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SECRETARY OF DEFENSE CHUCK HAGEL: -- thank everyone here. Thank you for your service, what you continue to do for our country, what you have done. I know many of you have just returned from a tour in Afghanistan. To those who have just returned, thank you.
Welcome home. We're very proud of what you've done, what you all continue to do at a very difficult, uncertain and dangerous time in the world.
Thinking about the 101st, my first real opportunity to know something about the 101st Airborne was when I was in Vietnam. And then in that experience working with the 101st Airborne made me realize more clearly what the term screaming eagles really means.
The work that we did in my unit, the 9th Infantry Division, with the 101st in 1968 was important for a lot of reasons, but the 101st Airborne during that time I was in Vietnam in '68 was a very critical part of my service.
And what your division has meant to this country in so many conflicts, in so many ways is historical. And you continue to do these incredible things for our country because of your service and your leadership and your commitment to this country.
I want to thank your families. I had an opportunity today at lunch to have a little more than an hour with a number of spouses. In particular, I wanted to thank LeAnne Volesky for her convening of that group, the opportunity to listen to what the spouses had to say about their lives, about the sacrifices their families make, their beliefs in this country's future, questions about their future.
It is one of the most important responsibilities of leadership is to come out and reach out and listen, listen carefully to what you all think and ask questions. And, for you to ask me questions and all your leaders about what we're doing and why we're doing it and where this enterprise is going.
A complicated world, as you all know. I think of the -- the group that has just returned from Afghanistan.
Another group will be going back to Afghanistan and a new -- a different mission than what we have had the last 13 years, but an essential mission to help the Afghan people and the government as they build to sustain the contributions that you all made to help that country and stabilize that part of the world.
And unless it is sustained, unless their institutions are capable of defending themselves, managing their government and every part of their future, it won't make any difference.
And this mission over the next two years that some of you will be involved in is very much about that, continuing to help the Afghans build those institutions of governance, of security, so that they too can defend their country and their interests and their people like other nations. So thank you for that.
I particularly want to note what you all are doing in West Africa. I know the question is obvious. What is our military doing involved in a mission like Ebola?
And it's a legitimate question, but you all understand the perils, the threats, the challenges that face our country. The world is shifting and changing. The world order is shifting like we've never seen before. The velocity of that change is unprecedented.
The challenges and threats that face our country in the world today are not just from Islamic fundamentalists or from terrorists. Yes, that's a real threat. That's a threat we are dealing with.
But pandemic health diseases and pandemic health threats threaten the world. Ebola is part of that overall scope of threats.
We have, in our enterprise, unique capabilities that no other institution in the world has. You understand that better than anyone. You're a part of that.
Our role there, as you know, is to apply those unique capabilities to help and assist the caregivers, our own interagency institutions that are there to help the Liberian people, the people of West Africa contain this terrible disease and virus, contain it there to help them contain it. It is in our interest, clearly, to do that.
Our special capabilities that we can bring, we are bringing, I think reflected very well today in the front page story in USA Today with the interview with General Volesky explained it pretty well. And I know every member of the 101st was very proud of that story, if you've read it.
You are proud because of what General Volesky represents, all of you, the mission that you are undertaking and doing it better than anybody, these special capabilities that we bring, logistics, like no else -- air bridge that we have set up, like no one else, training, the construction piece of providing the support that the caregivers need -- require.
It is complex. This is not a simple operation. We can do it faster, we can do it better and work with the interagency like no other institution. So thank you for doing that.
I talked a little bit about a changing world. Our institution is changing.
That is not new. Institutions change. They adapt, they adjust, they try to range out into the future and anticipate challenges and threats.
Institutions, especially this one institution, the Department of Defense, which is the only institution in our government charged with only one mission -- the security of this country -- must continuously adjust and adapt not just to the present dangers and challenges that we face but ranging out over what we anticipate may come.
I don't know 10 years ago if many of us were paying a lot of attention to cyber. The asymmetrical threats that now are part of the global threats to all of us dominate in many -- in many ways. Technology has changed the rules.
Building coalitions now is as important as ever. Coalition building, coalition partners have always been important. But today, those coalitions are critically important, because no one nation can shape or form any part of the world alone.
Seven billion people on the face of the earth today, and we'll be putting more people on it. That means a requirement for more resources, more space, more opportunities, more economic development, more jobs, and that cannot come without stability. That cannot come without security. They are interconnected.
So all of the things that you do are more than just facing the current threat and challenge that face our country. They have immense ripple effect, consequences for our future. And preparing our institutions, which you all are doing now, is critically important to that as we think down into the future.
