm wondering if there were any additional radioactive exposure monitoring that would be done that's in addition to what's normally on a nuclear cell for those people on board when the fire broke out last night yeah I'm kind of going to ask that to just sort of keep that question and then you know the team up in is better suited to answer those sorts of specific questions and of course you know a lot of those details are also best answered after the investigation Thank you Do you have a follow up? Hi Jennifer from Stars and Stripes I just had a question I know most if not all of the women joined the Navy before you knew you were going to be able to be on a submarine I was just wondering if one or more of you could talk about why you decided to do the sub program and hopefully why it's great but why you decided to do that versus whatever you were doing before I can answer that. This is Lieutenant Rebecca Dreamon USS Maine Blue I was in Afghanistan when they finally opened up women in submarines and I jumped at it I've been wanting to do submarines since I was an ensign when I first joined the Navy in 2006 they told me I couldn't because I was in a guy and the moment they opened it up I jumped at it because I don't like being told that I can't do something for that very reason but I've been on numerous deployments in various areas where I'm one of few if not the only female and so this was this was nothing compared I mean it was fun it's fun to be a part of it it's fun to go on deployment still and have fun with it and to be amongst the first and some of the best and brightest that we have sitting here is just an honor so that was one of the big things the honor of being that was something that was very much a part of why I chose to do it That's my name Henson Martindale, USS Maine Gold I actually rode on USS Miami midshipman cruise and it was a little over 24 hours and the experience in those 24 hours alone showed me what a unique community the submarine community is the camaraderie the commitment and the closeness both physical and emotional is particularly unique to the community and after a 24 hour ride and I was able to be on the con during angles and dangles under the supervision of some of the officers I knew immediately that this is a unique experience and it was definitely something I wanted to pursue and I was lucky enough a year and a half later to actually walk down that path Lieutenant Lorenas again from the USS Miami Blue my first tour as a supply officer was on a submarine tender actually so we go around and we fix submarines that are in need out in the ocean so that was my first exposure to submarines and helping out the supply officers that were there and myself being a supply officer on the submarine support ship I was like hey this is really cool and it's something that I could love it looks exciting and if the opportunity ever opened up like Lieutenant Dreamon said we're all for it and there it was so we definitely took advantage of that and it's been really exciting so far and we just hope it continues to open up to everyone else we have time for maybe one last question before we break out to one-on-one sessions if we can also let the Admiral continue on his schedule as you guys can imagine he's very busy and thank you I have one go ahead sorry this is just a feeling I want to ask any of the female officers there who are serving on stuff have any thoughts on what it would be like to serve on a fast attack which is much smaller I took a tour when our Lieutenant Frederick Christensen, USS Ohio Gold we're four deployed out of Guam Ohio is so we're physically stationed in Washington State but we fly out to Guam and there's three fast attack submarines out there so one of their supply officers came over to us and they needed some help so I went over to the it was the Houston I believe over there to walk around and take a tour and it is super small so it's crazy like I don't know how the submariners on the fast attacks do it God bless them for it but I'll stay on my SSGN but okay one other thing though this is Lieutenant Esch also USS Ohio Blue the SSGN which we're both on is really the best of both worlds because you get to do more of the fast attack mission with the more space so that really is awesome and I'm really happy to be on the SSGN but on the same side the fast attack mission is really awesome and that's a big reason why I think a lot of us who join the submarine community is to go out there and like do that work that is just like all of the history and the lore of the submarine community really comes back to those really awesome missions that the fast attacks do so if it were to be open I think that there are some of us that would probably be willing to serve on them despite the tight quarters and also back to that last question that's kind of why I joined the submarine community and the missions that they do in the tight quarters it really comes down to the people that you serve with and that kind of environment that we go into as submariners it develops that esprit de corps that is really unique and yes we're sitting here at this table as the submarine officers yet unqualified but it really goes back to the people that have gotten us here which is the crew and all those people that have spent years and years of service on submarines learning the ins and outs of how to keep us safe and how to do those missions and none of us would be here without them and I think that that holds true for a fast attack also so alright Admiral sir I would like to turn it over to you just if you have any last parting shot and then we'll break off into a breakout session sir if that's okay Sure happy to close out I want to thank the reporters Bob for really a jewel in our strategic crown in the nation every one of them and so my heart kind of sitting here with my microphone muted and listening to the Q and A go back and forth and so that kind of mission accomplished if we contact the communicator to cross I'll tell you that every mission that every submarine conducts today is super important whether you're on a fast attack or an SSGN that strategic deterrent mission is vitally important to the security of the United States and has to be executed with a tremendous amount of professionalism and precision and so every one of those missions is really very very important to the nation and finally I want to just express my gratitude to all of the reporters and the representatives of the media who came and joined us today again and thanks on the eve of a long weekend for coming spend some time with us hopefully then it was worth all of your time and if we can ever kind of circle back and spend some time together I'm happy to you know do that keep the whole team up on the USS Miami you know our thoughts that's all I've got to say Thank you Admiral thank you to everyone who joined us on the line we can certainly talk after this and make sure all your questions were answered if anyone has any follow-ups you know please see me or any of the other public affairs officers who are here we're happy to help facilitate that and with that Admiral we'll go ahead and get you on your way for the rest of the day sir sorry okay so what we're going to do now is we're going to break up our individual one-on-one sessions there are signs up on the wall and there's five