>> good afternoon and welcome to the national press club, the place where news happens. i am the president of the national press club in managing editor in charge of our standards and training. thank you for joining us both here and online for our headliner event with u.s. marine corps commandant general david h berger. we are happy to accept your questions and after his opening remarks, i will ask as many as time permits. to submit a question online, email headliners@press.org and put marines in the subject line. it is now my pleasure to introduce the distinguished head table. please stand when your name is called. starting on my right, tom young, commander of the national press club, american legion post. kevinwencing retired u.s. navy captain who helps organize desk organized today's event. lori russo, president of stanchion communications and cochair of the headliners team that organized this event. to my left, max lederer, publisher of stars and stripes. carrie o'reilly, senior managing editor of emerging markets of sight line media group. caitlin kenney, staff reporter for defense one and donna linewa n president and founder of media strategies, cochair of the headliners team and the 2009 president of the national press club. [applause] thank you all for being here. three years ago, u.s. marine corps commandant david h berger announced designed 2030, a plan to transform the marine corps to face growing threats from longtime adversaries russia and china. the emergence of these competitors coincided, he noted, with a seachange in the character of warfare driven by social and technological advancements. the situation, he wrote, demands we move rapidly to adapt to the circumstances of a new era. this radical revamp as characterized by foreign policy analysts is meant to realign the core values toward amphibious operations in the pacific and elsewhere rather than land insurgencies base in the middle east. some of the changes included getting rid of tanks, cutting the number of artillery battery, investing in drones, electronic warfare and tactical missiles and creating an entirely new regimen built for island warfare. the planted not go down easily. more than two dozen retired generals publicly criticized it. retired marine general charles culack and to others in a washington post op-ed called well intended but wrong. in an interview, general berger said he welcomed the dissent, saying that should be the kind of discussion about what direction we are taking. now, many of you -- many of these plans are beginning to take shape. earlier this month, he observed that this happened in an exercise in california. we are eager to hear more from the general about his house plan is progressing and what he learned along the way. please join me in giving a warm national press club welcome to commandant of the u.s. marine corps, general david h berger. [applause] >> i had no idea they were going to leave a weapon up here. i'm going to put it up here so i don't make a mistake. thank you, first of all for a great introduction. i don't think i've ever in my life seen cookie with a marine corps emblem on top of it. it's pretty impressive and if you put food in front of the marine corps, we will eat it all. thank you to the people in the press club. i think the legacy that you carry on is important especially to marines. have you -- had you paid attention sunday, you would have followed the selection for the ncaa tournament and marquette is in the tournament. friday, they played vermont. today, i think the game starts today or tomorrow. not that there's any gambling involved if you haven't filled out your bracket yet, do so. [laughter] marines do their homework of course and after i got the invitation i did mine and i learned the press club, the history of it because it's online -- what i didn't know is that it actually started as a bar. which is so super impressive to the marines. [applause] [applause] it was a place [laughter] where they could gather and play cards which i alluded to and it was a bar. for someone who represents an organization in the marine corps that was founded in a bar, in a tavern in philadelphia where the first marines were recruited from 21 leader of an organization that was founded as a bar, it's kind of funny but i think we both have come a long way. it also demonstrates both of those that despite all the changes that happened around the world to our institutions over time, there are actually some basic principles that your organization and errors were founded on the don't change. a couple of weeks ago, you all were kind enough to ask my boss emma the secretary of the navy to speak here. he talked at length about the value of a free and open press. those of us serving in uniform could not agree more. i think the articles when you walk in here, i have never seen them before, the articles and the pictures on the walls here, they are a real testament to the difference that free press can make. our competitors around the world and you know who they are, i think they know the value of the press also. why else would they spend their efforts trying to squash them and were choking off or limit it and censor it and basically eradicate free and open flow of information which you worked so hard to keep. if you watch last year at the coverage of russia's build it of forces inside russia and their subsequent invasion of ukraine, the other side of the world to the people's republic of