issue of civilian control over the military and i am extremely concerned by the precedent that your assuming this office would set. and i think you, in some respects, share that concern. because civilian control of the military is a bedrock principle going to the founding republic. i'm not going to elaborate on my reasons for feeling so strongly about it. i would like to place on the record a statement to that regard if there is no objection, mr. chairman. thank you. but let me say very bluntly, if there were ever a case for a waiver of that principle, it is you at this moment in our history. senator comb made reference to your heart and caring for your troops and their caring for you and i believe that your

appreciation for the costs of war in blood, treasure and lives and the impact on veterans afterward will enable you to be a check on rash and potentially illinois consider ill considered use of war, by a president who perhaps lacks that same appreciation. so i think you will have a critical role as secretary of defense in providing a check on that kind of action. and in that regard, i want to focus on one cause of war, post traumatic stress disorder. the chairman and i work together to support a measure called the clay hunt suicide prevention act. i thank him again for his

leadership on that focuses on the difficulties that veterans have and the impact in causing suicide among veterans. again, invisible and often disregarded costed of war. 20,000 veterans everyday still commit suicide in the greatest country in the history of the world. i would like a commitment from you that you will address issues of post traumatic stress and veteran answers work with the v.a. on attempting to fight this skewerage of suicide in our military. >> senator, this cuts to the very heart of any of us here who have ordered troops into harm's way and how could they come home to this great country, carrying something that puts them into that sort of despair. i'm guided largely by dr. jonathan shea from boston, from cambridge, and what he has done in his study of this issue. and you have my full commitment on this. >> and you and i have also discussed veterans of past wars

who may have been discharged with less than honorable status because of pts that was undiagnosed at the time. partly because it wasn't even regarded as a condition or diagnosable condition. and i think you expressed your interest in addressing that issue as well. >> yes. there are appeal processes, but i need to look at those processes and whether or not the framing guidance to those appeal boards takes those into account and i don't know that right now. but i will look at it. >> general, you expressed your commitment in response to previous questions to the columbia class of replacement program, and i welcome that commitment. i think it is essential as part of our nuclear triad. you and i have also discussed the virginia attack class, submarine program, two a year.

i assume you will remain committed to that program because it is so vital to our undersea strategic superiority. one of the areas where we have acy metric advantage. >> absolutely, senator. >> and i think you agree, too, because you mention our support for israel, that the f-35 joint strike fire pro dpram gram is it to our strategic edge in the world and to our allies, like israel, and others around the world, including nato, that will depend on it. >> yes, sir. many of our allies have bet their air spearerity on the f-35 program and it bond us tightly together with them. >> thank you very much. thank you, mr. chairman. >> at the end of this morning's senate confirmation hearing for retired marine corps general mattis, the committee passed a waiver that would allow him to head up the pentagon. congress passed that law in 1950

that requires a military person to be retired for seven years before being able to serve as defense secretary. the vote today in the senate armed services committee was 24-3 with senators blumenthal, warren and jill brand opposing the waiver. now on c-span 3, house armed services committee will have a chance to weigh in on the same matter. the waiver only approved one time for george marshal who president harry truman appointed as defense secretary in 1947. again, this is live coverage on the house armed services committee on c-span 3.