Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley and Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman Ramón “CZ” Colón-López answer questions from service members at a virtual town hall meeting at the Pentagon, July 17, 2020.
Transcript
Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Thank you for joining us today for our fourth town hall. I’m joined by Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley on my right and on my left the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman Cologne Lopez. Today we want to speak about the numerous challenges facing our department and to speak to you and address your questions. I will tell you that I very much appreciate all that we’ve accomplished this month. July marks my one year anniversary, a secretary defense and during that time we’ve accomplished a great deal over the preceding 12 months. In some very challenging moments, I’ve posted online recently a video that highlights some of our most significant accomplishments together. And I’m confident that there’s much more to come as we work through in the coming days together. One of the things I want to particularly thank folks for is helping me implement the national defense strategy. As you all know, the NDS is key to our success moving forward in this era of great power competition. As we address the challenges present to us presented to us by China and then Russia and then other countries. As I’ve outlined in our accomplishments video, we continue to pursue our three lines of effort. First, build increasingly 1000 readiness second, strengthen our allies and build partners. And, third, to reform the department for greater efficiency. Beneath those three lines of effort, we have outlined 10 objectives with many sub tasks. And again, I encourage you to look at all that we have accomplished over the preceding time period. Meanwhile, we have on our streets of America today thousands of active duty service member and National Guardsmen who continue to serve the governors and the country. Since January, we’ve been fully engaged in in combating the covert virus. Since that time, we’ve had over 60,000 service members, mostly guardsmen on the streets, helping with distribution of food, handing out supplies or or providing testing facilities to our fellow Americans. And then, later in June, American American soldiers, especially guardsmen we’re on the streets of America, helping to secure the streets so that peaceful protesters concertos their views, can can enact their First Amendment rights and come peaceably protest free from the violence from others. So I want to thank those guardsmen who were out on America’s streets, protecting their fellow Americans and ensuring that they could exercise their First Amendment rights. We came to that moment in the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd, something which shocked all of our conscience and spoke to the endemic challenges we face in this country when it comes to racism. We, of course in the military are not immune from discrimination and bias and prejudice. So in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, I sat down with the leadership team and we mapped out three initiatives to address these challenges within the military. Number one was to set forth a number of quick action items that we could move forth on fairly quickly. And I’m pleased to report that just this past week I sound out a memo outlining what those actions are and looking for responses over the next 30 to 60 days. Second, we set forth the establishment of a defense board for diversity and inclusion that that board will conduct a six month sprint and report back to me in December on its findings and recommendations to again address racism, bias and prejudice in our military. I’m pleased to announce that The first meeting on that board was on July 15th this past Wednesday and they’re off to a great start. And finally, Pillar three is the establishment of a permanent, enduring Defense Advisory committee on diversity and inclusion. I’m in the process of standing that up right now, and that will be a permanent standing body with independent outside persons and experts who will continue to help us address the challenges we face in this country. And those are things that I hope that will be able to talk about as well today. In the meantime, we also have tens of thousands of our fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marine and coast guardsmen out beyond our shores, keeping the freedom, keeping the peace, defending our great country, from the Pacific to the Atlantic to the Middle East and Europe. All over, American service members are keeping our great nation safe and defending their fellow Americans. So today, I hope we can address some of these issues in more detail, and I want to thank all of you once again for your service, for your sacrifice and for all that you do to keep our country safe as you live each and every day. Uh uh. Commanded by that oath we’ve all sworn to protect and defend and support the Constitution of the United States. Thank you, Chairman. Thanks, Secretary. Appreciate that. And and, ah, Secretary Defense said, you know, we got about two million or so in uniform, active guard reserve and many of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen deployed around the world Well, over a couple 100,000 120,000 in just the National Guard, with 45,000 deployed domestically and another 42,000 deployed in response to cove it domestically on then about 35,000 from the National Guard alone, deployed overseas. In addition of that, we’ve got sailors patrolling the seas. Been doing so since 1945 and protecting the global Commons. We’ve got airman flying in. This guy’s protecting not only North America, but indeed most of the world. We’ve got Marines and soldiers throughout the world operating by with and through our allies and partners, combating terrorists in some cases, in deterring adversaries and others. Bottom line is internationally. The United States military is doing a remarkable job, and it’s a steadying force. The same is true domestically with the United States military. All parts of the service are doing just a tremendous job across the board in some really difficult times. Is the secretary outlined. The one thing I would just ask everyone to remember is, in fact, with the secretary alluded to, which is the oath that we all took to support and defend the Constitution and remember why it is We are in the service of our nation and what it’s really all about. And remember that that oath is an oath to an idea on idea that every single one of us, whether we’re male or female or you are gay or straight it doesn’t matter if you’re black or your white Asian Indian, whatever the color of your skin is, doesn’t matter. Last name, a nation of origin. It doesn’t matter where you came from. It doesn’t matter if you tall a short, younger role. Richard Poor Famous comet doesn’t none of that matters. What matters is that we’re all Americans. What matters is that we’re united as an American and in that Constitution in that document is expressing idea. It’s it’s dedicated to the principle the prospect that all men and all women