.. got here from where she is talking about with my heroin and the children. what happened to me was my came up, you know, under a much more better society where opportunities were there. there were social programs to ,elp my children after school then,ce those were cut, you know, with the help from daycare my children got up into their teenager they had -- they could look

forward to taking their money and buy school supplies. but once they removed all of that, by the time my children got to be 16 years old, they -- in my -- we call this crack. they started off with smoking marijuana, and then they would put something like embalming fluid, where it would make you get a more potent high. >> host: debra, thank you for that background. what's the -- in your view, what's the current status of the situation? >> caller: the situation is, they have to get back to putting

their children in more afterschool programs. they got to get their children with -- their lives being upside-down, these children need to find some kind of way to say, okay, the house is falling down, my life is not that -- my future. >> guest: absolutely. there has to be more support for kids in all kinds of ways. something that somebody brought up about the cutting back -- this is in a prosperous community, too -- cutting back on the choices -- i think reaching high school, that you could take art but you couldn't take -- do athletics. you could do one or -- that's

insane. at a time when kids really want to test their limits and all sorts of positive ways, why cut those things back and then force them into a more negative mode of experimentation? it just seems crazy. i think the afterschool programs are very, very important, so that -- other study i read said kids are far less likely to do a lot of experimenting if they have a lot of conversations with adults they can trust about things like drugs, or whatever. there has to be a dialogue, and if parents -- there's a lot of parents who have to work, some work several jobs. if they can't be there to do that there should be some sort of backup so that the kids feel that they're being taken care of. i think that's a very important point that she made.

>> host: "christian science monitor" weekly. here's the cover. heroin's long reach. suburbs confront the scorch that rode in behind a wave of pain killers. christina lindborg is the author and has join us. >> tomorrow on washington journal, a discussion of breaches of private consumer data including target and at the university of maryland. and american legion executive peter gaiton talks about ongoing veterans benefit claims backlog and the impact of budget reductions on members of the military. as always we'll take your calls and you can join the conversation at facebook and twitter as well, "washington journal" on c-span.

>> the house and senate are back in session monday with live coverage on the c-span networks. we talked with a congressional reporter what they'll be working on. >> congress returns next week to work on several economic issues. the senate on monday will vote on formally moving forward with a five-month extension of unemployment benefits. we're joined by john shaw, senior congressional correspondent. when they move forward on the actual debate will the senate have the g.o.p. support that got them there? >> guest: it's hard to tell. this issue has been languishing for four or five months, since the end of 2013. it seems like there's now a little bit of momentum on the senate side behind it. they got a number of republican votes this week. but it's unclear as they go forward -- a lot of republicans want to have some amendments to consider as part of the pagan.

hari reid will certainly want to keep amendments very limited, if any. so i think there's still some struggles in the senate. and then to say nothing of the house, in which the house speaker, john boehner, said repeatedly this package, which is a compromise of a compromise of a compromise, still is not something he can support. he questions whether it's workable, whether it's enforceable. he has some reservations about the offsets, some views that the focus should be on creating jobs rather than extending unemployment insurance. so, i think it's likely to pass the senate next week but faces a very tough hurdle in the house going forward. >> one item that the house and senate have to work together on, this is the bill that passed the house, the payments for medicare doctors. it passed the house on a voice vote. they're facing a deadline on monday. >> they are. the senate is likely to approve it on monday. it was a little controversial

where they voice-voted it on the house side and kicked it over to the senate, and the majority leader, hari reid, said he didn't love the compromise. just a one-year patch rather than solving the problem which has been persisting since the late '90s. it seems very likely the senate will pass it. >> another issue the house and senate have been handling separatesly are the sanctions against russia, the ukraine aid bill, patting in the house on friday and the senate but they have to come together on a common piece of legislation for the president to sign. >> it's going get done early next week. probably the house will accept the senate version. they voice-voted the dock fix. some reticence to do she same thing, voice vote, on the ukraine bill. so i think the two bills are largely the same. the senate backed off a provision the administration

wanted very badly pertaining to the international monetary fund. the democrats have largely pushed aside an issue that the administration wanted, they wanted, and the two sides are in agreement, the two chambers. so by next week congress will pass the bill for ukraine and majority leader hari reid says this is the first of other measures to help ukraine. so this issue is on the table for a while. >> oneoff your market news articles hases the headline: u.s. budget week in the house next week as the house republicans ready a two-week budget blitz. what's in the budget reform bills on the house floor next week? >> well, there's sort of a two-prong attempt going forward. the main event will be paul ryan's budget next week, and then the full house the following week, and that's ryan's ten-year plan to balance the budget. very interesting, very controversial. this will be the focus of

congress' budget debate. they also this week will be -- excuse me -- next week they'll be working on a couple process reform bills, not huge bills. one would alter the way in which baselines are put together. another would allow for the use of dynamic scoring, as well as conventional scoring, when assessing major bills. another would change -- which kind of shifts some off budget items to on budget. the budget process votes this coming week are largely to set the table for the bigger debate on the house floor the following we can. the ryan budget, going to be very interesting to watch. people wondering how he is going to balance thing new a decade. are they wondering he might use all the cbos assumptions or make some of his own. going to be very interesting to see if he embraces they tax reform program that house ways and means committee chairman

dave camp put forward this year, and it's going to be interesting to seal how he responds to this antipoverty initiative that ryan has had in which he thinks a lot of these antipoverty programs need to be streamlined and overhauled. so a lot of aspects of ryan's budget that will be very interesting to look at. the focus of a pretty intention debate. >> lots to cover, and watching it up a, john shaw, senior congressional correspondent for "market news." john shaw, thanks a lot. >> thank you, bill. >> tonight on c-span2, army leaders discuss the problem of sexual assaults in the military. followed by air force secretary debra lee james on recruiting and retaining female military officers. then a discussion about legalizing marijuana. and journalist christina lindborg with details on heroin use in the u.s.

>> two weeks after the burglary i received a large manila envelope at the "washington post" and it had a return address of liberties publications, media, pennsylvania, which didn't mean anything to me but it was slightly intriguing. inside was a cover letter the citizens commission to investigate the fbi. that's the name the eight burglars gave each other. and what they wrote really sounded like something that a commission, perhaps appointed bay president or attorney general, might have -- they described the fact that they had burglarized an fbi office; they had become concerned that there were informers and antiwar and civil rights organizations, and that they saw no way to confront this except by getting evidence of whether such suppression of dissent was taking place, and so it said that files were enclosed, and they hoped that i

would make them public. these had been sent to five people, two members of congress, senator george mcgovern, and a congress member from baltimore, and three journalists who were not named. and i started to read them, and that enhanced paranoia document stood out. it stood out so much i wasn't sure that they were real. it seemed like this might be a hoax. >> on march 8, 1971, a group broke into an fbi office in media, pennsylvania, and stole every document in the building. the story, sunday night, at 8:00, on c-span2's q & a. >> the pentagon held a discussion to kick off sexual assault awareness month. military leaders talk about how the army is addressing the problem of sexual assaults in its ranks. we heard from the army secretary and army chief of staff ray

odeaire -- odierno. this is half an hour. >> thank you, sir. ladies and gentlemen, you may take your seats. at this time i'd like to welcome to the podium dr. christine -- the director of the army's sexual harassment response and prevention office for a few opening remarks. doctor? >> good morning. it's my pleasure to welcome each one of you to the ceremony to kick off sexual assault awareness month. sexual assault awareness month was first observed nationally in april 2001. the goal is to raise public awareness about sexual violence and educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual assaults. although the army implements a robust sexual harassment and assault response and prevention program year-round, tied today's event opportunities for all leaders to place greater emphasis on the sharp prime, raise awareness, promote action,

