Posted on 06/08/2007 10:22:12 AM PDT by PghBaldy
It really is a privilege and an honor to be here. I was with the all hands call this morning – saying my time in Pittsburgh has actually been fleeting. I grew up on the other side of this country. As a kid I hadn't spent any time on the East Coast. My first time in the area was to come up here for the Navy football game in 1964, for those of you who were here then. I don't remember who won the game but I do remember how fun the reception was and it certainly translates to what's going on here today and I very much appreciate that. And the support for the Navy and our Military; which is so important to all of us who serve to the future security of not just our country, but the world.
I also would single out – many of us are involved in many things – I'm not sure there's a more important endeavor than recognizing teachers who give. If I were going to pick one area in the country to focus on – and one only -- it would be the education of our children. I applaud those who teach and those who learn and the parents that take good care and time to do that. They have all been important people in all our lives as we grew up and point a way to success so that the World Affairs Council takes the time to make that connection is as vital a link that we have in the country, so I really applaud those efforts.
The area I'd like to thank the Council for is your commitment to raise awareness for a lot of important international issues and it seems they abound as I am sure will continue to abound.
I'd also, like to say thanks to the Navy League here in Pittsburgh – Paula and past presidents, I've met several of them earlier today. What the Navy League has done for the United States Navy is raise that awareness, is make that connection, and sustain it over time and its a big deal to all of us. There are thousands and thousands of dedicated people who volunteer an extraordinary amount of time in the Navy League to continue that connection and I really appreciate it.
In his final remarks to the nation as president, President Ronald Reagan told a story about an American Sailor on the carrier Midway patrolling in the South China Sea.
On the horizon, he saw a leaky little boat crammed with refugees. The Midway sent a small launch to their rescue. As the launch made its way back through the choppy seas, one refugee spied the Sailor on deck and called out to thank him yelling: "Hey American Sailor, Hello Freedom Man."
It is what the President called a "small moment with a big meaning."
Today, similar small moments with great meanings are being lived everyday – by so many different people – in so many different places.
Last year we saw it on the faces of thousands of Indonesians whose lives were ravaged by a terrible tsunami.
In a place where American power was perceived as frightening, monolithic and arrogant – we sent dozens of ships and helicopters and thousands of Sailors and Marines to save lives, provide security and restore a sense of hope.
Leading the charge was not a combatant warship, but our hospital ship, the USNS Mercy – giving meals, comfort, and medical care for thousands of the homeless, sick and wounded.
It literally helped change their hearts and minds. Nothing brought that home more than an e-mail sent from a village leader who sang the praises of our troops and for what he called "the big white ship from America."
It goes to show that our people, our power, our principles are now, and will always be, a tremendous force for good.
But USNS Mercy also showed us a completely new way to think about Sea Power.
In the Navy, our prevailing image of Sea Power tends to be of Task Forces filling up the horizon. Booming guns and storming Marines. An aircraft carrier plowing through the deep blue ocean. A submarine broaching the surface. A classic battle at sea. While there still is a lot of truth to that image – I am convinced that the challenges of this new century, of this new, post 9/11 world – requires a vision of Sea Power that is larger and broader.
Take, for example, a meeting I had a few weeks ago.
I spoke with six Navy Commanders who are right now leading joint Provisional Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan. Their teams are out there fixing roads, repairing schools and clinics, and drilling wells – taking every measure imaginable to improve the lives of the Afghan people.
Not what you would expect from guys who normally fly planes and drive ships. A few years ago, they would have never imagined doing what they are doing, where they are doing it.
They are at the forefront of a strategic landscape that is shifting dramatically. This afternoon, I would like to talk a few minutes about three strategic shifts that are driving us as a nation and a Navy to embrace change.
The first is the shift in threats. If we have learned nothing else since 9/11, it is that our future will be marked by uncertainty, irregular and increasingly unrestricted warfare.
In addition to a few hostile, or potentially hostile, states – some armed with nuclear weapons – we are now threatened by terrorists, weapons proliferators, organized crime, smugglers, drug traffickers and pirates.
These enemies are often unpredictable, diverse and dynamic. They seek disruptive technologies and destructive materials – some of which are for sale on the open market.
They do not operate on conventional battlefields, but thrive in the "gray area" where crime and armed conflict overlap.
Ask any Sailor who served aboard USS COLE back in the October of 2000, or those dealing today with pirates off the coast of Africa.