that are Americans are created free and equal, and those of us in uniform. We are dedicated to that principle, and we’re willing to die for it. So for willing to die for it, we ought to be willing to live for it. And and I can tell you that we in uniform are exactly that willing to live for it every single day, day in and day out. We represent all that’s good about America when we are cohesive, United Force and a force for good and a force for steadiness both domestically and internationally. And I, for one, as the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, I know I speak for all the joint Chiefs that I could not be more proud of what our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen to doing day in and day out in some really difficult circumstances. And I’m gonna turn over to the SEAQ. But thanks so much for what all of you do every single day. Next Chairman. Thank you, Chairman. And thank you, Mr Secretary. I have been seven months now in the position off the senior listed advisor to the chairman, and in those seven months. We continue our sense in sessions to make sure that we address all institutional issues. Has the Secretary Mansion This week we took the first concrete step towards an enduring commitment to ensure diversity and inclusion in our department. And that is what the deal D. Defense Diversity and Inclusion Board, which I co lead with. Secretary of the Air Force Barrett and Undersecretary for Personal Readiness Ah Matthew Donovan. So we acknowledge that there is a problem and we’re willing to go anywhere from cradle to grave to make sure that we address all the issues that are plaguing your institutions, your particular units and personnel to make sure that we do not get it wrong. And we want to make sure that at the end of the day, once we identify the root causes, replaced those plans into action to ensure that everybody serving its value for their talent, abilities and experiences, that is our promise to you. And that is based on the principle off the Constitution. My general Milley brought up that we all create. We are all created equal, and equality and opportunity are the founding principles for a constitution. So we look forward to keep hearing from you. Lastly, we want to make sure that we recognize that we are on this together. I’m biologically. There’s only one race, and that is the human race. It covers all of us. Let’s embrace each other. Let’s go ahead and get after the nation’s missions toe, ensure freedom and ensure that we once again serve as a model for society. So thank you. And let’s go ahead and take the question, sir. Thank you. See you. Right. Thank you, sirs. Well, welcome to another live town hall from the Pentagon briefing room. I’m Commander Morgan Murphy. We asked for questions from around the force and the general public on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And hundreds of you submitted not only your questions, but videos as well. So in addition to written questions for our three senior leaders today will be seeing recorded unscripted messages straight from military members around the world. Let’s get right into it. The first question this afternoon was submitted via Twitter by Kate Wright of Los Angeles, California. She writes Thank you for defending freedom of navigation on a scale of 1 to 10. How important is freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. And why? Well, freedom of navigation is a tough question right out of the box. I’ll turn to the secretary of defense for an answer. Thank you, Commander. And thank you, Kate. For that question, it’s a very good question. Freedom of navigation is very important. First as a principle, a principle that says that you, as an individual as a country, have the freedom toe navigate either by air by sea, uh, without being threatened or impeded, if you will by others. It’s an important principle that underlies international law and the rules and norms that have helped keep the prosperity and security of United States in many countries. Now for over seven decades. Uh, it’s It’s also important, because without freedom of navigation, you don’t have freedom of commerce. And when you think about it, over 80% of the world’s trade occurs on the nation on the oceans of the world, and not just in the Pacific, while most thing of Pacific but all around the world, it could be goods it could be in the Persian Gulf. It is the free flow of oil that fuels many economies. But the freedom of navigation is very important. That’s why are United States Navy now, since its inception, has defended the freedom of navigation so that we would have that freedom of commerce and so that other countries would respect those laws and norms that are out there. That’s why I also United States Navy faithfully dutiful E expertly conducts what are called freedom of navigation operations in contested waters around the world. Whether it’s in the South China Sea, it could be, could be in our hemisphere. Or it’s also in in the UK mail are or the Centcom area of responsibility. These things are important to defend. They are important to stand up to and to assert, because the minute you don’t, they get chipped away. And over time, what you do is you lose that principle, those laws and rules and norms or eroded, and you find yourself in a less free rolled that inevitably ends up being less prosperous and less secure. Our second question today was submitted by 19 year old Tame on Hamlet in Houston, Texas. Tayman is a member of the ROTC and asks quote, Will the U. S. Military focus on more humanitarian efforts to alleviate the harm caused by Kobe. And if so, how? Daemon, I’m gonna turn your question over to the highest ranking uniform member of the armed forces to answer the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley. Well, it’s great question tomorrow. And thanks for that, Aziz. You know, with respect to cove it for the U. S. Military, our priority is first to protect the force on the reason we put that first is because our theory of the case is that if the force is not healthy, then we can’t do all the other tests, like protect the American people either internationally or domestically. So the first thing we have to do is to make sure that our force itself, the troops, the ships, the planes and those that madam are clean cove it free. Eso The secretary has instituted a whole series of very, very rigorous rule sets that we’ve been following now for several months. And thankfully, we’ve been on I knock on wood every day. But thankfully we’ve maintained that discipline and we have relative to other parts of the society in the world. We have relatively low rates of infection. So we’ve learned a lot over the last several months, but we’ve got to protect the force. Secondly, we’ve gotta protect the readiness because our number one mission is to protect the Constitution, protect the country from any enemies, foreign, domestic, sort of thing. So that’s the primary role of the U. S. Military. So maintaining the readiness of the forces key and that includes the health of the force. And then lastly, we’re gonna work as part of an in support of a whole of government approach. So right now is many. No, we the