Transcripts For CSPAN Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy At The National Press Club 20240713

Good afternoon and welcome to theNational Press club, leading organization for journalists. I am the 113th president at the press club. We have an Excellent Program ahead. Listen, watch,o or follow along on twitter. Our cspan and public radio viewers and listeners, please be aware in the audience today are members of the general public. Any applause or reaction you may hear is not necessarily from the working press. By introducing our headed table. Hold yourt you applause until the head table announced. Been john oshea, colonel, retired. Kevin when seen. Captain, u. S. Navy, retired. And a member of the Headliners Team. Securityational johnter for the donnelly, Senior Writer at cq roll call and president of the military reporters and editors association. Right, theiate president of d. C. Media strategies. Former National Press Club President and cochair of the Headliners Team. Speaker, ryanur mccarthy, secretary of the u. S. Army in a minute. At defense reporter news and chair of the board of governors. Reporterould patio at bloomberg news. The Communications Advisor for the secretary of the United States army. Editor at National Defense magazine. Director ofor communications and partnerships at the mccain institute. I would lace also like to knowledge the members of our Headliners Team responsible for organizing todays luncheon. Again donald of d. C. Media strategies. As well as lindsay underwood. Table and to our head the team that put todays lunch together. [applause] the u. S. Army faces myriad challenges here and abroad. In addition to Ongoing Operations in iraq and afghanistan, maintaining security and stability around the world, and keeping pace with adversaries, including russia and china, the army is confronting domestic issues including a high rate of suicide. Health facilities. And quality of life for our military families. President trumps budget request left defense spending essentially flat compared with the previous year. Charged with meeting these challenges is secretary of the United States Army Ryan Mccarthy who comes to the job with a distinguished military service background, pentagon duty, and private sector experience. Sec. Mccarthy assumed his current post in 2017. He spent two years as the undersecretary of the army. He has served in the pentagon for both democratic and republican administrations, as a special assistant to then secretary robert gates. Before his return to the mccarthy secretary worked for lockheed martin. Strike f35 joint fighter program. In recent weeks, secretary mccarthy has spoke about the need to bolster the u. S. Presence in the Indo Pacific Region as a counter to the chinese presence through its road belt and initiative. And testing multidomain operations, a system for feeding an adversary with similar capabilities in all domains. Please join me in welcoming to the National Press club u. S. Army secretary ryan mccarthy. [applause] sec. Mccarthy feeling middle aged. Thank you for inviting me to join you for lunch. It is really great for me to get out of the pentagon. It is healthy for the mind and spirit. Pressure,eciate the that journalists live by. The d. C. Beat is the crucible of your profession. This is a busy city and country. Progress and innovation are in americas dna. Each day, time becomes a math problem. Army storynsures the becomes part of that equation. It serves as a touch point between the military and the public, highlighting opportunities the army held for americas youth. Coverage conveys the work of our deployed forces. Engaging extremists on a daily basis in iraq and afghanistan in particular. No totaling two decades of combat operations now totaling two decades of combat operations in each. Your work helps us preserve the accounts of our heroes and more urn arefallen mop fallen by face and by name and ultimately holds us accountable. Our nation knows our men and women are the last line of defense. I can commiserate with only being as good as your last story. With that in mind, lets get started. Some resist change because they focus on what they are going to lose instead of what they are going to gain. I would like to highlight where the army is amidst the transformational change structurally, and what we are going to gain from modernization investments. When the National Defense strategy was published in 2018, it put the Defense Department on anew path, pulling us out of singular focus on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations in the middle east and expanding our priorities toward near peer competitors such as russia and regimes such as north korea. Major changes were needed and if we did not modernize, we would lose deterrence within the next 10 years. We could risk losing the next war. So we changed. Tochanged our priorities three clear and distinct categories. Readiness, modernization, and reform. Readiness changed to include deploying any army unit rapidly when and where needed across the globe which way are calling strategic readiness and change the metrics to achieve it. We change the way we aligned our budget, putting every dollar against our priorities. We made it clear people are the foundation of these priorities in all we do. The army has and always will be a people organization. 