china, their continued economic and political coercion as all the partners we have in the pacific. the great part about the press, in other words, is that you shine a giant light on all of that. if you didn't, it might go unnoticed. it's important that in foreign policy circles and elsewhere, we see it. as we have seen time and time again, information itself has the power to unite and mobilize, otherwise disparate peoples for a collective defense of a democratic world. you are my access to information, the widespread and ubiquitous availability of everything from satellite imagery down to what's on your phone, all of that information come all the time. that has impacted both of our professions i would offer to you in a profound and resilient way. it's so important to us in the military that the joint force, your military actually lifted up and elevated information to be a function by itself just like intelligence and logistics. that's kind of military code for the stuff we have to do. it shouldn't surprise you except that we didn't do that until 2017. we knew for a long time the power of information so why did it take us until 2017. it seems kind of late to figure out that information will be a powerful part of what we have to do in the military. we knew it was important. i think it's also a great example of the dichotomy between the pace of change and the pace of the pentagon. it's not a secret that the pace of change, in my view is not linear, it's on a curve, it's accelerating and not just in the information space but in every aspect of military operations. i actually don't think that's the problem at all. the problem is we are still clinging to a culture to try to keep pace at a slower rate that we are more comfortable with. our ability to do it quickly, in other words, to absorb information and move has never been more important than now. the nature and capability of our competitors, without overstating it and i don't think it's hyperbolic, this is a generational window we are in now. the progress that we make right now as a nation i think informs the coming decades. but this is a good news story. if you look at the department of defense today, you will find the navy in the army and the air force and the marine corps and the space force, we understand that challenge and we are making real progress toward modernizing our forces like eileen said, and in some areas where we already have a lead over our competitors, extending that lead. we are all making changes in a way that helps us operate and prepare for the future, all of which you would expect. but i don't really think you invited me here to talk about the other services. if it's ok with you, i will just focus a little bit on the marine corps. typically, for me, the first set of questions in a group like this is why does the marine corps need to change? why is this whole force design thing happening now? is the marine corps broke? are you guys ok? i start by saying that i completely agree with those that say the marine corps is not broke. it's absolutely not. in many ways, the marine corps today that you see in uniform out there is at the top of their game. they are the most capable, the most fit, the most intelligent, aggressive, driving marines you have ever seen and the best i have ever served alongside. but that in no way frees us up for the responsibility to prepare for the future. we cannot rest on our laurels. i am sure the history buffs in the audience and i know there are one or two, you probably would agree with me that one of the enduring kind of natures of the marine corps is that we are used to change. an enduring tradition of the marine corps is change because we have an obligation to our country to win whatever conflict we are put up in or we face. or as we say in the marine corps, we have to adapt and overcome, that's what we do. world war ii was an amphibious operation. korea was helicopter borne operations. desert storm where i started was maneuver warfare. then came iraq and afghanistan and it was counterinsurgency and the marines of always met those challenges head-on. you would expect us to do that. in general, when the previous, don testified before congress and said the marine corps is not organized, trained and equipped for the future or what the strategy was calling for, being marines, we jumped on that opportunity to do what we do best, adapt. and that, eileen is what force design is all about. it's an opportunity. this is our opportunity to challenge all of the assumptions to divest of things and get rid of things that were useful in the past in previous battles and previous conflicts but not so applicable in the future. in the end, it's an opportunity to make the marine corps into the most capable force this nation can imagine, of winning against the toughest adversary that we could envision. that was our approach. with that mentality in place, we started to design the force for the future. that was a line through the 2018 national defense strategy. it was something that would meet the needs of what we call combatant commanders, the regional commanders around the world. and something that gets is that much closer to our maritime routes khmer nature and the statutory responsibility written into law as america's force in readiness, that's with the u.s. marine corps is. in this age of ubiquitous long-range precision fire and counter intervention technologies and cyber and space and information, all that, we