Department of Defense Air in support of other agencies in combating the scourge of of the cove in 19 virus. We’ve been very effective at it. We’ve been greatly in support with our ships. The comfort, for example. Our doctors and nurses are our hospitals except have been deployed all over the United States and internationally. So we’ll continue to do that in support of other agencies. So the force protection piece is critical, the readiness pieces critical, and then lastly, word supported the other agencies. And we’re gonna continue to do that. Aziz, we have been and will do that under the direction Secretary defense. So thanks for the question too much. The third question comes from Pierre, who? From Alabama. Peter asks. Sir, Do you believe the integrity of the Colonel promotion selection process and being close hold was compromised politically and by the media? I’ll turn this question over to Dr Esper. I think it’s a good question. Look, I believe in the integrity of all of our promotion processes, regardless of rank way. Reapply stringent standards, of course to this. To ensure its integrity, we also follow all applicable laws and regulations, policies and practice and precedents. So I’m very confident in the integrity of our board processes. We protect the privacy of individuals, and we go to great extent to make sure it’s fair and it’s sound. And the processes can hold up to scrutiny of any type of inquiry or any type of ah, any type of look in terms of how the process is conducted. So I think everybody out there who is being looked at now for promotion or who has gone through a board should have full faith and confidence that the chain of command, military and civilian will ensure and upkeep the integrity of that process. That’s what we owe our service members. Thank you, sir. Given the events of 2020 and the secretaries charged to the department on diversity, we solicited video messages from the force so we could hear from you directly. This first story and question is from Senior Airman Naomi Sims of the US Air Force. Let’s roll the video. Hello, My name is Senior Airman. I only soon’s off the 1 77th Fighter Wing in New Jersey. I was recently in a meeting where my leadership acknowledged the importance of addressing some of the social issues were all experiencing. They opened the floor for conversation and feedback, but there was very little participation in that setting. I actually did have ideas, suggestions and even some critical feedback to improve things around the unit. But I remain silent and frustrated. After sharing my frustration within a trusted chief, I was encouraged to go as far as to speak with command chief of our wink and my personal experience as a black woman in the Air Force. I have felt the pressure to conform and not cause any wave surrounding the subject of race. So I was undeniably nervous to share my perspectives and ideas with leadership. However, I am proud to report that my leaders were incredibly receptive and open to my feet back. Those conversations sparked a lot of much needed dialog about topics that people so often shy away from being given the space toe understand and be understood was extremely impactful for me, and I feel that others would benefit from it as well. With that being said, does the military have any plans to facilitate more opportunities for productive and informative dialogue around other basis? Mr. Secretary, Your thoughts on her comments? Oh, it’s a great great insights, Great comments. I thank her for sharing them. She spot on. I gotta tell you, over the past three weeks, I’ve held well over half dozen listening sessions all around the country and overseas, with the soldiers and sailors and airmen of all ranks and of all races and ethnicities. And the SEAQ is to join me on many of those. In fact, we just held one yesterday at a naval facility down in Virginia, and what she is saying is is the same story where we hear over and over and over again, and that is the importance of having that conversation and the difficulty and initiating it. And I know the SEAQ and I both taken the same note over and over again. Which is why, in that first action memo that we put out last week, one of things that I wrote in there is the importance of, uh, having giving our folks the lexicon, the words, the definitions to start talking about things like discrimination and racism and prejudice, get people comfortable with the terms and then teach help teach practices. Whether ranges from interventions to having the conversation because they’re very difficult conversations. We’ve sat in them. I’ve sat in on now several times with well over 100 service members and had these and what she is saying is spot on. I think once you get in a group and you get over that initial reluctance, staff that conversation, people really start talking and you get great insights into their experiences, their perceptions and that’s what has to happen. That’s where it begins, where you really start breaking down the problem and and getting not just sharing experiences, but then getting towards solutions. So we’ve put some of this in the memo. The action memo coming out, I put out word to commanders to leaders of ah, of all of all grade and all the services that you got to have these conversations, you got to facilitate them. And you just got to be able to have that discussion. People want to talk, and we’ve got to be able to listen as well. So I hope this is something that, uh, commanders not only hope but should do across the force. I’m glad that she raised it, and it’s because it’s very important. That’s where it has to begin at that level to begin those discussions and we’ve got to facilitate it from the top down as well. So that people we open up that space for folks to have that discussion. If you don’t mind, I invite the SEAQ because he’s been my battle buddy, if you will, on this journey and see what he wants to share. No, thank you, Mr Secretary. So first of all, Teammate, thank you so much for bringing that up to us because, like the secretary said, this is something that has been common throughout our travels. The one thing that I have to learn from all of this so far is that adversity continue to brings opportunity, and this is yet another opportunity for us to get our wrongs right. Conforming. It’s not the way for anyone out there serving in the Department of Defense wish her all the violent be value for what we bring to the table. But in order to do this, we have to talk about it more and more. And I will say that the more we talk to the troops that more comfortable we are addressing, the issue is coming natural. But repetition is gonna be your champion. You have to be able to put it out there, be transparent and go ahead and continue the conversation often down the chain to be able to get after the root causes of the problem. And then that’s gonna lead to the most important thing that we can do on this, and that is to measure our progress. Then we’re gonna go ahead to start looking at the facts and the data to make sure that we’re marching in the right direction. But it takes people like you courageous enough to voice your opinions, your concerns to your leaders and then walk the