21 budget will ensure the army will remain the most lethal Ground Fighting force in the world. Now and in the future. We treat taxpayer dollars like we treat our ammunition. Every bullet counts. I would like to provide an update on two main topics which approach tos strategic competition and our investment portfolio and returns. First, competition. The army plays a key role building allies partnerships with allies worldwide which has an impact on near peer competitors. We are operating in europe, africa, the middle east, and the pacific region. Totaling over 180,000 soldiers committed with our allies and partners to achieve objectives. We are 60 of Combatant Commander requirements worldwide. Yet our budget has remained flat for the past three years. Army operations are providing a huge dividend from our portion of the dod budget, making the army the most Dynamic Force and sound investment in the arsenal. There is no other service that is more relevant than the u. S. Army. Andhe indo pacific everywhere else, we are partnered with who it matters most. On land, where people live. There is no one else that has the staying power and the consistency for deterrence as the u. S. Army. No one else in earth. Sets on ther u. S. Army. Having the army in the region influences conditions on the ground and ultimately serves as a deterrent by creating dilemmas for potential adversaries. Our presence and influence in the region strengthens americas position in the region. Build confidence with investors. It enables america to compete economically. Presence changes decisionmaking. Our Security Cooperation pairs with other institutions that are often the most procedures and other countries. And have leaders with significant influence. In the Indo Pacific Region, over are army officers. This is why the u. S. Army engages every day. Efforts span from training Partner Forces to student exchanges. Security cooperation. U. S. Ated seats at the senior war college. When the army sells equipment, countries dont just get a box of goods and a bill. They get a program, a strong relationship, and a partner they can rely on. Countries receive training from experts, reliable in modern weapons. Assistance developing their doctrine. A proven supply chain of support. The army has close partnerships with poland and lithuania. Trainwe habitually together for multiple weeks in the defense of their sovereign nations. Another example, thailand purchased 60 strikers. The army is helping the thai there firstp stryker units. They were featured in the kings coronation parade. The army is helping the philippines train infantry battalions as they upgrade equipment and evolve their doctrine. The u. S. Army is a force of choice and committed to remaining so. We build our partners up rather than manipulate them to be able to compete in todays environment. We have to be present and show our commitment. That is why we are emphasizing strategic readiness and adjusting force posture so we can deploy forces in the right place at the right time. The armys ability to mobilize and deploy gives us the advantage over threats of potential adversaries. Strategic readiness will validate our new concepts, exercise our new formations, and provide an understanding of the logistical framework needed to sustain our forces. We will remain operationally dynamic, fast and lethal. Take on new years eve, we 81loyed soldiers from the t airborne division. They were at new years eve gatherings and within hours were on airplanes. They were nine time zones away after that ready to go. We are using exercises such as emergency deployed readiness exercises getting more repetitions and therefo increasing our speed. And within soldiers days was they were alongside polish counterparts. Army is allocating funding for defender exercises in europe where we will push a divisionsized unit of 20,000 troops and draw on 13,000 pieces of equipment to be ready for forward Contingency Operations at ready to respond to any crisis. Exercises in the indo pacific our powerer test projection through the pacific pathways with our allies and partners. Exercises expending in the indo pacific with 300 million devoted towards these exercises will have troops operating in thailand, the philippines, and indonesia to name a few. R originally assigned ou brigades continue to prove their worth as an economy of force. Nothing sends messages like boots on the ground standing sidebyside with Partner Forces. The goal for fy 21 is to have six. Another element of cooperation and deterrence is having a highly lethal combat credible force. Six is why we established modernization Investment Priorities and restructured the Army Enterprise with the futures command which brought the stakeholders of the modernization continuum together and reduced time in decisionmaking. This took years off of the acquisition process and gave us a laser focus on modernizing for the future. The complexity of the wetlefield requires transform our 45yearold fleet so we can stay relevant, retain overmatched, and allow us to win decisively in the next war. Takesscale modernization time and patience. Modernizentinued to the budget toward signature systems. Weapons, aircraft, and hypersonic missiles. Fy 18ypes that began in and 19 are maturing. With real capability nf white when he one and 22. There will be an increase in test shots, demonstrations, and validations of the prototypes. This will be tied together with cloud technology. The cloud will be the foundation of the entire modernization enterprise. Because the clouds importance, we are investing 800 million over the next five fiscal years into cloud architecture and we will migrate other forms of data. We are increasing investments across the modernization portfolios. Increasing by 2. 