The Commander in Chief has landed in Norfolk, VA, Virginia, and the day is about to get rolling. Ambassador Monica Crowley will be giving an address on the Truman, and a couple of Navy SEALs will also join her to give their real life experiences.
00:00:24.080We're about to get rolling on all the activities.
00:00:26.180I think Ambassador Monica Crowley, great friend of the show, will be giving an address, I think, on the Truman here momentarily.
00:00:32.780A couple of Navy SEALs will also join her to give their real-life experiences.
00:00:37.600Let's bring in another Navy SEAL, our own Eric Prince.
00:00:43.180Eric, I asked, you had Lieutenant Jason Redman, one of the real heroes of the Afghan war, was on a moment ago, a Navy SEAL.
00:00:50.820The question I asked him or had Steve Ruber ask, I want to ask you, we're going through naval history today.
00:00:56.180The operations war of 1812, the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI, World War II, all of it.
00:01:05.400The question I've got to ask you is why Afghanistan's a long way from the water, as is Iraq.
00:01:12.480Why were the Navy SEALs so prominent in the great war against terror in those two countries for so many years, sir?
00:01:18.820You know, the great thing about the SEAL teams, as our great president descends the stairway carefully, the great thing about the SEAL teams is they've always been adaptive.
00:01:29.120It started out of necessity when a bunch of Marines got killed in Tarawa, in Basio Atoll, and they started doing UDTs, underwater demolition teams.
00:01:39.840And then in Korea is when they really first started going ashore, blowing up bridges, blowing up key enemy objectives right off the beach.
00:01:48.380And then Vietnam really got them feet dry into the rice paddies, into the Mekong Delta, becoming indispensable, true special operators.
00:02:01.520And, you know, a great compliment to John F. Kennedy for creating an unconventional warfare capability between U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEAL teams
00:02:12.600to give the U.S. that kind of unconventional capability to fight unusual problems.
00:02:18.700The SEAL teams have always, since then, maintained the ability to fight in snow, mountains, desert conditions, to be adaptive.
00:02:30.920And, you know, the word SEAL comes from sea, air, and land, meaning whatever means you've got to move through to get to your objective,
00:02:38.900they're going to figure out how to do it.
00:02:40.260And so it doesn't surprise me that they did so well so far from the sea in a landlocked country like Afghanistan,
00:02:48.360because they're going to adapt to make it happen.
00:02:51.720Now, since then, they've really done a focus on returning to water, a lot more diving, a lot more submarine operations,
00:02:59.400a lot more maritime operations, back to that tradition of one foot on the inbound or the outbound is going to involve water.
00:03:07.100Eric, we have, and by the way, the president just got on the helicopter, so momentarily I think we're going to get things rolling.
00:03:15.920We're going to cut to the live broadcast of this.
00:03:18.860Like I said, the ambassador, Monica Crowley, I think is going to start things off with a talk at about 12, 20, 12, 30, pretty much on schedule as it rolls.
00:03:27.040Eric, we have an amphibious ready group off the coast of Venezuela now with 4,000 fleet marines and sailors and really in the amphib area,
00:03:39.100what would be equivalent of a Navy battle group or strike group around an aircraft carrier.
00:03:45.820Talk to us about that, the capabilities that has.
00:03:48.160And I know you've been very involved in thinking through hemispheric defense, particularly the problems we have in Latin America.
00:03:54.080Is this really going to be against non-state actors?
00:03:57.300Do you think we're revving up to actually go and take airports, ports, and railroad nose in Venezuela, sir?
00:04:05.920Certainly, they think they've taken four shots at drug boats, which are obviously carrying fentanyl or other toxic chemicals on the way to poison America with.
00:04:22.540There's a lot more network to be taken out through Mexico and, of course, coming by sea.
00:04:27.560I think the Trump administration is trying to send a message to Maduro that it is time for him to leave, making him very wary, very aware that they can provide very deep strike precision bombing into whatever bunker or cave complex he is hiding in, that it's time for him to leave.
00:04:48.960I think, you know, 13, 14 months ago, he flat out stole election that he lost by 40, 45 points, and he's maintained himself in power as a true dictator now.
00:05:01.440I think the Trump administration wants him to leave.
00:05:04.300I don't know if they're going to go full kinetic and actually strike targets in Venezuela.
00:05:09.820I think it's very important for the Maduro crowd to remember that nobody that was at the $25 million bounty level is still alive.
00:05:23.360And that now that he's at 50, I hope that the Trump administration, instead of just saying up to 50 million leading to the arrest, for information leading to the arrest of XYZ, they just go old school and say $50 million, dead or alive.
00:05:41.400And then you'll see some tickets getting pulled.
00:05:45.220Is $50 million, is that where it gets the attention that Eric Prince even gets, no, no, it strikes your interest?
00:05:52.740Eric, they went to Capitol Hill the other day to basically brief, I guess, around the War Powers Act to say, we're at a state of war.
00:05:59.840They told guys in Capitol Hill, we're at a state of war with these non-state actors as cartels from northern Mexico all the way down through Latin America.
00:06:08.880How important are naval assets going to be to kind of block?
00:06:11.760You've already seen them take out a couple of these boats, but also in the Pacific because the fentanyl ain't coming up from Venezuela.
00:06:17.340It's still the Chinese Communist Party, a second opium war against us with their partners in the cartels in northern Mexico.
00:06:24.980How lethal could Navy SEALs and Navy assets be in actually going kinetic?
00:06:30.700Because they told Capitol Hill, we're going kinetic in a war against the cartels, sir.
00:06:35.440I think they're right in saying we are at war with them.
00:06:40.600There is hundreds of thousands of Americans killed by fentanyl last year.
00:06:45.960That's far more than what we lost in World War II.
00:06:49.220We lost 250,000 in the European theater and 150,000 in the Pacific theater.
00:06:56.480During World War II, you're losing almost that number every year just from fentanyl.
00:07:01.020So it is right to push back and it is right to go kinetic.
00:07:04.500That's the only, I mean, a two by four between the eyes is all that they're going to understand.
00:07:09.680I know that there was the Mexican cartels reached out quietly looking to make a deal to back away,
00:07:18.700to allow themselves to preserve their life and their, I guess, their existing fortune.
00:07:26.080I don't know where they stand in that negotiation.
00:07:28.540That's not my business, but the fact is-
00:08:02.460Look, the fact is the cartels are, have unbelievable brutality against any of their opponents or against any Mexican citizen or even a Mexican policeman that tries to stand up against them.
00:08:14.600But they've never felt JSOC level energy directed at them.
00:08:19.360And I think they realize just how many of them would get annihilated quickly, whether through precision strikes on the hacienda, precision strikes on any of the factory infrastructure they have.
00:08:30.980And you would stack a lot of Sicarios if they decided to get in a fight with JSOC level expertise.
00:08:38.200Look, the fact is the cartels, they nibble around the edges with some expensive drones or some other expensive capability that they like to show off.
00:08:50.320And if if you decided to get very hard and kinetic against them, you would not to say you wouldn't lose some friendlies, but you would you would you would definitely decimate the cartels.
00:09:01.800And I think they they realize that Trump is serious enough.
00:09:06.160He's a serious enough person that he could deliver that kind of energy on their heads.
00:09:09.540Eric, clearly, the Chinese Communist Party in the PLA, which considers the Caribbean their lake, they're going to watch this intensively today.
00:09:21.220Give us just the idea of the kinds of things that you anticipate we'll see during the the live fire, the naval gunfire and missile and naval air exercise that the commander chief is about to view from the bridge of the USS Bush.
00:09:35.520Well, the super important thing to think about is how do you project power in the Pacific in an era where you have thousands of enemy Chinese missiles that are stacked and you have a lot of cheap precision that they can just throw quantities of stuff at our ships.
00:09:57.520And there is, you know, rolling airframe missiles and SM2 missiles to shoot down incoming threats.
00:10:06.100Hey, Eric, the fact is we've got we've got air.
00:10:08.620We've got the Navy SEAL that's the Navy SEALs about to take the station.
00:10:18.100It's truly an honor to be here for the Navy 250th honoring the greatest naval force the world has ever seen.
00:10:25.500Now, you have to understand there's a lot of history packed into the last 250 years, but make no mistake, the history of the United States Navy from its beginning to today was built on a foundation of choice and sacrifice.
00:10:40.960We chose to raise our hands and swore an oath to the Constitution, a choice to sacrifice our freedom, our earning potential, and even worst case, our very lives to fight against all enemies, foreign and domestic, who presented a threat against the sovereignty and people of the United States of America.
00:11:00.700So it was in the beginning all the way to today.
00:11:05.420In order to understand the full context of what you are a part of, I think it is important to remember our history.
00:11:15.180In 1779, when John Paul Jones captured the Serapis off the coast of England, to the Battle of Lake Erie, the Battle of Manila Bay, the Battle of Midway, to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, from D-Day to the Battle of the Philippine Sea, America's Navy has aided our allies, crushed our enemies, and stood resolute again and again.
00:11:37.280226 years from the day the father of the American Navy engaged the might of the British Empire, on September 11, 1992, while still attending a small high school in Lumberton, North Carolina, a young, skinny runt joined the ranks of the world's greatest Navy.
00:11:57.280Despite his small size, he had big dreams.
