WEBVTT 00:01.320 --> 00:03.003 - Good afternoon, everybody and welcome 00:03.003 --> 00:05.497 to the Senior Enlisted Leader Panel, 00:05.497 --> 00:08.147 part of this afternoon's event. 00:08.147 --> 00:11.064 (muffled talking) 00:12.030 --> 00:13.812 So my name is Kevin Goodrich 00:13.812 --> 00:15.680 and I'm the Force Master Chief 00:15.680 --> 00:17.960 at Navy Service Force, Atlantic. 00:17.960 --> 00:19.340 We work out of Norfolk. 00:19.340 --> 00:20.500 Admiral Wilson is my boss. 00:20.500 --> 00:22.090 He's sitting right here with us. 00:22.090 --> 00:25.341 And today we are joined with three enlisted leaders 00:25.341 --> 00:29.674 that represent nearly 500,000 enlisted men and women 00:31.067 --> 00:33.163 on active duty today. 00:33.163 --> 00:34.415 And I'm gonna kick it over to them 00:34.415 --> 00:36.235 for some brief introductions before we get started 00:36.235 --> 00:37.818 with the questions. 00:38.688 --> 00:40.485 - Good afternoon, I'm I'm Mas. Chief Russ Smith 00:40.485 --> 00:43.068 and I have been in the position 00:44.035 --> 00:45.100 of the Mas Chief of the Navy 00:45.100 --> 00:47.703 since August of last year. 00:47.703 --> 00:49.567 I worked for Admiral Richardson, as you all know 00:49.567 --> 00:51.604 as 31st Chief of Naval Operations, 00:51.604 --> 00:55.646 and before that I was the Fleet Mas Chief 00:55.646 --> 00:59.089 for N1, working for Vice Admiral Burke 00:59.089 --> 01:03.033 and I've been in the Navy for over 30 years, 01:03.033 --> 01:05.504 and this tour will take me out to 34. 01:05.504 --> 01:08.628 So, most noble tours, Naval Academy, 01:08.628 --> 01:11.649 command Mas Chief before the N1. 01:11.649 --> 01:14.321 Last afloat tour was the Momsen, 01:14.321 --> 01:16.774 as the command Mas Chief. 01:16.774 --> 01:18.725 And two tours on the mighty Abraham Lincoln, 01:18.725 --> 01:21.467 which is out getting business done on deployment. 01:21.467 --> 01:22.967 So booyah Lincoln. 01:23.819 --> 01:24.866 - All right, good afternoon. 01:24.866 --> 01:27.122 I'm Sergeant Major Robin Fortner, 01:27.122 --> 01:29.735 and I'm actually representing our 18th Sergeant Major 01:29.735 --> 01:31.720 division and Marine Corps Sergeant Major Ronald green. 01:31.720 --> 01:33.979 I currently work at Marine Corps Systems Command 01:33.979 --> 01:35.002 in Quantico, Virginia 01:35.002 --> 01:37.641 underneath Brigadier General Pasagian. 01:37.641 --> 01:39.823 I've been in marine corp for 29 years now. 01:39.823 --> 01:42.200 And I've worked in every part of the mag tab 01:42.200 --> 01:45.367 from division to wing to logistics side as well 01:45.367 --> 01:47.026 to include the support side. 01:47.026 --> 01:48.517 Before this tour, I worked down 01:48.517 --> 01:50.641 as the director to staff and seal academy 01:50.641 --> 01:54.917 which is our premier PME for our enlisted marines. 01:54.917 --> 01:55.819 So glad to be here. 01:55.819 --> 01:59.115 Looking forward to the discussion. 01:59.115 --> 01:59.948 - Thank you for having me. 01:59.948 --> 02:00.997 I'm Mas Chief Jason M. Vanderhaden 02:00.997 --> 02:02.618 Mas Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard 02:02.618 --> 02:05.012 I'm the 13th Mas Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard 02:05.012 --> 02:07.949 Just about to hit 31 years 02:07.949 --> 02:10.794 and been in a job almost a year. 02:10.794 --> 02:13.763 I represent the not quite 500,000, 02:13.763 --> 02:16.197 I'm in the smaller end of this 500,000 group, 02:16.197 --> 02:20.817 but we have a great group of Coast Guard men and women, 02:20.817 --> 02:24.447 who get 11 statutory missions done every day. 02:24.447 --> 02:26.490 And we're spread out around the world, 02:26.490 --> 02:29.427 and proud to represent them and answer any questions 02:29.427 --> 02:31.247 that we have today. 02:31.247 --> 02:32.357 - Awesome, so ladies and gentlemen, 02:32.357 --> 02:34.640 our panel today is scheduled for about an hour and a half. 02:34.640 --> 02:36.357 I've got a few questions up front, 02:36.357 --> 02:37.723 probably take us about halfway through. 02:37.723 --> 02:39.676 And then my intention is open up to you 02:39.676 --> 02:42.564 so that you may ask some really interesting questions 02:42.564 --> 02:45.639 other than the ones I'm gonna ask to our panel members. 02:45.639 --> 02:47.639 So ready to get started? 02:48.893 --> 02:51.810 Okay, our first question for today. 02:55.011 --> 02:56.636 I'd like each of you to talk a little bit 02:56.636 --> 02:58.058 about the state of the enlisted force 02:58.058 --> 02:59.737 and each of your service, 02:59.737 --> 03:02.830 specifically the size and composition of that force. 03:02.830 --> 03:04.913 Also, where do you stand with recruiting 03:04.913 --> 03:07.245 and retention efforts and any challenges 03:07.245 --> 03:10.162 you may be facing along that arena. 03:13.535 --> 03:15.182 - Thanks, so we're currently sitting 03:15.182 --> 03:17.534 in about 324,000 sailors. 03:17.534 --> 03:21.070 We're on track to grow significantly 03:21.070 --> 03:26.070 to meet the many requirements of the 355 Ship Navy mandate. 03:26.202 --> 03:30.452 We are doing really well with recruiting. 03:30.452 --> 03:34.312 We haven't missed a goal in over 11 years. 03:34.312 --> 03:36.073 That has not always been easy. 03:36.073 --> 03:37.875 And we've had some fraying at the edges 03:37.875 --> 03:40.722 as we have had some challenges, 03:40.722 --> 03:42.569 but we've made some adjustments, 03:42.569 --> 03:44.888 many of you familiar with our recruiting efforts 03:44.888 --> 03:47.356 may know that we've transitioned 03:47.356 --> 03:49.595 from the naval recruiting district model 03:49.595 --> 03:52.118 to what we call the the NTAG 03:52.118 --> 03:54.868 or Navy tackle acquisition group. 03:56.172 --> 03:59.378 And it's a more of an assembly line process 03:59.378 --> 04:03.711 by taking the, utilizing the strengths of the people 04:05.290 --> 04:08.044 on your team and using them as a whole team 04:08.044 --> 04:10.400 and going as a team rather than having 04:10.400 --> 04:13.057 each of the recruiters working against each other. 04:13.057 --> 04:16.521 So if I have one real extrovert, 04:16.521 --> 04:19.225 who's incredibly talented at going into a school, 04:19.225 --> 04:21.500 in closing a deal with a student, 04:21.500 --> 04:24.618 and I have somebody else who's really incredibly efficient 04:24.618 --> 04:28.582 at the processing piece and getting them through the system, 04:28.582 --> 04:30.118 I have one who does one, 04:30.118 --> 04:31.604 I have one who does the other 04:31.604 --> 04:36.277 and manages a handoff and as a team as they work together. 04:36.277 --> 04:39.343 When they make goal, if they make goal consistently, 04:39.343 --> 04:44.343 they can qualify for the very little used SDP level seven, 04:44.793 --> 04:47.456 and it's a really good incentive 04:47.456 --> 04:49.865 and it's working out really well. 04:49.865 --> 04:53.047 As a result the, we haven't had a recruiting mission 04:53.047 --> 04:54.797 of 40,000 since 2008. 04:56.690 --> 04:59.377 And we are on track to meet it. 04:59.377 --> 05:03.788 And 2008, we had about 1500 more recruiters 05:03.788 --> 05:05.116 and twice the budget. 05:05.116 --> 05:08.256 So despite these challenges and going nationally 05:08.256 --> 05:12.332 by district, and by using the team concept 05:12.332 --> 05:14.270 within each of the districts, 05:14.270 --> 05:16.280 instead of competing against each other 05:16.280 --> 05:18.216 or recruiters working against each other, 05:18.216 --> 05:20.429 we're still managing to make goal. 05:20.429 --> 05:21.910 When it comes to retention, 05:21.910 --> 05:24.389 we haven't seen retention this high since, 05:24.389 --> 05:26.909 not even after 911 have we seen retention 05:26.909 --> 05:29.627 this high, up around 78, 79%. 05:29.627 --> 05:31.718 So my information is time late as of about a month 05:31.718 --> 05:32.987 and a half. 05:32.987 --> 05:34.957 But as of the last time I checked, 05:34.957 --> 05:36.866 it was around 78, 79%, 05:36.866 --> 05:38.752 which is as high as it's ever been. 05:38.752 --> 05:41.016 Not really sure why that is, 05:41.016 --> 05:43.048 not looking a gift horse in the mouth. 05:43.048 --> 05:44.986 We've had to scale back, 05:44.986 --> 05:48.299 our original recruiting goal was actually 44,000, 05:48.299 --> 05:50.954 but as we have retained so many, 05:50.954 --> 05:53.397 we have scaled back to make sure that we grow 05:53.397 --> 05:54.854 on a glide slope, 05:54.854 --> 05:57.458 and don't grow too quickly so that we have problems then 05:57.458 --> 05:59.497 with things like advancement and other things, 05:59.497 --> 06:00.852 because as you all know 06:00.852 --> 06:03.364 we're in a vacancy driven advancement system 06:03.364 --> 06:06.744 and you don't want to clog the pipe too fast too much. 06:06.744 --> 06:09.335 Growing also requires that you grow at all levels 06:09.335 --> 06:12.109 and you can't just recruit and bring in people 06:12.109 --> 06:13.385 through boot camp, 06:13.385 --> 06:14.917 you have to do things like pulling the hide 06:14.917 --> 06:17.266 your 10 year levers, which we did for E45 and E46. 06:17.266 --> 06:20.700 And then we subsequently did for Senior Chief 06:20.700 --> 06:23.508 and Master Chief going to see, 06:23.508 --> 06:25.196 and I anticipate that at some point 06:25.196 --> 06:27.304 we may do so for chiefs and senior chiefs, 06:27.304 --> 06:30.345 regardless of sea or shore, 06:30.345 --> 06:32.601 because again you have to grow at all levels. 06:32.601 --> 06:36.729 We also brought over 1,162 reserves back 06:36.729 --> 06:39.548 on to active duty as we increase 06:39.548 --> 06:43.248 that AC RC permeability and that whole team concept 06:43.248 --> 06:46.138 between the reserves and active duty. 06:46.138 --> 06:48.129 That's gonna be critical to our nation 06:48.129 --> 06:50.379 and our Navy going forward. 06:52.180 --> 06:54.420 - Okay, so for Marine Corps, 06:54.420 --> 06:56.136 definitely not as robust as far as 06:56.136 --> 06:57.184 the numbers are concerned. 06:57.184 --> 06:58.839 We sit at 1,861 right now, 06:58.839 --> 07:01.046 we are looking to slightly grow to 1,864. 07:01.046 --> 07:05.317 Out of that is said about 164,000 enlisted personnel 07:05.317 --> 07:07.313 of that group. 07:07.313 --> 07:09.744 So that's what we stand at the enlisted force. 07:09.744 --> 07:12.423 As far as the recruitment is concerned, 07:12.423 --> 07:14.223 we don't have the numbers to have a team. 07:14.223 --> 07:15.783 So I appreciate that concept. 07:15.783 --> 07:16.978 I'm actually gonna take that back. 07:16.978 --> 07:18.937 So most of our recruits out there is lone warriors, 07:18.937 --> 07:21.325 if you will, and some of the challenges that they face, 07:21.325 --> 07:24.541 you know, with as far as the strong economic stature 07:24.541 --> 07:27.644 of our nation, and as well as the fact 07:27.644 --> 07:30.224 that employment has grown as well in the last 40 years 07:30.224 --> 07:31.225 or so. 07:31.225 --> 07:33.151 So our recruiters face a struggle 07:33.151 --> 07:35.180 as far as just ensuring that they have 07:35.180 --> 07:38.010 the best qualified Marines that meet those standards set 07:38.010 --> 07:39.337 by the DOD. 07:39.337 --> 07:42.301 One thing that we did try to do 07:42.301 --> 07:43.949 is make things easier on them. 07:43.949 --> 07:46.287 So we tried to make sure that the system 07:46.287 --> 07:48.605 and a resource that we give them is up to par. 07:48.605 --> 07:50.026 So with technology growing, 07:50.026 --> 07:52.843 as far as what the younger people are used to doing, 07:52.843 --> 07:55.366 we wanted to make sure that we enabled our recruiters 07:55.366 --> 07:57.709 to meet that goal and speak that language. 07:57.709 --> 07:59.293 You know, there's a lot of intangible things 07:59.293 --> 08:01.288 that we gravitate towards, 08:01.288 --> 08:02.975 just because budget constraints, 08:02.975 --> 08:05.343 we don't have as many incentives financially, 08:05.343 --> 08:08.072 but we do have those intangible skill sets 08:08.072 --> 08:10.183 that many of them still strive for. 08:10.183 --> 08:12.641 Nothing that we're starting to do is just make 08:12.641 --> 08:13.925 ourselves a lot more visible 08:13.925 --> 08:15.864 in the communities looking at different types 08:15.864 --> 08:18.031 of diverse type of avenues 08:20.529 --> 08:22.269 to make sure that we get out there 08:22.269 --> 08:24.201 what the Marine Corps has to offer, 08:24.201 --> 08:25.718 and what they can also bring to the table. 08:25.718 --> 08:29.226 With that effort, I know for one specific instance, 08:29.226 --> 08:30.607 we grown already, 08:30.607 --> 08:32.606 I've been in Marine Corps for 29 years, 08:32.606 --> 08:34.989 and we finally actually almost at 9% females 08:34.989 --> 08:36.588 in the Marine Corps. 08:36.588 --> 08:38.944 So that's just an example of diversifying 08:38.944 --> 08:40.707 the effort out there to make sure 08:40.707 --> 08:42.364 that we get the best qualified marine 08:42.364 --> 08:45.101 but we're not just streamlining traditional paths. 08:45.101 --> 08:49.310 We're also trying to broaden that prospect as well. 08:49.310 --> 08:51.906 Retention, when I think about retention, 08:51.906 --> 08:54.798 we don't have a problem with meeting 08:54.798 --> 08:55.898 the recruiting goal, 08:55.898 --> 08:57.394 with meeting the retention goal. 08:57.394 --> 08:59.163 I go back again to making sure I got the right person 08:59.163 --> 09:01.049 in the right seat on the right bus. 09:01.049 --> 09:04.265 So it's not about just quantitatively keeping the Marines. 09:04.265 --> 09:05.896 But making sure that the skill set is there 09:05.896 --> 09:08.739 and making sure that we got the right people to stay. 09:08.739 --> 09:11.150 Some of the things that kinda ushered out, 09:11.150 --> 09:12.805 we already know in the first four years, 09:12.805 --> 09:14.676 we're gonna lose a lot of that attrition. 09:14.676 --> 09:16.502 But some of the skill set is what we're looking at, 09:16.502 --> 09:17.703 some of the technical fields, 09:17.703 --> 09:19.374 making sure that we have the right incentives 09:19.374 --> 09:21.353 for them to stay and stick around. 09:21.353 --> 09:23.606 Some things as far as when we look at the levels 09:23.606 --> 09:25.773 as the senior members life 09:27.182 --> 09:29.878 and career, the balance of that. 09:29.878 --> 09:32.635 We're losing a lot of our female Marines 09:32.635 --> 09:36.586 when it comes to retention in that aspect. 09:36.586 --> 09:38.225 So with that being said, 09:38.225 --> 09:40.868 a lot of things are looked at as far as making sure 09:40.868 --> 09:43.615 we bridge that gap between the quality of lives 09:43.615 --> 09:45.296 and make sure that that we give them something, 09:45.296 --> 09:47.667 the same realistic training and the same goals 09:47.667 --> 09:52.367 that they can attain outside in the civilian world. 09:52.367 --> 09:55.566 - Thanks, we're sitting at about 42,000 active duty 09:55.566 --> 09:58.807 and about 6,200 ish reservists. 09:58.807 --> 10:01.326 Our workforce is a little bit different. 10:01.326 --> 10:03.669 Our active duty and reserve component are integrated, 10:03.669 --> 10:06.449 we don't have many reserved commands, 10:06.449 --> 10:07.805 we have a few reserved commands, 10:07.805 --> 10:11.290 but by and large, our reservist serve at active duty units, 10:11.290 --> 10:13.100 so we count them in. 10:13.100 --> 10:15.927 We are doing well, we're meeting mission and recruiting, 10:15.927 --> 10:20.004 we're really striving to get the diverse workforce. 10:20.004 --> 10:23.337 And we have set goals for our recruiters 10:24.774 --> 10:26.412 and we're meeting those goals, 10:26.412 --> 10:27.731 we're doing a good job with that. 10:27.731 --> 10:31.763 So then we're trying to build an inclusive feeling workforce 10:31.763 --> 10:33.548 where everybody feels included, 10:33.548 --> 10:36.240 and they feel like they they a pathway to success 10:36.240 --> 10:38.462 and then so hopefully, 10:38.462 --> 10:41.757 we can hold on to those numbers that we're recruiting. 10:41.757 --> 10:46.757 We enjoy 91.4% overall retention in the Coast Guard. 10:47.234 --> 10:49.997 And that's, we need that. 10:49.997 --> 10:53.547 We don't like to have to retrain people 10:53.547 --> 10:55.187 to do the same job. 10:55.187 --> 10:57.614 So we try to do is we build an apprentice journeyman, 10:57.614 --> 11:00.937 a master level of performance. 11:00.937 --> 11:04.785 And our junior folks can, they can see, 11:04.785 --> 11:07.111 they have an opportunity to move up quickly 11:07.111 --> 11:11.444 if they study hard and try to get the qualifications 11:12.670 --> 11:14.397 that they need. 11:14.397 --> 11:16.230 I'm working right now, 11:18.679 --> 11:22.256 we right now, we test for every advancement, 11:22.256 --> 11:24.491 all the way through E9. 11:24.491 --> 11:26.893 And I'm looking at a panel process right now 11:26.893 --> 11:29.269 and we're gonna do this, a lot of the other branches 11:29.269 --> 11:32.439 of the service are updating their advancement process 11:32.439 --> 11:34.666 and we're doing the same thing. 11:34.666 --> 11:38.947 But we're, life is good in the Coast Guard. 11:38.947 --> 11:39.949 We're doing well. 11:39.949 --> 11:41.323 We have good missions. 11:41.323 --> 11:44.644 We're enjoying good support on Capitol Hill 11:44.644 --> 11:47.176 in terms of recapitalizing our aging assets. 11:47.176 --> 11:49.653 And that's improving quality of life 11:49.653 --> 11:52.790 and we're you know, we have to use the same thing 11:52.790 --> 11:54.793 with how your tenure looks just like the Navy does there's. 11:54.793 --> 11:57.261 Well I said, just like it, 11:57.261 --> 11:59.905 we don't separate our are underway 11:59.905 --> 12:02.050 or our float in a short community, 12:02.050 --> 12:03.493 everybody gets looked at the same. 12:03.493 --> 12:05.513 But by and large everything is, 12:05.513 --> 12:08.287 it's a good place, it's a good time to be 12:08.287 --> 12:11.537 in the Coast Guard and we're fortunate. 