Hi, welcome to town meeting television. I'm here today with dr. Andrea Grayson, and we're gonna talk about the sweet tooth dilemma Andrea Grayson you're part of the create change Collaborative is that right create change lab is a change lab website. Yeah So Andrea tell us who you are and how did you come to write a book called the sweet tooth dilemma? Well, I do a lot of different kinds of things mostly around public health communications in the past decade or so and Back in 2016. I was researching a book about the role of advertising and policy in creating a culture that contributes to Poor heating fast food highly processed foods. It's all all normalized in media and through influencers and you know through After 60 years of advertising people think cereal for breakfast is normal and it's actually the worst Possible thing you could eat for breakfast so I was deep into looking at policy and cultural themes When almost by accident I discovered that I had my own sugar addiction, which I was in complete denial of and it all came to a head one day I was in the health food store and I was done with my shopping and I was looking for something to eat on the car ride home, which was a bad habit and But on this day as I was reaching for the dark chocolate peanut butter cups I had a thought I heard a voice in my head say oh you can have that you worked out today and That's something that I said to myself a hundred or a thousand times before and always took it as truth Well, I worked out so I deserve a treat but on this particular day partly because I was so immersed in in the contributors to the obesity epidemic that I heard it as a voice that was separate from me and It stopped me in my tracks and I thought oh my god That's not my rational brain talking because my rational brain knew about the harms of sugar But it was coming from somewhere else and so that's when I realized oh my gosh that's the sugar talking and how is it possible that sugar is talking to me and so I shifted away from policy and culture and did a deep dive into understanding the biology of how sugar interacts with our physiology and our thoughts and It actually does talk to us Through gut bacteria so in your gut is good bacteria and bad bacteria and the good bacteria feed primarily on fiber and The bad bacteria feed on sugar and flour and so when those when that bad bacteria needs to be fed it will say anything to to be fed and that comes out as denial and rationalization and Deserving a tree and I don't want to deprive myself and all sorts of Irrational things if you thought about it logically, but it comes through as truth And so that started me it took me two years to unravel my sugar dependency But the whole time because I teach in public health the whole time. I was figuring it out I knew I would figure it out and I knew I would Teach people how to do it so that started me on my journey and I created a program called breaking free from sugar Which over 3,500 people have successfully completed with over 96 percent Reporting that they reduced their sugar sugar consumption and plan to continue with a sugar minimal lifestyle Which is probably one of the greatest gifts they could give themselves for their health let's so Addiction and sugar those are two words that we're using and maybe want to define a little bit absolutely when we talk about sugar What does that mean and when we talk about addiction? Really good point. So sugar table sugar as we know it is made up of two molecules pretty much half Sue it table sugar is known as sucrose, which is half glucose and half fructose Other sugars like high fructose corn syrup, which is found in many crackers, breads, sodas is mostly fructose and is not is is Digested differently in the body than sucrose is so Sugar does Interacts with the body does primarily primarily does two bad things two things to the body That does the way it does its harm one is insulin resistance and the other is inflammation Insulin resistance. So when you have a sugar product It's it increases the amount of sugar in your blood called glucose But too much glucose in your bloodstream is really bad for your organs your brain And so we secrete insulin out of the pancreas to absorb that really open up the cells so that the glucose can leave the bloodstream and enter the cells and As many people will have experienced after it does its insulin does its job of pushing the Glucose out of the bloodstream. There's often a lull and so we we get a lull in energy. Sometimes we get hangry or Lethargic and need another boost of sugar or refined carbohydrates to get that blood sugar up So we can function and have energy But after a lifetime of doing this all day long We build up what's called insulin resistance where the cells need more and more Insulin to do the job because it's become resistant to how much it's needed to get the glucose into the blood out of the bloodstream That is dangerous the insulin resistance is dangerous because it leads to pre diabetes and eventually diabetes if untreated and One in three Americans are pre-diabetic and 90% of them don't know it. So Elevated blood sugar is one thing to test for elevated insulin is another thing to test for But so many of us are riding in that pre-diabetic in that pre-diabetic range just waiting just continuing without really realizing it until any number of diseases can can Kick in the other path tied to that's not tied to body physique. It's not tied to being overweight necessarily It's not it really is tied to more of that insulin spike up and down insulin resistance is is Yes is specific to that function that That insulin secretion. Yeah function But all that spiking is largely due to eating refined carbohydrates sugar and refined carbohydrates and Sugar and refined carbohydrates Weight gain Can happen from SSEC excess calories, but it also happens when the system is not Working optimally because there's too much insulin in the system because if your body can get energy It needs from blood glucose.  Yeah, I guess I'm saying you you could have any kind of body type and still be oh, yeah Having this up and down insulin spike. That's right. That'd be pre-diabetic. Yeah And so specifically I'm hearing you say like sugar is what is in the bowl on your table, right, but it's also Presenting itself in the form of carbohydrates in other ways so flowers white rice crackers Absolutely, so I guess how does how does somebody identify? Sugar in their daily diet Well, there's a spectrum, you know, there's added sugars and Then there's embedded sort of the sugar that's added to foods so you can You can have a bowl of candy and that's a clear at added sugar But there are over 50 names for sugar maybe even more than 70 names for sugar that are used in the manufacturing process So it's really you to find a bread or tomato sauce or salad dressing without added sugar takes a lot of work even things like Chicken broth bone broth that you buy Has often added sugar not to mention colorings often and other additives so I like to take a Longer-term view sort of a harm reduction view. So the first thing that people should take out is is the liquid sugar the liquid sugar in the form of soda energy drinks because that's just like that just spikes the blood sugar so hard and many people Say they're addicted to soda, but they're also addicted to the caffeine in the sugar in the soda so Soda liquid sugar is really the first thing that needs to go Then minimizing overt treats like cookies candies cakes. You can minimize those the next level might be to Take a closer look at the the ingredients in the food you're buying then maybe minimize Those treats to just a couple times a week or once a week There there definitely can be a gradual process and even once you decide to give up added sugar and do it a detox That that takes Doing a detox is like a sugar detox is like giving up coffee your body just freaks out a little bit and And you might feel lethargic might have headaches might feel Any number of physical ailments associated with the body trying to pass all that out And it does that more efficiently when there's good sleep and good exercise. So really sugar is just one piece of a whole a whole look at lifestyle healthy lifestyle I Focused on it because I had my own issues with sugar, but it's really One piece of a much larger picture of healthy lifestyle I don't want to I want to go back also to the definition of what an addiction is yes And I think there's a question there that has to do with you know What are the signs or symbols that people could look at in themselves and say? Hmm? This is an addiction. Is this a proclivity is this and is there a is there a continuum of that? Yes I'll get to that in a second the other I just wanted to wrap up the other there are two primary pathways that sugar doesn't damage one is through insulin resistance and the other is inflammation and sugar causes inflammation in the gut and we now know that inflammation particularly systemic inflammation is connected to heart disease connected to dysregulation of communication between the gut and the brain may lead to dementia Can lead to joint pain anywhere systemic inflammation shows up in the body And those every chronic disease has as its base chronic inflammation So just to wrap up that area The question of addiction There's a spectrum of addiction Very similar to alcohol there are some people's brains that treat sugar like a potent drug and They find it very difficult to have just have a little So it's very often when someone realizes that they're alcoholic They really have only one choice and that's to go cold turkey and Complete abstinence and there are some people for whom Sugar acts like that on their brain and really the only choice they have is complete abstinence because having just a little Creates a cascade For multiple reasons including They're just their brain response and it involves obsessive thinking it involves Not being able to have a turn-off switch All sorts of behaviors specifically related to sugar addiction or food addiction process food addiction but short of that there's a huge range of behaviors that are That appear as addiction So for example, and I'll use myself as an example. I was a binger binging is Not a normal behavior like I would buy a bag of cookies with the intention to leave eating as much as as much of it as I could on the drive