00:12:02.980I wanted to join the ranks of the U.S. Navy SEALs, and like all of you here, I chose to sacrifice my future to serve our great nation.
00:12:12.620I would attend ISA school right here in Virginia Beach, and on December 15, 1995, I achieved my dream and Seaman Apprentice Redman graduated from Navy SEAL training, BUDS class, 202.
00:12:26.720Stop making fun of me, all of you who weren't born.
00:12:30.740I would go on to have an amazing career, three deployments to South America.
00:12:35.740I would be shot at for the first time conducting counter-drug operations in Columbia.
00:12:40.320We broke into NASA, and I remember surfacing from a four-hour dive through the mangrove swamps off Cape Canaveral, only to find ourselves surrounded by alligators.
00:12:50.620I won't lie, I had to wash out my wetsuit after that one.
00:12:53.740I became a SEAL training instructor and made it to Petty Officer First Class before I was recommended to earn a commission.
00:13:00.780I would attend Old Dominion University, ROTC, right down the street here.
00:13:05.340I am sure, just like many of you sitting in this audience, while at school, 9-11 happened.
00:13:10.640I remember watching the towers fall, standing next to my best friend and fellow SEAL, Bobby Ramirez.
00:13:16.580We looked at each other and acknowledged, we are going to war.
00:13:20.820Bobby and I would get our commissions together, and over the next decade, I would have the honor to serve alongside some of the legends of the 9-11 generation.
00:13:28.820I mourned as we lost so many teammates on June 28, 2005, when our helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan, and Marcus Luttrell would be the lone survivor.
00:13:39.160I was honored to have served as an ops officer for the Captain Phillips mission.
00:13:43.920I mourned once again at the loss of Extortion 17, and served as one of the operations officers and planners for the memorial of our 22 teammates,
00:13:52.680who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom on that fateful day.
00:13:56.540And like many of you, I watched with tremendous pride when a fellow SEAL officer I had served with was on the ground in Pakistan on a highly classified mission
00:14:06.060and made the radio call back to the White House Situation Room.
00:14:10.180Forgotten country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo, signaling the death of the most wanted man in the world, Osama bin Laden.
00:14:18.740My most impactful mission occurred on September 13, 2007, operating outside of Fallujah, Iraq, in a small rural area known as Al-Karma.
00:14:29.340We were tasked to go after the number one leader for al-Qaeda in the western province, and moving to target, we walked into a very well-executed ambush.
00:14:37.560In the ensuing 40-minute firefight, myself, Luke, and Maddie would be severely wounded.
00:14:42.600Luke was shot by a machine gun below the knee, almost taking off his leg.
00:14:47.400Maddie would run forward under heavy machine gun fire, sustaining three machine gun rounds, before still managing to drag himself and Luke to safety.
00:14:55.340During the firefight, I was hit twice in the arm with at least six more rounds, striking my helmet, shooting off one of my night vision goggles,
00:15:03.060hitting me multiple times in the body armor, and striking my weapon.
00:15:05.880I was unable to keep fighting and directing until another bullet struck me in the face, knocking me out.
00:15:11.600Caught in the open, while the firefight continued to rage over me, I was pinned down, patiently waiting for my teammates to win the fight and bring in the medevac,
00:15:20.200all while my life slowly drained out of me and my world faded to black.
00:15:24.980While unconscious, my team leader, Jay Aliasson, exposed himself to enemy machine gun fire to run forward and get me back to cover,
00:15:31.960put a tourniquet on my shattered arm, and saved my life.
00:15:34.540He then proceeded to call in multiple extreme danger close fire missions by an Air Force AC-130 gunship.
00:15:42.040Those missions would end up being the closest air support missions executed in the entire Iraq war.
00:15:47.160If it was not for my teammates, my team leader, the fourth SOS gunship crew, and the amazing naval doctors, nurses, and corpsmen,
00:15:55.240I would not be here today to tell this story.
00:15:58.060Since that fateful night, I've undergone almost 40 reconstructive surgeries.
00:16:02.700I've had six blood transfusions, a tracheotomy that I wore for seven months and two days.
00:16:08.560I've had 1,500 stitches, 200 staples, five plates, one titanium orgle to floor, 15 screws, eight pins, 20 skin grafts, three bone grafts, one calvarian bone graft.
00:16:19.980I've had my jaw shattered, broken, and rebroken three times.
00:16:24.280I have my jaw wired shut for over 12 weeks, and I lost over 50 pounds.
00:16:28.120I have spent approximately 190 hours in surgery under anesthesia.
00:16:33.200Thankfully, my SEAL teammates continue to remind me that I should be super thankful because, apparently, all the plastic surgery is merely an improvement on how I used to look.
00:16:44.780While in the hospital, struggling with my devastating wounds, disfigurement, and the possibility that my SEAL career was over, I made a choice.
00:16:52.740I could continue to lay there and feel sorry for myself, or I could choose to set the example of so many other amazing warriors that they'd set before me.
00:17:02.260I would author a sign I would place on the hospital door on a bright orange piece of paper that would say,
00:17:07.000Attention to all who enter here, if you're coming in this room with sorrow to feel sorry for my wounds, don't bother.
00:17:14.780The wounds I received, I got in a job that I love, doing it for people I love, defending the freedom of a country I deeply love.
00:18:04.620This final message is to our current sailors.
00:18:07.900All of you are amazing Americans who chose to serve, willing to sacrifice everything so that our fellow Americans can have life, liberty, and pursue happiness.
00:18:18.080And while we all pray for peace, those of us who have been to war pray the most, I also recognize we must prepare for war.
00:18:26.760I applaud the Secretary of War for his renewed focus on lethality and a mindset of war.
00:19:09.060So from John Paul Jones to the bin Laden raid, the U.S. Navy has been instrumental in fighting and leading America's wars.
00:19:15.700All of us here today, we stand on the shoulders of giants.
00:19:20.680And those giants willingly picked up the flame of American freedom and carried it with them all around the world.
00:19:27.680And unfortunately, some of them did not come home.
00:19:31.340The U.S. Navy has laid many warriors upon the altar of freedom.
00:19:35.120Over my military career, I lost too many friends, including my best friend, Commander Bobby Ramirez.
00:19:41.640All of them are now part of the eternal flame of American freedom.
00:19:44.960It is up to all of us to ensure that flame never burns out.
00:19:49.460For 250 years, the torch of American freedom has burned.
00:19:53.380It's been carried by sailors from all walks of life, all races, all colors, and it has been seen all around the world.
00:20:01.240Warriors have carried it with them crossing the beaches of Normandy, on Iwo Jima, Korea, and in the jungles of Vietnam.
00:20:08.060It has been held high in Grenada, Panama, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and across Western Africa.
00:20:13.880When a hero falls and their flame is extinguished, every American's torch back home burns just a little brighter.
00:20:22.300Every American citizen of the United States is entrusted with a small part of this flame.
00:20:27.040Most Americans feed their flame and ensure it burns brightly for all to see.
00:20:30.880Other Americans, they take their freedom for granted, attacking the very ideals that built our nation, and they allow their flames to burn out.
00:20:40.880Thankfully, there are those of us who wear the uniform, who are entrusted with an oath and presented at the start of our naval careers with a part of the flame to keep the torch of American freedom always burning.
00:20:50.50017 years ago, I lay on the battlefield in Iraq, pouring my blood into the soil, and I looked up, and I saw that dark angel standing over me, and he said it was time to go.
00:21:03.400And I thought he was right, but then I realized I wasn't finished.
00:21:07.660I had a torch of American freedom to preserve and forever keep burning.
00:21:11.080So I got up, I walked 75 yards to that medevac helicopter, and I came home.
00:21:16.220And I vowed once again that I would never allow that flame to burn out while I still hold breath.
00:21:22.140Today, I pass my torch of freedom on to all of you.
00:21:26.780You are the future of the United States Navy.
00:28:15.520And in that bond, in that unbreakable trust, we find the strength to overcome any obstacle.
00:28:25.380Our Secretary of War is not trying to make our time in the military harder.
00:28:30.120He's trying to ingrain in each and every service member that discipline in both physical and mental readiness is a lifelong lesson.
00:28:39.240I believe he is not only ensuring that our military is fierce, lethal, and ready today.
00:28:46.880He is looking toward the future to ensure that we all become leaders in our own communities as veterans.
00:28:54.980There is a simple truth that when you hang up that uniform, you become a veteran.
00:29:01.020Only those who have never raised their right hand and taken this oath of service can be called civilians.
00:29:08.220I believe our Secretary of War wants us to take the lessons learned during our service and become examples for generations to follow.
00:29:19.720To become the compass for our youth, examples to aspire to.
00:29:26.160I can tell you from experience, it is not an easy task finding purpose after the military.
00:29:32.880It took me decades to navigate emotions, frustrations, and the constant desire to serve again.
00:29:42.900Ultimately, I found what I call service after service.
00:29:47.900I realized that serving others and making my fellow veterans my focus helped me feel whole.
00:29:54.880It gave me purpose, direction, and a sense of camaraderie.
00:30:01.100I now run a Naval Special Warfare Museum in New York named after Lieutenant Michael Murphy,
00:30:07.480a Navy SEAL who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan,
00:30:12.640and the movie depicted was Lone Survivor.
00:30:15.940Every day I must rise to the level of a Navy SEAL because people are expecting it, and they should.