12:14.057 --> 12:16.578 - One point I wanted to lead off with, 12:16.578 --> 12:18.226 that I forgot to mention. 12:18.226 --> 12:23.042 27% of the nation meets the minimum eligibility requirements 12:23.042 --> 12:25.844 to serve in the military. 12:25.844 --> 12:27.472 And that's an important thing to remember. 12:27.472 --> 12:28.934 So the pool of people out there 12:28.934 --> 12:31.242 that can even come to us, that were challenged to get 12:31.242 --> 12:32.075 is small. 12:33.212 --> 12:35.896 When you think about the fact that unemployment 12:35.896 --> 12:38.331 is at a 50 year low in that target demographic, 12:38.331 --> 12:40.941 it gets even harder to go get those folks. 12:40.941 --> 12:43.413 And when you think about 1% of that group, 12:43.413 --> 12:46.805 of that 27% is even propensity to serve, 12:46.805 --> 12:49.302 and by the way the rest of the nation 12:49.302 --> 12:51.472 is after those same people. 12:51.472 --> 12:53.900 The challenge for recruiting and finding those folks 12:53.900 --> 12:56.788 that wanna come to us is really hard. 12:56.788 --> 12:57.955 So, thank you. 12:59.213 --> 13:02.082 - Okay, so next question. 13:02.082 --> 13:04.943 What do you see as the biggest challenges, 13:04.943 --> 13:08.475 facing Marines, Coast Guardsmen and Sailors today? 13:08.475 --> 13:10.686 And I'd like to start at the other side of the table. 13:10.686 --> 13:12.269 - Okay, thanks Joe. 13:13.425 --> 13:17.342 So, the biggest challenges is being able to be, 13:19.848 --> 13:22.426 to specialize and be really good 13:22.426 --> 13:27.426 as technology improves and as we get more technology 13:27.455 --> 13:32.172 and better tools in the hands of our Coast Guardsmen. 13:32.172 --> 13:35.214 We need to be able to make sure that they can grow 13:35.214 --> 13:36.902 from that apprentice journeyman, 13:36.902 --> 13:39.205 a master in that specialty, but at the same time, 13:39.205 --> 13:40.989 we require a lot of you know, 13:40.989 --> 13:42.765 additional duties on top of that. 13:42.765 --> 13:46.098 So when I try to advance the best folks, 13:47.780 --> 13:51.925 I need to be able to allow them to specialize. 13:51.925 --> 13:54.822 Everybody, I got some young young Coastie sitting 13:54.822 --> 13:56.535 there right in the middle of room 13:56.535 --> 13:58.612 and they want to get really good at their job, 13:58.612 --> 14:00.611 but and I need him to be really good at that job. 14:00.611 --> 14:02.155 But I also need them to be good 14:02.155 --> 14:05.028 at a lot of other different things in the Coast Guard. 14:05.028 --> 14:10.028 So these guys, they may do whatever their primary rating is, 14:11.495 --> 14:15.001 they might also do law enforcement on top of that, 14:15.001 --> 14:18.190 or they might also do helicopter landing on top of that, 14:18.190 --> 14:19.259 or the damage control, 14:19.259 --> 14:20.875 and I need them to be good at everything 14:20.875 --> 14:23.615 but also to be really good at one thing. 14:23.615 --> 14:26.336 And so trying to manage that and grow them 14:26.336 --> 14:28.766 and get them the in, 14:28.766 --> 14:31.510 that's gonna be the biggest challenges. 14:31.510 --> 14:34.471 Being able to get all the missions done 14:34.471 --> 14:36.911 with the few number of people that we have, 14:36.911 --> 14:38.925 and still get really good at something, 14:38.925 --> 14:41.074 that's gonna be tricky going forward. 14:41.074 --> 14:43.991 I don't see us growing a whole lot, 14:45.091 --> 14:48.621 we'll grow, as our platforms grows, 14:48.621 --> 14:50.607 we get new ships and new aircraft. 14:50.607 --> 14:54.190 But I don't see the size of the workforce 14:54.190 --> 14:56.509 like growing exponentially, 14:56.509 --> 14:58.109 but yet, they're going to have, 14:58.109 --> 15:02.389 their skill sets are going to have to grow exponentially. 15:02.389 --> 15:03.466 - Alright, I'm gonna take it 15:03.466 --> 15:04.973 in a little bit different direction, 15:04.973 --> 15:06.129 'cause I think we can speak on the proficiency 15:06.129 --> 15:07.369 of the technical side, 15:07.369 --> 15:10.339 but I'm gonna take it to the people side. 15:10.339 --> 15:15.148 So when I think about some of the challenges facing Marines, 15:15.148 --> 15:16.969 people is our biggest asset. 15:16.969 --> 15:18.439 We all know that. 15:18.439 --> 15:20.969 So there's been a lot of focus on investing 15:20.969 --> 15:23.299 in the foundational piece of the marine. 15:23.299 --> 15:28.299 And I'm going to talk for 18th Sergeant Major Ron green, 15:28.372 --> 15:29.940 you know, he started this initiative, 15:29.940 --> 15:31.213 and he's calling it Own It. 15:31.213 --> 15:34.810 And basically saying, let's take accountability 15:34.810 --> 15:36.412 if you will, for our actions 15:36.412 --> 15:38.442 but also the Marines to our left and our right. 15:38.442 --> 15:39.989 Now it's things that we already know 15:39.989 --> 15:40.822 is up and it's not about teaching, 15:40.822 --> 15:43.459 it's about reminding and making sure that the marine 15:43.459 --> 15:44.479 is ready to fight tonight, 15:44.479 --> 15:45.559 you know, that's kind of our mission. 15:45.559 --> 15:48.257 Our mission, we just don't have enough to go around. 15:48.257 --> 15:51.012 We don't even have enough to cross train on that level. 15:51.012 --> 15:51.948 That's awesome, right? 15:51.948 --> 15:53.660 So not only do I need you to be proficient, 15:53.660 --> 15:55.013 but I need you to be in the fight. 15:55.013 --> 15:56.146 So I need everybody on the team in the fight. 15:56.146 --> 15:59.234 And what happens when our readiness goes down, 15:59.234 --> 16:01.075 when that's not the case. 16:01.075 --> 16:03.277 So I think this Own It campaign, for us, 16:03.277 --> 16:06.439 we deal a lot in our cultural mindset. 16:06.439 --> 16:09.614 And it's just another tool to put it in our toolkit to say, 16:09.614 --> 16:12.995 Own It, be part of the solution, not part of the problem. 16:12.995 --> 16:14.314 I need you in the game. 16:14.314 --> 16:15.861 There's so many different demands out there 16:15.861 --> 16:19.159 from what it takes to be in the military service periods. 16:19.159 --> 16:20.939 So whether it's deployment, your family, 16:20.939 --> 16:23.139 being away from your family, those kind of things, 16:23.139 --> 16:25.069 along with a lot of the societal ills 16:25.069 --> 16:27.256 that's plaguing our services. 16:27.256 --> 16:29.508 Well, we can go into them all day long, 16:29.508 --> 16:30.691 but at the end of the day, 16:30.691 --> 16:32.109 how do I build up that resilient marine 16:32.109 --> 16:35.092 to maintain that resilient marine and keep him or her 16:35.092 --> 16:36.175 in the fight? 16:37.743 --> 16:40.463 Another campaign we have is called Protect What You Own. 16:40.463 --> 16:42.209 So Own It kind of comes in, 16:42.209 --> 16:44.210 right behind that Protect What You Earned. 16:44.210 --> 16:46.158 So if I got to this level, 16:46.158 --> 16:48.016 and y'all reading the news, 16:48.016 --> 16:50.115 I'm not gonna go into specifics unless you ask me. 16:50.115 --> 16:52.548 But reading the news and things like that, 16:52.548 --> 16:54.613 I got to this level, help me maintain it 16:54.613 --> 16:56.207 for the good of the institution. 16:56.207 --> 16:59.059 But a lot of times we don't tell them how to maintain. 16:59.059 --> 17:00.029 And I'm not talking necessarily 17:00.029 --> 17:01.343 about the senior people, 17:01.343 --> 17:03.869 you may want to say there's 164,000 17:03.869 --> 17:07.286 on it 186 are young Marines 25 and below, 17:08.198 --> 17:10.937 and I got kids, my youngest is 21. 17:10.937 --> 17:13.510 And I'm still teaching her at the same time. 17:13.510 --> 17:15.267 So again, we'll say that there's still a lot of education 17:15.267 --> 17:17.649 to be put into the person themselves. 17:17.649 --> 17:20.010 So I think for us, at this point, 17:20.010 --> 17:22.396 one of the challenges and I'm using that word 17:22.396 --> 17:23.952 a little bit loosely 17:23.952 --> 17:25.159 because I think is ongoing. 17:25.159 --> 17:27.876 I think we just can't take a pulse off the fact 17:27.876 --> 17:31.510 that we got invest into the person themselves as well. 17:31.510 --> 17:34.165 - So there's a couple different ways and sustain, 17:34.165 --> 17:35.891 this might be a question, 17:35.891 --> 17:38.705 that you could look at this, 17:38.705 --> 17:40.933 the challenge facing sailors today. 17:40.933 --> 17:44.009 From my perspective, as a Chief Petty Officer, 17:44.009 --> 17:46.243 I think the challenge is getting our sailors ready 17:46.243 --> 17:47.862 for the blue water fight, 17:47.862 --> 17:50.852 which we think in in the near pier competitor space 17:50.852 --> 17:52.764 that we're in right now, 17:52.764 --> 17:54.434 the war the future is not gonna look like 17:54.434 --> 17:56.044 what we fought for the last 17 years 17:56.044 --> 17:58.220 and we know that and some of our skills 17:58.220 --> 18:00.765 and things we've done have atrophied. 18:00.765 --> 18:03.405 And we're not where we were 30 years ago 18:03.405 --> 18:05.220 when it comes to damage control readiness 18:05.220 --> 18:06.325 and firefighting readiness. 18:06.325 --> 18:09.356 And so we're making the adjustments we need to. 18:09.356 --> 18:11.604 But if I think about it from the perspective 18:11.604 --> 18:13.258 of a sailor standing in front of me, 18:13.258 --> 18:16.484 what is the biggest challenge, choices and options? 18:16.484 --> 18:20.387 Too many choices and options and time management, 18:20.387 --> 18:23.369 how do I figure out how to deal with all that? 18:23.369 --> 18:26.490 I come on board a ship, and I have a skill set to learn. 18:26.490 --> 18:29.171 But I have this really neat thing called TA 18:29.171 --> 18:30.752 and college courses, 18:30.752 --> 18:33.020 and the options take those in front of me, 18:33.020 --> 18:35.166 but I really need to know my job. 18:35.166 --> 18:39.105 And so part of it is getting the chief petty officers 18:39.105 --> 18:41.180 and the leadership, the LPO 18:41.180 --> 18:44.225 to help that sailor balance and manage those options 18:44.225 --> 18:46.061 and say, know your job. 18:46.061 --> 18:48.127 Know your skill set, know what it is 18:48.127 --> 18:50.763 that you're gonna be expected to do. 18:50.763 --> 18:54.051 So that under high stress in the middle of the night, 18:54.051 --> 18:56.372 with things exploding around you 18:56.372 --> 18:57.826 or your ship sinking around you, 18:57.826 --> 18:59.567 that you can still do those things 18:59.567 --> 19:02.015 to save whoever is still left to live on your ship 19:02.015 --> 19:04.177 and keep that thing sea worthy so that you can continue 19:04.177 --> 19:06.145 the fight or save whoever's left. 19:06.145 --> 19:08.630 Those are the kind of things that we need 19:08.630 --> 19:10.277 to help sailors with and prioritize, 19:10.277 --> 19:12.548 because there are so many choices out there. 19:12.548 --> 19:16.657 And there are so many options for sailors to focus on. 19:16.657 --> 19:19.619 Education for sea power, in my opinion 19:19.619 --> 19:21.449 could not have come along at a better time 19:21.449 --> 19:24.176 because it takes some of those things that sailors 19:24.176 --> 19:26.925 have tended to focus on away from those jobs and skill sets 19:26.925 --> 19:28.511 that we talked about 19:28.511 --> 19:31.515 and says hey, if you stay with us, 19:31.515 --> 19:33.516 we will help get you there. 19:33.516 --> 19:35.939 We will quantify what it is you do in a meaningful way 19:35.939 --> 19:38.126 so that we can get you to an associate's degree 19:38.126 --> 19:40.494 and later on a baccalaureate degree. 19:40.494 --> 19:42.680 But focus on your job, focus on your skills, 19:42.680 --> 19:45.875 focus on the things that we need you to. 19:45.875 --> 19:48.859 The basic sailor skills and your technical skills. 19:48.859 --> 19:52.434 So that this nation, this Navy, this ship, this unit, 19:52.434 --> 19:54.580 whatever you are a part of is ready to fight. 19:54.580 --> 19:57.510 And that to me is the biggest challenge, 19:57.510 --> 20:00.659 and again making sure that sailors truly understand 20:00.659 --> 20:03.964 what's coming, not in stories, 20:03.964 --> 20:08.456 not in sea stories or what they see in the news, 20:08.456 --> 20:10.009 but making it real for them, 20:10.009 --> 20:12.254 bringing those, taking those stories that some 20:12.254 --> 20:14.957 of us older folks have with our experiences, 20:14.957 --> 20:19.084 and really painting it in a realistic fashion for sailors 20:19.084 --> 20:21.875 to understand that there is something coming 20:21.875 --> 20:23.710 that they need to get ready for. 20:23.710 --> 20:26.026 That war will come most likely in their generation, 20:26.026 --> 20:29.781 and they need to be prepared to fight. 20:29.781 --> 20:31.490 - Awesome, what a great segway to my next question, 20:31.490 --> 20:32.861 thank you. 20:32.861 --> 20:35.448 So I'd like to ask the panel. 20:35.448 --> 20:40.279 You know, much is often made of generational differences. 20:40.279 --> 20:43.380 I know that inside the Navy, 20:43.380 --> 20:46.661 we study the new generations coming through the door 20:46.661 --> 20:49.594 and how best we can adjust our strategies and leadership 20:49.594 --> 20:51.027 to meet them. 20:51.027 --> 20:54.188 I'm sure you have the same type of training programs 20:54.188 --> 20:56.098 in the Marine Corps and in the Coast Guard. 20:56.098 --> 20:59.432 So I'll ask you, do you see a need for institutional change 20:59.432 --> 21:02.807 when you balance, the need for military structure 21:02.807 --> 21:07.697 with the flexibility required to get the most out of 21:07.697 --> 21:09.824 and properly lead 21:09.824 --> 21:12.736 the new generation of millennials and centennial? 21:12.736 --> 21:15.653 - Okay, so just to give you an idea 21:17.703 --> 21:20.286 of that argument that sometimes 21:21.246 --> 21:25.329 we often hear the next generation isn't prepared, 21:26.753 --> 21:28.341 this generation softer, they're not as capable. 21:28.341 --> 21:30.091 I don't believe that. 21:30.952 --> 21:33.092 I've spent far too much time at boot camp. 21:33.092 --> 21:36.986 I've spent far too much time managing visiting, 21:36.986 --> 21:40.355 being a part of that expression pipeline 21:40.355 --> 21:44.168 to believe that the sailors that are coming to us today 21:44.168 --> 21:47.182 are any less capable than the sailors of my generation 21:47.182 --> 21:49.118 or any generation we've ever had. 21:49.118 --> 21:51.185 By any measure, and if you've ever heard 21:51.185 --> 21:55.916 this talk on this, by any measure that we have. 21:55.916 --> 21:57.981 We have more capable sailors today 21:57.981 --> 22:00.155 than we've ever had in our nation's history. 22:00.155 --> 22:03.404 From an academic perspective, from a physical standpoint, 22:03.404 --> 22:06.955 we have the raw material that we need, 22:06.955 --> 22:10.603 they are different than I was when I came in 30 years ago, 22:10.603 --> 22:12.433 and certainly those who are older. 22:12.433 --> 22:16.151 That means we probably need to retool the factory 22:16.151 --> 22:19.274 to make sure that we are taking the raw materials 22:19.274 --> 22:20.846 that we are handed today 22:20.846 --> 22:22.279 to still turn out the product 22:22.279 --> 22:24.192 that we will find useful tomorrow. 22:24.192 --> 22:26.560 So we had a lot of complaints with, 22:26.560 --> 22:29.132 not just from those in the fleet, 22:29.132 --> 22:32.862 but from the sailors themselves as to what we were doing 22:32.862 --> 22:34.118 at boot camp. 22:34.118 --> 22:38.341 And so after enough, we went back to boot camp 22:38.341 --> 22:39.989 and took a look around. 22:39.989 --> 22:43.633 And we sent Admiral Bernacchi up there with a team of folks. 22:43.633 --> 22:47.238 And they did a really deep dive into what we're doing. 22:47.238 --> 22:48.828 And we realized that 22:48.828 --> 22:50.832 our basic military training core competencies, 22:50.832 --> 22:54.523 the things we expect a sailor to know when they come out, 22:54.523 --> 22:56.605 we're horribly misaligned with the curriculum 22:56.605 --> 22:58.907 that we had because over time, 22:58.907 --> 23:01.697 things had just you know, Congressional inquiry here, 23:01.697 --> 23:04.927 complaint there, things that slowly drifted away 23:04.927 --> 23:06.895 almost like watching a child grow, 23:06.895 --> 23:09.361 you don't notice it but slowly things get away from 23:09.361 --> 23:11.725 where you intended them to go. 23:11.725 --> 23:13.633 Every sailor needs to know this training, 23:13.633 --> 23:15.006 let's put it at boot camp 23:15.006 --> 23:16.660 and it displaces something because you still have 23:16.660 --> 23:18.226 that finite amount of time. 23:18.226 --> 23:20.908 When you put something in, it pushes something out. 23:20.908 --> 23:22.755 And when we put something in, displays something 23:22.755 --> 23:24.082 that we desperately needed. 23:24.082 --> 23:26.610 And we realized that there were too many things 23:26.610 --> 23:28.580 that were off of where we needed them to be. 23:28.580 --> 23:31.742 So we went back and we re engineered boot camp. 23:31.742 --> 23:36.171 We also instituted a physical standard to start boot camp. 23:36.171 --> 23:39.353 We raise the standard to graduate from boot camp, 23:39.353 --> 23:41.186 and to some not to us, 23:42.086 --> 23:45.467 but to some inexplicably attrition dropped. 23:45.467 --> 23:47.270 It goes up at the beginning, 23:47.270 --> 23:49.307 but overall attrition dropped, 23:49.307 --> 23:52.776 which told us that we had been through all good intention, 23:52.776 --> 23:56.492 but not wisely had not been challenging. 23:56.492 --> 24:00.271 We've been cuddling the sailor, the recruits 24:00.271 --> 24:01.853 that we've been getting and as a result, 24:01.853 --> 24:04.700 we have not been getting what we wanted. 