Transcripts For CSPAN Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilk

This is about one hour. Good afternoon. We have a really Great Program ahead and we invite you to listen, watch, or follow along on twitter using the npcli good afternoon, and welcome to the National Press club. We have a really Great Program ahead and we invite you to listen, watch, or follow along on twitter using the npclive. For our cspan and public radio audiences, please be aware that g the head table, and idd like to ask you to please hold your applause until all of the head table guests are introduced. Helpful to have the list. So from my left and your right, we have shawn butcher, Communications Manager at disabled sports usa and editor of challenge magazine. We have retired navy captain jim noon, commander of the American Legion post here at the National Press club. Next to captain noon, we have retired u. S. Marine corps Lieutenant Colonel brooks tucker. Hes the assistant secretary for the v. A. s office of congressional and legislative affairs. We have lori rousseau, who is the president of Stanton Communications and cochair of the National Press club Headliners Team. We have max ledder, the publisher of stars and stripes. We have retired u. S. Marine corps Lieutenant Colonel jim burn. He is the number two guy at two deputy secretary at Veterans Affairs. From my left to right, we have retired Lieutenant Colonel luke knitig from the mccain institute, and jerry resimski Washington Bureau chief of the buffalo news and former president of the National Press club. We have retired u. S. Air force colonel pamela powers, who is the current chief of staff at the office of Veterans Affairs. We have the former president of the National Press club, and we have retired u. S. Navy captain kevin wincing who is the headliner who arranged the event today. Skipping over our guests just for one moment, and we have donna who is the head of the media stategies and also a former National Press Club President and the cochair of the National Press club Headliners Team. I would like to also acknowledge a few additional members of the Headliners Team responsible for organizing todays luncheon. Lori rousseau and donna wineland who we just mentioned. Kevin and press club staff liaison lindsey underwood, and membership engagement manager laura coacher, and chef susan dellfer who prepared the lunch, and executive director bill mccarron. Thank you all. [applause] id also like to give a shoutout to American Legion post 20 which celebrates its 100th anniversary this month. It has been meeting at the club since its inception in 1919. Is that right . No, yes. Yes. Okay. We are so proud to have you here. [applause] and now, let me tell you just a little bit about secretary robert wilkie. Robert wilkie is not a doctor, but he is responsible for the health care of about 20 million u. S. Veterans. And that is just the beginning. As secretary of the department of Veterans Affairs, secretary wilkie is also in charge of administering veterans benefits, including health insurance, the g. I. Bill and even the home loans. His agency employs about 375,000 people who care for millions. And health care is the most important benefit, as well as the biggest challenge. Five years ago, it was reported that some veterans were waiting months for care. And that some may have died because of those delays. Some members of Congress Proposed privatizing the v. A. , while others have sought major, major reform. Secretary wilkie today is overseeing a major shift in how health care for veterans is delivered, giving those who served our country more access to care outside of the v. A. System. Before being sworn in as v. A. Secretary in july of 2018, wilkie served as undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. He is the son of an Artillery Army commander and spent time at fort bragg. Today, he remains an officer in the u. S. Air force reserve with the rank of colonel. Before he joined the air force, he served in the u. S. Navy reserve with the joint forces Intelligence Command and the office of naval intelligence. So on the eve of veterans day weekend, please join me in welcoming to the National Press club v. A. Secretary robert wilkie. [applause] sec. Wilkie thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for having me back for an encore. I said last year that i wanted to be one of you. That i was like some of you, the High School Newspaper editor and i learned how the cut out the column inches on the easel cutout, and i had a dog eared copy of dan rathers the camera never blinks and the collective broadcasts i was taught at an broadcasts of edward r. Murrow. I was taught at an early age by my father, who was an incredibly decorated combat soldier, that edward r. Murrow represented other people who were on the front line of freedom, on the front line of history. In my fathers time, he saw many of your colleagues give the ultimate sacrifice in vietnam. During the invasion of cambodia, he was in the sector when two nbc news correspondents and cameramen did not come back from doing the job they had sworn to do. So whenever i speak to journalists as a group of journalists, i thank you for defending the ideals that i hope all of us at National Security strive to uphold, because without you, the rest of it wouldnt be worth very