attack shortly before the fbi acknowledged the country's involvement. >> just a short announcement. secretary hagel authorized 1300 more troops to deploy to iraq. approximately a thousand of them are soldiers from the thur burr gade combat team 8nd air division based in fort brag in north carolina. this is part of the additional 1500 troops the president authorized in november. with that i will take questions. >> you said 1300 but only a thousand listed. do you know where they are coming from? the others? >> they are coming from multiple services like counter intelligence it is multi service. we talked about this before where a good chunk of the troops including would be to close included in the enabling capabilities. i don't have all of the units but i can get that if you need it. they are small groups and i don't have that level of detail. >> has the secretary receive the bergdahl recommendations from the army? are they complete? is the report complete? are you going to release it before christmas? >> the secretary hasn't been briefed on the result of the bergda bergdahl. i know the work is done but they will refer you to the army to speak on that. just to be clear, i will not be leaving out the briefing he gets. this is an army investigation and obviously we will refer people to the army to speak to it but it will be brief. >> who will ultimately decide bergdahl's fate? who makes the final decision? >> without getting ahead of any findings and conclusions or any process issues, the question, if i could just challenge the premise of the question which is there is over-decision that needs to be made and i don't know that for a fact. let's assume there is. it would be done by army leadership and i could not tell you what level that would be or a concern name of an individual who might be. but that is an army organizational issue to deal with. >> is any portion going public today? >> no. >> you don't expect we will hear about this report until next year and the recommendations? why would the secretary be briefed today and then held? there are reports this is scheduled to come out before the break. >> that is for the army to decide the next steps and again i cannot get ahead of that. let me put that aside. it is a fact and you have seen this before separate and distinct from discussions about sergeant bergdahl, it is as a fact that sometimes investigations are used in judicial processes and are not released until those processes are complete. i cannot speak to the timing of any release of the report and investigation. but i can tell you that we as the department, and certainly i think i am comfortable in speaking for the army in this regard that they will not go any faster than they need to go in terms of process. so you will not see it today. i can tell you that for a fact. i would point you to the army for any discussion about what the plans are going forward. >> secretary hagel will accept the findings of the army or he has the ability to overrule what their recommendations are? >> no, he is going to be briefed this afternoon on the findings of the investigation. it is an informational brief to the secretary. this is an army investigation. and completed by the army staff, staffed by the army. >> the secretary has no input? >> if you mean we will change it in some regard or modify it, i don't expect so. >> does he have the authority to do that? >> no. >> this is an army expectation >> then why say i don't expect that. >> he is getting briefed on the findings of the investigation. there is no expectations that there is going to be -- that he will have any input or change to the recommendations but he hasn't gotten it yet and you are asking what, if anything, is going to change about it. i am not a military lawyer. he is getting briefed on the investigation and the findings of it. it is an army investigation and it is the army's decision to determine what, if anything, they will do as a result of the investigation and the findings. the secretary is being briefed on it. >> you are almost implicating he has some authority is is going to do arm twisting for the army? >> the secretary isn't doing any arm cutting for the army. i cann i cannot characterize his reaction but there is no modifications expected. >> they are they holding it if there is no change? >> i answered the knows. >> the seth gets to see it and why doesn't everyone else? >> i suspect at the appropriate time the army will make the investigation public. >> the secretary of the army offered imhad a chance to look at it he, he accepted and is taking a look at the findings. >> what is the next step for the army or within the army's process? >> you would have to talk to the army about that. i don't know. this isn't an army investigation. and for them to speak to process i will not get ahead of that. >> you expect the secretary then inturn to brief the whitehouse? >> no. -- in turn -- >> yesterday, john kerry talked the iraq situation, can you give us more on who is taking the initiatives for the tribes? >> i am pretty sure this was covered yesterday, joe. let me go back and remind you where we are in the process. the train, advise and assist mission is about getting 12 burr gades through the training and we are in the process now preparing the sights for that training and the trainers, which i just announced are on their way will be there by the end of the month in january. the focus initially will be on those 12 burr gades. there could be training given to sunni tribes eventually. but we are not at that stage yet. whatever training of the tribes would occur would be done, through, by and with iraqi security force trainers. does that make sense? this is something that we talked to them about and they very much need to own. we are not at that stage. the focus is a, getting the trainers over there, getting the sights ready to receive trainees and begin focusing on the 12 over there. >> this week i am wonder if is normal for the country to let the issues drop and if the pentagon was given a heads up? >> i don't know the answers to your questions. i will not speak to the president's decisions make in that regard. the second question, i cannot help you with. >> the report said that boca harem has children and i am wondering if you are accepting up additional personal and drones? >> we have seen the reports about additional kidnappings and we have nothing to confirm it. boca harem continues to be a threat and we partner and offer assistance to the nigeria government. >> the question about north korea. there are many reports of and speculation of them being behind the cyber attacks here in the united states. i was curious among the military perspective, what the united states military understanding is of north korea's cyber capabilities and are they are cyber threat from the military perspective? >> without speaking specifically to sony pictures and you know we take cyber threats serious, i will not get into a laundry list but this is something the secretary takes seriously and devotes time to the cyber domain. it is something we are mindful of. but if is a domain where you have to be very aware of sp specificity you talk about the threat threats, chal changs and issues brought to you. we are using a broad threat approach to the threats to the cyber domain. >> has the u.s. cyber command been taxed with assisting the fbi or any part of the government into the investigation into the sony hack? >> this is an fbi investigation. i am not aware of any particular assistance rendered by dod that said we have been part of the discussions. >> just to follow-up with north korea. it is blaming them and at what point is this an act of war and at what point does cyber command go into affect? >> i know nothing that has confirmed the attacks on sony pictures so i am not in a position to speguess about that. i would not get ahead of the fbi on that. we are part of the discussion about the incident and options that may be available. i am also not able to layout in any specificity what is or isn't an act of war in the cyber domain. it isn't like there is a demarcation line that exist in some sort of fixed space on what is or isn't. the domain remains challenging and fluid and part of the reason why it is such a challenging domain for us is because there are not international accepted norms and protocols and that is something we here in the defense department has been arguing for. richard? >> has bergdahl and his lawyer been informed of general gull's report? >> i don't know. >> if it isn't the secretary, who will ultimately sign off on this report? will it be general lodona? >> i don't know. i would refer you to the army. this is an army investigation and they are better prepared to speak to the process. >> on the congress side, they authorized the sale of navy ship to taiwan and the president signed and i wonder what types of ships it will be and what is the regard from the pentagon comments. >> i don't have specifics on the transfer. this isn't an atypical type of transfer with taiwan. separate and distinct from that nothing changed from the fact we want to construe a relationship with them. there have been positive signs the pla maybe participating in the rim of the pacific exercise and we will look into those. and i think