Yeah, are we good great? Hi, good morning from a overcast Feels like it's raining an overcast Washington, DC. Thanks for coming here for those of you in person As well as those of you watching the live stream We have a great great panel lined up here. We have Congress and Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin 8 Go pack Unless the planet Cowboys Jerry McGinn from the The office of the deputy assistant secretary defense for manufacturing and industrial based policy where he's the print principal deputy And Ashley Lawson, who's a vice president at revolution growth. It's a billion and a half Venture capital firm here in DC and really the intent of this discussion is to Talk about this concept that was outlined in the national security Strategy and then additionally highlighted in the national defense strategy something called the national security Innovation base. It's a concept kind of like innovation and venture capital that is often cited and rarely understood In fact, I saw a great a great quote from The recent Air Force event, I think it was Milo Yet, and is that his name on the defense innovation board who he was talking about in this case the far and he Concerned it to the Bible saying that it's often cited and rarely understood or rarely opened and I think I think something like the national security strategy and even the National skate national security innovation base Is in that category as well. So I think to level set What I'd like to do is read a Brief floor from the national security strategy and then turn it over to Our panel here. So in the national security strategy. It said that I guess the basis for the document was that Every year competitors such as China steal US intellectual property valued at hundreds of billions of dollars Stealing proprietary technology and early-stage ideas Allows competitors to unfairly tap into the innovation of free societies over the years rivals have used sophisticated means to weaken our businesses and our economy as facets of cyber-enabled economic warfare and other malicious activities In addition to these legal means some actors use largely legitimate legal transfers and relationships To gain access to fields experts trusted boundaries that fill their capability gaps and a road This is key America's long-term competitive advantages And within the NSS it describe it describes several priority actions. So one understanding the challenges It says the US government will develop a capability to integrate monitor and better understand the national security implications of unfair industry trends and actions of Arrivals it says that we will protect intellectual property Tighten visa procedures and protect data and underline infrastructure Which I think is self-explanatory So I think kicking things off Mike is a congressman from Wisconsin What are some of the problems that you see with the industrial base as a whole? Both here in Congress as well as back in your home district. Well, I think it's fair to say first of all Thank you for having me today. It's great to be here. I thank you and everyone at New America for you know It's a new congressman you and someone who's new to politics you you spend a lot of time in your first year figuring out Where you can have the most impact and while this is not an area of past expertise for me It's an area where Steven and others here have spent a lot of time trying to get me up to speed and in this area Where I think we need to spend a far greater degree of time thinking about in Congress It's hard to convince Congress to stop and think at any time In Wisconsin in my district were the six largest manufacturing district per capita. So while we don't have a huge military base We make a lot of things that go into military equipment and obviously we've been suffering as has everybody under the Uncertainty surrounding the defense budgetary picture, which is particularly difficult for the sub component suppliers the big primes can actually weather that storm, but if your Fox Valley metal in in Green Bay, Wisconsin It's harder to deal with that level of Unpredictability and the second thing I'd say is that even small companies completely unrelated to the defense industry or having anything to do with National Security are finding themselves victims to cyber attack in even in Green Bay, Wisconsin So I think you appropriately led with the national security strategy Which clearly states that long-term strategic competition with great powers is our foremost security challenge That requires us to rethink a lot of our assumptions and China's technology transfer and investment strategy is a perfect Example of that and it has ramifications. Not just, you know You know abroad but in places like northeast, Wisconsin And I think obviously All of us in the now security community are starting to rethink a lot of assumptions foremost among them for the last few decades We assume that integrating our economies would Would would moderate Chinese behavior induce them to become a responsible stakeholder the evidence vitiates that hypothesis I think very strongly So I think it's fair to look at past interactions and see where we can change how we do business China is aggressively sort of using their investment to gain access to information Technology intellectual property to advance their economic political military power They have a much more integrated vision of that power than we do from 2006 to the 16 invested 35 billion in tech 25% of that came in 2016 alone. They were 10% of all venture deals In 2015 they're particularly aggressive with early-stage investments And I won't surprise anyone in this room to know that a lot of those have military applications be it augmented or virtual reality AI robotics you have I think you have an Eric Schmidt lab here or room Eric Schmidt sort of famously said that by 2020 they'll match us in AI by 2025. They'll overtake us and by 2030 They will completely dominate the market space and it's not just their investments that I think should worry all of us It's also the people that they send here to the United States 330,000 Students last year one third of the foreign total 25 percent of STEM graduate students And then the 440,000 experts that they attract each year through things like the thousand talents program So I'd be lying to you if I said that that's often what I get asked about at town halls back in Green Bay We've probably spent more time thinking about Aaron Rodgers dating life than we do about Chinese You know made it made in China 2025 plans He's dating Danica Patrick. Not that I know or pay attention But I think you have to know that But I think it's fair to say that it's a it should be a source of concern for all of us And I think it's fair to say that China is pursuing a grand strategy right now, and we are not Jerry in the national defense strategy, right which Attempts to address how the Pentagon will execute the national security strategy, right? It says that the department's technological advantage depends on a healthy and secure national security innovation base Hope that's the last time I have to say that out loud that includes both traditional and non-traditional defense partners the department with the support of Congress Will provide the defense industry with sufficient predictability to inform Their long-term investments in critical critical skills infrastructure and R&D We will continue to streamline processes so that new entrants and small-scale vendors can provide cutting edge technologies We will also leverage international Partnerships and protect partner investments in military capabilities. So your offices responding to and handling the Executive order on the industrial base the defense industrial base that came out last August or July How's that going and more importantly? how How can DOD deliver I think the term that we've used before is at the speed of relevance How can they kind of respond to these statements in the NSS and the NDS? Steve well, thanks very much to you for the invitation and to new America, and it's great to be here My colleague here Ashley So it's a very timely topic, and I really kudos to new America for identifying The national security innovation base was sort of not slipped into the national security strategy But it's a new term and to really kind of It's a real opportunity and the reason why it's in there is because some of the reasons that you outline the quote from the NDS Is that rapid technology changes are changing the character of war and we've seen that in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade plus but that continues and The with the spread of AI and machine learning and other kinds of technologies, you know We're you know the innovation is changing fundamentally How you know how we look at warfare so to maintain our technological about? Advantage we have to maintain a secure robust innovative and resilient National security innovation base and by that we mean, you know the defense industrial base is when you think of that you think of the traditional metal benders you think of the shipbuilders the folks in Oshkosh in Wisconsin that make Ground vehicles for our forces But there's an important aspect you've seen increasingly Department is looking at commercial technologies. That's where the innovation is happening You've seen that with the stand-up of the IE wax the treaty capabilities office Even a program in my office the MD5 national security technology accelerator is really about how bring new entrants into the Into the defense marketplace, so it's a recognition that not all ideas are you know vetted through DoD investment You know investment dollars or we need to use do the investment dollars to incentivize industry to Not traditional industries and that's what we mean by the national security innovation base now to answer your question directly about this The president did hand us a task in July of last year to do a comprehensive assessment of the manufacturing and defense industrial base and that is due to the president our set of recommendations policy Regulatory and legislative recommendations is due in April 17th That has been our principal focus for the last since July and We're fortunate We've been working very hard on that effort and we have a series of working groups that are looking at some of the industrial sectors from like a shipbuilding ground vehicles Radars and the like as well as some cross-cutting capabilities such as a workforce cybersecurity and Electronics, so what we've done to date is we've we had an interim readout with the at the executive offices the old executive office building with Our inter-agency senior task force about 10 days ago and in that we presented our draft initial interim findings for from the working groups and with where we identified risks in the manufacturing industrial base From our analysis And then how we're taking that those those findings and turning them into recommendations for addressing these risks and we're so in the process of that and I'll schedule to deliver to the president in Almost next month kind of mid mid-April that's what we are in the executive order awesome great Ashley see you have a deep background in venture investing currently with revolution and They've recently launched their rise of the rest seed fund with a number of individual investors around the country designed it to kind of drive that innovation into You know places that aren't on the coast so to speak places like like Wisconsin So interestingly in the national security strategy. I wanted to read off a brief blur from that But I think might might be of interest to people here. It says that the National security innovation base is the American network of knowledge capabilities and people including academia the national labs and the private sector Protecting the national security innovation base requires a domestic and international response beyond the scope of any individual company Industry University or government agency the landscape of innovation does not divide neatly in the sectors Technologies that are part of most weapon systems often originate in diverse businesses as well as universities Colleges So from your perspective From a technology and a venture investing perspective How can the private sector work with the US government to bolster our innovation base? Both here in DC as well as Across the country Absolutely. Well, thanks so much for having me here