much, and so thank you all very much. [applause] the other item that i want to use as a point of personal privilege. I just came back from new orleans, and visiting the v. A. Hospital and i broke ground on the new fisher house. History, we were privileged to get to know one of new orleans most prominent families. A fellow who ended up being one of the great majority leaders of the United States house of representatives and his wife, who not only took his seat in the United States house but went on to be the ambassador. I am talking about hale and lindsay boggs. We lost a Great American earlier this year. Her when she would inquent my familys bakery new orleans. She was a regular customer. I became reacquainted with her as an adult and through her work in new orleans helping Loyola University getting back on its feet after katrina. She had one piece of advice for me and it came from her father. It was about doing business in washington, particularly in congress. She said the fella that you are arguing with in the morning will probably be the fella that you walk out of the chamber with your arm around in the evening. I think we would all be much better as a people and a country if we stuck by Cokie Roberts dictum. So thank you. I will say i am glad to be back at the press club. Ofebrating the anniversary post American Legion American Legion post number 20 here, a post inaugurated by the only ho is below George Washington on our protocol card who is below george our protocol card. Also, the person who found the the here that is one of oldest and now celebrating its 100th anniversary. Since the first shots were fired at lexington in april of 1875, 1775, more than 40 million americans have put on the nations uniform to defend freedom. Today, Americas Army is comprised only of citizen volunteers who have determined to defend this country. Our history is filled with heroes who found a way to fight, even after being told that they either were not healthy enough or younger enough or were not the right color or gender to defend those colors. So who were the americans who were told they could not serve . One of them was a 33yearold bookworm farmer from jacksonville county, missouri. From jackson county, missouri. He lied and cheated to get into the Field Artillery prior to world war i, because he could not bear the thought of his friends and neighbors going to war and he not being there to support them. What he was saddled was a battery called battery d of the Field Artillery of the Missouri National guard. In france, they were known as the dizzy ds. They were the hardest group of irishmen to ever stagger around the streets of kansas city, and they were saddled with a bespeckled baptist 33yearold who had never commanded anything in his life except for a plow. And before his first battle, he sent a note to his future wife and he said, i have my doubts about my bravery when the explosive shells began to explode and the gas attacks start, but when battery d came under fire for the first time in 1918, one private said of captain harry s. Truman, i dont think that hed ever been under fire before, and i dont think it bothered him a damn. About the same time, thousands of young africanamerican soldiers marched to the colors before they could vote in most of the parts of the country, and before they were recognized for the foundational role they played in the creation of our great republic. The legendary 369th infantry regimen of harlem, new york signed up before anybody else in america. But they were not permitted to join the farewell parade down fifth avenue, and these dedicated americans were attached to the french army, because there were parts of our army that would not accept them. They spent more time on the front lines. They suffered over 1,500 casualties. They received 100 french quad and air. They were on the front line more often and suffered more casualties than any other infantry unit in world war i. When they returned home in 1919, the city of new york insisted that they lead the parade down fifth avenue. Just a few years ago, president obama awarded the congressional medal of honor to Needham Roberts and william johnson, the two most decorated soldiers of the most decorated unit of the United States army almost 100 years after they so richly deserved it. There are some other characters. At the outset of world war ii, there was a very small accountant from chicago by the name of George Rumsfeld. He wanted to join the navy, but he was told that he was too light. He spent months drinking milkshakes and eating banana splits just so he could pass the weight requirement. He couldnt do anything about his age, but he could about the strength and so he spent months in the gym trying to build up his endurance, and the navy finally allowed him to enter service. But the navy actually moved young ensign rumsfeld to a blimp base in North Carolina much to the consternation of his young son, who told his daddy that he needed to start writing letters to president roosevelt to convince him that he needed to go to the pacific. Well, they wrote those letters. And George Rumsfeld persevered and the navy finally agreed to let him go serve in combat in the pacific. My father didnt want to spend the war in North Carolina Donald Rumsfeld said, and he did what every american was proud to do, go where the country