Prepared Remarks for the Honorable Richard V. Spencer Secretary of the Navy General Officer Symposium Quantico, VA 19 September 2017 Thank you for the introduction Commandant. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to this group of key leaders but in my mind you are more than just key leaders. After spending this morning in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee you, as a room full of Marines, are a welcome comfort. Thirty-six years ago I was driving through the tomato fields surrounding the landing pads at Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, California. My trusty steed at that time was a beige 1968 VW Bug that carried me out of the gates for the last time as I ended a tour with Marine Helicopter Squadron 161. Headed northbound to the entrance of the Pacific Coast Highway, I can tell you without hesitation that the thought of me sitting with all of you as Secretary of the Navy, was not to be found even in the most remote parts of my mind. I am grateful for the lessons and leadership skills that the Marine Corps taught me. Those lessons and skills allowed me to enjoy a successful career in the private sector. And I am grateful that I have the opportunity to once again serve this team and our nation by supporting you and the Marines you lead. I consider this to be the greatest honor the greatest privilege of my life. And I thank you, and your families, for your dedication to the Marine Corps, and the sacrifices you make for our Nation. 1
When I saw that I could have the opportunity to communicate directly with you, our senior leaders, I jumped at the chance. I ll start by going over some of my concerns as SECNAV; but what I m really looking forward to is hearing and addressing some of your questions and concerns. So why don t we get started? I ll be pretty blunt we have problems in both the Navy and the Marine Corps. While our Navy s surface fleet is under the microscope right now, it wasn t that long ago that the Corps was front-and-center in the public s mind, and not in a positive light. Plenty of our problems are self-inflicted. There are also plenty that aren t the threat of a Continuing Resolution and the Budget Control Act are out of your immediate control. But the Marine Corps doesn t make excuses. We take our tasking and the hand we are dealt in stride. We adapt and overcome. We run our tasks to ground. Despite the problems we are facing, I am confident that we re going to successfully tackle every one of them we have some outstanding problem solvers and excellent leadership in this room to help us do that. Commandant Neller, General Walters, Senior Executives, and all of you here today are part of the answer to our problems. The Marines you lead are a large part of that answer too. And I am truly inspired and humbled by our Marines and their families. 2
Last month I spent a couple of weeks on the road visiting our Sailors, Marines, families, and civilian teammates. I saw them in action and heard from them directly. I loved every minute of it. I was meeting our People where they work, live and operate, to better understand their challenges and help them find solutions to the issues they are facing. I went from the Parris Island on the east coast, to Camp Pendleton on the west and locations in between. I have plenty of places left to visit in CONUS and many more where our People are deployed around the world but I know I ll find more of the same some of the best and the most committed people our nation has to offer, and they are called Marines. For those who don t have the luxury of traveling to wherever our People are you only have to read the news to see how impressive they are. Right now we re beginning to get an idea of just how devastating Harvey, Irma and Jose have been. But as the waters rose and the call for help came, our Marines were ready. When people needed a lifeline, our People, like the 1,000-plus Marines from the 26 th MEU, responded. Because I ve seen them in action, I can t help but believe that our Marines are our greatest resource. As their leaders, we must examine ourselves and ensure that we are worthy of our role and their service. We also need to think about where we are leading them. I ve spent a lot of time thinking about where our Navy and Marine Corps-team stands where it is headed and where it needs to go. That last part, where we need to go is probably the most important aspect of anything I think about on a regular basis. We need to know what our overarching mission is if we re going to be 3
headed in the right direction. Three weeks ago I sent out guidance that laid out our mission as I see it. Simply put, our mission is to deliver combat ready Naval forces to win conflicts and wars around the globe, and the Marine Corps, as you well know, is a critical component of our Naval Forces. Obviously there are other things we can do should do and are doing. But winning conflicts and wars is always going to be our bread and butter. And in order to win we need to be ready lethal modern. That s easy enough to say but clearly not as easy to actually do in today s resource constrained environment. This is especially true in light of current and emerging challenges. Challenges like: Technological leaps that put affordable new capabilities in the hands of dangerous nonstate actors all the time. Renewed aggression from competitors, who are quickly approaching peer-like military capability. And budgetary uncertainty, which make sustaining readiness difficult. Those points are simply the basis for the environment in which we operate. So in this challenging world, how can we do better when it comes to readiness? lethality? modernization? 4