00:30:24.480Even though I am medically retired, I cannot be an out-of-shape SEAL.
00:30:29.960How can I recite to our visitors that my nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies if I don't look that way?
00:30:39.760How can we expect our future generations to rise to the occasion or hear the calling if we ourselves do not?
00:30:50.720I must be that image of excellence in front of our school field trips or any visitor who is expecting to see the tip of the spear.
00:31:00.140I lean on discipline, learn from years of service, knowing that I still have service to do.
00:31:07.140I still have to be an example for my own children, my neighbors, my community, and my nation.
00:31:16.080You see, our service never stops. It evolves.
00:31:19.980In today's world, resilience is everything.
00:31:23.920The challenges we face are not short-term. They are enduring.
00:31:29.480The missions are longer, the threats are more complex,
00:31:32.860and the demands on our force and our families is heavier.
00:31:38.420Yet the expectations remain unchanged,
00:31:41.660that we will not falter, we will not retreat, and we will never quit.
00:31:48.040As the ethos concludes, the loyalty to my teammates and the mission is sacred.
00:34:00.040And what Hegseth did this last week in calling all the generals, all 800 of them together,
00:34:06.880I wish he had used the opportunity to call a huge number of them on the spot,
00:34:11.880but at least a direct call to accountability and to standards was very, very important
00:34:17.260because we've had a military culture that's gone adrift over the last couple of decades,
00:34:21.540and we need to tighten up the ship because the storm clouds are coming,
00:34:26.860and we must prepare for that because otherwise it could go very, very ugly for us if we don't prepare for the realities of the modern battlefield
00:34:37.560and how cheap and dangerous all these precision weapons are to our survival.
00:34:45.480Eric, how did being a Navy SEAL form you as a man and change you as a person?
00:34:53.060It was, I owe a lot to the SEAL teams in that entire experience
00:34:58.000because it truly taught you to always find a lower gear, to not quit,
00:35:04.080that however miserable, uncomfortable, whatever, there is a way to make it work
00:35:08.440and to survive and to persist and to win.
00:35:12.240And that's an attitude I've tried to provide.
00:35:15.640I've tried to apply to my, certainly to my professional life and personal life as well.
00:36:37.720We'll see helicopters loaded with Navy SEALs and special ops personnel maybe doing some repelling.
00:36:44.640It'll be an exhibition of all of the capabilities that we offer, potentially even including ribboats that are the key cornerstone of our vessel boarding search and seizure capabilities,
00:36:58.420and really just elucidate all the missions that we participate in and let the good people of the Tidewater area get to see this and celebrate it on behalf of our 250th birthday.
00:37:12.280Sonny, Admiral, you know, we've had Navy SEALs.
00:37:32.860So, fundamentally, in our Navy today, we have about 290 battle force ships, which include our 11 aircraft carriers, about 115 to 120 cruisers and destroyers,
00:37:50.740all gas turbine vessels that can stay on station a long time.
00:38:10.000The backbone of the fleet, though, requires them, you know, to be anywhere.
00:38:15.800And each of these cruisers and destroyers, and then, of course, I didn't mention our submarines.
00:38:23.180We've got about 70 submarines, either ballistic missile submarines and or fast attack submarines.
00:38:30.060So, we come in with a very viable force that, you know, we're going to be able to demonstrate, not just today, but we demonstrate every day.
00:38:39.940Look no further than our net effect against Houthi rebels and things of that nature.
00:38:48.900It was well within our swim lane of capabilities.
00:38:51.440But a surface warfare officer in a surface warfare strike group extends power projection, presence of the United States military throughout the world and in any theater where it may be needed.
00:39:07.580Now, we do have concentrations such as the Straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, Taiwan Straits, areas like that where we're always in the vicinity.
00:39:17.760And we're projecting United States national interests in all these locales, not the least of which, really, now, as we're kind of looking toward the Philippine Islands.
00:39:28.560And it's a place that I know you're very familiar with, as am I, since we were there together.
00:39:34.480But the simple point is watching and checking the Spratly Islands and any threats of aggression that might occur.
00:39:41.900But in addition to that, a very important mission is our humanitarian assistance disaster relief roles, where we can come in with medicine and veterinary and public works, power, all of that, never spend the night, never bring a weapon aboard wherever we're needed to go and to serve and help others.
00:40:13.840But, Cleo, Admiral, your theory of the case, studying our Pacific Fleet sailors, your theory of the case that the strategic heartland of the United States is actually the vast Pacific.
00:40:27.380And you talk about the three-island chain and manifest destiny.
00:40:30.460We've been a Pacific power since the late 19th century.
00:40:49.700It needs much more and it needs much more complicated ships and ability to deploy.
00:40:57.040And as you know, it's in it's already a contested environment to get to the first, second and third vertical island chains.
00:41:03.280You need to get across the center of the Pacific from Hawaii all the way to Guam, which again is the United States of America.
00:41:10.120So this idea that you can leave Americans hanging out there like like happened during World War Two, where there are terrible predations by the Japanese on on Americans in Guam because they were just left there means you need to be able to get across the center of the Pacific.
00:41:25.600And that that that takes a lot of gear and it also takes now a lot of digging out of the Chinese who've already embedded with political warfare across the whole center of the Pacific.
00:41:36.220So, yes, first, second and third island chain.
00:41:40.480First, you have to get control over the center of the Pacific.
00:41:42.840And that takes both the equipment and the political will to dig out the Chinese political warfare that's already undermining U.S. power projection in the region.
00:45:54.080And Sonny Masso just laid out the 290 capital ships built around 11, I think, aircraft carriers for carrier strike groups or carrier battle groups.
00:46:05.540It's a traditional way the United States Navy has fought basically since World War II when we won the war in the Pacific against the Imperial Japanese Navy based around not the battleship, but based around the aircraft carrier and naval air.
00:46:19.280However, is that – we're going to have Morgan on here for a second.
00:46:22.540He's talking about drones, but then you've got the Chinese Communist Party and all the weapons they have close in off of the coast of China, which Taiwan's only 90 miles away.
00:46:32.580We talk about fighting our way across the Pacific and trying to have to – Cleo keeps telling us, hey, we're letting the Chinese Communist Party take those islands that the Marines, the Marine Corps fought for and the Navy fought for in World War II.
00:46:45.560But isn't the concept of the carrier battle group the reason that the cost of the Navy is so expensive of capital ships and what we're trying to do?
00:46:56.760Is it a time to rethink fundamentally the basic warfighting capability of the United States and what makes the most sense, particularly since we're pivoting now to hemispheric defense where we need expeditionary strike capability throughout the world, sir?
00:47:10.880Well, Steve, there's an old saying. It's called a bird in the hand as we're two in the bush.
00:47:16.980So before we start cutting away the carriers, we need to make sure that we have something reliable to restore to or to turn to.
00:47:26.520In World War II, we relied – before the Japanese struck us on 7 December 1941, the principal platform of the U.S. Navy was the battleship.
00:47:35.600And after our battleships were sunk, we switched and started focusing on carriers, and that's where we've been, as you said, for the last 80 years.
00:47:43.640The Pacific, as we talked earlier, is 17 times the size of continental United States.
00:47:48.980It takes over almost 12 days steaming at 20 knots for one carrier to just high-speed transit across the center of the Pacific without stopping 24-7, which never happens.
00:48:00.700So it's a big, big ocean, and we need to be able to bring forces to bear to affect – to get the kinds of power projection effects that we want, whether it's to stop an invasion or to stop something else that the Chinese are doing or drug cartels or anything else.
00:48:16.780And we can't do that if we don't have platforms that can sustain combat power over long duration.
00:48:23.640The carrier is still the principal platform.
00:48:26.220Now, I'm biased because I spent 20 years of my – 29 years when I was at sea, those sea duties, on carriers.
00:48:33.140And I know and understand the capabilities of those carriers and the difficulty of an enemy to try to sink a carrier.
00:48:41.460So as I said in the earlier segments, the Navy has had a defensive mindset.
00:48:47.120Our good friend Eric Prince just even highlighted the fact that we have missiles coming at our platforms.
00:48:53.060And so we're constantly wondering about if we're going to take a hit.
00:48:56.980But what I, again, heard President Trump say last week is we have to be able to take a hit and keep fighting.
00:49:03.420And so right now, the carrier is the principal platform that can lash up with new technologies that you'll hear about and strike the enemy at great distance.
00:49:16.060I'm going to go back to Admiral Masso here in a moment, but I've got to ask you.
00:49:19.000You essentially gave up one of the most promising carriers around as a naval intelligence officer because you had the courage to warn the American elite that they weren't building a navy that was –
00:49:31.600that the Chinese Communist Party was stealing a march on us to build a navy that could actually take on and destroy the United States Navy.
00:49:39.480Hasn't their focus been how to take down and close combat off the coast of China and around Taiwan, which we must defend, and the three island chains to destroy carrier –
00:49:49.420I mean, haven't they totally focused on how you destroy carrier battle groups?
00:49:53.320And that makes us even more vulnerable, sir?
00:49:57.060Yes, they call it their counter-intervention strategy in Chinese.
00:49:59.980We call it anti-access area denial or A2AD.
00:50:04.180But make no mistake, what we're seeing this last year with the carriers operating east of Guam towards Hawaii,
00:50:11.960the new unveiling of this Fujian aircraft carrier that is launching fifth-generation J-35 stealth fighters with electromagnetic aircraft launch systems,
00:50:22.300that's not just designed to win the fight inside the first and second island chain.