These Sailors are seeing more competitors, more contingencies and a greater range of maritime missions than ever before. At the same time, there perhaps is no greater power than our readiness to respond when disaster strikes. I spoke about our response to the tsunami – but I never would have expected our Navy to be called upon to conduct such a large scale humanitarian operation right here at home. That's what we did after Katrina.
We dispatched 23 ships within 24 hours of the storm's landfall. Some of them were actually already there, like USS Bataan, a large amphibious ship that basically followed the storm right in ashore.
Bataan's helicopters were in the air just hours after the eye passed over New Orleans, picking up hundreds of survivors and surveying the damage.
We sent our Seabees in to restore and rebuild. Many of them had lost their own homes, but somehow gathered the strength to clear hundreds of miles of roads, re-open dozens of public utilities and schools, and build shelters for thousands.
Sailors from USS Tortuga and USS Shreveport, pier side upriver, went door-to- door in small boats to rescue the house-bound.
Then there was our large deck amphibious ship, Iwo Jima, which acted as New Orleans' only functional airport, command center, hotel and hospital. That is what I call a City at Sea.
I went down there and visited Thad Allen, VADM Thad Allen from the Coast Guard who was charged with restoring that part of the crisis response. When I met him on the ship he opined that I should rename the ship -- which the name is USS Iwo Jima – "The City of New Orleans."
That certainly got the Commandant of the Marine Corps' attention when I mentioned it to him. But I reassured him – as only a friend could do – that I was not going to be the CNO who was going to mess with the name Iwo Jima.
As I saw first-hand what all our Ships and Sailors were doing on the Gulf Coast – I thought to myself, this is American Sea Power at its finest, and at its most noble.
We have seen this same power as we responded to earthquakes in Pakistan, mudslides in the Philippines, and other disasters.
At the same time, however, these tasks are made all the more difficult because we can never let anyone take advantage of our shift in focus.
We can't stop investing in high-end capabilities – we must stay ready for major combat operations against any strategic competitor.
And while I am CNO – I will make sure that no one, anywhere, can drive us from the sea.
What I seek, however, is balance. We must be able to win the big and the small wars if required. Two challenges -- one fleet.
That brings me to the second shift – the shift in strategic geography.
First, we see a shift towards the west. Nowhere is it more important that we be prepared for these two challenges than in the Pacific. That is why you are seeing the balance of submarines and our aircraft carrier Strike Groups moving from one coast to the other.
Now don't get me wrong. I still see much more promise than peril in the Pacific. America is in many ways a Pacific nation. We are vested through common markets, values and history in Asia's future.
We are partial to the region's rising freedom and economic opportunity -- it is beneficial for everyone. There have, of course, been ups and downs, but the region's progress over the last fifty years has been truly remarkable.
In 1945, there were only a handful of democracies in the Pacific and today, there are nearly a dozen. At war's end, many countries were reaped in conflicts; today, their growing economies are large engines of hope.
Yet, we cannot forget that the tyranny of distance – the vastness of the Pacific Ocean – the prevalence of transnational threats – old rivalries and new competition for resources – all could undermine that growing prosperity.
There are old problems and new challenges. North Korea, Islamic radicalism, terrorists, insurgencies, corruption, failing states and the potential for the pandemic flu.
Then, there is the emergence of China. I don't believe the United States is threatened by the peaceful rise of China. To the contrary, we should welcome it.
Yet, China's impressive economic growth has brought a much more rapid military modernization than we expected. And most concerning is the apparent lack of transparency with which their military expansion continues.
The real question, however, is one of intent. It is our hope, of course, that China will use its burgeoning strength in a constructive and responsible manner. And we look forward to seeking more opportunities to engage with them.
We want to work closer with China and with all nations to promote prosperity and peace while enhancing Pacific security. To do that, we stand more committed than ever to a forward presence in the Pacific and to the right presence in every region.
But this geographic shift does not just go east and west – we must also learn to look north and south -- not our strength. Otherwise, we will miss too many great opportunities for mutual friendship to enhance security.
Our submarine tender, USS Emory S Land, for the second year in a row, just finished a deployment with 1,400 Sailors doing just that in West Africa.
The Navy has also taken command of the Joint mission on the ground in the Horn of Africa, that's near Somalia. Similarly, our aircraft carrier USS George Washington and its other ships recently deployment to the Caribbean to demonstrate our commitment to the Partnership of the Americas.