and encourage survivors to come forward. it is the responsibility of every leader, soldier, civilian, and contractor to set the conditions for a positive command climate based on prevention, education, bystander support, and accountable. only working together can we obtain an army free of sexual assault, where individuals can achieve their full potential and where america's sons and daughters can serve with dignity and respect. mr. secretary, general odierno, sergeant major chandler, thank you for your participation in today's event. the priority of this issue is very apparent by the fact that the three of you are here together, during this extremely busy time of the year. expressing the importance of eliminating sexual assault from the army. under your leadership we have been able to accomplish much but

there's more work to do. i'm convinced if every individual does their part, then we will acleave a climate where sexual harassment and assault are not allowed to occur, but if it does, then victims will be taken carry of and offenders will be held accountable. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, ma'am. ladies and gentlemen, my pleasure to introduce ray chandler. [applause] >> good morning, everyone, and special welcome secretary, chief, under, vice, general, officer, sergeants, majors, department of the army, civilians and anybody who cares about combating sexual violence or assault. i appreciate the opportunity to share a few comments about

today's -- about about the army's efforts to root out sexual assault from our ranks. the chief has passed or stated previously it's the responsibility that all of us share, but the change agent in this effort is our army's nobody commissioned officer corps. last year he challenged every noncommissioned officer in the army to own this issue and move up. over the past year, i've been encouraged by what i've seen. noncommissioned officers taking charge and holding each other and the subordinates accountable to make sure the program is implemented success film there's been a change in attitude of our young people over the last year, and men of the town hall forum is participated in over a year ago, you would be lucky if you found less than 25% of the audience that would say i would trust my first line leader to come forward with an issue. that dynamic has changed over the last year. where more and more soldiers

feeling the element of trust, essential to our army, between themselves and their leader, and that is really from my perspective how we are going to solve this challenge, at the leader to the led level. where soldiers responsible for looking out and caring for one another. they don't need to try to solve the army problem. our soldiers only need to solve the problem between them and their battle buddy, and that is to be accountable to one another, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and when something occurs, to be that person of character and to step forward and report. i believe, as the sirring major of the army, that our noncommissioned officers are fulfilling their duty. do we have a way to go? sure. sure, we do. but we are making efforts each and every day to ensure that the army's profession is understood by one another, that character counts and it's what you do when no one is looking. that commitment to one another, their unit, the army, and

ultimately the nation, is fulfilled each and every day, and finally, confidence. knowing your job and doing it well. that is what our professional responsibility is. to one another to the nation, and we will overcome what i believe has become a cancer but we're slicing that out and going to ensure that our noncommission officers uphold their duty. we have our task, our purpose, we know what the end state is, and we will accomplish our mission. at this time i'd like to take a moment to give special wreck nation to one of the ncos who is making a difference in the lives of soldiers and the level of trust the american people have in our army. our sexual assault response coordinator for the year is master sergeant richard frye. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated for the publishing of the orders. the meritorious service meddle is presented to richard v. frye for exceptional service while serve as the sexual assault response coordinator for the 18th engineer brigade from 28 may 2013 to 31 december 2013. master sergeant frye was the driving force behind a sexual harassment assault response and prevention program on his brigade, and in leading his community toward achieving cultural change. his loyalties and dedication to the success of the mission contributed immensely to the service members and family members of the 18th engineer brigade and the community. master sergeant frye's distinct actions reflect great credit upon himself, the united states army europe, the united states army, and the department of demps signed, howard v.

barometerberg, lieutenant general, deputy chief of staff, g-1. [applause] >> at this time a plaque is being presented to master sergeant frye, and i reads: department of the army, 2014, exceptional sexual assault response coordinator or the year. 18th engineer brigade. united states army europe. thank you, thank you, thank you for your service, sergeant. [applause] sergeant major and master sergeant frye, thank you so much. ladies and gentlemen, at this time i'm pleased to welcome our 38th chief of staff of the army, general ray odierno. sir. [applause]

>> good morning. it's great to see so much of the leadership here. i want to thank everyone for coming today as we kick off sexual assault awareness month. it really is an important opportunity for us to have a discussion about what we all designate as the army's top priority, combating sexual assault, sexual harassment. first off, master sergeant frye, thank you for your leadership. that's what it's beginning to take. about leaders taking control and us helping to change the mindsets and the culture in order for us to deal with this problem. so i want to thank you very much for that. secretary of the army, thank you for your leadership. as always. and i truly appreciate it and i want to also congratulate undersecretary for the army carson. congratulations, sir. i think its your first day on the job, and we're glad to have you. welcome. [applause]

>> thank you for being here. all of the many leaders here, i want to thank everyone for being here. for me it's reprehensible and should be to anyone who wears this uniform, that any soldier threatens or assaults a member of the army family. so, soldiers and civilians on and off duty, on and off post. these crimes have been perpetrated by all ranks from very senior office officers to young privates. these crimes destroy the lives of individuals, the readiness of our force for war, and threaten the very core of our institution and the army profession. we also know about this insider threat, because survivors have had the courage to come forward and report the crimes against

them. just in one year, from 2012 to 2013, we saw 51% increase in reported sexual assaults. and over 10% of these reports that were over a year old. i believe that is starting to show confidence that the army is taking this seriously. that the chain of command is taking this seriously. the credibility of our institution is at stake. we must continue to build confidence in our soldiers. we must continue to built confidence in our military justice system. i believe that a significant majority of our leaders are doing the right thing every day. i believe that the chain of command is essential to changing the culture and instilling discipline across the ranks. i also believe that the uniform code of military justice, when

implemented properly, is the best tool possible to prosecute offenders and protect survivors, because it allows the commander to take actions beyond that of civilian courts to prosecute both sexual assault and harassment. on or off post. or in a deployed status. sexual assault is first and foremost about leadership. we will not be able to solve this problem until every officer, from platoon leader to four-star general, and every noncommissioned officer from sergeant to command sergeant major, leads cultural change throughout our formations. i continue to challenge every army leader and every army leader here today, and every leader across our army, down to the squad level, gather your people together, in small groups, and talk about what this

problem looks like in every command. in every unit. on every post. across our army. we have the tools and resources available. we have dedicated trainers and personnel that are passionate about solving this problem. the army is known for its training, and the strength of its noncommission officer corps in leading change across our force. we will not succeed in getting after this problem with power point slides. or briefings with large formations of mandatory training. but we will succeed when every leader, no matter where you work, no matter what your job is, takes ownership of this problem. let me close by reminding everyone there's nothing more important to the strength of our army than trust.

trust between soldiers, trust between soldiers and their leaders. and trust between army and the american people. trust is essential to train and prepare every soldier for their mission. it's essential to accomplish or objectives in the chaos of war. but this is also about trust between the army and the american public. every act of sexual assault and sexual harassment violates that trust. we cannot and we will not tolerate this threat to our own. the credibility of the profession of arms is based upon the competence at which we do our jobs, the commitment we have to our unit, our fellow soldiers and army civilians, and each of us having the character to defend that army every single day. the army must lead the way in addressing these crimes. or it risks losing the trust the

american people have in our great institution. the american people expect us to lead. they know if anybody can solve this problem, we can. they expect us to. we must take on this responsibility. so, every one of us, commanders, command sergeant majors, department of the army, civil leaders and personnel and every soldier in the u.s. army must take action. every one of us has choice to intervene, to act, and to motivate others to prevent assaults. don't tolerate harassment and change our culture. i'm incredibly proud to wear this uniform. i'm incredibly proud to be in this great army. i appreciate the sacrifices and successes that we have and continue to have every day around the world.