2 billion 1, which is a 202 26 increase. With stable budgets and areilized requirements, we signaling to industry we are committed to modernization. The demand for army forces paired against a flat budget has forced tough fiscal decisions. We implement his reform. Implemented reform. To build and maintain readiness and support realworld operations, the army conducted reviews now known as night courts. Identifiedhave programs for reduction or elimination and generated 7. 4 billion for investment and army priorities. I would like to highlight some of our investments out of the 31 systems. Longrange precision fires is our number one priority. Over 21, we are investing 800 million and hypersonics alone to support development, testing, fielding and training to deliver our first operational unit, ready to deploy by fy 23. With regards to future vertical lift, our longrange assault aircraft, the blackhawk replacements, demonstrations have multiple competitors with flight hours logged already. 160 hours and over 70 hours respectively. Industry is meeting us at the table. In this case, the companies are investing 41. Future attack reconnaissance aircraft, this is the successor of the kiowa. Staffmmate, the chief member of the army, likes to say we are going to fly it before we buy it. Selecting to two competitors next month. We are moving toward real capability. We can see it, we can touch it, and we can test it. For soldiers individual kit, we are developing an augmented system. A system that will serve as the nerve center for the integrated system. Squad combat linking multiple shooters with multiple sensors. This allows the soldier to inerstand the threat picture real time. Tionce income computa time down to seconds. Transformational modernization efforts continue priorities and a ruthlessly aligned budget. We are committed to our modernization priorities and 31 signature systems, which will be the next generation of weapon tree for the army to win decisively in future fights. When pairing with industry, setbacks, prototype shortcomings, and failure are inevitable part of innovation. We are making committed toward making critical decisions early. Man is the case with our fighting vehicle, the bradley replacement vehicle. This is a capability the army requires. We are taking Lessons Learned in terms of requirements, industryy, with informs timelines. The army is incredibly busy responding to a wide array of contingencies. We respond to National Natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. This is in addition to our current operations, with 27,005 hundred soldiers deployed in the middle east. 27,500 soldiers deployed in the middle east. The army will stay on a trajectory of modest growth by fy 26 for the active component. In closing, the army remains steadfast in its priorities. We have aligned our investments and budgets against the same. People are the foundation across all of our efforts. I would like to wrap up formal remarks and take questions from the audience because i know better than to filibuster journalists because you buy inc. By the barrel. Again, thank you for having me and i look forward to our discussion. [applause] thank you very much. Secretary mccarthy. We have a number of questions as you indicated. Why dont we get to them. Lets begin with some breaking news. A senior u. S. Official announced today that the u. S. And the taliban have reached a truce agreement. What do you expect will happen any coming days . What can you tell us about the terms of the truce and its impact on the army and what can you tell us about plans for foreign troop withdrawal including u. S. Troops from that region . Is the first this step in a process to reach a political solution. It is going to take several weeks for this to unfold but it is encouraging we are heading down the path to a political solution. The president of the philippines says he has decided to end u. S. Military access to his country. How will that affect your operations . Sec. Mccarthy i was actually the philippines about two weeks ago. , we have worked very hard together. This is the sort of thing where in discussions we have about 175 days to work through this diplomatically. Towards ancan drive end state that will work out for all of us. Budget issues. The procurement accounts appear to have taken hits across the Current Fleet in several areas, from vehicles to aircraft. The blackhawks saw a cut, as did several Vehicle Programs from todley some are due manufacturing issues. Others are not explained. Is this the beginning of the to move funding away from current and legacy swings toward Future Systems . Can we expect a heavier swing . The mccarthy we are in third year of transforming the modernization accounts. If you go back to fy 1819, we dollars. Nd t the first major night courts effort was fy 20. We are starting to shift dollars toward the new capabilities we are investing in. With respect to the the abrams over a billion