know we had our work cut out for us but we also knew that marines, your marines, are capable of anything. all we need to do is enable them, all we need to do is let them go and they will figure it out. i have to tell you that standing here, there are no words to describe how proud, how impressed i am with the speed at which marines are moving forward. i know, of course because i am one and i have sons that are marines so i know we are working and you are still impressed when you go after the yield and you see -- out to the field what they are doing and how fast they are moving. i would advise you to go out and see your marines, too. john ismay traveled with me to go to california to watch a training exercise. he had never been to one before, you should ask him. i think he would tell you that he saw and listened to and talked with marines who are taking things that were just ideas a year ago and doing them right now. they are not waiting at all, they are turning them into reality. and they are producing capabilities that can give us a war fighting, full up capability now, not 10 years from now, not in 2030. i am proud of all the work that marines are doing to turn this notion of a modernized force, this force design into reality now, today. force design for us will never be done. it will never be over. we are continuously experimenting and the world is changing and we are iterating with it. our focus is to make sure marines understand that trying something differently that didn't work out is not the same as failure. it's ok and it's what we should be doing. i think that's what you want us to do. is making them more comfortable on the edge with trying things in different ways. it's much better than somebody sitting back at the pentagon could ever dream of. basically, our laboratory where we learn is out there in the field in the fleet. the results of all of that experimentation are fed back in to quantico, virginia and last year, as eileen pointed out, we created a marine latoral regiment, custom built what it needs in the pacific. that organization will bring all of the surveillance and fire and intelligence and everything else right to where we need it in next to our allies and partners, the philippines and japan, australia and their close partners. you would expect all of us to be forward, that's where marines do our best work, both aboard amphibious ships and of -- and on in this the best chance this nation has to prevent a conflict. that's how deterrence work and its 24/7. infantry and the marine corps will remain the centerpiece.that's not going to change. but they will have access and capabilities and resources that used to be several levels above them, now brought down to the lower tactical levels. the laundry list of things we are not just experimenting with but actually fielding right now from loitering of munitions down to the squad level. capabilities that marry up a radar at a missile system and it's all autonomous. weekend since and make sense of the environment at much greater ranges and greater speeds than we could before. those marines will augment themselves with electronic warfare and signals intelligence and high end command-and-control capabilities. all of that so they can be more effective in a fight. we can also connect with air support. we have f-35's , we havemd-22 osprey's, the best aircraft in the world. that's a long list of investments and equipment and platforms systems. but the most important thing that the marine corps is invested in is marines. we fundamentally understand, more than anything else, the individual marine is what makes the difference between winning and losing. it's not a piece of year or a plan. those marines training, their education has to be commensurate with the level of individual skill and competency and decision-making and leadership we think will be required in the future. we will spread out, we will operate very dispersed and that puts a premium on individual action when you are very spread out, not from colonels and lieutenant colonel, but from corporals and sergeants and lieutenants. in that spirit, we took a really critical look at the training and education in the marine corps. how are we preparing those marines? with a whole lot of humility, we recognized we could make it a whole lot better. this year, we published our guideline for the future of training and education in the marine corps, built from a desire to mature the force that we have by giving them more reps, more sets, more realism when it comes to training. and we are leveraging technology that we didn't even have five or six years ago to combine live and virtual and constructive all in the same training environment. hardest of all, you get -- you give marines a chance to fight against the most difficult adversary they can imagine, another marine, another marine unit. this is force on force training. it doesn't take strategic genius to figure out that the mastery of all the technology and skill and multiple skill sets in some instances, all that has expanded dramatically. it's not better or worse than when i was a younger officer. it's just different. but we have to change the way we look at training. i frankly don't think the old model that i grew up in, how i was trained -- i don't think that gives enough credit to today's marine. they learn faster, they learn in a different way and we have to match that. as we adjust how we train and educate marines, we also need