I fumbled at the first date kit and stepped what was left of the goths in the hole in my back when i looked down at the marines body, his eyes were open and seemed to be following me you know this marine, i asked this man thats lieutenant hamman. You only had it couple weeks to go, but you better call a chopper and get yourself taken care of. Looked around at the dead and wounded sprawl decide the stream. Why had the kid done it . Sacrificed himself for stranger, when his own return home had been so near, but then a wounded man began screaming. 155 artillery, shaking rain from the trees. Smoke drifted, but there were something else, something important and i remembered in a rush like a wave carrying in and breaking over me, moved to contact our Regimental Commander said. I forced myself to my knees, my legs held up and after a moment i could lift a hand. The dead marine was still looking up at me, wide eyed as with as if he had asked the question and awaited answer. We falling back lieutenant . I took a deep breath, shuttered and tour my glaze from that unblinking one. I would think about it later. No, corporal, i said. Help me get this tourniquet on. We are going to take this hill and get everyone out. No marine gets left behind. We dug in and consolidated our position behind the wall from our mortars, machine gun of automatic rivals and grenade launchers. After i radioed our situation i ordered the swat leaders to maintain a perimeter, returned fire. I did not tell them i had been hits. Unfortunately, there was nowhere for the helicopters to land in this wooded terrain. They would have to drop what we call a jungle sling. You bundled them wounded marine and then he was hoisted, but as the First Casualty rose through the branches a shattering boom sounded overhead, shredded aluminum rain down. There must have been a rocket propelled grenade. The line snapped. By chopper strained to remain airborne, but start staggered a few yards away and impacted with a earth shattering side. It was clear we cannot medevac our wounded and we would have to fight our way to the top of the mountain to get a secure zone for the bird to land. The track would likely be a daylong battle. Dodging bullets and climbing at ace deep mud slick hillside covered with vines that was nothing like the combat course we trained on, but then we had not been carrying our wounded and dead. I was losing blood. My trousers were soaked where the snipers bullet had left in my right side. Never leave a fellow marine behind had been drilled into us. We kept our dead and wounded within our formation. One squad was on point, responsible for clearing the ground in front of us, it to remaining squad left and right back about 25 feet protecting our planks. I was in the middle with the wounded and dead trying to maintain communication and calling airstrike and artillery to keep the north vietnamese enemy head down. Saying danger close over the radio would alert that artillery men to be extra careful, but sometimes they would not fire danger close to missions and since we would all be dead if we didnt i do not bother with the warning. It took the better part of the day to carry the dead and wounded while finding to the top. It was dusk before we reached the mountaintop and by then i had almost forgotten i was wounded applying tourniquets and bandages hours earlier. My Company Commander heard it and ordered me out. They try to persuade me to leave, but i was not going to go before my marines were safe. When we got to the crest, it was burning. Wasteland of toppled trees, smoldering jungle, and grotesquely shredded enemy corpses. It smelled like the devils pit barbecue. The north vietnamese were either killed or retreating, melting the kids of the jungle. At that point the choppers were able to come in. Our wounded went emergency medevac to get the seriously wounded out as quickly as possible. Next came the less seriously wounded and last the permanent routine, radio shorthand for marines killed in action. I went out on the last chopper with my dead rescuer and i laid next to each other on the slaughterhouse floor. By then blood loss had caught up with me and i was very barely breathing and in serious pain. Until this fateful day he hadnt i had never met. I did not know what had caused corporal torrey lee hamman, 21, from texas to come to my rescue and was within weeks of going home. As i lay there beside him began to wish he had not come after me in a few days marines in dress blues would be knocking on his familys front door. They would not know what he had done for me or even know how he died, but as the tournament turbines rose to a deafening roar the jungle fell away and in the last fading lights i looked over the Rolling Hills of the country we were leaving and laid a protective arms over his body. To marines, we had never spoken to each other, never shaken hands, even at the end, but we were bound in spirit forever. So, thats why i dedicated my book to corporal hamman. s sacrifice left a lasting impression on me and every day i vowed to make myself worthy of the sacrifice. This can bring a fiery intensity to my work and why dedicated my life to ensuring the corporal hammans of our military do not give their life in vain. When i return from vietnam, i went to graduate school, continued my career of Public Service working for a brandnew senator from georgia hoping to better the lives of our war fighters. I had the great honor to work with other other senators, john glenn, barry goldwater, some of the legendary figures of the u. S. Senate. Many of our great military leaders, general jim jones, general jim maddox who the president elect announced today would nominate to be the next secretary of our defense. With a lot of other luminaries in the National Security field. These individuals like myself worked together to solve some of the most challenging problems of the 70s, 80s and 90s. We moved away from the draft, which was so unpopular and went to the volunteer force in 1973, but it had its struggle in the decade of the 70s and had to be saved and senator nunn and warner provided a benefits package to the volunteer force going. We worked on strategic arms limitation series with the soviet union, panama canal treaty, devastating bombing of the Marine Barracks in beirut 1983, legendary changes to the military chain of command with the Goldwater Nichols reform that strengthen to gain control of the military and put in a crystallized chain of command from the commanderinchief through the secretary of defense. Dave packard of us Packard Commission on looking at reforming the