00:50:27.400That is a navy that is going to have global power projection capabilities.
00:50:32.120They're building new ballistic missile submarines and fast attack submarines that aren't going to just stay in their local waters.
00:51:44.900We need to look at how we're acquiring things.
00:51:47.240We've had several program failures in the last decade and a half with the littoral combat ship, the zone wall cruiser, and now the board class with severe problems.
00:52:39.960You were there, and you went back to the Pentagon during the – when I think we had under 200 ships.
00:52:44.120We came out of the fleet and built up to a 600-ship navy.
00:52:47.140How do you convince Congress and the American people to underwrite that bill, sir?
00:52:52.700Well, I think we have to – it begins with really articulating the threat, the threat of hypersonic missiles,
00:53:01.820the threat of the changing nature of even what we've created in our Missile Defense Agency,
00:53:08.300where we focused intensely on mid-course and terminal phase intercept.
00:53:14.920And I think that the lessons that we're learning today in terms of technological advancements specifically in China centers around
00:53:25.000we're going to have to be better at intelligence and reconnaissance, early warning detections, things of this nature,
00:53:32.800and that maybe it's not a missile intercept, it's a strike, you know, that comes from our aircraft carrier.
00:53:39.260So I'm not one that believes unilaterally that our aircraft carriers are obsolete by a long shot.
00:53:46.840But I do know that we need to refine our tactics, techniques, and procedures.
00:53:53.080We need to have a robust communication strategy with Congress that includes events such as what we're experiencing today,
00:54:00.000where they can see our frontline ships and how they take action in their mission sets.
00:54:07.600But I do believe that, you know, the service that probably does legislative affairs best of all are the Marine Corps.
00:54:15.480And one of the things they do is they make it personal and they take they take that story and they just drill home on it over and over again.
00:54:24.480I'm very fond of our legislative leadership that we have in place right now.
00:54:30.080But with that said, we need to have a more complete relationship with those who are in, you know,
00:54:38.840in the House National Security Committees or Senate Armed Services and really tell those stories.
00:54:45.480You know, we've waited for this day, Admiral Masso, for a long time, for the president to actually be out there.
00:54:52.460And I know he's so enthusiastic, like I said, I think he's watched Victory at Sea a hundred times.
00:54:58.020We're going to take a short commercial break.
00:54:59.920Captain Paul Morgan is going to join us, naval aviator.
00:55:02.820But we're going to talk about the changing nature of naval warfare, particularly the drones and what the drones mean in far as our thinking about the coming fight in 2027 or beyond with the Chinese, with the People's Liberation Navy.
00:56:35.660We're going to cut to all of it as soon as we get some action at either.
00:56:38.240Jack Posobiec is out with the president of the United States.
00:56:40.540And Gruber's anchoring at the Truman, and Monica, our own colleague, Ambassador Monica Crowley, should be addressing us shortly, kind of lay out the day.
00:57:03.320We talk about this huge investment that we potentially need to defend the Pacific, particularly against the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan.
00:57:11.180We talk about hemispheric defense and how much that means and how critical the Navy is to that.
00:57:17.400Is drone warfare and the advances in drone warfare, which has made such a massive difference on the land battle, as we see in Ukraine, is that going to radically change naval warfare, sir?
00:57:34.440I spent a lot of time as a program manager for all Navy and Marine Corps UAE.
00:57:39.040We did a lot of work with the shipboard integration of ScanEagle, which was a new capability that, frankly, got us back into the fight from a naval perspective.
00:57:49.560It started very simply, and then we grew into a fully integrated ScanEagle system in the small surface warfare combatants, which I always cruised on.
00:58:42.300So, for instance, the jamming world is where we got started.
00:58:46.260We were very concerned about F-18Gs, the inability for them to get close enough to jam without putting just a boatload of energy in the air.
00:58:56.420So we came up with an expendable UAV when I was the program manager, and we called it whisper rather than shout.
00:59:19.800It's the power of endurance, and it's the power of communications at long distances.
00:59:23.860By the way, like I said, we're going to cut to the naval exercise as soon as it happens.
00:59:29.740It should be shortly also back on the main stage.
00:59:33.480Captain Morgan, I think people have been surprised, at least, you know, civilians have been surprised about the lethality and reach of drones when you talk about the war in Ukraine.
00:59:43.340Now you've got the Russians and the Ukrainians pounding each other every night, principally with drones.
00:59:48.600You've had this incredible strike by the Ukrainians now, was it coordinated with American intelligence, probably out of Wiesbaden.
00:59:55.680But they went in, I think, 2,000 miles into Russia.
01:00:00.120They took out part, at least half of the third leg of the nuclear triad, the strategic bomber, something Curtis LeMay couldn't even think about.
01:00:08.480Is the Army or what's happening on ground, particularly in Ukraine, is the Navy, the Navy SEALs and the Marine Corps, are we a little behind the power curve, or are we thinking about this in an advanced state for naval warfare and prepared to do the acquisitions you need to actually make this happen?
01:00:30.520The Navy was behind when I was a program manager.
01:00:50.920The Army actually gave me a shadow battalion to deploy, and I paid them back two years later.
01:00:56.880And that's the spirit of the cooperation that we had with the Army.
01:00:59.940The key for us in the ability and what they've shown in the Ukrainian theater over land is swarming, and we call it the tyranny, not only of distance, but the tyranny of nearness.
01:01:14.200So, you know, swarming at distance is very difficult, right?
01:01:18.320The endurance of the smalls and the endurance of swarms.
01:01:21.540You're swarming your next-door neighbors.
01:01:26.840You're able to take these cheap, very effective UAVs, tremendously effective, take advantage of all the power of computing, all the power of camera size.
01:02:03.600They're interested because we call it digital crack.
01:02:06.300Once you get it, once you see it, and once you're able to inculcate that in your everyday life, it's a pattern of life that you can rely on and that you can go back and look at.
01:02:18.760And that's the power that the Marine Corps and the Navy is looking at.
01:02:22.080So, for instance, real quickly, when I did the escorts of the Reef Lake Kuwaiti tankers, if I'd have had a UAV attached to the back of the ship at 400 feet, my visual horizon went from 11 miles to 40.
01:02:34.460That's a significant delta in response time for small boats, for decoys, for any number of different things.
01:02:45.600That's the power of the UAV, is the persistence, the endurance, and the ability to coordinate with manned airplanes.
01:02:53.760Captain Fennell, your naval intelligence.
01:02:58.500Is this changing the nature of particularly surface warfare as we think about the Chinese Communist Party, who actually also are some of the world's experts in drone and drone warfare, sir?
01:03:09.960Oh, there's no question about it, that we have to look at this technology and see how to marinize it, to get it at sea.
01:03:19.200I was in the Pentagon in 2010, my one year in the Pentagon, and I worked in the program office that dealt with UAVs, ScanEagle, and other platforms like that, the new UCAB that we have.
01:03:31.280So we've been, I think he's right, we've been behind, we need to go faster, there's going to be some kind of issue with the distances, the distances across the Pacific.
01:03:44.220You're not going to be able to fly some of these small wire-guided drones, you know, from a destroyer or a small ship 2,000 miles away from China and be able to be effective.
01:03:56.960So we've got to find ways to get these platforms in close and get them integrated into what we call distributed maritime operations network, so that we can network all of our platforms, manned and unmanned.
01:04:08.940So it is here to stay. The question is, how is it going to be applicable to naval warfare?
01:04:15.000And I'll just say, in my experience, watching the Pentagon and the intelligence community transition from fighting war at land in Afghanistan and Iraq and applying that to the naval maritime domain, it's not just a simple cut and paste.
01:04:33.460It has to be completely rethought. There's different atmospherics, there's different, you know, sensitivities to salt and seawater and duration at sea and repair and all of that kind of stuff that has to be looked at.
01:04:47.600And I know folks like Captain Morgan are all about that. So we've got people looking at it, we just need to accelerate.
01:04:53.000It needs to be part of this restoration of this make America's Navy great again.
01:04:58.240We need to restore and do what we did in 1940 to focus on building our Navy.
01:05:04.080And it's not going to be the Navy of 1940 where we just pumped out, you know, destroyers and jeep carriers and carriers.
01:05:10.600It's going to be the new Navy of the 21st century, but we have to make it a national priority.
01:05:16.020I think that's the message that I want to get across.
01:05:18.560I'm going to give Admiral Masson a second, but I want to continue that.
01:05:23.800There were visionaries before Pearl Harbor.
01:05:26.400They knew it was a gunfight coming, right?
01:05:28.400I mean, the leaders of our country, they started preparing an army.
01:05:31.100They started getting ready to an army for a fight of war in Europe.
01:05:34.100But particularly, there was a big fight inside the Navy because it was still you still had an aspect that was battle battleship centric.
01:05:40.900But you had some visionaries that said, hey, when we fight the Japanese across the vast Pacific, we're going to need the aircraft carriers.
01:05:48.400What happened this kind of late 1930s, 1940 before Pearl Harbor?
01:05:53.400Yeah, there was a great understanding amongst many in Washington and folks in the fleet that the Imperial Japanese Navy and the striking fleet, the Kido Butai, were a serious, very serious threat and that they were growing dangerous and that there was going to be a conflict.