Your training here. I had an opportunity this morning to see the training that is given in a very short space of time for me. And I asked a number of you, and I asked some of your spouses about that training. Are you confident of that training? Is it training you believe in fact can keep you safe?
Because before any decisions were made at the senior level of our leadership at the Pentagon, that question was foremost. The president of the United States --
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SEC. HAGEL: -- Dempsey, General Dempsey asked of the chiefs in particular
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SEC. HAGEL: -- what needs to be done. And I saw some of that
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SEC. HAGEL: -- with the president of the United States, me, General Dempsey, General Odierno send our men and women into situations if you're not prepared. And yes, not to minimize danger, of course, of course, but that's the point of preparation and training, that you need the absolute most effective
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SEC. HAGEL: -- and we will give you that training, are giving you --
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SEC. HAGEL: -- unless you're confident and your families are confident that you have what you need to stay safe.
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SEC. HAGEL: -- whatever you want to talk about. I've been out around the country the last four days -- different bases, different countries. And we deal, as you all know, in this complicated world with many facets of our enterprise -- the nuclear deterrent part of DOD, which I was involved in in North Dakota, in Minot, on Friday.
Your part of this large enterprise and your part of the responsibilities of this enterprise. Yesterday, I was in California
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SEC. HAGEL: -- at the training center in the desert. That component, which many of you have been through there, lived there, understand it. But every component of our enterprise is integral to the ultimate success of our missions. And
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SEC. HAGEL: -- that requires a comprehensive strategy using all of our assets and using all of our people. And it is really about people. Every job in this business is important. There is no unimportant job in this business. Because every job depends on another job, depends on another job, and it breaks down. And anyplace in that process if there's weak -- if there's a weak link, you cannot have a weak link anywhere in the process.
So paying attention to that, which you all do, and your leadership pays attention to that all the time, is essential to making all of this work and essential to keeping this enterprise strong and building into the future, preparing this institution for the future.
Now, I say that -- I know it's obvious, but sometimes we all need to be reminded of that. And you need to be recognized for that. You do your jobs better than anyone every day, every day. And I know you have to occasionally think -- I know your families do: Does anybody pay attention? Does anybody care?
Your congressional delegation knows about it. We're with your Congress in this here today -- Congresswoman Blackburn.
Good to see you. Thank you very much for what you do to support these men and women and their families. I know how hard you work on this.
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-- that we have to work through these --
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-- the leadership of this institution. That we're committed to do that, to get you the resources that you need. We're gonna have to partner with Congress on a lot of these things next year to assure that those resources will be there. We can't continue to take the kind of steep, abrupt cuts in our budget that we have been without very significant, in fact disastrous, results.
So, I end my thoughts here with you this afternoon on that point, because you need to --
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-- the worst thing we could do, next, is send you into a situation where you're unprepared is to have you going somewhere to conduct an important mission with the cloud of uncertainty hanging over you about your families and your futures.
We won't let that happen. We understand how important that is to you and to your families.
So, thank you --
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-- again, I have long been an admirer of the 101st Division. I've seen you in action. I've worked with you in action. And you continue to make this country and the Department of Defense very, very proud with what you do for all of us.
Thank you.
Now, I understand we're gonna take some questions, and we're gonna then do some photographs.
You've got the mike. You must be asking a question.
Q: Yes. Yes, sir.
Mr. Secretary, my name's Specialist Cameron.
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My question to you sir is with hotspots flaring up in Iraq, in Africa? Are we going to continue the drawdown or will we maintain troops levels at this time, sir?
SEC. HAGEL: Thank you.
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We have made decisions, decisions, based on the recommendations of the Army leadership, as well as all of our branches of service, as to how we are gonna deal with the continued decrease in our resource base, in our budget.
I've agreed with the recommendations that have been made in Army's case by General Odierno as well as the other chiefs of all the services.
As to how we will reduce our force numbers and how we will do that in a responsible way, it is not unusual to go through these cycles. As you know, we've been at war an unprecedented number of years. We've been at war for 13 years.
Also unprecedented is that those two wars, those 13 years of long, grinding war, have been fought by all-volunteer forces. Never before has that happened in our country.
The cycle of prior wars, coming out of those wars, is not new, as to how you rebalance your force. But the key is how we rebalance the force. And we want to do this in a responsible way. We will.
But this partly brings me back to sequestration in the budget. If we continue to have to live with these kind of abrupt deep cuts, then that is gonna be reflected in a continuation of that force structure. There's no other way around that, because we cannot jeopardize further modernization, meaning your training, meaning your equipment, meaning your preparation to deal with these challenges in these missions that we send you on.