home from the supermarket or Open a bag of chips without with the full intention of eating the bag of chips So that kind of behavior is not Normal in the sense that Biologically the body shouldn't need to do that. It's not a whole food. It's not serving any Chloric need. It's just an obsessive some some trigger went off some biological process was happening that Compelled me to act in a way that was not helpful Other behaviors other than binge so if you eat a bag of cookies at a stop That's a good sign that you might have be on this addiction spectrum another behavior is hiding food. I I kept treats in my car in my bag In my backpack that I would eat I would I would put it in there saying this is for an emergency And then I would eat it and then buy more Other behaviors include eating in private buy things or eat things that I knew nobody else was going to see that I was eating So those are all Behaviors that might make you think you know, maybe my relationship to sugar isn't so healthy Maybe my relationship to processed food is not doing Me any favors even though it feels intuitively. Oh, I want that I'm gonna have that and it and it In a twisted way it feels empowering that you can give yourself something that your body wants but your body has been hijacked by Big food that has engineered that processed food Most everything that comes in a box or a bark have has a barcode except, you know blueberries that come pre-packaged with the barcode Has been engineered. There's a Huge industry of food engineering where they manipulate the amount of salt sugar and fat in Every product to maximize the crunch maximize the flavor sensation maximize the the The I want more factor the I want more factory just bet you can't eat just one Yeah, and they engineer it and in fact in the business. There's something called the bliss point where they'll for example with cookies they'll take a young child and they'll give them a sample of Cookies with increasing amounts of sugar and when they get to the one where they go, ooh, that's too sweet I don't like that then they take the one just below that and that's the bliss point the maximum amount of sugar That can go into the product before the body rejects it and they call that the bliss point and all those chips all those cookies all the even breads are engineered with or made with sugar to Maximize the amount of hit of dopamine that we get so that we want more and more and more and more so there's there's Addictive quality is built into the food that it takes a lot of Understanding about what's happening biologically to not buy into it. Yeah, and it's hard culturally to just sort of Avoid I mean you can read the package on Everything that you buy if you buy packaged foods. Yeah, but also there's a you know, I just worked in a kitchen for a week Where I found myself salad dressings You know preparing things that You know we make like a you know vegetarian or a vegan cheese And you add sugar because it adds a certain quality To the recipe. Yeah as well. Yeah different than the bliss point So let's like what is that? I mean there's this whole idea of umami or you know the salt sugar the sweet factor Being important in culinary. What's different? What's different between having something like a sweet element? versus That bliss point or addictive sugar. I Think it's a matter of degree You know there's some Like ketchup. I think a serving of ketchup A tablespoon of ketchup has a teaspoon of sugar in it So that's a maximum amount of sugar, but they often put in add sugar To commercial bread baking to help with the browning or maybe to help with the rising of it So there might be reasons to add sugar in the manufacturing process or the food preparation process and then there are often sugar added to Spicy sauces like Thai food often they throw in a little bit of sugar because it offsets the spiciness So there are culinary traditions that use sugar in their cooking naturally, but or more traditionally then Deliberately adding as much as possible They do it more for a flavor enhancement which If that's all we were dealing with that would probably be fine It's just when you start your day with carb refined carbohydrates and then Have a snack and then lunch and then a snack and then more sugar at dinner Then it's that all-day roller coaster with your insulin It may be the sugar that's talking inside my head, but that's where I'm looking I'm looking for that like Do I have to give it all up? Yeah at once and I just wonder if you want to talk a little bit about what the process has been like You talked you you talked about sort of the what happens when the body detox is Are there folks in that 3,500 People that have done this that have found a better a more balanced relationship with sugar Is it I have to give it all up for the rest of my life That's a really great question and in the beginning I usually I don't tell people they have to give it up forever Just get through the detox because then When the cookie isn't talking to you anymore, then you can say do I actually want it Because once you're engaged with oh, I want that cookie, but I can't have it You're engaged in a dialogue with yourself over willpower and that willpower eventually is going to lose so I think initially it took me several two years of cycling in and out of detoxes to try and wean myself off of that dialogue, but it eventually fell away and When you can look at a plate of cookies and it has nothing on you And you really have choice That's a level of empowerment that I hadn't felt In decades I always felt like I had to control my food And now I choose my food and it's a whole different ball game So I usually tell people in the beginning the goal is not to eliminate sugar forever it's to Cultivate a sugar minimal lifestyle And what that means is going to be different for everybody based on their level of activity What's going on biologically if you're dealing with any diagnosis Anything else going on in your body? You want to reduce the how much sugar eating a lot because that inflammation is going to make anything worse So particularly menopausal women when hormones are changing I When I gave up sugar When I finally got it out of my system All the midlife brain fog I was experienced thing just went away now I have crisp clear mental clarity consistent energy throughout the day less joint pain like skin cleared up better sleep like A whole range of midlife malaise Just cleared itself up When people read through this book or what you know or and or go to the Create change lab Website to maybe sign up and become part of this. What are they going to find? What are they what what is this going to offer them? So I work with people in a bunch of different ways people For 1999 can get the book and that includes the entire breaking free from sugar programs. So if you're A self-starter and good at DIY then the whole recipe is right in there Uh for some people and a lot of people trying just the idea of wrapping their head around giving up sugar is So big that they want to be held by the hand and guided And so I have a program called the sweet freedom society, which Has the full breaking free from sugar program in it for free when you join it And when you join the sweet freedom society, um, it's a low monthly fee and there's weekly coaching There's uh workshops. There's uh community discussion There's some recipes resources for parents So there's a you can see that on your website. They can get to it at the create change And maybe I don't know Kevin you have that website the create change lab Um, and we could bring that up to just take a look at it. Sure. Yeah So there they can get a whole package and interact with you And or are there other coaches or are there other folks that are doing this work with people? There are More and more there are sugar freedom coaches and if you you could do a An internet search to find a sugar A lot of them focus on different things Some people focus on the emotional eating piece. Some people focus on the food addiction piece I'm not trained as someone who to dealing with food addiction So for those people who feel like they might really have a food addiction like their obsessive thoughts that it's just beyond their Ability to manage on their own. They should seek out a food addiction specialist And there are people who do that too. So there are people who focus on different aspects, uh, of the of the Sugar dependency food dependency spectrum So thinking beyond the individual here is you know, we get into public health policy We get into legislation, I mean we've seen taxes put on soda as a way of curbing Um consumption Um and or to you know, take those taxes and put them back into health care To offset the impacts What is your role with that and you know, can you imagine a campaign against sugar or a campaign that helps us understand Our relationship to sugar particularly the way there has been for tobacco or seatbelt use or alcohol I would love to see, uh, federal public health dollars Funneled to states to do, uh, much more food education specifically sugar education because in elementary schools all over the country And high schools you find, uh posters that say don't smoke. Don't vape. Don't do drugs. Don't drink alcohol Because they all affect your brain. Well sugar affects the growing brain also and sets up habits that Become very difficult to unwind as people as Children grow. So I think more public awareness about the challenge And the harmfulness of sugar needs to be out there because there is no counter information right now Most people are severely Undereducated about basic nutrition things and they think Having a treat once in a while is fine and it may be fine If it's not on top of a sugary breakfast a carbohydrate laden lunch a carb laden dinner So I mean is the is the industry of sugar making this much money? I mean Yeah, um, is that why I mean why Why is there sugar in everything? That's a longer story. Um, and and we only have a few minutes left. The short answer is Everything spikes after world war two After world war two there were policy changes that Had us growing more corn that was turned into high fructose corn syrup that increased the amount of soda It was a cheap ingredient for soda companies We increased use of glyophosphate and how that might be disrupting generations of microbiome There are What was I gonna say