officer of the deck, set the watch. >> aye, aye, sir. >> the officer of the deck. the commander's direct representative and while on watch is responsible for the safe operation of the ship and crew. the long blast is a traditional symbol of an officer on the deck's authority and the ship of the line. we are pleased to have mr. greg willard with us today. greg was the white house staff assistant to gerald ford while he was president and served him after he left office. greg will pass the long blast to lieutenant of south orange, new jersey. the first officer of the deck. the petty officer of the watch is quartermaster first class >> very well. we're delighted today to have our sponsor, susan ford bales with us. susan christened gerald r. ford in 2013, newport news. susan, i'd be honored if you'd join me alt-- at the podium to give the order to man our ship and bring her to life. [applaus [applause] >> mr. president, ladies and gentlemen, in the twilight of his life, dad learned of the decision to name cdn 70-a to be the u.s.s. gerald r. ford. dad felt that that was one of the highest honors he ever received, was to wear the uniform of lieutenant commander in the united states navy. so upon learning the naming decision, dad wrote a letter about cbn 78 and he concluded his letter, quote, thus is a source of indescribable pride and humility to know that an aircraft carrier bearing my name will be permanently associated with the valor and integrity of the men and women of the united states navy, end quote. there is no one, absolutely no one who would be prouder of the commissioning of this mighty ship than the president of the united states, gerald r. ford. therefore, on behalf of the 38th president of the united states, and as your ship's sponsor, i am honored to give the command, officers and crew of the united states gerald r. ford, man our >> ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. ladies and gentlemen, u.s.s. gerald r. ford salutes you. we are proud to serve in your great navy. ready, two. [applaus [applause] >> captain, the ship is manned and ready. >> very well. admiral lindsey, u.s.s. gerald r. ford is manned and ready and reports for duty to the fleet. >> very well, welcome to the fleet. make preparations getting [applaus [applause]. ship's company. >> good morning, mr. president, secretary mattis, secretary stackley, admiral richardson, susan, distinguished visitors, shipmates, family and friends, welcome and thank you all for being here and braving the heat as we come together to celebrate this transition of this war ship from a pre commissioning unit to a capital asset. the experience of the gerald r. ford commissioning is best described like this: as each of us looks upon this great ship, a single thought must seize our minds, only the united states of america can make a machine like this. there is nothing like her in the world today. we have witnessed a magic moment when an intricate mass of steel and cable, sophisticated engineers, marvels, suddenly come and become a living thing with a unique personality. these words were spoken over 42 years ago by then president gerald r. ford as he delivered his keynote address at the commissioning ceremony for u.s.s. nimitz. how fitting it is then, the man who presided over the first in class commissioning ceremony is recognized today as the namesake for our great ship and the first in the ford class. [applaus [applause]. much has been said about the first in class technology aboard ford, technology that, like nimitz in 1975, exists nowhere else. the ford incorporates flexibility in the carrier platform to accommodate future systems and technologies, to ensure that the navy is ready to conduct, prompt and sustained combat, incidents, to operations at sea for decades to come. and yet, as ground breaking as this technology is, it will never supercede the quality of the sailor who operates it, and the sailors aboard today are among our nation's finest. they are talented, driven, innovative, dedicated, passionate about what they do and i am very proud to be their capta captain. [applaus [applause] >> james e hornfish, the author of the book "the last stand of the tin can sailor" said it best, a fighting force cannot be reduced to its order of battle any more than a ship's value will be reduced to the number of guns she carries or the shaft horsepower her turbines can generate. a vessel draws life from the spirit of her crew, which derives in large part from the leadership qualities of her chiefs and officers. morale defies quantification and yet, it weighs significantly on the ultimate lethality of the tools of war. we cannot succeed absent the strength and skills of our sailors and the dedication and commitment they bring to the fight. our sailors will ensure the gerald r. ford remains mission-ready and prepared to execute national tasking for decades to come. i want to thank legislators, ship builders, and sailors for all your efforts in taking the u.s.s. gerald r. ford from concept to delivery. and last, but certainly not least, i would like to express my gratitude to the families of our servicemen and women who supported their loved ones as we worked hard to prepare this ship for sea. your devotion and sacrifice cannot be understated and i want to thank you personally for all your support. [applaus [applause] >> team wolverine, i have the utmost faith and confidence in your ability to face challenges ahead and i can think of no better team to take u.s.s. gerald r. ford to sea. god bless you, your families, and our navy. thank you. [applaus [applause] >> ship's company, attention. will the guests please rise? chaplin barstow will now lead us in the benediction. >> let us pray. as we prepare to end this celebration, we pause to ask for a going away blessing, a send-off, a plea for continued blessings and protection and success, so we ask may our efforts to reach this point and beyond continue to be rewarded. may we experience protection and safety for this crew and all the sailors who will follow us, go with us, be with us, strengthen us, encourage us, guide us, and may we be granted wisdom for the journey and may integrity be the compass that we follow. we pray for the leaders of this ship, for the leaders that will follow and for the leaders of our navy and our nation which this ship serves. bless us, go with us, be with us, in your mighty name we pray, amen. ♪ >> thank you, chaplain barstow. ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated until the president and party leave the ceremony. [applaus [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, we invite you to our postcommissioning reception hosted by the u.s.s. gerald r. ford committee located in the tent. >> some events we like to let breathe as we say in television. this is one of those events. you know, there are ceremonies and there are ceremonies, commissioning a ship, particularly the biggest ship in our naval arsenal is something very special and we felt that we would just bring the whole thing to you from stem to stern, so to speak, and we're happy that you could join us in watching this stirring commissioning of the u. is s gerald r. ford. before it was called gerald ford, a ship and now it's called the u.s.s. gerald ford. it is commissioned and it is active, it is alive. a lot of action in that ship, should be in training exercises for a while before it goes into active missions. we're very pleased to have back with us, general jack keane, retired four star generally and lt. colonel tony schaeffer to talk more about this. you know, general, some ceremonies are symbolic, but this actually activates a ship. i mean, it does something, man our ship and bring her to life. something very stirring about a ceremony that has real effects like that. >> oh, yeah, there's no doubt about it. all of our services, you know, have unique cultures and they have ways of celebrating what their capabilities are and certainly, the united states navy, this is very unique, what our audience was able to see. i was stationed at this navy base and by the way, this is the largest navy base in the world. >> and whenever my relatives and family were coming to visit us, if there was a commissioning ceremony going on or troops coming back, a ship coming back from deployment, i always put an in there to bear witness to it. i was so delighted that you let the audience see the whole thing start to finish. >> absolutely. >> it's a unique ceremony, it's thrilling and i thought the president really delivered something special there today in the way he recognized our troops. you know, he has a way about him, his sincerity and his passion comes through how much he cares about them. the tribute to gerald ford was so appropriate. and then, he made a little news today and this is the news he made. he talked about our readiness, he didn't want cost overruns and we've got to fix the military and then he said we've got to end sequestration. i can tell you for a fact that the record of omb submit add budget with sequestration in it and he made news today when he said he wants to end it. i'm telling you, the united states military is going to applaud that policy decision. he said it during the campaign, this is the first time he has said it publicly since he's been president. >> so colonel schaeffer is actually overriding his omb director. he's the commander-in-chief and he can do that if he wants. >> david, yeah, absolutely. the president has made very clear, it's a prime objective of his administration, to return the united states to prominence. one of the ways of doing it is showing we're going to rebuild the military. the military has been in war since 2001. we've faced strategic threats regarding nation states and as we talked about earlier on the phone, the global terrorism. so, this is no small issue. i think the president is doing two things far more effectively than barack obama. first, as we talked about earlier, he's leading from the front and he's saying that we're going to take up that very important role of leading the world. now, this may seem like some imperial idea, but it's not. so much of what we do, david, is actually ensure the world works to benefit everyone. >> you know, colonel schaeffer, if you don't mind me interrupting. >> sure. >> there's nation building and peace through strength. those two things are very different. >> very different. >> part of the problem with the bush administration, they got into the role of nation building more than perhaps they should have. one of the benefits of ronald reagan, he pulled back-- >> i met with former reagan folks and i live by the floss if i, bud mcfarland and chris layman. we've got to lead by example and not try to push ideas. >> let me get specific with general keane, there are nation states who want to do us harm, one is iran and north korea. not only do they want to, they have. and otto warmbier brought from north korea, died shortly afterwards and his parents did credit the president having the will to act tough with the north koreans and get him out. we heard from cia chief mike pompeo about north korea and might be plans concerning north korea, who knows, could bring the u.s.s. gerald ford into action. let me just play the sound bite and get your reaction. >> as for the regime, i'm hopeful we will find a way to separate that regime from this system. >> it's an interesting answer. >> the north korean people, i'm sure, are lovely people and would love to see him go as well. they don't live a very good life there. >> general keane, there's