to reevaluate their careers, how we manage people. weekend no longer view marines as inventory which is how historically we have, kind of an industrial model. the model that we had in the marine corps since the end of the vietnam conflict basically said we will replace all these marines at the end of their four years with a whole new batch of new ones. it worked for 50 years arguably, really effective marine corps. but going forward, i think we must prioritize quality over quantity. we owe it to them to try to keep them around at the end of their four years and honestly, i think we owe it to the taxpayer to do the same. just when they get to the point where they are trained and their leaders and they have the experience, we cannot show them the back door. we cannot train them, deploy them, thank you for your service and then asked them to leave. we are already seeing dividends. last year, retention for us -- that's what happens at the end of your contract. last year, way exceeded our goals. this year, 50% better than last year. marines are staying in the marine corps. they are staying marines. changing our manpower model is more than that. we also have to modernize our i.t. structure, information technology structure. we have to expend personal agency. we had to change the way we see career progression and relationships between her active-duty marines and the reserve marine corps. other people have said it more accurately but i think sometimes the hardest part of change i have discovered is not actually grabbing a hold of the new idea. it's letting go of the old. people like me have built their entire 40 year careers to dedicating, learning and our approach to warfare in a certain way, but sometimes because of that, we have a real visceral reaction to letting go. we have to be willing to do that. fortunately, for people like me, there is a lot of things numbering for that do not change, will not change. the first of them is there warrior eat those as marines -- ito's - ethos as marines. the character of a marine is unchanging. airport values of honor and courage and commitment will endure regardless of the changes in the world around us. every marine always has been, always will be a rightful man. our organization as an air and ground task force will endure. the way we make marines at parris island and san diego and quantico will not change. even if we look at things like lateral entry which we are, halfway for certain critical skills, every single marine will earn the eagle globe and anchor in the same way, they will earn that title. they will make the transformation. after that, they will have to live up to the ideas -- the ideals that it represents. we will remain the nation's force and readiness. we are our nation's premier crisis response force. and we will always, always be ready to deploy. we will be the most ready to fight in the most ready to win. our ships, our amphibious ships like the lpd flight to which means nothing to you and future generations of amphibious ships will continue to make sure your marines can be at the forward edge all the time. wherever and wherever -- and whenever we are needed. this responsibility to our nation does not just reap wire a ready force. it requires ready marines. the standards, the discipline, the unwavering dedication to mission above self will not change. that will always define the individual marine. it's reflected in how we train, it's reflected in how marines fight, how we see ourselves and how the rest of the world sees us. and there is nothing on this earth like a u.s. marine. lastly, the marine corps will remain foundational he underpinned by our noncommissioned officers. they are the backbone of the marine corps. the art -- our continued success depends on that directly connected to the polity of our ncos, noncommissioned officers. when you look at the war in ukraine, you can see it in spades. why the ukrainian forces can hold on is in ceo's. lower unit tactical leaders who are well-trained and they are given the freedom to make decisions. they make the difference in the u.s. marine corps today and for generations to come. 247 years you have had a marine corps. in places like belleau wood and iwo jima and chosen and whey, they are etched into the history of this nation and you should leave here this lunch today being confident that they will be there one another name is added to that list. i think you all will write those headlines, frankly. some people describe the world today as uncertain and chaotic and turbulent. we wouldn't be surprised that most people wake up in the morning and think the world is in trouble. it's really going off the rails. to marines, this sounds like our job description. for marines, this sounds more like what we do for the nation. because right now, this afternoon, while we are having a rate lunch here as of this morning, there was a little more than 32,000 marines deployed forward on ships and shore in more than 50 countries doing what you need them to do. that's how we secure the world for this country. that's how they preserve the peace. everywhere from europe to the pacific, from africa to the middle east, you will find marines. if you listen to the commanders out there, the admirals and generals who command those verses in the field, the one common refrain you will hear is, i need more marines, give me more marines. every time a response is we are ready. thank you, it's an honor to be here this morning