i believe this is the greatest institution in the world. but we can't just say it and believe it, we have to earn it. we must earn this moniker through repeated actions, big and small, consistent, with our values. and when someone inside our institution harasses another member, or attacks another member of our family, it is our family, the army, who is best able to respond. we must never forget that. i want to thank everyone for being here today, for your tireless efforts. hopefully this week, this month, will help us to rededicate ourselves, bring awareness to what we're trying to achieve. and to eradicate this problem from our ranks. the strength of our nation is our army, the strength of our

army are our soldiers. the strength of our soldiers are our families, and that's what makes us army strong. thank you very much. [applause] >> t thank you, sir, i know i can speak for all of us when i say we appreciate your comments and making this issue the army's number one priority. last but not least i'd like to extend a special warm welcome to our 21st secretary of the army, the honorable john m. mc hugh. >> thank you. good morning. chief, thank your great leadership, your inspiring words and your partnership. sergeant major, i appreciate all you do each and every day. doctor, always great to be with you. so many army leaders, the vice chief of staff, acting secretary bob spear, surgeon general.

many, many others. i would be remiss if i didn't say a special word of thanks and welcome to the army's newest civilian employee, the 31st 31st undersecretary of the army, brad cook. brad, great to see you. i had the opportunity and the honor to swear brad in last night about 5:30. that's 1730 for most of you people. and we're very, very fortunate he is here, and i know he shares our common commitment to our purpose here today. we've shown a little army flexibility this morning. this was originally scheduled to be outside. march decided to roar like the proverbial lion than the lamb so here we are inside. but one of the point our gathering is about april, and

april is true lay month that symbolizes the change of seasons and what we hope, particularly this year, is the final end to the harshness and the cruelty of winter. when you think about it, that's really why we're here today. not only to mark april as the recognition of sexual assault awareness month, but to re-affirm our own commitment to change. a change of culture, and renew or efforts to finally, at long last, put a true end to the scourge of sexual assault within our ranks. i've said it before. i know all of you recognize it, too. each and every day. the vast majority, overe overwhelming number of soldiers and civilians in this army discharge their duties with integrity, they do it with competence, and particularly a profound respect interior -- for

their comrades in arms. but as secretary hagel said, sexual assault is a stain on the honor of the millions of men and women and a threat to at the discipline and cohesion of our force. and as we have seen too clearly in newspaper headlines across the country, and in congressional hearings the chief and i took part in just this past week, dishonor, even if by a few, really reflects on us all, and together all of us have that responsibility to exhibit the leadership the commitment to intervene, and of course, most of all, to act. as troubling as the discourage of sexual assault is to our army, as has been noted, we have made progress, thanks to people such as you. and we have done it, yes, but not just by fighting back. chief mentioned those areas of progress we have encouraged and

are seeming greater reporting and victims are coming forward, are showing they have increasing trust in command, and they're doing it in greater numbers than ever before. and as the chief also said, a growing number of those reports come from years past, often starting before service in the united states army. and that does tell us victims feel more confident. they're beginning to believe that they should report these crimes. and when they do, they will be taken seriously, and their commanders will follow up and act upon them as they should. we're doing better in other ways. our special victim investigation course is a dod best practice. we have been training military investigators and prosecutors, but not just for ourselves. we're doing it for all the services. we're ensuring to the right

training for those by having them credentials to the sexual assault response officer and we're going to expand upon those kind of requirementses ourselves and give them more knowledge and skills and abilities. we have enhanced the evaluation reporting system to assess our officers and ncos are meeting their commitments. ultimately holding them accountable through mandatory comments and how those leaders are acting to foster climates of dignity and respect and, most of all, how they're differ charge -- discharging their duty with their adherence to our sharp program health enacted stringent criteria and background checks for those serving in areas of particular trust, including virginia and --

va and that is going -- it is their responsibility to select those who are best suited for the vital positions, not just maybe available. we see today first hand, we are getting the right people for this vital job. when he was economy commander of ford in georgia, then lieutenant colonel george marshall was asked how many soldiers he could spare for the civilian conservation corps. a new deal project, and like so many other things in this building, it was placed under the oversight of the army. he said, quote, leave my post surgeon, my commissary officer, my post exchange officer and inned a --s a junk. i'll run this command with sergeantses. that's history but it's true today. we rely on our nc owe corps to provide the critical leadership to bring the culture, to extend

understanding off army values into our ranks. always taking on most pressing challenges, and today, as sergeant major noted, that's no different. so to master sergeant frye, particularly, sir, my personal congratulations on being select our sacr of the year. thank you for your service, and most of all, thank you for helping us make a difference. thank you. [applause] >> we talked about some of the initiatives programs and policies changes we have enacted to fight the good fight. that is just really a start of our obligation. because as the chief noted, programs, policies, flip charts, alone simply aren't going to do it. that's what leadership is about. changing the culture. constructing an environment of

trust. and enduring respect. ensuring the safety of every soldier, man or woman, wherever their duty may call them. now, the army isn't alone in this challenge. in fact, this observance, sexual assault awareness month, as doctor noted, is really part of a nationwide observance, taking its roots back some 40 years to the takeback the night marches that at that time were intended to raise public awareness on this pressing issue. and that seems particularly fitting to me today because we're calling on you to take back your army. to take back your army from those who harm or assault our soldiers, america's sons and america's daughters. to take back your army from those who ignore the values and who stain all of our honor. take back our army from those

who fail to lead, those 0 two fail to uphold our lieus as -- our laws as well as our regulations. this isn't a challenge limited to sage month. the army will gone -- to a single month. the army will only get bet enwhen each and every one are us considers it's critical and daily mission. the good news is, i'm confident. i know with your help, with your leadership, we are getting there, we are making progress, and with your continued efforts, we're going to do even better. we owe it to them, those who put on the uniform, we owe it to the american people, those folks foo look up to this army because of the bedrock of values upon which it was built. most of all, we owe it to ourselves. so thank you for being here. and god bless you all. [applause]

>> sir, thank you for your powerful words and dedication to making the army a better nicely and serve. ladies and gentlemen, please stand nor benediction and remain standing for the army song as this concludes today's ceremony. >> dear congress, names are sherri, hannah, and i'm andy, and we attend an art school in phoenix, arizona. throughout the year we have encountered a handleful of friend with mental illnesses and throughout the years we have seen how a lack of support for treatment can result in devastating events as well as emotional distress for those individuals and their families. >> when i look back on the incident that took place in tucson, the tragedy where i was shot and congress giffords was shot and 17 people wounded and six people died.

the young man who did the shootings, had been displaying symptoms of mental illness for two years before the time. >> we announced the winner of the c-span student cam video competition on, history the most important issue congress should address this year. watch the top 21 winning videos starting tuesday and every weekday throughout the month at 6:50:00 a.m. eastern on c-span and see all the winning documentaries online at student cam.org. >> today, air force secretary deborah lee james gave a speech about recruiting and keeping women military officers. this is about an hour. >> thank you, and indeed i think this is the first of many events we will do together. i think we're natural partners. women and international security and the harvard women diplomacy

and development. just maybe a few words about this organization. it was created there the mid-1980s, and really has a mission to support and promote women in the international peace and security field. we're an international membership organization, combossed of both women and men. we actually welcome men in its midst. we have a -- presence in some 47 different countries and also we have active chapters here in the united states, particularly in massachusetts, new york, florida, and california. we're engaged in three main activities, one is research, the second is capacity building, and leadership training, and the third is professional development, outreach, and

networking. and for more on wiis i refer you to our web site. today we are at the end of women's history month, which celebrates the struggles and achievements of american women, but in the president's proclamation declaring march womens history month, he also called upon to us celebrate the women who make progress today. and i think our speaker of today certainly does that. i think she is an example and role model for many, and i also like to add a personal thanks to her for the support she has given women in international security over time. she became the 23rd secretary of the air force in december 2013, and is only the second woman in that job.