always-- we always have a plan on the books, for goodness sakes, we have a plan to invade canada, if can came to that, which it won't. but as the cia chief just said, what we would like to have happen is a regime change there? >> that's actually aspirational in terms of u.s. policy and certainly, we all feel the same way, that we would certainly like that regime to go and finally have the north korean people experience what most people in the world are able to do, freedom and liberty and decide their own lives, but u.s. policy is clear and director pompeo knows it. u.s. policy is not regime change in north korea. u.s. policy is a major international effort to bring sanctions to north korea in a way that's never been brought to it before and still, i think, to try to use china to do so, but i know for a fact that the treasury department assisted by the state department is lining up a number of significant sanctions against china if they're not going to come through here in the next few weeks, so that is the policy of the administration. that is to attempt to denuclearize north korea, not regime change it, get them to separate themselves from the nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capability and put as much pressure on them as possible to do that and keep in the offing certainly, a military option which nobody, but nobody wants to use. >> and colonel schaeffer, talking about military options we have the most powerful weapon in our arsenal in the form of the u.s.s. gerald ford now. i imagine the coast of the korean peninsula would be one of the places it would be stationed? >> well, look, that's absolutely correct. we're going to have carrier groups as general keane said earlier, battle groups led by carriers such as the ford, out doing the hard work preparing to go in. let's be clear on this, during the original war back in the 50's. naval aviation was very important to defeating the north koreans and pushing them back and clearly i think that kim jong-un would understand that our aircraft carrier standing off his coast means we could quickly hammer them in any circumstance. and today with the ford, i think more effectively and efficiently than ever before. >> by the way, we just heard the president say we demand victory and nothing less. and secretary mattis is famous for saying, he doesn't know how to spell defeat. we have a different force leading our military. thank you, gentlemen, for staying with us throughout this commissioning, very exciting moment. virginia republican congressman dave bratt joins us now and congressman, you are from virginia. you must be very proud? >> yeah, it's just a super day to see that ship and all the military men and women out there. we're very proud virginians today and americans. >> by the way, president trump made a direct attempt on his part to get the american people involved in pursuing his beefing up of the military, in the commissioning ceremony. let's listen in to the president. >> now, we need congress to do its job and pass the budget that provides for higher, stable, and predictable funding levels for our military needs. that our fighting men and women deserve, and you will get, believe me. president trump, i will tell you, you will get it. don't worry about it. but i don't mind getting a little hand, so call that congressman and call that senator and make sure you get it. >> how are you going to react to those phone calls, congressman? >> yeah, very positive. i'm on the budget committee. i think you know, and the folks, we -- the budget committee and the republican house, plus, the budget, higher than the trump request level for defense, and so, and that's what makes it so crucial that that is one of the constitutional requirements of the federal government. and so, that makes it crucial that we look elsewhere for some savings and we've got the health care bill coming up, the tax cut bill coming up so we've got to get that just right as well. >> general keane said today, news was made because the president basically said he wants the budget without sequestration, without getting into too much details, that would hold back on defense. and even though his omb director already submit add budget with sequestration. >> so the omb director did that, but we're going to break the caps this year, as it is. and so, that-- as an ongoing policy, that is, that is news worthy, but we're plumping it up beyond what the trump request was from omb. so i think the president will be happy. >> a lot of folks have looked at the past couple of weeks, the congress not able to get a health care bill done. and they're getting fed up. you are a congressman who replaced an incumbent congressman who was seen as conservative. a lot of conservatives say we need to do the same thing and challenge some of them in the upcoming elections in the primaries, with conservatives, instead moderates. what do you think? >> it's up to the american people. when you promise the american people for seven years you're going to repeal on cnn i said look up the word repeal, it means to get rid of it. everybody can remember ten years ago. and the way the mainstream media. 90% of mainstream media folks supported hillary clinton so it's clear they want the obamacare product. they'll never give you the accurate cbo numbers and accurate polling. ask people, would you rather have your own doctor and cheaper insurance like 20 years, we all remember that, or have the federal government running health care for you? it's not an enumerated in the constitution, the military is. the lasik eye surgeries, tiger woods, et cetera, the market was 6 grand and-- >> when the market is in play we keep cheaper and more variety and less taxes. what a pleasure to have you on, congressman. your home state did well,