24:04.700 --> 24:06.922 And as soon as we began to challenge recruits, 24:06.922 --> 24:08.344 they rose to the occasion. 24:08.344 --> 24:10.055 And more and more we're passing. 24:10.055 --> 24:12.972 More and more, we're doing even better than they had before. 24:12.972 --> 24:16.476 So, higher standards, more people were passing, 24:16.476 --> 24:20.059 a more deliberate approach to firefighting, 24:24.577 --> 24:27.531 damage control, line handling, medical drills, 24:27.531 --> 24:30.448 all the things that you expect recruits 24:30.448 --> 24:32.770 and then sailors to participate in, 24:32.770 --> 24:34.407 as soon as they get to the fleet 24:34.407 --> 24:35.964 in some basic form or fashion. 24:35.964 --> 24:38.475 They're now being exposed to consistently 24:38.475 --> 24:40.766 and they are graded on both individually and as teams 24:40.766 --> 24:45.766 when they get to the battle stations 21 final exercise, 24:45.976 --> 24:48.886 they're graded individually and as a team 24:48.886 --> 24:52.028 and if they fail, if they have family on the plane, 24:52.028 --> 24:54.076 they're going to be set back and they won't graduate 24:54.076 --> 24:55.890 because we are not gonna relax the standard. 24:55.890 --> 24:58.608 We're gonna send the fleet a quality product 24:58.608 --> 25:00.979 so that they can use that quality product 25:00.979 --> 25:03.337 to turn them into the sailors that they need to become. 25:03.337 --> 25:05.523 We don't make sailors in eight weeks, 25:05.523 --> 25:07.704 we don't make sailors in six months 25:07.704 --> 25:09.176 and the succession pipeline, 25:09.176 --> 25:11.753 that process grows at the deck plates 25:11.753 --> 25:14.001 when we send them out to their ships squadrons 25:14.001 --> 25:15.812 and operational units, 25:15.812 --> 25:17.874 but we owed the fleet a better product 25:17.874 --> 25:19.209 than we were giving them. 25:19.209 --> 25:21.259 And we're doing that now. 25:21.259 --> 25:22.481 And I think you're going to start to see 25:22.481 --> 25:23.699 that tangible difference in what we do, 25:23.699 --> 25:25.928 in what we've been doing in the fleet 25:25.928 --> 25:28.761 in the in the sailor that you get. 25:29.597 --> 25:33.274 - Okay, on this question when I think about 25:33.274 --> 25:35.691 the structure of the military and the flexibility 25:35.691 --> 25:37.499 of how to lead millennials. 25:37.499 --> 25:40.363 There's lots of different causes, as you mentioned, 25:40.363 --> 25:43.506 of trying to pull that generational gap. 25:43.506 --> 25:46.252 And, you know, I think that's where the focus is, 25:46.252 --> 25:47.666 and the focus needs to be. 25:47.666 --> 25:50.839 And I think there's about 90 generals in the Marine Corps 25:50.839 --> 25:52.490 and as 1,500 E9s. 25:52.490 --> 25:54.781 So when you talk about policy writing, policy enforcing 25:54.781 --> 25:58.069 and things like that, there's a lot of older people make 25:58.069 --> 25:59.872 a policy and enforcing policy 25:59.872 --> 26:02.545 and that's not always the way to lead the millennials 26:02.545 --> 26:07.256 in a more technological field or the way the mindset is. 26:07.256 --> 26:09.646 So I'm going towards the thought process of our mindset. 26:09.646 --> 26:12.182 I have a term sometimes I'll say, 26:12.182 --> 26:13.354 when I walk out there, 26:13.354 --> 26:15.311 I'll speak my scope also translate, you know, 26:15.311 --> 26:17.221 because sometimes the terms they use 26:17.221 --> 26:19.469 is not necessarily a term I use. 26:19.469 --> 26:21.544 I don't know about you, but I didn't Tweet 26:21.544 --> 26:23.254 or Twitter back in my days, right? 26:23.254 --> 26:26.091 My idea of a text is, I would fold up a piece of paper 26:26.091 --> 26:27.803 and send it across the classroom. 26:27.803 --> 26:29.187 It might say, will you go out with me? 26:29.187 --> 26:30.273 Yes, no or maybe. 26:30.273 --> 26:32.190 I know what I'm talking about, right? 26:32.190 --> 26:34.674 My point is, we just didn't speak their language, 26:34.674 --> 26:37.283 and there's a lot of times as I go out. 26:37.283 --> 26:39.160 we still don't always speak the language. 26:39.160 --> 26:41.083 So we're listening at the same time letting 26:41.083 --> 26:43.666 them understand where we need to go again 26:43.666 --> 26:46.947 for the more national broad policies, 26:46.947 --> 26:48.386 they don't need to know the intricacies of it, 26:48.386 --> 26:51.124 but they need to understand we're going to get there. 26:51.124 --> 26:53.997 At the end of the day we are retired 26:53.997 --> 26:55.613 and they gonna carry on that torch. 26:55.613 --> 26:58.743 So looking at different ways of communicating 26:58.743 --> 27:01.909 has been a stomp for the Marine Corps, 27:01.909 --> 27:03.727 of just trying to make sure that we educate 27:03.727 --> 27:05.115 on the different levels, 27:05.115 --> 27:08.009 not just what we need from institution wise, 27:08.009 --> 27:11.275 but also being able to communicate up and down 27:11.275 --> 27:14.712 from that level, our focus was not the boot camp way, 27:14.712 --> 27:17.435 as was previously stated, 27:17.435 --> 27:20.337 but we do a lot more on our enlisted PME. 27:20.337 --> 27:24.137 So unlike the other services, we've been behind, 27:24.137 --> 27:26.500 in our enlisted PME, 27:26.500 --> 27:30.402 not as many resources has been pumped in, if you will, 27:30.402 --> 27:33.768 to where it is that our Marines are 27:33.768 --> 27:35.103 from academia point of view. 27:35.103 --> 27:37.933 So in other words, we're still looking at ways 27:37.933 --> 27:39.643 to help them get to that associate, 27:39.643 --> 27:40.963 we just don't have the resources. 27:40.963 --> 27:42.113 We just don't have the money. 27:42.113 --> 27:45.866 So our military PME, we started to put 27:45.866 --> 27:47.503 a lot more investment into that. 27:47.503 --> 27:49.544 When you talk about the millennials now, 27:49.544 --> 27:51.193 seven seconds, if I don't catch them 27:51.193 --> 27:53.250 in the first seven seconds, I'm almost losing them, right? 27:53.250 --> 27:55.223 So I gotta be able to get them there 27:55.223 --> 27:58.152 and let them help take me to the next level, 27:58.152 --> 27:59.893 letting them know how to critically think, 27:59.893 --> 28:01.448 that's our bread and butter. 28:01.448 --> 28:02.853 We were talking about that earlier, 28:02.853 --> 28:04.653 our strategic walkway, that's our bread and butter to fight. 28:04.653 --> 28:07.573 We make sure we delegate all the way down. 28:07.573 --> 28:09.903 So not only the equipment side to make sure 28:09.903 --> 28:11.153 that they have the resources, 28:11.153 --> 28:13.370 to think on the ground to take that patrol out. 28:13.370 --> 28:14.593 And I don't care where you are, you could be 28:14.593 --> 28:15.793 in the vehicle, you could be on the ground, 28:15.793 --> 28:17.503 you could be in the air, you could be on a ship. 28:17.503 --> 28:19.015 But I wanna be able to make sure that 28:19.015 --> 28:21.376 we delegate that critical thinking thought process 28:21.376 --> 28:25.191 that long time ago, higher levels was the one doing 28:25.191 --> 28:27.830 that sort of thinking, absolutely be surprised that 28:27.830 --> 28:30.247 the more we delegate how ingenious they are, 28:30.247 --> 28:33.242 and to come up with the problem solving, 28:33.242 --> 28:35.981 and we gotta be able to trust them to do that, 28:35.981 --> 28:37.406 given the commander's intent, 28:37.406 --> 28:39.290 helping them to understand from even 28:39.290 --> 28:40.693 the lance corporal level, we started PME down 28:40.693 --> 28:42.404 at the E3 level. 28:42.404 --> 28:45.013 For us, that was a new concept a couple years ago, 28:45.013 --> 28:47.503 making sure they understand what is the commander's intent? 28:47.503 --> 28:49.023 How do I operate around that commander's intent 28:49.023 --> 28:50.533 and make sure in my wheelhouse, 28:50.533 --> 28:51.993 I know what to do to make sure that 28:51.993 --> 28:54.493 it's not just about my personal intuition, 28:54.493 --> 28:56.350 but also making sure it's for, 28:56.350 --> 28:59.804 or going in the direction that the commander wants to go. 28:59.804 --> 29:01.723 So when we talk about millennials, 29:01.723 --> 29:02.923 I think there's still so much to learn, 29:02.923 --> 29:05.744 but we're definitely going in that direction 29:05.744 --> 29:07.555 that keep them to be part of the solution, 29:07.555 --> 29:09.529 delegating that down all the way down 29:09.529 --> 29:13.703 and helping us understand how do I speak Lance Corporal. 29:13.703 --> 29:15.852 - So I think the Blended Retirement System 29:15.852 --> 29:19.128 is gonna be a game changer in terms of our retention model. 29:19.128 --> 29:22.702 We're giving our young folks options 29:22.702 --> 29:25.106 and opportunities to leave the service 29:25.106 --> 29:27.934 as we didn't have before. 29:27.934 --> 29:31.872 So I, and also while we're giving them options 29:31.872 --> 29:35.040 to leave the service, where it were called a generation 29:35.040 --> 29:37.369 that they like to try different things, 29:37.369 --> 29:38.693 they like to try new jobs. 29:38.693 --> 29:41.152 And so we may have to, I'm not sure 29:41.152 --> 29:43.108 if we need an institutional change, 29:43.108 --> 29:45.060 but we may need to look 29:45.060 --> 29:47.360 at our human resource management processes, 29:47.360 --> 29:49.323 the way we keep people in, 29:49.323 --> 29:52.106 the way we allow people to come and go within the service 29:52.106 --> 29:54.439 and the Navy has, I believed 29:55.413 --> 29:56.753 the career intermission program 29:56.753 --> 29:58.313 and we have a temporary separation program 29:58.313 --> 30:01.829 and we may need to offer people opportunities 30:01.829 --> 30:04.640 to go work outside the service and then come back. 30:04.640 --> 30:06.839 Just because I think 30:06.839 --> 30:10.653 this particular generation enjoys trying new things 30:10.653 --> 30:12.827 and getting really good at different things. 30:12.827 --> 30:15.691 So we may have to look at that 30:15.691 --> 30:17.617 and how we how we bring people in. 30:17.617 --> 30:21.163 The 2019 NDAA no longer requires somebody 30:21.163 --> 30:25.081 to be able to do 20 years before they hit 62. 30:25.081 --> 30:28.741 So we could start recruiting at different age groups 30:28.741 --> 30:30.642 with different skill sets and bring people in, 30:30.642 --> 30:34.015 so that we're going to have to get creative on that. 30:34.015 --> 30:38.598 I think, I will say that this age group, in my opinion, 30:39.750 --> 30:42.700 they're less concerned about money, 30:42.700 --> 30:45.450 they like to enjoy going to work. 30:46.626 --> 30:50.293 So my mission is, at least the time that I have left, 30:50.293 --> 30:54.148 is that I want to make people feel connected 30:54.148 --> 30:56.724 to the mission in every job no matter what they do. 30:56.724 --> 30:58.974 They need to feel connected to the mission, 30:58.974 --> 31:00.572 they need to understand their role 31:00.572 --> 31:02.617 and their importance in getting the overall mission done. 31:02.617 --> 31:05.121 And if they do that, and if they feel buy in, 31:05.121 --> 31:07.010 they'll hopefully want to stay. 31:07.010 --> 31:08.769 And then we give them some options 31:08.769 --> 31:10.074 to go get some further training, 31:10.074 --> 31:13.177 and to kind of explore what you know, 31:13.177 --> 31:14.825 get really good in certain areas. 31:14.825 --> 31:19.198 And I think that will be crucial going forward. 31:19.198 --> 31:22.781 They just need to feel appreciated, valued, 31:24.020 --> 31:26.855 and they need to see their role in the organization. 31:26.855 --> 31:29.062 I think we'll be okay even with 31:29.062 --> 31:30.848 the Blended Retirement System credentialing as a big one. 31:30.848 --> 31:33.166 We've got credentialing coming. 31:33.166 --> 31:36.761 And you know, the GI Bill is a great benefit 31:36.761 --> 31:38.795 and there's just a lot of off ramps 31:38.795 --> 31:40.592 that we're building for our people. 31:40.592 --> 31:42.570 So then we need to build those on ramps 31:42.570 --> 31:45.765 where they can come back if they so desire to come back. 31:45.765 --> 31:48.272 And I think that'll be crucial going forward. 31:48.272 --> 31:49.668 - Well, very insightful. 31:49.668 --> 31:50.501 Thank you. 31:50.501 --> 31:53.426 So yesterday, a common theme in the service chiefs panel 31:53.426 --> 31:57.019 was the need to keep up with the speed of technology. 31:57.019 --> 31:59.523 Please share any initiatives, in your service 31:59.523 --> 32:02.208 for technologies being used or developed 32:02.208 --> 32:05.375 to improve training our enlisted force 32:06.401 --> 32:09.981 and additionally, are those these initiatives gonna 32:09.981 --> 32:12.031 be able to keep pace with a technology 32:12.031 --> 32:13.276 that our war fighters 32:13.276 --> 32:16.653 and we'll see in the ever increasing measure out 32:16.653 --> 32:20.152 in the fleet in the battlefield. 32:20.152 --> 32:22.064 I'll start with the Coast Guard. 32:22.064 --> 32:24.095 - Oh, I got one of my lead training guys sitting right 32:24.095 --> 32:25.331 in front of me here. 32:25.331 --> 32:26.928 So I better get this right. 32:26.928 --> 32:31.595 So in terms of, we're leveraging every bit of technology 32:34.118 --> 32:36.934 that we can, in terms of simulators, 32:36.934 --> 32:39.101 in terms of data tracking, 32:40.521 --> 32:43.592 so that we can see where we need to apply training. 32:43.592 --> 32:46.060 We, you know, with the training, 32:46.060 --> 32:48.310 not everything needs training, a lot of times 32:48.310 --> 32:50.295 it's a job aid or some other form. 32:50.295 --> 32:52.626 You can you can get away, you don't necessarily 32:52.626 --> 32:55.017 have to spend the money on expensive training. 32:55.017 --> 32:59.010 We're utilizing long distance learning 32:59.010 --> 33:02.096 through building online database. 33:02.096 --> 33:04.047 Those aren't terribly popular, 33:04.047 --> 33:05.921 but with the new newer generation, 33:05.921 --> 33:10.421 they're much more able, apt to accept online training. 33:12.075 --> 33:15.214 You know, for me, if I had to sit down at a computer 33:15.214 --> 33:16.179 and plug through training, 33:16.179 --> 33:18.021 I was just like, let me get through this as quick as I can. 33:18.021 --> 33:20.665 I think there's, the newer generation 33:20.665 --> 33:24.317 is more computer based, more savvy with electronics 33:24.317 --> 33:28.966 that if you build apps, you put training into apps, 33:28.966 --> 33:31.369 those types of things are appreciated. 33:31.369 --> 33:36.268 So that's the way we leverage technology for that. 33:36.268 --> 33:39.128 We're also, you know, trying to leverage technology 33:39.128 --> 33:41.534 in the jobs, if you can give people 33:41.534 --> 33:43.486 the at least state of the market, 33:43.486 --> 33:48.486 if not state of the art technology in their day to day jobs, 33:48.633 --> 33:51.543 that really makes them feel like I am doing something 33:51.543 --> 33:53.837 that I wouldn't be able to do on the outside 33:53.837 --> 33:56.699 or that I'm being able to take advantage 33:56.699 --> 33:59.282 of technology as I look around, 34:00.141 --> 34:02.054 and I walked the floor and I see 34:02.054 --> 34:04.060 all the technology available to our people. 34:04.060 --> 34:05.905 That's what they want. 34:05.905 --> 34:08.668 They want to be able to be using the latest and greatest 34:08.668 --> 34:10.295 and stuff. 34:10.295 --> 34:11.822 So that's what we're trying to do. 34:11.822 --> 34:14.493 It's a little difficult and expensive, 34:14.493 --> 34:16.288 but we're gonna get there. 34:16.288 --> 34:19.241 - I agree, which is definitely tougher again, 34:19.241 --> 34:21.677 one of the challenges is keeping our technology 34:21.677 --> 34:23.509 for the infrastructure and facilities 34:23.509 --> 34:26.205 and we are definitely on the back burner sometimes for that. 34:26.205 --> 34:27.782 So we may do what we got, 34:27.782 --> 34:29.538 we got a couple of duct tape in the background, 34:29.538 --> 34:31.650 so we just make sure we know how to use it. 34:31.650 --> 34:33.011 Look, the young people laughed, 34:33.011 --> 34:34.387 all the people did not laugh on that, 34:34.387 --> 34:36.248 but the young people right there in the middle, 34:36.248 --> 34:37.392 cracked up, I see you, right? 34:37.392 --> 34:39.154 So but to his point. 34:39.154 --> 34:41.302 So technology for us, 34:41.302 --> 34:44.047 we're using a lot of different ways of very similar, 34:44.047 --> 34:47.177 I would think across the service is simulators. 34:47.177 --> 34:49.206 I have the pleasure working 34:49.206 --> 34:50.955 with Marine Corp Systems Command 34:50.955 --> 34:52.530 because we're right there in the heart 34:52.530 --> 34:53.900 of a lot of the different monetization efforts 34:53.900 --> 34:57.048 that's being put into stride. 34:57.048 --> 34:59.935 So we have a unit called PM Traces 34:59.935 --> 35:01.529 that work down in Orlando, 35:01.529 --> 35:04.875 and they work right alongside our army counterparts. 35:04.875 --> 35:06.357 And again, their job is to make sure 35:06.357 --> 35:08.580 we can get to that point where with the budget constraints, 35:08.580 --> 35:10.164 maybe we use a similar versus going out 35:10.164 --> 35:13.241 and acquiring the actual ammo, things like that. 35:13.241 --> 35:15.954 So trying to make it as realistic as we can know, 35:15.954 --> 35:18.558 because the realistic training is what we're looking at 35:18.558 --> 35:20.820 to get at for those type of things. 35:20.820 --> 35:23.123 Another thing that I want to touch on 35:23.123 --> 35:25.819 when we talk about technology and monetization 35:25.819 --> 35:27.451 is AM, Advanced Manufacturing. 35:27.451 --> 35:30.072 We've made a lot of strides in this area 35:30.072 --> 35:32.817 for the Marine Corps and a lot of it is in large part 35:32.817 --> 35:35.598 due to our enlisted force that's just out there 35:35.598 --> 35:36.998 on the ground. 