she is responsible for more than 290,000 active duty guard reserves, civilian, airmen and women, as well as their family. she oversees an annual budget of around 110 -- i understand you're currentfully discussions about that -- currently in discussions about that. alterations of 5,500 aircraft, 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles, and 63 satellites. she heads up the air force at a difficult time for a the force, but i think her experience and her expertise makes her particularly well equipped to head up the air force at a time when it is facing many challenges. challenges that have to do with people and personnel, but also challenges that have to do with

technology and the changing nature of warfare and the use of the military instrument. she is very well-equipped. she started out her career as a congressional staffer, working on defense issues. from 1993 to 1998 she was assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, and then spent ten years in the private sector, most recently as the president of saic, the science, applications international corporation. today she will address the role of women in national security, tell us a little bit about the air force plans with respect to the implementation of the 2011 u.s. national action plan on women peace and security. shell tell us a little bit about women -- the integration of women in combat units and also

share her personal story. so please join me in welcoming secretary deborah james. she will speak for 20 minutes and then we'll take q & a. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. i only call shantel, shantel and i don't have to practice her beautiful last name. i appreciate the invitation and just snuck under the wire as we're concluding women's history month so very glad to be here in the last few days of the month. i'm told, and i look around the room, there are people here who represent various sector0s governments and nonprofits as well as the private sector, all with the threat of national security connecting us together. and as you heard, i've been very pleased and privileged in my life to have had some of each of

those in my background, plus you heard i've been involved with wiis through the years, so it's especially a pleasure for know be able to spend some time with you this afternoon. but as she said, the real honor of my lifetime name late december when i was sworn in as the 23rd secretary of the air force, which is a huge privilege. i well tell you, i've never worked harder than i'm working now in any life, but what a privilege it is to serve alongside actually 690,000. we have been growing. 690,000 men and women who represent the active duty, the national guard, the reserve, and our civilian work force. if you talk about our families, which to me are also part of our total force, the numbers are even higher than that. so a tremendous privilege to be part of that team, and i have been getting out and about quite a bit on my first three months because i am now three months on the job.

i have been both to a variety of the states and the mail tear base -- military bases in the united states. i'm down 18 bases in 13 state officers the three-month period. last week i did have the opportunity to go into afghanistan. i saw about four bases in afghanistan where our air force is serving on the front lines, as well as some of the air bases we have in some of the middle eastern countries. so i was in the uae, kuwait, and qatar, but basically it was a terrific trip where i got to see the five core missions of our air force in action on the front lines and in quite austere environments. and just as a reminder, the five core functions, the five things that our air force brings to the table, are: number one, we are in charge of air and space superiority. controlling the skies and controlling space for purposes of peace and for purposes of advancing our u.s. and allied

interests. we're in charge of command and control, so this is the fusing of information from a variety of sources, bringing that information together and being able to push it out to the decisionmakers so they can make informed decisions. we're in charge of global strike, which represents our icbm, interconstant anyone tall ballistic missile community as well as our bomber force, both conventional and strategic nuclear. we're in charge of isr, the surveillance recon sans and intelligence. a variety of ways we get situational awareness we can see from the skies and from space, and provide information on what is happening in the world, what is happening on the beatlefield -- battlefield in particular. we're also in charge of mobility. so the army needs the air force to get wherever it's going the cargo that must be trend.

this, too comes from the air force. i got to see all of this happening overseas and as also was reminds and learned myself when i took over, the contributions of the air force also touch-under civilian lives in ways we might not necessarily even know. it's almost magic sometimes the way these things happen. for example, when you're in your car and you're using your map application to get from point a to point b, that actually is dependent upon global positioning satellites flown and maintained be the u.s. air force. not to mention the timing aspect of gps that allows your cable box to tune in your morning news in the morning as you're having your cup of coffee and trying to catch up on world events. so all of this pertains to the air force and what an impressive air force it is. i'm a huge fan, have been one

throughout my entire career, but, boy to now be part of it is very, very special for me. so, as shantel mentioned, wanted to talk to you about people in our national security. i'm going to zero in particularly on women and particularly women in our air force. i'm going to talk about the uniform side mostly today. i'm a real people person, by the way, so i have learned over the course of my 30-plus years, sometimes it's been in government, sometimes it's been in the private sector, but no matter what you're talking about. even when you're talking about technology and r & d and weapon systems, you're still talking about people. so i'm a real people person. i think that's the crux of anything -- any problem that we're addressing, any solution we need find, comes down to people. so i want to talk about the part of our people that are women in our air force. give you a brief update on where we are in the air force with

respect to opening up additional jobs to women. that's part of the so-called combat integration that the secretary of defense ordered. secretary pin net a, before -- pin net a, before he departed. occupying up the additional jobs is one part of the puzzle but doesn't solve all of the issues for women, so i'd like to talk to you about other challenges women or facing and what i'm going to try to bring to the table to work on that area, and after that, just because i am a people person and i always like to hear stories, i wanted to tell you some of my -- part of my? and some of the lessons learned in my life that have helped me throughout, bother as an individual contributor and as a leader as i've gone along. lastly week like to open it up and let's hear what is on your minds in a q & a period. so as i mentioned when i returned from afghanistan i was so impressed with the professionalism and the dedication of our young airmen

at all levels, from pilots flying combat air patrols to maintainers, who have to fix all of the equipment to the logistics personnel which are hugely important to make sure we have the spare parts and get the fuel where it needs to be. all of this is so important. these are largely young people. they're largely between the ages of 18 and 25, who are doing this work. and this tremendous combat power they hold in their hands on behalf of the united states. so let's talk about combat power and let's talk about integrating women into the force in a fuller capacity. but before that let's good back in time a little bit. i'm going to start with the year 1993 where the department of defense lifted the ban on women flying in combat positions, opening up over 2,000 cockpits to women. and i'm both old enough and proud enough to tell you i was actually there in 1993. this is when i was an assistant

secretary of defense. less -- les as spend was our secretary of defense and i was part of his inner circle. that's was not an easy thing to achieve. other positions opened up across the services. but not everybody was fullie on board with making the changes so there was a certain amount of socializeddation of the idea. didn't go as far as some people wanted. went farther than others cared to have it go, but in 1993 with as spend at the helm is what the traffic would bear at the time. i was proud to be part of that and that effort opened up thousands of additional jobs to women in our air force, particularly the flying force. that same year, dr. sheila woodennal became the first second of the air force who is a woman and the first female service secretary in any of the services. so i'm number two. that is to say the army has never had a female service

secretary, and nor has the navy. so there's still more to do. since that time women have served honorably and have proven they can pretty much do any job where they're qualified, where they're trained, they can do it and they can excel. and then in january of 2013, the 1994 direct combat exclusion for women was rescinded, and that has different effects on different military services. he told all of us, open up those jobs, gift it done within a certain time frame, and if there's a select few that for someown you think can't open up, come back, but the presumption is these jobs need to open up over time. now, for the air force, as some of you may know, we were already leading the pack in terms of integration of women. we pretty much today have 99% of our available positions open to

women. so, put that another way, there's currently about 4,400 jobs that are not open to women. so, the vast majority are already open but there are still some that are closed. the one that are closed are in the areas of some special operations forces, and some positions that serve with army and marine ground combat forces. so we do have certain air force jobs that are on the ground with the ground forces. so, basically we're currently working on an implementation plan to validate gender-neutral job performance standards and we're working closely with the other services and the office of the secretary of defense to gift this done. so, it would be my expectation that these remaining positions, which there's seven career codes, seven career fields -- will be open to women no later than january 1, 2016. and again, we will have some

gender-neutral standards, so that doesn't mean that all women would wish to or could compete for this jobs but those who will be qualified to dos' and wish to do so, these jobs should be opening up. now, opening up jobs to a wider group of skills and qualified people, as far as i'm concerned, maximizes our military capabilities because it provides the greatest available pool possible, from which to choose from. so it makes good national security sense. especially makes good national security sense since we are going to be looking at smaller military in the future, and it's crucial that we have highly qualified, very smart, and effective people in our jobs. so this is really, as far as i'm concerned, strategic imperative, and we have come long way and that's good news. of course there's more to go. but the real goal is for the inclusion of women in national security roles, not to be some

