All Hands Call - U.S. Army Garrison, Yongsan
As Delivered by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Collier Field House, U.S. Army Garrison,
Yongsan, Republic of South Korea Wednesday, October 21, 2009
ADM. MICHAEL MULLEN:
Okay, please. Thanks, how you doing?
(Chorus of, “Good!”)
ADM. MULLEN: What
time did you get here? What time did you have to
get these front row seats? (Laughter.)
Or did you get put up here? (Laughter.)
Okay, I’ve got about, actually about an hour.
A couple of things, and what I really want to do is get to
Q&A and hear what’s on your mind. It’s actually
fun for me to come do this here because 2 years ago, in one of the
first all hands that I had, I really did it here in this field
house. So it’s kind of a special memory and it’s
a real treat to be back.
And when we get to
questions, ground rules are I’ll do the best I can to answer your
question. If I don’t know the answer, if you give
me your e-mail address or if you have a question that you don’t get
a chance to ask, you can write it out; I’ve got staff here that will
hand you a card and I’ll get a better answer.
And part of the reason
I do that is because I get to learn about what’s going on as well;
one of the reasons I do these is to hear what’s going on where you
live because there is a lot going on where I live and a lot of it
has to do with you. A lot of big decisions happen
all the time, and understanding how you see it, what’s impacting
you, what the policies are, what needs to be changed and addressed,
I’m absolutely wide open to.
So I’d encourage it
when we get to the Q&A to please don’t hesitate to ask questions.
The other is at the end – I’ll take 10 or 15 minutes – I’ve
got coins here if people would like a coin, and I can actually get
through an audience this size pretty quickly. The
only rule on coins is, you can’t use them in a bar.
(Laughter.) So that may shorten the line.
Again, it’s great to be
back with you. How many have been here over 2
years? Okay, so basically a fresh crowd in many
ways. I’ll talk about three things pretty quickly
and then I’ll open it up to questions.
First of all – and the
main reason I do this is just to express my gratitude for what you
do. You are members of the best military in the
history of the world – I believe that. Now, I’ve
been doing this since the late ’60s so I actually have a – I can
compare where we were then to where we are right now and you are –
you make up an extraordinary, extraordinary military, and you make a
huge difference and you’ve raised your right hand to serve your
country at a critical time in our nation’s history, and I would
argue at a critical time in the world’s history.
I don’t have to tell
you, we’re in two wars right now, and we are in our ninth year of
war as of early this month. And there have been
unbelievable sacrifices. And where there were
doubts – certainly in Iraq – there was no group that made a bigger
difference than men and women in uniform. And that is representative
of who you are. And so I am extremely grateful
for your service, for the difference that you make and the
challenges that are out there and the sacrifices that you make.
You don’t do this
alone. How many married here?
You don’t do this alone. I also want to express
my gratitude to your families because we couldn’t do it without
family support and it’s the best I’ve ever seen as well.
Very demanding times; number of deployments; number of
rotations; number of PCS moves. All those things over
the last decade, it is almost – it is clearly a record.
And the families – we
couldn’t do it without family support, so it is a big focus area for
me. I’m here with my wife Deborah; she met with
some spouses yesterday. She’ll do the same
tomorrow; she’ll do the same tomorrow in Japan.
We try to do this wherever we go to understand, again, what the
challenges are for our families, as well.
In fact, I would
argue they’re going to get harder before they get easier, and I can
use Afghanistan as an example right now.
Clearly, we are in a
shift where we are shifting the main effort from Iraq to
Afghanistan, literally, as we speak. And there are many similarities
in terms of the requirements, particularly for something like
counterinsurgency which three or 4 years ago we didn’t know much
about. And we became the best counterinsurgency
force in the world.
And it is going to take
that kind of effort and that kind of application of what we’ve
learned there in Afghanistan to get it right there.
And I think we can; there is no doubt in my mind we can.
But again, it’s going to depend in great part on you.
So tremendously grateful for you, your service, your family’s
service and sacrifice, and the country is incredibly grateful for
that, as well.
I travel a lot and I
see citizens throughout our country, and it’s pretty rare that they
don’t rave about you wherever I go. They are so grateful for what
you do and the difference that you’ve made. And
that may not be clear to you on a daily basis all the way over here
in Korea, but, believe me, it’s there and, frequently, they ask me
to pass on their regards and their respects to you.