We start by being smart about the way we recruit, train, equip and organize ourselves. And I believe we can do those things better if we center our priorities on People, Capabilities, and Processes. We ve already talked about the first priority People. You don t need me to tell you how important our Marines are because you work with them every day. The second priority Capabilities, is part of a battle I am prepared to wage in my role as SECNAV alongside Congress and our partners in industry. But as our senior leadership, I m really relying on you to help me reform that third priority our Processes, in order to further enhance our Capabilities and improve the lives of our Marines. If you re anything like me, you ve always wanted the chance to lead and make a difference this is your chance. Let s really inspect the way we do business to find where we can do better. I want you to be innovative and I want you to inspire innovation in your subordinates. I ll give you a small example. While I was at Camp Pendleton, we went and visited the Maintenance Battalion at Combat Logistics Regiment 15. As we were walking through the facility they had a little white conex box with an awning covering a bunch of parts lying out on a table. A Gunnery Sergeant introduced himself and stated that they were from the deployable additive manufacturing module which is basically a 3-D printer for parts nothing dramatic. Three plastic sub-assemblies for an engine, a part for a helmet and a suspension. 5
But here s what s dramatic. He picked up a shell-like turbine an aluminum turbine, which is a foreign object ejector for the diesel engine. That turbine absorbs the impact of all the debris that gets sucked up it takes the damage so the engine doesn t. That turbine as a replacement part needed a nineteen-week lead time and cost $23,000. A Lance Corporal took that part home with her over the weekend devised a CAD instruction on how to manufacture it and brought it in on Monday to the folks at SPAWAR. She said to the SPAWAR team, Here is my design. How do we find someone who has an aluminum billet that we can manufacture it with? On Wednesday, they had the part manufactured. The first one didn t work. They refined the design a little more, and by Friday, the part is put in. When we total up the Lance Corporal s time and the cost of the aluminum billet, the part is now $1,900. And it was produced on the spot. Of course there is an intellectual property front that we re going to have to address; I am looking forward to that jousting match. But this represents the mindset of an innovative Marine. She saw a Process that wasn t working for the Corps and found a better solution and our Capabilities will be improved as a result. This next generation of Marines might approach things differently at times but when we allow and inspire them to innovate, they will come up with some amazing solutions. I went back to my office and asked if we still had the Beneficial Suggestion Program (BENESUGGS) we do and it will be restarted. In addition to relying on you to help reform the way we go about our Processes, I m relying on you for your strong sense of responsibility and accountability. 6
Mention Strategic Review, Addressing DOPMA, Inohe Amendment, Fleet Forces Structure One lesson of the many I think we will be able to take from our recent tragedies in the air and on the ground is that we as leaders must learn to say no. Our Marine Corps is so filled with type-a can-do personalities that our answer to just about anything asked of us is yes. But we aren t doing anyone any favors and we are doing a disservice to the American people when we overextend ourselves without proper training and resources. We need to be strong enough to say no and if no is not being received as the right answer, bring me the data and metrics to back it up, and I will go to the ends of the earth to back you. Saying no can be a difficult thing but when you re entrusted with something as sacred as the lives of our Marines, you need to be ready to make stands. Similarly, you must be ready to make moral stands you must always be ready to play the ethical midfield as Secretary Mattis put it. I m relying on your proven moral compass. The junior officers and enlisted Marines you lead look to you as their example. You must be a beacon of ethical conduct, illuminating the muddled grays that so many see the world as into the stark contrast black and white. The Navy is still learning its lesson and rebuilding its moral credibility from the blow struck by the Fat Leonard scandal. We can t let moral failures distract us from our core calling. 7
We can t let our problems and challenges whether self-inflicted or not distract us from our mission. The Marine Corps hasn t left its warfighting roots it never will. But for too long there have been things distracting our focus from readiness and lethality. We re going to restore our readiness and grow our lethality. To do that I ask for your help. Challenge the status quo remove the barriers that may be impeding you. Help me fix our Processes. You have been entrusted to lead. Let me provide you clear maneuvering lanes so you can LEAD. I can t do this alone. You can t do this alone. We re going to work together and in the end we ll leave the Navy and Marine Corps-team stronger than we found it. I look forward to working with you. I look forward to working for you. And I look forward to your questions. Thank you. 8