you saw admiral harris talk about this this week publically. there are opportunities and we don't need to look at the military relationship with adversary in any regards and we will continue to work on that. >> the president was selling taiwan excess vessels as opposed to newly built ships. can you explain they would be excess to inventory? >> i don't have that detail. we can try to look it up. i don't have it available. sorry. >> going back to iraq, can you say where the troops from the 82nd are going? all four of the training sights and will they be up and running or baghdad? >> i would refer you to general terry about specifics of where the troops go. i don't know if decisions have been made about where they will go. the are four sites we are not talking publically ability. i would assume they would be allocated as they see fit. >> but they are going to the four sites? >> yes they are specifically going to be part of the train, advise and assist mission. so you can expect they will go to some of them or maybe all of them. i don't know how they will be proportioned. >> can you give us your assessment of needing more troops? there have been intense strikes and can you give us updating on the training in arizona? >> i don't have an update on the training. i know it is ongoing. on the airstrikes, yes, i think there has been an expressed interest from the iraq government of more strikes in the air. we are conducting the airstrikes at an appropriate pace and insurgency to meet the threats of isis and with our ability to support iraq and kurdish forces on the ground. you saw a spike this week but it was to help prepare for the operations conducted around mount sinja which are still ongoing but proving to be promising. there was a spike. but that is in keeping with the way we are approaching the business of airstrikes. it is to go after them where we can and we know we should and support the iraq forces on the ground. so the numbers will flchange evy single day and that is the measure we are using to determine how many are done and where. it isn't just a matter of more or less. it has to be appropriate to the threat and the operations on the ground. >> and what is the level of confidence of the iraqi's participating in the strikes? do you anticipate they will be participating more soon? how can they inspire confidence in the iraqis looking for more help? >> the iraqis have a limited airstrike capability right now. they have in recent weeks conducted a few spratic revictions of their own but have a limited capability. and that is the capability we are trying to help them develop and improve. the other important note is isn't just about the united states aircraft. there are coalition partners every day that are participating in the strikes as well. it isn't just us. there are plenty of other nations contributing. everyone wants to see the iraq government and military improve their own capabilities to do this eventually. >> on cuba, can you rule out the normalization of relations would entail the return of guantanamo bay to cuba? >> i am not prepared to rule anything in or out at this point. we are at the very beginning of the process of more normal relationships with cuba. i suspect just like every other agency in the government there is going to be a defense department aspect to this. and a defense relationship at some point. and at some level it is way too soon to make any determinations about what that would look like or what the impact would be are respect to the base and not just the detention facility. that said, nothing has change said about our support as an institution for the closing of the detention center there and that process will continue, transfers will continue, but as for the base itself which has been there since the spanish-american war, it is too soon to tell what implications would be for that >> you were not part of that negotiations? >> i don't have direct knowledge of the discussions with the cuban government. so i could not say one way or the other. but i am comfortable saying it is way too soon in the process for any specific initiatives to be discussed today. >> and clarification on the air base going to iraq, is their role remaining at the head quarters level and not the tactical level? >> their advise and assist mission is going to be exactly the same as it it in terms of level of command as it right now at a higher head quarters level. what makes it different is the geography. you will have advising teams north of baghdad and areas where they have not been before but they will still be on a base and advising and assisting no change to that at all. >> it isn't at the iraq troop level. >> if you mean they will not go out and partner and accomplish small groups of troops nothing changed. >> there is two missions to this. there is the advise and assist. and there is the building partner capacity which is pentagon speaks for training. those who are going to be advisors will be advising at the same level. right? at the division higher level head quarters. that is advising and giving advise and council. there are a number that will be involved with troop interaction of iraqi security force personal. once those iraqis are identified they will do the training. troop-on-troop contact in a training environment on those facilities but not out in the field. does that answer? >> it is leads you to believe they are not capable or equipped for operations at this point? we train our own troops all of the time. they go through various levels of training. not just at the beginning of the enlistment or tours but all throughout. it is one of the things the united states military does well is train and develop and improve the capabilities of their own troops. this doesn't mean they are encapsulat encapsulated. some units are more competent than others. the iraqi government will chose who they want to focus on for the first implementation of the training and i would suggest the trainers working with them that they are varying degrees of skills. training is something you never stop doing and trying to improve. the fact that it is dollar. >> ashton carter had back surgery. is there any chance the recovery time will delay his assigning time? >> i am not able to speak to dr. carter's health situation and it would be inappropriate for me to do that. the second wishes him well on his recovery. we all do. but i have no information and wouldn't speak to his recovery time frame and what that might look like. >> every child in the united states is interested in this question. is the pentagon concerned that norrad's santa radar is in damage of being hacked? are you taking measures to improve that? >> i didn't know we had one of those. it is funny you should ask. i did get an update from nor-ad this morning. so bear with me and this is coming right from them. they have brogan it down and in the domains they tell me their anti grinch fire wall is up and they are confidence their anti bridge firewall can defeat any malicious attacks and they prepared loose tops the reindeers would land on and ships are standing by to conduct any lost gift operations, if necessary. if case he drops anything they will pick it up. >> why did you withhold that from jim gregory's daughter when she was here? >> i didn't have it there. >> santa will be on time? >> every indication says it will be. in the space domain, our infra red ability is calibrated to see rudolph's nose. >> you are asking for levels of it tails that are classified. >> and in the air domain, they report the canadian and others are ready to help santa with coordination to the faa and canada we can confirm north america is safe for sleigh travel. >> we don't talk about the specifics of force protection measures. but it sounds like they are ready for santa. anything else? that might be a good way to end it. >> listen to last press briefing for the year, i wish all of you, and secretary hagel wishes you a happy holiday season and we will see you on the back side. thank you very much. >> president obama held his year end news conference with reporters at the whitehouse speaking about a range of issues including the decision by sony pictures to cancel the release of their movie "the interview" after north korea's cyber attack. >> sony is a corporation and they suffered damage with threats against their employees. i am sympathetic to the concerns they faced. having said all of that, yes, i think they made a mistake. in this interconnected digital world, there are going to be opportunities for hackers to engage in cyber assaults, both in the private and public sector. our first order of business is doing everything to make sure we pardon and prevent those kinds of attacks taking place. when i came into office, i stood up a cyber security inter-agency team to look at everything we could do at the government level to prevent these kinds of attacks. we have been coordinating with the private sector but a lot more needs to be done. we are not even close to where we need to be. one of the things into the new year that i hope congress is prepared to work with us on is strong cyber security laws that allow for information sharing across private sector platforms as well as the public so we are preventing this from happening in the first