So first of all, first
message is really thanks, thanks for all you do; the difference you
make. You’re very, very special in many ways.
Secondly, I’d like to
spend a few minutes talking about change, and if I just think about
where I was here 2 years ago – I was here mainly to meet with our
secretary of Defense and the minister of defense of the Republic of
Korea, and my counterpart, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff
for the ROK military. And he is brand new –
actually both those two individuals on the ROK side are brand new.
And we essentially
spent two days looking at what has changed over the last year.
We meet once a year and we look at the changes, and there is
tremendous amount of change which has occurred just over the last
year as we look to a transition to have the Korean military take
over operational control here in about two-and-a-half years, April
17th of 2012.
It’s a huge deal.
This is an alliance that will have its 60th
anniversary next year. And that alliance is based
on a commitment on the part of the United States of America and its
people and the Republic of Korea and its people and it is based on
mutually shared blood in a war back in the ’50s.
And the commitment –
and it shows you, sometimes you don’t think about this but you are
here as a part of that and sometimes we don’t think about how
significant that alliance is in terms of preserving the freedom,
preserving the democracy that is here in the Republic of Korea.
And we are as, a country in the United States, and clearly
you, as a military, we’re very much supportive of executing and
sustaining that alliance.
And so for the last
couple of days, we’ve reviewed many issues that are changing here in
terms of the specifics of the alliance. But the
alliance is not going to change at 5all; in fact, I think the change
that we are going through right now will actually make it stronger.
And in the next several
years, it includes bringing many more command-sponsored families
here. I think we’ve doubled the number over the
last year. I think we had about 15 to 1700;
that’s now moved over 3100. We’re going to
increase that to 4500 by the end of next year.
And eventually, roughly
half of the 28,000 members who are here – those families –roughly
about 14,000 over the next 7, 8, 9 years – will be here.
And we are going to normalize the tour and it is going to be
3 years. There are going to 3-year tours and
we’re going to put in the infrastructure that we need to support
that.
Now, that’s a big
undertaking and it’s difficult. Those are
significant – each one of those things are significant.
We’ve got to get the schools in, we’ve got to get the housing
in, we’ve got to have the entire infrastructure in the peninsula
upgraded to make sure that we are ready for that transition.
But we’re in that now and in a time of change – and that’s
just an example.
It takes leaders to
stand up, recognize there’s uncertainty – and I wish I could answer
every single question with respect to that. But
you will have good ideas on how to do this, particularly where you
live, and I would be interested to hear your comments on that.
Most of what’s left in
Iraq, quite frankly, is politics. And the
politicians there have to get to elections at the beginning of next
year; we’ll support them from a security standpoint.
And then after the beginning of the year, when they have
elections in January, we start a pretty rapid draw down in the March
timeframe to get from 120,000 or so, which is where we are right
now, down to about 35 to 50,000 come the 31st of August
of next year – so less than a year from now.
So there’s a lot of
change there, but in fact, we are coming down.
And by the end of ’11, we’ll have all our forces out of Iraq.
And then, I indicated earlier, we’re shifting our main effort
to Afghanistan.
Tough fight; the
insurgency has gotten tougher; the assessment that Gen. McChrystal
has done and looked at and said what he found when he got over there
in terms of the challenge of the insurgency.
And the shift in his strategy and again, you talk
about change, the shift to focus on the people to make sure they’re
okay so that they can feel secure and we can bring in development
and actually create jobs, and that they can have a future and
actually create a security force – not unlike we did in Iraq – that
essentially takes care of the security so that the Taliban, the
terrorists, cannot come back in that country and take it over again.
And the link between
that and, obviously, Pakistan, the neighbor there – they’re
inextricably linked in terms of that being the center of terrorism,
if you will – or the epicenter of terrorism in the world right now.
So we are very focused on that and there is a lot of change
associated with that.
I also believe we are
living in a time of change. So as I look at you
and look at your pay grades and I look to the future, I think for
all the services we’re going to figure out in the future, different
ways to promote people – we’re going to need new skills for the
future.