today And I think that this type of conversation is exactly what we need to really start to foster the right types of Conversations and collaborations among public and private sectors Particularly within security and it's a cyber security especially public right private partnerships are the only way that we're going to make any progress As you heard and as you saw with the NSS report We lose hundreds of billions of dollars due to IP theft predominantly through cyber attack now There's 16 critical verticals of infrastructure that we have to protect and that's everything from the national security base Which we're talking about here today to financial health care and other sectors So the scary thing is when you think about protecting those critical infrastructure vectors is the fact that not only are we losing money and resource to theft of IP, but now we're starting to see an increased proliferance of Attacks that are disruptive or destructive so The issue really becomes that the government has the best insight into the data That's that's showing us where nation-state actors in particular are starting to attack and that isn't getting back into the hands of the Innovative startups in the nation who have the talent and the private capital behind them in order to continue to innovate So what do we need to do about that? I think there's a few things number one I think that we need to start getting better about sharing that data such that the private sector can Commercialize technologies that can then be sold back into the government for a lower cost and with higher effectiveness In addition to that the government already has programs who are non-dilutive financing for startups such as Incutel and DARPA Which some of you are probably very familiar with we need to improve and enhance on those projects Such that we are investing in products and technologies that are commercially viable So for my standpoint in venture capital as you all know Incutel for example They will they're the venture capital arm of the the intelligence community So the intelligence community customers will come to them with a problem Incutel will find the best company and partner with the private sector in order to fund that But the trouble is that a lot of times those technologies aren't broadly commercially viable Which means that I have a problem bringing that back to my limited partners and putting resource in it So I think that to the extent that we can start thinking about broader commercial viability and dual Track investments will be very well served Great. So Mike you touched me follow up on a couple of things you guys said you touched on What China is doing to us what is Congress doing to address this this threat from China in Particular but you're really from many sophisticated nation-state actors sure and also I mean if you can leave that more broadly and I think a fundamental question is which is What do we what do we really need to do to change and how much of that originates in Congress interesting? Yeah, definitely. I'll try So first of all, I do think that the budget deal that we we struck a few weeks ago is a significant achievement I think it begins the process of getting us out from under the damaging effects of The BCA of defense sequester now that being said it's a two-year deal We still have two more years of the BCA on the back end and we still need to sort of learn how to flex these muscles again of actually Strategizing first and then having a budget conversation Afterwards rather than allowing budgetary constraints to affect all of your strategic decisions So that's one thing we're doing in Congress, which it's been a hard fight over the last year, but I think it's headed in the right direction But to that point, I mean, it's not enough right? I mean, I think since 2010 we've cut in real terms our defense spending by 22% China's increased by at least 65% The world hasn't gotten 22% safer. It's actually an even bigger disparity if you sort of go back to 2000 they have 300 ships the largest fleet in Asia right now some of the counting gets tricky depending on what of our ships you Classify but these are advanced ships, right? These are I think they put they equaled like half the displacement of the entire British Navy what they put in the water last year So we're just going to like build more stuff and and keep the defense Industrial base healthy some other things Congress is doing in the space. I think you'll see movement this year on cipus reform The foreign investment risk review modernization act. I think I got that right firma. These acronyms are ridiculous You got a better way to do a business. I think that's a good thing I mean, obviously there's a lot of things that might evolve as that legislation works that way Do that works its way through the house in the Senate? But the idea is to get at this weaponization of capital by the Chinese by expanding the scope of transactions that sypheus can review So for example, they could now take a look at foreign real estate investments in areas that are close to sensitive government facilities they can take a look at Chinese stakes in joint ventures Taking a minority position as opposed to traditional Mergers and acquisitions how they go right now and it just gives them more authority to look at Critical technology and critical infrastructure. I think that will be positive. I think it's long overdue But the amount of cases that sypheus is looking at it's just growing exponentially They're gonna need more human beings to do that work They're probably gonna need actual stable funding from Congress to do it as well The other thing I have a small bill with the representative Conway called the the defending US government communications act with basically prohibits the government from using Technology buying or using technology from Huawei or ZTE. Obviously, there's a 2012 house Intelligence committee report that detailed the problems with both of those companies. So those are some small things Your bigger question was, you know, what role does Congress have to play? Well, I do think there's an element of Public diplomacy or education that we should be playing that we're not right now particularly in the cyber domain, you know, I had thought when I got my My notification from OPM, you know saying thanks for your service your military records have been hacked But that would have been sort of our Sputnik moment But for whatever reason all of these things happen and perhaps because it's not yet at the intersection of physical destruction or loss of life It hasn't provided that national wake-up call for the country and I sit here reading, you know Your guys documents the OCEA reports It's the work that DIUX has done Michael Brown's work is phenomenal in the space and I'm like we're We need a wake-up call right now And I think that's an area where Congress needs to take the lead and I think we need to claw back some of the Authority when it comes to foreign policy that we've systematically Surrendered to the executive branch over the last few decades No, I I agree it from my perspective. I see alarm bells ringing all over the place Yeah, and but unfortunately none of them are located here in DC Especially with regard to AI, but also it's not just software hardware displacement as you mentioned It's happening on a increasingly prolific basis and not just in China, unfortunately for us Jerry Have so you're familiar with SIFI us Can you talk about? Can you offer kind of the department's perspective on where the SIFI us backlog is right now and then also you know In the end he has it talks about shedding processes or streamlining processes, you know So that it makes it easier for new entrants and small-scale vendors to come into the department from places like Ashley's portfolio Like how was it? How is that actually going to happen? Is that something that you mentioned MD5 will help with or what's your perspective on? Let me handle the SIFI us for investment one question first So just to piggyback on representative Gallagher's comments I mean the my office is the DOD representative on the on the committee on foreign investment in the United States So we represent the department in the interagency group that is chaired by the Department of Treasury that looks at foreign investment Transactions, so foreign investment is good. You know the US government supports it You know, but they will we look we are trying to look at the national security implications of transactions That cover interagency equities, so And in that as representative Gallagher was talking about the we have not reformed SIFI us since 2007 which was when Finza was was drafted and that was in response to a Different threat factor. It was infrastructure critical infrastructure protection what we've seen in the past decade and Particularly last several years is the nature of foreign investment is changing and it's it can have impacts on national security But not be quote-unquote a covered transaction under SIFI us So that is what the firm of bills trying to get trying to get at it I think representatives outlines from the major proponent components of it Department is very very strongly supportive. I'm gonna what I was trying to find was a quote from Secretary Mattis he sent a letter to Senator Cornyn who's the original author of the bill And I have just quote from it that the Secretary said that do depends on critical foundational and emerging technologies to maintain military readiness and preserve our technological advantage over potential adversaries Firm it would help close related gaps and quote So it is important for us to be able to protect technology to maintain our Technological edge and so SIFI is an important tool of that export controls another set of tools both You know do use technologies in the Department of Commerce as well as military technologies under the authority of the Department of State So these these are important ways to take now technologies, but they're also defensive measures So SIFI is sort of on the five-yard line. I like to say we also need to get more proactive in terms of how we How we shape our national innovation base and this gets to the points that you were talking about about How we how we incentivize industry non-traditional industry or the the new entrance to be able to enter the You know the defense marketplace and one of the things which I want to piggyback on with you is that It is going to happen through public private partnerships You know these are the one of the programs that we have in our under our portfolio are these Manufacturing USA institutes, which are public private partnerships in advanced technology areas 3d printing aim photonics digital digital manufacturing Advanced fibers and textiles and these are public partner partnerships They're in technologies that have both commercial and defense applications. And so we're trying to seed and Projects in these areas that are going to they're going to benefit for the department Ultimately, but also have commercial applications. So we need to do more of that when you do You know look at the ink you tell model and see what's appropriate for the you know in the defense space and see those kind of proactive investments will help Will help us maintain technological heads help educate companies about the dangers of taking Chinese money at the early stages, you know And as well as you know understanding, you know, you know helping build that ecosystem that's going to benefit our national security In the coming years, so that's a that's a perfect segue to Actually, I'd like to kind of draw you out a little bit more Jerry's comments. I think are very very valid and yet the From a private sector perspective From my perspective trying to work with companies to get them to both come into the US government to work with them And candidly to stay the data is clear. We don't really have a Evangelism problem here in DC. We have a latency problem in that we're great at getting people to come here But then they leave just as quickly as they they showed up Yeah, you know such a such a big market And and it's interesting because in the in the venture world, you know venture funding rounds, you know Range between 12 and 24 months, you know, the average DoD procurement timeline is between like 12 and 18 months So which also roughly equates with more as law which faces says you know technology in this case processing speed