and i would love to hear your questions. [applause] >> thank you. we have a lot of questions. >> ready to go. >> i thought we would first talk about the forced design 2030. it's been three years, can you tell us what you have been working on so far? >> yeah, i wouldn't focus on a piece of equipment or weapons system. what's working the best is unleashing the creativity, the innovative spirit. you see them around all the time, younger marines, if you just let them go without micromanaging and telling them here's the problem, go figure figure it out. if you allowed to try things and if it doesn't work out, that's ok. that's the biggest thing. i think it's the creative and innovative spirit of younger marines. to make it work, but about -- the magic has to be brought back to the marine corps but the trial and error happened and set -- at such a fast rate. it's that aggressiveness, that willingness to try something is the same spirit you need in the battle. it's the same. it's remarkable. it's just unleashing potential we already knew was there and creating an environment where they can try something a different way. >> how do you respond to the naysayers as recently as december, 2022. two retired generals said that the plan is putting the u.s. at risk so have you respond? >> one of the things you learn when you don't really understand it, you become a service chief, a commandant. i get up in the morning and i read for an hour or so because i have all the classified networks at home. i go work out and i get something to eat and i go into work and i get the daily briefing. it's all the intelligence and all the operational information at the highest classification levels. then you spend weeks in traveling to understand where technology is and weirds going. with all of that, you get every single day when you are the commandant of the marine corps. when i retire in july, the next day, i will get zero of that. i am making decisions based on all of the great information they had when they were serving. i don't respond in a negative way. i think they care passionately about the marine corps. they want me to make the best decisions which we are. they should trust that's being informed by so much testing and wargames and experimentation and an understanding of where technology is. all that underpins the decisions i had the privilege to make. i don't disparage them at all. they love the marine corps and they care about the marine corps. >> can you tell us a little about what technology you are talking about that has informed these changes? >> one way is sometimes it's not new technology but taking two or three existing technologies and trying to find a way to marry them together. for example, we have developed a system that is designed to find and, if necessary, to sink a ship, right? a new kind of capability for us. here is the ingenuity of it, it's taking a vehicle we currently have an cut the top off of it and make it autonomous. put a missile launcher on the back and marry it up to another radar system we already have. the i.t., to tide that altogether, some of it is taste -- is taking existing things but challenging is rude to use them together. in other cases, things like that allows to make decisions faster. they allows to filter out all the distractors. if you have to make a tactical decision, how quickly can you get at the crux of a problem? in every area from things that fly to unmanned vessels, unmanned vehicles, autonomous systems, all that is going at such a fast rate. let me illustrate for you. the marine corps that i grew up in invented this phone. first it would take 11 years but let's say is done. the foam is done and what would happen is the marine corps would send a formal dream of trainers to bring me the phone to my unit and they would bring. for these funds and teaches how to use them and it would take a week long of training so that we could understand the new phone. then we would go up and start using the phone and that's how we did this. you know where i'm going with this. if i did that today to a young marine, what would he do this phone? first, you drew legal things like reprogramming it. he would fall asleep in that class is because all he already youtubed it and a couple of friends would reprogram it and 97 things it was not designed to end by friday, they would tell me that those rules you had for the phone, two of them are worthless but we came up with three others. we kind of violated the warranty but it's great because it works great. we have to embrace that, not fight it. >> i love that. >> if you have kids you know what i'm talking about. >> speaking of phones, i was wondering if that might change a little bit as we learn from the ukraine-russia conflict about how they are being used to target? >> this is how you are located on the battlefield. it can be passive. you can think it's turned off, i'm not talking or texting. this is how you are located today. this is how ukraine is tracking russian people today. this is so difficult because even my kids grew up with these things. we bought them for them when they were 10 years old. it's unnatural for them not to have them on, not to have them with them but that's exactly how ukrainian forces are finding the russian troops now, absolutely. >> do you think that will change the policy? >> we already have the policy, you cannot take your phone to the field. >> really? >> we know that's how you can be tracked. >> with the