Transcripts For CSPAN2 Major General Arnold Punaro Discusses

CSPAN2 Major General Arnold Punaro Discusses On War And Politics January 16, 2017

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 p

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