Devils every 18 months. So basically you're you're literally running against time And so from a private sector perspective As well as a venture perspective You know the tendency is to kind of dive into dive into live these recommendations Say, you know, they'd be great to do like a coordinate a coordinating group or maybe have a brief to Congress But the challenge is number one, you know venture investing the last time I checked is not a not an eight to five job The start of life is certainly not an eight to five job These men and women are doing their best to create value for themselves and others So how how can the private sector, but specifically the tech industry and Venture the venture capital industry were at large engage on a lot of the points that Mike and Jerry have been making I think that's the question of the day, right? You know as as an investor I am You know my job is to invest in businesses that are growing very fast and a lot of times I actually shy away from companies that have a lot of government customers specifically for the reasons that you talked about so You know that and that's not specific to me That's an industry-wide kind of paradigm which needs to shift So you think about, you know shortening that the procurement time periods you think about, you know Getting in front of commercial businesses more quickly and really explaining where your your your issue is and how you can work together to Commercialize I think you know to the point about data, you know as I mentioned before it just as a statistic here So the average cost of a hacking attempt is zero dollars for a hacker The revenue to that hacker is a hundred and fifty six dollars on average per record There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of records stolen and at any particular attack, you know Which means that the the demand is there for hacking, right? And we the government alone can't you know come in and protect, you know these critical Verticals 90% of those critical verticals 90% of critical infrastructure and generally is privately owned So I think you know it really becomes Inherent on us to to come up with some better skills of the communication I think it's right on I think it made me think about something that we in Congress should also be thinking about which is Okay, so how do I explain this? All right? There's certain things we we can't do that for example the Chinese Ken, right? The Chinese has devoted 250 to 300,000 PLA soldiers to cyber that's far bigger than the Marine Corps So we just don't we can't do that But and we can't really adopt sort of their model of military civilian fusion But I do think we need to think creatively about how do we allow Some of the most talented people in the private sector to perhaps serve for a period of time in your building or in uniform You look at all the services right now are trying to sort of grow their own organic cyber warriors Which is all well and good right you'll talk to the common on the Marine Corps say you know I'm thinking about a guy a marine wants to become a cyber marine We're gonna have a specialized career track for him or her kind of like if you were to do marsock be a special operator You can be away from the flagpole you can do your own thing That's good, but I still think we're not gonna get like the world-class coder to you know Join the Marine Corps at 19 get a high and tight do a bunch of pull-ups all the time I mean that could be uncharitable to our coders out there, but I think we need a more Creative model and we're thinking about that will herd has some good ideas Earlier and you know as maybe an unpopular comment as the private sector guy in the room here But I actually really believe that a big part of the cyber challenge gets solved through insurance. So cyber security insurance You know not regulation.  These are the things that you have to do In order for me to ensure you which is a requirement You know, we look at companies a lot of one of our companies in the portfolio is called tempus completely not related to anything here but they use machine learning and data to help on Colleges better predict treatment courses for their patients and we were talking to Eric Levkovsky the founder there And we said we know why why haven't you left this to government? Why are you doing this? Why are you investing these hundreds of millions of dollars in solving this problem? And he said well because the government's not moving fast enough because you know in order for the problem to get solved People got to make money off of it. I know that I can make money through private investment So I think there's a lot of areas where we can certainly coordinate better But I think your your analysis really points to something critical Which is the paradigm shift I think we need is to understand that in this in the cyber arena at least The private sector is often the main effort not the supporting effort and DOD needs to think about what that means Yeah, I was wondering if I go back to one of your questions that I didn't quite address But I want to circle back to it about the operating the speed of relevant So what we're talking the discussion here on the panel is that you know that the department has got a long way to go To be become a more dynamic customer We know how to write quest for proposals. We know how to post, you know Solicitations, but that doesn't really help us operate at the speed of relevance in a lot of areas So so we really need to make kind of some fundamental changes and that's where why the secretary has outlined three priorities For his tenure and one of them is business reform And so and that is very much charged with our under secretary Miss Ellen Lord has taken that and we really are pursuing that aggressively and there's three dimensions to that One is a process to mention Second is organizational and third is cultural so on the process side this gets to how do we get more? get better partnerships with With industry across the spec up and down the spectrum and this goes for You know our our traditional prime contractors and subs as well as the not nontraditionals or You know innovators and VC funds and the like and so that is you know Very much part parcel of you know using other transactions or stories or OTA is other kind of vehicles public fire partnerships We've talked about we just got to be able to do that more so we can cycle better at the speed of business organizationally Congress has directed us to do every organization What used to be acquisition technology and logistics we are now 200 secretaries acquisition is in statement and as well as resource engineering and the idea for that ship was to help us focus more on the research and engineering side on innovation and not be encumbered by you know the importance but distinct work of overseeing programs and the execution of Delivery of timely systems and that is As a secretary Lord said in her testimony last December 18 L needs to be the strategic body With focus across the board on driving affordability and accountability reducing timelines and equipping the services That's the military departments to execute their program So we become with the function of shifting from where we're directly overseeing to where we're enabling the military departments to fight organized training equip their warfighter So that's an important effort and we're we've started the we've now been reflagged and we have under secretary Griffin as a new R&E and we're working through the the Reorganization and in cultural you know the what we're the theme here is what do you need to be able to take more risk and be able to we're very good at being compliant and and Developing you know processes, but we need to move to a culture where we can innovate more rapidly taste risk and reward risk Instead of just rewarding the you know program continuing on time and on budget, so so that there was a let me Slightly shift gears here. I think in June of last year. There's a greater article and won rocks by Mark Cancey and a colleague over at CSIS and Mark wrote this basically it was an article about existential warfare. I mean it's very you know Very cool topic unless you're in the middle of an existential war Basically what he said is there's a sentiment right now that if we get in a another kind of World war situation His conclusion was that we're not gonna basically American our way out of this right? This is not something where we're gonna just ships are just gonna start rolling off the assembly line and we're gonna engage the you know this you know Mythical industrial base. It's not just gonna click in the action. He gave a very telling anecdote. He said in the The run-up and the first desperate year after You know America was drawn in the world war two You had you know suddenly all these all these jeeps rolling off these assembly lines And they said that was that was able to happen because the difference between a Jeep and a Ford pickup truck Who was making the Jeep or whoever you know was minimal, right? Similar drivetrain similar tires similar everything now you have the JLTV right which has what? 2000 plus mill spec parts This is this is not something that yeah, so I mean unless you know unless Mike and start creating some more factories and You know there's a I'm kind of walking you down a path here Unless you can start creating more factories or some kind of latent Specialized and that's the key specialized military capability to produce the hardware and also the cyber force if you will Then you're not gonna this is not gonna be something that in six or nine months all of sudden we come roaring back into action So I think having kind of thrown that out there Would love to get your thoughts on How can we begin to address this both from a hardware perspective? As well as from a we talked about cyber Ashley You know from a cyber force perspective and really and honestly from a cyber force perspective Is that something that that DOD even needs to do do we do we even eat a 3000 men and women you know Do the cyber force or is that something that comes comes from the club? Well, you know, I think they were all very fortunate in that the talent pool here in the DC region is Unparalleled from a cyber security standpoint You know what we lack is the ability to this is just from my views on the sort of cyber security workforce as it is in DC So we have no shortage of the technical talent because we've got the amazing folks coming out of agencies and other governmental Institutions, so you know, I think that that training ground has been really critical for building DC into a world power house in Cyber security the challenge that we face is that we're not able to attract the right sales and marketing talent a lot of times The right operational talent to DC because the the base just isn't large enough There's not enough companies to really attract, you know that outside talent. It wasn't necessarily technical fortunately, we're kind of in a paradigm where There have been a number of big exits in the space and continue to be big exits in the space So fire I am and the intonable to name a few and now we're starting to see folks that are leaders within those Organizations go out and start their own companies see the existing companies, etc. So, you know I think that from a talent perspective We're in we're in, you know, good shape, but You know some work remains to be done to make DC into a more attractive You know region I Would just say a few things one you and can't see on our right And we I tried to write something basically as a thought experiment if we found ourselves Drugging into a great power conflict. Could we even gear up for it? And I think there are serious questions I think the answer might be no right now Which is very troubling and as you know, the Marine Corps is dealing with right now. Sorry. I'm a Marine. That's my bias You know, we've never had to think about fighting to get to the fight We just we've always been able to sail our ships with Marines on them everywhere We wanted to go we had air superiority. We had superiority across every domain now. We don't So a conflict breaks out. I mean that's going to be very ugly. So what do we do about it? Well to go back to what I think I said initially I do think that consistent Budgetary picture is critical and that's what we should be doing in Congress, right? I mean you sort of look at defense spending since World War