 Welcome, and thank you for joining me. I'm Petty Officer Elliot Fabrizio. The 21st Century Sailor Office is hitting its one year mark after being established in early 2013. Here to talk about why the office was created, what it's done, and its goals for year two is the 21st Century Sailor Office Director, Admiral Sean Buck. Sir? Good morning. Good morning. How are you? Thanks. Great, sir. Well, let's jump right in, sir. I knew this office is, there's bound to be sailors out there that maybe haven't heard of it, or if they have heard of it, aren't exactly sure what it's designed to do. So would you tell me first, why was this office created, and what is its goal? Sure, I think you're exactly right. Not too many sailors out in the fleet know the office by its name, but they surely know about the programs that we cover down on behalf of them and their families. The list of things that we do, we cover down on sexual assault prevention and response, suicide prevention, alcohol and substance abuse prevention, hazing, and also all of the formal equal opportunity program of the Navy is covered down in the 21st Century Sailor Office. As well as physical fitness, and last but not least, we cover down on all of the family programs for our Navy's families. The reason why the CNO stood this office up as the 21st Century Sailor Office was to integrate and synchronize all those different programs because of the commonality of prevention strategies and resourcing strategies that look after the resiliency of our sailors and our families. All right, sir. And with this office being in place for a year now, what are some of the major accomplishments that have been hit during this first inaugural year? Well, the key focus areas have been on sexual assault prevention and response, suicide prevention and alcohol and substance abuse prevention. That has been our main key areas. In sexual assault prevention, as all sailors in the fleet know, we've made a tremendous effort in raising the awareness across the entire fleet about what sexual assault is, how we respond to it, how a sailor can come forward and report if they've become victimized, and the acknowledgement that this is a really bad problem, a criminal problem within our lifelines. And we've seen market turnaround in just this last year in which the reporting of sexual assaults has gone up because we truly believe that our sailors now think and know that they're part of an organization that will take all reports of sexual assault seriously and do our best to care for them and also have accountability measures against any alleged offender. In suicide prevention, we've also had market results. In 2013, the Navy saw a 26% reduction in the number of suicides. Sometimes I hesitate to talk about numbers because one suicide is one too many. But the fact that we have the vectors trending in the right way in a reduction of suicides is good news. Our efforts seem to be having a positive effect and we're going to continue pushing forward to try to drive that number of suicides in the Navy down to zero. Zero is the only number that really counts in suicide prevention. In alcohol and substance abuse, important strides have been made there too. Alcohol and substance abuse seem to be a common thread across a lot of the destructive behaviors that sailors may find themselves a part of or victimized by. So to reduce that abuse is critical to our prevention strategy of all these different destructive behaviors. This last year, we've seen a market decrease in alcohol related incidences, a precipitous drop in DUIs in the Navy, and also a very drastic drop in the illicit use of synthetic marijuana such as spice and other drugs. So just in the last 13, 14 months since the office was stood up, we've made great strides. It sounds like a busy and productive first year, sir, but as you become the outgoing director and you turn over directorship to the incoming Admiral Richard Snyder, what do you see as the major initiatives or challenges this office will face in year two? It has been a good year. I attribute all that effort to the fleet. All these destructive behaviors are fleet problems that demand fleet solutions and the fleet has really taken a round turn on it. But as Admiral Snyder relieves me, it's time to shift the rudder a little bit more toward actual prevention of these destructive behaviors from happening. Our main focus going forward is going to be on bystander intervention because we can write all the policy we want here in Washington. I can message as much as I want from Washington, D.C. or actually face to face to the sailors, but I'm not going to be there on a day in, day out basis with sailors on duty or off duty as they may be embarking on a destructive decision. It's going to be their shipmates. It's going to be you. It's going to be me, and that's going to be key to preventing it, having our shipmates help intervene when we can't help ourselves. Well, sir, as we close our interview, I know that a lot of sailors when they hear about this office, they're already trained to be mission focused, so they're going to be thinking, what are the deliverables here? How can this office be a resource to me or how can I be a resource to this office? What do we need to do exactly? What would you say to sailors that are wondering that about the 21st century sailor office? There are some things very specific that I need from the fleet. I need their participation. I need the fleet to be part of the solution to a lot of the destructive behavior that we're trying to prevent. I'm on an around the world journey right now. I've embarked on it in early January and it will continue until I've had a chance to show up on the doorstep of every sailor's command wherever they are serving around the world and solicit feedback from them. I need to better appreciate the effectiveness of policies and programs that we've put into place here from Washington, D.C. And I also want to hear from each sailor feedback on training. It will continue to train through GMT, through other forms of training, and I want to see what resonates best with them. So far on my engagements with the fleet, I've gotten tremendous feedback on how they want to best receive the training, and I'd like everybody to know that their feedback is informing our programs, our policies, and our training curriculum as we move forward. Well, sir, I hope the sailors use that opportunity to send that feedback into your office, and thank you for joining me today. Thanks very much for the opportunity. To learn more about the 21st Century Sailor Office, visit MPC's website.