dollars, the philip brigade said, our third year in a row. We put over 6 billion in last four over the years. We are still maintaining upgrades with the Current Fleet. Over time youre starting to cs make the progression toward the new capabilities as you get further into this you will see about 55 to 60 of the modernization accounts being invested against these new capabilitys we are bringing into our formations. The technological advances and modernization of systems and weapons, what skill sets you now want army recruits to have, enlisted and officers . Place wherehe mcconnells leadership has been remarkable. The vice chief end of the chief of staff. The Energy Behind talent management. This is everything from how we are selecting officers to how we are recruiting them or he has put in a major push bringing stem talents into the force at all levels, whether enlisted or on the officer side. Youre going to see more and more energy against this, natalie how we select and promote, but the recruitment of stem talent in particular. There were more cancellations cuts and delays to programs not relevant to the strategy or modernization of the force it to armys night Court Process you mentioned earlier. Again this year. What were the toughest decisions that had . To be made this year . This year was much more tepid than last year with over 30 blinged dollars last year 30 billion last year and north of 12 this time. Were not asprograms big or complex as last year. I would focus everyones attention is in the fy 22 and 23 timeframe. As we were talking about on the dais, the army is in the midst of a very robust test cycle. What is different from where we were 10 years or 20 years ago, we have prototypes out there flying. Theyre exploding. They are driving. You can smell gasoline. This is happening. At a lot of them are going to be what we are looking for. Than the prioritization of how to scale them across an institution as large as the army, is where the real challenges are going to be. , i wouldnd this year focus your attention, the fy 22 budget is where it really gets top. That is word that the best church or of legacy platforms will have to pick up and get into a much higher gear. The tenant colonel Alexander Vindman who testified in the impeachment inquiry lost his position as National Security council eight last week. Resident trump told reporters the military could handle him quote in any way they want quote. How will the army handle tenant colonel lieutenant vindman . He was scheduled to come back to the army he was detailed to the National Security council, by the mayor june timeframe print we brought him back. He has a bridging assignment for a couple of months with an hq da assignment and then he will head onto eight Senior Service college this summer. Theres no investigation of him. In your view, what went wrong with the optionally manned fighting Vehicle Program you spoke of that cause you to take the recent step back to relook at requirements strategy, schedule. Was there too much of an emphasis on schedule . What the relationship between the acquisition committed to and the modernization community problematic . Bitasking for a physical sample just too bigoven ask . Two big and ask . It was taking a 30 granted us through congress over the last two or three years, largely the leadership of john mccain and jack reed with other transitional authorities. A lot of the way it changed the acquisition process. These ota do is you can get a company on quickly to get them on contract. But you can look at the weapons system and say, these are the characteristics we are looking for. As opposed to, getting super with deepfront specifications. You are now able to engine unleash the engineering talent of the vendor doing business with you. So, contractually it has more latitude to work with the contractor, to study through prototyping, the types of characteristics you want. Then i have a better way of getting to the outcome we want. We are doing this with the i vence program and honor nextgeneration squad weapon. Theyre moving quickly to the process because we have unleashed the power of the engineering talent of these Great Companies we are doing business with. The change in how we approach the contract and the request for proposal, and it changes the behavior of how we interact with these companies when developing weapons system. We tried doing it the other way and we must pretty bake missed a pretty big but learned a lot. Incentive23 million spending 2. 3 billion like we would have done a decade ago. The Leadership Team have the courage to step back from the table and say this is not what we want. So we changed the approach. Stepped outalready with establishing and using that ota contracting mechanism. Theyre going to come back with some his gated cab drawings cad drawings. We will take a look at that and do more detailed sets of drawings and ward to company to build the prototype. One of the highlighted Investment Priorities for develop meant is in a low or low earth orbit constellation. Their home for this effort and could fall under one of your cross functional teams where the rapid or the rapid capabilitys and Technologies Office to ensure it moves along and is successful . We have six investment parities and it is kind of six plus two, the others cut across all those six priorities. We went back