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>> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. >> good morning. >> that was a great good morning. you're in for a real treat. to start off this national security symposium, to play a patriotic interlude, i give you the united states marine band. [applause] ♪

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>> how about the president's own? [applause] ladies and gentlemen, please, rise for the presentation of the colors and remain standing for the national anthem. march on the colors. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ >> right shoulder. >> retire the colors. ♪ finish. ♪ ♪

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♪ >> thank you. [applause] please, remain standing for our invocation led by roa's national chaplain, major vince cummings. >> thank you, general. good morning. >> good morning. >> general petraeus, thank you for coming. would you all, please, join with me as we now go to our lord in prayer to open our opening discretion of the national -- session of the national security symposium. shall we pray? almighty god, we are here, and

as we gather as a family, a fraternity of citizen warriors, our bodies stand united in serving the beloved nation which you have bestowed upon us, the united states of america. as reservists and citizen warriors, we serve authority three times removed; country k community, family. but most of all we serve you collectively pursuing the highest ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. blessed creator, pour out your holy unction upon this gathering, renew the selfless relationships that continuously bind us together and most importantly, allow us to hear and discern the wisdom from our distinguished keynote speakers here today. we finally ask your intersession in comforting the families of

our colleagues who have lost loved ones that have served our great country. also strengthen those citizen warriors who serve in harm's way around the globe and never allow us to forget those sacrifices. and finally, motivate all of us to continuously grow in you as we strive continuously to be the leaders you desire us to be as servants of our great republic. we now uplift these requests to you, for it's in your holy name we pray, amen. [background sounds] >> please be seated.

>> well, welcome to washington d.c. for the next three days, you're in for an exciting national security symposium and reserve officer association convention. so fasten your seat belts and, please, direct your attention to the monitors on the side. ♪ ♪ >> we have the power -- [inaudible] but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning. >> tomorrow the work begins, and i do not my trust the future, i do not fear what is ahead for

our problems are large, but our heart is larger. our challenges are great, but our will is greater. >> [inaudible] ♪ >> i do not think of this responsibility -- [inaudible] >> there is no way we can go forward except together. it does require, however, our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds. >> [inaudible] >> if we succeed, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be because of what we are. >> [inaudible]

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[applause] >> does that get your heart pumping? [laughter] as a reminder, please, silence your cell phones and any other electronic devices you might have, and also because we are a forward-looking, electronically-capable organization, for those of you who are tweeting this conference, please, use the hash tag roa. to kick things off, i'd like to introduce to you our national president, air force reserve colonel walker williams. [applause] walking -- walker?

>> thank you, general davis, and good morning again. throughout this national security symposium, roa's convention body will also convene. ninety years ago on october 2, 1922, brigadier general henry j. reilly led roa's first gathering for our founding fathers who established this great association. it is now both my privilege and honor to preside over our 86th national convention. now as our first item of business, the roa minuteman hall of fame welcomes another inductee. a great citizen patriot who has conspicuously contributed to the advancement of our roa programs and its objectives. it is an exceptional honor for me to introduce our first speaker and induct this year's newest addition to the minuteman hall of fame. our speaker has been referred to as the premier military man of

our age. he has distinguished himself with his leadership, valor, creativity and diplomacy. in the area of scholarship, his master's and doctorate degrees from the woodrow wilson school of public and international affairs at princeton university, and his leadership of the combined arms center where he led the development of our current counterinsurgency manual reflect the marvelous intelligence and insight he brings to bear on any issue. his integrity is unimpeachable. through his over 37 years of military is service, remarkably, director petraeus has held six general officer commands, five as combat commands. he did this in bosnia, he did it with the 101st air assault division in iraq, he served as commander of the multi-national force iraq leading the surge, he

served as centcom commander and, finally, as the dual-headed commander of the international security assistant force commander of u.s. forces afghanistan. our guest speaker's name is often mentioned in the same sentence with most of our revered leaders of the past; generals washington, grant, pershing, macarthur and eisenhower for the contributions he has made in the development of doctrine, development of leaders and his leadership in the battlefield. most recently, president obama has called upon him to serve as the director of the central intelligence agency. ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to induct a longtime supporter of roa and the reserve forces into the minuteman hall of fame. please, join me in welcoming director david petraeus. thank you, sir. prison. [applause]