way that apartment buys its weapon systems. We had the irancontra controversy, the first goal for desert shield, desert storm and many more, but i look at the issues that we dealt with and they were challenging and difficult times, none of those issues could of been solved by any one person or any one party. It to took both sides working together, fighting, mice, earning votes and working cooperatively with the pentagon for the best results are many women in uniform and their families, so i did that for 24 years and after the senator nunn decided not to run for reelection in the senate, i decided to continue serving our war fighters, but in a different capacity, as a defensive business executive. Our industry provides Cutting Edge Technology for our war fighters. We never want our troops to be in a fair fight, so our industry and many located here in the san diego area do a terrific job of ensuring that. All the while i was privileged to serve in the marrying core reserve and had the privilege of being called up to serve in the first cold war with a tour in bosnia and also after 911, so in summary my book is a combination of a war, political and business memoir with the important lessons i have learned throughout my career that i believe should be applied by base leaders. I would say that many of your experts in in this area as well. The world is more complex and dangerous that anytime i have observed including the peak of the cold war. Very unstable, very unpredictable and we truly need some of the most enlightened leadership in working together that weve ever had, but these problems are not insurmountable. Our country has faced tough problems before and we have two they said in a bipartisan way and when it comes to National Security there was an old clicee , when it comes to National Security politics stops at the waters edge. My last chapter is a chapter called lessons learned. I drive my experience in combat in the military working in the senate and Business World and common sense with things ive learned with my great family, my wife, for kids and seven grandkids. There are things that kind of follow those of you that have served in the military, served with the military. You have to lead from the front, you cant lead from behind. Tackle the toughest things upfront. Take the objective. You cant stop in the middle of a firefight and say i think i will relax and go in the other direction. If you are leading from the front carry through to the mission. You also have to maintain unit cohesion. You have people of individual skills and the come from different backgrounds, but if you are in a military unit, business unit, if you cannot Work Together you cannot lead people in that outfit wont be successful just like our country wont be successful. You have to be willing to take a bulletin i dont necessarily mean a war bullet, but if you are a politician and arent willing to do the right thing and maybe lose an election go back home that he wont be a good leader. Our Founding Fathers never intended for our Political Class in washington to be there forever and ever and ever. I would not have said this 20 years ago, but i think ive come around and im in favor of term limits with restrictions [applause]. Restrictions that president elect trump is talking about with the revolving door and ethical standards that we need to bring to our government. Yet to follow your moral compass and have your right bearings. In the marine corps is Second Lieutenant we did not have electronic urine vietnam or Global Positioning systems. We had a compass and a topographical map. The Us Marine Corps we are going back to basics and teaching our lieutenants again how to use a map and compass because we know the kind of fights will be up close and personal and we will make sure our marines are ready to go. You never leave anyone behind, thats not just on the battlefield of them military, but battlefield of our society. There are people that need help and cannot take care of themselves and Great Society does that. The other thing, the next vote is always the most important vote, so you may be in a big firefight in big match and how someone opposing you on this vote and guess what, that same individual two weeks from now maybe your biggest ally on another issue, so you dont burn bridges and you dont take it personally and in the final lesson learnt you have to take the long view. None of the problems we are dealing with today, particularly our fiscal problems can be solved in the short term. For example, if we are going to have the kind of increases in Infrastructure Spending and increases in defense spending, tax cuts and protection of the entitlements, we have to do it in a way that does not balloon the deficit, but you cannot do that overnight. It takes 10, 15, 20 year approach, so there are a lot of challenges, but we have met them in the past and we will meet them in the future. I say in closing, let us never forget that corporal hammons and all those that pay the ultimate sacrifice. Wheel it to them come to together lead from the front. Thank you very much and i look forward to answering then the questions and then your questions. [applause]. [inaudible] [inaudible] we have one of our finest nations neurosurgeons now moving the podium. Im not kidding. There we go. Anyway, secretary gates was interviewed and they were asking him about, are there to me generals being considered for high posts on the National Security side of the next, so for example the defense secretary possibly general poetry as and general flynn and so forth. Do you think its okay to have that many generals . Of course, you are a general yourself, why am i asking. Do you think they should mix it up or is it okay to have generals . Guest pay to give the answer, but the ones you mentioned are not a problem and they will not albeit lets take general john kelly, another marine, a marine who lost his son in afghanistan and he knows about war i mean many people here have been in the military and frankly a lot of people dont realize the last people that ever want to get into a conflict is the us military because they know the consequences are. John kelly was commander which dealt with drugs and immigration, so he would probably be as bad as knowledgeable as you would want at home and security and Homeland Security, its not just protecting borders, but our country against terrorists, homegrown terrorists and things like that, so having an individual, operator, someone that has those military skills probably would not be a bad thing at this point in the history of our country. General