and forth on that for weeks. Ultimately we decided position, navigation and timing would be one of the plus two. The other is synthetic training environment. Theyre applicable across all the investment portfolio. That is why we organized them that way. There is an investment portfolio led by remark elite talented Civil Service and Civil Servant Willie Nelson that has driven this process. Why a lowearth orbit Satellite Technology is so important, incredibly resilient, incredibly affordable, speed to delivery is unprecedented, and when you look at where combat is heading, anybody who has been in a firefight, speed matters. And to be able to detect a acute quickly and cabability to cross get a target is important. Hypersonics like i mentioned in my speech, if you are going to attempt a hypersonic light body coming at you, you have a couple minutes. So are you going to do that from a soda straw from deal earth orbit or a wider array from a low earth orbit constellation . That is why we are obviously and iterested in leo, is a critical component to the modernization strategy. Thank you. What are the differences in deterring russia and china . If you cannot have two different armies at once to counter each of them . Great question. Part of the countering or competition is the presence. The type of force you need, you august he had to half you need to have a highly lethal one so that technological capabilitys we are investing against, those are bestofbreed. We want to be the best in the world and all these capabilities because america has a perfect record of predicting incorrectly the next war we are going to be in so we want to make sure we can beat everybody, whoever would try to challenge us. You have to make those technological investments so their best in the world. It is a highly ready for. Individually, that soldiers have to be strong physically, mentally, emotionally. It is as much taking care of those soldiers, those technological investments and you have to the right posture globally. Whether that is a Permanent Base or the ability to dynamically employ the capability, like i have mentioned in the formal remarks, the ability to project quickly. And to get on the ground shoulder to shoulder their allies because we never fight alone. You concerned more Army Construction projects are targeted for cuts this year to fund the border wall and what are you doing to restore money to products cut last year . Fromere is potential another transient for military foror another tranche military construction. We have looked at readiness versus qualityoflife related programs. Still a lot of work to do there but we are getting closer to a solution. The Services Revealed where it is growing 1. 13 billion out of floor Priority Programs to inject into your modernization priorities. But is not accounted for over 1. 2 billion in Program Changes and cuts it intends to make an fy 21. Why wont the army make its entire list of cancellations, delays and reductions available to the press and subsequently the public . They are with congress so they already are public. Along when here. Longer than that one, ok . [laughter] the joint light tactical vehicle is seen as a bill payer an fy 21 for future modernization efforts and the service will buy less, resulting in a slower procurement schedule without affecting the armys objective climate. Your predecessor defense secretary esper said while serving as Army Secretary last year, that the vehicle was designed and procured in the context of iraq and afghanistan and was not as relevant when applied to the fresh National Defense strategy guiding army investment. He said the army would most likely cut the total number of vehicles ultimately procured. Right now, the army is looking at competing for its production in a few years. And is signaling it will be procured likely at a slower rate for the time being. But what is your view about the objective requirement. Is it too high . Or will it need to come down . When you look at our vehicle portfolio, we have about 48 or 49,000 humvees. Record is about 49,000 jl tvs and the infantry about a thousand of those. Thats a breathtaking amount of vehicles even for an organization as big as us. But we have asked for is a study for how many do we need and what is the appropriate mix . Has been underway and we are trying to get toward the interstate there because it is, again, making the best sound investments. You have to buy only what you need. Because we are trying to bring in new helicopters much trying to bring in hypersonic missiles. A lot of very sophisticate and weapons systems. And fiscally, things are getting tough. So we have been pulling this type of rigor against every decision. Honestly when youre buying 850 Million Dollars worth of j ltvs every year, youre going to take a hard look at that. In december the army announced it was canceling and resoliciting a contract to manufacture under its of robotic meals to a program known as the squad multipurpose Equipment Transport which utilized other Transaction Authority agreements. Can you please discuss where the army is now in the resolicitation of this program . You know, i think you got me finally. [laughter] we probably ought to get bruce up here. To armydefer acquisition. I do not know where we are exactly with the solicitation. The army is awarding other Transaction Authority