two. It looks like a sine wave huge Peaks very low valleys. That's because we always do this to ourselves We sort of believe this idea that we can Disinvest in defense during during times of peace We have some sort of peace dividend and then we find ourselves dragged into conflict on someone else's terms And then it cost us more we have to ramp back up So avoiding that and learning the lessons of history I think are important I do think we need to think about are there ways in which We can incentivize More investment in hardware, which you mentioned before, right? I was with a top, you know when the top type cyber security companies in Silicon Valley their CEO was talking to him And we haven't used like his very siskit analysis everything But it basically came to this point was like listen, I could boil us all down into one thing Which is we need to stop buying Chinese stuff like it's just vulnerable I mean we had the zombie zero attack in 2013 where there's a Chinese scanner Manufacturer that preloaded malware onto it they shipped it around the world and infected all these companies and sort of beaming it back To the mothership at the company located right next to a university in China that had been implicated in attacks on Google So could we create some sort of and I know I think this was in the OSEA report I know you guys are thinking about it, you know, just do d put 500 million dollars in some sort of account And with matching private sector funds for hardware investment The final thing I it's but still I know I'm a I'm a skeptic of Third offset thinking to the extent that you have to choose between capability and capacity. I find myself on the Capacity oh, I get confused We need more perhaps DoD provides the exquisite platform upon which we can put Cots commercial off-the-shelf stuff and sort of fail quickly and understand what works and what doesn't So Steve You posed interesting question and I did read the article From last last year and I have a little more optimistic take I guess I mean I've read Freedom's Forge Which I highly recommend it's a story of kind of how they built the investor base that won World War two And that was not done overnight. I mean it was done over time to And it created the you know many of the capabilities we still have today in our industrial base But I think to get no we would not be able to respond today You know immediately so one of the things we've uncovered in our industrial base Analysis for the executive order is sort of five what we call systematic causes That many of them have been alluded to today, you know First of all is sort of the impact of sequestration is the uncertainty of defense funding, you know of government spending, you know being on continued resolution all the time creates all kinds of uncertainty makes it hard for companies to plan makes it Unattract less attractive for companies and in the marketplace. The second is this competitor Industrial policies of competitor nations that we're talking about China's the pacing challenge But you know, there are other countries that have industrial policies as well But we see that very explicitly in the case of China that they were very public about the Where they're investing and and how much they're investing so that you know, they and that has impacts Third would be impact of our workforce. I mean we even during the high of the recession We had significant shortages on stem talent across the workforce I mean, but it's not just high-tech It's not just down, but it's also high-tech welders for in our nuclear engineers and As well as for shipbuilders, you know Those capabilities are We have made some improvements the companies are investing a lot in stem, but it's still we're still way behind Where we need to go for the workforce of the future Fourth is on manufacturing Our manufacturing base has eroded which you know gets to why Why the representatives maybe a little more pessimistic on this is that you know our base of Is smaller just a pessimist by nature I'm catholic. I always feel like Exactly my fault But you know, but the it is a fact that you know, we've lost over six I forget exactly how many I've got it here We've lost Tremendous amounts of many since 2000. We've lost five million manufacturing jobs. So Again, we've made some improvements that is leveled off a bit as we focused In recent years on advanced manufacturing, but you know, it's still a systematic challenge And then the last one is is we've also been talking about it us government practice buying practices how we do business is Struggles to to be at the speed of relevance. So we need to improve how we do that. So these systematic Causes lead to different risks that come up in the industrial base And we have to attack the each of those in order to really, you know, get at Where we need to go for the future and that comes through policy changes that comes through regulatory changes that comes through authority changes And some investment changes and I would add education to that as well So, you know, specifically within cyber security a full 50 percent of the required workforce Is needed to do the jobs in america is Not there So we don't have people with the right backgrounds to fill those jobs Which creates gaps which creates holes, which you know leads to vulnerabilities So, you know, we need to start educating our youth and you know, maybe even mandating certain courses within college curriculum You know that will help prepare our next generation it's interesting uh, and I'm going to open it up just a couple questions a couple questions. Uh, we're almost at time, but uh while you're queuing up your questions that um Your point actually is very interesting, especially now that we're I saw a report late last week that um, they think that we're like nearing full employment So it's not like we're at 10 10 or 12 percent unemployment. I mean we're nearing full employment and we have these huge huge gaps The argument before was oh, well, there's all these jobs out there There's people that in theory could fill these jobs, right? And it extends will be on cyber security, right? Like so if you think about this new model of shared economy and machine learning and AI and all of these new technologies that are coming up There are sure going to be some jobs that may be displaced by that not as many as I think people worry about But we need to start developing a more nimble workforce and a workforce that you know Can rat readily switch and understand and engage with these new technologies We are we are at uh, at least in wisconsin Near full or full employment But labor force participation is still at a 30 year low So and you talk to any business.  We got a ton of jobs We just can't find human beings to do the job We had 20 people come out for a job 10 had the basic skills Three passed the drug test and only one of the three is showing up today I've heard a version of that more times than I can count. That's a huge challenge. So you could say well This uh, we don't have the requisite skilled workforce. So that might be an educational Problem that might require us to invest more vocational technical training Uh, you an alternative theory would be they just don't want to do that type of work I don't know. I mean, it's a very complex thing. It's over determined. Um, you could say you could criticize some of our Uh, our social safety net programs as incentivizing people to stay out of the workforce Uh, but we got to figure that out. I tend to think we're going to be stuck at The best we can do is three to 3.5 growth until we figure that issue out So in the interest of time, uh, let me take a couple questions in a row like you three and please introduce yourself And uh, keep your question brief and make sure it's a question Please Matt Thank you. I have a question for mr. McGinn on the competition in the dod industrial base Um, when you look at programs like the next generation icbm You see now that one of the key suppliers orbital is about to complete the Merger with north of gremans. So that's a seems like a major loss in competition in that sector and This is the nuclear triad that dod considers one of the top priorities. So what concerns do you have now as Potentially we may have more of these types of transactions and specifically, you know in this situation You will have to deal with the impact of that. So any thoughts you have on that? Thanks Okay, hold that question sir real quick My name is serene peter from the russian embassy Um Today you are covering The issue mostly from the internal perspective, but uh, as we all know internet is a kind of global phenomenon In this regard, uh, I just curious Don't you think that it would be or will be in the interest of the united states to work out some kind of international norms of behavior in internet for example, russian federation has uh Suggested to Even proposed draft united nation convention on cooperation and combatant information crimes So don't you think that having established obligatory norms of behavior in internet Will be in it will be in the international in Will be in the interest of securing United states here. Thanks And the last question right there, please Hi there. I'm john funge with data tribe and um I was curious for ashley when you're sizing markets, uh, you're looking at perspective investments How do you think about expansion beyond the united states if it's some really interesting advanced cyber tech thing like like When you're making assumptions around how those businesses will proceed outside the us and what limits they might have on them And how well they can penetrate those markets. What assumptions do you make when you're sizing those markets? They'll actually want you to lead off and then feel free to wrap up any closing thoughts down the line Great Yeah, so well the challenge with the cyber security market in general has been that in the us market between 2014 and 16 all of this money went into the sector chopping up these necessarily Already segregated bubbles, right? So the the profile of a hacker is different Some hackers are going to do a phishing email and the hacker that's hacking into an erp system Is completely different from a skillset perspective. So as a result Technologies have developed to protect each particular risk Now all of this money flowed into the space in 2014 to 2016 And that chopped up already small total addressable markets So you rather than having three funded competitors in a particular market now you have 20 And none of them can get beyond the requisite size that they need to really scale domestically or internationally We're starting to see some shakeout of that happening in the venture community here So a lot of times an a round or a b round might have been wildly mispriced and those firms are having trouble Getting their next round of capital. I think we're starting to see some right sizing there Um to more directly address your question though on international expansion when I'm looking at markets I'm looking to see how already You know divided, you know the the TAM is for a particular segment And how likely it is that one or two or maybe three of those companies can break through to when the us market And then I look at international expansion as an icing on the cake on top of that So that's kind of my perspective and then in terms of the your question related to internet Use and protocols the internet was designed with with banana anonymity in mind, right? And so that's a really hard thing to change and I think that you're right You know, we we do need to see some you know controls placed over internet and trusted parties and things of that nature But the the challenge has just been the the vastness of how you do that without stepping on a number of different toes Sure, uh, yeah, I'll address the competition issue. Um, yeah So one of the things my office does is we view uh mergers acquisitions that um for department of defense and that's under department of justice or federal commission lead as again interagency effort and that is yeah, so The guiding principle under that is is competition. So when we look at a transaction, you look for the impact that it has in that marketplace and you want to you know Ensure as much competition as you can You know, but they're when you look at a transaction they're reviewed on a case by case basis In the in the case of or belated k actually they're the the specific program you cite