place. as we get better, the hackers get better. all of them are sophisticated and many can do damage. we cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the united states. because if someone is able to do this, imagine what they might do when it is another movie with reports they don't like. or even worse, imagine if producers start engaging in self-censorship because they don't want to offend someone who probably needs to be offended. that is what what we are here for. that is not what america is about. i am sympathetic sony was worried about liability but i wish they would have spoken to me first. i would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you are intimidated by these kind of criminal attacks. >> that was some of president obama's year end news conference earlier today at the whitehouse. you can see the rest of that online. tomorrow we will bring you an event with seth rogan one of the stars of the interview and he was part of a discussion on politics and humor. that is on tomorrow night at 9:30 eastern on c-span. >> here is a look you will see on christmas day: holiday festivals begin with the lighting of the national christmas tree, followed by the whitehouse christmas decorations and the lighting of the capital christmas tree. and just after 12:30, activist talk about their causes and then a supreme court justice and jeb bush on the bill of rights and the founding fathers. on c-span2 venture to the art of good writing and see the feminist side of a super hero as we research the secrets of wonder woman. and pamala paul talk about their reading habits. and on c-span3, the fall of the berlin wall with speeches from kennedy and reagan. at noon, fashion experts on first lady's fashion choices and how they represented the styles of the time they lived. and tom broke talks about his entire history of reporting. >> this is at the airforce association in arlington virginia. >> good morning. it is a pleasure to have you here. on behalf of scott, chairman of the board, recently elected, it is pleasure to have you in the doolittle building. we say that because we dedicated the building to the history and legacy of general do little and there was an interesting event that created this and a young person asked why that man meant anything to him. it wasn't a mean question but world war ii is a long way off to many people. so they said this would be a tribute to the general and you will see the letters on the building as soon as we can get the county to let us do that. we will talk to lieutenant general sid clark and most people know his backgrund but he is the total force airman. the united states air force has components that all blend together very seemlessly and general clark has had jobs of increasing responsibility. not only in washington but all over the world having been in turkey and a deputy a8. he has been my vice commander in the air national guard and worked at timber airforce base in florida. amazing life and family. i welcome you to hear his remarks. so welcome to you. [applause] >> appreciate you taking the time-out of your pre-holiday activities to come here and listen to me talk about the air national guard and the airforce. i see some people in the audience that are nad shea. i always say as a nad shea we do the four alls -- alcohol, cholesterol, protocol, and tylenol and sometimes in that order. i want to talk about one part of the balance strategy and security operation and how important it is and how the national guard play as role in that. you did a great job of introducing me and i want to say thanks to the general and not just for being a great mentor to me because people like myself never get anywhere without the assistance of others, sometimes being swift and sometimes kicking be in the you know what to get me going. i appreciate his advice and the invitation to be here. i will break down a little bit about the air national guard in terms of what we do and not so much about who we are or how many units we have or what we do for the united states airforce and governors out there. but just a little bit about the things and activities we do. i will get into what is called the balance strategy. there is one for the national guard and it talks about how important it is that the national guard is a war-fighting component and responsible for things in the homeland and building partnerships. i modify that to a certain degree. the air national guard is obviously involved in war-fighting operations. we are obviously involved in homeland operations and one that wasn't that obvious to me, until i became the director of the air national guard in the secure operation room, and that expands behind the strategy and i will talk to that a little bit more. when it comes to war fighting, and there were commanders that were important. but something that reflected prior to 2001 and most of you know since 2001 and how engaged we have been as the airforce. just about the same time we had the attack on the nation at the level and magnitut of 9/11 and we were transitioning at that time. that got us busy and moving. i had an opportunity in my career and time to watch that happen. when the came to war fighting, i like to tell people their national guard is a proven chose. i didn't say the first chose or the only chose but a proven choice. and there is one reason that is true. the united states air force senior leadership, years past and present, have made sure their national guard and air force reserve were able to deploy on moments notice in support of things that were the airforce was requested to do a mission, regardlessf of where it was, we would plug in right away. we don't do things like pre-mobilization training. we deploy from our own bases wherever they are across the nation right into conflict. we train to the same standards and inspections understanding we are a fighting component of the military. we don't hesitate to assigning any task we will be engaged over the next year. i don't think you will see slow down in the out years. i did credit to the people inside the united states airforce for insuring that happens. in 2002, i volunteered to go serve in the air operation center in saudi arabia. i was the director of combat operation. after that experience, mosely called me after things were getting bad in iraq. he said, i heard about your capabilities you have in montgomery and i want you to be a wing commander we will stand up in the desert to do primarily counter hunting if you will for scuds that might be out there in the desert. in addition there might be other things that happen, too. yeah, he was right. a lot happened behind scud hunting. this allowed us to be a selected unit to lead in effort against a very important mission and that is the counter scud mission. this is in phase one immediately after the war started. they joined together to become part of a wing and sent to the desert that was probably argablely a very important mission. i don't want you to miss this. we were trained at a high level to do these operations. in fact, we were trained at a level to do the operations but stand up and base ourselves. we had to build all of the living facilities. we had to build the taxi ways and the mixture we were capable of doing road bus 24 hours operations for undetermined periods of time and do that without causing fracticide. that is a high expectation doing things around the clock, at night, lights out, fully armed, refueling airplanes on the ramp, and doing all of the expectations you expect an airforce unit. it was an air national guard that did this. that is the point i am trying to make to you. i am very proud of air force senior leadership having the vision to push forward with this type of readiness. so, this year i think about the war fighters and what comes to mind is the medal opportunities i have had the opportunity to be part of. in march, i had the opportunity to be in two different medal a ceremonies. the first was in stewart airbase, new york. the 105 base defense squad which was deployed to afghanistan for six months was engaged in activities of supporting outside the wire of the base, depending the base, making sure approachers to and from the runway were clear, and they were heavily engaged. 12 purple hearts and 12 combat action medals. and one airman, senior air man amanda martino got two purple hearts and a combat action medal and one thing that struck me is she is about this tall and is working on her second college degree. she is a college student and she is deployed in an environment like that and i said would you go again and she said absolutely. so you are very proud of people that step forward time and time again and defend the nation and do what is right. special tat tactics is the air peace that goes out there with the units. it doesn't matter what unit or type it is but they embed themselves in there and many hof the units won't leave the camp until they have a special controller with them in order to control the air power. that make as difference on the battlefields and iraq. one is an outstanding man for the airforce. doug is a college student as well and same question, would you go back? i can't wait. wounded. protected his captain green beret who had part of his leg blown off, engaged the enemy, calling in air power at the same time. remarkable individual. but again, trained to airforce standards and expectations. hit on that point again. domestic operation is the second part of the strategy. homeland operation if you will i believe we are first choice. we are structured that way, we respond to the governor's request when something happens that required the manpower and equipment. 