35:36.998 --> 35:39.319 Again, working at systems plan, 35:39.319 --> 35:42.902 we didn't have a centralized place to where 35:44.996 --> 35:47.136 somebody out there with a great idea, 35:47.136 --> 35:50.912 can come back to them and say I need this part now. 35:50.912 --> 35:54.986 I can't wait for logistics to play this role. 35:54.986 --> 35:56.254 I actually need this part now. 35:56.254 --> 35:59.020 And in the absence of a policy procedure, 35:59.020 --> 36:01.405 Marines became a genius, 36:01.405 --> 36:03.126 and things are going out on their own 36:03.126 --> 36:04.238 and doing on their own. 36:04.238 --> 36:06.623 But that can also pose a threat or problem 36:06.623 --> 36:07.842 to the equipment as well. 36:07.842 --> 36:10.204 So we had to catch up to what technology is, 36:10.204 --> 36:11.995 we kind of touched on that already, 36:11.995 --> 36:13.990 not just having the state of the art equipment, 36:13.990 --> 36:15.522 but also make sure that we on par 36:15.522 --> 36:17.521 with what's happening because the Marines, 36:17.521 --> 36:19.145 the sailors, the Cosies, they see it. 36:19.145 --> 36:20.858 They can grab it, they can touch it. 36:20.858 --> 36:22.791 It goes back to our other question, 36:22.791 --> 36:24.693 always being a lance corporal, 36:24.693 --> 36:26.914 he's ready for it. 36:26.914 --> 36:28.402 So we had to be able to do that. 36:28.402 --> 36:30.101 So within the last year, we've made tremendous strides, 36:30.101 --> 36:33.375 from doing work with concrete, 36:33.375 --> 36:36.941 building buildings and bricks and leveraging that gap 36:36.941 --> 36:39.927 to where we don't have to wait for the actual part. 36:39.927 --> 36:42.152 Maybe sometimes, that's just a temporary fix. 36:42.152 --> 36:44.236 And then other times that can be more of a permanent fix. 36:44.236 --> 36:46.035 So what Systems Command did is we created 36:46.035 --> 36:47.647 what we call the AMOC, 36:47.647 --> 36:50.015 which is the Advanced Manufacturing Operating Cell. 36:50.015 --> 36:51.936 And what that allows the PFC on the ground, 36:51.936 --> 36:54.174 that marine on the ground to come back 36:54.174 --> 36:56.411 and not just think of the specs that he think it is, 36:56.411 --> 36:58.434 but we can give them the no crap industry specs, 36:58.434 --> 37:01.801 and make sure that they have the right tools. 37:01.801 --> 37:03.863 So once they print on the ground, 37:03.863 --> 37:06.872 it can be used a note from the lessons learned, 37:06.872 --> 37:09.129 we can collaborate across all the services. 37:09.129 --> 37:11.240 So I think that's a good stride on where we are going. 37:11.240 --> 37:12.432 Can it keep up? 37:12.432 --> 37:13.506 It's only going to keep up 37:13.506 --> 37:15.969 if we keep pouring that information in there. 37:15.969 --> 37:17.695 We've got to change with the times. 37:17.695 --> 37:19.936 I think I was listening to somebody not too long ago, 37:19.936 --> 37:22.349 never thought about concrete printing. 37:22.349 --> 37:23.844 That's not happening, right? 37:23.844 --> 37:26.056 It was just the plastic. And all of a sudden, here we are, 37:26.056 --> 37:27.780 we're printing with concrete and not 37:27.780 --> 37:29.124 we're not printing small things. 37:29.124 --> 37:30.599 We're printing buildings. 37:30.599 --> 37:32.274 I don't know about you, but I remember being out in Iraq 37:32.274 --> 37:34.388 and Afghanistan and all we had, 37:34.388 --> 37:35.756 I know what I'm talking about, 37:35.756 --> 37:38.886 it was just plywood and sand and things like that, 37:38.886 --> 37:41.204 Hesco barriers, that's the word I'm looking for, right? 37:41.204 --> 37:43.121 So you know, things like that. 37:43.121 --> 37:45.168 And now we're talking about, in a matter of seconds, 37:45.168 --> 37:46.827 in a matter of minutes, I can do this 37:46.827 --> 37:51.327 a lot more, given a lot more capability on the ground. 37:52.604 --> 37:53.462 Can it keep up? 37:53.462 --> 37:55.619 So when I think about my current job, 37:55.619 --> 37:57.883 keeping up with the demands of technology, 37:57.883 --> 38:01.781 I think it's a coupled effort, if you will, 38:01.781 --> 38:04.781 along with the industry, making sure 38:05.969 --> 38:09.212 that we listen to what the requirements are. 38:09.212 --> 38:10.353 And at the end of the day, 38:10.353 --> 38:13.354 we get the requirement right from the beginning. 38:13.354 --> 38:15.639 I just came from a demonstration last week, 38:15.639 --> 38:18.327 where the prototype that was out there, 38:18.327 --> 38:21.817 it was on par with what the Marines wanted, 38:21.817 --> 38:23.251 but we was probably on par 38:23.251 --> 38:26.551 with what the Marines wanted five years ago. 38:26.551 --> 38:28.764 So we brought out a few Marines to come out 38:28.764 --> 38:32.825 and test this prototype, that was an idea five years ago. 38:32.825 --> 38:35.200 And one of the challenges I posed them is, 38:35.200 --> 38:38.161 don't think for today, you got to think for tomorrow. 38:38.161 --> 38:40.776 Is this what we need tomorrow? 38:40.776 --> 38:43.427 And we got to be able to get to that faster 38:43.427 --> 38:45.891 so that in the long run, we get the equipment 38:45.891 --> 38:47.946 to the war fighter on the ground when needed, 38:47.946 --> 38:50.136 because the process still has to take it's time. 38:50.136 --> 38:52.206 So trying to keep up with technology 38:52.206 --> 38:53.942 is gonna take a unified effort, 38:53.942 --> 38:55.380 is gonna take a little bit effort 38:55.380 --> 38:57.115 on not just the war fighter, 38:57.115 --> 38:58.596 make sure that we know what it is. 38:58.596 --> 39:00.001 It's gonna take a little bit of effort 39:00.001 --> 39:01.952 on the industry piece to make sure 39:01.952 --> 39:03.597 they can give it to us in a timely manner. 39:03.597 --> 39:06.135 This is going to take effort on the requirement piece 39:06.135 --> 39:08.042 to make sure that we've got the requirement right so. 39:08.042 --> 39:11.875 - So I'm gonna steal that state of the market, 39:12.998 --> 39:15.780 say the art is awesome, we use that. 39:15.780 --> 39:20.387 So for us, technology and in our training efforts really 39:20.387 --> 39:23.181 is best captured in the second pillar 39:23.181 --> 39:25.825 of our modernization of the of the MIT enterprise 39:25.825 --> 39:27.711 with ready relevant learning. 39:27.711 --> 39:30.847 And it's really our effort to change the dynamic 39:30.847 --> 39:34.355 and the way we do training and break our structure 39:34.355 --> 39:36.696 in 54 of the 87 ratings we have up into 39:36.696 --> 39:38.212 what we call blocks. 39:38.212 --> 39:40.776 To not over trained or under trained, 39:40.776 --> 39:42.644 but to give the sailor the right training 39:42.644 --> 39:45.767 for the next step that they need before they head out 39:45.767 --> 39:47.949 to the unit, they're going to head out to, 39:47.949 --> 39:50.232 recognizing that you know, an HT that gets 39:50.232 --> 39:52.240 the basic, a whole technician that gets 39:52.240 --> 39:53.887 the basic training that they need 39:53.887 --> 39:55.235 to head out to their next ship, 39:55.235 --> 39:57.388 gets that training, goes out to their ship. 39:57.388 --> 39:59.290 There's gonna be some advanced training 39:59.290 --> 40:01.052 they're gonna need maybe two years in the tour. 40:01.052 --> 40:03.706 I can't afford to fly them back to the schoolhouse, 40:03.706 --> 40:06.844 Mecca in Great Lakes, from San Diego. 40:06.844 --> 40:09.276 So I'm gonna put that training on the pier. 40:09.276 --> 40:10.732 And the way I'm going to do that 40:10.732 --> 40:13.352 is with lots of different processes, 40:13.352 --> 40:16.760 some with real equipment, but a lot with virtual trainers. 40:16.760 --> 40:18.388 And when I say virtual trainers, 40:18.388 --> 40:20.438 and I say that to people my age, 40:20.438 --> 40:22.554 or Ronnie Right's age, 40:22.554 --> 40:25.471 we think of a monitor with a mouse. 40:25.471 --> 40:28.876 And that revolution in training that we did back in the 90s, 40:28.876 --> 40:31.167 which was a horrible dismal failure, 40:31.167 --> 40:34.001 and slow still remember and have the scar tissue 40:34.001 --> 40:36.073 in their backs from how that went down. 40:36.073 --> 40:38.663 This is not that, this is modern gaming technology. 40:38.663 --> 40:40.424 This is real virtual environments, 40:40.424 --> 40:43.696 where you can do things like wells and such 40:43.696 --> 40:46.708 that are so real, that you can practice it 40 times 40:46.708 --> 40:48.304 and then walk out and do it the first time 40:48.304 --> 40:49.507 and get it right. 40:49.507 --> 40:51.651 This is training like in large scale, 40:51.651 --> 40:54.952 the LCS trainer, where a crew can go in and train 40:54.952 --> 40:56.491 and this LCS trainer. 40:56.491 --> 41:00.283 And then as a recruit, as a crew, report to NLCS 41:00.283 --> 41:03.740 and the next day, having not been on that ship before, 41:03.740 --> 41:06.990 get it underway safely with all members 41:08.022 --> 41:10.920 of the crew first time on that ship that first day. 41:10.920 --> 41:13.387 That's how realistic some of this training true. 41:13.387 --> 41:15.304 - LCS? Yeah. When I say 41:16.752 --> 41:20.168 - Littoral Combat ship or little combat ship. 41:20.168 --> 41:22.335 Sorry, me and my acronyms. 41:23.296 --> 41:27.851 So, some of the verb, thank you Kevin, I appreciate you. 41:27.851 --> 41:30.512 So the virtual environments 41:30.512 --> 41:33.608 and the tools that we're using are not, 41:33.608 --> 41:36.604 as I said, as I refer to that failure in the 90s 41:36.604 --> 41:39.215 to take the place of instructors and save money. 41:39.215 --> 41:42.465 These are in addition to and to enhance 41:43.386 --> 41:46.451 what we do with instructors and in fact, 41:46.451 --> 41:48.599 very few will come out of the pipeline 41:48.599 --> 41:50.955 and those that do won't come out until at least 2021, 41:50.955 --> 41:53.344 so that we can evaluate how well things are going 41:53.344 --> 41:55.386 and make sure that we are not missing anything 41:55.386 --> 41:57.688 before we move anybody from the pipeline 41:57.688 --> 41:59.698 and change anything substantively, 41:59.698 --> 42:01.378 because we want to make sure that we, 42:01.378 --> 42:03.141 first do no harm. 42:03.141 --> 42:05.064 So we've put these things in place. 42:05.064 --> 42:07.227 But to give you one quick example of just 42:07.227 --> 42:09.930 how effective technology can be used, 42:09.930 --> 42:13.865 an APU used to start an aircraft motor. 42:13.865 --> 42:16.974 You put 30 students around it, a wooden mock up, 42:16.974 --> 42:20.128 dial switches, you do an hour's worth of training. 42:20.128 --> 42:22.563 You then take those students out, 42:22.563 --> 42:24.717 you walk them out, and you say, 42:24.717 --> 42:27.490 please start it up 15 of the 30 students can start it 42:27.490 --> 42:29.549 on the first try. 42:29.549 --> 42:30.897 You take the same students, 42:30.897 --> 42:32.874 you put them in a virtual environment. 42:32.874 --> 42:34.866 You do this for an hour, each one has 42:34.866 --> 42:36.841 a virtual tutor helping them out. 42:36.841 --> 42:41.841 You walk them outside and 29 of 30 started on the first try. 42:42.873 --> 42:44.782 It's proven technology, it's working. 42:44.782 --> 42:49.733 Leveraging this technology is very helpful in what we do. 42:49.733 --> 42:53.575 Will it keep pace as long as we continue to invest? 42:53.575 --> 42:55.635 I'm sure it will. 42:55.635 --> 42:57.278 But we're committed to it. 42:57.278 --> 43:00.016 This was a vision that started with Admiral Moran 43:00.016 --> 43:02.333 when he was the Chief of naval personnel and he said, 43:02.333 --> 43:05.000 you know, what would a sailor look like in 2025. 43:05.000 --> 43:08.595 And that's where that program, Sailor 2025 was born 43:08.595 --> 43:11.066 and Admiral Burke has continued to it, 43:11.066 --> 43:13.676 as will Admiral now when he takes over. 43:13.676 --> 43:16.382 And we're gonna continue to leverage all those technologies 43:16.382 --> 43:18.455 and things in many different ways. 43:18.455 --> 43:20.920 Training is just about one of them. 43:20.920 --> 43:22.348 - Exciting times, for sure. 43:22.348 --> 43:24.608 So we've spoken a little bit today 43:24.608 --> 43:29.148 about retention, recruiting, talent management, training. 43:29.148 --> 43:31.392 I wanna take it just one step further 43:31.392 --> 43:33.899 in that realm before we close this up, 43:33.899 --> 43:35.896 and I want to ask you, 43:35.896 --> 43:39.344 if you feel, if we're gonna remain 43:39.344 --> 43:41.274 the preeminent military in the world, 43:41.274 --> 43:43.385 we're gonna need all the brainpower we can get. 43:43.385 --> 43:45.777 Please share any visions or initiatives 43:45.777 --> 43:48.899 for bringing talent into the service from industry, 43:48.899 --> 43:50.469 and academia. 43:50.469 --> 43:54.995 We'll start with you Mashiko, so Coast Guard again. 43:54.995 --> 43:59.128 - I like it when Sergeant Major goes first. 43:59.128 --> 44:02.239 - You see, I could go with the sergeant major 44:02.239 --> 44:06.406 but then I wouldn't know whether go left or right. 44:09.324 --> 44:13.280 - We have research and development grants 44:13.280 --> 44:16.110 with all the national laboratories. 44:16.110 --> 44:18.361 And as a sergeant major said 44:18.361 --> 44:20.367 was some of the advanced manufacturing, 44:20.367 --> 44:24.082 we also work with, we partner with the with 44:24.082 --> 44:26.730 the National Labs, especially Oakridge National Lab 44:26.730 --> 44:30.063 and Livermore and in San Diego, 44:30.063 --> 44:32.770 and we try to get them to help us out 44:32.770 --> 44:34.913 and we put some money towards them 44:34.913 --> 44:37.483 and I think we get a lot of return on investment 44:37.483 --> 44:38.943 for that money. 44:38.943 --> 44:42.251 We are looking at, just as DOD is doing, 44:42.251 --> 44:45.870 is creating some billets in Silicon Valley 44:45.870 --> 44:48.967 and with industry, so that we can learn from them, 44:48.967 --> 44:52.764 we can put somebody with them and learn from them. 44:52.764 --> 44:55.181 We continue to work with some 44:58.799 --> 45:01.301 of the defense contracting companies that 45:01.301 --> 45:04.134 are doing a lot of the R&D for us, 45:05.521 --> 45:08.374 they do a lot of the the technology development 45:08.374 --> 45:10.507 and then we we get to take advantage of that. 45:10.507 --> 45:14.114 We're fairly small, we have a research 45:14.114 --> 45:17.117 and development center that's in New London, Connecticut, 45:17.117 --> 45:18.857 not far from Groton. 45:18.857 --> 45:21.696 And they do a lot of great stuff with a small amount 45:21.696 --> 45:22.995 of money. 45:22.995 --> 45:25.745 We're getting into UASs and UAVs, 45:27.452 --> 45:30.914 and unmanned systems and we're really trying 45:30.914 --> 45:34.099 to just be sure that we're ready 45:34.099 --> 45:36.576 to get the mission done wherever that mission 45:36.576 --> 45:38.910 would require us the most effective 45:38.910 --> 45:42.550 and efficient way and so that's where we're investing 45:42.550 --> 45:43.717 our resources. 45:44.634 --> 45:45.878 - Okay, very similar. 45:45.878 --> 45:50.103 We want too have Marines, both officer and enlisted, 45:50.103 --> 45:51.540 that's embedded if you will, 45:51.540 --> 45:56.184 and different industry around the globe to include overseas. 45:56.184 --> 45:58.981 We've opened up the pipeline for our enlisted Marines 45:58.981 --> 46:00.816 to attend command staff, 46:00.816 --> 46:05.816 which for us was all officers, mostly company grade, 46:05.880 --> 46:07.513 but we've opened up that pipeline 46:07.513 --> 46:09.417 so that more enlisted Marines can have. 46:09.417 --> 46:12.005 But again, for us, I think I touched on that earlier, 46:12.005 --> 46:14.300 we've done a lot of investment into the enlisted side 46:14.300 --> 46:16.317 for professional military education 46:16.317 --> 46:19.262 and getting them as if you want to speak about 46:19.262 --> 46:21.206 the brain power, getting them on that level. 46:21.206 --> 46:22.500 To include other services, 46:22.500 --> 46:25.147 we've opened a door up in Rhode Island, 46:25.147 --> 46:28.319 things like that for the senior listed academy as well. 46:28.319 --> 46:30.261 So those kind of things is happening. 46:30.261 --> 46:32.857 From the institutional side, one recent thing, 46:32.857 --> 46:36.682 when we talk about trying to recruit skill sets, 46:36.682 --> 46:41.408 one thing that comes to mind is this cyber auxiliary unit 46:41.408 --> 46:43.196 that's being talked about right now. 46:43.196 --> 46:46.022 I recall Lieutenant General Reynolds talking about 46:46.022 --> 46:48.444 this some years ago, and one of the challenges we've had 46:48.444 --> 46:50.855 is when we start to think about this cyber world 46:50.855 --> 46:52.892 as a war fighting domain, 46:52.892 --> 46:54.912 and start taking in a lot more seriously 46:54.912 --> 46:56.947 and the skill set that's gonna be needed, 46:56.947 --> 46:59.202 or you know, the brainpower if you will, 46:59.202 --> 47:00.801 but the skill set specifically 47:00.801 --> 47:05.408 towards that type of job and what does that look like. 47:05.408 --> 47:07.904 So we've already opened up inside the Marine Corps, 47:07.904 --> 47:09.720 a cyber career field, 47:09.720 --> 47:12.570 where Marines can go from the entry level pipeline 47:12.570 --> 47:14.735 and now has created that as a career field. 47:14.735 --> 47:15.835 It's still growing. 47:15.835 --> 47:18.892 It's not there yet yet, as well as PsyOps, 47:18.892 --> 47:21.315 is another new career field that 47:21.315 --> 47:24.973 is just now getting some leverage if you will. 47:24.973 --> 47:27.018 So that's continuing to grow. 47:27.018 --> 47:30.003 But the cyber auxiliary unit is gonna 47:30.003 --> 47:31.367 be 100% different from that, 47:31.367 --> 47:33.096 a lot similar to what we're doing right now 47:33.096 --> 47:37.103 with the band, where we want the you know, 47:37.103 --> 47:39.053 we want to get out of that field. 