saying drew, as commander in chief, i am also absolutely convinced that making this change will only underscore the professionalism of our troops as the best led and best trained fighting force the world has ever known. the president going on in that statement to say it is time to close this chapter in our history and you can be sure this white house thinks they've taken a major step in turning this page at this very moment. one point to note, maybe a sign of the times, we're getting kind of a scheduling update from this white house from a tweet from white house press secretary robert gibbs who said that the president will sign this repeal next week. >> kate, thanks a lot. let's go to the pentagon now, specifically pentagon correspondent barbara starr who is joining us on the phone. barbara, we did get a statement from secretary gates, which quite frankly was a bit confusing to me. it basically said thank you, we're for it, we plan to implement this. just give us months and months and months to do it.