93% of the equipment that supports war fight supports domestic operations as well. it is as a natural make up. inside of the homeland operation missi mission, the airspace control mission we do 24/7 since 9/11 day-to-day is hundred percent air national guard. they look at 16 sights around the nation. there are tanker units. we defend the nation day in and day out and the command and control structure is air national guard. going back to the airforce expectations of its components, they expect the air national guard to do that mission. our nation expects the air national guard to do that mission without fail or hesitation. you don't hear much about the mission, but it is there. it is always there. it is the light insurance policy and you hope you never have to exercise that. we accomplish fighting fires with aircraft and around the bases and our airman get called out to support local fire departments where they don't have a robust fire department in the community. we find ways to use i cannot tell you house education and workforce committee times people have found stuff in attics or fields but we go out there and help pick it up and disable it. we want to ensure the citizens at home with the capabilities of the equipiment and the at home as well. we have the uniqueness of governors being able to call out airman on state active duty. don't put them on active funding but they will go out and support what the government wants. if it has to be a bigger issue, it has to be contained or dealt with and we can exercise the federal funding for the manpower. it is on the southwest bord in new york, out in hawaii, and supporting efforts that are important to the governor. again, we believe we are the first chose in homeland operations because of the variety of capabilities and how airman are trained. in this last season, one man huddled his home into a hallway and tornado came and he through a mattress over his children and draped over him. he was killed and where was there to produce the airman's medal which is the highest medal we can give for peace time interaction. and during my time as the director of the air national guard, i was able to watch the presentation of the airman's medal to master sergeant lance lansberry. he was the teacher at the middle school who when the gun shot happened he went down to where the shooting was happening and put himself between the shooter and the ort students trying to talk to shooter into stopping him what he was doing but in that event the sergeant cause shot by the shooter ask killed. that international air guardman didn't run away from the gunfire. he ran to the gunfire knowing it was the right thing to do. very proud of someone like that. this was a port of the triad of missions in the strategy. we didn't have a lot of knowledge of until i became the director of the air national guard. i was very familiar with the state-partnership pattern. we have 74 out there around the world which was created at the end of the cold war where we wanted to put an institution of the military and a long-term relationship with nations over in europe. we had no idea how that would grow into what it became today or how long it would sustain itself from the post-soviet union years. but it has been highly successful. the key to a program like that is long term relationships. and in alabama, our relationship with romania for 20 years has played divdened in access, sharing information and even today they are looking at going into the f-16 mission because of the f-16 mission and my old unit there and we had partnered with them on helping the system move into that platform. behind the partnership, we have bilateral and are doing things on behalf of the air force and the nation. you know who trained them? the rhode island national guard trained them. you can see them learning how to maintain that. i had no idea what was the scope until i did this job and i am still learning about how involved we are with a variety of programs beyond the state partnership program. i think week carry more load and a security operation that takes some funding but it is key to long-term relationships we can create with people overtime. and with national guard, we tend to stay in the units for a long time and that is the grease behind the long term relationship. we will continue to look forward to them and partnering with anyone who believes in the same ideas america does. we will do that on behalf of commanders and the industry teams. and anybody that thinks it is the right thing to do and get help from the air force and national guard and i think we can make this program and this part of the balance strategy a bigger piece of what we are doing day to day. ... so far, and i mean this sincerely, i have not had employers complain about what we do and i have not had pushback from families about what we do. i think a lot of that credit goes to the fact that when i walk through an airport with my uniform on i will have people run up to me and shake my hand and say thank you for serving our nation and it happens multiple times in just one trip. they want to buy you coffee and ice cream. the people at the desk say do you want to write in first class which i can do but i think it's the gratitude of the nation. not not just the pay and the benefits. for crying out loud people could do a lot of other things for the pain of benefits but the opportunity to serve this nation. i'm very proud to wear this uniform in the credit goes back to united states air force to make sure people are proud to wear this uniform in the national guard and the opportunity to wear it. therefore it sets my priorities. when we talk about what i think about in the future and how we will use our airmen and what's important to them. obviously all the people programs are very key. how we would do things in regards to psychological health, sexual assault prevention and all of those important people programs that is always up front. indeed any commander will tell you that more than 50% of the time is spent on personnel issues. the other time is spent on things like budget maintenance and facilities and other things but it's so key to what we do in making sure we do it right. my priorities would be to make sure that we are a seamless member of the total force going forward. i think we are pretty good today. i think there is more opportunity to make sure we do that in the future so i'm going to continue to work through those things with the secretary of the air force and the chief of staff of the air force which by the way are outstanding members of the air force in their own right but also the ability to work with them as outstanding as well. i'm in a very fortunate position of having great partners out there in the senior air force leadership including the commanders. i also want to make sure that the equipment we have today is going to be recapitalized and modernized as we go forward. of all the things i just told you about how much we do on behalf of the air force and the nation it is only appropriate that we are premodern icing and re-capitalizing on par with the united states air force to do all of this. i will stand on the ground in testimony and anywhere else until you that's key because if i want those people to feel value-added and the handshakes at the airport or want them to feel the airplanes they are flying are safe and modern and they can do anything passed to them. it's very important when you're operating these types of equipment. sometimes at night, sometimes lights out, thousand miles across the ocean. you want to feel confident about what you are doing with equipment that has been assigned to you. going full circle back to the discussion we had earlier. in korea is an important part of what we do. we don't solicit that money from congress. they give it to us because they are observing how good the international guard and air force reserve are serving the nation in the air force and feel like it's appropriate that anything where we have a gap they want to put money back in to ensure we are able to support the air force or the governor's homeland missions so whether we are talking domestic things in the warfighting piece is well trying to make sure its dual purpose as much as possible and in many cases it is. the programs that you will find and i find the most interesting in history were things like the targeting pod, the data link, the night vision equipment. all those things that were purchased with ingria money in years prior to make sure that we were able to do warfighting component of the combatant commander requirements i should say. the targeting pods in the night vision equipment was on the f-16s that i was flying 12 years ago was the very reason general mosley said you guys have got the equipment and you obviously are trained on it more than anybody else. had it not been for ingria that story would