47:39.053 --> 47:40.890 What does that person necessarily look like? 47:40.890 --> 47:42.400 Don't necessarily look like me, 47:42.400 --> 47:44.374 with a bun at the back of their head or a shaved head, 47:44.374 --> 47:46.323 look like my counterparts, left and right 47:46.323 --> 47:47.725 might look a little bit different, 47:47.725 --> 47:50.117 might appear to be a little bit different. 47:50.117 --> 47:54.129 But we need the skill set at the end of the day. 47:54.129 --> 47:56.544 So you might have heard General Nella kind of speak 47:56.544 --> 47:59.818 about that in the news, it's not to its maturity level yet. 47:59.818 --> 48:02.362 We're still at the beginning stages of that, 48:02.362 --> 48:04.112 what that's going to look like we don't know yet. 48:04.112 --> 48:05.931 But it's a concept that's been floating around 48:05.931 --> 48:07.132 for some years now. 48:07.132 --> 48:09.478 And with the Attorney General Riddles and the DCI 48:09.478 --> 48:11.697 and the Attorney General Glavine, 48:11.697 --> 48:13.849 they're gonna take that to the next level, again, 48:13.849 --> 48:16.849 posturing ourselves for peer threats 48:18.076 --> 48:19.917 that we know exists out there. 48:19.917 --> 48:22.462 So I think that's just want to kind of get 48:22.462 --> 48:24.257 on that level when we talk about brain power 48:24.257 --> 48:26.285 in the Marine Corps. 48:26.285 --> 48:29.043 - So we too, have learned the value 48:29.043 --> 48:32.550 of not turning down someone with a 97 AFQT, 48:32.550 --> 48:36.152 who wants to be a nuke but has a 1 1/2 inch tattoo 48:36.152 --> 48:37.589 on the back of their neck. 48:37.589 --> 48:40.802 Because like we said, it's really hard to find talent. 48:40.802 --> 48:43.416 And if that's the dis qualifier, 48:43.416 --> 48:47.012 because of the the rubric we've been hemmed into, 48:47.012 --> 48:49.335 we're just not gonna do that to ourselves. 48:49.335 --> 48:50.883 So we have expanded our aperture, 48:50.883 --> 48:53.802 over the last year and a half, two years, three years. 48:53.802 --> 48:55.953 We have allowed sleeves, 48:55.953 --> 48:59.744 and people like me when the Naval Academy lost my mind 48:59.744 --> 49:03.166 and said you can't do this, we can't allow this. 49:03.166 --> 49:05.300 And then you take a step back and you go, 49:05.300 --> 49:07.914 well, actually we can. 49:07.914 --> 49:09.598 It's just a matter of thinking it through. 49:09.598 --> 49:11.131 And now how do we make adjustments 49:11.131 --> 49:13.833 and there are lots of things. 49:13.833 --> 49:15.219 And I love your questions 49:15.219 --> 49:16.970 because you could probably spend an hour talking 49:16.970 --> 49:18.758 through each one of them 49:18.758 --> 49:20.656 and all the ages and ways to get at all of them. 49:20.656 --> 49:22.823 And we don't have an hour. 49:23.806 --> 49:26.529 So I'm gonna take just one small sliver, 49:26.529 --> 49:30.092 and focus on the fact that the Navy is a STEM service. 49:30.092 --> 49:33.882 We are a service of stuff of equipment 49:33.882 --> 49:38.319 that we operate ships, and aircraft and machinery. 49:38.319 --> 49:41.752 And as a STEM service, I think it's not lost on me 49:41.752 --> 49:46.233 that 51% of the STEM graduates in the United States 49:46.233 --> 49:47.665 are women. 49:47.665 --> 49:50.574 And if you ask me what is the key to retaining talent 49:50.574 --> 49:52.386 and winning the next war, 49:52.386 --> 49:55.728 retaining women and finding a way to retain 49:55.728 --> 49:57.996 not women for women's sake, 49:57.996 --> 50:00.374 but retaining the talent that this nation has, 50:00.374 --> 50:01.774 that this nation is producing, 50:01.774 --> 50:03.919 51% of the graduates in that field. 50:03.919 --> 50:06.875 Finding a way to retain them at a greater level 50:06.875 --> 50:10.403 than we have in the military is a key strategy point 50:10.403 --> 50:11.649 that we have. 50:11.649 --> 50:13.637 And it's why we came up with CIP, 50:13.637 --> 50:17.557 which is no longer a pilot program, thanks to NDAA in 18. 50:17.557 --> 50:20.537 We now have a program not a pilot. 50:20.537 --> 50:24.140 And CIP is the Career Intermission Program, 50:24.140 --> 50:28.297 which allows, for enlisted, we have a very easy time 50:28.297 --> 50:31.337 because our careers are governed by policy. 50:31.337 --> 50:33.749 But for officers, they have this thing called DOPMA, 50:33.749 --> 50:36.878 which governs how officer careers are governed in it, 50:36.878 --> 50:38.502 and it is very strict. 50:38.502 --> 50:42.295 It's an upper out policy that gives very little flexibility. 50:42.295 --> 50:44.994 And Admiral Burke as the chief naval personnel 50:44.994 --> 50:48.544 has gained some real traction in getting changes 50:48.544 --> 50:51.068 to DOPMA so that we can do things like this year, 50:51.068 --> 50:54.665 we now have as a pilot, no pun intended, 50:54.665 --> 50:57.376 instructor pilots that we're going to keep 50:57.376 --> 51:00.936 that can stay and be, not due course, 51:00.936 --> 51:03.277 but can stay and continue so much progression, 51:03.277 --> 51:05.928 and stay with us in that narrow vein 51:05.928 --> 51:08.674 and not have to seek command or then get out. 51:08.674 --> 51:12.874 But when it comes to CIP, or Career Intermission Program, 51:12.874 --> 51:14.704 they can step off the treadmill. 51:14.704 --> 51:17.428 They can take a two year, three year sabbatical, 51:17.428 --> 51:20.346 and then they can come back in, reset their lineal number, 51:20.346 --> 51:22.492 and then continue to pursue milestones 51:22.492 --> 51:24.008 and people who have done that, 51:24.008 --> 51:25.768 like Captain Valerie Overstreet 51:25.768 --> 51:29.050 have continued to go on and find major command 51:29.050 --> 51:30.790 and other milestones in their future. 51:30.790 --> 51:32.319 And I think the programs like that, 51:32.319 --> 51:35.258 and initiatives like that are gonna 51:35.258 --> 51:37.887 be the key to really retaining the talent 51:37.887 --> 51:42.184 that this nation has and getting after winning the next war. 51:42.184 --> 51:43.609 - Awesome, thank you, Mike boxer. 51:43.609 --> 51:46.274 So everything we've talked about so far 51:46.274 --> 51:49.143 has been developing, expanding our enlisted talent pool, 51:49.143 --> 51:51.760 both to meet the demands of returning 51:51.760 --> 51:55.601 to great power competition and into the multiple skill sets 51:55.601 --> 51:58.942 that the Coast Guard brings to the table. 51:58.942 --> 52:02.329 While we're doing this, we're also faced 52:02.329 --> 52:04.584 with the daunting task of modernizing our ships 52:04.584 --> 52:07.653 and our equipment, and improving overall readiness. 52:07.653 --> 52:09.555 This is a tall order for sure. 52:09.555 --> 52:12.687 Are you concerned about the increased demands 52:12.687 --> 52:15.015 and stressors on the enlisted marine sailor 52:15.015 --> 52:17.022 or Coast Guardsmen? 52:17.022 --> 52:19.559 And this time we'll start with Sergeant Major. 52:19.559 --> 52:23.503 - So first, my concern with the demands, no. 52:23.503 --> 52:25.744 I think we step up to the plate 52:25.744 --> 52:28.188 and we step up to the challenge always. 52:28.188 --> 52:31.855 The modernization piece, a lot of it for us, 52:32.696 --> 52:35.716 because we're not STEM is definitely ground based 52:35.716 --> 52:37.512 in a lot of different ways, 52:37.512 --> 52:40.861 especially if it's a Marine Corps initiative change. 52:40.861 --> 52:43.611 Things that involve the maritime, 52:44.496 --> 52:48.651 we tend to work a lot with NET and NAV C as well. 52:48.651 --> 52:51.180 So, but from from our side, 52:51.180 --> 52:54.250 the monetization that we have is making sure that 52:54.250 --> 52:57.699 that enrichment is poised if you will 52:57.699 --> 53:02.192 to fight in climber place and any climber place. 53:02.192 --> 53:04.993 So the first thing that I just want to talk about 53:04.993 --> 53:07.393 the reason it's not a stressor, they asked for it. 53:07.393 --> 53:09.722 Nine times out of 10 is something that 53:09.722 --> 53:11.765 they're asking for something that not just a need, 53:11.765 --> 53:13.103 but they're asking for. 53:13.103 --> 53:15.199 You kind of talked about the retention of women, 53:15.199 --> 53:16.841 well one thing to making sure that the war fighter 53:16.841 --> 53:18.361 is ready and prepared, 53:18.361 --> 53:19.997 is making sure that we have the equipment 53:19.997 --> 53:21.744 that every last one of them need, regardless of gender 53:21.744 --> 53:23.059 or size. 53:23.059 --> 53:25.305 This is something we didn't look at all the time. 53:25.305 --> 53:28.396 And it's something that we definitely made a focus 53:28.396 --> 53:29.911 in the most recent years, right? 53:29.911 --> 53:31.459 So we start there. 53:31.459 --> 53:34.349 And then when we talk about being ready to fight that fight, 53:34.349 --> 53:36.528 modernizing the things that we have. 53:36.528 --> 53:38.765 As a Marine, some time to get out and go look 53:38.765 --> 53:40.626 at the stuff and it's old equipment, 53:40.626 --> 53:42.463 it is old things because the sustainment chain 53:42.463 --> 53:44.289 is not always invested in. 53:44.289 --> 53:47.708 So now look at things as so close to us 53:47.708 --> 53:50.131 to create and build a galaxy of the force. 53:50.131 --> 53:52.686 That's one of our lines of effort 53:52.686 --> 53:54.908 when we're meeting what we call Marine Corps 2025. 53:54.908 --> 53:58.356 So with that being said, you may have heard things 53:58.356 --> 54:02.856 like the M27, the new night vision goggles capability, 54:04.992 --> 54:07.350 when making sure that we increase the see to out there 54:07.350 --> 54:10.176 to be able to operate in degraded 54:10.176 --> 54:12.479 and an uncontested environment, 54:12.479 --> 54:16.464 we're making sure that unmanned capability is also there 54:16.464 --> 54:20.325 to ensure that the Marine does not always have 54:20.325 --> 54:22.303 to be put into harm's way. 54:22.303 --> 54:24.609 So all these things wrapped around, 54:24.609 --> 54:27.076 they're not stressed, you give it to them, 54:27.076 --> 54:28.350 they figure it out, right? 54:28.350 --> 54:29.959 Because nine times out of 10 they're asking for it. 54:29.959 --> 54:31.685 They asking for what they want, 54:31.685 --> 54:33.158 and they're ready to employ it. 54:33.158 --> 54:35.118 So no, I'm not stressed at that, 54:35.118 --> 54:37.390 I think we just got to keep up with the pace 54:37.390 --> 54:40.641 and making sure that they have the equipment 54:40.641 --> 54:42.658 to match their talent, if you will. 54:42.658 --> 54:44.896 So not only are we increasing the pool itself, 54:44.896 --> 54:47.783 but we have to make sure that we have the capacity 54:47.783 --> 54:49.299 to give them the right equipment at the right time. 54:49.299 --> 54:50.574 So it matches their talent. 54:50.574 --> 54:53.459 Because otherwise they've already used and abused 54:53.459 --> 54:55.418 the things that they have. 54:55.418 --> 54:57.070 We say sometime make a marine proof. 54:57.070 --> 55:00.104 So I mean, I got that because it's gonna get beat up 55:00.104 --> 55:02.221 at the while, but at the end of the day 55:02.221 --> 55:04.855 is gonna sustain not just today's fight, 55:04.855 --> 55:07.906 but tomorrow's fight as well. 55:07.906 --> 55:09.385 - Yeah, having served on a few ships, 55:09.385 --> 55:11.453 I can attest to their ability to destroy. 55:11.453 --> 55:13.247 Absolutely, Jason. 55:13.247 --> 55:14.497 - Okay, thanks. 55:16.584 --> 55:19.233 So we are in the middle of the biggest recapitalization 55:19.233 --> 55:23.803 of our assets in probably the history of our Coast Guard, 55:23.803 --> 55:28.538 and the new ships that we're building or optimally, 55:28.538 --> 55:30.247 we call them optimally manned, 55:30.247 --> 55:31.863 they are not minimally man or optimally man. 55:31.863 --> 55:35.280 So as we do that, there is an expectation 55:38.441 --> 55:42.024 that we can do, when we arrive at the unit, 55:42.915 --> 55:44.496 we can do the mission, we can do it right away. 55:44.496 --> 55:46.227 We're not putting a lot of extra training racks, 55:46.227 --> 55:49.968 training units, there're 378 foot ships 55:49.968 --> 55:54.106 that fought in Vietnam, they have a crew of 175 55:54.106 --> 55:56.850 or 419 foot security cutters and new ones 55:56.850 --> 55:58.818 have a crew of 126, 55:58.818 --> 56:00.355 and I would tell you the national security guard 56:00.355 --> 56:03.451 is far more technologically superior 56:03.451 --> 56:06.381 and gets a lot more stuff done with 50 less people, 56:06.381 --> 56:11.038 so there's a little bit more of a stress on the crew there. 56:11.038 --> 56:15.121 Our ship may be sailing in and do and doing Intel 56:17.708 --> 56:20.491 and let's say we're doing a counter narcotics patrol, 56:20.491 --> 56:24.312 they may have detainees on deck on which 56:24.312 --> 56:27.096 we have to stand guard over those detainees. 56:27.096 --> 56:30.096 We're launching a helicopter and launching a small boat 56:30.096 --> 56:33.846 at the same time, while doing all the watches 56:36.215 --> 56:39.637 and in collecting Intel and doing all that kind of stuff. 56:39.637 --> 56:41.553 And then when the helicopter takes off, 56:41.553 --> 56:44.614 we have a precision marksman in a helicopter 56:44.614 --> 56:47.438 that are shooting the engine out of a gopher, 56:47.438 --> 56:49.507 out of a boat, an outboard engine 56:49.507 --> 56:51.392 with the helicopter moving 56:51.392 --> 56:54.046 and the boats going 40 knots bouncing up and down 56:54.046 --> 56:56.228 and they have to put a round through that outboard 56:56.228 --> 56:58.525 without you know without hitting up, 56:58.525 --> 57:01.277 I mean that is just that the skill sets of the crew 57:01.277 --> 57:03.462 and everything that we do are just, 57:03.462 --> 57:06.215 there is some stress on it, 57:06.215 --> 57:09.965 there is some stress and I think we're trying 57:10.802 --> 57:15.082 to mitigate that with, looking at tour links, 57:15.082 --> 57:17.562 looking at our imports, we're really looking at the way 57:17.562 --> 57:21.496 we manage our ships and the way we manage our people 57:21.496 --> 57:25.838 and I'm optimistic we're gonna get it right 57:25.838 --> 57:28.379 and we won't over stress our crews, 57:28.379 --> 57:32.783 but I will admit that the folks asking to go to sea is down. 57:32.783 --> 57:34.737 And I would say it's down 57:34.737 --> 57:37.454 because of the the challenges, the difficulties 57:37.454 --> 57:39.704 and the stress of sea life. 57:41.798 --> 57:43.473 - So if I were to say I wasn't stressed, 57:43.473 --> 57:46.118 or worried about the stress that our sailor face, 57:46.118 --> 57:48.232 it would be to not understand the landscape 57:48.232 --> 57:50.682 in which we're sitting, 57:50.682 --> 57:54.502 because frankly, the demand for naval forces 57:54.502 --> 57:55.964 has only increased. 57:55.964 --> 57:58.061 If you look at the number of ships underway today. 57:58.061 --> 58:00.102 It's the same as it was 30 years ago 58:00.102 --> 58:02.794 and frankly, we're dealing with less than half the ships. 58:02.794 --> 58:06.294 The tools, parts and material that we need 58:07.820 --> 58:10.842 to support and sustain those those ships 58:10.842 --> 58:12.569 and squatters and such 58:12.569 --> 58:16.851 are the demand to get those things around the world 58:16.851 --> 58:18.761 to where they need to be to do that 58:18.761 --> 58:23.069 is as hard or harder today than it has ever been. 58:23.069 --> 58:27.206 And by the way, logistics, if I could give it up for them, 58:27.206 --> 58:30.995 frankly, you win or lose wars based on logistics, 58:30.995 --> 58:33.660 how well you fight is great, 58:33.660 --> 58:35.935 but just ask the Germans or anyone else 58:35.935 --> 58:38.790 that's ever lost a war, how well you move things 58:38.790 --> 58:40.438 to or from the front. 58:40.438 --> 58:42.061 That's what's gonna get it done or not. 58:42.061 --> 58:43.836 If you can't do that, you can't win. 58:43.836 --> 58:47.774 So we struggle with that and we're working 58:47.774 --> 58:49.491 to get better at that. 58:49.491 --> 58:51.524 But it's a constant struggle to account for 58:51.524 --> 58:55.374 and get parts when and where they need to be, 58:55.374 --> 58:59.876 applying resources to get that 80% of jets in 18 months 58:59.876 --> 59:03.134 and get the material condition of our ships 59:03.134 --> 59:05.863 where they need to be is a paramount concern to us. 59:05.863 --> 59:08.076 And you put that on top of sailors 59:08.076 --> 59:10.059 with an already busy day. 59:10.059 --> 59:12.968 Even as we grow, there's a lot out there 59:12.968 --> 59:14.575 to be stressed about. 59:14.575 --> 59:16.126 But that's why we have leadership. 59:16.126 --> 59:17.425 And that's why engaged, 59:17.425 --> 59:20.013 especially senior enlisted leadership is the key 59:20.013 --> 59:22.255 to managing that stuff, setting priorities, 59:22.255 --> 59:25.604 informing senior officer leadership to say, 59:25.604 --> 59:28.141 you know, hey, the wheels are moving at optimal speed, 59:28.141 --> 59:30.397 or the wheels are too moving too fast. 59:30.397 --> 59:32.924 And we need to slow down because we can't do this safely. 59:32.924 --> 59:35.779 And it's up to us to be the speed governors 59:35.779 --> 59:38.262 and to say, what's safe and what's not. 59:38.262 --> 59:39.595 - Okay, awesome. 59:40.556 --> 59:42.943 So I still want to preserve some time for questions 59:42.943 --> 59:44.294 at the end. 59:44.294 --> 59:45.927 So I'm gonna ask you one final question. 59:45.927 --> 59:47.703 And we talked a little about developing talent. 59:47.703 --> 59:50.438 We talked about taking care of our stuff. 59:50.438 --> 59:53.571 So let's talk about a little employing our stuff 59:53.571 --> 59:54.636 a little bit. 59:54.636 --> 59:58.967 So in readying our sailors, Marines and Coast Guards 59:58.967 --> 01:00:01.247 to employ that stuff. 