pretorius and i have served with these individuals and i know them personally, he is a warrior, also. He has a phd. He wrote the insurgency manual and is probably one of the best witnesses ive seen before the u. S. Congress , very knowledgeable individual. He would do well in any position and i know people said he has run into this issue and hit this problem. There is not one of us sitting here that has not made some mistakes and right now when the world is dangerous and as complicated added is we need the smartest people we can get. By the way, everyone of these these individuals will have to make an incredible first commercial and financial sacrifice to come into our government. The trias works for a big Financial Firm in new york and i guarantee you he is not having any trouble meeting the mortgage. John kelly has plenty of opportunities, so asking them to serve again when they have already served in uniform for 40 plus years, but i think you have to have a balance. I certainly, if you would have those military folks like in Homeland Security, Homeland Defense and maybe director of national intelligence, probably at the state department you would want more civilians focused there and i know they are looking at very very prestigious and prominent civilians for the department of state as well, so i am personally not concerned about this. A lot of folks will get stirred up about it in the media will write a lot of articles, but in the final analysis in the troubled times wherein both at home and abroad i think you would want to have people that really have seen the pointy end of a bayonet and know what it takes to keep our country and families safe. I want that. [applause]. Host let me stay with secretary gates issue for a second. As you are male, this was one of the most strange elections we have ever seen. [laughter] host never seen candidates who said what they said, i mean, ive never seen anything like this and a lot of folks said things about those candidates during the election that are now obviously having a change of heart. I mean, mitt romney said to some of toughest things about president elect trump as anyone in here hes being considered as secretary of state, but gates himself said pretty tough things about trump during election such as he was unfit to be commander in chief. Number of folks in your world signed a strong letter against trump and for his opponent. He was asked, have you changed your mind since you called since what you have seen from november 8. Cancer that question and i will let you answer that question. Have you seen a change in president elect trump since he was elected to where youre more comfortable state where you are in july or august . Guest i worried about some of his comments about the purple heart because i had Young Marines die in my arms that never earned a purple heart and it bothered me tremendously his comments about john mccain. I have served with john mccain, so that worried me, but i will tell you, the judgment about whether someone is said to serve as commander in chief is made by the American People and the American People and made their judgments and as i have said in the military we are sworn to uphold and defend the constitution and its the job of every Single Person in this room and the two of us on the stage to help him be the most successful as possible and i have tremendous confidence in the American People pick the American People are like the Young Marines that served with me in vietnam, they come from all socioeconomic circumstances and they do the best they can, so they American People in their wisdom, this is why you have elections and why we have a great democracy. Of a made decision and frankly, hes a businessman and i can see a lot of the way that Business People think of the way he is going about making decisions are coming in the Business World you are dealing with someone giving you a hard time you get on the phone and you job though with them and use whatever leverage you have. He had a press Conference Today where he was in indiana, with the head of carrier owned by United Technology announcing they will keep their plant in indiana. He job owned them into that and he said thats what he was going to do. When he brings in someone like mitt romney who beat up on him during the campaign, that shows as a businessman he understands and thats another thing in my lessons learned, you pick the best people and hold them accountable. By the way, if he brought in a good person and say put them in in a job lets say talking earlier about who we might get to come into secretary of the navy and lets say he brings in someone and they get confirmed and are off to a good start and all of a sudden they are not implementing the direction of the president s, i would expect him to call them up and say you are fired was wrong with that . Hes the commander in chief, so everyone that comes in this outfit needs to follow the priorities of the president and i think they will and the other thing that gates said that worries people, they asked gates who served with nine president s what is the main thing you have learned about serving with nine president s and he said its important for president to know what they dont know and listen to people that do know. I think you have seen it since he is been elected come i think you have seen him bring in people up to minister diversity , democrats, republicans, independents and people that don not support him, really smart people to talk to him about the budget and talk to him about energy and things like that, so again, i have been through a lot of transitions and i have minority with their Transition Team and they are on top of everything by the way, they know government needs to be reformed. I spent most of my career trying to reform the pentagon because we spent a lot of money and we dont get the bang for the buck we should in every instance. And they will come in and hopefully do some dramatic form reform of the government, particularly these huge agencies that are not responsible to that people like the veterans administration, i mean, we are spending more money in the va than we have ever spent in the veterans are not in the service that they need. Agent orange, a terrible thing in vietnam and our government told us dont worry it wont cause any harm i mean come on. Give me a break. This was a chemical that killed the vegetation and all life and we were sleeping in it and the government said its not a problem dont worry about it. We have a lot of people ancient orange disease takes a long time to incubate, so we see that now and i have to go