the ground-based strategic deterrent actually the primes are bowing and north of rumin for for those for that the current phase of the effort so And there are two launch providers Or belated k energy at rock and dine and you know that those those are the two rocket two launch providers and Even if the the transaction goes through then you still have two launch providers So it um, well, that's how we look at it as we focus on competition And you ideally you want to have multiple, you know three four competitors in their space But it's a balance of how how healthy is the marketplace and You know that you don't want to as a department. You don't want to get in the middle of business But it's what you do want to make sure as much as possible you can maintain competition Um on the the internet question, you know, I think what the the national defense strategy and the national security strategy make clear in my mind is that while the u.s. Certainly has an interest in Strengthening and extending the us led global rules based international order Neither china nor russia shares our conception of what that order should look like and so I think there would be significant disagreement about what those norms Are and I think this is particularly pronounced in the cyber domain So yes, while I agree that we should lead and set the rules of engagement It appears to me that it's sort of the wild west right now. Actually I mentioned earlier Obviously chinese intellectual property theft costing on the order of 300 billion a year 100 billion sales 2.1 million jobs similar albeit less dramatic skill with the sort of russian cyber crime national cyber security awareness month in october I believe began with the revelation that an NSA contractor went home plugged his stuff into a kaspersky Antivirus software and it beamed it right back to the mothership in russia So I think we have a lot of disagreements. We're probably working through right now. That's not to say that we're destined to Come into conflict But I think we can be open and honest about those disagreements and hopefully work towards a norm that everyone can agree upon It's great. What we need to have you guys back is there are a number of things that we left on the table So real quick. I wanted to thank the great work From David Sturman setting this up as well as amory slaughter and peter bergans leadership here Thank you very much for coming and this will be one of many discussions. We have on this topic So please join me in thanking our panelists


Hi, this is Chichou. Welcome to my channel. What I thought we'd do in this video is have breakfast together. Now if you recall in a bunch of previous videos that I put together, I showed you guys how I end up making crab apple butter. And I had a couple people ask me how I eat crab apple butter. So I figured this was a pretty good opportunity for breakfast and I do eat crab apple butter fair bit for breakfast and I do snack on it throughout the day every now and then. Well, fairly often actually. So I figured I'd show you the three basically main ways that I do eat crab apple butter. So just in case if you come across it, if you plan on making some crab apple butter, you'll have an appreciation of what you can do with it and I'm pretty sure there's a lot of other things that you can do with it. I know some people comment that you can cook with it. I think with roast, it went well if I recall correctly. Some people posted comments. But let me show you the main ways that I end up eating crab apple butter. And if you recall the videos that we made, the crab apples that I made, the first batch of crab apple butter with, they were red, right? And we ended up making these guys sort of a nice reddish tint to them, right? Now one thing that happened later on the summer was when I went to a music festival and we put up like three videos, two or three videos on Sufi Worling when I went to the festival. If you watch those videos, you know what I'm talking about. When we went to the small town where this festival was at, we actually came across two other large crab apple trees and they were like full of crab apples. So what we ended up doing was picking a whole bunch of crab apples almost twice as much as what I had for the red batch that we made, what I showed you. And I actually sort of went about sort of making another video of cleaning these new batch of crab apples that I bought. It was basically, not bought, that I picked. It was basically a video that I was making for the politics. Some people asked me what my take was on politics and the elections and stuff like this. So I figured we'd clean crab apples and talk about politics.  So I ended up putting up, you know, doing another take and a third take basically is the one that I loaded up on my channel and that's the one you see when there is no crab apples being cleaned, right? So the second batch of crab apples I made, they're more yellow oranges. Let me show you what these both look like, right? This was from the one you saw with the crab apples making crab apple butters red and this is the orange one. And I think consensus is that we like the orange one better. I'm not sure why, this one, the red one is really good but it's fairly strong.  So this is a fresh batch, fresh jar that I just cracked open because since we had a lot more of this one, we've been eating this one a lot. This one, the red one, we sort of went ballistic at the beginning or supplies dwindled a fair bit, right? So one way that I eat crab apples and once you crack them open, I keep them in the fridge but one way I eat crab apples is if I have a craving for something, just something tart, something sweet, just working at home and just need something, some kind of flavor, I just go to the fridge and basically take a jar either this one or the orange one that we have and I just usually take a spoonful and I just incredibly tart this one, incredibly tart. Okay, very delicious. So that's one way I eat crab apples and you never, never double dip, right? So let's put this spoon on the side and here's the batch that we're almost finished of the orange one and this one, definitely have a spoonful as well, right? Same deal but less tart. It's got more of a sweetness to it and what we did for this batch when I made it, when we made it, I added a little bit of cinnamon. I broke it up into two different batches so this one is the one with cinnamon in it and this one is the one without the cinnamon in it and the red one didn't have any cinnamon either I don't think we put any cinnamon in it. So we have sort of three different flavors of crab apple. So that's one way I eat crab apples during the day I just come over to the fridge and pick up a spoon and just eat a little spoonful it's extremely delicious and it gives you a fair bit of energy. It's got the sugar and whatnot. Now another way that we eat crab apples is on toast. Okay, use this one. And I'd like, you know, let me show you this, I sort of prepped this. This is sourdough, okay? Sourdough bread and I put feta cheese on it and this is sort of a seedy bread and it's got tons of seeds in it and above it and this is sort of old fort cheese. So what I end up doing usually, if I'm having toast, sometimes I do eat it by itself just toast and crab apples but basically take a spoonful or a little bit more maybe. Oops, I should show you this, I guess. Take a spoonful and I sort of spread this on top of the one with feta. Feta and crab apples. Wow, so, so good. Fantastic, right? Now when I eat it with the cheddar, I don't put the cheddar on first because with the feta you can spread it so it's fairly solid on there. With the cheddar, I usually put the crab apples first, right? Should we do the red one? Let's do the red one. Actually, I haven't had the red one for a while now because I've been going ballistic with the orange one and you can see the color difference there. Looks beautiful. Let's use a different knife, cleaner knife, right? So sort of spread that around. By itself, it's amazing and butter, butter, right? So just by itself, fantastic. And the spread is amazing. They put a little bit of a local bakery and in the seedy one, they put a little bit of peppers in there, I think because it makes it a little bit of spicy. And with the cheese, I just laid the cheese on top and I'll finish these toasts up later. I'll show you the next thing that I usually would. So good with the cheddar. With the old cheddar, wow. Fantastic with it. Why don't we finish off this toast? We'll finish the feta one later. Delicious, delicious. Lemon water? Very good. That's a good start, right? Now, let me show you one way that I eat the crab apples a fair bit, which is basically in cereal, okay? So I got my cereal bowl here. I have a pretty big bowl of cereal sometimes. And what I'm going to do is I'm sort of going ballistic with the cereal. I usually don't mix all of these things that I'm about to show you, but why not, right? So let me show you the cereals that I usually eat with. And these are, I like these because they're sort of crunch crunch and they're, you know, like good cereals. It's like a little guy. So there's two different little worldly things here. There's these ones. They're harder. Then there's these ones that are softer. They use different flour in there, I guess, or grains, I guess. I'm not going to bother pronouncing the names. Okay, so that's one batch of. And then I do mix in these ones, too. These ones are rice ones. They're like crumbly. Look at these ones. The little guys. Okay. And these are the flaky cereals that I sometimes use. So there's four different types of cereals going in here. So we're going ballistic with it, right? And what I end up doing is I eat the cereals with yogurt. Okay, so I pour yogurt on top and I use hemp milk. So I'm going to throw in some spoonfuls of yogurt in this. Mix it up. Throw in hemp. Don't eat it all. I sort of mix it around. If you recall, we're sort of sitting in autumn right now. So there's certain fruits that have come out. And if you recall, we put out a couple of videos on autumn olives. So there's a couple of trees locally that we went and picked autumn olives. And these autumn olives last a while if you put them in the fridge. And there's dates here. Okay, chopped up dates. So I do mix in fruits with my cereal. So autumn olive and dates. Let's get all the dates in there. So good. It's like power food. And we got apples and pear. Okay, chopped up. So throw that in there. I do like bananas too in my cereal. And I got hemp seeds. Get a little protein in there. Fair bit of protein actually. So throw in the hemp seeds. So mix this up. End up doing is taking crab apples. Now I'm going to use, I haven't had it with the red one for a long time. So I'm going to use, I'm going to mix them both. Why not? You know, I take a spoonful like this. Put it on the side. Sometimes more. I should put a little bit more. Let's put some of the orange one in there too. Yeah, this is the one. This is the orange one, right? And I don't mix those all around. What I do, I sort of treat it like ramen style, right? Have the stuff mixed here and there's certain things with the ramen, the bamboo shoots, or the seaweed or whatnot, right? If you like those as separate flavors. I sort of, what I do is sort of take a little bit of the crab apples and mix it in with the fruits and the yogurt and off we go, right? So this is one of the main ways. I eat this a few times a week and I definitely take spoonfuls of crab apple on a daily basis basically. And with toast and cheese and stuff every now and then. Not fairly often I guess. Even the snacks during the afternoon, okay? So to answer your questions, this is the way I eat crab apples three of the ways I eat crab apples. And one other thing we did with crab apple this year was we found a recipe online to make crab apple preserve like what you eat with hot food with just like pickles or sauerkraut and stuff, just a side dish and it's amazing. And maybe next year we'll end up going picking crab apples again because we're definitely going to hit up. So we've got three trees right now. We're definitely going to be hitting up these crab apple trees to make a new batch next year. So maybe we'll share that recipe with you because the preserve is absolutely amazing as well. So that's about it. I guess we just sit down and have breakfast, have cereal, right? Enjoy the day. Let's start today.