I mean the just the industry around sugar. Yeah as a particular thing yeah, so Because it affects people individually and people have their sweet treats and because it's A sugar and there is a sugar industrial complex. There is a huge amount of business that is Run and manufactured that's tied to farming that's tied to international policy Legislating sugar is a long road and likely it takes a it would take a huge amount of political will For a legislator to propose national Regulations around sugar. Yeah the fact that the new There are a couple years old now The new nutrition facts label has an aligned for added sugar Is a huge boon for public health and the fact that that happened is just a miracle And I think we likely have to thank the obama administration for pushing that through Or marshaling showing leadership in that area Um So There's a huge amount of policy opportunity. I'm keeping my eye on what's happening internationally several countries are trying to legislate Labeling of sugar laden products Mexico has a a warning label On uh sugary foods that have over a certain percentage of sugar That would be really hard to fly in the u.s. But I think there are a whole bunch of other policy initiatives Like we could eliminate Eliminate advertising to sugary foods at on saturday morning Shows that are aimed at kids That should be an easy win just like we took off tobacco off of on air television We should take off sugary foods that are aimed at kids Other policy initiatives look at could look at the farm bill and the food assistance programs There are three major food assistance programs that come out of the farm bill The wick program women infants and children the snap Food assistance also known as formerly known as food stamps And also the school Did I say the school food nutrition program All of those programs are laden with sugar. Yeah You can use your food stamp dollars your snap dollars to buy soda And I think that should absolutely be eliminated because we're Encouraging people to buy soda that hurts their health that Then comes back to harm the country because we've lost the productivity of a person And and aspirations of a person because they have to deal with illness So there are lots of policy initiatives that could help Yeah, and you know, we're coming to a close and I have to say like The almost the entire time we're talking I'm picturing a birthday cake in my head Which just makes me think, you know, the you know, as you said the gut Has these these connections to the brain and our brain is sort of in our gut as well Which makes me wonder about this and I wonder if you can leave us on a note of something that you've done That you feel like is you know, you've you know Beyond that like being able to have a freedom relationship with a plate of cookies But what's a way that you celebrate that doesn't include sugar in your life? So I'll answer that and then I want to leave people with some tips for reducing their sugar One of the things that comes up when I suggest that people Reduce how much sugar they eat their first reaction is oh, I don't want to be deprived But if you take away the chocolate or the cookies the primary source of easy dopamine Of easy hits of pleasure, of course, you're going to be deprived So a primary strategy is to increase other forms of pleasure Our bodies are sensory pleasure machines And engaging in conversation Stepping outside on a on a beautiful day even a damp cold rainy day It gives our skin sensation and our noses and our eyes things to feast on So increasing the amount of pleasure that you get from other things Will resensitize your pleasure center and not D train it retrain it from needing the big hit To know that okay, this is uh, I'm getting my pleasure now and You eventually find pleasure everywhere which intersects with gratitude and being happy and content which Is self perpetuating because if you can step outside on on a rainy day and say What a beautiful rain even in vermont this summer that's a little rough Then you know, you're well on your way to healing that Extra chemical stimulation that you've needed for pleasure On a more practical sense, I can't imagine a celebration that wouldn't be wonderfully Where people wouldn't be beautifully happy with blueberries and whipped cream That pretty much gets you your your sweet your fat your Your you're a little bit of protein. It gets everything all in in one So there are a healthful ways healthful ways to celebrate Without birthday cake. Yeah So and I did want to end with some tips Yeah So the the biggest tip that I offer people in my program is start your day with a savory breakfast so No refined carbohydrates if possible. So that means eggs sausage If you're vegan You could do it with tofu scramble or something with chickpeas or tempeh You just want to minimize your carbohydrates because then you're going to minimize your Your insulin fluctuation and insulin insulin fluctuations are one of the key drivers of cravings Another Major or two major things that go together are water consumption Electrolyte balancing making sure you're getting Minerals so maybe adding a pinch of sea salt to your water bottle Can just help keep you hydrated and help eliminate some of the Tendencies for people to Eat something when they're actually thirsty Uh Keeping an eye on your sleep There's good research to show that the less sleep you get the more likely you are to overeat I think that's because your body is trying to keep the energy going when it didn't get enough sleep and energy And sleep is also when your brain detoxes So if you're not sleeping enough your body is not processing out Not only the sugar residues, but all the other toxicity That you've built up through the day by living in an urban environment or taking in Toxins that we're not aware of Another good thing is to keep moving Because the muscles are The primary driver of metabolism and if your metabolism is cranking and doing well then You're less likely to rely on treats for energy because your your muscles will be maintaining your energy Uh levels throughout the day by burning up stored glucose What else? Strengthen your microbiome your gut by eating lots of vegetables And fermented foods one of the it's one of the things that I emphasize in my program is you want to build up the good bacteria in the gut so fibrous vegetables Broccoli cauliflower all the zucchinis collards Any all the fibrous vegetables will Strengthen the colony of good bacteria in your gut and you can even Enhance that by having fermented foods like kimchi sauerkraut miso yogurt and kiefer Are all ways to help build up a healthy microbiome Well, dr. Andrew Grayson, thank you so much for joining us This was a lot less scary than I thought I will say just to share with folks. Yeah, and um, Appreciate you all watching You're watching town meeting television and if you caught this on television You can also catch us on town meeting tv backslash No youtube.com backslash town meeting tv Or ch 17 dot tv. Thanks


Marines, veterans and civilians joined together to assemble the traveling Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Boinevich Park. These volunteers are putting up the wall in remembrance of those who gave their lives during the conflict. Many wall panels were put up and pushed together to recreate the monument in Washington, D.C. To you. It means a lot. It shows a different generation of people going to war. It's the first time that America really saw the battlefield back home. Cleveland is the most recent location for the mobile wall. The traveling wall has been going since 1998. My uncle took it over in 2007 and just continued it on since then. Even the police officers have taken a role to help out at the memorial. Today, right now, we're just kind of overseeing the construction of the roving Vietnam wall, making sure everything's secure and safe down here for the workers. And later on, about 10-hundred will be coordinating with the Marines, because the Cleveland Police Honor Guard will be doing the night-century duty. During Marine Week, Marines and Cleveland Police will work together, maintaining a constant vigil, so the memories of the fallen are never forgotten. From Marine Week Cleveland, I am Lance Corporal Adam Tucker.


Celebrities and their autobiographies are causing quite a stir. Famous Nigerian journalist and late socialite Ola Bisi Aghala's biography gets a reprint after 60 years and Yvonne Nelson's autobiography almost breaks up a relationship. Our entertainment team has details of that. Ola Bisi Aghala was a Nigerian journalist, travel writer and actor and later a legal socialite. He reputedly toured 87 countries. First with a bicycle and later on a scooter, meeting political leaders and celebrities until he returned home to Nigeria and died at 65. He documented his trips in his autobiography An African Abroad, which was first published by London based Gerald's in 1963, which quickly went out of print. The book An African Abroad is now back in print since 1963, thanks to Kola Tubosu and the author's Australian wife Joanne Aghala. There was a book reading recently in Lagos of the reprinted book An African Abroad. Tunde Kilani, a friend to the late Ola Bisi Aghala, shared some insights into his life. The book contains a lot of detail, because I realized because I thought he was just a phone guy and then he was seriously a committed journalist and the two photographs and others and everywhere he went he tried to look at this side that is bright and shiny and then went to look for the other underprivileged. I think even the journalists didn't know about this. That's the value of this book because nobody knew him and seriously that's what I found a lot from if I was more journalist than all those other things. So I think this book is priceless. Kola Tubosu talked about the reason for ensuring the reprint of the autobiography came out. Kola Tubosu talked about the reason for ensuring the reprint of the autobiography and African Abroad. Documentaries, reports, and articles have been made and written about Ola Bisi Aghala, not just about his strips across the world, but also about the colorful and boisterous way he lived his life. We hope this book and many other publications about him will end him his rightful place, not just in Nigeria's history but on the global platform. Femunan Jafi for Plus TV News.