sent them. So one of our strongest bonds as americans are those stories that we share about military service and how we come together as a nation to protect individual freedoms that we love and enjoy. This year, i was reminded of my own childhood at ft. Sill and ft. Bragg when i was visit bade visited by a classmate and a friend. In the 1960s and 1970s, when a child was called to the Principals Office either in kindergarten or Elementary School where i grew up, there was always a chance that child wasnt going to a doctors appointment, that there was bad news from southeast asia. My own father was so badly wounded in the invasion of cambodia, it took him three years to recover. It was a year after he was wounded before we saw him, and he came back weighing half of what he did when he left. But that wasnt the end of the story for those times. When he recovered, he joined the most decorated combat division in all of the military of the United States, the all americans, the 82nd airborne division, and in that time, and in that place, he was not allowed to wear his uniform off post for fear of the reaction of his fellow citizens. Ladies and gentlemen, that was not berkeley, california, or cambridge, massachusetts, but it was southeastern North Carolina, the heart of Richard Nixon country. But people still stepped forward. One who did was Master Sergeant cicero denning johnson. He was an air force medic and in april of 1975, Donald Rumsfeld and gerald ford decided to evacuate all of the orphanages in saigon ahead of the advance of the north vietnamese army. They called it operation baby lift. Sergeant johnson volunteered for that mission. And on april 5th, 1975, as the guns of the north vietnamese could be heard, he boarded a c5 with 178 vietnamese orphans, and the c5 did not make it into the end of the runway at tonsonu airbase. 138 children lost in their lives and 11 airmen. One of them was Master Sergeant denning johnson. Later, i, 44 years accompanied my classmate, denise, to panel 1w of the vietnam wall, where she was able to touch the name of her father, one of the last from that conflict. And if you look just under his name on the same panel is the name of one of the eight Women Officers of the United States air force. Nurses and doctors who lost their lives in vietnam. Captain mary therese clinker was on that plane when Sergeant Johnson went down is the name right below his. So next week, we start our second century of remembering americas heroes on what used to be called Armistice Day, the 11th day of the 11th month ofthe of the 11th hour that marked the end of the forlornly named war to end all wars. In the mid1950s after more wars demanded more from the american people, america began celebrating not the stopping of the guns, but the men and women who made them stop. Under general eisenhower, Armistice Day became veterans day. We rightfully call our veterans heroes, but i can think of a higher compliment than that. These men and women rise to the defense of this nation because i think they see more clearly than most of us that our way of life is not guaranteed. It must be fought for as members of this profession have done throughout its history. Alvin york started life in the army as a conscientious objector, and soon became the greatest American Hero of the great war. And by the time world war ii came around, he had been sounding the alarm as to what he saw happening in the place that he had fought in 1917 and 1918, and he went around the country reminding america that america is the last best hope on the planet. He said of those who wanted to avoid fighting nazi germany that the thing that we forget is that liberty and freedom and democracy are so very precious that you do not fight to win them once, and then stop. Liberty and freedom and democracy are prizes awarded only to those people who fight to win them and to keep fighting them internally to hold on to them. I am privileged to be part of an organization that stands with men and women who talk like that. And that is why i appreciated Richard Nixons grand gesture to veterans when america withdrew from vietnam. In those days, the Counter Culture was rampant, and something that i said, i saw as a young boy when my father as i mentioned could not wear his uniform off of fort bragg. Nixon saw it clearly that we had to value the soldiers no matter what the outcome. He signed the legislation, and boosting education and Work Training as a way of reaffirming the respect and gratitude toward all of those who had borne the battle. He praised them when they came back for the job they did in vietnam. Which he said was honorably undertaken and honorably ended, and he said that our american soldiers are the strongest hope for americas future. I am very fortunate to be in this position. To be in a position where we care for our veterans, and we care for their families, and we remind people everyday that they are sleeping soundly at night because of the sacrifices of their fellow citizens who have experienced the incommunicable experience of war. A few years ago, v. A. Was not in a very good place. It was scandal after scandal and many in this department and this place have noted. I believe we have turned the corner. This year, i was able on behalf of the president to present the largest budget in the history of Veterans Affai