to too many funerals of our Young Marines. The veterans, we are not taking care of them the way we should, so i think im encouraged by what i see. [inaudible] host i will just talk loud. Lets me turn to some reform stuff you have done, i mean, you have been very active in the guard and reserve it. You led a study, you chaired a study on reforms that need to be made in the guard and reserve. Have you seen a lot of progress made in the field and if you have or havent what would you recommend to the incoming secretary of defense to do for our guard and reserve . Guest the guard and reserve, i had no intention when i went off active duty and started working for senator nunn about staying in the reserve. The reserve in the guard in the early 70s was not looked on with pleasure because a lot of people joined the guard and reserves so they did not have to go to vietnam. Yet, army chief of staff creighton abrams, one of the gravest army leaders weve ever had came to visit with senator nunn and i got to sit in on the meeting. Craig told senator nunn we can never do what we did in vietnam ever again. This nation should never go to work unless the American People are behind it and that was the huge mistake we made in vietnam. He said the only way the American People would get behind this is if our guard and reserves are involved because they live in the communities and when they are called up the American People get behind it. If you look at the first goal for, when president bush basically sent our initial troops over there, the American Public was not supportive of that effort. When he called out the guard and reserve and started to deploy them to the first goal for Public Opinion changed in favor. Of 911, i was privileged to be head of the Marine Corps Reserve and we have the largest mobilization of the Marine Corps Reserve in our history. Since 911, over 900,000 members of the guard and reserve have been called up and deployed to afghanistan and iraq and may have come home and gone back to their communities and we have had studies that show they performed as well as our activeduty counterparts. The guard and reserve cost about a third of what an activeduty soldier or marine costs and when you put them in a combat formation, they are even cheaper because you dont have to maintain the schools and Grocery Stores and Family Housing 24 hours a day as you do for activeduty. Guard and reserve well never supplant the active military. You will never put the reserve in charge of carrier battle groups or replace the 82nd airborne, but in terms of like that ground infantry regiments and marine corps the guard and reserve can do more and they are a bargain for the taxpayer, so i think by the way, they are doing it extremely well and we turned the corner in that. Current leadership in our military and civilian leadership is very pro guard and reserve, but you always have to keep pushing, so as new people come and we hope to keep them informed about what the guard and reserve are capable of doing. The National Guard does thousands and thousands of Homeland Security missions every year, i mean, anytime there is a flood or Natural Disaster the guard is out there supporting it. If you ever have a major incident, the department of defense is the only outfit in government that can come to the rescue. If you edit multistate emergency the department of Homeland Security in theory is in charge, but they have no helicopters, no bulk fuel transportation. Our military has that, our department of defense. They are selfsustaining. You can take a marine corps amphibious ship, a navy and fib that has 30, 40, 50 bed hospital on that ship and put it offshores like with Hurrican Sandy and they are basically providing food, water and medical care when hospitals and things are down. We have a tremendous asset in our guard, reserve and military to support our country at home when things get tough, so im encouraged [applause]. Host let me change gears a bit. He spent a lot of time with senator nunn who is widely respected on both sides of the aisle. What was he like as a boss and what is he doing now . Guest senator nunn was a great boss and im not just saying that because he was a great boss. Senator nunn was a tough taskmaster, a perfectionist and he was always over prepared for everything he did. If senator nunn got invited he never sought publicity. He was a very objective individual. He would not speak unless he had all of the facts and was careful not to overreact. By the way, nowadays with the media you have all of these talking heads on tv in the minute something happens you have five people trying to explore what happened and by the way, dont Pay Attention for the first two days because anything they tell you will be dead wrong and we all know that, so get the facts. Southerner non was always someone at one of the facts. If you scored to be on a National Tv Show on sunday we put like three or 410inch binder briefing books and he would read every paper in their. He thought down the road senator nine was a deep thinker and i was looking down the road. He had senator warner put together some of the initiatives that reduce the tensions between the us and soviet union in the peak of the cold war. Of the soviet unions Warning System was very poor and we were very worried that they might mistake i wont say bird fly, but they might mistake in aircraft or something for missile attack and watch a missile attack against us, so we worked to improve their own Warning Systems and improve our Warning Systems at the same time he authored the nunn lugar quach of Threat Program has reduced most of the soviet Nuclear Missiles and Nuclear Programs after the peak of the cold war. He was worried the soviet union collapsing with these Nuclear Scientists and generals would work for some of our enemies and sell themselves to build Nuclear Weapons, so we put in place a program to ensure that did not happen. Hes a good golfer and his wife is even a better golfer, so we were always thrilled when the weather was warm in washington dc on friday afternoon. Senator nunn with his good buddy senator quayle and alan dixon from illinois, they would go out and get around the golf a round of golf in. Our great leader bob iser was a sailor and he would always sail on friday afternoons. I was headquartered on the east coast and not the west coast and on the east coast we went to work at 5 00 a. M. And stayed till nine at night. That was seven days a week. On the west coast, they took off every afternoon as best i can tell you know why you live here in coronado, you the basic perfect weather place