rounds up to the target up the chain to ensure that your voice is heard. You do that, we have your back 100%. Let me just wrap up by saying this is about two important things. One is showing empathy and respect for one another, and the number two related to that is what we’re trying to do is build a more cohesive, a more a more capable, a more ready force. At the end of the day, we get there by by working with our most critical resource our people and making sure that everybody feels included and making sure everybody feels welcome and comfortable and confident what they’re doing and ensuring that diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity. Because that’s how we become even better than what we are today. Courageous indeed. Thank you, sir. It’s next question comes from Matthew Kirshner on Army Automotive Maintenance warrant officer from Junction City, Kansas, via Facebook. He asked, What’s the annual cost? An actual benefits to prove to foreign nations that weaken deploy brigades rapidly instead of wasting funds on brigade rotations costing hundreds of millions annually in taxpayer dollars, just a ship equipment not to mention personnel repair parts, ammunition, etcetera. Why don’t we use that funding to actually fix our readiness? Because units are flat out lying to the JCs in order to make a mission happened just to get a good evaluation. Bullet modernize our equipment sets. Last I checked, I was still working on equipment nearly 40 years old, with issues four pages long. Matthew, I’m gonna turn your question over directly to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to answer. So your thoughts. Well, thanks, man, to, uh, for the for the common. I’m gonna give you a call, though. I want to find out the equipment that’s 40 years old. I got 40 years in the military. I’m hoping you’re not working on stuff. 40 years old. If you’re in the Army, um, their ships out there that a 40 years old, there’s airplanes, But I want I’m gonna give Matthew quick call. I want to find out about that equipment. But having said that, there is a logic to why we do what we do in terms of rotating forces. Then we do. We rotate brigades to career, for example, to rotate brigades to Europe, and we’ve got to be able to do both. We’ve got to be able to fix it, maintain our equipment here at home station or overseas. But we also have to project power. The United States is ah is a unique global power in that we have a friendly country to our north and ourself on. And we have ah, oceans to our east and are west. And for us to be a global power and influence outcomes around the world in the shape outcomes in the interests of the United States, we’ve got to be able to project power s so that’s why we do it in In order to do that, we have to rotate forces on a very, very frequent basis in order to stretch out the muscle memory, if you will, of the sea and air lift to get forces heavy forces or light forces across the oceans in overseas and get him into exercises and training and so on. Yes, we have been doing that now for 20 years on a scheduled basis or so into Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. But it’s one of those things that if you don’t continually practice it train at it, then it will atrophy over time. It doesn’t take long for that to atrophy. So we need to continue rotations forward in order to fulfill the tenants of the national defense strategy in order to maintain our commitments overseas. Uh, and at the same time, we need to maintain all that equipment. And Matthew, I’ll give you a call here. I wanna I want to find out about the 40 year old equipment that you’re working on on. Then maybe I can do something with secretary defense to get you some new equipment. But thanks for the question. Great question. Look out, Matthew. Um, our six question today comes from Salvator Carelli of Stanford, Connecticut. He asks, how did the United States fall so far behind Russia and China in terms of nuclear modernization and hypersonic technology? Mr. Secretary, would you to care to answer this question on on nuclear readiness? Sure. I appreciate south towards question. Let me just go challenge the premise up front. I can assure Salvator that we have the most ready capable forces out there bar none. And the fact is, we are upgrading them and modernizing our our bomber force are, uh I c b m force and our submarine force, and they will not just be more capable than our competitors and adversaries today. They will be even more capable of the Net as we modernize them. So and there’s more to it than that. We have to also update and modernize our nuclear command, control and communications. But we’re putting a lot of money into this. It’s important to monitor, would continue to modernize and recapitalize the nuclear deterrent because of what it because of what it is that that that second word I mentioned deterrent because what it does, if you have a very capable triad, you’re able to deter conflict. You’re be able to deter threats to the United States, and at the end of the day, that’s what we want to do. We want to deter conflict. We gonna deter war and failing that, we want to be prepared to fight and win. But I can assure Salvatori anybody out there that’s interesting. This issues. We maintain a highly capable nuclear triad more capable than our adversaries and competitors, and we will continue to maintain that overmatch in the years ahead. That’s her. Next we have another video message, this one is from Lance Corporal Fam from Des Moines, Iowa. Just a za reminder. Like our questions, these air riel videos from around the Force and this one. There’s a lot of background noise, and in true marine fashion, it sounds like there’s heavy armor rolling through one point. So to make it easier for our online audience to follow along, we’ve added subtitles. Otherwise, it’s just a She submitted it. Let’s roll it phantoms. I’m here to tell you about my experiences regarding Never two years ago with Christ on the papers, I was encouraged not to join other service members and veterans because of my background as a female and minority. Also, that I’d be attacking both angles because, however accepted the risk enjoyed anyway and fun coming to this unit. I was wrong. Welcome with open ends like of all sorts of backgrounds guarding race, it did not matter. Roll body by the same Sanders. Same willingness from our duties. However, other service members might not have had the same love. I had this wonderful group of brothers and sisters. Good leadership. It might feel hindered, disrespected because background I plan for Greece in my career to trample exclusion and encourage. I appreciate this opportunity is once encouraged, does feel that they can choose their own career path because of their backgrounds. To accept the risk. Go for it anyway, because the core along girl inclusions I received making progression and anybody could be apartment seaq cologne. Lopez, Do you want to comment on Lance corporal fans message? I have Absolutely. I mean, things like that just get you motivated every time. So I want to thank the last corporal for her courage and ownership of the issue. First of all, this somebody that I can assimilate