01:06:11.920And so one of the senators in the Congress, Senator Carl Vinson, put together a bill called the Two Ocean Navy Act in 38, 39.
01:06:25.420And it was that work that was done in 1940 that allowed us to start winning and seeing the production of that industrial might roll off the lines in 43, in the summer of 43, that allowed us to win the war in the Pacific.
01:06:41.020If that bill had not been passed in 1940, we'd just scrape by in the Battle of Midway.
01:06:49.100It was a turning point, but it was only a turning point in respect that we had something coming off the line in a new fleet.
01:06:56.500We need that same kind of a focus today because the Chinese, not just our Navy, but the Chinese Communist Party's agenda is to destroy the United States of America.
01:07:07.020They prefer to do it non-kinetically, but they have built a kinetic capability and they will use it if given the opportunity.
01:07:14.020Okay, right there you see the President, the Commander-in-Chief is now landing on the USS Bush.
01:07:27.960We thank you today for joining us aboard the H. George H. W. Bush Freedom at Work, the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 12.
01:07:46.000We also thank our sailors on Pier 14 next to the Harry S. Truman and the USS Gearsarge.
01:07:52.580We are grateful to have you here today to witness not only the size and scope of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier,
01:07:58.700but to showcase how the men and women of the Team Avenger bring 100,000 tons of American steel to life.
01:08:05.240Our sailors are trained and ready to fight with the right skills, equipment, and warrior ethos to protect the American interest around the globe.
01:08:13.220The platform's team and the events experienced today will encompass the full power and might of the United States Navy.
01:08:20.540You will see fast-attack submarines, live fires from eight Arleigh Burke class-guided missile destroyers,
01:08:26.260Navy SEALs fast-roping from a helicopter to a destroyer,
01:08:29.060and finally an air-powered demonstration featuring a full complement of the Carrier Air Wing showing the unmatched power of U.S. naval aviation.
01:08:37.540Now, be prepared to be amazed as our Navy demonstrates the impressive capabilities of the most powerful naval force the world has ever seen.
01:08:46.540The helicopter bringing President Trump out.
01:09:09.480Captain Morgan, you're very familiar with helicopters in the Navy, sir?
01:10:23.660It's got to be an important cornerstone of our investment strategies for not the future in 20 years, but for the future in 18 months.
01:10:34.180I couldn't agree more with both the captains who spoke earlier.
01:10:40.020It's got to be done quickly, methodically.
01:10:45.640We've got to integrate the tactical picture in a kind of a common tactical operation picture where we're getting the best intelligence that we can get so we can make decisions.
01:10:58.000And then also we need to focus on what an offensive capability of a drone needs to look like given the threats that we're addressing.
01:11:10.020You're going to see today the President's been looking forward to this.
01:11:12.780Like I said, I think this is his Teddy Roosevelt moment.
01:11:18.980And Admiral Masso is absolutely correct.
01:11:20.620I think you're going to see a lot of explosions and a lot of gunfire because at the end of the day, power projection is about exactly that.
01:11:28.040It's about the Navy's ability to put aircraft across the deck coming from carrier strike groups and also having the surface warfare that can then pound the enemy.
01:11:37.560People ought to keep in mind we have an amphibious ready group, 4,000 fleet marines, and sailors off the coast of Venezuela even as we speak.
01:12:18.500We're going to turn back to the commentator.
01:12:20.120This submarine is built for longevity, stealth, and high performance.
01:12:24.180Iowa's advanced technology allows for near silent movement through the world's oceans.
01:12:28.100Its sensitive sonar can attack and track enemy submarines and warships from extended distances.
01:12:32.480With a length of 377 feet and 6,800 tons and a speed of 25 knots, the Iowa represents the greatest America's silent fleet.
01:12:40.680The Iowa's crew is comprised of 15 officers and 117 enlisted sailors, all highly trained and selected from the nation's most competitive candidates.
01:12:49.040The Iowa's armament consists of four torpedo tubes and two Virginia payload tubes, each capable of holding six vertical launch tomahawk missiles that can strike over 1,200 miles away.
01:12:58.760Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the USS Iowa and the United States Navy's silent service.
01:13:14.560Sonny, give us a perspective of our fast attack and ballistic missile submarines.
01:13:19.340Well, we're, of course, investing heavily in the Columbia class.
01:13:26.540We have kind of completed construction on a vast array of ships.
01:13:32.320We had the Seawolf class, which had three ships in that class, Connecticut, Seawolf, and Jimmy Carter.
01:13:37.800They have a very robust shipboard combat system, including a wide aperture array, and there is no more powerful anti-submarine capability than what comes from a submarine.
01:13:53.180The activities that we have in Guam, which is another area that you and I operated in together, is powerful in the Taiwan Straits, and they're finding, you know, the capabilities that they have with respect.
01:14:11.720Back to the narrowing missile destroyers, sailing in formation, the USS Faragut, the USS Donald Cook, the USS Mason, the USS Delbert D. Black, the USS Ross, USS Cole, USS Neitz, USS Gonzalez, and USS Carney.
01:14:25.940Each of these powerful warships is manned by 320 of America's finest sailors, highly trained, battle-ready warfighters, who embody the skill, spirit, and dedication to make the United States Navy the greatest naval force in history.
01:14:37.980Their seamless teamwork and unwavering commitment, delivering precision firepower upon our nation's enemies from the surface of the sea.
01:14:46.120Aboard the aircraft carrier, the commander of Destroyer Squadron 2-2 operates as the sea combatant commander for the George H. W. Bush Carrier Strike Group.
01:14:55.000The Deseron commander is responsible for directing each of the destroyers under his command to successfully engage in anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare.
01:15:07.980The Deseron-23, the little beavers, the very famous destroyer squadron from World War II.
01:15:26.460The destroyer squadron works underneath the carrier battle group to make sure they get protection for the carrier, sir?
01:15:32.960The Deseron-23 staff, of which we're both familiar with from those days long ago, will reside on the aircraft carrier, and they will fight the Deserons that support the strike group from the carrier.
01:15:52.980And, again, as the narrator said, it's not just anti-submarine warfare, but it's anti-surface warfare, and it's tracking intel and reconnaissance and everything that goes with the warfighting calculus.
01:16:07.980Also, Captain Fennell, the fast-attack submarines, they are absolutely essential to what we talk about the protection of the destroyers, not just the surface Navy and our ASW capability, anti-submarine warfare capability.
01:16:28.100Fast-attack submarines and direct support of the carrier battle group are also essential, particularly given developments in the Chinese Navy, sir?
01:16:38.760And our fast-attack friends have been focused on kind of more independent operations, but when we get back to the kind of confrontation that we had with the Soviet Navy,
01:16:54.320now that we will face from a Chinese Navy that's building submarines at a rapid pace and has been building them,
01:17:01.500we need to make sure that we have our hunter-killer submarines protecting our high-value assets.
01:17:07.200So that gets into the, you know, we talk about the missiles coming in from up above.
01:17:12.260We also have to protect from the undersea, and the Chinese have nuclear power, fast-attack.
01:17:18.080...failings close-in weapon system, also known as CWIS.
01:17:21.860The Failings weapon system provides U.S. Navy ships with an interlayer point defense capability against anti-missiles, low-frying aircraft, UAVs, and high-speed surface craft.
01:17:31.360The Failings weapon system is the only deployed close-in weapon system capable of autonomously performing its own search, detect, evaluation, track, engage, and kill assessment functions.
01:17:42.820This is the ship's last line of defense, providing a fast reaction, radar-guided, 20-millimeter gun,
01:17:48.380weapon system that is capable of firing at a rate of 4,500 rounds per minute.
01:17:52.420Yeah, right there, the President's being shown the Admiral Masson.
01:48:35.340I want to thank the navy for providing us this feed I think we're the only I think we're the only channel that has it really want to thank people for doing this
01:49:03.340we've got postal out there extraordinary naval exercise right now
01:49:16.340the pilot is now executing a wave off from the carrier indicating a foul deck
01:49:20.340a foul deck means that there is an obstruction in the landing area and for the safety of those on the deck and the aircraft coming into land the approach has been aborted
01:49:27.340the airborne refueling aircraft has been sent to hawk our low fuel aircraft in the pattern during their attempt to land since they were unable to come aboard they are on low fuel and it is up to the tanker aircraft to expeditiously join and refuel the aircraft to give it another chance to land
01:49:42.340if you follow the path of the low fuel aircraft on the port side of the ship you will see the tanker setting up a position to set up for air to air refueling
01:49:55.340now it is up to the pilot with the low fuel aircraft to steal his nerves and execute a precise and controlled connection
01:50:02.340inserting the refueling poke into the drogue basket of the tanker aircraft and flying a perfect formation to hold in basket and to receive enough fuel for another chance to land
01:50:12.340organic tanking has made it possible by the f-18 and has made navy's operations in hostile theaters without divert airfields possible for the last two air two decades
01:50:21.340this ensuring safe aircraft recovery and extends the operational range of the f-18 for long range strikes
01:55:08.340maintained atop the fuselage you can see a large rotating dish
01:55:11.340this is a powerful apy-9 radar that allows the e2d to maintain situational awareness to the battle space
01:55:17.340it plays a critical role in ensuring the carrier strike group defenses
01:55:36.340during large-scale engagements it is up to the e2d that is providing crucial intelligence and direction to the aircraft engaged in the prosecution of threats and aircraft and surface vessels
01:55:49.340but as beer it becomes be more monthly
01:55:52.340as well i know i would make sure that it has already taken some ROAD to beside each other
02:02:58.120Using the digital rocket launcher, this platform can fire precise rockets at about five and five thousand meters.