in the country. Senator nunn, he was also externally bipartisan. He felt like no one person, no one party could solve things and he was very very bipartisan worked with people across the aisle. When president reagan came in and wanted to sell the Airborne Warning command control system to saudi arabia to help us keep the middle east stable the republicans controlled the senate, but only by about two or three votes and 15 republican senators came out against the sale because israel is opposed to it and send her nunn thought it was a good idea and he worked with president reagan and provided the needed moderate votes for that. Our military will tell you today, that if Saudia Arabia had not had a wax and trade with it during the years of 1980s, we would not have been able to prevail in the early days of the air war in of the cold war. That was in place because of art training and Work Together with the commanding systems. Senator nunn supported president jimmy carter on ratifying the panama canal treaty after he got reservations put in place. It was extremely unpopular in the state of georgia. There were bob Bumper Stickers we got more anti mail to senator nunn over that then just about anything and all the years i was they are. There was a Bumper Sticker that you would see georgia from time to time as said we used to have a canal and now, we have none. We new line a Senators Office you get about 5000 letters a day and you get a lot of crackpot mail and senator nunn called the. Net mail. We had a senior sitters senate from georgia there at the time and we had to answer all the mail in a timely matter and i kept complaining saying this letter is totally incoherent, i mean, why do we have to answer that. Senator nunn visited with the senator about that and senator nunn told us one day, i talked to the senator and he said sam you have to answer all of the mail. If you dont answer the nut mail you wont win an election in the state of georgia, so we answered all the nut mail and by the way, we have a lot of telephone calls. There was a guy from georgia that basically that there was a communist behind every tree and he would call me about once a week and i knew when he called he would be on a long time, so i would put the phone down and about every five minutes i was a has a and i got ridiculed from time to time. People would say you been in washington 20 years and still have a southern accent and i was a yeah, but when people from georgia call and i use my accent, they like that. Host whats he doing now . Guest senator nunn, he decided he wanted do Something Different , so he started the Nuclear Threat initiative, effort to basically reduce proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and material and he has been running that now, for over 20 years and has been extremely successful. He was also chairman of the strategic studies, national National Security think tank in the world and served on a lot of corporate boards. Ges board, lead director of cocacola, hes a very very smart businessman. Hes a 78 years old now looks like hes 35. He stays in good shape, watches his diet and my wife is always beating up on me, why cant you be more like senator nunn. Host thats great. You and i were lucky to have served at a time when there was legality in the house and the senate and with the administrations i came and went. How do we get back to that . We all know about the polarization. You talk about it earlier and we all hear about it and we all are feeling it that the parties diet talk to each other thats not that was not the case when we were working there, but how do we get back to that . Guest i would say the first thing is that all of our politicians in washington ought to learn a lesson from this election because if there was ever a signal that to the people in washington it was sent and that is folks, we want a change. We dont like the good luck. We want you guys to change and gals to change, so if i am now the Minority Party i better look at what can we Work Together on. What can we do to kind of solve common problems what can we do to restore americas confidence in his government at all levels . One of the examples i use that i get stirred up about is and we all want clean air and clean water and safe this and say that, and in the eight years of the Obama Administration they put a tremendous amount of resources and effort into the Environment Protection agency. They get complacent about it, they are to bring and things like that, but guess what, all of that money and all that effort did not protect that Drinking Water in flint, michigan. What gives . Think about it. It was not just the federal government, it was the state and local governments. If im a citizen of the United States of america i would be outraged. My government cannot make sure my kids have clean Drinking Water . Thats what i think people are stirred up about and they see that in the va and many of our government institutions. We will never ditch the division of motor vehicles. We will never fix that, but most of the rest of the government has turned out like that bureaucrats in the dmv and they want it fixed. If i was sitting there and i think mr. Trump looks to be like he will reach out with an olive branch. He has done it with the people in his own party that gave him a lot of grief during the election and he is reach out to a lot of folks i gave him, i mean, there was no one more critical of him on the republican side than mitt romney and he met with him and has even had dinner with him and i heard trump picked up the bill. [laughter] host let me open it up to all of you. Ilene will put the microphone back in the middle, so if you would come over to the microphone and lineup in that way everyone will hear your question better and just line up behind each other and go one at a time. [inaudible] host when i got back guest when i got back to the states i actually served on the staff of the Marine Corps School at quantico and one of my dual duties was casualty assistance officer. There were some in casualties in those days that i was one of the marines that would have to knock on the familys door that had to let them know their son had been killed in combat. I try to find corporal hammonds family and back then the records were really bad, so for a number of years i was not able to find them. I out it and had some help from folks like dave filson that know how to work facebook and twitter and everything and i finally located his sister and connected with her and relayed to do what corporal exchanged things over to , but i was not able to track down the