Distinguished guests, the President of the United States, accompanied by Captain Larry Taylor, United States Army. As we ask God's blessings on this very special occasion, God of the Ages, we are grateful for your presence with us today as we honor Captain Larry Taylor for his heroic actions on June 18, 1968.  Captain Taylor represents the best of the best among those legions. As we recognize him for his courageous actions in Vietnam in June of 1968, we honor the sacred calling and sense of higher purpose that he and his crew embodied that day. For the sake of those, they rescued from distress. Thank you for the shining example of valor and selfless service Captain Taylor displayed. As the Medal of Honor is placed around his neck, may your grace and peace rest upon him in a new way and on his family, his friends, all who also assembled here today to acknowledge an extraordinary act of service to the nation and his comrades in arms. May Captain Taylor's bravery rekindle in all of us a spirit of sacrifice and steadfastness of purpose, and may this occasion renew our shared commitment to serve and support one another no matter how challenging the circumstances. We pray all these blessings in your holy name. Amen. Please be seated. Thank you. What distinguished group of Americans, former Medal of Honor winners, thank you for being here. This in a few days, young women and men from across the country are going to arrive at Fort Ward, Georgia to attend Ranger School on the toughest military courses in the world. For nearly 20 hours every day they'll run, march, swim, and climb some of the most challenging obstacles under the most grueling of conditions. But most importantly, they'll learn how to lead, studying the stories of our greatest nation's warriors, and include the story of a pilot who 55 years ago risked his own life to save a group of young soldiers like them, the pilot we honor today, Captain Larry Taylor. The Medal of Honor is our nation's oldest and highest recognition of valor. Now, when I called Larry to let him know he finally was receiving this recognition, his response was, I thought you had to do something to receive the Medal of Honor. Let me say that again, he said, I thought you had to do something to receive the Medal of Honor. Well, Larry, you sure and hell did something, man. If you ask anyone here, I'm pretty sure they'd say something, you did something extraordinary. That includes our Secretary of the Defense, Secretary Austin, Secretary McDonough, the Secretary of the Army, Chairman Milley, and Senator Blackburner, and also Senator Haggerty, who all joined us today. I also want to thank previous Medal of Honor recipients who have come to recognize their brother-in-arms. Pirates Davis, Walter Marm, and James McLuhan, and Leroy Petrie. Petrie, excuse me. Gentlemen, you're the very best the nation has to offer. We owe you. The same goes for Sergeant David Hill, Vietnam veteran, former firefighter, and as the last surviving member of Larry's mission, the driving force behind his Medal of Honor nomination. On behalf of our nation, thank you all for being here. And finally, Tony. Larry learned many ranks and call signs throughout his military service. He earned them, Captain, Dark Horse, Mustang, and probably a few we can't say out loud. Best left out of the presidential record, I guess. But I believe, I believe that Larry is most proud of being called your husband. And it's an honor, it's an honor to have you both here as we give this heroism its full recognition that it deserves. Born in the volunteer state, raised by a World War II veteran, duty defined Larry Taylor's life from his earliest days. As a young man, he volunteered to join the college ROTC unit at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Then after graduating in 1966, he commissioned as an armor officer. Larry had dreamed of leading men in the battle on what he called chariots of steel. But it didn't take many days on the ground for Larry to realize he belonged in the sky. He wanted to be a pilot, not just any pilot, a Cobra pilot, flying the newest, fastest, deadliest Army helicopter at the time. A gunship built for only two people and their ammo. So when Larry was ordered, and when Larry was ordered, was offered a spot to fly in the fighting first in Vietnam, he jumped at the chance. It was there that then Lieutenant Taylor would go above and beyond the call of duty, quite literally. June 18th, 1968, it was pitch black, no moon, no stars, no light beyond the glow of Lieutenant Taylor's cockpit controls when he heard a whisper coming through his radio. We're surrounded, we're surrounded, that's what he heard. A call had come from a four-man Army patrol unit just northeast of Saigon, a unit that included Sergeant David Hill. Early that day, the men had set out to recon the area. But in the dark, the men found themselves in the middle of the Vietnam, Vietnam stronghold. Nearly a hundred enemy soldiers now encircled their unit. The men picked up the radio and made a call. It was no longer a recon mission, they needed a rescue mission. Without hesitation, Lieutenant Taylor and his co-pilot began racing toward them. Over the radio, he laid out the game plan. He would use his Cobra to give the unit cover until a rescue helicopter could extract them. That was one, there was this one simple problem. It was pitch black, Lieutenant Taylor couldn't determine exactly where they were. To ask his men to launch a flare, a move that revealed their location to him but also to the enemy, Lieutenant Taylor knew the risk but he was ready. Over the radio, he said, let's get to work. The flare went up and the fight was on.  They flew dangerously low levels for more than a half an hour, firing thousands of rounds of rockets to cover the ground, cover the ground in which the men were. Then Lieutenant Taylor heard a sound, not only meant one thing, his Hilo was hit. And then it was hit again, and again, and again. At that point, according to Army standards, he could have left the fight, but Lieutenant Taylor had his own sacred standard. Quote, you never leave a man on the ground, end of quote. He tried to find an escape route for the unit, his Cobra taking more rounds as he did. He kept trying to radio for rescue knowing that he and his men below were almost out of time and ammunition. On his last try, he learned that any attempt to save the men had been called off. The rescue helicopter was not coming. Instead, Lieutenant Taylor received a direct order, returned to base. His response was just as direct, I'm getting my men out. I'm getting my men out. Lieutenant Taylor would perform the extraction himself, a maneuver never before accomplished in the Cobra. Remember, the Cobra was only a gunship only. It had no cabin for passengers, but that was the least of his problems. Most of Lieutenant Taylor needed to give his men a way out of the rice paddy where they'd been pinned down. He needed diversion, so despite the fact that he had no rockets or rounds left, Lieutenant Taylor drew the enemy fire himself. Using his landing light to trick the enemy into thinking he was still at ammo, he started making runs on the Viet Cong fighters. The roost worked a few times, but it was enough for the men to make it to the extraction point. There, still under heavy gunfire, Lieutenant Taylor landed. The men mounted the exterior of his halo, clinging to the skids, climbing on the rocket pods. Within seconds, Lieutenant Taylor was back in the air, but the mission wasn't over. Lieutenant Taylor saw his fuel light flickering. He had started off with 1,600 pounds of gas, and now he had about six, not enough to make it back to base. Worse, the soldiers he was carrying were covered in wet mud and clinging to the cobra against 50 knots of wind. Even if he could make it back to base, his men would freeze or fall first. So he once more risked his own safety for his fellow teammates. He located a friendly area to set his bird down. Four men dismounted the halo and disappeared back into the pitch-black night. No moon, no stars, no light beyond the glow of their faces when they briefly turned and saluted Lieutenant Taylor for saving all four of their lives. He wouldn't see some of these men again until 30 years later at Army reunions. By that time, Lieutenant Taylor had long become Captain Taylor. He had flown more than 2,000 combat missions, and he received a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, two Distinguished Fine Crosses, and 43 air medals. Thank God he's not putting them all on his chest. He's got trouble standing. Incredible. No, really, think about it. It's incredible. But the greatest honor of all, families showed up at these reunions too. They'd look for Larry. They'd hug him. They'd say, you don't know me, but you saved my daddy's life. In a few days, young soldiers about the same age as Larry was during the dark night in Vietnam. They'll arrive at Ranger School. Like all of us today, they're inspired by his story, and they will be. But how? By how he refused to give up, refused to leave a fellow American behind, refused to put his own life above the lives of others in need. When duty called, Larry did everything, did everything to answer. And because of that, he rewrote the fate of four families for generations to come. That's valor. That's valor. That's our nation at its very best. And that's why it's now my great honor to ask Lieutenant Colonel Ann Hughes to read your Medal of Honor citation. May God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Attention to orders, the President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3rd, 1863, has awarded in the name of Congress the Medal of Honor to First Lieutenant Larry L. Taylor, United States Army. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. First Lieutenant Larry L. Taylor distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, while serving with troop Delta, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division on June 18th, 1968, near the village of Apgokong, Republic of Vietnam. On this date, First Lieutenant Taylor commanded a light-fire team of two Cobra helicopter gunships, scrambled on a nighttime mission in response to an urgent call for aerial fire support from a four-man long-range patrol team. Upon arrival, First Lieutenant Taylor found the patrol team surrounded and heavily engaged by a larger Viet Cong force. He immediately requested illumination rounds and supporting artillery to assist with identifying the enemy positions. Despite intense enemy ground fire, he flew at a perilously low altitude, placing a devastating volume of aerial rocket and machine gun fire on the enemy forces and circling the friendly patrol. For over approximately 45 minutes, First Lieutenant Taylor and his wingmen continued to make low-level, danger-close attack runs on the surrounding enemy positions. When enemy fire increased from the village of Apgokong, he requested artillery rounds with lower illumination altitudes be fired on that portion of the village so that the burning rounds ignited the enemy positions. With both Cobra gunships nearly out of ammunition and the enemy still closing in on the patrol team, First Lieutenant Taylor fluked the patrol team's potential ground evacuation route, finding it unviable based on the heavy enemy ground fire encountered. Returning to the patrol team's location, he continued to circle it at a low-level, under intense enemy fire, employing his searchlight to make fake gun runs on the enemy positions to distract them from the patrol team. Running low on fuel and with the patrol team nearly out of ammunition, First Lieutenant Taylor decided to extract the team with his two-man Cobra helicopter gunship, a feat never before accomplished. He directed his wingmen to fire their remaining minigun rounds on the patrol team's east flank. First Lieutenant Taylor then fired his own last minigun rounds on the enemy positions, opening an avenue of movement to the east for the patrol team. He directed the patrol team to move 100 yards towards the extraction point where First Lieutenant Taylor, still under enemy fire, landed his helicopter and instructed the patrol team to climb aboard anywhere they could. With the four-man, long-range patrol team seated on rocket pods and skids, he evacuated them to the nearest friendly location, undoubtedly saving their lives. First Lieutenant Taylor's conspicuous gallantry, his profound concern for his fellow soldiers and his intrapegete at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.