programs that we talk about the program overhere and we update it periodically, eventually i don't want it to be any kind of program. i want it to be just the way we operate. just the way that we and are how we do business. and women should be expected, by the way, not just in the entry level positions in these various jobs, but i also -- my vision is for an air force in which we have women presented at all levels appropriately. but there's challenges to creating this kind of an inclusive organization. i just talked about one. we have to open up the remaining jobs, but there's some others. so, let me tell you what i think actually may be the toughest nut of all to crack for women serving in the air force, and by the way, women in the air force today comprise about 19% overall of our force, which is the highest of any service, but, again, percentages of women and

opening up jobs, this isn't the whole story. so here's what i think we need to do going forward. this is the toughest nut to crack, i think. several nuts. some or more tough than others. first, we need to recruit high-quality women into our force to begin with. that's both on the officer side and it's on the enlisted side. and i think we're doing pretty well. my assessment is we're doing pretty well on that today. i've been both out to the air force academy, which is the number one, i'll call it. premiere way we get new officers into the force. there's other ways as well but i've reviewed their program. and i've also been out to lackland air force base to see how we bring our new enlisted members into the force. so we're gifting pretty good numbers. the numbers could be higher but we're doing pretty well. that's my assessment when it comes to get anymore front door. then win get them in the front

door we need to develop them properly. that mean wes have to get them over time the right opportunities for command, command is very, very important in the military. we have to make sure that the appropriate gates they get the right joint assignments. that's a very important thing in our military. they have to periodically go for professional military education at different gates in their career. these are all important things. there are others but developing our women and making sure they get those opportunities so that when it comes time for promotion, they promote well, and that they compete well for promotion. so once again i think we're doing fairly well in this category, developing our women in the early years. where we start to run into problems is not so much in the early years. where we start to run into problems is in, i'll call it, the the mid-career anytime women

in the military and this comes to retention. there's where the toughest nut of all is to crack. it's retention in the mid-career area. in fact, women in this middle ground period in life leave at twice the rate as men in the military and this is true across the air force. so women are getting out as twice the rate men are when they reach that mid-career point. so, not only is this a challenge for us because our numbers are down at that mid-career point but as you can imagine, as you work up through the ranks, the pool of available women to come pete for those higher level jobs is smaller and smaller and smaller. so it has a rim effect which leads to us not having, at least i think, the right number of women, as many as i'd like to see in the upper echelons as well...

there are separations that occurred. personal circumstances. it could be children, it could be a parent who needs care. that's the number two reason why women leave. the number of deployments. we are coming out of 13, 14 years of persistent war of

persistent operations and women have been fully engaged with that. they too have been deployed so that's a third reason. these are really the top three reasons why women leave us. as i look around the room we have a lot of civilian women here. i'm a civilian woman myself. do any of these sound familiar? trying to balance essentially your professional life with your personal life and in the military you add in those deployments which for the most part we don't see as much at least in the civilian world and before you know it it becomes a very difficult thing to balance. so i think we need to get creative here. we need to get creative to come up with some solutions and try some different things. as an example i recently approved what we are calling it a career intermission pilot program. actually i first heard about this when i was serving on the defense adviser a committee on women in the services so i did it for three years.

i learned about a navy program which has similarities to this. we just approved this pilot program in the air force. it allows active component airmen to take up to a three year break but without losing their place in line so to speak for promotion opportunities and then returned to active duty. you can do whatever you would wish and those three-year period. you could pursue an educational degree. you can care for family members. you could do it for other personal reasons and i want to make clear this is open to all airmen not just women but we will see in this pilot program whether or not we get quite a few women who apply. by the way this won't be open to the entire force. the loose will be a certain number of people and once we reach our numbers we will shut this down. again it's a pilot of graham but whether or not a good many women applied.

this is the type of example where it's a little on the creative side thanks to our friends and may be. we came up with this idea but it's a way to see whether we can do better when it comes to keeping more women in the force. another way to do it is inactive duty to recruit an international garden reserved. so we have a number of initiatives ongoing here. but basically i think this is the toughest and the one i want to try to work on hard over the next several years. okay, let me now shift a little bit and tell you a little bit about me and our chief of staff mark welsh is fond of saying every airman has a story. i'm a new airmen and i would love to share a bit of my story with you. for me it all started in a little town called bronson new jersey so i am a new jersey girl. i grew up there.

my mom still lives there. she is 89 years old and ailing so i totally sympathize and empathize for all of us at that stage of life where we have to reverse roles and now care for parents who are getting old and need a lot of support. anyway i started out in a place called rumson new jersey went right off to college and from college right into graduate school. i went to duke university and then on to columbia university for a master's degree and my background in school was international affairs. that is where i got my degree. when i left columbia i moved up to washington d.c. and started applying for jobs. the first job i landed was through a program called the presidential management intern program. still exist today although i think it's called the presidential management fellowship program i think. back in the stone ages when i went through it was called the pmi program. my first job was with the department of the army. so i started out as an army

civilian but the great thing about the pmi program is you can rotate to other organizations. the idea was to take a broad view of government. i did some time in the arne -- army but had a chance to go to what we call the national security council staff now the nsc that spent six months in the reagan white house on the nsc staff. you can imagine to a young person that was very exciting. then i also had a six-month stent where i went to the house armed services committee staff and i worked on the military personnel and compensation subcommittee as an intern. well, as luck would have it for me i left and went back to the army and the house armed services committee staff within months had a real opening for a real job and because i had been an intern and because they knew me and like to meet and i was young and trainable and so forth

they offered this new job to me. it was an entry-level job and that is what launched me on what became a 10 year career on the house armed services committee for the most part focusing on fish -- people issues oteri personnel and compensation. from there i went on to the pentagon where i did five years as the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs so here we go again with the national guard and reserve forces. i became deeply ingrained in the issues that affect our national guard and reserve. all of the issues but in particular people and like i said it all comes down to people in my opinion. then i got out of government. i had done 17 years at that point. got out and went into the private sector and actually had three jobs in the private sector. i started out with united technologies corp. and did a couple of years there. i went on to business executives for national security which is a nonprofit organization and then

i went to saic which is science applications international. i had a variety of jobs there ending as being the president of the technical and engineering sector so i was actually running a segment of our business there. as i see does i.t. solutions and technology services and solutions for the government, mostly the military. so you see the thread that is always linking my career together who is iced and military issues as earned national defense. i have always been a civilian. never served in uniform. always served as a civilian but i served as well as the way look at it including my time in industry. you can get our work done in government without our industry partners. i look back on my career and i'm very blessed to have done all the things and met the people and learned all that i have learned. i'm blessed for doing what i'm doing now. along the way i developed and by

the way i like comedians. you watch letterman but i usually dvr it because i can stay up that way. of course i like the top 10. of course i have to have a top 10 list so i have my top 10 lessons that i have learned in my life and i have learned some of these the hard way and some of them the not so hard way but they have served me pretty well both as an individual contributor a leader, a mother and members of my family. i want to offer these to you because there might ease some nuggets in there that would be helpful to you in your lives and your career. the first lesson i learned is i call it the prepared to zig-zag in your life. if you haven't already been thrown a curveball or two in your life i am pretty sure you will be. i have been thrown many curve.

i have been thrown curveballs professionally as well as personally and you have to be prepared to pivot. you have to be prepared to zig-zag. whatever your original idea is and what you want to do or the track you think you ought to take it may not work out that way so be prepared to seize whatever that new opportunity is and if one door closes keep in mind another door will open. it's ultimately what you will make out of it or you i have changed jobs. i've been in government and i've been out of government. saic i was there a lot of years have had seven different jobs at saic. i got caught up in downsizing ships. some i liked, some were rather distressing to me at the time they happen but the point is be prepared to zig-zag. it's not necessarily the way you think it's going to be but that doesn't mean that they can't be great. my second lesson is seek a mentor.