family right when i got back from the. [inaudible] guest i would say, number one would be everyday show them they are appreciated and what theyll do you appreciate and thats just a friendly gesture means a lot 20 veteran. Thank you for your service. We see that now. We see it in airports. When i was at a National Airport people with spit on me when i was in uniform. I was not the greatest in the world because im kind of spit back sometimes and there would be a lot of fights. While im thinking about that one of their story in the book, when we were going over to vietnam we were going through San Francisco and we had heard that there were that hippies and folks with purple hair and flaming hair and earrings and things like that i should not talk about this in california, but by the way you know what harry truman said how can 40 was formed . Can i say this . They turn the country on its side and they should get in the loose screws and nuts rolled out to california. Thats what harry truman said. I didnt say that. We go up to ash very and there are all of the flower children and there was kind of an alley and there were these guys with motorcycles a black jackets. We did not know it at the time, but they were held angels. We were in uniform and we were going to start a little ruckus and as it turned out they had superior weapons of firepower and they just beat the living you know what and so i learned my lesson there. Never going to a fair fight, so the first thing is show your appreciation in the second thing is put pressure on the local politicians because they are the ones that can put pressure on the va offer to help them. The thing we worry about most now is the traumatic brain injuries , concussions they get with these huge explosions, just like in the sports world, it does not show up for seven or eight years, so there will be kids out there that have been out of the military, not tied into any medical symptoms and these symptoms just like the agent orange symptoms are showing up years later, so be aware and what you can to help. Thank you for coming to coronado. Just your opinion on Vladimir Putin and being a retired aviator it seems to me like throughout my career you do more and more and more and like you mentioned we have a lot of issues like with the resources and just like you said a huge debt and one of the things i always thought is if we could scale back on commitments to everyone in the world i want to know your thoughts are not quick to let me answer your first question by mentioning another soviet leader and i met and that was gorbachev. Gorbachev was a different soviet leader and we met with soviet leaders before and they always had it did not matter what they said they had a long speech. Gorbachev was different. He was going to open up the soviet union and change and he did in the walking down. Now, Vladimir Putin was a different soviet leader. Vladimir putin is a throwback to the old days. He comes right out of the lenin, stalin, kgb playbook and hes a throwback to the cold cold war. Hes an intelligence apparatus. Grew up in the kgb. They manipulate people. He takes advantages of peoples weaknesses. Theres no doubt in my mind he was behind the hacking during our election and things of that nature, so you have to understand who youre dealing with and deal with them in a strong, fair and tough way and if he thinks he he wants to do with the soviet leaders have wanted to do since lenin and that is expand their borders so they are not up against western democracy on their own borders, so thats why hes pushing, you know, to the west end trying to push back and regain some of the territory that constituted the old warsaw pact nations, so we need to be realistic. We have to deal with him in a tough way or he will take advantage. Crimea was a former russian state, i mean, it would sort of be like okay we had texas and then texas sided with mexico and we took them back, but ukraine is a totally different situation, so i think its important and i can guarantee you that joe dunns worth, chairman of the joint chiefs seat rush as our number one threat and we have to be prepared to deal with that with open eyes and clear eyes and i think our new president elect will come around to that point of view because i think most of the people around him now have that same point of view. In terms of our commitments, we have to decide in this country what is in our vital interests and when you deploy our military and make a commitment it should only be in those things that are in our vital interests, not just in our interest, but our vital interests. Im not smart enough to know how to solve the problems in the middle east. I mimis people and been fighting each other for 10000 years and i dont think theres anything anyone can do to stop that, so the question is what are our vital interests and we should protect our vital interests. We are Energy Independent now and we will get more Energy Independent. Thats a good thing when it comes to our reliance on the middle east, but a lot of our allies still rely on them. The reason our allies in europe are not willing to be as harsh on russia is because they need Russian Energy and thats the only source of russias currency, so we could choke that down and put a real her to lock on them i think we have been very lax in counter cyber. We have often said capability and we should start using it and start doing things to the russians that hurts them and then they may not they may take a deep breath. That was really the concept in the Nuclear Weapons era. You fire your missile at us and we will fire a thousand back at you and both of us wont be around anymore. Rational people would not do that, so in the cyber world if you are able to counter attack and they found out this does heard as, then maybe that would be some element of deterrence. Yes, sir, the forthcoming defense appropriations bill apparently has a number of changes in how that they say are dramatic in terms of nickel goldwater era and so on. John mccain and others got into it. Wonder if you could summarize what those changes are and why are they important . Guest certainly. So, the goldwater nickel changes in 1986 focus on the military operational chain of command. At the same time, david packer from hewlettpackard left a what a commission to look at how dods management was working and how we bar weapons. What john mccain is focused on the share is more the management side and not the operational aside. They have not changed any fundamentals of Goldwater Nichols. We still have the crystal chain of command, chairman is still the principal