I'm Jason McKenzie, I'm originally from Bathmaid, currently residing at Crystal's House. I'm 45 days older. Hi, welcome to another episode of Recover Loud. I'm your host, Mike Paddleford, and I Recover Loud. I'm here to speak about the pain. Recover Loud to normalize the disease that's been killing all my friends and my family. The time is now to let it all go and recover loud. The benefit is healthy people, family and friends that never have to overdose. Ever again, never have to plead out to a lesser defense. I'm proud to say that I Recover Loud. I never thought I could, but I'm so proud that I discovered how to live my life again, controlling my own destiny. I needed recovery. I still needed desperately. Addiction never defined my destiny. I Recover Loud here to tell my own story. I Recover Proud, save a life of like 40. I Recover Loud, yeah. I Recover Loud. I Recover Loud, yeah. I Recover Loud. I Recover Loud here to tell my own story. I Recover Proud, save a life of like 40. I Recover Loud, yeah. I Recover Loud. I Recover Loud, yeah. I Recover Loud. Hi Jay, welcome to the show. I appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us. You mentioned you're staying at Christopher's home and if anybody has been following me on Facebook, I'm the living manager here and you're one of the guys I get to support. You mentioned 45 days so far? Yes, 45. So how often does that happen for you in the past? I don't even think I can count one time. You have had periods of sobriety and how far did you make it before? I think my max of sobriety time is 27 days. When you were out using, what kinds of things were you doing? What was your drug of choice? Originally I started off with alcohol. That was for a long period of my life and then I found crack cocaine. How long would you say you were using crack? I started last November. I ended up going to jail for a small step and then I got back out and I made it through the summer and then I would say around October of last year. So that was the most recent drug that you were using? Correct. And when you picked up crack, what was that doing for you? For me, for the crack I switched over from alcohol because alcohol controlled my life and it made me do things that was out of my control because I'm a blackout drinker. So when I found crack cocaine, it covered up the same things I wasn't trying to deal with or feel without the consequences because I can kind of control my actions. And with crack you weren't blacking out? Absolutely not. Yeah, so did you feel like you were doing things that you couldn't control still even with the crack? Yeah, absolutely. I never had something grasping me so hard as cocaine and alcohol. I mean, yes it was addictive but it wasn't nearly as close to the crack. So for that last period where you were using, how bad did it get? I got to the point where I needed it every day and then I happened to find another substance which was meth which was even more controlled and even more addictive and that's when my life really swallowed out of control. How far down did it get? I got to the point where I was living on the streets of Lewiston for a few months and destroying everything in a way. Mainly relationships. So when you say you were living on the streets, was that actually physically on the streets? Yeah, it was definitely physically on the streets. Going like days and days out, showers, just struggling to get the next eye. And where would you actually find to sleep? I was living on the streets, different cubby holes and whatever I could find, like doorways and just random places. Now, had alcohol brought you to that point ever before? Absolutely not. Drinking alcohol was, I don't know, I grew up, I grew up like, I don't even know, I can't even explain it. Alcohol never dragged me down like that. So speaking of growing up, where was it you grew up? Originally I grew up in Bath Main but we relocated because my mom thought it would be a good idea to relocate because my dad was in a hot, so we ended up moving to Randolph where I grew up, the majority of my life. And Randolph's right down the street from us here, so this is your stomping grounds. So at what age did you move over this way? I think I was early, I was probably 14, 15. I ended up leaving Randolph because I felt like I didn't fit in with the other kids, so I ran to Augusta. And I found a crowd that I fit in with and that's where I resided. Yeah, and was that a good crowd? Yeah, for a short time, I ended up in the youth center. Okay, so how long were you in the center then? And that was around what age? I would say 14, and then from 14 to 18, pretty much the whole time I was in the youth center. So you were raised at the youth center. So did you ever graduate high school? No, I never graduated high school. My story led to the youth center and I went through a lot of abuse. And then straight from the youth center, I think it was 17, 18, they found me over and I did two and a half years in prison. And that's pretty much where my life been since, from 18 right up to 42. I've got a majority of my life in prison and that's what I'm dealing with today. So yeah, from 14 to 17, youth center, 18 to 40 in prison. So you haven't really had a whole lot of time to live on your own? No, not at all. And my main focus is being here at the Christmas house is trying to get my life back on track and learn as an adult how to provide for myself. And yeah, just learning how to be an adult, I guess. What were some of the things that you did that led you to prison? Oh man, my drinking, my drinking is definitely the cause of the time I've spent. It started out like petty stuff, starting to steal beer or whatever it was that I needed or a clothes. Because I've lived on the streets as a child too, as a kid, as a teenager, I was running the streets. So I just petty theft. So you said you were living on the streets basically and cast as well? Yeah, I bounce around for people's houses and lived on pretty much sidewalks and steps and whatever I'm fine. And where was your mom at? My mom at the time, I had no clue with all the youth center time. I remember one day my mom saying I was in the youth center just coming to visit. And she said that, remember this, I'll stick through you this one time. I did like four months in the youth center and she stuck with me. And she said it'll never happen again and she made that truth the whole time. So once you got in trouble again, she wasn't there to support you. I did pretty much 25 years well. My mom and dad and any of my family, no letters, no phone calls. So that whole time you were in prison, you didn't have family supporting you, writing your letters? None. Nobody visiting you? No. Yeah.  And I had support. My family was sending me money. You know, I was getting letters from my grandmother and some friends back home. And that's really what helped carry me through that time. So to spend that much time without having any outside contact, you know, I'm sure that caused some trauma in itself. Yeah, definitely. So then when you got out on the streets, when you got out, were you being released into programs or were you just coming out without... Pretty much they just boot you with a $50 game money and then they send you on your way. And $50 game money, they don't go far. The first thing I would buy was probably a $30 rack in the back of the area. My routine was two or three months out on the streets and then right back to prison. So when you were released, did you have a plan? Did you have somewhere to go each time you got out?  No, I think that's one of the reasons why I beat myself up because all the dead time I did when I could have furthered myself, whether it was education or just preparing myself to get out. It's pretty much sat around watching TV and let life let the time go by. And that's one thing that you've been working on here is finding things to do that are going to make tomorrow a better day for you. Without a plan, without resources, without support. I'm not sure what the system expects people to do at that point. The recidivism rate is so high because they're not offering people a plan, a program, support and resources when they get out. It's really difficult for somebody like you who didn't have family, if you didn't have that support on the outside or destination. So you mentioned alcohol, room, relationships. What's your relationship history like? My relationship history? Did you have any long-term relationships?  The whole nine years, most of it was self-destructive because my kid's mother was an alcoholic or addict and I was the alcoholic. And the destruction of that relationship lasted for nine years. So that's some of the guilt I hold on to today. Yeah, and that's something we all do. When we're using, we drink and it destroys things and we feel bad about it and we use and we drink some more. And in recovery, we have to face those things. And we can do things today to make that better, to repair those relationships. How old is your daughter today? My daughter is nine. And when was the last time you got to see her? I saw her a few weeks ago when she was coming up for a visit. And before that, how long had it been? It's been a few months, but before that it's been multiple years because I've been so caught up with my own emotions and things I'm dealing with and my addiction. I had no focus, I focus on everything, but that was the most important thing to me is my daughter. And building that relationship today is one of your goals and you're working on that. And that's one of the things that I got to get back was the relationship with my kids. My kids were always with me, but I was using all the time. I was high all the time. And they didn't necessarily know what was going on in the house, but when they found out later on, they connected all those dots and the resentments built. And I had my one son Dylan that joined the Marines for a while he didn't want to talk to me. And then because I was doing well in recovery, because I was working, because I was doing everything I could to make myself better, he decided to come back and be a part of my life and have me as part of his. So we know that that is one of the gifts of recovery. And she's still young enough that you can do the best you can today and still have a good future. I think for me as