do this no matter where you are in your career and then when you get to the point in your career where you have had enough experience be a mentor to someone else. mentorship has been huge for me. and you need to help one another throughout the process as well. i have never been program or i applied for tonight didn't get in it so i am shut out. no, you are not. all of mine have been informal arrangements so i would really recommend anybody who has been there and done it and has knowledge that you don't yet have or contacts and can open doors for you seek that personnel. he would be surprised how willing people are to sit down and have coffee and give some advice. that is really what mentorship is all about. number three is build an value

and network of insider current organizations and outside your current organization and for heaven's sakes as you value this network value means keep in touch with them regularly. in other words don't just call them up every 10 years when you are about to need a job for some kind of favor or something like that. you have got to to build an value and keep in touch over time. my network, i consider my network all my friends. most of the friends i have in life i have met in different jobs over time. my very first boss when i was an intern on the house armed services committee staff was a great mentor to me. i will give you one example. i kept in touch with him even as we went our separate ways and we always had lunch, hell or high water every year so we kept in touch. would you believe 20 years later after i was an intern and he had

long since gone he was the one who'd are earning an annual lunch introduced me to the saic and introduced me to an opportunity at saic. that's the power of keeping in touch with people. not only will you learn from them but they will introduce you to opportunities so seek a mentor and build and value those mentors into your greater network and keep in touch with people as you go forward. my fourth lesson learned is the importance of competence. build competence and whatever you are doing. that mind being getting in it should field in your degree of of -- it's on-the-job training volunteering for extract entities if you can't so it can be education training or on-the-job training but make sure that you are competent in what you are doing. terribly terribly important because that network and help you open doors and might even

help you get a job and if you don't perform on the job you are going to last very long. number five is the importance of communication. communicate, communicate, communicate. i know you have heard this before but i'm going to tell you in my opinion at least half if not more than half of communication is lifted -- listening. be it good and active listener. you will learn a lot and you will be better be able to put yourself in other people's shoes and empathize with their position and what they are going through well as learn from them. so communicate, that's written and that's verbal and it's very important to be an active listener as you go through your career. number six is be a role model for the way you want others to behave and that means on the job and by the way it means off duty as well as far as i'm concerned. it's particularly important the higher up you go because the higher up you go people will recognize you and your

profession. they will be watching you. they will be watching your movements and how you talk to people and how you conduct yourself in your private life. always keep that in mind and in the air force we have what i call our core values, integrity, service and excellence. i think is a good core values do matter what your organization is. integrity, service and excellence so be that role model always. which is closely related to lesson learned number seven, ethics. the importance of ethics. and by the way one of the things that has kept me very busy in the last three months was a major failure of integrity, our core value number one. it occurred in our missile community. the icbm community and i will take a minute to talk about this. to get dems to ethics. this was a cheating situation that occurred and by the way it grew out of a drug investigation

and cell phones were confiscated as part of this drug investigation. in the forensic analysis of the cell phones it was discovered that those who are in the missile community and in charge of our icbm nuclear weapons had cheated on a proficiency tests. i think i was two or three weeks on the job when this came to our attention at the senior levels. the first thing i asked was holy cow, does this mean that the people who are in charge of our nuclear weapons are not proficient, that they had to cheat on a test to get by? first of all let me answer that question and reassure all of you the answer is yeah. the answer is the nuclear mission is safe and secure and it is covered. there were many reasons why this happened. number one reason why this cheating happened was a failure of integrity. by the way some of them actually

cheated but then there was this other group who knew about it and didn't do anything. they sort of said it's not my business. i don't want to be a snitch. i'm just going to let it go by so there were two categories of people. they both failed in integrity as far as i'm concerned. this is the importance of ethics, the importance of living those ethics as well as if you see something in your environment personal integrity requires you to do something about it and this is where the failures were. we are still working through that but the nuclear mission is safe and secure. i do want to assure you of that but it's as part of this we are doubling down in the air force on the matter of ethics, core values because whether it comes to people misbehaving with government funds or what it comes down to sexual assault, there are many other ways where people fail in their integrity.

the vast majority of people don't but some people do so we are doubling down to make sure we remind everybody at all times how important ethics are. number eight is to be a he. that is to say nobody likes a debbie downer. pick it up a notch and be up needed all you do. this is important if you're an individual contributor. no boss is going to like to hear about nonstop problems unless you can offer solutions. if you are the boss you have got to help your people work through problems and see that silver lining. you can't just be all gloom and doom. if you can't see your way clear to better times are people certainly won't see their way clear either soapy upbeat as a leader as well as an individual contributor. number nine persistence pays off. it really does. it paid off for me. i had seven jobs that saic.

some of them i thought can i really do this again but i was persistent i hung in there and the next job was the best job of ball. that is really the story of my life. persistence really does pay off. we have tough budget times ahead and we have got some issues, person -- personnel issues. we will be persistent and there will be persistent leadership and focus. that's going to pay off as well. the number 10 lesson learned is along the way make sure that you have fun in your life. make sure that you love the family, that you love the friends and that you have some hobbies outside the workplace or that you enjoy your church or you get involved with your neighbor -- neighborhood. whatever it may be make sure that you do that for yourself as well. along the way of my 33 year career i am proud to tell you it did raise two children. at times i was a single parent

so it's not an easy deal but i had two children who are now 29 and 28 which is pretty incredible since i'm only 39 myself. [laughter] but anyway they grow up on you awfully fast so enjoy them while they are young. enjoy them throughout the entire period. i also have a wonderful husband who is not my first husband that he is a wonderful husband and we are still newlyweds. we have been married about a year now and now that the kids are growing up i have a couple of hobbies that i'm working on. i'm not saying that i'm great at them but i'm working on them and i'm enjoying them. it is important to have that balance life. you will be happier for it and if anybody has read the book lean in which i have read it's a good book. it's an interesting book. of course you look at these things than you think did i do it that way or should i have done it that way but i got some good pointers from it.

there has also been an article of late which is called lean back which takes the opposite view, that we were so busy multitasking and trying to be super women and do everything all at once it's absolutely exhausting so there are times, why don't we just a little bit more lean back. so we got lean in and we got lean back and i'm going to give you a third. i'm into rock 'n roll. i think you've got to do a little bit of all of that and you've got to be able to tweak it up for tweak it down depending on what's happening with the family and all of the other factors that come into play. that's pretty much as i look back i didn't call it rock 'n roll but that was pretty much the way i did it and all the while my children were young i will tell you i had very definite priorities. my priorities were the kids and my husband and my job.

my priorities were not cooking and cleaning and those sorts of things. there are times you just don't sweat the small stuff for the smaller stuff. if there were dust bunnies around my house who carried? so what if you didn't have gourmet cooking. i was a simple cook. veins like that. i just didn't care. i wanted to do my job and i would come home and focus on the kids. that was sort of the way i balance. i will tell you my kids are grown now. i'm not sure i could be secretary of the air force and do a good job if i had young children at this stage so there you go with there are times to lean in and times two lean back in the way i would put it gets a little bit rock 'n roll. as i mentioned in the beginning for me it's always about people. whatever sector you work in if you take care of the people that you leave if you give them information and listen to them

you will be amazed at what you can accomplish together. i know that i have been throughout my tenure throughout my different jobs and i'm certainly amazed now by our airmen that i am privileged to serve alongside. i want to stop at this point and thank you very much again for the invitation and thank you all for what you are doing in your organizations to try to present a much more inclusive national security realm for women and men. so thank you. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> the thank you very much for that personal touch at the end and sharing about your families. i think in particular the notion of zigzagging and rock 'n roll wayne is a notion that is well taken. we have about 10 or 15 minutes for questions. please identify yourself and keep your questions brief and we will take two or three at the same time. yes, please. >> thank you very much for speaking to us today secretary james. i really appreciate it if and i'm sure the people here can say thank you for your insight your top 10 as a rock 'n roll fan, lovely. my name is dr. laura corr and i have two questions.