military advisor and things like that. They have recognized that the Packard Commission changes on our acquisition processes, we spend 400 billion a year on goods and services and supplies and equipment and about the only nice thing you can say about the outcome is spend more, take longer, get less, i mean, look at the problem with the board class carrier. We need Aircraft Carriers, but the ford class carrier is now at 15 billion. The catapult doesnt work in the propulsion system doesnt work and we spent 15 billion. There something wrong, so what john mccain and thornberry have done is broken up this large bureaucracy called acquisition, technology and logistics that has layers and layers of management and has a functions that were never envisioned by david packard. They put energy, environment installations in their, so they have taken it back to what it used it to be, one part will be the director of research and engineering. That job will be to focus on the Cutting Edge Technology that we need to bring into our government and pentagon so our military will never be in a fair fight. That is one of the leaders of breaking this outfit up. The second one will be focus on the acquisition, so i think these are good moves and positive moves. The other thing john mccain has done is cut to bureaucracy down to size. Hes cutting the layers of management, cutting senior civilians. We have 100,000 more defense civilians today than we had in 911. Yet we cut 125,000 active military, but no civilians, so we cut the war fighters, but not the bureaucrats, so we need to straighten that out. We were talking, there are significant changes in the medical establishment. I think congress is always trying to make sure we provide the best medical care for our troops, families and retirees, so they have changes their. In my judgment, what they did not do it this years bill is we have 25 defense agencies, literally agencies that frankly are large businesses. The defense logistics agency, which provides everything from tires and toilet paper to fuel to blackbox radio parts does 48 billion of business a year with the department of defense. Thats more than lockheed martin, our largest defense contractor that only does 32 billion and thats a lot of money. They bought 12 million worth of inventory they did not need. How do you do that . Have you by 12 billion with the stuff you dont need . And other agencies, they are like that, so we need to bring in worldclass Business Practices and the mccain and thornberry will look at that next year. The changes they made this year i think are pretty positive. I will tell you that the leadership of the pentagon is not a favorite it. They are never in favor of any change and i have this old the same that ive used over the years, the pentagon is not always right. So, im glad we had the congressional oversight. Congress needs to reform as well. As someone mentioned, they have not passed all 12 appropriation bills by the first of october in 20 years and thats not a good thing. Theres not a lot of gridlock in congress that needs fixing. I congratulate you general, and your performance that you told in your book. I have had two tours in vietnam. I would like to ask you a question. I was there in 71, 72 at the height of the drug season. Were you affected in your unit by drugs in your 70, 71 performance equipment i was not. We were very fortunate because we were in the bush the whole time and never got back in their rear, so we never had an opportunity for the troops or interface at that. There was no way you could have drugs in the field, so we never had that. My biggest problem with my troops was they would fall asleep on watch during the middle of the night because they were so tired. In in and if the treat to tune your supposed at marines of the most i had was 25. If you send out one squad in an ambush that is 12 marines gone and even if you only had 25 its would not be good to only send five. You would at least send 10 and that means you have a 360 in europe foxhole. You are supposed up for people in a foxhole and that means three would sleep and one would be up 25 of the time, but you are lucky to ever had to, so you are up 50 of the time and that was the problem i had. You are lucky you were not involved in the drug performance from the 71 to 72. Guest i heard about that and i know it was a huge problem. Of the other problem i had was Robert Mcnamara was a secretary of defense during the vietnam war and i dont have any charitable thoughts about him at all. He has passed on from this world and i shouldnt say where i hope he is, but i hope he is, but he brought in 100,000 troops that were middle category that had no business being in the military. They never would have been recruited, but he said to cut down on the draftees of the wealthy people or the people we will bring these kids in and i had a couple in my platoon. They were decent kids. They had 10 weeks of training, and it no clue about weaponry or rifles. In one firefight we were running out of ammunition, so i said two of them to get re supplies in the never came back and after we got out of the firefight i sent a team to look for them and they just decided to take a nap on the trail because they did not know any better, so i sent them back to the rear. Of those were the problems i was dealing with, but i was very very fortunate to not have to deal with the drug problems, but a lot of people had that. One other thing. I have volunteered in the va for 25 years. There is nothing wrong with the va in the Health Portion down below, the nurses, the doctors. Those people work their tail off the end they are very kind to the people. Your problem at the va is the layer of management that is above those people who really dont perform their function. If you could cut the management of the va out or reduce it by 90 , that outfit would be a functioning outfit. Guest im with you on that faq for what you have done for 25 years and a by the way we need to do that in the Education Field as well. On two daughters that were teachers and all of the money goes to the bureaucrats sitting at a desk. We dont life like people that fly desk in the military. Thank you for your service. 