And just last month, I met with 14 heads of Navies in South America who are all excited about the prospects of enhancing maritime security cooperation.
That gets right at the third shift – a shift in operational terrain – how we operate and with whom.
This shift starts with the realization that today's challenges are too broad and too complex for any nation to go it alone.
I have been talking frequently about the need to bring together an international 1,000-ship Navy, not just grey hulls flying the U.S. flag, but a network of international navies, coast guards, maritime forces, port operators, commercial shippers and local law enforcement -- all working together.
A fleet-in-being, if you will, comprised of all freedom-loving nations, standing watch over the seas – standing watch with each other.
This will allow us to achieve greater maritime domain awareness. Joined at the hip with the U.S. Coast Guard and our friends abroad we can extend maritime domain awareness throughout the global maritime commons.
I am convinced that without this type of collective maritime domain awareness and mastery of the sea – we cannot protect and promote free trade, we cannot help those in peril, we cannot provide relief from natural disaster, and we cannot intercede when slavery, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, smuggling, drugs, and piracy threaten our way of life.
Building partnerships also requires a dependable presence, not just at sea, but in the rivers, in the harbors, in the shallow water approaches, where many of our allies need help.
It is all about using the power of our influence to connect at every level with the peoples of those countries.
In that light, we are developing a new riverine force in our Navy and we are evaluating a new concept called "Global Fleet Stations" – which would establish forward deployed small draft ships and support vessels able to be stationed where most of our allies are right now – in green and brown water. Historically, we have been a blue water Navy. That is another important realization; we must do more in the green and brown water. Frankly, we also need to do more ashore.
I am looking for more opportunities like the ones I mentioned in the Horn of Africa with the Provisional Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan.
All in all, today the Navy has almost 4,000 Sailors on the ground in Iraq and in Afghanistan – that's Sailors on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and more than 10,000 on the ground in the CENTCOM Area of Operations. And I think that number is going to grow.
I just recently visited them. I can tell you they are motivated and committed to the mission. They feel they have been well-trained and are fully supported, not only by the chain of command, but by the American people. That's the question they ask in Iraq, "Are the people still with us?" They are doing incredible things in the face of great adversity.
I had lunch with a group of Seabees, our construction engineers with the Marine's, who are building a base camp out in the middle of western Iraq, not a stone's throw from the Syrian border, without another living soul anywhere near them on sand so soft and thick you'd think you were walking on powdered sugar.
How they managed to build anything there is beyond me, but build it, they did.
I went out to one of the oil platforms our Sailors are helping defend, keep secure.
They're out there 24-7, sleeping in CONEX boxes, getting their meals and laundry delivered by coalition ships nearby, but they know that 90 percent of Iraq's economy pulses through those pipes and that if they fail, Iraq could very well fail.
There is still bloodshed and violence, and there are still enormous challenges. I suspect there will be there for some time.
There's a long way yet to go, not just in Iraq, but elsewhere in this Long War.
When people ask me what I mean by "long," I tell them "generational." I really believe that my grandchildren –even their children – will be fighting it.
We need to think of it in those terms. We need to stay that committed. We need to stay the course.
We are making steady progress, though, in Iraq. When I talk to the troops, you can see it and the people -- when I was there in Western Iraq -- you can see in their faces and hear it in their voices.
Iraq and Afghanistan are the theaters, if you will, in which we fight today, but these strategic shifts are certain to bring new theaters and new chapters.
I recently approved a Navy Strategic Plan that outlines how we will write these new chapters and reshape our Navy to align with these shifts – new threats, shifting geography and different operational terrain.
Most important, the strategy lays a baseline for developing additional plans for our Navy's future. A future that I believe will rely heavily on the Navy and Marine Corps as part of the Joint team. Loaded with challenges, loaded with opportunities, and loaded with the need for Sea Power.
A few weeks ago, the "great white ship from America" – the USNS Mercy – deployed again to the Western Pacific. Her mission is to again lead the Pacific Fleet in providing help and hope for people in places like Indonesia, the Philippines, East Timor and Bangladesh.
This time there is no crisis – just opportunities to show we care and to nurture the new friendships forged after the tsunami.
They are truly "freedom men and women."
It is through their efforts, and by their example, that we can bring forth a new dawn of American Sea Power – a force for good that will help win the war and secure the peace.
Thank you. God bless each and every one of you. God bless our United States Navy and God Bless America.
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