contracts to kinetic north america and textron to build for light and medium robotic, vehicle prototypes. If the prototypes demonstrate the capability the army is looking for, is the service considering using follow on otas with the systems into production . Or will it use the more traditional acquisition process . On a related note, is the army considering moving its timetable to the left for fielding these vehicles . August lee the proof would be in the pudding and how they perform the proof would be the pudding and how they perform the test gene the prototype goes through. Ias with the general and have been as we want to use them early and often. It is a mechanism that is really good for American Business because it reduces that time to getting something on order. It improves their cash flow positions. It is the speed of business. So, philosophically, we are energized behind it. We are watching closely because it is changing the way we do business in army acquisition. So we put a close and all of it but we definitely have a place for dr. Dente to use this as much as possible. You been talking about this arm acquisition the past has sometimes been criticized for highprofile failures like the comanche hello program. How is the army working to avoid acquisition failures . A lot of that was, i got to watch a lot of that from osd, was the requirements leadership were not at the table. The war fighters. You you want and what are trying to achieve with this Weapon System . We are blessed with an amazing and wering organization have great people in industry. Thereally does come down chief of staff of the army, the vice chief, the force, commander. They have to get down to say what is going to take to win in a combat engagement . They have to drive this process. All the way into the barn and finish. That is why we went through this restructuring, creating the army futures command, to have an organization that rings all the stakeholders together. Because what you saw for a very long time was all the stakeholders spread out all over the army. It would take five to six years to get a requirement done because it is going back and forth between different desks and it would take three or four years to test it and then about the 20 year mark you have fielded this across the force. So it is like a 19yearold looking for a hunter mile in our fastball anyway till they are 39 to go to the majors. [laughter] is that speed. You have to get the stuff into the field when it is relevant. And then upgraded over time. Like an iphone. Faster in making decisions. That is why we brought the stake holders together. The requirements folks laser focused on they are working shoulder to shoulder with the acquisition team, that is how we are getting better. Why do i think we are better now . Things are flying at exploding and you can smoke gasoline. It is not powerpoint. 10 years ago we were buying billions of dollars worth of powerpoint. And you may not reach your ambition but it is going to be better than what we have today. Encouraged because you see prototypes and you see all of the leaders across the continuum shoulder to shoulder on working the problem. President toipino our taste call to end the u. S. Facing agreement affect the infantry training you mentioned basing, how does affect our pacific presence and how do you plan to reposition as a result. Conversations are underway and it takes hundred 80 days to get through the diplomatic process for the determination of the vfa. There hundred 74 days and dont quote me exactly come about that much time we can work through this diplomatically. I know conversations are underway from the white house to the state department in particular. The vfa it, by changing that, what you have to do the training. This is a very close ally and we would work through that. It is the protocols of how you would work together. If it would actually go through. Reports on soldier suicides continue to be alarming. What is the armys approach to reducing these tragedies . Sorry. The incredibly difficult problem. Baffles the brightest Scientific Minds we have in this country. We have invested an enormous amount of money to better understand it. You, i cann front of tell you there people i know personally that had committed suicide and i was stunned. Aunderstanding what is going on in the human brain. Are we trying to do to do better . It is us about things. Our behaviors. Senior leaders talking about it. Telling those young men and women that tomorrow will be the same without you. And it is being a better teammate. And being what we call this is my squad. It is as much about reaching our maximum potential as it is taking care of a fellow teammate. That tomorrow will not be the same without you. That you are there for them. The thing we know about suicide as it is people who are very lonely, they are alone. Generaltry to do is, condyle and ie breakfast and lunch together all the time. It is as much civilian military relations as he is my teammate. I cannot get through one day without him. We talks five or six times per day. With the army grunts it is about being with your teammates as much as possible, sending the message that that is how you get three hard day. It is an incredibly hard problem. As the guy who sends condolence letters, it resonates with me everything a day. We are doing our best to get after