my first questions about education and integration. are you aware that the air war college has only two women on faculty and i was wondering if there are initiatives to address that issue and my second question as i am one of six published academics in terrorists radicalization and rehabilitation and -- and i am curious if you saw the military may be researching his programs as other countries have adopted these as part of the national security strategy? thank you very much. >> it hi. thank you. i am tamara crouse and i'm an air force billion but i have the flexibility to work days and have every other friday off so this happens to be my friday off. i thought it was an opportunist to be here and i appreciate the programs. when you talked about the transition and intermission program.

i'm about your age but i was older in life and i have a 13-year-old. i was wondering if that was going to be opened up to air force civilians? [inaudible] >> as far as the air war college know i did not know that there are only two women on the faculty. you have just given me an idea here. i don't have an immediate answer to that but that doesn't seem like a very good representation. i will also say i'm not familiar with the research you talked about and you said terrorist. >> deradicalization. is that going on at the air war college at all? would you send me a paper on that? do you have a published paper on

that? i would be interested in reading that because i'm just not familiar with it. >> there we go. is that better? >> hello maam. [laughter] my name is karen appel and you had mentioned one of the three main reasons for air force women departing the service is that midcareer level. which is the driver of not having enough senior leaders at the senior level so given that imbalance between females and

males how do you handle conflict management at that level with your male peers while still maintaining those critical coalitions and relationships? >> ellen herring. i am a senior fellow with the combat integration. i am a little concerned about the fact that you are taking all three to potentially open those which means he won't see women in those elite positions for another three years because the pipeline is so long. we actually want to see women getting in those elite positions in 2018. i don't know why and don't understand why the air force is taking the full three years since we only have a few positions are many that are close but they are the elite positions with long training pipelines and you are losing women today who are interested

in those positions. i heard from him last week who said i'm fed up with waiting for these positions to open up. it just seems like why are we waiting so long to open those positions? i am curious if you could speed that up or put pressure on the service to make changes sooner? >> i think we should. that is the deadline if we can do it faster you are right, why not? let me take that back and see if we can speed it up. the general -- gender neutral standards i know from my time it has proven to be a difficult thing reticulated for the marine corps and more ticker -- particularly for the army. maybe less so for the air force let me take that back and see if there is a way to speed it up. as far as the question on how do we do conflict resolution you

are talking broadly or are you just talking about the military-to-military? just broadly where we have fewer women at the senior levels. my opinion, think women are actually very good at conflict resolution. i think it goes to that listening skill that maybe women tend to have somewhat better. i think it also goes to bat empathy skill that i talked about. it goes to the importance of confidence. if you want to get to that level if you had better know your stuff so again i think the challenge is how do we get more women graduated into these senior career areas and as i mentioned that is one of the things that i'm trying to work on in my realm of the air force. >> yes, please. >> it hi. mary carnes.

i recently graduated from the school of aerospace studies at maxwell air force base maxwell air force base in wilder did my research on diversity related topic that included a case study on women in combat. one of the things i founded my research there and as i am continuing in my dissertation is not everyone sees the value in focusing on diversity. what would you say is the way you are able to convince people and could you speak about diversity as diversity of thought and its broad terms? how are you able to convince senior leaders around you when you are mostly looking at males to believe in it the same way that you do? >> i think any people will buy into the diversity of thought piece. it's when you get into the diversity of gender and diversity of ethnicity and then people say are you trying to put quotas there and so forth. to me it's all diversity.

we all come from different backgrounds and so i think times are changing in this regard. i think most senior people nowadays do believe in diversity and are trying to get there from here. it's particularly difficult i think in the uniformed military just because there are these gates that must be filled. it's under the current system they must be filled. i mentioned some of them. it's command. it's military education at some levels. it's a variety of different things that you simply can't grow a colonel in five years. you have to have 20 some years to grow a colonel. in the civilian world i think there's more opportunity to skip if you will, in other words to leapfrog depending on what you have done in your background and whether people are more willing to take a chance on you. i too see kind of a sea change in people believing in the concept of diversity

particularly diversity of thought which i think includes gender ethnicity and the other forms. >> we had a question behind you. >> i work in strategy and policy for asia. is at the kennedy school and i had a research project in which elected leadership's role in mental health in the service. the statistics have remained pretty much the same despite our 900 activities that we have offered to servicemembers and their families and i was curious as to what initiatives and at the air force will we implement over the next two years that energize leadership to take ownership and responsibility for their people at the lowest levels all the way through the ranks? >> on mental health issues. >> my name is --

and i really enjoyed secretary james and lightning talk. i'm just trying to share some insight from you. coming from a pashtun background and in virginia having computer science skills as the expedients of teaching at the university level and having -- a single parent i am left on my own now since all of them have grown up and married. i wondered how can i be in the right place and where can i apply my skills, expediency's as a woman having gone through the inequalities and unknowns? >> okay. >> one more question, the last one there.

>> i am janine jacobs and i'm an innovation strategists. we have talked about a lot of really wicked problems. gender equality, national security at a time of decreasing budgets. if there is ever a time for innovation this is it. what is the strategy of the air force to get the best ideas from the middle and the bottom and service those up to the top? >> among my many nontalents is remembering things. the first one i know about mental health so let me get to that one. if there is one area of mental health that i am most interested in i am most concerned about across-the-board is the area of ptsd and to the extent that bleeds into the worst of all which is suicide. we have been tracking suicide rates pretty heavily in the air

force and i'm quite certain that is the case for the army and the navy and so forth. there is good encouraging news but there is not so encouraging news. for example the encouraging part of it is if you look at statistics and any suicide is terrible and even to many but if you look at statistics and you compared to the civilian world and so forth we have been running fairly consistently, i want to say between two and 4% of the suicide rate. again, to hide but when you compare it to the other services it's not too bad. it has been kind of consistent. i think we have quite a good program as a community-based program. i have reviewed it. it sounds pretty good to me and the commanders talk about these matters regularly and bring and what are called helping agencies regularly. they have airman wingmen days where they talk about taking care of one another and

worrisome signs for people to be on the lookout for. the not so good part of the story as we have seen a bit of an uptick in the first part of this year. what is going on there? i'm not sure. it's worrisome and we have to keep an eye on it. the number one reason is i've asked these questions is not so much the related but more relationship issues. it tends to be relationship days. the other thing i will say is de-stigmatizing generally mental health issues is something we all have to work on. i think we are making progress. more to go but i think we have made progress where people are probably more comfortable today, not comfortable enough but

comfortable coming forward and asking for help. i believe the commanders out there in the field want to help people. they don't want bad things to happen or for mental health issues to spin out of control but it's de-stigmatizing that in getting people comfortable coming forward. you were saying, have you been out of the workforce for a a while? you said you raise your children and now you are looking for a way to rock 'n roll again and leaned in a little bit? [inaudible] it's like starting from scratch. >> i didn't talk about this at all but one way particularly if you have had different changes and have taken years off and so forth one way is to find an organization where you might one

day like to work and volunteer there just to get your foot in the door. that's one way. [inaudible] >> i think persistence here. network. >> and not let yourself be down. the last question is a big question about how do you stimulate creativity and as you yourself have said we need to be creative in this challenging environment and world so how can you do that in an institution like the air force? >> when we can do it and i have given you examples of things we have tried and would like to try and other areas is you asked the airman directly for some ideas. we have had a campaign going on for sometime now. our vice chief of staff led it and it's called every dollar