with because I two on the minori and I will still about my limitations. Before I even tried to do anything, and it was all about proving people wrong. But that took action. When we look at minorities progressing to the rankings, we need to make sure that everyone has the same opportunities regardless of who they are. And then if they excelled and so be it, open the going if they don’t provide him either the training or another opportunity to go ahead and move forward or validate their limitations. But I will tell you that she is doing exactly what every single member of the department of the fans should be doing. Trampling diversity and exclusion and inclusion or promoting it. Uh, and diversity inclusion are nothing more than a quality control mechanism for us, the Department of Defense to benefit from the talents off everyone in our rank and file. So we need to embrace that. So for everyone listening right now, I believe that Lance Corporal Fam just gave you a vector. Dust off your map and compass and start marching on. All right. The next question comes from Rosemary Helton, who works for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. She asked quote with depending memo on opsec and see you, I How do you see it impacting not only d o D. But the federal government is a whole Mr Chairman, sir, your views on operational security and controlled unclassified information. I’m sorry I need to jump in here before the chairman answers, because I was just about jump on that. I just want a command rosemary for her fine choice of sports teams. The Pittsburgh Steelers. I know. It’s Ah, very astute question. I’m sure the I think since the secretary wrote the memo, the secretary can continue with the answer to the question, since it’s a pit from the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Rosemary Thanks. Thanks for the question on I will let the secretary answer the question. But from my point of view, operational security is critical, and it always has been, always will be. And no matter what labels we put on it, whether it’s classified, so you II effort, you owe secret top secret. All these code words, etcetera, a couple of things to remember about operational security. One is whoever you’re talking to with information they need to have the appropriate level of clearance. I don’t ever forget that. So you might be talking to someone about something. They may not have that level of clearance about the topic you’re talking about. Secondly, even if they have the appropriate clearance, they need to have a need to know eso that’s important. You have to have both things when you’re talking classified information. Operational security is critical. This, you know there’s been leaks, so there’s things that are water cooler talk and people talk about me or they talked about the secretary of that talk about this person of the SEAQ or that person. Other people accept that. Okay, that’s water cooler talk. Ah, and that’s gonna happen. Large organizations, Pentagon, military. Except we do have to guard classified information. We have to guard it very, very closely. Leaks of classified information or matters of life and death. Not only is it matters of life and death for us in uniform, but the sources of that classified information often times are human beings is not all signals intelligence. Sometimes there’s humans involved in this human beings out there who are collecting critical information. If that information is inadvertently let out, it appears in a newspaper, on TV or alongside, or something like that. Foreign intelligence services adversary, Foreign Intelligence Service competes that together, and they could go right back to They can figure out the source or the method, and then they can compromise that that has happened before with the United States. On the flip side, we have to balance that against transparency because we do have a requirement to be transparent with the American people, and we want to ensure that we explain ourselves adequately it fully because we’re very expensive organization, one of most expensive organizations in the world. If not just the country and the taxpayer is funding us to a great degree in in order to justify the expense is that we are as a military, we need to be transparent. And the medium of doing that is the media. Ah, and things like this. A town hall accepted. But we have to always keep a balance there between classified information, official information, information that might be sensitive in the transparency aspect. And it takes So I degree of thought to do that, and I’ll let the secretary talk further about it. But that’s kind of my view on it. So thanks for us, Mary, despite your allegiance to the steel, is it’s a great question. Well, Rosemary is clearly a very intelligent person with superb judgment, and she knows the importance of this issue, and I’ll just foot stop what the chairman just said. I mean, think about in terms of national defense strategy. If you’re if you’re releasing classified or sensitive information, what you’re doing is undermining line of effort number one in terms of impacting our leath, Audi and the readiness of the force. In fact, I’ll go so s so far as to say you’re not only jeopardizing a mission, but you could be jeopardizing soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines who are on the front lines. That’s number one. Number two is the leak of that type of information also jeopardises our alliances and partnerships. It jeopardizes our foreign policy, our national security strategy. Because leeks undermined those bonds, the country’s come not to trust us allies doubt whether we can keep a secret. Or we could. We could share something sensitive between us. So you got to think about in those terms and it really matters. We all know the phrases from World War two right loose lips sink ships. That’s true today as well. And maybe in some ways it’s there’s even much more risk because we live in a in a world where it’s not just, Ah, we’re not just talking, but and we’re on the phone. But we’re on cyber. We have you know, people are trying to compromise the integrity of our networks of the Internet of our cyber capability. So we gotta be very careful what we say and do, and we have to avoid Ah, and certainly you know, any type of release of classified information or secure information. But there’s also information that is unclassified that could be sensitive as well. That again could undermine those things that just spoke about. So I appreciate Rosemary’s question. We receive the next question via Twitter from Paul Shrum in Raleigh, North Carolina. Paul notes he’s not in the military but wanted to know. Quote regarding the bone Home Rishard Fire. Are you investigating the possible causes of the Fire Secretary Asper, Would you care to comment on the tragic fire aboard the USS Bonhomme Rashard? Sure, very. Is very much is a very tragic fire. I’m pleased to report that the fire is out. I’ve been in touch with the secretary of the Navy and get reports from the CNO, the chief of Naval Operations. Eso the fires out. The CNO is out there today and the Navy will be conducting an investigation and that’s the right thing to do of what