it. Followup. Do you have some indications this approach is working, so the army take a look at different approaches to it . Updated have an enough data to defend whether or not it is working. The behaviors of a team and the performance of a team become quickly noticeable in the way in which you treat each other. The thing that if you know, if my term ends this fall or not, if i walked away this fall, the thing i would probably be the most proud of is the signal relationships the civilianmilitary relationships we have in our hallway. I respect and love my teammates. There behaviors are different because of that. You see better teamwork. Results will be what they well. But that is how you know. It is the sort of thing that you say you can feel it. We are trying the best way, how do you quantify this and to see how you apply metrics to it, because people want to see results. Are they going down or not . Thank you. Injuredof the soldiers in the iranian counterattack receiving the purple heart . Action, youcombat go through a review and the justification for an award and they are in the midst of that now. Engineers, corps of helping build the border wall, how is the army engaged in American Security efforts other than that . We have joint task force bravo. We have soldiers deployed in south america, largely in and advise and assist capacity. We have soldiers at the american msas all across the continent. Dutch american embassies across the continent. At american embassies across the continent. The army is implanting a new physical fitness test. Are you having to delay it because troops are having problems implanting or passing it . We are looking closely at did we get the equipment there in time and did you have the right trainers to help you learn the exercises . So we are looking at it closely and whether or not it would require any change in the timeline we have laid out. Right now we have soldiers leading the process for us. He had to come back to the chief and i early in the spring to see where we set. I will go back to followup on a previous question. Since the u. S. Went back to combat in the middle east, traumatic brain injuries were considered the most concerning. Is that still the case . Obviously concerned about tbi cases but any and all type of injuries, life health and safety is everything for our people. The National Defense strategy focuses on china and russia. What is the armys role in a possible conflict in the pacific . Are the air force and navy more important in that region . There were three ground wars in the last century. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of american soldiers fought and all through this conflict. Thatu were to look fought in all three of those conflicts. If you would look at how these conflict will begin or end, it will be on the ground. 2020 marks the 70 for the anniversary of the end of world war ii. Give a sense of what will be done to commemorate both ve and vj days and to honor those who served . Not but i hope it is big and i intend to be at as many of them as i can get to. It is pretty exciting. And it is the generation that exposed me to a life of service in the army. As a kid i grew up on the north side of chicago with my grandfather and all his brothers, tell gunners on bombers and hearing the stories about world war ii is why wanted to grow up and become a soldier and work in the army. So i look for to that. I will mention that at the National Press club we will commemorate the 70 for the anniversary of the end of four more to with American Legion post 20 by recreating a series of saturday afternoon campaigns that were conducted during world war ii. Jazz were given hot dogs and beer here at the press club. It was during one of those saturday afternoon canteens that Vice President harry truman set up piano and Lauren Bacall joined him at a piano to create a very famous photo. I dont think we can beat that. I will come back if you invite me. [applause] do you believe there is a National Security emergency on americas southern border, as a result of refugees. And if a wall must be deal if a wall must be built to deal with that influx, should make scope a fort or at least that dhs and not the Defense Department . I do believe there is a National Secure the issue at the border. And that we are in the department of defense are carrying our share of the load. It is a very difficult problem. A lot of progress has been made. Im proud of the army corps of engineers performance as well as the 4500 other soldiers that are supporting the dhs. Housing hastion of turned into a real challenge on a lot of posts. To address this issue or are you going to change course . Housing is incredibly challenging, like all the other questions youve asked about. [laughter] almost awe have about third of our homes that need to be replaced. Been incredibly sensitive issue. But it is because it is so important. Nothing more important than the home for our soldiers and their families. Challenge that has been baking for a long time. What led toook at privatization, if it brought about 13 billion of external financing and we have been able to build thousands of homes over the last 25 years, and what used to happen in the process is because we outsource to, it became an abdication of responsibility from the department of the army over time , the private housing