07/11/2014 04:41 PM CDT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Presenter: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel July 11, 2014 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remarks by Secretary Hagel at a troop event, Fort Rucker, Alabama SECRETARY OF DEFENSE CHUCK HAGEL: Thank you. Thank you, General. Good afternoon to all of you. I appreciate (off mic) I want to (off mic) I also (off mic) thank you. SEC. HAGEL: (off mic) priorities fits into a larger strategy for the security of this country. What you do here is essential, and I think its been pretty clear. I saw it firsthand when I was in Vietnam in 1968 and saw some of the photos on the wall of what we used to refer to as Eagle flights. I was in the infantry, and they would take -- the helicopters would take us into remote areas and jungles where we couldnt get into, and the helicopter would hover about four to six feet off the ground, and we would jump out of the helicopters. And then five or six days later, we would find our way out of where we were. So I -- I established a very significant appreciation for what you all do very early on in life. And I saw amazing courage and commitment from all of you and those who went before you. And that was, in your opinions, not anything special. Its just who you were, what you did. And that was just expected. And I think often thats taken for granted, but I want you to know, with this secretary of defense, its not. And I know our leaders in all our services feel the same way. I know President Obama feels the same way. So, thank you. Let me tell you a couple of things about what Im doing, not just here, but -- here the last couple of days. I was at Kings Bay yesterday, spent a little time with the submariners and taking a look at what were doing there and getting a better sense of where they are, what their needs are, what their concerns are. I was over at Eglin Air Force Base last night and this morning to spend a little time with the F-35 pilots and take a look at whats going on with that new platform, important platform. Then I wanted to get over here to kind of connect with what youre doing. In fact, before I started my meetings today here, I spent about a half-hour on the phone with a number of governors who know a lot about this place for obvious reasons, because their National Guard pilots get trained here, and they know exactly what you do here. So I try to get out as much as I can, as often as I can, to different bases, not just here in the United States, but around the world to meet with the men and women who serve our country and do so much. One of the points I made at Eglin today, as well as at Kings Bay yesterday, was the connection in light of all thats gone on in the world, and you, I know, have a pretty clear appreciation for whats going on in the world, our budget problems here, which are very real, which are forcing us into making some hard choices, but how does all that add up? I mean, what do we and how do we prioritize our interests, our responsibilities within the limits of our resources, and also within the context of the reality of whats going on in the world? A complicated world, dangerous world, I dont think it gets any less complicated. I think the world gets more complicated, probably more dangerous. And so what our jobs are is to project forward in how do we continue to prepare this institution to secure this country. As we think through every possible option, contingency, how do we reset our forces? How do we re-posture our forces? How do we use our platforms? How do we continue to modernize? And how do we stay ready and agile? And there are about three components to that that I want to just mention to you, because I know more than occasionally you probably questioned whats going on in Washington. Is anybody paying attention? Do we really know what were doing? I wont comment on that specifically. But I will tell you, yes, there is a -- there is a lot of thinking that goes into a strategy about, how do we deal with all this? First, people. I talked about this, this morning and yesterday. We must always put an emphasis on people. And you know why. Its quality people that always make a difference. You cant have an institution that is meaningful and relevant and the kind of institution to defend this country that the American people expect and they deserve without quality people. So focusing on the health of our force, focusing on our people is always the first priority. Second, its capability. If we ask you do to the jobs that we ask you to do, then we owe you some things. And we owe you the commitment to present and provide the cutting-edge capabilities that you need to do your jobs. Thats the second priority that weve put into the mix. The third is something that we have been focusing on the last couple of years in building partnerships. You know -- many of you have had a number of tours, both Iraq and Afghanistan. You know about partnerships. Many of you have been in Europe. Many of you have been all over the world and dealt with many of our partners around the globe. To help build partnership capacity, help our partners become more capable is critically important to our interests, to their interests, and security in the world. We cant do it all. We will never be able to do it all. Cant do it. Never could do it. So what weve got to do is not only prepare ourselves and do the smart things strategically and make the tough, but smart decisions to continue to build out to protect our country and our interests, at the same time, help build out the capacity of our partners. And were doing that. I got the question today over at Eglin about, are we as spread around the world as we have been before? Are we withdrawing for parts of the world? And the answer is no. Were in about 100 countries. And our platforms are more capable than theyve ever been. Our capability is far beyond any time in the history of our business, the capability we have. Our people, man for man, woman for woman, individually, better trained, better equipped, motivated, first of all, because youre in an all-volunteer force. You wouldnt be here unless you wanted to be here, unless you believed in something pretty important. All these dimensions are critical to not just what we have today, but most importantly, how do we continue to sustain these