counts. here we are in a world of very tight budgets. we are worried that we can't make ends meet and periodically you hear about terrible waste and stupid things that waste money left and right. a lot of this stuff doesn't come to your attention until the blows up in the newspapers. how do we get people at the frontline to identify smarter ways of doing things and proposed those up the line so we have a chance of implementing them. that is the spirit of every dollar counts. people have responded and have come up with all kinds of ideas. it doesn't mean that you can implement them all. sometimes they don't understand the full framework and sometimes sometimes the idea is workable but we have come up with several i want to start another campaign. i call it stopped doing stuff. that's not a catchy title. we are getting smaller as an air

force and yet we don't ever seem to stop doing anything. i'm not talking about the five core missions. that's the crux of what we do but there are all kinds of ants larry things that we do. inspections and training and some of that is crucial. i'm convinced that not all crucial. sometimes when you say why are we doing that we have been doing that since 1975. remember why we started doing some of the things we do. i'm working on this, stop doing stuff. you asked the airman directly and you look to the other services. what good ideas can we pick up? we told you about the career and her mission program. >> please join me in thanking a

secretary james. for opening up with some of your personal stories and we will launch a con to s. dashed contest over twitter to give you a better title. >> thank you. thank you. thanks so much. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

nexa discussion about marijuana legalization. voter initiatives in two states colorado and washington have made marijuana possession illegal for recreational users. panel said the new america foundation discussed how the

state-by-state approach to drugs affects federal policy and law enforcement. this is an hour and a half. >> hi folks. have a seat please. we are here today to talk about marijuana legalization. i promise that is the last puns you will hear from me on the subject. it is very important subject. i'm just going to say a few words to set this up. i think we probably have a great diversity of opinions in this small room about what should be the future of marijuana in the united states. we find ourselves in a moment where in the world as we find it is no longer a question of whether marijuana is going to be legal in many parts of the united states.

it's a question of how it's going to be regulated, taxed and controlled if at all. so today we have a great panel of folks who have, from literally all parts of the continent to give different perspectives on what we should do going forward in the way of regulating and controlling marijuana. i think without any further ado i will introduce my colleague paul glastris editor of washington monthly, who will introduce the rest of the panel so very much. >> thank you everybody. thanks for joining us today. i am grateful to fill longman my colleague at the "washington monthly" and a senior research fellow here at new america

foundation and i want to thank new america foundation for hosting this event. this event started off as a package of stories of the latest issue of the "washington monthly" called how to save marijuana legalization and the concept is that as phil said legalization is happening. we have some grave fears about how it's going to roll out and so we publish this package of stories which was anchored by mark kleiman and jonathan culkin's and jonathan rauch. today we are talking about that another aspects of the subject. let me introduce our panelists and we will get right to it. mark kleiman is a professor of public policy in the u.s. -- ucla school of public affairs and consultant to washington state and its her wanted

utilization efforts. he is the author of marijuana costs of abuse costs of control and co-author of drug policy what everyone needs to know. he edits the journal of drug policy analysis and has worked for the u.s. department of justice for the city of boston as a legislative assistant to les aspin harvard's school and the "washington monthly." i hope by god all of that. markets and honored to have your pay we also have alison holcomb the criminal justice director of the aclu in washington state previously she served as a vice president of the washington association of criminal defense lawyers and shared the legal framework group of the king county bar association's drug policy project. in 2008 awarded the pauline sabin award in recognition of the importance of women in

leadership positions and dedicated to the ending of marijuana prohibition. we are also pleased to have sue rusche co-founder and chief executive officer of national families of action founded in 1977 and has helped shaped the drug revenge and field under her direction. an fia has helped parents formed drug prevention groups and volunteer drug prevention movement and contribute to the two-thirds reduction in past drug use among adolescents and young adults with a 500% drop in daily marijuana use from high school seniors that drop occurring between 1979 and -- finally we have jonathan rauch a senior fellow at the brookings institution here in washington d.c.. jonathan is the author of six

books in and many articles on public policy culture and government and an expert in the field of marijuana legalization. he is a country being at editor to the "national journal" and the atlantic and a recipient of the 2005 national magazine awars equivalent to the pulitzer prize. without further ado i would like to invite mark kleiman up to start us off. >> thank you so much paul and thank you for setting this up and to all of you for coming out. it's an honor to be part of this group. i am violating my religious tenets by having a powerpoint but i promise you there is only one slide. when we talk about drug policy in general but cannabis policy both sides of the debate casts

positions in moralistic terms leading to a higher ratio of heat to light -- so i want to suggest that when we think about cannabis legalization we think in terms of advantages and disadvantages. it seems to me the beginning of wisdom in this business is to acknowledge that both good and bad things will happen as a result of cannabis legalization. 40,000 people will not be behind bars. lawbreakers will not earn $40 billion a year for league -- illegal activity. state and local and the federal government will add a couple million dollars a year on enforcement. there's a potential for substantial revenue to the state on the order of $20 billion a year. and 33 million people who smoked marijuana but don't break any

other law will be suddenly on the wrong side of the law. there's again and personal liberty and again and welfare for those cannabis users who do not have a drug problem. the addition is the number of people who do have the drug problem and that is not a tiny number. two to 4 million with the reasonable guess of a number of americans currently in the grip of substance abuse disorders are the primary drug involved is cannabis. those people account for a small fraction of cannabis users breathe 33 million people in the survey said they used cannabis last year but they account for more than 90% of the cannabis sold. they are not preferable but central to the legal market as well.

so we are worried about the increase in the number of those people and in the number of high school students and middle school students now who are using cannabis and having that interview -- interfere with their education and personal lives. making the drug cheaper and more available will not reduce it. if you are a casual cannabis user with an adult income two or three or $4 it cost you to get stoned is probably not an infraction on your budget and in fact you're probably spending more on doritos. it's hard to see casual users would be influenced by a drop in price but if you are smoking a joint today which is not the most extreme pattern of cannabis use and the price matters to you and if you are a teenager it matters. it seems to be it's crucial to think in terms of price.

as we designed cannabis legalization we have to be thinking about designing reform of legalization the gets us the benefits of getting rid of -- with as little of the additional drug abuse as we can get. if the goal is to get no additional drug abuse i don't think that is what we are looking at. my claim is that the alcohol model, private for-profit production and sale with essentially unlimited marketing and relatively modest taxes and regulations almost entirely keeping kids from buying it directly from the stores. that's the current alcohol model. i would claim that's not satisfactory model for alcohol and equally in satisfactory for cannabis. i think that's the worst possible legalization now, and that's true in part because part commercialization focuses the

attention of the leading industry on the heavy users who are their big market so they will strongly resist any form of regulating that will reduce the growth in cannabis use and strongly resist anything that -- now we see the cannabis it industry associate and has hired a lobbyist and we can expect that point of view is going to be heard. there are people in the cannabis legalization moved whose goal having cannabis available to adults who want to use it responsibly is consistent that the cannabis industry has purposes that are completely inconsistent and therefore it seems to be a bad idea to let them take over. as they are like we too. the current process of state by state legalization whether it's

carefully as it was done in washington that process is likely to lead us to something like alcohol model. if we do that in enough states when the congress finally gets around to legalizing it we will be locked into that model which again i think is probably the second worst outcome compared to leaving the laws where they are. my argument is we need federal action to structures state choice and we need it now. whether that's politically feasible i leave to people who are wiser than i am. it seems to me our goal ought to be to have some presidential candidate in 2016 say i'm not against all marijuana legalization. that seems doomed me to be a plausible thing to say keep the

price from. when you think about and prevention. one question that hasn't come up is how much training or there are a whole set of questions about how we get information to consumers and way to get out of that and other problems as be

the market. i think that gets around the first amendment issue ..