never have been written. it never would have happened today we are finding ourselves in a unique situation where we have a lot of legacy airplanes. they are going to have to be modernized until we can get to the point where we can recapitalized with newer airplanes and newer equipment. the process by which we do that is very good. we established a requirement, we prioritize what it is. we make sure the air force is on board with it and they agreed to the program and then we have a test center that helps us take usually off-the-shelf commercial off-the-shelf equipment without spending a whole bunch of money on research and development in that type of thing and incorporated and it has worked time and time again. this very same unit that i took to combat 11 years ago just returned from a six-month deployment to afghanistan where they had two pieces of equipment on their pliant one helmet if you will and they center units which gave them higher fidelity on what they are looking at in the cockpit. train them and sent the airplanes forward very successfully for six months in afghanistan and returned home. that money in ingria is very well spent, extremely well spent and how we do that and it's defendable unrepeatable and something we think is key to ensuring with the legacy airplanes we have we always have the capability to support the air force and the war -- and we also use that money for domestic operations. we will buy the explosive ordinance disposal robots, medical gear, seabearing equipment things we think that are important because on america's worst night i can guarantee you who's going to be out the door supporting the community or across the state. it will be air national guard members was alongside with army air national guard. we are going to be there and i always tell people if you are in the national guard you are always on a mission. you are part time. you can have somebody returned from afghanistan during a war fight in the next day tornado, flood, earthquake, fire. if that happens you can bet they will be called up the next day and put to work on behalf of their community and their state, always on a mission. the same people might be involved with security quaff russian details come planning something and getting ready for a bilateral event. we stay very active in all of that and we are very proud of that. so in conclusion i just want to tell you that we had an opportunity to become a part of the different air force, the same five core mission areas that general welsh often talks about but also in three domains. airspace and fiber and we are involved in all of those activities. indeed we do almost every mission set in the united states air force and there's not a single mission that we can do. trained to the same inspection rate doing the same inspections operationally engaged involved with all the exercises in all the deployments overseas. we find ourselves very proud members of air national guard and the air force. with that i will give you a chance to ask me questions. thank you. [applause] >> just a couple r.o.e.'s for the q&a. our great friends at c-span are filming this and it will be televised later today and drop the holidays. bridget has got a microphone. if you will just wait for the mic to come to you. as they get ready for questions sid i can only thank you for your message but the consistency of your message over time from leadership like conaway shepard brubaker james wyatt, i mean this speech tailored for today for 2014 are the same words that people go back to the 1980s with about their thanks to the united states air force, to its leadership for the seamlessness. this is a tremendous message and i'm very proud to be part of a great united states air force. our secretary and the chief are doing a great job in keeping this gang together just like the air force association has done. and like mitchell is trying to do. with that too is a question for general clarke? back here in the back. hang on for a second. >> thanks very much for coming out to talk to us today. speaking about modernization of the fleet now that we have defense building can you share thoughts on the modernization for your c-130 fleet as you get ready to do global air traffic management system tech. >> international guard probably has the lion's share of c-130s and the legacy fleet and one thing we recognize is what the c-130 has been in their operations over the past 12 years. we use them at home and domestic operations too. what is pressing on us on the c-130s right now is that mandates that have come out with regard to flying and airspace where the faa has told us or our kos told us he will have to be a good airspace management where the airplanes provide information which reduces the separation between the aircraft. that's probably the closest right now that we will have to figure out a way to modernize the airplanes in order to be compliant with all of that. if they are not compliant it's a good chance to get grounded and they are great airplanes. but you have to comply with anything that's provided with regards to the management authorities. we are at a point now where we believe it's appropriate that the airplanes get the minimum modernization to be compliant and i had that in mind when people asked me about modernization efforts eyes tell them airplanes have to be safe, reliable and compatible. compatible in the sense of how they serve combatant commanders would also compatible with things like this airspace management. so there are many things we can do with these airplanes, lot of different modernization efforts that can be accomplished on the airplane but in priority order that the first one. i'm thinking that within a language we have an opportunity to explore ways where we just get that piece piece done for cinema can start talking about other things we can do to the airplanes whether it's engine instruments or other things like that. we will be able to get to that but we have got to do this one first. we will be very aggressive. by the way this is not just a c-130 issue. this issue affects the whole united states air force. we have multiple -- the one-eyed modifications to be compliant with those regulations and instructions we are receiving from faa. >> yes, please. do you want to wait on the microphone? >> good morning. thanks to the afa and the michelin institute for putting us on and thanks for taking the time to speak to us today. also budget related as we are moving forward with fy16 and beyond, the military compensation and retirement commission is going to come out with a report that will affect personnel. the back-and-forth with the a-10 and we are going to retire it and we are not going to retire it, all those things impact procurement mission sets enemy and personnel. aside from air force concerns in general is there anything specific to the air national guard that you can share as far as moving forward with concerns you have for personnel procurement and equipment as well? >> with personnel i mentioned earlier the most important weapons system we have is the airman and i find them to be were markedly resilient and capable. all they airman and air force that the international guard are very experienced and therefore the good news there is they can take on any mission, conversion. in fact we had them convert to multiple platforms. they do it very quickly. they pick up the mission and move on. sometimes it's kind of hard to shed what you love but by and large all of the airman love being a part of their national guard and doing a mission when it's offered to them and they will leverage. good something in their life to make sure they can help the unit complete the transition. when it comes to the pay and compensation i don't get asked a lot about that. i do get a lot of questions about the future and what they will be doing. one of the questions i get asked the most in my command chief, when will i get a chance to be deployed again? secretary james the other day said the same thing about regular air force airman. she said is one of the most startling things to me that i get asked time and time again when i travel around to different basis. i get asked well i get a chance to deploy again. they care about the drawdowns but people feel like they are being used because their value-added to the mission. i know in the years of the cold war we did a heck of a lot of training and stayed in place and especially -- occasionally went to a red flag but never thought we would use our capabilities. like sharpening a knife all the time time and you never get to use the night. today the knife is used a lot and they feel that's important to them that they continue to do that. so that is kind of the future for personnel for procurement. obviously working under sequestration is going to be a difficult environment and part of station becomes important. we are flying old airplanes today and i think we will fly all the airplanes in the future. we have to find a way to make sure they are safe reliable and compatible. never ask an airman to do something or operate something that isn't up to speed and isn't safe or reliable. i have used this analogy before about my 1961 corvette. i love my 61 corvette. it's red and it turns on a dime, runs like the wind but i don't