new regiment, please provide an on the infantry of italian experiments this year. >> we had two choices, as fast as i thought we needed to learn, we could either create an experiment unit and play around with it for a year or two and learn what we could and see into the marine core or we could use the marine corps as our laboratory. we choseb. there is no experimental unit in the marine corps so in the case of industry -- infantry battalions, this is the core of our core infantry. we have three marine divisions in the marine corps on the active-duty side. we picked one battalion from your division and your division and your division. each of you organized differently, trained differently, equipped differently and for 18 months, you were on a regular workup training cycle and you deployed and you deployed and you deployed your battalion. in all of that, we could learn three times as much good. it was more realistic because you are deploying. my make-believe unit. we took all of that and we thought -- the battalion i grew up in was 880 marines which was pretty big. we thought we could make it smaller with this extra capability. let's try to go over maybe on drew 700. from these three units, it's not 890 units and 700 40, it's about 811. that's how we learn fast. we use the world as a laboratory real units to give us feedback and we have to listen to make those adjustments which we are doing. caller: >> in light of the defenses in the pacific, what are your concerns about availability of logistic support or rapid replenishment? >> those are basic functions in warfare, intelligence and buyers in command-and-control. they garner a lot of people's attention because they are cool to talk about and they are weapon systems in jets and flames and ships, it's cool stuff to look at and you can feel them. what's not so cool to talk about is logistics. if you were trying to counter the united states right now militarily, i think you would go after our logistics. we are not overconfident but since world war ii, no one has challenged our logistics. we have had a secure backside since world war ii. going forward, we understand we will be contested, absolutely yes. when two near peer or peer forces go at each other, they rarely do with symmetric because that would turn into a slugfest. if it's my force against his, i will try to find his week and he will try to find mine. we have a long way to go on logistics. we are ok to day and i would imagine, we have to catch up how we supply our forces, how we move those forces and how we sustain those forces. we had 50 years were wasn't challenged by anybody now it is you should probably get up there and tell them, this is your whole life. would you agree? >> [indiscernible] >> we were lazy, we didn't need to worry about it now we do. >> is that something the epidemic test the pandemic helped initiate? >> in what way. >> it seems to affect different parts of our nation-like supply chains. >> this is another great example of being willing to learn we are out learn the most about global logistics in the past three years. the ceo just happens to be a marine, fred smith. i'm serious. fedex knew how to do global existence. we have gone down to tennessee several times in the past years to this and ask etchant because they have salt -- they have solved global logistics. hurricanes and typhoons and political things that shut down this country and open up that one, we are learning from companies like fedex and we should. >> the regimen is a departure from other fighting units with one infantry battalion instead of three. an anti-aircraft battalion. why this particular formation? guest: before we started >> on the organizations you are talking about, we had to figure out how to operate. what does the marine corps do for the military going forward? if you had to boil it down, we learned something that surprised a lot of us. part of the value of the marine corps when they are far forward is their ability to sense what is in front of them and the rest of the force. they want to try to prevent their adversary from doing the same against us and the rest of air force. then, if you need to, ring and the first can you collect against the other side? the first organization established in hawaii is custom-built to do that. it doesn't need three battalions because what it needs is the ability to survive by itself very spread out, sense what's in front of them come report all of that back and as need be, bring you forward if that's the mission. this is the first one and over the next couple of years, we will create another one but we will learn from both and we will probably make adjustments. at the speed we are making, we don't have to get to 100% up front. we just have to move. our thinking is probably at the 85% solution. we will make adjustments as we go but it's custom-built to deter, confront and do what you will do, all the bad things that p.r.c. is doing in the south china seas, this way the commander in hawaii knows it's happening in front of him. it was built for that. >> have you already made the adjustments are still considering? >> yes, couple of weeks ago, ismay went with us to california and we saw that regiment in california, this was their first major exercise. they were making adjustments while we were out there from where they would be done. in the span of two weeks, their fine-tuning how they are operating which is exactly what you want them to do. they adjustments, not