02:03:06.120Here we see the Sierra make three total approaches off a notional target off our port side, first employing their unguided rocket payload before circling around the ship at the end of the run.
02:03:15.120And now returning over the right shoulder, we'll see a combination of 20 millimeter machine guns, unguided rockets, and lastly, they will depart to the north prior to returning to suppress the area with
02:03:24.100crew surveying weaponry with .50 caliber machine guns to ensure target destruction.
02:03:54.100Paul, the utility of those helicopters is pretty extraordinary.
02:04:30.100So training and how we get people through the pipeline is completely different than what used to be, where we all had stowpipe helicopters and training.
02:04:41.100The Sierra is more of the tactical assertion and extraction.
02:04:46.100The Romeo now is the ASW bird, anti-submarine bird, but they both have guns and missiles now.
02:04:53.100And they're also NVG compatible, which they weren't for decades, unfortunately.
02:05:36.100What you are about to witness is highlights the mobility, versatility, and power of the most lethal carrier-based strike fighter aircraft in the world, the F-18 Super Hornet, nicknamed the Rhino.
02:57:26.000Hey, shout out to Rob Sig and the complete RAB team for making this possible and getting all those camera angles, all that opportunity, all that firepower on display for everybody.
03:20:46.660and i think we corrected your we got your microphone working any any thoughts on this as you watch the commander-in-chief i think has arrived
03:21:14.660at the truman about to address the atlantic fleet sailors
03:21:20.660well i i think that these sailors are hungry for the type of leadership that he's been providing
03:21:27.660and i know that there's an air of excitement and pride and and we you know they love the navy and and there's no better way to celebrate a birthday
03:21:37.660than you know with the commander-in-chief uh sharing it with them
03:21:43.660so i know that they're uh they're probably uh hyper uh excited about this
03:21:49.660and i know that he will uh not disappoint
03:22:09.660and it really reflects what the remarks of the secretary of war expressed last week to the generals and admirals
03:22:15.660and uh and basically the recruiting was uh you know we didn't we didn't have a substantial mission
03:22:21.660uh you know there was no active war in iraq or in afghanistan and so a lot of people kind of lost interest in it
03:22:27.660but um you know more specifically uh in the absence of recruiting we had to compromise some of the standards
03:22:39.660that were elucidated by the secretary of war as being unacceptable fat sailors you know this type of thing
03:22:47.660and it used to be that if you failed two fitness tests then you were sent sent home
03:22:53.660and uh and and what we changed that to be is because we couldn't afford to lose some of these sailors
03:22:59.660because there's nobody in the pipeline replacing them we uh we we didn't send them home we just uh wouldn't promote them
03:23:07.660uh so uh so he this this was a big departure and uh you know i think a a lot of people will clamor for this to be uh implemented immediately if not sooner
03:23:18.660because uh it was compromising you know combat readiness
03:23:23.660and and so uh and now recruiting is better uh for the first time in a number of years we're able to make our numbers
03:23:31.660and not do it with fancy nascar programs and all these kind of things people are here serving for all the reasons they always serve
03:23:39.660to learn a trade to serve their country to make themselves better to see the world
03:23:45.660and uh and i think we're backed in business with that um that that way forward
03:23:55.660okay let's go let's let's pull in on the navy band uh here we come right here i think it's doug collins
03:30:17.660so help is on the way for the high operating tempo you've been living through
03:30:22.660to our marines standing in the line with us your grit and discipline give us a fighting force no adversary can match war fighters you are the backbone of this
03:30:27.660maritime strength keeping our nation safe and secure and prosperous you prove every day freedom isn't free
03:30:46.660president trump thanks you secretary hegg says thanks you i thank you and your country thanks you we appreciate the sacrifice you and your
03:30:56.660families make and we value your unwavering commitment to the mission
03:31:01.660sea power is a family business your sacrifices are not unnoticed and they are deeply appreciated
03:31:08.660they may wear the uniform but you share the honor and we share the pride
03:31:14.660god bless you god bless our navy and marine corps and god bless the united states of america
04:00:13.540And I don't know, would you ever want to, you know, we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything in between, we won everything before.
04:00:25.880And all of a sudden they decide to change the name.
04:00:27.880They went woke then, too, you know, woke is a long term word.
04:00:31.880I said, what do you think about changing it to the Department of War?
04:05:19.220From the American Revolution until today, the story of the U.S. Navy is a tale of loyalty, sacrifice, and commitment stretching back 250 years.
04:06:24.220And then June 14th, next year, we're going to have a big UFC fight at the White House, right at the White House, on the grounds of the White House.
04:06:36.220When the Continental Congress formed a fleet of just two ships in October 1775, many scoffed at their chances against the most powerful empire on Earth.
04:06:51.220That was the most powerful ever, relatively speaking.
04:07:05.220The war for independence gave us some of the greatest American heroes of all time, including the father of the U.S. Navy Captain John Paul Jones.
04:08:37.220Everyone said, where does this guy come from?
04:08:40.220And we're all descendants when you think of it.
04:08:43.220Commodore Sinclair went on to become the commanding officer here at the Naval Station Norfolk, right here, where he founded a nautical school for officers that eventually became the one and only U.S. Naval Academy.
04:08:58.220And I'm going to be at your Army-Navy game this year.
04:13:42.220They couldn't stop him and went on to serve in the Pacific under the great Admiral Nimitz.
04:13:49.220In February 1945, he spent his 21st birthday landing Marines on the blood-soaked sands of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest, toughest battles ever.
04:14:02.220Six months later, he was aboard the USS Talladega in Tokyo Bay.
04:14:07.220When Japan surrendered, they said, I don't think we want Felix hitting us anymore.
04:14:12.220And he retired as a chief petty officer in 1966.
04:14:16.220This year, Felix celebrated his 100th birthday, and he is here this afternoon as a living testament to the glory of the United States Navy.
04:15:05.220In Korea, American sailors and Marines carried out the daring landing in Incheon and flew more than a quarter of a million combat sortes against the enemy.
04:16:50.220And it was the U.S. Navy that dumped his wretched corpse off the decks of the Carl Vinson to sink into the dark abyss.
04:16:58.220The Navy's central role in the defense of our liberty continues to this day.
04:17:03.220Just a few months ago, the Ohio-class guided missile submarine played an indispensable part in one of the most spectacular military feats the world has ever seen.
04:17:13.220The obliteration of Iran's nuclear sites in Operation Midnight Hammer.
04:19:42.700But we're stopping drugs coming into America, if that's okay.
04:19:46.700We're stopping drugs at a level that nobody's ever seen before.
04:19:50.280Last year, we lost, I believe, 300,000 people.
04:19:55.580And that's not talking about the destruction to families.
04:19:58.240Every one of us knows families that have been destroyed because the son, daughter, even mothers and fathers are destroyed by the fentanyl pouring in and drugs pouring in.
04:20:07.980Well, they're not coming in by sea anymore.
04:20:10.160So now we'll have to start looking about the land because they'll be forced to go by land.
04:20:14.840And let me tell you right now, that's not going to work out well for them either.
04:20:17.680And it was the Truman Carrier Strike Group that unleashed American fury on the Houthi terrorists in the Red Sea.
04:27:53.160I was watching the other night a report, and they said very routinely, in the Gulf of America, this is, you know, they just went on to talk about it.
04:28:02.080They didn't do it with a smirk or a smile.
04:28:04.060They didn't say, in the Gulf of America.
04:28:06.140No, it's called the Gulf of America now, and nobody's playing games with it.
04:28:10.600We got sued by the Associated Press, and they lost.
04:28:15.360In fact, the judge was so good, he said he's calling it the Gulf of America.
04:43:52.680I was watching the show earlier when he was out on the aircraft carrier, and they were doing the live fire demonstration with the Sea Whiz and the Navy SEALs fast rope in there.
04:44:04.900And like Trump said, the naval recruiting in 2025 is the highest ever.
04:44:10.520And that's because of Trump and that's because of Hegseth getting all the woke stuff out of the military and turning it back into a lethal fighting force, as it should be, and using the naval power to restore the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and defeating the Hooties.
04:44:32.060And the Navy is going to flourish again.
04:44:35.040It's going to turn back into a fighting force.
04:44:37.960And their job is to maintain freedom of navigation across the world, to keep the shipping lanes open.
04:44:43.400For recruiting, it's very, you know, for recruiting for the Navy SEALs, it's always tough to get the right people.
04:44:52.000I know a lot of people want to be Navy SEALs, but it's so tough psychologically and physically.
04:44:56.520And I tell people the psychological toughness of you guys is unbelievable.
04:45:01.360What do you think this meant today to our broader audience, particularly of young Americans, about the potential for volunteering for the Navy?
04:45:10.680I think young people are going to be fired up.
04:45:13.400I think, well, we already see they're already fired up.
04:45:16.100The recruiting is the highest it's ever been for the Navy.
04:45:19.060And I think that goes across armed forces.