01:00:01.247 --> 01:00:03.951 So when you speak about great power competition, 01:00:03.951 --> 01:00:04.979 both the national security strategy 01:00:04.979 --> 01:00:06.277 and national defense strategy state that 01:00:06.277 --> 01:00:08.892 the maritime environment will play a prominent role 01:00:08.892 --> 01:00:11.624 in addressing the nation security concerns 01:00:11.624 --> 01:00:13.467 for the foreseeable future. 01:00:13.467 --> 01:00:15.289 That's a big change for our maritime forces. 01:00:15.289 --> 01:00:17.149 And I think you touched on it earlier, 01:00:17.149 --> 01:00:19.502 as we moving into great power, 01:00:19.502 --> 01:00:21.778 cut the competition again for the first time 01:00:21.778 --> 01:00:24.122 and really a military generation. 01:00:24.122 --> 01:00:26.096 So what methods do you use to facilitate 01:00:26.096 --> 01:00:28.284 this fundamental shift in your services? 01:00:28.284 --> 01:00:30.352 And do you feel there's a sufficient sense of urgency 01:00:30.352 --> 01:00:32.298 to do so both from within 01:00:32.298 --> 01:00:35.215 and outside of your organization's? 01:00:38.404 --> 01:00:40.988 - Word of mouth, talking, telling stories, 01:00:40.988 --> 01:00:42.524 I don't think that you can convey 01:00:42.524 --> 01:00:45.967 that sense of urgency which can be you know, 01:00:45.967 --> 01:00:49.842 like any phrase can become a bumper sticker in seconds. 01:00:49.842 --> 01:00:53.175 In an email, in a message, word of mouth 01:00:54.625 --> 01:00:57.988 and eyeball to eyeball leadership, 01:00:57.988 --> 01:01:02.057 it requires individuals to convey that message, 01:01:02.057 --> 01:01:03.892 whether it's me doing it to you, 01:01:03.892 --> 01:01:07.096 whether it's you doing it in a cheese mess on a ship, 01:01:07.096 --> 01:01:10.814 it has to be conveyed from human to human. 01:01:10.814 --> 01:01:12.742 This is something that can get lost in translation 01:01:12.742 --> 01:01:17.565 and electronic, in the electronic sphere very quickly 01:01:17.565 --> 01:01:19.257 and lose its sense of meaning 01:01:19.257 --> 01:01:22.455 and sense of urgency very quickly. 01:01:22.455 --> 01:01:24.787 It requires all of us to talk about 01:01:24.787 --> 01:01:27.339 and to reinforce with information, 01:01:27.339 --> 01:01:29.090 and to talk about the why behind it, 01:01:29.090 --> 01:01:32.461 especially with the generation that we're serving now, 01:01:32.461 --> 01:01:35.933 on our ships and squadrons and operational units, 01:01:35.933 --> 01:01:37.859 they need to understand the why. 01:01:37.859 --> 01:01:41.024 You need to talk about the size of the Chinese navy 01:01:41.024 --> 01:01:43.719 and where they're basing and where they're for basing, 01:01:43.719 --> 01:01:46.162 and how they're becoming Blue Water capable 01:01:46.162 --> 01:01:49.057 and what they're doing with manmade islands 01:01:49.057 --> 01:01:50.748 and how they're putting defenses on them. 01:01:50.748 --> 01:01:53.453 We need to talk about the capabilities of Iran 01:01:53.453 --> 01:01:54.654 with their kilos and what they're doing 01:01:54.654 --> 01:01:56.474 with their deployments and what it's like 01:01:56.474 --> 01:01:57.884 when we go through the straits 01:01:57.884 --> 01:01:59.434 and how they practice swam tactics. 01:01:59.434 --> 01:02:01.604 We need to better inform, 01:02:01.604 --> 01:02:04.324 and not assume that a CS who's working down 01:02:04.324 --> 01:02:06.035 in the galley and your carrier 01:02:06.035 --> 01:02:08.077 doesn't need to know what's going on 01:02:08.077 --> 01:02:08.984 in the world around them. 01:02:08.984 --> 01:02:11.335 There are some services, I honestly believe 01:02:11.335 --> 01:02:13.849 the Marines do a far better job at this than we do, 01:02:13.849 --> 01:02:15.880 institutionally and making sure 01:02:15.880 --> 01:02:19.385 that every marine understands the operational environment 01:02:19.385 --> 01:02:20.654 in which they are deployed. 01:02:20.654 --> 01:02:23.127 And I think that as a Navy, we can do far better 01:02:23.127 --> 01:02:26.222 at keeping all of our sailors informed 01:02:26.222 --> 01:02:28.525 as to the why so that they understand 01:02:28.525 --> 01:02:30.014 and then mission relating, you know, 01:02:30.014 --> 01:02:33.135 when I was on the Carl Vinson and I see my former CO here, 01:02:33.135 --> 01:02:35.246 we talked about this a lot, 01:02:35.246 --> 01:02:37.099 and mission relation was a term I learned on that ship, 01:02:37.099 --> 01:02:38.886 where we talked about the, 01:02:38.886 --> 01:02:41.123 what does it mean to you, 01:02:41.123 --> 01:02:43.639 understanding the mission of the unit 01:02:43.639 --> 01:02:48.598 and what we're doing, wide scale versus what do I do 01:02:48.598 --> 01:02:50.535 and how does it relate to that? 01:02:50.535 --> 01:02:53.564 I was recently in an all hands call with the sea NO, 01:02:53.564 --> 01:02:55.834 and we had an aircraft mech who said, 01:02:55.834 --> 01:02:58.403 I do corrosion control? 01:02:58.403 --> 01:03:00.372 What the hell do I do in contributing 01:03:00.372 --> 01:03:02.688 to this great power competition. 01:03:02.688 --> 01:03:06.215 And I started with the every writing, 01:03:06.215 --> 01:03:09.927 every skill, everything we do in the Navy contributes 01:03:09.927 --> 01:03:12.817 in one way or another to lethality. 01:03:12.817 --> 01:03:15.535 We do not have the time, the resources 01:03:15.535 --> 01:03:17.840 or anything else to waste, 01:03:17.840 --> 01:03:21.314 every resource, everything we have goes to lethality 01:03:21.314 --> 01:03:23.954 in one way or another and finding a way to relate it. 01:03:23.954 --> 01:03:27.054 The corrosion control that you perform on an aircraft keeps 01:03:27.054 --> 01:03:28.474 that jet airborne, 01:03:28.474 --> 01:03:31.902 which gives that pilot time and proficiency in the cockpit, 01:03:31.902 --> 01:03:33.757 which contributes to their readiness 01:03:33.757 --> 01:03:36.305 so that when the balloon goes up, they're ready to fight. 01:03:36.305 --> 01:03:39.014 And the person who's cooking that meal 01:03:39.014 --> 01:03:41.742 is the person who's keeping that stomach fed, 01:03:41.742 --> 01:03:43.838 who's keeping that person alert, 01:03:43.838 --> 01:03:45.763 that's flying that plane or the mechanic 01:03:45.763 --> 01:03:47.098 that's working on that plane. 01:03:47.098 --> 01:03:49.322 Everyone plays a role and without everyone 01:03:49.322 --> 01:03:52.082 on the team functioning, the team can't win. 01:03:52.082 --> 01:03:54.099 It's just like any sports team. 01:03:54.099 --> 01:03:56.196 It's just like any team we have. 01:03:56.196 --> 01:04:00.930 And every rating leads to lethality in one way or another. 01:04:00.930 --> 01:04:02.929 And mission relating is the thing 01:04:02.929 --> 01:04:06.444 that we probably have work to do on that. 01:04:06.444 --> 01:04:08.204 - Thank you, Sergeant Major. 01:04:08.204 --> 01:04:10.724 - Great points, lemme just add a little bit to that, 01:04:10.724 --> 01:04:12.614 you know, when I read this question, 01:04:12.614 --> 01:04:13.994 the first thing I thought is like it's a, 01:04:13.994 --> 01:04:15.584 right on point question, 01:04:15.584 --> 01:04:18.147 because for 17 or so years, 01:04:18.147 --> 01:04:21.254 we've been concentrated in specific areas, 01:04:21.254 --> 01:04:25.798 and at that time, there was other countries growing, 01:04:25.798 --> 01:04:29.446 while we stayed in sustained combat, if you will. 01:04:29.446 --> 01:04:33.888 So as we come of that, I listened to the comment 01:04:33.888 --> 01:04:36.351 on Allison, to some of the leaders 01:04:36.351 --> 01:04:37.794 and a lot of things that they talking about 01:04:37.794 --> 01:04:41.189 is things that we got to still get down to the lowest level, 01:04:41.189 --> 01:04:44.564 helping us understand that we don't fight by ourselves, 01:04:44.564 --> 01:04:48.044 we're still part of the Department of the Navy, 01:04:48.044 --> 01:04:50.695 so speaking in terms and making sure 01:04:50.695 --> 01:04:53.729 that we employ in a naval integrated force, 01:04:53.729 --> 01:04:56.054 we still haven't gotten there yet. 01:04:56.054 --> 01:04:57.804 So I think that's to me, 01:04:57.804 --> 01:05:00.084 this is where we need to grow a little bit more 01:05:00.084 --> 01:05:02.583 as far as a sense of urgency, 01:05:02.583 --> 01:05:06.164 making sure that things that's come common in a future 01:05:06.164 --> 01:05:07.457 that we don't just think about it 01:05:07.457 --> 01:05:09.959 through a singular focus lens, not the Marine Corps, 01:05:09.959 --> 01:05:11.044 we can't. 01:05:11.044 --> 01:05:13.164 We gotta be able to make sure that 01:05:13.164 --> 01:05:16.299 not only does it exchange as far as information is concerned 01:05:16.299 --> 01:05:18.216 to be able to fight in a joint environment. 01:05:18.216 --> 01:05:20.584 But when we talk about maritime positioning, 01:05:20.584 --> 01:05:23.961 just the way we fight on ships and things like that, 01:05:23.961 --> 01:05:27.505 we're not just there anymore to just be the gatekeepers. 01:05:27.505 --> 01:05:31.375 We actually got to be able to employ from that platform. 01:05:31.375 --> 01:05:33.424 And I don't think that narrative has gotten 01:05:33.424 --> 01:05:35.134 all the way down, I think it's there the top 01:05:35.134 --> 01:05:37.354 so I like what you're saying. 01:05:37.354 --> 01:05:39.403 Just that it's hard to get that down 01:05:39.403 --> 01:05:42.154 to that millennial thought process who my focus 01:05:42.154 --> 01:05:45.087 is somewhat always boxed in, but it's important to. 01:05:45.087 --> 01:05:46.862 So we continue to push that 01:05:46.862 --> 01:05:48.539 to understand what the mission is. 01:05:48.539 --> 01:05:50.574 I kind of talked earlier about understanding 01:05:50.574 --> 01:05:51.904 what the commander's intent is. 01:05:51.904 --> 01:05:53.904 And also understanding that that is flexible 01:05:53.904 --> 01:05:55.194 is the same thing. 01:05:55.194 --> 01:05:57.564 We may do well at once we're on that mission, 01:05:57.564 --> 01:06:00.390 but being able to understand it all the time, every time, 01:06:00.390 --> 01:06:03.045 I think that has that that plays a large role 01:06:03.045 --> 01:06:04.323 in the way we operate. 01:06:04.323 --> 01:06:06.530 When you talk about security concerns, 01:06:06.530 --> 01:06:08.734 just walking around building, 01:06:08.734 --> 01:06:10.796 just walking around you see it all the time. 01:06:10.796 --> 01:06:13.729 You can search social media and you see like wait, 01:06:13.729 --> 01:06:17.381 I think society wise, we sometimes get complacent, 01:06:17.381 --> 01:06:20.218 because the fights not always right here on our grass, 01:06:20.218 --> 01:06:22.857 but we know what happened before we continue to do that. 01:06:22.857 --> 01:06:25.509 So I think this type of concern has to be large focus, 01:06:25.509 --> 01:06:27.774 not just not just in the military, 01:06:27.774 --> 01:06:30.129 but also large focus across our nation. 01:06:30.129 --> 01:06:34.518 So that's one thing I appreciate about what you said. 01:06:34.518 --> 01:06:36.330 As far as the sense of urgency, 01:06:36.330 --> 01:06:39.390 we always can do it better, right? 01:06:39.390 --> 01:06:42.964 So we seem to be a reactive force sometimes, 01:06:42.964 --> 01:06:45.910 we don't do anything until you know something's 01:06:45.910 --> 01:06:47.596 are the rounds already downrange. 01:06:47.596 --> 01:06:50.672 So definitely true want to get ahead of that game, 01:06:50.672 --> 01:06:52.569 they say let them bang. 01:06:52.569 --> 01:06:54.115 So this way you prepared for it, 01:06:54.115 --> 01:06:56.504 so we you know, we think about being ready 01:06:56.504 --> 01:06:58.598 to fight tonight and every column and plays 01:06:58.598 --> 01:06:59.836 not just words. 01:06:59.836 --> 01:07:01.035 I don't know if you know 01:07:01.035 --> 01:07:03.045 to communicate mindset, we have to sing the Marine Sam now, 01:07:03.045 --> 01:07:04.615 I don't know if everybody heard that, right? 01:07:04.615 --> 01:07:06.986 So we can't just let the music play and we standing there, 01:07:06.986 --> 01:07:09.327 it's time to sing, some may know every word 01:07:09.327 --> 01:07:12.691 and know what the words mean and live by that. 01:07:12.691 --> 01:07:15.887 And of course, any kind of change comes with a little bit 01:07:15.887 --> 01:07:17.933 of roughness, right, a little bit of roughness. 01:07:17.933 --> 01:07:19.439 But when you stop and actually think 01:07:19.439 --> 01:07:21.218 about what those words means we've been doing 01:07:21.218 --> 01:07:23.567 it for 200 plus years, and has proven battles, 01:07:23.567 --> 01:07:27.212 battle tested and has been proven is worth for many years. 01:07:27.212 --> 01:07:30.529 So millennials or not we were not changing 01:07:30.529 --> 01:07:34.317 some foundational things, any climb in place. 01:07:34.317 --> 01:07:36.127 So even for us from the acquisition worlds, 01:07:36.127 --> 01:07:38.332 we can't lose sight on not just moving 01:07:38.332 --> 01:07:40.495 to a maritime position, if you will, 01:07:40.495 --> 01:07:42.434 which we're doing with long range position, 01:07:42.434 --> 01:07:45.278 we're looking at from the ground air defense, 01:07:45.278 --> 01:07:46.598 things like that. 01:07:46.598 --> 01:07:47.994 But also when we talk about cold weather, 01:07:47.994 --> 01:07:49.537 we've lost sight of that. 01:07:49.537 --> 01:07:51.135 We've lost our pulse on that, 01:07:51.135 --> 01:07:52.610 I'm not sure where we're at 01:07:52.610 --> 01:07:54.156 as far as the train is concerned, 01:07:54.156 --> 01:07:55.760 and I say loss holistically. 01:07:55.760 --> 01:07:57.557 We're looking at ways now to bring a lot of that back 01:07:57.557 --> 01:07:58.694 to the realm. 01:07:58.694 --> 01:08:00.068 Like I said, 17 years, 01:08:00.068 --> 01:08:01.582 we've been focusing certain areas 01:08:01.582 --> 01:08:03.577 and we got to take our mindset off of that 01:08:03.577 --> 01:08:05.617 and create that narrative all the way down 01:08:05.617 --> 01:08:08.718 that the mission has to be focused across the globe. 01:08:08.718 --> 01:08:10.229 - That's awesome Master Chief, 01:08:10.229 --> 01:08:11.761 that may not be great power competition. 01:08:11.761 --> 01:08:13.706 But I don't think anybody in this room would argue 01:08:13.706 --> 01:08:14.984 that what the Coast Guard is doing and continues to do 01:08:14.984 --> 01:08:18.401 is every bit as urgent as our brainpower, 01:08:19.961 --> 01:08:21.912 competition and peer competitors that we face. 01:08:21.912 --> 01:08:24.663 - Well, thanks, Kevin, just real quick. 01:08:24.663 --> 01:08:26.646 So I think we need to be careful 01:08:26.646 --> 01:08:30.016 that recruiting and retention with trying to use 01:08:30.016 --> 01:08:32.819 the great power of competition as something 01:08:32.819 --> 01:08:34.634 that would draw people into the military, 01:08:34.634 --> 01:08:36.840 it's not going to be the same as a global war on terrorism. 01:08:36.840 --> 01:08:39.484 The Global War on Terrorism, people that felt like 01:08:39.484 --> 01:08:41.389 when they join the military, they were protecting 01:08:41.389 --> 01:08:43.074 the nation today from a threat that could happen today 01:08:43.074 --> 01:08:44.558 or tomorrow. 01:08:44.558 --> 01:08:47.362 So and that still could happen. 01:08:47.362 --> 01:08:49.979 But as we shift our focus to the great power competition, 01:08:49.979 --> 01:08:53.244 we need to realize that that's not going to be this draw 01:08:53.244 --> 01:08:55.530 of this real patriotic society that says, 01:08:55.530 --> 01:08:57.727 yes, I want to join the military to protect us 01:08:57.727 --> 01:08:59.494 from China and Russia. 01:08:59.494 --> 01:09:01.494 And so we have to think about that 01:09:01.494 --> 01:09:05.626 and how that's gonna affect our recruiting model. 01:09:05.626 --> 01:09:09.014 I think for us, we do ports and waterways, 01:09:09.014 --> 01:09:10.867 coast security, little maritime domain awareness, 01:09:10.867 --> 01:09:13.122 and we're happy to give you a ride to the Arctic 01:09:13.122 --> 01:09:14.849 any time you want to 'cause we have 01:09:14.849 --> 01:09:16.195 a new ice breaker coming. 01:09:16.195 --> 01:09:17.492 So we got that thing. 01:09:17.492 --> 01:09:19.324 Yeah, we we've been doing cold water for a while. 01:09:19.324 --> 01:09:22.750 And will say thank you to the Navy 01:09:22.750 --> 01:09:25.996 for help with this joint acquisition. 01:09:25.996 --> 01:09:28.829 So, we have 11 statutory missions, 01:09:32.617 --> 01:09:36.902 and many of those are done during peacetime 01:09:36.902 --> 01:09:40.745 and so we are trying to be that helper, if you will, 01:09:40.745 --> 01:09:43.293 with the great power competition, we do have a better score. 01:09:43.293 --> 01:09:44.418 Yeah, an enabler. 01:09:44.418 --> 01:09:47.709 We have a cutter sailing with the Navy over 01:09:47.709 --> 01:09:50.013 in seven fleet and we're excited about that. 01:09:50.013 --> 01:09:51.300 We're gonna have another one coming in. 01:09:51.300 --> 01:09:52.748 Anytime that we can jump in and help. 01:09:52.748 --> 01:09:54.415 We're glad to do it. 01:09:55.525 --> 01:09:56.555 - Awesome, thank you. 01:09:56.555 --> 01:09:59.050 So, once again, what an honor it is to be here 01:09:59.050 --> 01:10:00.922 and ask all of you these questions. 01:10:00.922 --> 01:10:03.588 But my questions are easy and short sighted. 01:10:03.588 --> 01:10:05.718 I'm gonna turn it over to the audience 01:10:05.718 --> 01:10:07.484 who has some great questions, I'm sure. 01:10:07.484 --> 01:10:09.896 We've got about 20 minutes, so we're right on track. 