trust it beyond 10 miles. to that point we are asking airman to fly 1961 airplanes across thousands of miles of ocean at night into combat areas without hesitation. there are a lot of weapons systems. there is modernization including the ingria. that's all important about the legacy but at some point we have to recapitalize these airplanes. we can't keep doing that. that's 61 corvette will become something like a relic of a model a someday. we have to think in those terms at some point move onto something else. with the overall recapitalization efforts we just want to be apart and they are including us in the program so that the kc-46 is bob we will bid get some kc-46's in the force. the joint strike fighter who will get those in the national guard too. we are inviting and an active association in these total force arrangement where we will bring an active-duty airmen to be part of the guard to fly with us to operate and maintenance also. we think that's important. that truly makes us a seamless force along with the inspections and standards in everything else. that is my vision of the future as we go forward. it's going to be tough, no doubt. anything else? i appreciate the opportunity to talk to the gang this morning and i hope everybody has a safe holiday and good luck on i-95 if that is your plan. [laughter] [applause] >> thank you. on behalf of lieutenant general retired -- dean of the mitchell is it to doug berkey who is his full-time assistant here we are proud to have at the director of air national guard speak to us in our last session of 2014. this is our last event of our first full year which is as heinous travel with the chief to new york city with the undersecretary to boston, to a large contingent working with the brand in los angeles and we are very proud of what the mitchell institute is doing. we thank industry partners who were in this room because it wouldn't happen without your support but we think it's high time our airmen and airpower gets covered at the same rate as their other services and the mitchell institute allows us to do that. on behalf of dave we will give you this book air commanders. we go back a long way in our nations history but there are some great leaders just like you are a great leader and we appreciate you very much. on the half of my executive vice president who by the way commanded the first fighter wing at langley in an association of the raptor, we decided that size matters and the size of your -- so mark and i want you to have the largest challenge point in the world in the next time we see you you had better have it with you. thanks. [applause] that does wrap up our program today. thank you for the association for being here today today. we are so honored you would be here and we are looking forward to working closely with you. industry partners attaches members of the guardmembers guardmembers of active components are civilian workforce have a wonderful holiday. drive safely. come back in 2015. we think you'll find this program equally exciting next year. god bless. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] next to look at the challenges facing the military health system. speakers include dr. jonathan woodson who served as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs as well as former white house budget director alice rivlin and former undersecretary of defense comptroller robert hale. from the brookings institution this is two hours. >> good morning everyone. welcome to brookings. merry christmas, happy hanukkah. i michael o'hanlon on 21st century security and intelligence. we are privileged to have an all-star cast on the subject of military health care reform. we are going to hear from assistant secretary of defense for health affairs dr. jonathan woodson first. he is responsible for the 50 billion-dollar plus enterprise that takes care of almost 10 million people including dod active-duty personnel and families, retirees. they took care of 50,000 wanted on the battlefield and that is a very large player in her national health care system. for that reason after we heard from dr. woodson and we will assemble a panel of distinguished scholars to range across not only the military domain but also the broader health care and economic domain of her country as well and i will have the privilege of monitoring that panel a little bit later on. for now i would like to give dr. woodson the floor and let me say a brief additional word about him. he is a physician one of the countries best of vascular surgeons. he has experience as a soldier in the military himself deployed several times and nations wars. ps i say is now a businessman because he is running an organization are set up organizations, many organizations with a combined annual expenditure well in excess of $50 million which is now more than 10% of the base budget of the department of defense. a remarkable set of responsibilities no matter how you look at it and dr. woodson thanks for being here today and without further ado the floor is yours. please join me in welcoming him. [applause] >> thank you very much for that kind introduction. it is indeed a privilege and honor for me to be here today to join such a distinguished panel and old colleagues and friends like bob hale. i want to thank the brookings institute and michael o'hanlon for inviting me to talk about what i really deal with everyday and i think it's important and timely to not only the national scene and national defense and security strategy but health care in general. i typically speak to forums and audiences that are more dod and medical centric so it's really great for me to talk to a nazi and to get feedback from an audience that has broader perspective on national security and american health care. so i'm going to try and set the table a little bit here about the military health system to tee up the discussion that will follow about the reforms that are underway and needed down the road. the military health system first of all fills a number of roles and responsibilities in support of the military strategies and to properly assess its value we need to understand these roles particularly in emergency and global health engagement environment. being able to meet all of these missions and most importantly deployed anywhere on the globe in an moment's notice it's important to state that this is not a pickup game and you need to have a well-honed and organize system to support that national security and military strategy. it's important to realize also that the most important role is the key enabler of the warfighter as exemplified by this iconic figure on this photograph. we need to keep this individual healthy in all dimensions, mind body and spirit. we need to be able to help him or her when ill or injured. we need to remove rocks from this individual's rum sack by making sure they don't have to worry about the family when deployed. so to paraphrase gretzky we need to escape to where -- skate to where the puck will be as we make reforms go in for. we have opportunities to increase the value for system to policymakers beneficiaries in the country at large but only in the context of understanding the larger roles and capabilities of the military health system. born historically from independent medical systems generating decades ago when it was much simpler and the way we thought about medical care and it was less involved costly and technological. the military health system is in a transformative period after 13 plus years of work could we have performed well but we need to position ourselves stronger better and more relevant to the future. essential to preparing for the future is understanding the volatile uncertain ambiguous environment and define the national security scene and health care in america. i think many of you have heard the term date -- and ambiguous before. it's important to understand this because the nhs is not immune to the changing requirements of these other domains. so if you accept the edward deming toles -- philosophy will need to do as we skate to where the puck will be his design the system for the outcomes that we want when measured against all of the missions and functions we are asked to perform. .. american society, if anyone thought we could outsource this and produce, generate the medical force we needed, you need to understand the couple of things that are changing. today as we speak their are a bunch a bunch of senior medical students who are starting around the country looking for residency programs to do with finance trainings. it turns out because of a lot of factors there are probably going to be about 1000 cute a thousand positions available to train and then there are going to be american medical graduates. the ability of the american public to generate the medical force that we need may not be their. we need to maintain a basement generating the medical force, folks are going in harms way. we also operate one of the most advanced medical research development programs in the country, and this is becoming increasingly important as the expectation of american leaders in the american public is that we we will close the gap on medical knowledge when it does not exist and traumatic brain injury is such an example. we have been challenge