It's really interesting. When we began the discussions about Namas, we have the idea that we need to build like Costa Rica, for example, a Nama for coffee, or Colombia, or Chile, a Nama for forest. But when we are discussing about that, we receive important contributions, concept contributions from C4, eGraph, rainforest alliance, and others who make research. And they give us a different perspective about that. For example, people have their activities and a small producer can have coffee, but not only coffee. Probably he's going to have coffee, and cattle, and forestry. And he tried to manage that, all the landscape. And this is the vision that we don't have in the public policy. We are thinking in a sectoral way, but we need to move on a landscape vision. And this is one of the most important things that we are working in C4, because we are trying, in the Minister of Agriculture, to work to manage the landscape. And in that situation we need to ask about what are the key elements to manage that landscape. And we find, like these institutions tell us that the person has probably cattle, coffee, cacao, forests, or they want to put the management of fish, or they want to manage wildlife. All of these are the management of a landscape. For that reason we are trying to create the concept of a Nama from the landscape, not only for cacao or coffee or other activities.


Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the C-Service Chiefs Update Panel. I am Skip Watanski, President of the Navy League of the United States. This year, the Navy League is excited to celebrate the 51st anniversary of Sea Air and Space. As you know, Congress plays an integral part in ensuring that our military has the tools they need to do their job and keep our country safe. As the Navy and the Marine Corps are being forced to do more with less, we must invest in them to ensure that they have the training and equipment needed to keep the seas open and secure, and when necessary, to dead or fight and win wars. This is why the Navy League's American Strength Campaign exists, to raise the Department of Navy's top line and to ensure that the Navy Marine Corps team has the resources they need now and in the future. I encourage you to look at the information that you all received in your registration package and ask that you consider joining this worthy cause. Now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your panel for today, Admiral John M. Richardson, United States Navy Chief of Naval Operations, General Robert Neller, United States Marine Corps, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Admiral Paul F. Zuckunft, U.S. Coast Guard, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Honorable Paul N. Janikin, Administrator U.S. Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. Now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the moderator for the service chief's update, Mr. Bradley Peniston, Deputy Editor, Defense One. Welcome and thank you for joining us today. Those of you who are in this room here at National Harbor and those who may be watching the live stream around the world on DefenseOne.com, we are living in interesting times, as the Chinese say, and I think it is particularly fitting that the Navy League is opening this conference with a discussion between the leaders of so many naval and maritime organizations. Preserving the freedom of seas has always been a team endeavor, but the complexity and the competitiveness of today's maritime environment, along with the challenge of less than unlimited resources, make partnerships more crucial than ever. Let me tell you how this event is going to go. I'll start off by asking each of our panelists a question, what's on their minds, what do they think should be on your minds, what do they want you to leave thinking about, and then we'll talk about it. And the Navy League has also asked me to make sure that there's plenty of time for your questions, half hour or more, so get those ready. But first, show of hands, is there anyone out there who would like to make a long statement rather than ask a question? No? Okay, good, good. All right. Makes it simple. Okay. You'll please ask your questions into one of the microphones here so that everyone can hear you. Tell us who you are, ask your question, our panelists will do their best to answer it, and we will get to as many of them as we can. So, gentlemen, thank you for joining us. What's on your mind? You want to start? Sure. Good morning. I have the unique privilege of being the Maritime Administrator, and I'm representing today the Secretary, Anthony Fox, the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Maritimes Administration's broad mandate begins and ends with ensuring that the nation has a sea lift capacity and capability to globally project and sustain our armed forces, and that means the ability to deploy equipment and logistic support for the Army, the Marine Corps, anywhere in the world on short notice, and then being able to provide sustainment of those forces while they are in theater, which enables us to protect power, influence of the United States, and be able to protect and defend our national interests. So the question that I would pose would be, what is the general health and preparedness of the maritime industry's capacity to support what is very essential military mission? I would say that the sea lift fleet is at a tripping point. The United States presence in the maritime domain is currently at the lowest level in our history. You'll see on the slide, there are only 79 U.S. flagships remaining in international trade, and that is a 25% drop over the last three years. We are moving less than 2% of our nearly 1.4 billion tons of U.S. imports and exports annually on U.S. flagships, and most of our commodities that are coming to the United States are carried on foreign vessels with allegiance to other foreign countries. As the United States fleet dwindles, so does the U.S. merchant marine, and along with that is the reductions that we see in our shipbuilding and our repair industrial capacity, and both of those are essential components of national security. Losing these vital assets will increase our vulnerability to international threats, and would take decades and tens of billions of dollars to replicate, recapitalize, or rebuild. Mariners, that's the next area that I'm concerned about. With the decline of the U.S. flag fleet, we have lost 2,300 jobs, and that doesn't sound like a lot, but we're talking about out of a total of about 12,000, and these are the folks that we need the most, with unlimited horsepower and unlimited tonnage credentials among American merchant mariners. The Maritime Administration currently estimates that we have barely enough, and I emphasize barely enough, qualified mariners to crew existing fleets of government sea lift and also U.S. flag commercial sea lift vessels provide both the surge and the sustainment of our armed forces if we go longer than four to six months. We will likely not have enough, and I emphasize not have enough mariners in the very near future if we do not take immediate actions to reverse the trend. This presents significant risks to our nation's ability to execute our operational contingency plans. That is because anything beyond the initial demand for mariners may leave us without the sufficient mariner base to crew the sea lift fleet for extended periods. What I'm saying is if the operation goes longer than four to six months, we don't have enough. The potential for the loss of the mariners job this drastically compromise our capacity both during a national emergency or in wartime operations. This is a top priority for the Maritime Administration and also for our Department of Defense partners, principally the U.S. Transportation Command. Likewise, the strategies of peer and near peer superpower nations to build up their maritime capacity while our commercial U.S. flag and other vital maritime capability is in decline also has our attention. We're talking about the high tech icebreakers to move through the Arctic and support future transits over the northern patches passage. We're talking about mega container fleets, strings of mega ports along vast and existing and merging trade routes that will magnify their global presence and their economic power. Our competitors label these as economic rather than maritime strategies in recognition that control of trade lanes means predominant influence in the world. We're living in a different world today with new challenges and threats. As everyone here knows, we have made a pivot to the Pacific and we did so necessarily, but only to find renewed challenges in Europe and the Middle East. We need to be prepared to support contingencies in any of those areas and be able to do that if we have multiple threats in multiple areas simultaneously. The reality is that American seapower provides freedom of access, presence and projects power and influence in the global commons. The visible extension of this power is the foundation to our global leadership. Commercial U.S. flag ships, applying international waters are a global handprint and foster freedom, the free forward goods, international stability, resilience and more important deterrence. In every conflict that we've had, nations come to us to put a U.S. flag on the back of the ship and the reason is a U.S. flag is a symbol of protection. That power allows the U.S. to influence the daily choices of our allies and trading partners and its presence best exemplified by a modern, a robust and international act of merchant marine. That's why after nearly 80 years of inattention and neglect, dating back to 1936, the maritime administration over the last two years has begun the development of a national maritime strategy. That strategy, which is still in draft and is in review by our interdepartmental and interagency partners, will help us modernize our ports, our waterways, incorporate our marine transportation system into the national freight network, ensure the visibility and growth, ensure the viability and growth for our international fleet to recruit, educate and retain our future maritime workforce and it will also allow us to embrace technological innovation to ensure the ongoing growth and the vitality of the U.S. merchant marine. Our nation has no choice but to rediscover the value and utility of moving freight on the water and the stakes couldn't be more urgent from my perspective and we need to work together to think creatively and invest the required resources to return this nation to its maritime roots. And I look forward to your questions. Listening to Chip, it reminds me of a track line the Coast Guard sailed not that long ago when I look at diminishing fleet sizes and the drawdown of mariners and a Coast Guard that prided itself