guys problem. The chain of the command got out of that business. A lot has happened and you can point fingers both ways. We are not going to be able to get another 10 billion to 15 billion to rebuild all of these homes. So you have to work with these corporations. But you have to manage the relationship. You have to get out of bed and tackle problems and see on top of things. It may require some legislation to give more authorities to our installation commanders that are going to drive this response ability. But it may require more external financing to continue building the homes. We are going to have a lengthy discussion about that the spring during [] and we will bring forward a series by just to try to improve our position. Stars stripes, the military newspaper led by troops around the world is facing cuts in the president s proposed budget. What would that mean for independent reporting on military issues . I do not know the particulars. As we have been talking about throughout lunch today, it is a lot of belttightening within the department because demands continue to grow on us in a flat physical environment. I read stars and stripes every day and hope they can whether it. Army recruiting has struggled and turned to a gaming and other social media to find recruits. How many successful recruits have you gotten through these new programs . And do they bring in quality recruits . Are there any new innovations or novel approaches in the pipeline . That the first time the general briefed Army Senior Leadership it was like, what are you talking about, frank . But it is what you see coming out of Army Recruiting command, 18 months into it, as they are getting their finger on the pulse width 17 to 24yearold americans. What are they into . How do they communicate . And finding those right venues and shaping our messaging to talk about, here the one hunter 50 Different Things you can do in the army, and the access to education, and the kinds of people you can meet. And being a part of something special. This institution. Sports and these other, when we want to these events, the general when he was chief of youre going to make me do what . He learned a lot. And gaged with young men women. What we found is we are getting illions of leads of 17 to 24yearolds to feed into Army Recruiting command to engage men to see if they would be interested in a life of service. So we changed our recruiting strategy. We have now focused on 22 cities around the country, so its aving a comprehensive approach in the country so we can improve our performance in a variety of greatics whether thats male to female ratios or we have improved year over year. We hit target last year. Right now. Of pace its been a major turnaround a ause i think we just got little lazy. And we started losing touch with women and theyre growing up in this country and transformation, lot of great leadership with those that run Army Recruiting command. Were off to a good start, we it. To sustain were in the war for talent in 3. 5 unemployment, they have a lot of opportunities. General and i and others we travel to american we meet with mayor and other Civic Leaders to help us recruiting. Its yielded a tremendous benefit. Mccarthy, i would like to show with our audience greeting that you put in our guest book which you by to the National Press club. To k you for the honor address the club today and to share the army story. Press and a Strong Military are necessary to values we hold dear. Thank you for all the work you and what you do for our country and the world. Us hank you for joining today, we thank you for that to ting and we would like present you, if i could just each other, as a token of our appreciation with our National Press club coffee mug, we hope it in the coming days and week and months and years ahead because you may need few cups of coffee. [applause] this will get a lot of use, me. St i wrote that in there really from the heart. Of reporter gates when i worked for him in the pentagon, but it started before when i asked for my wifes hand in marriage to my who is a law lithuanian immigrant. Asylum so i was like all right, i love the media. Thank you. [applause] to all of you for joining us. Have a good night. Announcer follow campaign 2020 this weekend. Saturday night live at 11 00 democratic , president ial candidates joe iden, pete buttigieg, senator tom steyer speak. Bidthey speak at a forum on infrastructure. On got on the cspan radio app. With the iowa and New Hampshire primary contest now behind them, is a look at some important pcoming events for the remaining democratic candidates. The nevada caucus is saturday, 22. Uary nevada sends 36 pledged delegates to the convention. Primary so nas saturday, february 29 and open with 54 pledged delegates and super tuesday tray 15 states and winter allocate a third of the pledged delegates on march 3. Earlier today, President Trump members of the National Border control council at the eisenhower executive door to theing next white house. This is half an hour. Ody said, t background, i was going to look like i had up floating had peered i apologize for that. Is great to be here with my fellow agents. It is especially great to be here with spouses and children of my fellow agents. Over the past few years ive had the opportunity to speak with President Trump on many occasions about border