yet. the colonel who commands it is not waiting. as he sought minor adjustments needed to bit make, he is tended to that organization on the fly, adapt and overcome, that's what we do. >> lessons learned. what about the recent exercises for the third mlr. >> i think they have to be mobile, they have to have the ability to pick up and see things in front of them. probably the hardest thing when you are seeing things, if you have a background in reconnaissance or surveillance, a lot of times you can detect things but making sense of it, what does that mean? that's a different story. we have to improve our ability to collect but also make sense of what we see and what we detect in front of us. i think all of that is things we learn as we go. >> let's switch to international. the russian fighter jet collided with a u.s. sweeper drone today. what is your response to that? >> this is probably my biggest worry. both there and in the pacific, and aggressive russia or china pilot or vessel captain or something gets too close and doesn't realize where they are, causes a collision and it's 2:00 in the morning and we are trying to unpack this as fast as we can. i really worry about that. either intentionally or unintentionally, things bumping into each other, causing a collision and to powerful nations trying to sort it out at 2 a.m. in the morning. even more challenging because right now on our side, on the p.r.c., we would normally have communications with the -- with their military. it doesn't exist right now. they won't communicate with us. we go through many channels that you have two quickly diffused something, they are gone. they are not gone but they are suspended now. i worry that something will happen at two in the morning and we cannot talk to her counterpart to say what the heck was that about. so i worry, i do. >> for afghanistan, they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan in 2021 and the suicide bomb attack outside kabul airport that killed 13 marines and nearly 100 80 afghan civilians. last week, u.s. marines testified that he was about to take out the bomber and no one was held accountable. please give us your assessment of what went wrong and how the withdrawal could've been done better. then, do you feel the withdrawal happen from afghanistan affected morale? >> just to round out the first part, there was also a soldier and a corpsman killed the bulk of them were marines but the was also a soldier in a corpsman killed. -- and a corpsman killed. losing sons and daughters, there is nothing more gutwrenching than that without a doubt. here's what i would say -- there was compressed time to prepare. for that evacuation once the decision was made thank goodness, there were two different marine units in the area, one aboard ship and one assure. they were the first forces to each dish to reach the airport. that matters because that's exactly what marines to test, go into a quater -- and we chaotic, uncertain situation and sorted out which they did. here's how i would portray it -- i am not here to judge the strategic decisions and the tactical decisions at the airfield itself were made in tampa and on the ground afghanistan. i am not here to judge that area you should be sure and confident that the marines who were there in those two elements that quickly got there there is no way that this wouldn't have happened with marines on the ground. making very good decisions, this is what we train for. they shined. i'm asking used to separate that from politics and strategy and bigger decisions at the marine, soldier, sailor level, extraordinary, under the most duress, the most trying circumstances you can imagine. they made great decisions every day. it was 24 hours a day. then they come home and we forget about it. they go back to their units or they get out and we don't think much of it. they knocked it out of the park. it would dish you would be so wicked proud of them. separate that from all of the rest i would say, hold of the individual soldiers and sailors because they are extraordinary. [applause] >> can we do anything as americans to help? >> i think so. the typical thing is you see somebody walking by or at an air or in their wearing uniform0 here's what else you can do. how many folks in here either served in the military or somebody in your family did? look at this. to me, this is what you can do right there. although there are studies in the past couple of years that says america's public trust in the military is going down, when you look deeper into those surveys, it's less a matter of trust, they just don't know the military. you are the connecting tissue to the public. i am asking you to tell your stories, tell your husband, your daughter or whoever served, your mom, tell their stories in your community. they are not being heard. america doesn't know their military. they are becoming less connected. what can you do? in the communities, the schools and churches and everywhere else, talk about service whether it's in the military or any kind of service. right now, i think we could use a rejuvenation of public service period. talk it up and use yourselves. i know it's hard and you don't want to brag about your service but we have two. or you will root walked by -- or you will walk right by people who know nothing about military and you are successful. if i ask you how you got where you are, you say i probably learned some of it in the military. they gave me