being an alcoholic addict, I chose to set that down because I was still actively using it. She's in a good home and I didn't want to affect her schooling or affect whatever her attitude is or what her feelings are. So I chose, I guess, to just step away and let her enjoy the things that she can enjoy without seeing me actively in use. And in order for her to enjoy that, you felt it was better that she didn't even have her father. And today in recovery, I think the best thing she can have is a healthy father. Yeah, absolutely. I might visit whether it was like the most amazing thing, like she took to me like I was never even gone. Yeah. Yeah, that gives me motivation to be in one of these like sober today. That's a major thing. Yeah. So we talked earlier, you said you had periods of sobriety, never more than 28 days. What did you do then to try to get sober? For them 28 days? Yeah. You just quit? Yeah, I just grit my teeth through it pretty much. Yeah, had you tried programs before? Yeah, I've tried multiple. I just, I don't, I think it was more due to the fact that I had to do it because I'm a coordinator of probation. Yeah, yeah. Now, is this program here something you're ordered to do? No, it's not. It's by my will. Yeah. But when I come into it, it was kind of for the wrong reasons. It was relationship-wise. Okay. I was trying to do it for somebody else. Yeah. And then that, that's a tough one, I guess. Yeah. Because I have to do it for myself. I have to realize it's for me. Yeah. Because I couldn't even do it for my kids. I got a 15-year-old daughter too that I ain't never done it for a while. I know two daughters that still didn't get me right to not want to use.  That's my biggest barrier today. Yeah. We're, we're talking all these things, you know. Addiction is a disease. We don't control it. We have no control over it. We've done things in the past that we don't like, you know, we beat ourselves up over. But realizing that this is a disease that controlled us, you know, I'm always talking about choices. When we were using the choices, yes, are there. I can use or not. But the choice is always going to be that I'm going to use. Everything else comes after that. Now if I'm, am I going to take the kids to the little league game? Yes, as soon as I use. Are we going to go on vacation? Yes, there's money left over after I buy what I need. You know, so the choice to use or not wasn't there. The rest of it was. And as a result of me choosing, you know, as a result of me using, sometimes the kids didn't get what they needed. You know, not having grocers in the house. I didn't choose to neglect my kids. I wasn't able to once I got what I needed. So when I accepted that, I mean, I fully accept responsibility for all the things I put them through. But knowing that I couldn't have done any better. Because I was controlled. My choices were made for me.  You know, because I was sick. I was not physically capable of making the better choices at that time. Now in recovery, I can start to make those choices. And making the right choices, I can be proud of that today. You know, so we can't fix the past. We can change the future by doing the work today. So hopefully soon, the forgiveness of self will come to you. It's working progress. Yeah, yeah, and you know, that's what recovery is.   You know, we don't know what we don't know. We learn things about ourselves as we go. We figure out triggers. We figure out, you know, character defects. And then we can start working on it. We're never going to know everything in the beginning. But once we identify something, we can take the steps to make that a little better. I don't know, since I've been here, I've noticed, like, change in the people in my relationships. Something that I didn't ever think was going to come to me. My mom, my mom's there for me now. My kids' mother's there. They forgive me for pretty much everything I put them through. You know, they tell me they're proud of me and stuff like that. And I'm in another relationship that I'm trying to fix now, but the destruction is there. I can't fix that. And I can't force that other person to whatever they're going through and feeling and whatever. I can't. I feel like I have to change it. I can't. Yeah, exactly. And that's another thing. We just worked the first step together last week. We were on the second step. And one of the things that, you know, the first step is all about, you know, we started talking about the Serenity Prayer. Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. And really understanding what can we change? What can't we change? We can't change the past. We can't change other people. We can't change, you know, things that we don't have any part in. You know, we can change our reactions and our actions. How do we react to people and, you know, what we choose to do? So, you know, those are really the only two things we can control. And learning how to control that in certain situations, you know, sometimes I would react and I would run out to get high. You know, that is no longer a choice. You know, today I had that choice. And I choose not to, so I have to find another way to do that. Stick around after this commercial break as I finish this conversation with Jason. To this episode of Recover Loud, I'm here with Jason McKenzie, one of the residents at Christopher's home, a home that I manage. And, you know, I get the pleasure and the privilege to support you guys through your programs and, you know, help guide you to the resources that you didn't have before. So what is it you're doing today to work on your recovery that may be different from what you've done in the past? Today I would say that I'm giving myself a chance. I'm currently doing IOP. I got signed up for my DEEP. I'm currently doing DEEP. Trying to be more open and honest about things that are going on in my life. Just trying to be solo one day at a time. Yeah, so what is it? So you mentioned you're in IOP. It's an intensive outpatient program. What does that consist of? What are you doing there? So what I'm doing in IOP is we go to IOP. I go Monday through Friday for three hours a day. Sometimes it's time-consuming, but I just try to focus on what I can take from it. It's kind of like going to A.A. and pretty much leaving it to us. And so that's basically three hours of counseling. That is run by a counselor. And it's a group counseling session. I actually found a lot of benefit in the rehab I went to. It was all day, but we had group counseling. Different groups, different counselors, and they taught us different things.  So yeah, in those group counseling sessions, I got to learn from other people their perspectives. And that's really why I work as a recovery coach, because I understand what listening to somebody else's experience can do for me. Because I'm learning things that I never knew before. I've got what I know. Learn from my mother, learn from the teachers I had, where I grew up. And I don't know what's on the other side, because I was never there. So you living on the streets, being in the youth center, going to prison for spending 25 years, you've got a lot of experience that I don't. And eventually learning how you got through things can help me and can help other people. And that's the value of sharing your story on Recovery Loud, really. So what else do you do? Are you attending meetings? Yeah, I go to as much meetings as possible. Yes, we go to meetings. I was able to pick up my 30-day chip, and now I've finally got past that. It boosts my self-esteem, and it pushes me forward like one more. Yeah, I remember actually, I think it was day 24. And that's when you told me that you were present. And it was getting real. And that you were about to reach that milestone that you'd never reached before. So I was actually, I was probably the day you picked up that chip. And I'm glad you were proud of yourself. You kind of beamed a little bit that night. Yeah, I definitely. And we should be proud of these accomplishments because we never reached those goals before. And one day at a time, you put 45 days together now. Yeah, it feels good. Yeah. So what else is coming up for you? What are your plans over the next 30 days? Oh, the next 30 days. I don't even try to think that far ahead. Yeah. When I was told it was one day at a time. Yeah. I mean, that's trying to, for a long time in life, I couldn't even fathom one day at a time. Yeah. You know what I mean? I see some of these guys in the meetings, anyone not that got multiple years in the same one day at a time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what it is because it's a daily struggle. Yeah. And you know, the only day that counts is today. It's the one we're in. Yeah. So congratulations on putting forth 45 days together. Absolutely. For the first time. You know, I've seen your growth and progress over the last 30 days. I've known you. And you know, it's exciting for me.  Thank you. So thanks for sharing your story, Jay. Absolutely. I appreciate you coming on. That's my favorite word, absolutely. Mind you. Absolutely.  Reach out to someone closest to you. There's no reason to hold back. I get the struggle. We all get the struggle in the act of addiction. If possible, reach out to somebody in recovery or someone close to that that you trust that you can get you to where you need to be. There's also people like Mike that you can reach out to and he can give you connections to whatever it is that you need to get to. We can't rely on everyone. We're in you. Surround yourself with positive energy. Judges hitting people with provocative penalties. Need to make a change. Advocate to change the laws through the people that it's not insane. When you stand behind a cause, I'm here to speak about the pain. Recover loud to normalize the disease that's been killing all my friends and my family. The time is now to let it all go and recover loud. The benefit is healthy people, family and friends that never have to overdose ever again. Never have to plead out to a lesser defense. I'm proud to say that I recover loud. I never thought I could, but I'm so proud that I discovered how to live my life again. Controlling my own destiny. I needed recovery. I still needed desperately. Addiction never defined my identity. I recover loud here to tell my own story.