happened. But they’re also going to look, conduct a survey of the ship and assess the damage. And then thirdly, I think they’ve done very smartly is to reach out to the rest of the fleet and to speak to the commanders and make sure that the commanders have all the resource is they need that the sailors air trained and that their practice in terms of firefighting. So we’re proactive. They are proactive, trying to stay in front of things in case there’s another ah, to avoid a fire on any other ship. So it’s no firefighting is on a ship, is very dangerous. It’s a very demanding thing. I recently traveled to a Great Lakes where we train our sailors are new centres coming in and very impressed by the training they do up there. It’s it’s live training in terms of putting out fires, its that important to the safety and security integrity of a ship and the crew that you know how to how to fight fires. And I really applaud the Navy’s efforts to put the fire out, to begin an investigation and then proactively reach out to the rest of the fleet and make sure that they’re taking all precautionary measures until we can better understand what happened on the Bonhomme Rashard to make sure we’re preventing any anything happening elsewhere. We have another video message. This one is from Sergeant First Class Jonathan invading the United States Army because of our time constraints here today and the fact we want to hear from many voices. Sergeant, I’ll let you know that we cut your video slightly for length, but not for content. Let’s roll the video. My name is Jonathan. Today. I’m the first start for Baba Company 47 Combat Support Hospital. And I’d like to tell my story. Um, I’m from Nigeria, redoing my family moved here when I was five years old on Bond pretty much grew up in the in the Midwest Michigan area. Count with you is the city that I probably grew up in ever since I was little from watching. The videos were back in the eighties of be all you could be in for commercials that Army produced. I’ve always wanted to join the military, so I’m literally living my dream by being the first hard. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences since I joined the Army. Since I’m a 60 whiskey by Trade Combat Medic, I’ve been able to be in ah, married of units, whether it’s light infantry to some special operations units as well. And doing that I’ve been have had opportunities where I was the single only after American in a organization to one of two toe multiple. Then, like I said, my experience it has been positive going in some of those units. There’s been soldiers who necessarily didn’t work with personal of my complexion going up, and they had some some biases from their upbringing. But we all believe the same color. And to this day there, my lifelong friends, I was able to change your perspective just by daily interaction with them and working with them, turning wrenches with them in the multiple war rock marches or doing PT And, you know, And now they’re like I said, my life, my friend. I’ve also had experiences where I’ve been in cities where my family’s was concerned, because historically those areas were not. They accepted toe people of my complexion and skin color as well. I was O, C. T and G RTC, and when I told my parents that I was going to die hard to see, they were like, You need to be careful because there’s basis activity down there and things that that nature. But when I got there with my wife, who is my wife is a Caucasian on all my kids were mixed. I got down there and, um, time that that was not the case, you know that the people in that area were extremely receptive to us. We have no issues over on about around town. And, you know, we have friends that continue to contact us to this day and find out where we are in our military careers. Um, and I think all that is due to just the military culture as a whole. Foreseen cities where the military is in green in that area, and and they are patriotic Americans who just love the personal. They’re in the military and what we do for our nation in certain and the fact that we chose to serve our country and protect defending the Constitution on. But we all chose to raise all right hand for the betterment of our country as a whole. So so primarily my experiences have been have been great. And I’ve seen that my junior soldiers are also having similar experiences. Some of them have not had this great experience is I have, but they see that what they’re doing is for a purpose and for just cause, which is allowing those personal who, um feel differently to be able to voice their opinions. Um, it’s no without fear of Reprisal from Is the one might find in other countries. There’s a question that I could ask it would be in line with the reduction of beer, for it was for boards. Is there a possibility that the names could also be redacted? Because with a name basically, the gender and possibly race of that soldier would be prevalent to the board members? Is that something that’s also being considered? I’ll turn this one over to the SEAQ for comment. First sergeant, first of all, thank you. I got to spend three years and a couple of months in United States Africa Command, and I spend quite a bit of time in your former stumping grounds and you know it. It’s it’s very filling out fulfilling. And, ah, it’s such a problem moment to hear somebody like you that didn’t come into freedom appreciate exactly what American way of life it’s all about. And I also like to point out that many people that are born into freedom sometimes take it for granted. So I appreciate you put putting that into perspective on how you can compare two different systems and how you have been able to thrive on this when it comes to the names and the possibility of redacted, certain information were taken a very holistic look on the way that boards can look at packages by virtue off merit into promotion and that it’s looking at character, demonstrated abilities and credibility of personnel based on their actions to be able to go ahead and pick the best person for the best for the best duty. And I know that the secretary and the chairman both agree that we can do better when it comes to those boards. But also we want to make sure that once were implemented system. That is something that is gonna benefit. You know, it’s not gonna hinder your opportunities for for promotion. So I want to thank you for that. And I also want to thank you for the comment for highlighting that old blood runs red, and that is something that we can also not take for granted. And lastly, one thing that I will close with is that there are many parents right now that are concerned about this safety off their Children’s specifically black families, and they have brought this up to us that they have to talk to them about putting their hands up, make sure that if a cop approaches you the way to act and everything else. But that is a product of the history that we haven’t do over many years. What we need to look at now is that we’re collecting our thoughts is for the opportunity to create a different narrative. The war families, regardless of caller race, creed, nationality, are able to step out of the front doors into free