kinds of critical assets for our country? And I was thinking, flying in here today, what you do here, especially the senior leadership here, as you pass on and you instruct and you shape and define the next generation of leaders behind you, that is an integral component of anything and everything. And thats your biggest job. Thats my biggest job, that whoever comes after me, and every senior member of all of our forces, its the biggest responsibility is, yes, you deal with what you got today, deal with that crisis, deal with that problem, but youve got to do something just as important, and that is continue to build and improve on what you inherited and what you got. And you do it down here about as well as any place Ive seen, because it is continually shaping and reshaping and defining and redefining what youre doing. Aviation is shifting. I dont have to tell you that. The decisions that were making to not just simplify, but be smarter about how we train, what platforms we train on, moving those seven models to four, we can do it better, smarter, put more into training. Eventually we can do it cheaper. That helps actually the National Guard. That helps certainly all of us and you, as active members. The training that that also helps provide to our partners who come here and get training, all of this fits together. I mention these three components, because it is part of the strategy that we have that we go forward with. Were recognizing, have to, with the immediate problems that weve got today. The Middle East is blowing up. Weve got new issues in Afghanistan, with the election question, issues almost everywhere in the world. But that cannot consume us to the point where were paralyzed in thinking through strategically, where do we want to get to down the line? And how do we adjust and shape our forces? Training is a big part of that. So thank you for what you do. I know youve got a lot of questions. I know theres a lot of uncertainty out there about, where is all this leading as far as budgets? Whats my future? Whats my familys future? I know that. Im aware of it. I listen closely to commanders, our senior enlisted, and I want to assure you, again, that the health of our force is our top priority. And so Id be happy here in the next couple minutes -- I know weve got some time here, General -- to take any questions on any issue that you have. But I mainly wanted to have an opportunity to thank you for what you do every day and your families do every day for this country. We are very grateful to you. So who wants to ask a question? Q: Sir, Staff Sergeant (off mic) from Aviation Center of Excellence (off mic) and the question I have is, with the military transitioning to a force of quality versus quantity, what is being done to make up for the lack of personnel when the next conflict arises? SEC. HAGEL: For the lack of personnel in -- Q: Yes, sir. SEC. HAGEL: Well, thank you. I dont think its a matter of lack of personnel. Thats not what we intend to do or thats not what we intend to allow to happen. Well still have a fully not just capable force in every service, but well have the capacity in numbers, as well. Historically -- and you all know this -- when this country comes out of war, and were ending -- or were transitioning out of the longest war weve ever been in -- weve been at war for 13 years straight. This country has never done that before. This countrys never done that with an all-volunteer force. So after every major conflict, theres always a resetting. Theres always a reposturing. There is always an examination of, how do you handle not just the current threats and the realities youre dealing with in the world, but to the future, to your question? I would also remind us of this. Its something that I alluded to. When I -- when Ive heard comparisons that our Army might get capacity-wise to the lowest point its been since right before World War II, well, quantifiably, maybe thats true -- I dont know if thats true -- but were still going to have a big Army and were going to have still big Marine, Navy, Air Force departments. But lets just take that comparison. Does anybody seriously believe that you can honestly realistically equate a soldier in the United States Army in 1940 to a soldier in this Army, as far as capability, capacity, technology, weaponry, training, leadership, motivation? Come on. So I dont buy into just a quality or quantifiable capacity-to-capacity, number-to-number. Our ships, our platforms, our helicopters, it is a whole different world. The capability we have, we can do more things than ever before, with actually fewer numbers. Now, capacity does matter. You cant ever allow a force to get too low. Of course not. And we dont intend to do that. But we are balancing that. And the fact is, when weve had the kind of numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan that we have had over that 13-year period, of course youre going to bring some of that down, not in any great numbers. Were talking about reductions in manpower. The Army has obviously the biggest, in terms of manpower. Those percentages are around 12 percent overall over a number of years. And when you look at the big numbers were talking about, 480,000, depending on how bad sequestration gets, if the Congress doesnt change sequestration, then were going to be faced with more reductions, because we wont have any choice. We wont have any choice. Its either that or just not buy anymore helicopters and new planes and new ships. And I cant -- I cant do that. No secretary of defense can do that, because I would never send, nor would the president of the United States, any president, send a man or woman to war if we didnt think you were ready or capable. Thatd be the greatest failure of leadership ever if we did that. And so we wont do that. But all these are factors that were dealing with now. But these reductions will be responsible reductions over time, unless sequestration holds into 2016, and then we are -- we are at a much worse situation. So I get exactly your question. And I, too, am concerned about that. We wont allow those numbers to go down to anywhere near any even questionable number -- do we have the capacity, will have the capacity. Q: Good afternoon, sir (off mic) out of (off mic) question (off mic) sequestration (off mic) training and (off mic) how (off mic) your