04:45:22.480But everything Trump and the military is doing right now, it builds enthusiasm.
04:47:45.740And I'm just looking forward to seeing our Navy grow and for us to become the Navy that we have always been, which is to ensure that every seafaring nation has freedom of navigation, free access to the oceans, and that we defend America both from the land and the sea.
04:48:03.500This has been a great day, and it's been an honor to be here.
04:48:09.220Where do people get – you've got another great piece about the Navy we're going to have you on this week to talk about that and the challenge of the Chinese Communist Party, warfighting capability.
04:48:19.480Where do people – what's the title of your piece, and where do people go to get it?
04:48:22.400Yeah, the title of the piece is Victory at Sea, the importance of the maritime power against the PRC, and it's an American greatness.
04:48:34.580I write for American greatness just every few weeks or so when something gets my attention.
04:48:39.140And this speech today and what the president said last week in Quantico about victory at sea, this is what this is about, getting back to be able to fight and win wars at sea.
04:48:52.560If we can do that, all the other stuff of humanitarian assistance and showing the flag and helping other people and coalitions and all that will come.
04:49:02.800But if we cannot defeat any other nation, Navy at sea, then we have failed, and that's what we're headed back to.
04:49:10.140And I'm so glad that President Trump spoke about that and that we have a new spirit of warfighting and naval warfighting that's coming back to our nation.
04:49:19.320And as they said, I think the admiral said and others, I'm ready to sign back up if they'll take me.
04:50:23.160But look, I thought today was fantastic, the opportunity to celebrate the Navy, the history of the Navy, seeing those sailors down there on the pier get fired up.
04:50:42.340I mean, you can sit around forever and do what you're told, but having that sense of duty and purpose is critical.
04:50:46.780And what President Trump reminded folks again today was that sense of purpose.
04:50:51.500And he also made it very clear in a sort of a funny way that, look, I'm going to go out there and be the president of peace.
04:50:57.260I'm on the cusp and on the precipice of solving eight big wars.
04:51:00.980But that means that you don't have to fight, that you can continue to train and be ready.
04:51:06.300But we're going to make sure that we bring peace around the world so that we don't have to use you unless we have to.
04:51:10.580Captain, can you hang on for a second?
04:51:15.220I'm going to come back to you because I want to ask you some differences between the first and second term.
04:51:19.000I think we're seeing a much more determined President Trump.
04:51:21.440There will not be held down by the voices of just conventional, of how to think about things conventionally.
04:51:28.420I want to go, Cleo Pascal, I want to thank you for spending the entire day doing this.
04:51:35.680Your whole theory of the case about the Central Pacific being the strategic pivot, the counter to McKinder's heartland theory, I think is brilliant.
04:51:45.220We're going to spend a lot more time developing that over the days and weeks ahead.
04:53:23.660Admiral Masso, you're an expert in naval warfare, surface warfare.
04:53:28.120You know everything about the, and have worked in the process of getting these great weapon systems and all that.
04:53:33.620But you really specialize in motivating young men and women.
04:53:36.420Put in perspective what we saw today, sir.
04:53:38.340Well, I think that what we saw today is that the 250-year amazing journey of our Navy is completely parallel with our nation and its 250-year journey.
04:53:51.360Everything our nation has acquired and done has really been enabled in a very large way by our Navy.
04:54:00.000I think today what we showed our allies and enemies and our own internal sailors in the family is that we are vital, that the president has stepped up and has amazingly supported us.
04:54:15.580Our future is bright, and there is no better friend nor worse adversary, potentially, than our own Navy.
04:56:31.360I've been going down this, and I'll have more to announce because I actually have a project that I'm working on this to really talk about the difference in all of the areas between Trump 1.0 and 2.0.
04:56:40.680And I think the difference in 2.0, whether it's NATO and one of your previous guests mentioned that, tariffs or the military in particular, think about what he has tasked Secretary of the Navy John Phelan with, shipbuilding.
04:56:53.200So the first time when he came into office, Steve, you know that there's a lot of us getting to know each other, the president getting to know us, the president trying to understand what his agenda was and how to get it through.
04:57:01.720So he knew what he wanted, but he didn't necessarily understand the process, and frankly, I don't know if we all did.
04:57:06.420He came into the second term very clear about what he wanted to do with the time that he had in the second term.
04:57:12.260So you look at Tom Holman, the precision in which he's carrying out these immigration raids to make sure our country is safer and stronger.
04:57:19.160But he also is doing that in the military.
04:57:21.180Anytime you listen to the Secretary of the Navy, John Phelan, he's very, very laser focused on shipbuilding.
04:57:25.720He understands the task at hand, the threats that we face in the future, and he's not wasting any time putting plans in PowerPoint presentations and taking meetings.
04:57:34.780It's like he's got his marching orders out there, which is this is what we need to do to take on threats in the future.
04:57:40.300I want you to stay laser focused on that.
04:57:41.840I want you to implement it to get it done.
04:57:43.800And I think Secretary Phelan has done a phenomenal job of literally taking those orders from the top and executing them, making sure that everyone understands what the focus is.
04:57:53.040And that's what I think the real difference is right now is that President Trump isn't waiting around.
04:57:58.060He understands that the threat is real.
04:58:03.440And you look at – I know a lot of people who haven't served didn't appreciate, I don't think, the message that Secretary Hanks gave the other day.
04:58:14.340This idea of an ethos isn't just about how many pushups you can do or how long you can plank for.
04:58:21.000If you wake up every day thinking I'm going to be ready to fight, I'm going to be ready to defend this country, it kind of permeates everything that you do.
04:58:28.240Whether you're sitting there working in a program that's desk-based or deck-based out on a ship, you understand that there's a purpose to what you do and a readiness to yourself and to your team that's critical.
04:58:42.360And what Hegseth did the other day was to reset that mentality and say, we're not here to hug each other, to all get along.
04:58:50.120And there is a complete and utter sort of unity of purpose that stems from the top with President Trump, goes down to Secretary Hegseth, goes down into the Navy to Secretary Thielen and the CNO and everyone else.
04:59:05.720So I feel like the sense of unity, purpose, mission is so much greater this time because President Trump has picked a team and made it clear what those policies are and then said, go do it.
05:00:57.760They broke the Guinness Book of World Record number of push-ups.
05:01:00.700And I was a few minutes late for the game, Steve.
05:01:03.040And I got to tell you, at first, I was a little concerned that I was running behind, but we had some traffic on Route 50 getting out there.
05:01:09.100And then when I realized what they were doing, I was like, thank goodness.
05:01:55.540I know you had to travel rapidly to get where you could get up on the show.
05:02:01.580You've got a great insight to President Trump and particularly how he works in this, thinking about national security.
05:02:07.660Since you were on the National Security Council for President Trump and worked closely with him for a couple of years,
05:02:12.700this week is going to be the announcement of the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Peace.
05:02:19.140There's already a great piece of, I think it's in Newsweek about how, and maybe Daily Mail also, about how it's kind of stacked against him with the Norwegians.
05:02:26.760But closing thoughts on today and particularly President Trump and his leadership style we're seeing right now in his second term.
05:02:34.200Well, first of all, I was one of the Navy's finest helicopter pilots, and the best pilot I ever flew with was a young guy named Chris Bannon.
05:04:38.860We've got some tough decisions to make because of the defense budget.
05:04:41.900Over a trillion dollars, you're going to have to make some tough decisions.
05:04:44.440Look, I'm all for, I think it's the strategic logic of whether it's hemispheric defense.
05:04:49.960And or, as I say, you've got to be more confrontational with the Chinese Communist Party.
05:04:55.320And I realize the new defense we're going to talk about this week, I think the new defense strategy a little bit downplays the issue between the Chinese Communist Party and the United States.
05:05:05.480Maybe talks about China as a regional power.
05:05:15.200They want to push us out of the three-island chain.
05:05:17.100They want to push us back across the Pacific, and they also want to have a dominance in South Asia, particularly around the Indo-Pacific.
05:05:23.840But we'll get into that more this week.
05:05:26.140Admiral Hall, where do people go on social media to track you down and your thinking?
05:05:31.580Well, Apple Podcasts, you can look for Navigating Life with Rear Admiral Gary Hall.
05:05:37.960You can go to Amazon, buy my book, Navigating Leadership, Making a Pact with Excellence.
05:05:42.740And on Substack, I'm the Navigating Admiral.
05:05:48.440And most of my podcasting is with, I've just did an episode with Sonny Masso where we talked about 9-11, the Pentagon, and how our faith helped us through all that.
05:05:57.920So, again, Navigating Leadership, Making a Pact with Excellence, a great book for all young leaders and old leaders, which will tell my faith journey, my Navy journey, and my leadership journey.
05:06:10.360So, again, the best co-pilot I've ever had, named Chris Bannon, all-signed race.
05:07:01.040I just wanted to spend a minute about – before we leave this – about the importance.
05:07:04.860We were able to see the submarines out there today and exercise with the fleas President Trump did.
05:07:10.340But I just want to make sure before we go, you talk about the importance of submarines and, most importantly, this kind of relationship, alliance we have with our brothers and sisters in Australia to make sure that the Chinese Communist Party, and particularly the Chinese Navy, does not become dominant in the Indo-Pacific, sir.
05:07:30.740Thank you very much, Steve, for having me over on the show on such a momentous occasion.