discipline and time management, i need you to crank up the volume. >> we have about 900 u.s. troops in syria. are they marines and what is the mission there? >> some of them are marines, that's correct. syria is one of those areas in the world where left alone, if we were to pull out everybody, it would become another afghanistan which is a fertile ground -- that's where isis is right now. it's largely the biggest portion of them are in jail. if we pulled out and took a ride off of it, the concern is that would regenerate itself all over again. i think the strategy makes sense. keep your thumb on that. don't let it rebirth again. >> once china's maritime capabilities allowed for operation below the threshold of ours, they gained and ended manage with incremental positioning. what will the marines do to overcome? >> this sounds like somebody from national defense university. i have no idea what they are saying. now i think i got it. the sum total of that question is part of the strategy of the prc, not the chinese people, their government, is to take baby steps that are largely unnoticed and then take another half a step tomorrow and another one. you see this in places like the islands where there are coast guard and militia vessels, they are trying to physically force the philippines armed forces off the philippine sovereign territory. they are out of fishing areas in japan with the same. do you think they are less than military but not really, basically paramount's very coast guard and militia to push out japan and for latinas and the rest of the countries? some people have called it cabbage slicing? salami slicing. all -- you almost don't notice the little moves. prc and the strategy is the long game. they are not playing it for this week. they are playing the long game. we need to take the same approach. they will be glad to move into your face a half a step in you to take harris the back because to take another step forward. you will not notice your move back slowly. some people write about this approach is grace of competition but it's below shooting but moving forward to a compass their strategy and forcing you to take steps back. we've got to figure out and understand how to counter that. this free and open press is the biggest part of that. it's not military, it's making the world aware. >> the navy budget for fiscal year 2024 yesterday did not include any additional funding for him warships with the u.s. depend on for transportation to conflict zones. do you think the submission is a mistake to >> they've discarded -- they discuss it as a swiss army knife of the navy. it's a good metaphor. it is so unique. most of you have probably never been on it for be a ship but if you bear with me for 15 seconds, imagine a baby aircraft carrier that can launch jets or helicopters or tilt rotor aircraft off the flight deck and below there is a well deck and you flood the well deck ends what the ship down and you can launch and recover manned or unmanned vessels out of the back of it at the same time you are launching and recovering here raft. -- aircraft. there is nothing in the world like it. that's not the reason they are so valuable. it's because of what that produces. that is your best chance to prevent a conflict. that is your best chance to respond quickly to a problem that is brewing. it could be just an earthquake or a typhoon or an earthquake or a natural disaster were our friends, one of our friendly countries needs help, that's how you do it. what you don't want to do is fly 3000 soldiers or marines are sure into a mess. go from ships, don't become a burden to shore. all of that depends on having an event to is ships where your marines versus who be nearby when the problem happens. 31 is the bare minimum. we cannot do with any less. >> before he asked the final question, let me thank the organizers of today's event. today's headlines event coordinator and club membership >> i want to present you with the much coveted national press club mug. [applause] >> i have one more question. >> if you can leave the cookies on the table i will put them in it. >> he was a marine corps and held prisoner in syria over 10 years. after being abducted covering the war. what can you do to influence the white house and state department and others to secure austin's release to freedom and what would you say to him when we do welcome him home? >> whew, wow! i have to think about the last part. that is hard. the first part i can answer pretty straightforward. our job as marines if they can locate him and they can work out a plan i'm not the commander forward but our job is to make sure we produce the forces that can do the job. so i have to make sure i have marines if they are part of that force that can go in and get him back. we have a saying in the marine corps, we have had it for i don't know how long that once a marine, always a marine and we never, ever leave a marine. as you continues tice is a marine, didn't used to be a marine, he is a marine. i can't comment on whatever discussions that as a nation we are having with syria or other people. i'm not part of that discussion. but i can tell you most marines know who austin tice is and if they were given the opportunity they would be in the back of an aircraft to go get him and would definitely bring him back. we need to bring him back. i agree. [applause] >> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] >> meeting adjourned. [inaudible]