opinion (off mic) SEC. HAGEL: Well, if sequestration continues -- and it is the law of the land, and it will come back in 2016, unless the Congress changes it -- and if thats the -- if thats the case, then it will affect -- it will affect everything we do and every decision we make, because that means that well go back to taking an additional $50 billion-a-year cut from our base budget. And thats in addition to a 10-year $490 billion cut that were now implementing, and weve been implementing that over the last two years. Last two years, we have been taking sequestration cuts. Last year, we took about a $37 billion cut. We had to furlough people. There was a government shutdown for 16 days that further complicated everything, hurt your training, hurt your operations. You were not able to fly, nor was anyone else in training. The Army wasnt able to train. Navy wasnt able to train. It hit our maintenance, our operations, and it hit all of our training, and directly affected our readiness. This year, F.Y. 2015, theres a bit of a reprieve from sequestration, not a $50 billion cut. Next year well be taking probably a $35 billion cut. Now, thats better than $50 billion, but thats still a $35 billion cut. We dont take as much this year. Now, again, thats in addition to the $490 billion 10-year cut that were already living through. So, yes, if sequestration comes back, it is the law of the land. It will come back in 2016 unless the Congress changes it. And we have been making the case in our budget presentations, in all the committees, that theyre going to have to do something about this, because it will affect everybody. These cuts are affecting everybody now, but we can manage through them. Were not going to jeopardize the security of this country. But theres no other way to do it. If you continue to give us fewer resources, then somethings going to have to go. And quite frankly, what the Congress has been doing in -- in not accepting, really, any of our recommendations in our budget this year is making it more difficult for all of us, because where we will get here, if we dont get some relief, is were going to have to just make some very abrupt cuts. And they wont be as thoughtful. We can do this now in a gradual way, bring it down, bring it down, bring it down. But if were forced into sequestration again, where weve got no other recourse, then itll get a lot tougher than it is. But Im hopeful that the Congress will do something about it. Were working with the Congress now. Q: Sir, (off mic) from the Captains Career Course. My question is about Iraq, and particularly ISIS, what options are being considered, and are there any points particularly for triggers for involvement in U.S. troops in combat operations. SEC. HAGEL: Well, let me start this way. Youve heard what President Obama has said, that we are not going to put combat troops back on the ground going back into Iraq as -- as we were at one time. Now, that said, I think hes been very clear on that. Ive said it. Thats part of the answer. The other dimensions of your question, you know that weve had assessment teams out in Iraq the last week. Those assessment teams will be finishing up here the next few days. They will be taking all their assessments and bringing together those assessments, those observations, those judgments based on those assessments. They will then be sending those assessments with options and recommendations to General Austin, who, as you know, is our CENTCOM commander. General Dempsey and I have been receiving daily updates on those assessments. Theyre not anywhere near complete, but we are getting pieces. The president has said that strikes, airstrikes are options that he will look at. Were presenting those options to him. Were continually looking at various target options. As I think you all know, we now have over 50 ISR flights over Iraq. We have repositioned assets in the Persian Gulf. We are doing the things that we need to do to give the president options. We will continue to look at those options. In the meantime, the political process is ongoing. You know that the government in Iraq is now essentially suspended, because they just went through elections or the elections were certified. And what is happening now is the process of forming a new government. That new government must be inclusive. It must be a government that shares power. It must be a unity government. Sunni, Shia, Kurds, all must have a role in that government. Its what was intended five years ago, what was committed to by Iraqi politicians five years ago. And it never occurred. The politician dimension of how the Iraqis govern themselves, its their decision. Its not our decision. Its their decision. They are going to have to bring together their country in a way to govern in a responsibility in this power-sharing government. We can help. We can facilitate that effort, but we cant impose from the outside. We cant dictate from the outside. We have limited impact, limited influence. But we are doing everything we can on a diplomatic front to assist as they form a new government. In the end, thats whats going to be most important, because they need to be unified as to how they deal with ISIS and ISIL. ISIL, ISIS are very dynamic and real threats. They are in Iraq now. They threaten Iraq now. This was all part of the assessment that well get back from our team. So the answer to your question, what are we doing about it? Those are -- those are some of the things that were doing about it. Its serious. Its complicated. It has brought to the surface every ethnic sectarian division that has been part of that region of the world for centuries. What we dont want to do is get in the middle of that and get ourselves drug into something that is not part of our responsibility. Well help. Well facilitate. Well do everything we can to assist, and we are doing that now. (STAFF): Sir, that concludes the questions today, but want to thank you again for joining us here at the Home of Army Aviation. I know you want to take a little bit of time to individually meet the soldiers. SEC. HAGEL: Good, I do. And I, again, want to thank you. And be sure and tell your families how much appreciate everything they do. Thank you very much.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 04:18:35 +0000
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