on doing more with less. So where are we today is I am bullish on the United States Coast Guard now why would I say that in 2016 our acquisition budget doubled which I don't know if anyone else in the room can say that now a doubling isn't a big number when you double what we had it's not even a down payment on a Ford carrier but it doubled nonetheless. So we are building out our fleet of national security cutters. Four years ago we would have been optimistic to say maybe we can build five or maybe six and that would be the program of record. Eight was the program of record and now it's been extended out to nine. We just awarded phase two to build out our fleet of fast response cutters out to 58 but more importantly as we went back and forth with the contractor at the end of the day we wanted to make sure that the costs were fair and reasonable and in fact they are as well. Where we will award the largest shipbuilding contract the offshore patrol cutter in August of this year. So we're coming down the home stretch and this will define the Coast Guard as a maritime service and in the president's budget request for 2017 there is a hundred fifty million dollars in that to start moving out on recapitalizing our ice breaking fleet as well. So all of that is good news as you look at recapitalization opportunities modernizing the fleet of the Coast Guard. We're also doing the same thing and see for ISR and cyber and our fixed wing capability. But we heard from the first sea lord during our breakfast address today and it's a common thread among all the services right now is the health of the service the health of the people and the future force of the armed services and it's not just the uniform service. It's also our civilian workforce in the United States Coast Guard and the average civilian employee is 51 years of age. Where am I going to get that talent from and some of that talent comes from an 04 or an 05 decides to lead the service before 20 years and go to work as a civilian. We have the airlines are hiring like they did 20 25 years ago. That generation of pilots have now timed out and they're going to our pilots with three four thousand hours of cockpit experience and they'll never have to move again. And as they grow in seniority they won't have to work put in nearly a number of hours they do wearing a military uniform. We're seeing in the shipping industry we're seeing in the high tech industry and in fact we'll even see it in display floor here at the sea airspace convention this week. A lot of that talent is is hanging up a uniform and going to work elsewhere. So as we look at some of the challenges we might want to be looking at next year as we are making great strides and modernizing capitalizing how do we continue to stimulate stimulate and incentivize a workforce and especially a workforce that we call on to serve in harm's way across a world that is anything but tranquil today and nor will it be tranquil tomorrow. So challenges are there but at the end of the day I remain bullish on the United States Coast Guard. Thank you very much. Thank you as a service chief. I think my primary task to the nation is to provide training ready forces to meet global requirements. The recruit the train equip that responsibility the service chief has and I think today we're doing a pretty good job. I think we're meeting the requirements. I think the Marines and our whether embarked aboard ship or station ashore are meeting those requirements. The depth of the force the bench if you will to meet the next rotation the next rotation is been stressed. We've been at war for since 9 11. The war didn't stop and even if you aren't in combat and the majority of Marines are not in combat the amount of deployments and the depth tempo and the stress on the force is still there. I mean you're gone. You're gone. So we're able to make it. We're resetting our ground equipment and the discussion about aviation readiness has been a public discussion. We've got a plan and I think we're going to reset that but it's it's going to take some time. So you asked me what was on my mind. My mind is on the readiness overall of the force to do multiple things. We're the folks that are out there now the Marines and the sailors with us and all our joint partners. They're in a good place and they're doing a great job and they're ready to go to war. I think the other thing that I'm tasked to do is to get ready for the next fight wherever it is. We've all watched over the last 15 years. We've been in a sense of basically a counter insurgency stability operation. We haven't had to maneuver. We haven't had to deal with a contested aviation environment. We haven't had to deal with a contested Electronomagnetic spectrum environment. Everything that we did or sailor or soldier and airman will walk in their operations center and they would expect that everything worked 100% of the time. I don't think that's going to be that way. And now somebody decided to contest us. So as the first sea lord, Admiral Jones talked to us previously, I mean, it's a concern that we've all had in the Commandant of the Coast Guard mentioned it too. So how are we going to get ready for that? So what are we going to do while we still have this high depth tempo meeting the near term requirement? How do we get ready on the fly to do that? So partly it's a training thing. We have to adjust our training and we can do that. That's the easy part. We have to adjust the capabilities we have that will require modernization and tech refresh and reset of gear that we have, which is going to take some money and some time. It's an organizational thing. We're looking at how our forces are organized. I don't think it's a huge redo of the Marine Corps, but there are some capabilities out there amongst those things that I talked about. Cyber information, more intelligence, analysis, targeting public affairs, counter air, counter mobility, things that we think are going to be wherever we go for the next fight, those are going to be capabilities we have and some of those have equipment and training things tied to them. And the last thing we have to continue to recruit. We can buy all the gear we want, but if we don't get good people and we have great people. I came into Marine Corps 40 years ago and they were the quality of the force with all due respect to those Marines and our many great Marines. It was after Vietnam beginning to all volunteer force. Some of you were there and we'll just be very frank. We weren't very good. We weren't very good. We trained hard. But we could only do what we could do with the gear we had and the people we had. So we've got a very capable force. They expect a certain level of equipping and training. These are very smart young men and women. And so we have a certain expectation to meet their requirements or they're going to do, they have options. They have options. And I want their option just like I know the CNO does and the Commandos to stay in the Navy, stay in the Coast Guard, stay in the Marine Corps, stay in the Merchant Marine because we need them. And so at the end of the day, it's all about the people. So we can have great systems. We have great equipment. But if we don't have good people, we're not going to get the capacity, the capability that the nation needs and deserves. So that's what's on my mind. Near term, we're making it, it's good. You should be proud of that force that's out there. Whatever end of the range of military operations they're on. The depth of the force, we're working on that. We got a plan that's going to take us some time. But the real thing is, okay, how do we transition this force? How much of these new capabilities do we need? What are we going to give up to get it, assuming we don't get any more people? And I'm not assuming that we're going to get the funding to get any more people, even though there's, you know, actions in the legislation to do that. And so something's got to give. And that's the struggle, or not the struggle, that's the discussion we're having now. We're going to change. The only thing we can't do is not change. And change, whether it's the organization, the equipment, the technology, the training, that's all going to change, because it has to, because we've got to get ready for what we're anticipating. And I'm hoping we even guess 50 percent right. We've got to get ready because there are others out there who I believe would do us harm and have these capabilities. And we have to be able to contest them if they so choose. Thank you. Thank you, General. That's a wide open question. What's on my mind as I look at this morning, I tell you the thing that's on my mind is this growing crowd that's in this room. I mean, it's hundreds, if not pushing thousands. And the thing that's on my mind is the tremendous opportunity that this event presents us all to come together and put our heads together and work on solving the problems that we face together. And my compliments to the Navy League and all of the partners that work so hard to bring this together. I congratulate you on just a terrific event. And it is set up perfectly to address exactly the challenges that face us. You know, the thing that I see by every measure I think right now, we would say that the world is becoming increasingly globalized. And you just have to look around this room to see that this is a crowd as represent representative of that globalization. Most of the industrial partners now are multinational global corporations. You can see those of you that represent the research and development community. Well, that's a global enterprise as well. And then finally, it's a privilege to share the room with so many partners and allies from around the world. At the shades and even chiefs of Navy from global navies. And so here we are gathered together perfectly positioned to address the challenges that we share. I would say that during increased times of globalization, those systems that enhance and enable globalization become under stress and the maritime domain, the classic system of oceans and seas of transit lanes and choke points. That is a global system that's been there since we first put to sea thousands of years ago. And yet so much even in that classic system is changing under our in the last 25 years to the point that each of us has hinted at the activity on the seas, the traffic over the seas as more than quadrupled. And so you've got to think about the acceleration that that represents fueling the global economy, which is just about doubled in the same period of time. And so that maritime domain and other global systems like the information system, which has become ubiquitous and has accelerated things so much. The rate of the introduction of technology, which is again not only entering the market faster and faster, but being adopted by society