01:10:09.896 --> 01:10:12.688 So please, if you have a question, 01:10:12.688 --> 01:10:15.351 the microphones are coming around so everybody can hear. 01:10:15.351 --> 01:10:17.351 You have one right here, 01:10:19.947 --> 01:10:24.697 if you raise your hand up so she can drop the mic on you. 01:10:27.345 --> 01:10:30.041 - Thank you, Rich Smoker, retired Navy. 01:10:30.041 --> 01:10:31.875 Nick, you've touched on the answer 01:10:31.875 --> 01:10:34.898 to the question I'm going to ask you. 01:10:34.898 --> 01:10:38.148 So what programs, policies or practices 01:10:39.959 --> 01:10:43.946 do you think you could institute from the other services 01:10:43.946 --> 01:10:48.378 to help grow your individuals at the enlisted level? 01:10:48.378 --> 01:10:50.185 - I'm sorry. 01:10:50.185 --> 01:10:54.048 - What programs, practices or policies 01:10:54.048 --> 01:10:56.208 that you think you could institute in the Navy 01:10:56.208 --> 01:10:58.117 that you could take from the Coast Guard 01:10:58.117 --> 01:11:00.472 or the Marine Corps, to help grow your, 01:11:00.472 --> 01:11:04.606 grow the enlisted forces in the Navy at this point. 01:11:04.606 --> 01:11:06.720 - Grow in size or grow in capability. 01:11:06.720 --> 01:11:08.781 - We talked a lot about, you know, 01:11:08.781 --> 01:11:12.377 growing the sailors, growing Marines, 01:11:12.377 --> 01:11:15.632 growing the Coast Guard and leadership. 01:11:15.632 --> 01:11:17.296 And you know, of course the time here I've seen 01:11:17.296 --> 01:11:19.360 you take notes about things that you've seen 01:11:19.360 --> 01:11:21.444 that a good practices, good policies from 01:11:21.444 --> 01:11:23.034 the other services. 01:11:23.034 --> 01:11:24.968 So I'm asking all three of you, 01:11:24.968 --> 01:11:27.419 which are those things that you know 01:11:27.419 --> 01:11:30.222 about from the other services you think you can listen to? 01:11:30.222 --> 01:11:32.445 It's your individual services to help better 01:11:32.445 --> 01:11:37.028 or to help grow the your individual enlisted personnel. 01:11:38.560 --> 01:11:40.782 - I certainly think that some flexibility 01:11:40.782 --> 01:11:43.261 and looking at the recruiting pool matters, 01:11:43.261 --> 01:11:46.928 I think looking at that and making sure that 01:11:48.614 --> 01:11:52.817 we're not turning away people who could help us 01:11:52.817 --> 01:11:53.876 in one way or another, 01:11:53.876 --> 01:11:56.202 because we just want the best, most talented folks 01:11:56.202 --> 01:11:59.583 that want to serve, that are willing to raise their hand 01:11:59.583 --> 01:12:02.790 and come serve, can come to us and do so. 01:12:02.790 --> 01:12:07.423 And I think that we have some rules, regulations, 01:12:07.423 --> 01:12:09.206 policies and things that 01:12:09.206 --> 01:12:12.733 we're always willing to take a look at, 01:12:12.733 --> 01:12:14.436 tattoos was was one example. 01:12:14.436 --> 01:12:16.717 But always taking a look at those things 01:12:16.717 --> 01:12:19.320 and making sure that we're not turning our nose 01:12:19.320 --> 01:12:21.636 up the talent, when talent is so hard to find. 01:12:21.636 --> 01:12:23.590 And some of the things the Marines have done. 01:12:23.590 --> 01:12:25.840 We've taken a hard look at. 01:12:26.725 --> 01:12:27.892 So that's one. 01:12:30.798 --> 01:12:33.132 - I'm gonna take advantage of this ride he offered me 01:12:33.132 --> 01:12:34.864 to the Arctic, but other than that, 01:12:34.864 --> 01:12:37.781 I think for us, you know, one thing 01:12:39.829 --> 01:12:41.560 I've always appreciated about the services 01:12:41.560 --> 01:12:43.745 was the academic path. 01:12:43.745 --> 01:12:47.297 And we just don't always have the resources to do that. 01:12:47.297 --> 01:12:50.686 But we've definitely, coming from as a director down 01:12:50.686 --> 01:12:52.622 there, I know that was one of our things 01:12:52.622 --> 01:12:55.419 that we looked at is how can we, 01:12:55.419 --> 01:12:58.078 how can we take our already curriculum 01:12:58.078 --> 01:12:59.710 that's in place and just making sure 01:12:59.710 --> 01:13:01.818 that we get it to a point where we can accredit 01:13:01.818 --> 01:13:04.519 those classes and offer the opportunity. 01:13:04.519 --> 01:13:06.773 And we're not necessarily there yet, 01:13:06.773 --> 01:13:10.121 but we just don't have the robust curriculum 01:13:10.121 --> 01:13:13.244 and resources to ensure that the lessons 01:13:13.244 --> 01:13:15.559 that they're already getting, 01:13:15.559 --> 01:13:17.249 are they at that level that I can get them accredited, 01:13:17.249 --> 01:13:19.904 so this way that they can walk out with more 01:13:19.904 --> 01:13:22.873 than what they walked in with from the academic side. 01:13:22.873 --> 01:13:25.892 So if we ever get to that point, 01:13:25.892 --> 01:13:27.829 there's one thing I do appreciate about many 01:13:27.829 --> 01:13:28.969 of the other services, 01:13:28.969 --> 01:13:31.531 that we just don't have the capability to do it, 01:13:31.531 --> 01:13:33.165 but we are looking at that. 01:13:33.165 --> 01:13:36.293 - So we just we just contracted with Rand 01:13:36.293 --> 01:13:38.681 to do a women's retention study 01:13:38.681 --> 01:13:41.453 of how we can do a better job of retaining women 01:13:41.453 --> 01:13:43.801 and we're happy to share that with the other services. 01:13:43.801 --> 01:13:46.876 And we, the Coastguards nice because we're small, 01:13:46.876 --> 01:13:49.591 so you can do a good study on us. 01:13:49.591 --> 01:13:52.322 It says it's not like really hard like hurt your head 01:13:52.322 --> 01:13:54.968 and then typically across the military services, 01:13:54.968 --> 01:13:58.028 what's good for one is typically good for the others. 01:13:58.028 --> 01:14:02.069 The Marine Corps is a little bit different sometimes 01:14:02.069 --> 01:14:05.922 but by and large is some some probably some lessons learned 01:14:05.922 --> 01:14:08.015 there, so I think we can offer that. 01:14:08.015 --> 01:14:11.007 What I take away and what I heard Nick Ponce 01:14:11.007 --> 01:14:13.578 was the Marines they do a good job of making it hard 01:14:13.578 --> 01:14:15.196 so it feels like you earn some. 01:14:15.196 --> 01:14:16.564 When you do something at Marine Corp, 01:14:16.564 --> 01:14:17.968 you know you did something and you earned it, 01:14:17.968 --> 01:14:21.623 so we, instead of trying to make it easier 01:14:21.623 --> 01:14:23.837 on people maybe sometimes we make it a little harder 01:14:23.837 --> 01:14:26.515 so that it's actually more appreciated. 01:14:26.515 --> 01:14:28.673 I know he said he was doing that in his basic training 01:14:28.673 --> 01:14:31.387 which I think is a good thing. 01:14:31.387 --> 01:14:34.141 And then I, what I've done 01:14:34.141 --> 01:14:37.422 is personally I've stolen their their promotion process 01:14:37.422 --> 01:14:39.095 for their senior enlisted. 01:14:39.095 --> 01:14:41.123 I really think, I've never met a, 01:14:41.123 --> 01:14:42.593 and I know they're out there, 01:14:42.593 --> 01:14:44.604 but I've never really met a Navy Master Chief 01:14:44.604 --> 01:14:46.444 that I just wasn't thoroughly impressed with. 01:14:46.444 --> 01:14:49.904 And so I'm modeling our advancement process 01:14:49.904 --> 01:14:52.078 to Senior Chief and Master Chief offered 01:14:52.078 --> 01:14:54.145 in the Navy's advancement process. 01:14:54.145 --> 01:14:55.636 - Well the day still young 01:14:55.636 --> 01:14:57.358 and we really don't know each other. 01:14:57.358 --> 01:15:00.191 - Navy Master Chiefs are the best. 01:15:03.376 --> 01:15:05.108 - Okay, another question. 01:15:05.108 --> 01:15:06.099 Yes, sir. 01:15:06.099 --> 01:15:07.509 - Thanks for, Juan Darcy here, 01:15:07.509 --> 01:15:08.978 a guy who's benefited enormously 01:15:08.978 --> 01:15:11.423 from great senior enlisted leadership throughout my career. 01:15:11.423 --> 01:15:14.415 McMahon, I appreciate your personal involvement 01:15:14.415 --> 01:15:17.415 in helping to build the culture of fitness 01:15:17.415 --> 01:15:20.479 with the generation and ultimately cases grew up 01:15:20.479 --> 01:15:22.528 without PE in high schools, 01:15:22.528 --> 01:15:25.286 supersize generation playing video games 01:15:25.286 --> 01:15:26.949 instead of pickup basketball. 01:15:26.949 --> 01:15:28.668 But as you also know, last month, 01:15:28.668 --> 01:15:31.198 we lost our second recruit, taking that last PRT 01:15:31.198 --> 01:15:34.038 before graduating at boot camp, 01:15:34.038 --> 01:15:35.926 the second one of this calendar year. 01:15:35.926 --> 01:15:37.659 I suspect investigations by still to recently 01:15:37.659 --> 01:15:39.389 a comment on this, but I wonder 01:15:39.389 --> 01:15:43.772 if this is a trend and anomaly and what steps you think 01:15:43.772 --> 01:15:46.734 we can can help to further build this culture? 01:15:46.734 --> 01:15:50.932 - Unfortunately, because it's still an investigative phase. 01:15:50.932 --> 01:15:53.048 I really can't comment on those specifics. 01:15:53.048 --> 01:15:57.798 I'll tell you that we have an incredibly well documented, 01:15:58.859 --> 01:16:02.072 well scripted, well orchestrated 01:16:02.072 --> 01:16:05.167 and monitored physical fitness program. 01:16:05.167 --> 01:16:07.156 We take very few things as seriously 01:16:07.156 --> 01:16:11.439 as we do the physical regiment as we do at RTC Great Lakes. 01:16:11.439 --> 01:16:15.068 The IT recruits may never know just how, 01:16:15.068 --> 01:16:18.739 they may think it's random or suddenly my, 01:16:18.739 --> 01:16:23.739 that training that pops up out of nowhere that's physical 01:16:24.055 --> 01:16:26.830 in nature, that they may feel like is random, 01:16:26.830 --> 01:16:29.152 it's not random and it's scripted, 01:16:29.152 --> 01:16:31.479 it's talked about, it's programmed, 01:16:31.479 --> 01:16:33.860 but they may think it's in response to something 01:16:33.860 --> 01:16:35.168 it's not. 01:16:35.168 --> 01:16:38.946 And it's very well covered to ensure 01:16:38.946 --> 01:16:41.878 that we don't over train recruits. 01:16:41.878 --> 01:16:43.894 That's the worst thing we could possibly do, 01:16:43.894 --> 01:16:45.481 is break a recruit of any kind. 01:16:45.481 --> 01:16:49.816 I can also tell you that even if all procedures 01:16:49.816 --> 01:16:51.872 and processes are followed to a tee, 01:16:51.872 --> 01:16:55.022 and the RTCs do nothing wrong. 01:16:55.022 --> 01:16:58.510 They love those recruits and they are personally invested 01:16:58.510 --> 01:16:59.897 in those recruits. 01:16:59.897 --> 01:17:02.051 And even if there's no fault, it doesn't change 01:17:02.051 --> 01:17:03.723 the fact that they love those recruits. 01:17:03.723 --> 01:17:06.336 And there isn't a deep personal sense of loss 01:17:06.336 --> 01:17:10.267 that they feel as do the other recruits in the company. 01:17:10.267 --> 01:17:13.032 So you know our hearts certainly go out to that family 01:17:13.032 --> 01:17:16.351 as well as the the shipmates in those companies, 01:17:16.351 --> 01:17:19.865 as well as the already RECs that were there with them. 01:17:19.865 --> 01:17:23.645 But to your point we are really getting 01:17:23.645 --> 01:17:27.161 after physical fitness, starting in boot camp 01:17:27.161 --> 01:17:30.095 and trying to carry that on out into the fleet 01:17:30.095 --> 01:17:33.018 through a host of initiatives. 01:17:33.018 --> 01:17:34.768 - Thank you, yes sir. 01:17:36.738 --> 01:17:39.454 - Rafael Ortiz, Reserve Organization America, 01:17:39.454 --> 01:17:42.787 you thank all four of you for showing up 01:17:43.663 --> 01:17:46.124 and you've had a list of six questions 01:17:46.124 --> 01:17:47.994 and you hit just about every one of them 01:17:47.994 --> 01:17:49.992 when the BSR and looking to the future. 01:17:49.992 --> 01:17:52.572 How are you going to deal with that, 01:17:52.572 --> 01:17:54.740 now that they can get out? 01:17:54.740 --> 01:17:56.243 I know many people, go back, 01:17:56.243 --> 01:18:00.440 going back to one other key point you talked about that. 01:18:00.440 --> 01:18:02.566 Looking at the lens looking at the future, 01:18:02.566 --> 01:18:04.647 you're talking about optimally manned 01:18:04.647 --> 01:18:09.230 or staffed ships, looking at a great power competition, 01:18:11.742 --> 01:18:16.690 have we, and you all are enlisted your voice the deck plate. 01:18:16.690 --> 01:18:18.869 Have we looked at attrition? 01:18:18.869 --> 01:18:21.410 Have we looked at when we actually come into conflict? 01:18:21.410 --> 01:18:24.349 Have we trained our people to prepare for 01:18:24.349 --> 01:18:26.858 that PTSD is already on the high side? 01:18:26.858 --> 01:18:28.974 And have we even accounted for, 01:18:28.974 --> 01:18:32.724 or prepared for replacing half of a crew on a 01:18:33.686 --> 01:18:36.432 ship or half of a battalion or unit 01:18:36.432 --> 01:18:38.322 if we lose them in conflict? 01:18:38.322 --> 01:18:42.739 And if we haven't, I think you're the perfect members 01:18:43.713 --> 01:18:45.713 to address that thought. 01:18:51.079 --> 01:18:53.425 - So I repeat that, just make sure I understand 01:18:53.425 --> 01:18:55.152 your question. 01:18:55.152 --> 01:18:56.608 - What have we done or what are we doing 01:18:56.608 --> 01:19:00.978 to prepare for the member going into a combat situation 01:19:00.978 --> 01:19:01.811 for PTSD? 01:19:03.546 --> 01:19:06.594 In the Coast Guard side, we send a small boat out 01:19:06.594 --> 01:19:09.548 to pick up bodies off a San Francisco Bay, they've jumped. 01:19:09.548 --> 01:19:12.677 That Petty Officer pulling that personnel is going, 01:19:12.677 --> 01:19:15.873 why am I collecting all these little pieces after TSA? 01:19:15.873 --> 01:19:20.108 Why am I picking up this stupid little toy? 01:19:20.108 --> 01:19:22.072 What purpose is that for me? 01:19:22.072 --> 01:19:24.608 And you tell them off the get go, you're not on. 01:19:24.608 --> 01:19:26.261 This isn't a rescue. 01:19:26.261 --> 01:19:28.625 This is a recovery for the family member 01:19:28.625 --> 01:19:31.303 because that little toy is going to be the closing 01:19:31.303 --> 01:19:33.387 for that family. 01:19:33.387 --> 01:19:34.614 So that gives purpose to what 01:19:34.614 --> 01:19:36.706 they're doing versus coming back. 01:19:36.706 --> 01:19:39.874 We know that if we inoculate that Petty Officer 01:19:39.874 --> 01:19:41.431 and say this is your purpose. 01:19:41.431 --> 01:19:46.431 They don't have that PTSD or it minimizes it on the get go. 01:19:46.448 --> 01:19:49.017 Are we doing something similar for our people, 01:19:49.017 --> 01:19:51.936 preparing them for a combat situation 01:19:51.936 --> 01:19:55.050 where they're going to lose their peers, 01:19:55.050 --> 01:19:58.967 they're going to lose the people they are with. 01:20:01.106 --> 01:20:05.327 Are we preparing our troops for a true combat situation? 01:20:05.327 --> 01:20:10.327 - Okay, so now I know we don't have something exactly like 01:20:10.526 --> 01:20:12.346 that in the Navy right now. 01:20:12.346 --> 01:20:15.429 We do talk a lot about mental health, 01:20:16.475 --> 01:20:19.642 we do talk a lot about and we use the, 01:20:21.455 --> 01:20:26.455 we have programs such as the deployed resiliency counselors, 01:20:26.466 --> 01:20:29.726 and we've put mental health providers closer 01:20:29.726 --> 01:20:30.766 to the waterfront. 01:20:30.766 --> 01:20:33.112 We are talking about personal resilience 01:20:33.112 --> 01:20:36.242 and finding ways to connect to each other 01:20:36.242 --> 01:20:40.034 and maybe Leadership Development Framework 3.O, 01:20:40.034 --> 01:20:42.128 which is, you know, just released today, 01:20:42.128 --> 01:20:44.109 you're gonna see something called Connections, 01:20:44.109 --> 01:20:46.462 which frankly, connections and how we connect 01:20:46.462 --> 01:20:49.998 to each other is how we build that resilience 01:20:49.998 --> 01:20:51.659 between each other, 01:20:51.659 --> 01:20:53.719 and how we're going to be stronger together 01:20:53.719 --> 01:20:55.607 and get through a lot of these situations. 01:20:55.607 --> 01:20:58.607 The ability that the Coast Guard has 01:20:59.829 --> 01:21:02.979 in a much smaller scale to do something a lot more specific, 01:21:02.979 --> 01:21:05.644 is a lot different than what the Navy has 01:21:05.644 --> 01:21:08.254 with the resources we have and what we're expected to do. 01:21:08.254 --> 01:21:10.664 So, no, I don't know that it's practical 01:21:10.664 --> 01:21:12.493 to do what you're talking about in the same way 01:21:12.493 --> 01:21:14.603 that we would do in the Navy. 01:21:14.603 --> 01:21:18.014 Mission relating, talking about it as we prepare 01:21:18.014 --> 01:21:21.102 to go forward and potentially engage in blue water combat. 01:21:21.102 --> 01:21:24.602 Absolutely, that is absolutely the purview 01:21:25.892 --> 01:21:27.849 and responsibility of the command teams 01:21:27.849 --> 01:21:30.754 at their unit level, and they should be doing stuff 01:21:30.754 --> 01:21:32.835 like that and talking about what this means. 01:21:32.835 --> 01:21:35.940 But having a program of sorts, 01:21:35.940 --> 01:21:39.038 we don't have something like that at the moment now. 01:21:39.038 --> 01:21:41.542 We have trainers and stuff, 01:21:41.542 --> 01:21:45.542 but I think he's talking about something bigger. 01:21:46.554 --> 01:21:48.875 - So if I could, so thank you for your leadership 01:21:48.875 --> 01:21:50.695 as a reserve officer, I really appreciate it. 01:21:50.695 --> 01:21:52.874 So the Navy has a safe harbor program. 01:21:52.874 --> 01:21:56.957 And as people get injured and and they need help. 01:21:59.828 --> 01:22:02.932 They enroll in the Navy safe harbor program 01:22:02.932 --> 01:22:06.101 and the Navy Safe Harbor, tracks them and kind 01:22:06.101 --> 01:22:08.595 of get some lessons learned on how do we take care 01:22:08.595 --> 01:22:10.356 of people that have been injured? 01:22:10.356 --> 01:22:11.463 How do we take care of folks? 01:22:11.463 --> 01:22:13.470 And I want to say first publicly, 01:22:13.470 --> 01:22:15.721 thank you to the Navy for allowing the Coast Guard 01:22:15.721 --> 01:22:17.497 to participate in the Navy safe harbor program. 