of the last decade to rapidly close the gap in terms of neuroscience to improve the outcomes for) injury. infectious. infectious disease, mental health, and other issues are also predominant must maintain stability. we should be doing work in these emerging infectious diseases and how to prevent these issues from spreading. these are the pieces of the military health system totaling more than 50 billion a year, and the need to work together in order to be available to support the national security defense and military strategies and unraveling a piece of this without ace -- without considering its effect produces a vulnerability. just last year as the combat operations in afghanistan were winding down without we were going to get this brief responded from kinetic activities. ukraine, ebola reframes all of the issues about the military health system in terms of its date bid to be ready. the military health system is an important and an dispensable part of the military effort but whether or not it continues in the same form relates to the issue of the expectations from military medicine because they are higher than ever before. before. american leaders and public expect comprehensive coordinated care for servicemen and women. when knowledge is not exist. we have seen its effect relative to the evil aggressors. for those of you who are not familiar, this is really a seminal event. we brought expertise to this issue, but here it ngos, nongovernmental organizations would hold the military and the military medicine at an extraordinary long arms length because they did not want to be tainted. the sawdust that has to be unfolding and were the first ones who called and said you need to get the american military here to help out, and they spoke about us having battalions of individuals who have special capabilities to the. and assist. there are new expectations from all the mentions of both our in society and around the world about what we can do. another piece of information you need to be aware of: particularly since 2,008 the global economic crisis, many countries have increased their spending. what they really have increased their spending on the military medical systems. we interface around the world training, preparedness, deployment for military operations of kinetic operations, we are looking at the full spectrum of the military medical spectrum of one to five upon which others can plug-and-play. it is not a turnkey kind of operation where you can turn it off and expected to be ready. he need to to be supporting all of these integrated operations from a value perspective one of our core expectations is that from our combat commanders, servicemembers and family we we will save lives on the battlefield. by that by that measure we have been successful. we received the lowest rate in the history of warfare, the lowest disease and non- battle injury rates in the history of warfare so that if an individual's individual is injured today and brought to a combat support hospital they probably have about a 98% chance of six survival. despite what we call the injury severity score which is an index of how severely injured the individual is it indicates that the chance of survival, the case of fatality rate has declined. the more severely injured, fewer fewer deaths, and this occurred as a result of the many integrated issues. it is a result of the practice of clinically compact five complex healthcare widget and transform skills of the combat zone and emphasis on public health and prevention to the research and development system which is invested in issues of research and hemorrhage control, body armor and disciplined study of what works in terms of trauma systems were medical care meets those human systems and taking care, evacuating patients. this has led to the other benefits, a reduced medical footprint, logistical trail, survival, social impact so that we now marry the soldier up with the family sooner with teefive which has an important set of positive social consequences for the healing environment and family dynamics. all of this has been supported by increased training and technical competency. nineteen and 21-year-olds who are doing amazing things because of the education that they receive at the medical education and training center, joint operation in san antonio. we are taking these lessons from the battlefield and transferring them to civilian practice and trauma centers around the united states, his physicians led trauma care now have in the military taking care of events such as congresswoman gifford. when the boston bombing occurred they called us for advice and now their are victims of the boston bombing being treated at walter reed. in the picture on the left you see a wounded warrior can make a capable amputee talking to a boston bombing victim, and the transfer of not only medical knowledge but motivation has been incredible. incredible. our military adaptive sports program has redefined the ability versus disability. soldiers, wounded warriors and are fully engaged in life and competitive sports, diving, surfing, skiing, whatever. there is a new attitude and expectation that we we will make the service member whole, not only in mind, mind, body, and spirit but a commitment to the family unit and financial stability. one in five npt state on active duty, many have returned to the combat zone. we have separated ourselves philosophically from a decades-old way of thinking, particularly when we had force that was conscripts wherein if the soldier became ill or injured they expected to separate from the service, and society expected them to separate from service. nowadays we have a professional volunteer force and which they become ill or injured their expectation is that we will retain them as long as possible to demonstrate their ability to continue to serve, and that is a commitment that we make to both of them, and they expect of us. the whole issue of the dynamics of all we have to field and be ready for rehabilitation has changed. it is not automatic that they we will go to the veterans administration. finally, we have to make this commitment for decades. the issue is that we no that the wars will have a tail relevant to the medical system. in npt, it takes 20 to 60 percent more energy, and if we don't commit to their health over decades and they came with, smoke, you will see the quality and the quantity of there life diminish so that they accrue more diabetes and more cardiovascular disease if we don't protect them for decades. it it is a commitment to them for decades. you can see that this is a complicated system. the slide on the right is a graphic or advertisement from the american association of orthopedic surgeons that clearly suggests that what we do in the military system has value for the american medical system. hopefully i have highlighted some of the values, but we are in a time of transition. operation enduring freedom has closed. isaf said down. operation iraqi freedom has ended a few years ago, but there is still kinetic activities going on. in in the absence of oil or may be a tendency to say what do we need this complex system for command it is important to understand what is occurring in the national security environment, the national health environment and the fiscal environment to understand what reforms need to be made and how we can continue to be of value. i won't go through the national security environment because all of you no that better. on certain things are popping up all over. sometimes we are at the tip of the spear, but spear, but as this issue of global health engagement becomes a new instrument of national power sometimes we we will be at the tip of the spear and hopefully build capacity as a nation to prevent kinetic wars. in the national health environment there are a bunch of changes. more so specialization, more technology, rising cost, although admittedly moderated in recent years, beneficiaries expect more choice, the baby boomers are getting older and need more care. there is an absolute dr. shortage for some of the reasons i talked about before, and so there is an eroding provider base, more competition, the aca is out there. more will be be insured. more will have access to care. there their are more issues with chronic disease, diabetes, obesity, and more care has shifted to outpatient care and less relies upon in patient care. this has led us to develop the quadruple aim in the military health system which looks at better healthcare, better health, better care, but we doing you have established disease, and disease, and lower cost, but most importantly addressing the issue of readiness, how we keep the force medically fit and provide that medical force of providers. if you look at that basically if we can produce better health, better care at lower cost and produced a readiness the readiness necessary, that is our value statement and where we have got -- what we have got to work toward. this slide here, we have talked about this in the past, but this represents sort of the gross by percentage of the defense health program as a percentage of the department of defense baseline budget. the important.is if you have projected the slide a few years ago you would have seen a much more steep rise in the