We must keep our technological edge in our capabilities, in our capacity. That means investment on a continuing basis in research and science.
The weapons systems we have today that have had the technological edge against any opponent since World War II didn't just start last year.
They didn't start two and three years ago. These weapons platforms started the process 10 years ago. The investment early on as you think through in five-year increments of what it takes, but it's the people who make the difference.
And so yes, force structures are coming down, and that's not new. But how we do this -- we can do this the right way if we're given the resources and the flexibility by the Congress to be able to make the internal choices and decisions that our military commanders, and only they know best how to do that, they've devoted their lives to this.
Being able to phase out weapons platforms that they don't need, excess facilities and bases we don't need. We have to have the flexibility to manage our institution. And if we continue to be constrained in that flexibility, along with less and less resources, then -- then tougher choices will have to be made.
I'm confident that we can work with Congress. We will work with Congress to get those kind of flexibilities and those budget requirements necessary. Yes?
Q: Mr. Secretary, my name is First Lieutenant (inaudible). I am with the 5th Special Forces Group. Do you think there has been a noticeable change in the state of the Ebola crisis and the spread of the disease since we've sent to troops to West Africa?
SEC. HAGEL: Well first, as you all know, your mission in West Africa is not as a caregiver. You have very defined, clear missions. And that --
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SEC. HAGEL: -- new trend lines with Ebola in West Africa. But we also know that -- that these are up and down dynamics that we see based on imperfect matrix that we use to measure trends.
We have done I think up to now a good job in the United States of containing Ebola. We want to continue to do that. That's much about what your mission is about. But we know also that this is not an issue or a challenge that is confined by borders.
We know of three countries in West Africa where Ebola is a real problem, and there are variations in each of those three countries how well those trend lines are going. We're not at the end yet. And when we may be in a position to make some determination that we think we've accomplished the mission, I don't know.
But I do think that what you all have been responsible for so far has made a huge difference, a huge difference in containing Ebola in -- in Liberia where we are now with the --
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SEC. HAGEL: -- those logistics, those training and treatment units, 25-bed hospital is up, and all the logistics in the construction that has gone into this and continues. If that had not been there, and if that had not occurred over the last few weeks, there would be no infrastructure. There would be very limited capability for those caregivers to do their job just to get around and things that most people don't realize.
How much water -- potable water is required in these treatment facilities, in these diagnostic centers, in these -- these hospitals. Just getting those supplies and those logistics there, just the infrastructure of having the -- the structure to bring the capabilities together to utilize those capabilities that we have in our interagency, in our government and other governments that are coming together on this.
So yes, you have already made a big difference. We're not -- we're not done with this mission yet, but it has made already a significant difference, a positive difference. Thank you. Yes?
Q: Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary. Names's (inaudible) 159 Aviation Brigade, 101st Air Assault. Question is with the recent and upcoming drawdown of Aviation Brigades, how is this going to affect aviation future operations?
SEC. HAGEL: Well, like the first question on force reduction, we've had to make some --
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SEC. HAGEL: -- Army has every service on how they're going to deal with these reductions. At the same time, keep the capacity, capability that we require, that we depend on. And how do you manage that drawdown? And what decisions you have to make are not easy.
But as I said, I --
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SEC. HAGEL: -- General Odierno and the other chiefs made to me on how they were managing all of this. I know it's difficult. We've not had to make tough choices in this department for many years on -- on any of these big questions.
We are now in a situation where now our leaders have to make some difficult choices and prioritize their assets, their capabilities, their future, what they think they're going to require to secure this country. I value and pay attention to those recommendations by our -- our senior leaders.
So there'll be a continuation, as I said earlier, of adaptation and adjustment in our enterprise. That's not new. We've -- we've been doing that since World War II. Not just coming out of different conflicts, but also the world shifts. The world changes. Threats change.
We are still going to need a strong nuclear deterrent. Safe, secure, ready, efficient nuclear deterrent. We are still going to need the capacities of a strong, best conventional military in the world. Technological edge.
Best led, best trained, best equipped. That doesn't change. How do we do that? How do we do that is the question. And so what our leaders are going through and have been going through having to make those tough choices to answer those -- those tough questions.
That's it. Okay. Again, thank you. Thank you all very much for giving me some time today, and thank you all for what you do for our country, and thank your families as well. And since we're getting close to Thanksgiving, happy Thanksgiving.
We're going to take some pictures and I've got some hardware to give out. So thank you.
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