01:22:17.497 --> 01:22:19.501 And we do capture lessons learned 01:22:19.501 --> 01:22:22.372 for how to best take care of our people who are wounded, 01:22:22.372 --> 01:22:24.892 and and how to look after people. 01:22:24.892 --> 01:22:29.137 We could definitely use better mental health care 01:22:29.137 --> 01:22:32.019 in the military, there's no doubt about that. 01:22:32.019 --> 01:22:34.993 But we're trying to have lessons learned 01:22:34.993 --> 01:22:37.757 from the accidents and the things that happened today. 01:22:37.757 --> 01:22:39.355 - I mean, we have others like a Ryan, 01:22:39.355 --> 01:22:41.938 which, you know, post accident. 01:22:42.881 --> 01:22:45.566 Fitzgerald, McCain, we have folks that are enrolled 01:22:45.566 --> 01:22:48.262 in that and they'll track those sailors probably 01:22:48.262 --> 01:22:51.455 for their entire career as long as they're willing 01:22:51.455 --> 01:22:54.102 to participate and continue to check 01:22:54.102 --> 01:22:56.816 on their mental health status and in periodically looking 01:22:56.816 --> 01:22:57.822 on them. 01:22:57.822 --> 01:22:59.881 So we have programs that do aftermath, 01:22:59.881 --> 01:23:01.970 what we don't have is what you're talking about, 01:23:01.970 --> 01:23:04.622 which is some sort of preemptive thing 01:23:04.622 --> 01:23:06.590 where we can put every sailor 01:23:06.590 --> 01:23:10.934 through a comprehensive regimen of mental health. 01:23:10.934 --> 01:23:13.669 I don't know what you would, pre inoculation. 01:23:13.669 --> 01:23:15.971 - It's very short, that's just basically took 01:23:15.971 --> 01:23:17.676 the two minutes I told you, 01:23:17.676 --> 01:23:19.978 it's an inoculation, I'd be curious to hear 01:23:19.978 --> 01:23:24.061 the Marines have probably more of a touch on this 01:23:25.467 --> 01:23:27.391 than any of the other two services 01:23:27.391 --> 01:23:29.786 because of the conflicts over the last 10 years. 01:23:29.786 --> 01:23:34.119 Is there anything your NCOs are doing prior to going 01:23:36.409 --> 01:23:38.345 into a firefight to tell these people here's, 01:23:38.345 --> 01:23:40.537 here's what to expect. 01:23:40.537 --> 01:23:43.257 Here's how to prepare yourself for this. 01:23:43.257 --> 01:23:44.594 - So I think I was thinking about it first like you, 01:23:44.594 --> 01:23:46.799 was just more this was a structured program, 01:23:46.799 --> 01:23:49.046 but if you just talk about conversation wise, 01:23:49.046 --> 01:23:51.135 real estate training, absolutely. 01:23:51.135 --> 01:23:53.842 Yeah, I mean, everybody goes through pre deployment training 01:23:53.842 --> 01:23:56.600 before they leave and we try to make it realistic 01:23:56.600 --> 01:23:57.607 as possible. 01:23:57.607 --> 01:24:00.188 I mean, this because we're so ground heavy, 01:24:00.188 --> 01:24:03.740 if you will and we're definitely inventory base, 01:24:03.740 --> 01:24:06.473 the thought of death and things like that, 01:24:06.473 --> 01:24:09.012 that you might see or the tragedy that you might see 01:24:09.012 --> 01:24:10.581 is not sugarcoated out there. 01:24:10.581 --> 01:24:14.140 So, I think the best thing is not be afraid of the topic. 01:24:14.140 --> 01:24:16.616 Being able to speak about it. 01:24:16.616 --> 01:24:20.533 It's hard to put in a proactive approach to me, 01:24:21.385 --> 01:24:23.820 because everyone deals with it differently. 01:24:23.820 --> 01:24:27.571 So you got to be able to adjust to that level, 01:24:27.571 --> 01:24:30.257 but making sure as you said, 01:24:30.257 --> 01:24:32.246 the NCL speak about things everyone don't have 01:24:32.246 --> 01:24:33.322 the same experience level. 01:24:33.322 --> 01:24:35.475 So getting people to find out who's gone 01:24:35.475 --> 01:24:37.973 through certain different adversity 01:24:37.973 --> 01:24:39.239 and how they got through with it. 01:24:39.239 --> 01:24:42.208 Absolutely, it becomes a talking point, 01:24:42.208 --> 01:24:44.268 but no program prior to. 01:24:44.268 --> 01:24:49.058 We still have similar programs reactively afterwards 01:24:49.058 --> 01:24:52.310 and they can be part of the program. 01:24:52.310 --> 01:24:53.593 Mental Health has come a long way 01:24:53.593 --> 01:24:56.641 I think in all the services in the last few years 01:24:56.641 --> 01:24:59.417 as far as breaking down some of that stigma 01:24:59.417 --> 01:25:01.157 that comes associated with it. 01:25:01.157 --> 01:25:03.726 I don't think this is an enlisted or officer thing. 01:25:03.726 --> 01:25:06.084 And I don't think it has anything to do with age either. 01:25:06.084 --> 01:25:08.157 I think, you know, being able 01:25:08.157 --> 01:25:12.569 to resiliently face adversities and still continue 01:25:12.569 --> 01:25:14.034 to do that. 01:25:14.034 --> 01:25:16.551 I think there's something we always continue to invest in. 01:25:16.551 --> 01:25:19.087 So much of this is answering your question, sir. 01:25:19.087 --> 01:25:21.204 But I think at the clutch of it all, 01:25:21.204 --> 01:25:22.121 bluff, yes. 01:25:23.047 --> 01:25:25.068 It's talked about as a conversation piece. 01:25:25.068 --> 01:25:27.409 No, I don't know of any formal program 01:25:27.409 --> 01:25:30.409 that addresses PTSD prior to combat. 01:25:31.902 --> 01:25:32.856 - Okay, thank you. 01:25:32.856 --> 01:25:34.113 And then the following question was, 01:25:34.113 --> 01:25:37.681 are we ready for the 10 or 20% attrition 01:25:37.681 --> 01:25:40.431 in a head on head force on force? 01:25:43.899 --> 01:25:44.869 - Are we ready? 01:25:44.869 --> 01:25:47.702 So I mean, we have a reserve unit, 01:25:48.697 --> 01:25:51.692 just like every other service, right? 01:25:51.692 --> 01:25:55.077 And you know, there's a lot of work that goes 01:25:55.077 --> 01:25:56.965 into creating again, the real estate, 01:25:56.965 --> 01:25:58.942 but it comes with a lot more challenges, right? 01:25:58.942 --> 01:26:00.911 As you know, if I heard correctly 01:26:00.911 --> 01:26:02.083 you are a reserve offices 01:26:02.083 --> 01:26:04.518 so you understand the challenges that's faced here. 01:26:04.518 --> 01:26:07.913 So I think being ready is dependent 01:26:07.913 --> 01:26:10.102 upon making sure again that we invest in there. 01:26:10.102 --> 01:26:11.999 I don't use a couple different ways, 01:26:11.999 --> 01:26:13.909 I got it the two big deal. 01:26:13.909 --> 01:26:16.352 But making that realistic as possible. 01:26:16.352 --> 01:26:18.090 We have iron eyes out there where we have active duty 01:26:18.090 --> 01:26:21.866 in touch alongside with the reserve components 01:26:21.866 --> 01:26:26.407 to ensure the update training is actually being done. 01:26:26.407 --> 01:26:28.287 We also pushed out through 01:26:28.287 --> 01:26:31.386 the Marine Corps University cadres if you will, 01:26:31.386 --> 01:26:33.813 to where we're able to to maximize more on what 01:26:33.813 --> 01:26:36.771 that two week is supposed to look like 01:26:36.771 --> 01:26:39.592 when we talking about mandatory training 01:26:39.592 --> 01:26:43.372 that needs to be done or great appropriate training 01:26:43.372 --> 01:26:44.914 that also needs to be done. 01:26:44.914 --> 01:26:47.637 So I think there's efforts being ways 01:26:47.637 --> 01:26:50.269 that definitely part of the family, 100%. 01:26:50.269 --> 01:26:52.160 So things that we do on active side, 01:26:52.160 --> 01:26:55.270 we have to be able to replicate that on the reserve side 01:26:55.270 --> 01:26:56.293 as well. 01:26:56.293 --> 01:26:57.239 So I think this effort. 01:26:57.239 --> 01:26:59.059 I think that also comes with ensuring 01:26:59.059 --> 01:27:01.539 that the reserve component knocked on a door. 01:27:01.539 --> 01:27:03.027 I mean, I remember being down 01:27:03.027 --> 01:27:05.008 and I had reserve and enlisted come on me 01:27:05.008 --> 01:27:06.792 and we need this. 01:27:06.792 --> 01:27:08.100 I need to get them promoted. 01:27:08.100 --> 01:27:09.063 I need this. 01:27:09.063 --> 01:27:10.129 Got it. 01:27:10.129 --> 01:27:11.835 You know, now let's look at being able to do that 01:27:11.835 --> 01:27:12.928 because I only know what I know. 01:27:12.928 --> 01:27:15.529 So I think that becomes a two way street 01:27:15.529 --> 01:27:18.046 to make sure that we actually doing that there, 01:27:18.046 --> 01:27:20.072 but the effort is there. 01:27:20.072 --> 01:27:21.444 I think we can't lose sight of that. 01:27:21.444 --> 01:27:22.720 You're absolutely right. 01:27:22.720 --> 01:27:24.796 And we can't wait to the balloon goes up 01:27:24.796 --> 01:27:26.921 to figure out is our reserve component ready? 01:27:26.921 --> 01:27:29.443 - Okay, I'll give you a stab at this. 01:27:29.443 --> 01:27:30.994 But you got two minutes. 01:27:30.994 --> 01:27:34.004 - At the risk of channeling Sergeant Major Green 01:27:34.004 --> 01:27:36.324 and Fleet Master Chief, Wright Camp, 01:27:36.324 --> 01:27:39.324 I have no doubt, no doubt whatsoever 01:27:40.928 --> 01:27:44.502 at the resilience and resolve of the American sailor 01:27:44.502 --> 01:27:49.502 and how they will rise the occasion in a combat situation. 01:27:50.076 --> 01:27:54.581 And that first missile hit that's going to take out three 01:27:54.581 --> 01:27:56.114 to 400 sailors on a carrier 01:27:56.114 --> 01:27:58.488 and how the rest will succeed. 01:27:58.488 --> 01:28:00.362 Will it be painful, yes. 01:28:00.362 --> 01:28:01.638 Will there be lessons learned, yes. 01:28:01.638 --> 01:28:03.593 Will some fail, yes. 01:28:03.593 --> 01:28:06.460 And will others rise that you did not expect? 01:28:06.460 --> 01:28:08.097 Absolutely. 01:28:08.097 --> 01:28:10.213 I can tell you the story I won't do it 01:28:10.213 --> 01:28:12.902 in this filmed environment of my first experience 01:28:12.902 --> 01:28:15.728 in watching someone get shot at 01:28:15.728 --> 01:28:20.237 and a frogman who I thought was invincible curl up 01:28:20.237 --> 01:28:21.312 in a ball. 01:28:21.312 --> 01:28:22.687 I did not expect that. 01:28:22.687 --> 01:28:24.825 But up until then, all he was was a paper tiger 01:28:24.825 --> 01:28:26.575 with lots of tattoos. 01:28:29.622 --> 01:28:31.730 And we all thought the sun rose and set with that man 01:28:31.730 --> 01:28:33.461 until someone shot at us from feel 01:28:33.461 --> 01:28:35.440 and I saw what happened when it happened. 01:28:35.440 --> 01:28:38.954 And sometimes you just don't know until it happens. 01:28:38.954 --> 01:28:41.823 But I have no doubt that there will be lessons learned 01:28:41.823 --> 01:28:44.469 but I also have absolutely no doubt 01:28:44.469 --> 01:28:46.719 because I have just seen too much and been around too long 01:28:46.719 --> 01:28:49.018 and been too exposed to our sailors 01:28:49.018 --> 01:28:51.122 the deck plate level to know that 01:28:51.122 --> 01:28:54.255 they will absolutely rise rise to the occasion. 01:28:54.255 --> 01:28:56.853 I've no doubt whatsoever. 01:28:56.853 --> 01:29:00.304 - What a great place to end that. 01:29:00.304 --> 01:29:01.437 - I still have a question. 01:29:01.437 --> 01:29:03.854 - It's got to be a quick one. 01:29:05.694 --> 01:29:07.427 - My name is Samuel Price, 01:29:07.427 --> 01:29:10.283 I'm based this is a question to all three of you. 01:29:10.283 --> 01:29:13.326 Since we're having a problem communicating 01:29:13.326 --> 01:29:14.937 with your junior members, 01:29:14.937 --> 01:29:18.736 is there a way to implement a assignment 01:29:18.736 --> 01:29:21.614 for your junior members such as Sea Men, 01:29:21.614 --> 01:29:25.642 your Lance corporals, to get into a recruiting area, 01:29:25.642 --> 01:29:27.617 like even if it's temporary to, 01:29:27.617 --> 01:29:30.152 because they're gonna be able to discuss 01:29:30.152 --> 01:29:32.069 with Junior members at high schools, 01:29:32.069 --> 01:29:33.903 because they're just leaving high school 01:29:33.903 --> 01:29:36.309 or junior college members because 01:29:36.309 --> 01:29:38.560 a lot of members go straight from high school to college. 01:29:38.560 --> 01:29:41.165 Is there a way to implement a program to, 01:29:41.165 --> 01:29:45.373 for your junior members to discuss with newer members, 01:29:45.373 --> 01:29:47.601 I feel like they'll help the retention rate. 01:29:47.601 --> 01:29:50.250 - So we have recruiters assistance, 01:29:50.250 --> 01:29:53.750 which Junior members can take advantage of 01:29:54.753 --> 01:29:57.287 and it's actually encouraged if you will especially 01:29:57.287 --> 01:29:59.303 be fresh out of boot camp, if you will, 01:29:59.303 --> 01:30:02.623 but you can go to it, a year in, two years in 01:30:02.623 --> 01:30:04.356 and basically all it is is exactly 01:30:04.356 --> 01:30:05.687 what you're talking about. 01:30:05.687 --> 01:30:07.663 You go back to a recruiter station 01:30:07.663 --> 01:30:11.475 and you go along with many recruiters 01:30:11.475 --> 01:30:14.332 and you become that spokesperson, if you will, 01:30:14.332 --> 01:30:15.918 you become that mouthpiece. 01:30:15.918 --> 01:30:19.892 You know, it works as a great tool, actually, 01:30:19.892 --> 01:30:21.454 because people will gravitate towards that 01:30:21.454 --> 01:30:23.679 and they may even be in your hometown 01:30:23.679 --> 01:30:26.417 where they saw you with long hair three months ago, 01:30:26.417 --> 01:30:29.329 and now look at you now type deal. 01:30:29.329 --> 01:30:32.223 So yes, that's definitely a founder, 01:30:32.223 --> 01:30:33.489 recruiters. 01:30:33.489 --> 01:30:35.041 - Sergeant Major, how long did he stay 01:30:35.041 --> 01:30:36.086 in the recruiting station? 01:30:36.086 --> 01:30:37.167 - It depends. 01:30:37.167 --> 01:30:39.063 So if you go straight up the recruit training, 01:30:39.063 --> 01:30:41.031 typically 30 days, 01:30:41.031 --> 01:30:42.386 but if it becomes a request, 01:30:42.386 --> 01:30:45.996 it goes back with the command and it can be up to 30 days 01:30:45.996 --> 01:30:47.167 for us. 01:30:47.167 --> 01:30:51.009 And then that depends on the mission itself. 01:30:51.009 --> 01:30:52.302 - So the Navy has the same thing, 01:30:52.302 --> 01:30:54.141 we would both officers and enlisted. 01:30:54.141 --> 01:30:57.066 So it's a little more rare when you get an officer 01:30:57.066 --> 01:30:59.038 that's got that kind of time in between 01:30:59.038 --> 01:30:59.995 their pipeline training, 01:30:59.995 --> 01:31:01.947 but we call it harp. 01:31:01.947 --> 01:31:04.084 And we have other versions of that too 01:31:04.084 --> 01:31:07.048 where there's an intermission in their training pipeline, 01:31:07.048 --> 01:31:08.874 where we'll send them home to recruiting station, 01:31:08.874 --> 01:31:11.529 it's a good deal for them, they get to be at home, 01:31:11.529 --> 01:31:13.320 not burn leave, but at the same time, 01:31:13.320 --> 01:31:15.181 they get the opportunity to contribute back 01:31:15.181 --> 01:31:17.502 to the recruiting mission, talk to some of those folks 01:31:17.502 --> 01:31:18.794 from their hometown. 01:31:18.794 --> 01:31:20.148 So it's a long established program. 01:31:20.148 --> 01:31:21.924 They had it when I first came in 30 years ago. 01:31:21.924 --> 01:31:24.374 And it's still a very robust program today 01:31:24.374 --> 01:31:26.237 for exactly the reasons you just said. 01:31:26.237 --> 01:31:28.766 - We have hometown recruiting too 01:31:28.766 --> 01:31:30.448 when you graduate from boot camp, 01:31:30.448 --> 01:31:31.991 you can go back to your hometown or recruit. 01:31:31.991 --> 01:31:33.598 We have another initiative, 01:31:33.598 --> 01:31:34.851 this is totally grassroots. 01:31:34.851 --> 01:31:36.379 We didn't ask anybody to do it. 01:31:36.379 --> 01:31:37.874 But we had a few petty officers 01:31:37.874 --> 01:31:39.931 who decided that they wanted to create 01:31:39.931 --> 01:31:41.717 a program called Epic, and this is a program 01:31:41.717 --> 01:31:45.300 where they reach out to recruiting offices, 01:31:46.880 --> 01:31:49.316 and when we have underrepresented minorities 01:31:49.316 --> 01:31:52.175 who are like what is this going to be like for me, 01:31:52.175 --> 01:31:55.222 they can call these guys, and girls, 01:31:55.222 --> 01:31:58.228 and the recruiter can put them in touch 01:31:58.228 --> 01:31:59.672 and they can talk to a petty officer 01:31:59.672 --> 01:32:02.051 for that may be similar to their background 01:32:02.051 --> 01:32:03.423 and their upbringing, 01:32:03.423 --> 01:32:05.259 it kind of encouraged them to say, hey, 01:32:05.259 --> 01:32:07.415 you're going to love it, this is going to be great, 01:32:07.415 --> 01:32:08.767 this is the right thing for you. 01:32:08.767 --> 01:32:10.150 And it keeps them in the recruiting pipeline. 01:32:10.150 --> 01:32:11.449 And recruiters love it. 01:32:11.449 --> 01:32:14.213 Because, you know, it really helps reinforce that 01:32:14.213 --> 01:32:18.465 this is a great organization and you are going to like it. 01:32:18.465 --> 01:32:20.702 So that's the only other thing that I can think of right now 01:32:20.702 --> 01:32:22.350 that we've got going. 01:32:22.350 --> 01:32:24.012 But good question, thank you. 01:32:24.012 --> 01:32:25.978 - You know, think of how far we come. 01:32:25.978 --> 01:32:27.859 30 years ago, you wouldn't ask that question. 01:32:27.859 --> 01:32:29.933 And today, you got the full attention 01:32:29.933 --> 01:32:34.168 of the three senior folks in the Marine Corps. 01:32:34.168 --> 01:32:37.085 You can kick my ass later for that. 01:32:38.077 --> 01:32:39.923 - He didn't mean that. 01:32:39.923 --> 01:32:41.906 - The Coast Guard, the Marine Corps and the Navy, 01:32:41.906 --> 01:32:43.918 really listening to what you have to say. 01:32:43.918 --> 01:32:46.089 And I think that that's very indicative 01:32:46.089 --> 01:32:47.715 of kind of where we're going, 01:32:47.715 --> 01:32:50.544 and how far we've come and it's nothing but exciting 01:32:50.544 --> 01:32:52.492 as we move forward. 01:32:52.492 --> 01:32:54.390 So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending today. 01:32:54.390 --> 01:32:56.925 Panel members, thank you for participating. 01:32:56.925 --> 01:33:00.564 (panel and audience applauding)