at just as fast a rate. The rules of the game, the rules of competition are changing just as fast, if not faster than the competitors themselves. And so as we face this challenge, this increasingly used, this increasingly crowded, this increasingly contested, globalized competition, contested at sea, contested in the information domain, competed in the technological world, I think a key part of the solution will be meaningful partnerships. As I think about partnerships, I think about partnering with each of the teams that I mentioned before. Certainly the US Navy sees itself as just a node in many networks. One of those networks is our team of the joint force. And so we want to be operating as good partners with our sister services. And the commandant and I have committed that no two services will be closer together than the Navy Marine Corps team as we explore new architectures, new formations, new ways to get at this challenge to ensure that just as he said, we're using our current resources as creatively and effectively as possible and looking for new possibilities in the future. So there is this joint force that will take a lot of our energy to ensure that we're doing everything as smart as we can. Then there is the partnerships within the interagency. And so many of the challenges that face us in this global challenge are not military only. We're going to have to take a whole government approach when it comes to rebalancing to the Pacific, when it comes to addressing the challenges in Europe. And so we have to be viable and contributing partners in that network of the whole of government approach to these challenges. I mentioned research and academia. We want to be increasingly working with our partners both within our U.S. Navy and defense lab structure, but reducing the obstacles to communicating, enhancing the communication, I would say, with the private sector labs, with the system of universities. And so we look forward to doing that. With industry, we've got to partner more effectively. One thing that I think we would all agree on is that we have got to change the way we do business in a fundamental way to keep up with this rate of introduction of technology and opportunity, or we will just fundamentally, we will just fall behind. It won't make a difference how how well trained we are. We will just be in a different time dimension than the rest of the world. And we've got to do business better. There's a responsibility for us to be better customers. And I would hope that as we exercise and communicate over the next few days, our industry partners will point out ways that we can be more effective in that partnership. And then there is this international partnerships. And so it is heartening. It's encouraging to see so many international allies and partners because the solution to many of our problems is going to be a multinational solution. And so I'm so gratified to see so many of the adichies and and honored to be in the in the company of my fellow chiefs of Navy from around the world. And so again, thanks to the Navy League for teaming up such a great event. I think that there is a whole host of challenges that face us all. But this is the team of partners. This is the system of networks that if we come together effectively, we're going to overmatch any challenge that we have, the superior, the partner of choice, the system that allows everybody to compete on a level playing field and pursue their own prosperity. Thanks. Thank you, Admiral. Well, let's talk about one particular region where, as you say, partners are key and the situation is dynamic. The South China Sea. What what would success for the Navy look like in a year? I guess I can lead off. So you said what would it look like in a year? Right. So we get to the end of next year and you look back at how the Navy and the U.S. has dealt with the situation in the South China Sea. What would constitute a successful execution? I think to answer that question and I'll just tee it off and open it up to the rest of my fellow panelists. You got also admire the composition of the panel, which I think represents elements of the full dimensionality of maritime security and maritime prosperity here. And so there's really no question that my classmate Chip Janikin can't answer. And I encourage you to send a lot of questions his way. I think that I would actually move out to say 20 to 30 years and say what does success look like in that time frame and then how does next year represent a step towards that longer term success. And I would say that the system of rules and international norms of behaviors over the last 70 years has provided the template that has allowed so many of the nations in the region of the South China Sea to prosper. And so there is a rebalance to the Pacific and it's really a recognition of just the tremendous growth that has occurred in the Indo-Asia, Indo-Pacific region of the world. That system of rules and norms has allowed everybody to compete on a very level playing field. And that's why we as a nation and we as a navy are advocating so strongly for that system. And so I would think that looking 30 years ahead, we would see a Indo-Pacific, including the South China Sea, where everybody has the opportunity to continue to prosper and there'll be a competitive elements of that to be sure. But we would hope that that competition does not migrate into conflict, which is a form of competition that I think we all would want to avoid. And that if we advocate for this system, we can have competition and we can't avoid conflict. I think we have a real opportunity here.  I'll take the one year piece. Another reason I'll take the one year challenge, if you will, is the UN tribunal, as you know, will render an opinion on Second Thomas Scholl and the sovereign rights of the Philippines. And the Philippines are not alone in this regard. And then there are others that have contested claims. And if you look at some of the more assertive ASEAN nations, the Philippines, Vietnam, we're seeing Indonesia become more assertive as well. And it really comes back to, and as the CNO had mentioned, norms, rules of behavior, you know, an opportunity for maritime governance. So if there is a UN model, what it's going to come down to at the end of the day, and you may have to go back to Mahan, Alfred Mahan in our, you know, what is our maritime strategy for the East and South China Sea. We use terms of fraught over miscalculation, but at the same time, you know, we've created a window of opportunity for what some may say is a manifest destiny of Xi Jinping and China to continue to assert sovereignty based on the Nine Dash line. So I think there is a window of opportunity, because what will also happen in the next year is there will be a change in administration. And it will be our responsibilities as service chiefs, military leaders to provide best military advice, to provide options, if you will. But there will be a few triggering mechanisms, and one of them will be with the rendering of the UN tribunal over second Thomas Shull at a point in time where our relationship with the Philippines is growing ever more closer. Our relationship with Vietnam is growing closer. That conflict is in our past. And then we look at some of the threats that have emerged and are going to be with us at some point in time. But what we will see is people turning to the United States because of our record of abiding by rules of behavior, providing that model for for maritime governance so that all may prosper. So I see some opportunities. But at the end of the day, it will be incumbent upon us to provide that best military advice as we look for a look to a transition change in government within the next year. Take a crack at that as well. I'm going to start with an example and then I'm going to talk about why we need to be thinking. There was an earthquake in Japan not too long ago. What that impacted was the ability that affect us here in the United States. We had several had to shut down because they did not have parts available. Now put that into perspective where you have 98 percent of everything that comes into this country coming on a foreign flagship. Suppose there was something that happened in the world where the world decided that the approach or the how the United States approached that wasn't the way they thought it should be approached. And they said instead of having the limitation on parts being due to a natural emergency, suppose they just slow down their ships coming to the United States where we're having just in time inventories to be able to keep our manufacturing and what kind of effect would that have on our economy. Less than 2 percent as I pointed out in my opening remarks of what comes into this country is coming by US flag. So we don't have control of our supply chain. And so a year from now where I would like to be is that there is an awareness of that and that we start putting ourselves on that 20 to 30 year trajectory to try to fix it. Recognizing that our population is currently today is about 320 million people. It's going to grow to about 400 million over the next 30 years, which is going to require us to move 45 percent more freight in and out of control because the economics and the national security piece. I think you make a great point and you mentioned my hand at the strategic level. That's exactly where my hand comes down is that there is certainly the national security point defense of the nation. That's sort of element of what we do. But there is this guard guard access to markets, guarding access to sea lanes. And so one thing that's not going to change in the next year or probably the next 30 years and has been part of our national identity since the beginning is that we are a maritime nation. 