America and feel safe. So again, for Sergeant, thank you, and I look forward to cross him pats worth. You’re definitely impressive, soldier, which secretary like away and like that. I like to thank the first start for sharing. What a great American story. It’s just fantastic. And for him now to be serving in the United States. Military is a first sergeant went over 20 years, and I assume at this point time, so it’s a great story and he tells a great tale, and it is reassuring in so many ways, and I want him to know that we are trying to root these. You know Ruthie’s practices out that might enable unconscious bias and things like that. So we are getting rid of the photos. And in fact, the directive I signed this week also tasks our personnel and readiness director, if you will, to go out and come back, I think, within 45 or 60 days and present a plan by which we could. We could also strike references, Teoh names, references to gender, things like that that may trigger unconscious bias. So we’re on that. We appreciate what that means, and the importance is to making sure that we’ve it’s a merit based system and solely a merit based system. Many of you didn’t pose questions, but make comments. And yes, we read your comments to Debbie Hoover via Facebook posted on our call for town hall questions she wrote Quote, What is wrong with you, D o d. Why are you discussing these problems in an open forum where all of our enemies can see all of the problems of the military? It’s the same. You having meetings on Zoom oppose Debby’s question to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Sir, do you think we should be discussing our problems as a force in an open forum like this. I mean, it depends on the problem. Um uh, for most of things, we’re discussing day. Absolutely. Yes, we we all militaries air reflection of their society. And we are a democracy representative democracy where people have freedom, freedom of speech and so on. And we, the Department of Defense, we were costing the taxpayer $700 billion.800 billion dollars, depending on the year. Uh, which A lot of money. And we have a very, very important job for the American people, which is toe protect the common good of ah of the Constitution and the freedoms and people enjoy. Oh, and it has to be accountability and and so you have to be transparent with the good and the bad. Ah, and you have to do that. And we, as a nation demand that we demand accountability. We demand it through the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee. Sometimes those things are uncomfortable. But the secretary and I and all the representative senior leaders of the military we must appear way do so under oath. And we must be candid and honest and that’s fair. That’s as it should be, those of the people’s representatives, and they must hold us accountable. That’s part of the deal. The media it’s embedded in that document called the Constitution of Free Media on they have a right. It’s not just some, you know, some nefarious idea out there. It’s a right to challenge us in the military or the Department of Defense or the government as a whole in order to hold us accountable. That’s important. That’s an important and healthy thing for a democracy. And, yes, not everything’s perfect on a day to day basis in the department offense or anywhere else in the federal government. But we must be transparent with the American, be within the bounds of classifications. If we think for a minute that something is classified and it’s going in, the revelation of that information will do harm to a future operation or place the soldier, sailor, airman, Marine Coast guardsmen at risk or place sources and methods at risk that we don’t talk about it, but that relative to the hole, that type of information is relatively small compared to the whole. We get criticized frequently and a lot But that is the nature of a democracy s Oh, yes, Debbie, Thanks for the question, but I do think that it’s important and that transparency is an indicator of strength, not of weakness. And if our enemies see that, then they’re witnessing strength, not weakness. Our next question comes to us from Senior Master Sergeant Reina Blake with the 366 fighter wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, she writes Quote and the current Cove in 19 environment and considering most deployed location requirements to have inbound personnel quarantine for a fort a 14 day period. Has there been any discussion of adjusting our DDS? That’s requirement Dr Developments to reflect this requirement on the front end Red than having personnel that air slotted to redeploy on an automatic basis. Doing so would allow Redeploy er’s to head home more or less as scheduled, while also accounting for any home station. Quarantine requirements are on our PCs orders, etcetera. Thank you for your time and consideration. I’ll turn this one to the Secretary. Sure, while kind of answer the question more broadly, first in it is we talked about it earlier. First and foremost priority number one for me going back to January, which is, I think, when we issued our first force protection measure in January. And since then we’ve issued 10 11 12 more as protect our people and protect our people means not just service members but also family members and R D o. D contractors and are, of course, rdld civilians. And by doing that, you can then, uh, take care of mission number two, party number two. And that is make sure we maintain our mission readiness, our capabilities and then because that is our core mission number one protect the nation. And then, of course, Number three is is priority number three was the participate in the whole government response to Kobe. But with regard to this particular issue, what we try to do is be very clear. Aziz people as either units moved back and forth, or people move back and forth that in addition to testing and other measures that we’re taking, that’s certainly if you are a unit we want we want units before they deploy abroad to be tested and to have their rahm’s there quarantines, if you will here on this side in the United States so that once they hit the ground, they’re ready immediately to begin their mission. Whether it’s a security mission, whether it’s a ah partner operation or some type of exercise, they’re ready, and they don’t have to wait 14 days in same way. In many ways, that principle holds true for individuals that air PCs ing back and forth. And Aziz best. It’s possible all persons should go, I should say as best as possible. Let me be clear. All persons should do a 14 day wrong either on this end or on the receiving end, depending on what you have to do in between there in terms of transportation. So that’s what we’re trying to get to. We want to make that system as efficient as possible. We’re given the services some room within their systems of moving people round. Teoh do it as efficiently as possible to address some of the issues being raised there. But the important thing is that we move people safely that they do whatever testing or temperature checks is need be, and then on either one end or the other, they get, they do that romps that they’re not. If they’re asymptomatic carriers or even symptomatic cares. They’re not presenting that into what would otherwise be a clean environment. So again, it’s force protection. Protecting our service members are civilians, etcetera, and and we’ll we’ll raise these issues and take a look at any other way that we can either improve the policy or make it more efficient. Today’s last video submission comes from operations specialist first class Pierre, who is stationed in Italy. Let’s roll it with all the recent events that’s been going on back in the States addax myself. A simple question. What does my chain of command seeing me when I take off this uniform? Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer to that. But what I am is unapologetically black. And with that comes a great responsibility to face challenges and adversities of preconceived notions and prejudices of how I’m supposed to act or what I’m supposed to do. It’s sad to say racism is alive and well around the world, and not just back in the States with my experience in Navy, although I’ve been a great one, I ran into some people the only judge me by the color of my skin and not about the quality of my work as a Navy. I thought that we should continue to treat people fairly based off their character and the sum of their actions. That’s how we’ll continue to be the world’s greatest name. I’ll turn this one over. The Chairman of Joint Chiefs to comment on the West One Piers message, sir, The special spirit Thanks. Those air part forwards you asked what your chain command would think when you take that uniform off. Um, I can’t speak for every officer and CEO out there, but you and I, uh, you’re a sailor. 24 7 would be wearing that uniform or not. I’m a soldier 24 7 all the time, Every time, no matter what. Ah, and and that you are unapologetically black. That’s a good thing. You should never deny who you are. Uh, no matter who you are, no matter how you identify ah, and you should be proud of that. Be proud of being a sailor will be proud of being an African American on all that’s good and remember, uh and this is for everyone not just here, but again going back to the oath, going back to the idea. The idea that is America, the idea that every one of us is free and equal? Remember the words of of Lincoln that this is a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men and I would add. All women are created equal, period, full stop on. And that’s what we’re about. That’s what that constitutes. That’s what that idea is about. And we are all free and equal. It doesn’t matter where we’re from. It doesn’t matter. The color Ruskin. We’re gonna be judged by the content of our character, not the color of skin like Martin Luther, King said. That is what this country is about. That’s the essence of America. And that is what we in uniform are dedicated to protect and defend. That’s what the Constitution is all about. And we are willing to die for those principles, those values and again, if we’re willing to die for those principles, we ought to be willing to live for him every single day. So thanks Special spear for what you do and what you do every single day with you wearing that uniform or not. Thanks for what you’re doing. Who you are. Thank you. We have time for just a few closing comments and I’ll call on the SEAQ first. Thank you again, sir. And again, Chairman. Mr. Secretary, Thank you again for this opportunity. One thing that I learned a long time ago, it’s, Ah, Special Operations forces. Truth number one. And that is that humans are more important than how it works. Well, guess what we are those humans on. We need to treat each other with dignity and respect To make sure that we carry out that mission for my shipmate Here, I will tell you that those who judge what they don’t know are nothing more than fools. So don’t listen to them. You don’t have to. You know your worth and you know your value. I know that. Lastly, I will leave you with two thoughts that only the mediocre are always at their best. So we need to continue to improve. And lastly, that you deserve what you tolerate. So don’t ignore things and don’t walk past issues, deal with them head on and prevent him from happening ever again. Thank you for your time. I look forward for the next opportunity, General. Thanks Ah, you know, I just at the risk of repeating myself over and over and over again, I would just ask that all of us in uniform never forget Hold the Constitution close to your heart. That’s what we’re about. And remember that diversity is a strength. It’s not a weakness, it’s a strength. And it gives us incredible straight in combat because it builds cohesive forces. It builds good order and discipline on, and that’s what we’re about in order to defend that great idea that’s embedded in the Constitution. So thanks so much for what each and everyone of you doing every single day. Thank you, Secretary me wrap up by saying thank you once again, everybody for tuning in and to participating in this town hall today. I know we got a lot out of it, and I hope you have a swell. Secondly, I’d like to thank all of you in uniform and also our d o d civilians for your service and your sacrifice and your commitment, particularly in these challenging times that it is a difficult moment for country dealing with the Corona virus. But you all have inspired us and and held the country safe and firm, both domestically and abroad. So thank you once again for that. Third, I like to repeat what we’ve all been saying. The importance of diversity and inclusion in our ranks. We must guarantee that we treat everybody with dignity and respect and ensure that we address issues of discrimination and bias and prejudice and give everybody afford everybody an equal opportunity to reach their best and be their best. That’s my commitment. That’s our commitment. That’s got to be the chain of commands commitment. But inevitably, it’s everybody’s responsibility and commitment to continue to push along these themes because, as we said today, diversity and inclusion make us stronger, not weaker. They make us better, not worse. They are all about what we are and who we are as Americans. That’s why I want to finish up with where I began. And that is we have all sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution. It is that document that embodies those ideas we talked about today about judging people based on their merit, not under skin or their ethnicity or the race. It’s about treating people equally. It’s about giving everybody equal opportunity. It’s about respecting those rights embodied in that document That’s we’re all committed to. That’s we’re all willing to die for and certainly something we hope almost be willing to live for. So I encourage you urge you to think about day in and day out as you accomplish your missions as you go about your tasks as you served side by side with people fellow service members of all races ethnicities, genders, orientations, etcetera that this is what makes America great. So thank you. Thank you, Mr Secretary. Mr. Chairman SEAQ to our online viewers on behalf of the Department of Defense. Thank you for tuning in and thank you for your questions. That concludes our Virtual Town Hall today, July 17th