cost. things we have been doing to reduce the cost and put us in position to be competitive and that value in the future. previous government agencies predicted that by 2017 we would be about a budget of $61 billion. we're not going to meet because we have taken certain management strategies health care inflation has moderated. we track a little bit above what the national averages. there are no bets that it will remain as low as it has been over the past three years. at the same time because we have tri-care and tri- care and again it is defined benefits, benefits have been added. we have had congress decreased the's. we don't have the ability to raise premiums or co-pays unless congress agrees. we have added tri- care reserve select to the system beneficiary contribution has struck from initially 27 percent down to 9.3 percent. collectively we have got to decide where we want this to be. we want and the servicemembers deserve a robust benefit at lower costs because of there service but this is a collective a collective decision that we only to make as to where they should be. don't worry too much about the numbers. they probably are a lot of. this was designed mainly as a visual graphic to show you how our budget is divided up into budgetary groups. and the issue is, you will see that we spend a lot and private sector care, about 70% of the dollars that go to patient care, and in the direct care system. it is it is important to ensure that the two are optimized. we use the dollars we invest in the direct care system which we will be a lot of fixed cost. optimally utilized. remember that this is where we generate the medical force to go as key enablers in harms way, with the key also is to focus on those tiny little dots to the right of the screen which talk about management activities because he say your not going to get much efficiency by reforms. the important issue is to modernize management because it is a management that drives the changes in the optimization and is too big bubbles. those really are the takeaways, and that is where we are going. i want to leave you with strategic imperatives and directions we are heading in first of all, about two years ago i put out my guidance in terms of where we were going and organize them around six lines of effort coordinating very well with the secretary's priorities. the first was to modernize the management with an enterprise focused. one of the key changes made was to establish defense health agency responsible for designing and providing common business processes and clinical processes which produce economies of scale, and i am proud to say that we threw our first year even though the defense health agency is not at full operating capability projected a modest savings of about $80 million. we have eclipsed that. $248 million in savings. the first year is successful, but it is also about standing up what we call the enhanced multi-service market strategy. we strategy. we have these large geographic areas around the country where multiple services operate their own military treatment facilities and repurchase care in the private sector. designing business practices and optimize use of the military treatment facilities as well as provide what is needed care in the private sector is key cooperative and only do that if you have a management strategy that is enterprise focused. we also needed to find and deliver it is getting away from the notion which thinks about. if you have a building that says hospital on it they think that is a capability but it is not in the 21st century. we have to talk about real medical capabilities to try the medical outcomes and what are needed across a whole spectrum of issues. part of our capabilities developing new that can operate and make decisions in the cinnamic world. at least a generation three or four with decision capability and can tied to other business systems that will enable leaders, commanders, and clinical providers to make more decisions, correct decisions, easier, and reduce -- make their work more efficient. we need to invest ends expand our strategic partners, whether it is academic, medical center, the federal partners. between the va and thus we have about 211 hospitals. at the average cost of placing a hospital of the half billion dollars the question is what deficiencies can drive and actually meet the mandate or solve other issues as it relates to clinical training and the like. we we need to assess the balance of our medical force we have civilian personnel. we know that with the increased gross of sub specialization we cannot creep active duty. we have to look at new ways of tapping into the reserve component. one of the things i.out is that when i i was in academic practice if i went to the nih packet sign a contract. if i wanted to do research of 40 percent of the time they would pay 40 percent of my salary to the institution if we need individuals to serve on active duty the question is whether or not we need to redesign some of the cold war reserve policies so that we develop contracts and say we're going to -- it makes for harmony in terms of the family dynamic because everybody knows what mom or dad is doing. it makes for harmony with the employers, employers, and we get a professional force that is going to be available for us. we need to think innovatively. we need to modernize a tri-care program not just about fees but about decreasing the administrative burden and making sure that it provides a robust benefit that the beneficiaries desire to get what they deserve at lower cost. lastly it is about defining the image, role, competency, and requirement in global health engagement becoming much, much more important. to finish off your the mhs is clearly an important asset in the national security military and defense strategy and is a resource for the nation. but it is at an infection. how well we organize to do our missions against the cost of both financial and otherwise that all of our leaders and stakeholders see as consuming the failure to do that combines. we are managing through it. it will require collaboration but it we will have to prevent simplistic algorithms that stakeholders might suggest that don't integrate all of the mentioned -- all of the missions that we are required and grated against. i am pleased to be here today and want to thank the organizers for having me to sort of set the table and look forward to the discussion. we might have have time for one or two questions. >> my name is christie, is cute director of the support foundation, 12 year army wife. one of the things that i think might be missing in terms of priorities is having a deep understanding of the population that we are serving after 13 years of war. the military health advisory teams that we deployed in theater to understand particular behavior healthwise, i got the sense when i was an army wife that a lot of the stuff we are doing is reactive and we could have saved a lot of money. so i am wondering if there is a way test fit that into our strategy on our plan of having a deep understanding of the impact. >> great question. thank you for asking. you are you are right, but let me provide a little context. today as we sit here or stand here we have a number of studies such as the army*study army study and a lot of other studies that are deeply exploring the population and getting a better understanding, but to to the heart of your question if you go back a decade as to where we were, one of our failings was to just accept that the american medical system and the public in terms of mental health and biscuits to what i was talking about before about expectations, we just can't accept that we have a mental health system in general and american medicine that is in disarray, disconnected, poorly coordinated and expected that is what we will serve servicemen and women optimally. so we play catch-up. there is no no doubt about it, and we are still playing catch-up. problems will recognize. we were not producing optimal system than the optimal outcome. and so there was a lot of money that was down at it in a crisis a crisis mentality and a lot of programs that were established, and we are just sorting through those and putting metrics against those to decide which are effective and which are not even as we understand better the populations we need to serve not only now but into the future. we had to play catch-up, but it was partly because of where the entire american medical and mental health system. there have been a number of recent studies that have come out from organizations evaluating our system based upon our quest. it turns out that there is still very critical elements , but when you ask the people who are experts in this about what do you do in your system, wait a minute, we have to understand. we are ahead of what we do in the private sector and mental health systems and coordination. we see elements of that everyday in the process, celebrated cases of violence much more work to do. we did play catch-up, and, and we are trying to sort some of this out. >> i am a general internist. civilian physician. national naval hospital. i was wondering if you could say more. it seems many soldiers cannot stay with the military. they have to transition to civilian life