90 percent of our goods comes by the sea. And so you can see the urgency of what you're talking about in terms of being able to secure in the South China Sea, which is where the question started. You know, about 30 percent of the world's trade flows through that body of water. So absolutely critical that we are focused on that. What you're seeing in this part of the world you see in other parts of the world where certain nations kind of take advantage or do things that are kind of short of conflict and they're very subtle, very calculated. But they don't support the stability of the region. Up here is said, I think everybody wants the same thing. They want stability. They want prosperity. They want stability in their countries. They want access to markets. They want to be able to compete fairly. So we are national laws. We support our allies of trust amongst the different nations. What we can't not do is stop talking to each other, even if we disagree. And you can say that for everywhere. So there may be other actors that would do something that we would disagree with. We need to maintain communication with them and tell them that their their actions potentially are disrupting stability in the world. And the military dimension of that as a military has a kind of a different path to that and can talk to our counterparts. And I know the CNO is working hard to talk to his counterpart about things and clarify things. So there isn't a miscalculation. But at the same time, in the near term, meet our treaty obligations and exercise our sovereign rights under international law to transit the seas. And we'll see where that takes us. Hopefully it'll create stability, not instability, and everybody will realize that that's what we all need to not to be aggressive, but just to clarify what there are. And let me just close on that last piece. And just talk about, you know, laws and governance. The most important one being, you know, the law of the sea, the UN Convention for the law of the sea. And as, you know, the United States has yet to ratify the UN Convention for the law of the sea. So if I can advocate going forward with the next administration as well, it is to if we are going to play a role in maritime governance, we need to be a ratifier of the UN Convention for the law of the sea as well. OK. We've talked, I've heard a lot of talk about the important partnerships, international partnerships, of course, partnerships within our own government and defense structure. As you look across the web of partnerships that supports what we do and supports the international system, where are the gaps? What what do you want our international partners to do more of? What should we be helping them to do more of? What what do you need them to become stronger in? Sure, I'll take the lead. I want to talk about not but I do want to sort of throw some bait out there for the industrial partnerships as well. Certainly, we mentioned a couple of global systems or I mentioned one is the maritime domain and that's that's the the unifying theory that brings us all here for sea air space is effectiveness in the maritime domain.  I see about one out of three people here is checking their smartphone, even as I'm talking, right? So first and foremost, heads up and pay attention. But no, I'm only kidding. The this information domain has changed everything. I know there's many of you are you're closing mega deals on your smartphone right now. That is moving forward in an irreversible way. In fact, it's accelerating forward. I think that prevent presents a tremendous opportunity for us as an international community, international community of navies to stitch together more effectively. It's going to be just a foregone fact of life that navies are going and nations are going to come to these partnerships to these coalitions with different levels of capability, with different levels of policy, caveats, etc. Anybody who's worked in a multinational coalition realizes that that's going to be the case. Some will be able to contribute with across the full spectrum of operations and they will do so at a very high level of capability, technologically technologically advanced. Some will come with a lesser technical capability, but still there will be capability. There will be capacity there. And if we build this network properly, and if we allow all of those team partners and teammates to connect effectively, then what you see is is a tremendous if tremendously effective and efficient sharing of the total challenge, sharing of the total burden where everybody can contribute in the most effective way. And that's exactly what you're seeing happening in most of those international maritime coalitions, whether it's in Europe or in the Middle East or in the Pacific. And you see people falling in, sharing information more and more effectively, communicating more and more effectively, sort of finding their most effective and efficient place to address the challenge. And so I think that that is the great opportunity that the coalescence of this increasingly busy maritime domain and this increasingly networked information domain provides it. So I'll stop there and let the others. I'm going to take it from the perspective of how does our military move when it has to the core of the US flag fleet today is a program that we refer to as the maritime security program, which is 60 ships carry US flag for the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. They carry over 92 percent of everything that went into over 75 percent of that fleet, although under US flag and under a US company is actually has a foreign parent. So those those foreign companies, because of this increased globalization, as the CNO talked about, they are partners with us to make sure that we can project the power of our armed forces anywhere to continue to support our efforts to be able to support our national one of the tasks in the national strategy is to build partner capacity. One of us up here on the platform have forces that do that. And in the maritime domain, I mean, there are some landlocked countries out with the great, great number of nations have a coast. And that's where the economy, the economics come in. And that's where the jobs are. That's where the people are. So they have to be able to provide some level of security. So what do we want our partners to do want to be able to engage with them because that makes them able to secure their own economic zones or territorial waters or their coastlines. It allows us a partner if we have to work with them. And on occasion, it gives us access to to facilities or ports or locations that we may want to use. It gives opportunity to train. So it allows us to help them develop a more stable country. Because the military dimension is very different. You know, we show up with, you know, soldiers, sailors, coast guardsmen, Marines, airmen, and they represent the diversity of our nation. And they see that and they see the strength of that. It's a very powerful thing. That's not our intent. Our intent is to help them get better. I think also the what's I think it's fair. There's been a lot of discussion about NATO as a former NATO staff officer. I believe NATO is indispensable, has kept peace on the continent since 1945. That said, and I know our military NATO ally partners, which they're so they they they have to increase the amount of money that they invest. That's not my that's that's, you know, there's a goal of 2%. I know they're striving to do that. And it's great that they can because they have the capacity, I think to do a little bit more. That said, I don't think it's fair as the CNO said they all have capacity. They can do certain things. I think we need to be more open and flexible as to how we partner and work together to do things because everybody has something to contribute. And so, you know, bashing them over the head is not going to facilitate that it's not going to make for better partners. And on the military side, you know, we want as many partners as we can. Because that makes it improves trust. It makes us better able to communicate. And I think it makes the world to safer, more stable place. When I look at gaps opportunities, I look how far maritime domain awareness has come since I was doing Ocean Station as an ensign because we didn't have weather satellites back in 1977. Heck, we didn't even have NOAA buoys back then. So our domain awareness, but especially for nefarious threats that threaten the homeland, I would give the quality of domain awareness a B B plus grade today. And so we have intelligence driving operations in the United States Coast Guard, as I've never seen before. So it's great that we have this level of awareness, but on any given day, you know, we can act on maybe 25 percent at both at best of actionable intelligence in the maritime domain. Now, 25 percent in any school is not a passing grade. So it's great that we've got domain awareness, but we've got a significant capacity gap. And even if we look as we start crafting the next national military strategy, the four plus one, if you will. If you if you address any more than one of those threats, if you get into what we call simultaneity, we really run into some capacity as a service that prides itself on being semper-prottice. I always say, well, ready for what? We can't be ready for all things. And then just throw a natural disaster or a manmade disaster on top of that as well. And so our real gap right now is in our capacity.  But it is a concern of mine. We're making progress, but not at the rate where we're closing this gap between domain awareness and how do we best allocate resources. But we also use that same domain awareness. We're all in the risk proposition business of where is it that we don't resource to resource those threats that are the most dangerous threats to the United States and our national security? So let's talk about technology, which is a part, I imagine, of bringing that BB plus up to an A. Sino also mentioned that he wants to bring technology on faster, find the ideas out there, adopt them more quickly. In recent years, in recent decades, I think it's fair to say the Defense Department in general has not been especially nimble at bringing technology aboard, but now it's time to do better at that. How are how are your organizations reshaping, rethinking, getting ready to do better at that? I'm doing a great job. This kind of brings me to my second point about partnerships and really sitting down with the leaders. I think we need to talk leader to leader in this business because we each need to learn from each other. My sense of the dynamic right now is that too often we hunker down inside the department, inside the Navy, we have a problem that we're pretty good at defining most of the time if we spend the time to define the problem. Maybe too often, we come to a solution to that problem, a set of requirements. We define those and we put those on a piece of paper. This solution has to go so fast. This solution has to go so high, has to carry so much. What have you? Then we start the conversation with industry. By then it seems to me that a lot of it has been determined, maybe over-determined. What I'm trying to enable is starting that conversation much earlier in the process where we can open up the dialogue at the problem-definition phase. What I found is that oftentimes private sector, the industrial base, which is super dynamic, right? There's major contributions being made by our traditional partners. There also is tremendous potential being made by new players in the private sector. And so there's been a full-court press all the way from the Secretary of Defense on down to make sure that we explore all of the above. There's great innovation happening within the traditional military industrial base, if you will. And so we need to continue to go there and tap