27 years in the military. I feel like a lone ranger. Guest thank you, sir. I look forward to reading the book. You talk about the importance they compass and a map, that sounded in this age of technology its a bit surprising, so i wonder if you would talk about technology in the war fighter and what is your opinion about the stove piping of the military branches versus j sock and integration to try to achieve the goal . Guest thats a great issue and theres a lot of debate going on with that question in washington i mean, i have kind of a i may have the wrong perspective, but i have it in for a treat riflemans perspective. We come from the perspective that small units win wars and when conflicts and basically until you get that small units up close and personal with the enemy and take care of the enemy, look in the peak of world war ii, air worsted not stop the war. We didnt stop them with a bombing in vietnam and not stocked it with bombing in the middle east, so, i mean, technology is great and i want our troops to have all of the technology, but in the final analysis its a marine with a bayonet, soldier with his rifle that will destroy the enemy, so we have to be careful not to be over reliance on technology. We have the ford Aircraft Carrier that supposed to be the best Aircraft Carrier ever built. The prowl visit cant launch airplanes and its propellers dont work, i mean, we have a lot of smart people of the room, but i think i am probably in the minority because a lot of people are a big believer in technology and by the way our Weapons Systems today are dependent on software. Software kimi jammed and a screwed up, so i think our military has to get back to basics and the folks that know how to fly. John glenn, he knew how to fly an airplane when the wing was shot off. Doesnt have all those fancy gizmos, so it think our needs to be able to perform in combat when the technology is not working because you know murphys law. By the way, every exercise we ever did in the military, the communication never worked and so we had one little old radio in vietnam and because of the jungles and everything you were lucky if it worked between you and the radioman 3 feet away. By the way, the army has been trying to build a new radio, jitters and jammers and everything and still doesnt work in the last thing i will rant and rave about is the boot. The army has a lab in massachusetts and they are supposed to design the load bearing gear and gear for info trees, soldiers and marines. The jungle but we had in vietnam was about a worthless a boot as you could get. It had a metal plate in the bottom that was supposed to keep the boobytraps from going through your fee and that did not work. It also made the boot heavy and hot. And then it was supposed to have these holes in the side so in the water from the rice paddies and monsoons got in your boot it would flow out except the holes were always clogged so the water never flowed out so we had to cut holes in the top of the boot so the water would drain out. They have not had a good boot since. What they dont do is, you fly before you buy with the planes, but when they build this loadbearing gear they designed it, give it to someone and then the boot shows up and doesnt work, okay lets buy four more so im not a big fan of technology. I like the basics. Im a basic simple simple marine rifle man. Give me a being that that never needs sharpening and im in hog heaven caught back. Host go ahead and clapped for him. Hes done a great job. I know this is bringing back a lot of memories of us working together you could see what its a great honor to be in the presence of someone like arnold. We love you and we miss working with you every day. For those of you that dont know him and are just beating him youre getting a good taste of what its like to be in his presence and why hes been so successful throughout eight very long incredible career. There is still one more question and then we will stop books. You are the last one. My question taps into your experience as a reserve officer and lots of experience on policy boards. Do you foresee any changes with the current mobilization that allows us access to our Garden Reserve. Other words, i think without the deck yearly declaration of National Emergency services are not enforced to program mobilization and continue to rely on overseas Contingency Operations to fund those functions that are reserves. Guest i see those changes coming because we have a reserve and guard thats an operational guard, not a Strategic Reserve and to maintain that proficiency and again, over 900,000 have served in combat and they are highly trained in battle tested, but we had to keep the readiness up and they need the funding. We can use the title of reserves for Natural Disasters which is a new change, so if you have a Natural Disaster he does not just have to be the guard, so those units have to be ready as well. It comes down to military readiness and that requires money, but i see policy changes moving in the right direction and i think the Garden Reserve and for those that dont know the National Guard runs our air defense for the entire United States of america and our missile defense. The navy reserve has tremendous capability. The army reserve has virtually all of the armys combat support and combat service support. Our military cannot go to work without the Garden Reserve, so we need to make sure the Garden Reserve does maintain so they are ready to go when the nation needs them and when you have these National Disasters you dont know when they will talk up pop up so you need to be ready for that as well and im optimistic and bullish. The laws have changed favorably, but the one on the National Emergency we need to make sure a certain level of access of Garden Reserve and the other big problem we have is the 32 datas Garden Reserve and that creates huge complication for active forces. When i chaired the commission we said lets do to. You are either on active duty or youre not. The defense revealed 2011 said six and the pentagon has said for over 10 years we will change and they have not changed into yet, so even when they are in favor of doing the right thing it takes a long time to get there, but it is moving in the right direction. Host give arnold a big hand. [applause]. Thank you so much, major general. Thank you for coming. The books are for sale and we had wine and cheese for everyone. [inaudible conversations] cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas cabletelevision companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. This week on the communicator, to tech savvy members of congress about internet and tech issues facing the us. Representative susan then nick, democrat from washington and representative represented darrell isis from california both have tech backgrounds. Congressman, how do you view your role as a member of congress when it comes to tech policy . I just came back from the consumer electronic show and when youre remindedf