05:07:34.280And before I talk of submarines, I want to, you know, recognize our men and women in uniform today.
05:07:41.340We serve in the Navy, both at home, abroad, and in the high seas.
05:07:44.760This display and show of force we saw today is first and foremost a message to our current troops, but also the future ones enlisting.
05:07:51.440And in that sense, the Secretary of the Navy fell and spoke of a very high pace of recruitment, which is, I think, commensurate with both the President Trump's doctrine of reinvigorating and recapitalizing our Navy, focusing, obviously, all of the political and the industrial might of the United States to continue being the greatest naval force the world over.
05:08:18.440In a, obviously, more perilous world, where freedom of navigation and reassuring allies and deterring adversaries remain, and, you know, first and foremost, a priority, I think today was a very strong message, not just sent to the troops, but also sent to our partners and our adversaries.
05:08:44.220And in that sense, I think to those pundits at home and those allies and partners abroad who have talked a big talk about the U.S. foreign policy being in retreat, the AUKUS alliance, I think, is a very strong case against that perceived retreat.
05:09:03.900And I want to recognize Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, who was tasked with a very difficult review process for a program that President Trump inherited from his predecessor, which brought together the UK and Australia and the U.S.
05:09:22.320to project or to continue projecting naval supremacy in the Indo-Pacific, a very large body of water, obviously, and one where there are at any given moment,
05:09:36.320at least six, seven territorial disputes between China's People Liberation Navy or its maritime militia and our allies in the region from the Philippines to Vietnam to Malaysia or Japan, Taiwan, Korea or Indonesia.
05:09:57.320And so reaffirming our commitment to AUKUS, this 40 year program, which would build in the U.S.
05:10:06.320three Virginia class submarines to transfer to Australia and have some sort of a transfer of production, transfer of technology and partnership in collaboration with the UK.
05:10:18.320The only partner we've ever done a transfer of technology in the nuclear power propulsion realm for Australia to deter first to reassure our friends and allies in the region and also give predictability to our adversaries.
05:10:33.320Deterrence is the name of the game. Peace through strength is a doctrine.
05:10:39.320And in fact, stealth is probably today the single most important element of our nuclear triad, because in an age of shifting innovations in in the in the war scenarios that we are seeing in Ukraine and elsewhere, low tech technologies, low tech weapon systems are increasingly threatened by the
05:11:09.320very expensive, very expensive, very complex systems and platforms.
05:11:14.320And whether it is, you know, unmanned surface drones or underwater drones or aerial drones that are having a major impact on conventional warfare for very low cost, I might add, it is absolutely fundamental that our submarine fleet remains the strongest fleet in the world and continues to grow.
05:11:37.320And America first does not necessarily mean America alone.
05:11:42.320Far from that, I think AUKUS and reaffirming our commitment to AUKUS sends a message to our NATO partners, sends a message to our allies in the Pacific, Indo-Pacific, that the US remains a steadfast partner in keeping freedom of navigation and deterring any kind of adversary, whether they're conventional, asymmetric or
05:12:09.320So in that sense, I want to recognize both President Trump and his secretary of the war and secretary of the Navy, but also the undersecretary Colby for having reaffirmed and sent a very strong message in that sense.
05:15:01.320But for the most part, it's to watch your show and not really post anything.
05:15:06.320I did post something yesterday in French media about the German submarine manufacturer, TKMS,
05:15:12.320going partly public in Frankfurt and what the implications are for those conventional submarines.
05:15:19.320I do want to say there was a very good article that came out in the U.S. Naval Institute website by Lieutenant Commander Jim Hassell,
05:15:27.320who makes the case that conventional submarines should be incorporated into the U.S. Navy to bring lethality for faster and cheaper with less manned service members.
05:15:39.320And that's certainly one of the policy recommendations that we're putting forth with this administration.
05:15:46.320We're going to have you on to talk about that diesel boat, diesel boat, diesel boat submarines and diesel boat skippers.
05:15:53.320We'll appreciate that. Stan, thank you so much. Look forward to having you back on the show.
05:15:57.320Thank you again, Steve. Have a great evening.
05:15:59.320Before we close out today, I've got to bring in, Tej, you've answered last call a couple, three times in your life.
05:16:10.320You're my anchorman here. Sum up today, what was it about, sir?
05:16:15.320It was about celebrating the history of the Navy, 250 years. That's pretty amazing. And then Trump, Trump bringing everything back to life, like just breathing new, fresh life into the military.
05:16:30.320And, you know, he tapped Pete Hegseth. And all you need in life is some leadership and guidance, whether you're a self-starter or you need someone else to give it to you.
05:16:42.320If you have the correct leadership and the correct guidance, then you're going to win.
05:16:46.320And as we can see in the Red Sea under Biden, there was no freedom of navigation.
05:16:53.320The Hooties owned it. They're shooting rockets and missiles and drones at ships all the time.
05:16:59.320And then Trump came in and within 60 days, it's back open for business.
05:17:04.320And, you know, he signed some kind of agreement with the Hooties. Basically, they capitulated and shut down their piracy operations.
05:17:12.320And the incredible thing is this recruiting numbers are the highest ever for the U.S. Navy.
05:17:22.320So the leadership and guidance under Trump. And then he just motivates people wherever he goes.
05:17:28.320Like I was watching a video of him flying in with Air Force Ones with F-35s flying next to it. It's crazy.
05:17:33.320He's awesome. But he's done this his whole life.
05:17:37.320I was watching him as a kid in Hollywood and, you know, he was in Home Alone, his other TV shows and everything.
05:17:45.320Trump's amazing. He's the man. He's not perfect. He doesn't do everything right.
05:17:49.320But he's almost perfect. And he's exactly what America needs. And he's exactly what the Navy needs.
05:17:55.320He's breathing new life into the Navy. They're going to build new ships.
05:17:58.320They're going to refurbish the old ones. They're getting new weapons, new armament.
05:18:02.320They're getting rid of the woke stuff. So they're going to bring the lethality back into our fighting force.
05:18:08.320And they're getting the most important thing is they're getting rid of DEI.
05:18:11.320So everything is going to be merit based.
05:18:13.320So we're going to have the best fighting force with the best training, the best equipment.
05:18:18.320And we're going to be respected and feared around the world.
05:18:21.320That's that's what our military is there for. Like the guy Stan was saying, it's about deterrence.
05:18:27.320Nobody respects an adversary that it's like, you know, half ass. It doesn't bring their A game to the table.
05:18:35.320So under Trump, he's breathing new life into our military and our military is bringing back the A game.
05:18:41.320We're going to have the best people, the best training, the best equipment.
05:18:45.320And nobody's going to want to mess with us. That's that's deterrence. That's what the military is for.
05:18:50.320And then the other thing is, he said, we're going to start winning again, like World War One, World War Two.
05:18:57.320We won flat out, period. Full surrender. Right. That's what it's about.
05:19:01.320And peace through strength. So we don't need if we don't need to do that, then, yeah, that's what the deterrence is.
05:19:09.320But if we go to war, we have to win, win, win, win. None of this nation building and occupying like we're talking about yesterday, Venezuela, if we take these ports, that's easy.
05:19:19.320But we always get bogged down when we do this nation building thing, when we occupy these countries for a decade or more and everything gets screwed up.
05:19:28.320You go in and win and leave. And that's how you do it.
05:19:33.320Ferocity and precision, as Pete Hex has said the other day, I want to tell people also this thing about people come with peace through strength, peace through strength.
05:19:40.320Well, look, a lot of people just think that means building more arms, having a bigger defense budget, building more weapons systems.
05:19:47.320We saw under Biden and all that spending money. They don't fear you. They don't fear your lethality.
05:19:52.320And if you don't if they don't fear that you've got the political will to use it and to take guys down and to win, then you're not.
05:20:00.320There's no peace through strength. Peace through strength means people fear you.
05:20:03.320And they know that if you're pushed when you bring it, it's like the the total obliteration that ended the 12 day war.
05:20:12.320President Trump hit and hit hard and moved on. And the Iranians have kind of never recovered that.
05:20:17.320And quite frankly, that was a central building block to the to what President Trump's going to face when he gets back.
05:20:23.320Remember, President Trump's leaving here is now got to go back. He gave him a six o'clock deadline.
05:20:27.320I think they've moved that because his negotiators Jared Kushner and Whitcoff are now at the resort town in Egypt on the Red Sea to start the negotiations, kind of wind this thing up.
05:20:37.320But you can tell for reports coming out today in Axios and The Washington Post, New York Times, President Trump's not kidding right.
05:20:44.320He wants to put this deal together and he's going to hammer. He's going to hammer some people, bang heads to make it happen.
05:20:51.320One thing I did notice today, I want to tell the audience, I've said, hey, it looks like President Trump is, I mean, really tired.
05:20:57.320There's a couple times this week you see he's doing so much. He was like a young man today.
05:21:02.320His energy, his enthusiasm, he fed off this. He's been waiting to do this a long time.
05:21:07.320He absolutely loved it. You could tell the energy, the enthusiasm.
05:23:29.320I'll be up all night putting up, uh, putting up, uh, my thoughts and observations on what's going on, particularly in the Middle East as President Trump tries to hammer out a historic, uh, peace deal.
05:23:41.320We'll see you back here at 10 o'clock.
05:23:42.320We're going to leave you now with a compilation video put together by the great real America's voice team.