that. And then there are new ideas coming in from Silicon Valley, from up in New York. You name it, the thinking centers around the country and indeed around the world. And so if we tap into that creativity earlier, so, hey, here's our problem. Oftentimes I've found that our partners will be able to provide a solution that we probably would not have foreseen. We're conditioned pretty heavily by our experience. It's not the case if you just branch out a little bit. And so I really want to remain open to those solutions that could be completely new to us, a new approach to solving the problem. There is also this dimension of speed, which you mentioned. My sense is that the industrial, our industrial partners are ready to move faster. Can I get a show of hands of all the industrial partners that think that they're ready to provide solutions and technologies faster if we would just sort of enable that speed to happen. OK, and now everybody who wants to move slower, raise your hand. Yeah, so I think that we've just got to streamline our processes, start the conversation earlier, be open to more creative solutions and then be open to a process that allows for more dynamic experimentation and prototyping earlier on. We can separate out the goods approaches from the bad much more quickly. Absolutely confident we can do that much more cheaply. We'll get a solution that more with more agility meets the challenge that we proposed and by virtue of that experimentation and prototyping process, we will have more confidence that the tool we eventually place in the hands of our sailors and Marines. Indeed, all of our warfighters will perform better and more reliably than we did before. So I'm sorry, I'm on a roll here. So so I want to challenge all of our industrial partners to challenge us. And in these conversations, we're getting to the point of honesty, but I've got to say that the traditional customer relationship sometimes breeds a level of politeness which can inhibit that frank discussion that we need to have in terms of how to enhance that partnership. Thanks. OK, I guess we're not going alphabetically. Well, I'm not going first next time.  But look for common architectures as I look at what we're doing with our aircraft using C4 ISR suite that that is a joint suite being a joint service. We're bringing this into our airframes, but we're also a service, one of twenty two components within the Department of Homeland Security. And we look at the other Air Force of DHS and that's Customs and Border Protection and through our D.O.D. relationship able to bring that technology into our CBP suite as well. So I think that's just one example in the two years now nearly I've been in this job. I've been to all of our centers of excellence up in the Northeast, starting with Lincoln Labs, MIT and working all the way all the way across to Stanford, where some of these great ideas are out there. But when you look at research and development, that's what they're in the business of doing. And maybe fifteen, twenty percent at best of these innovative approaches might actually see the light of day and become a program of record. When I look at how we innovate in the military, at least in my experience with the Coast Guard, if we had an 80 percent failure rate with research and development, we would probably shut that program down all together because we don't have an appetite for failure when it comes to research and development. You got to get it right the first time and every time. And so we need to be able to continue to award that spirit of innovation and recognizing, as I like to say, that the best ideas in the Coast Guard do not come from the person who sits behind my desk. But if that person does not have the wherewithal to champion those great ideas, then that person probably does not deserve to be the comment on the Coast Guard either. And so the great ideas are out there. And as a CNO alluded to, we need to be able to channel those and deliver these capabilities in a much more agile manner than we do today. I am encouraged, though, by especially in the world of cyber to the point where I am going to have to specialize the component within the Coast Guard that will stay laser focused just on cyber because gone are the days. If you can do this for three or four years, then you go off and maybe you want to be a boson mate for another five or six years. And you think you're going to come back into cyber after a four or five year hiatus. Well, then you're starting out all over again. So we really are seeing Moore's law at play, especially when it comes to modernization, C4ISR, and cyber. And I went to the Coast Guard Academy. I was issued a slide rule. We didn't even have pocket calculators back in those days. So to think that I am going to be on the bleeding edge of this technology, I'd be fooling myself, but I'd be a fool not to listen to those that are on the leading edge and encourage that spirit of innovation because we will not go it alone in the Coast Guard.  But I will say my name translates to future in German. Okay. All right. All right. There you go. Touche. If it's okay, I'm going to actually pose a question with regard to technology and innovation. If I were to ask you what is the greatest commercial maritime innovation in the last half century, what would you guys say it would be? The container. Exactly right. It was invented by, it was invented by a truck driver from North Carolina by the name of Malcolm McClain because you thought there would be a better way. Today we're carrying essentially the equivalent of what I call 20 foot equivalent containers or TEUs and some of the ships in the world are carrying 22 thousand TEUs on board their vessel. To put that into perspective, if I put an end to end, if I took them off the ship and I put them on a single unit train that could actually be this long, it would extend for 96 miles. So the technical and technological innovation I will talk about is, you know, everybody understands that we're trying to be environmentally conscious, but we have a company that partnered with General Dynamics in NASCO out in San Diego. They wanted to build the cleanest ship in the world and they did. The parent company is the company by the name of Saltchuk and they're Tote Maritime is the company that built them. NASCO partnered with the Korean Shipyard to get the design and they built and commissioned two liquefied natural gas or dual fuel burning vessels that are currently operating today in the east coast of Puerto Rico trade. They're the first container vessels in the world to be powered by LNG. That is the first innovation that the United States has led on the commercial sector in nearly four decades. That is a significant accomplishment in the rest of the world is now, is now keeping pace, but that was as a result of the partnership embracing technology. Again, these are early adopters to be able to actually do that. And I think that is a significant change in the maritime industry, but we need more of it and we need to embrace it at a faster pace as the rest of my service chiefs have noted. I think we're going to open it up to your questions in just a second. General, do you have anything to say on the subject of bringing technology more quickly into the Marine Corps? I think we all want to go faster, cheaper on the system, but we're not building cell phones, all right? We're building ships and planes and they're complicated. And part of that, I mean, we realize they can our requirements. I think we all, if somebody else has already got something similar, I think we need to be a little more flexible and saying, well, that's good enough. Is it me to 80% of the requirement? Because it's already there. There's already production line. I don't have to wait. And then we've got rules. There's like tests and evaluation rules, which we don't want to anything we buy if we're going to put that investment in that it doesn't work. But at the same time, if it works in 10 years, it may already become obsolete by the time we field it. So there's the tension. How do you go faster in this world when you've got rules that are designed to allow everybody here to compete? If you don't win the bid, you get to protest. Okay, I understand that as business you that's money and that's what you do. You got to make money and you got employees that you have an obligation to and shareholders. But we've got an obligation to those the men and women in our service to give them new gear as soon as we can, because the gear we have has been run really hard the last 15 years. So we've got to figure out how as Adam Richards said, we've got to figure out how to find that that spot and work together. We have to be more realistic about our requirements. The test and evaluation has to be it has to be realistic. It's got to be enough, but it can't be so onerous that it just drives the whole thing out. So I'm new to understanding this. I've been a consumer. I've been a customer. So as a customer, you know, it just seems to be too slow. And there may be good reasons for that, but we've got to go faster because we're behind this new stuff in the hands of those that we have an obligation to support and make sure that they're successful in whatever mission we give them. If I could, before you open up to questions, I just wanted to highlight something that Mr. Janneken said was that, you know, not all new, not everything new involves technology, high end technology, right? And so there's a lot of people out there, a lot of very respectable people that like to compare the time we're in now to sort of the time between World War One and World War Two, a lot of parallels. And what you saw there was the emergence of a lot of operating concepts and ideas that had nothing directly to do with technology, right? So not everything that we need to do going forward involves a new piece of gear or a new high end piece of kit. Much of what we do will just involve a new way of employing the tools that we have right now. And there are tremendous success stories. And in fact, many of the revolutions in military affairs involve not a new technology, but a new way of combining existing things more creatively to into something that was far more powerful and effective than it was alone. And so this idea of combining the simple idea of a standardized container with emerging, you know, natural gas technologies, etc. Nothing strikingly new there in terms of the raw technology, but the way it was combined is going to be very powerful. I think we all have to be open to the fact that there's going to be certainly increased technology as part of the solution. But also, how do we combine those technologies in creative ways? That's the intellectual work that we've got to remain open to as well. So thanks. Great. Thank you. Okay. Do we have microphones out there?