Great emphasis right
now on cultural skills; great emphasis right now on language skills;
understanding different cultures and different parts of the world.
And I think there is going to be more and more of that as we
move forward.
And we are going to
have to look very hard at how we recruit, who we recruit, from where
we recruit, and continue to do that better than we ever have in
order to ensure that we sustain the great military that we have
right now.
So lots of change, and
that brings me to my third topic. And it really
is linked to the second one – and it’s leadership.
Leading in a time of change is extraordinarily challenging
because many of us like the status quo; it’s predictable; all those
kinds of things. But we’re living in a world
where change is the constant, so how you do that – and leadership is
key.
And the reason I always
talk about leadership is I don’t think there is anything that we do
– and I don’t care if you are an E-1 or you are somebody more
senior; and I don’t care if you are in the front, the middle or the
back. Everybody is a leader. And
leaders are individuals who mentor others, who are great example to
others and who look around and take care of their buddies.
So it is the full spectrum and at the core of who we are as a
military.
One of the things we
are doing in Washington right now is we are looking at – as we do
every 4 years – the future through something called the Quadrennial
Defense Review. And we look out about five to 10
years.
And the main emphasis
for me in this review is to make sure we have it right for our
people. And there is a full spectrum of issues
that are associated with that, but that’s the main issue.
It’s not what we buy; it’s not when we buy it; it’s basically
if we get it right for our people, we’re going to be okay no matter
where we go, no matter what we buy.
So getting it right and
making sure we take care of each other. And in
this time, where we, again, have so much experience in our force
that has combat experience, how do we retain that experience for the
future? And I believe if we do that and do it
well, we’ll ensure our military’s in great shape for a long time to
come.
And the opposite is
true: If we don’t do that well, we will in fact
be in a much more difficult situation at a time where, again, things
are changing and the pace will continue for the foreseeable future.
One of the real areas
that we’ve got to lead in right now is because of the stress on the
force, and we look at coming down in Iraq over the next year,
year-and-a-half, and certain force levels in Afghanistan which we
are going to have to sustain.
And looking
particularly on the Army and Marine Corps side – who are the most
stressed forces – that we can get dwell time up to 1-to-2, where
basically you are home twice as long as you are deployed.
And we’re not there yet in either service although we are
starting to move in that direction. But I think
it is going to be a couple of years before we really see that for
the vast majority of our big units.
So the leadership
challenges that are out there are absolutely huge.
And I’d want you thinking about this, really, along two
themes. One is making sure you are taking care of
each other; making sure that you treat everyone just exactly like
you’d like to be treated.
And so on the positive
side, you mentor people. On the positive side,
you figure out how to get those that are working for you promoted so
they have a future. Nobody joined the military so
they could stay at the same pay grade. On the
positive side, it is look for opportunities in education and
training and making sure that you are leading your people well no
matter where you are.
And then focusing on
making sure some of the negatives don’t have an impact and it is my
experience that the vast majority of negatives – and I’ve lived
overseas twice – center on alcohol, and alcohol abuse, and the
problems associated with that, and addressing it and addressing it
in an upfront way.
And it extends to other
negatives that occur from that, whether it’s sexual abuse, or sexual
assault, or you know, treating people, literally, abusing them from
a leadership standpoint – and making sure that that doesn’t occur.
We just cannot tolerate that in our military right now.
And it extends, again,
to alcohol and drugs and off-base activities that, oftentimes, turn
lives that were very special into really tragic, tragic
circumstances. And we can all do better than
that; we need to think about that.
And then the other
theme on leadership – one is taking care of people.
The other theme on leadership, it’s been my experience that
the toughest problems I’ve ever seen get solved by great leaders.
And they come from every pay grade and every corner.
And we’re in a time where we’ve got a lot of serious
challenges.
So who are the leaders?
All of us got here because somebody mentored us; somebody
made a difference on our lives. So all I ask is
you figure out how to make a difference in somebody’s life so they
can develop as well.
So those three quick
thoughts. One is thanks for what you are doing;
thanks to the families who support what you are doing.
Secondly, we live in a time of change and it is going to
continue to change. And third, lead – lead
exceptionally well. It’s an enormously
challenging time. And with that, I’ll open it up
to your questions.
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