>> thank you. [applause] [applause] >> well, thanks very, very much. good morning to you all and thanks for a warm welcome. it is great to be with you all this morning, it's great to be part of your 2012 national security symposium, the 86th, i note. and it's great to be with so many with whom i've been privileged to serve in the past decade in particular. just out of curiosity, in fact, how many here have been deployed since 9/11, if i could just see

a show of hands? how many have been deployed more than once since 9/11? how many more than twice? since 9/11? do any have three years or more in deployment, just out of curiosity? right here? where's my guys back there? how many coins you got with you today, fellas? [laughter] if you've got three years or more deployed since 9/11, come on up here, and we'll see how quickly my guys can respond. if not, we'll do a great photo. come on up here. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> well done. thanks. [applause] those are the individuals and the others in here and so many more that you've led and represent and served with who have truly made that video a true video and brought to life that statement when the nation needed you, you responded to the call. colonel williams, thanks very much for the kind introduction, overly kind, i must say that the response to such generous words typically has to be to note that i wish my dear, departed parents had been here to hear them. [laughter] my father would have enjoyed them, my dear old mother might have actually believed them. [laughter] well, i'm truly humbled by the

award i received today, and i'll have a bit more to say about that, but before doing so i do want to thank colonel williams, i do want to thank general davis, and i do want to salute them and all of your leadership for years of military service. these two alone account for well over a half century in uniform for our country, and i want to salute as well their tremendous leadership of the reserve officers association. indeed, i salute not only them, but the rest of the leadership of roa for recognizing citizens and soldiers who advance the cause of our nation's security and who very much embody the qualities of service and leadership exemplified by one of the association's key founders, and that would be, of course, general john "blackjack" pershing. it is, as i mentioned, a pleasure to see in the audience so many with whom i served on the battlefield over the past decade, an honor to be with this unique group and its mix of former and current reservists,

members of rotc over there, i hope you're getting credit for this for a class. [laughter] they who will, of course, lead the next generation of reservists. and i salute all of you for your selfless dedication and service to our country. i also thank the association for taking on an issue of interest in my household, particular interest; insuring that a number of programs for our military families are well supported. as some of you may know, my wife holly is an assistant director of the consumer financial protection bureau, and she is helping to lead the fight against financial ripoffs that target our troopers and their families. [applause] i will note that that was an applause line. [laughter] to her, that is. but as all of you know, bullets and ieds make no distinction down range between those of the reserve and active components of our military, and neither do

predatory lenders. so holly and i are very pleased that you're pushing this issue, and she asked that i convey a well done, a bravo zulu to you on it. speaking of reservists up front, i wanted to share with you a story from a recently declassified operation that took place in the pacific ocean area, an operation that has been unreported until today. during this particular operation, one of our best reserve units was deploy today perform a sensitive mission on a desert island where they had to hire some local inhabitants as scouts and translators. it turned out, however, that the locals were cannibals, so the commander who in his civilian life was an expert in foreign languages and in dealing with different cultures and whose roa membership was current -- [laughter] no small point for the front row here. [laughter] made a point of speaking to them before the contract was finalized. you're part of our team now, he

told the cannibals in their language. we'll pay you well for your service, and we'll allow you to eat any of our rations. but, please, he said, please don't eat any of our troopers. well, the cannibals responded reassuringly and promised not to eat any of the unit's soldiers, and they then shook hands with the commander and went to work. everything was going smoothly until about four weeks later when the commander called the cannibals together for a meeting. you're all working hard, he said, and i'm very pleased with your performance. however, one of our sergeants has disappeared. do any of you know what happened to him? the cannibals all shook their heads and professed to have no idea of the missing sergeant's whereabouts. after the commander left, however, the leader of the cannibals turned to the others and asked sternly, which one of you idiots ate the sergeant? the cannibals all hung their heads until finally one of them

meekly put his hand in the air and said, i did. you fool, the head cannibal shouted. for four weeks we've been eating lieutenants, captains and even majors, and no one noted anything. [laughter] [applause] and then you had to go and eat a sergeant. [laughter] now, when i was in uniform, i used to note that i didn't say anything about eating generals. i'm sure their absence would have been noted instantly. [laughter] but their aide only. [laughter] well, thanks for laughing. you know the deal -- [laughter] when you reach miation in life, you're only -- my station in life, you're only as good as the material they give you. well, it is, again, an enormous honor to receive the minuteman hall of fame award. in truth, i've received a few awards in recent years, but it's certainly rare to