i will forever be humbled by their bravery, their commitment to service, and their loyalty to one another. serving our nation in uniform is a privilege, especially during times of war. like my grandfather, my father, and my brothers, i am proud to have the opportunity to serve with some of the finest soldiers today. not only doing our mission in afghanistan, but on all of my deployments and tours in my 11 years in the army. our military service has strengthened, thanks to the tremendous support provided by military families and the american public. the strength of my wife and my family during my service is a key factor in my morale, in my will to fight.

my loving wife has been a constant source of strength and inspiration. thank you, tammy. you are my rock. and thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] defense department ceremony honoring armor secretary of state hillary clinton. after that, the astronaut charles duke. on the next "washington journal" a political roundtable with david winston and steve mcmahon on issues facing congress, including the sequester and federal spending. then cybersecurity with larry

clinton. also, north korea's nuclear program. "washington journal" live at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> on thursday, defense secretary leon panetta hosted a ceremony honoring former secretary of state hillary clinton. this event includes remarks by joint chiefs of staff chairman general martin dempsey. this is 45 minutes. >> present.♪

[playing "star spangled banner"]

>> please be seated. ladies and gentlemen, the 18th chairman of the joint chief of staff, general martin dempsey. [applause]

>> secretaries, flag officers, our guests today from the department of state, happy valentine's day. [laughter] the lore of martyrdom says that saint valentine was martyred because he was marrying soldiers who were forbidden to marry by the roman law of the day. he was a man who loved soldiers and servicemen and women. it is fitting in that regard that we are here to honor a recent and great secretary of state hillary clinton. she has been an enormous champion of military servicemen and women and their families.

it is a privilege to honor one of the most dedicated public servants. this is the highest award that i can present to a civilian. the secretary is no stranger to awards. we know that you have eight honorary degrees, a woodrow wilson award for public service, an airport named after you. 11 straight years as the most admired woman in the world and a grammy. i did not know about the grammy, as she actually has one. i'm jealous of that. [laughter] she has a grammy for her book "it takes a village." she was also named as the irish american of the year. now i'm really jealous. [laughter] william may not earn quite as much recognition, but he did have the clever or just up in alaska. you two have similar backgrounds roots in new york state and faithfully serving presidents

that were once your rivals. he went on a trip around the world after he retired. our secretary has flown enough miles to circle the globe 36 times. you have been airborne or the equivalent of 87 days during your tenure as secretary of state. that is a lot of airplane food. you have been an exceptional representative of the men and women of the department of state, working tirelessly in the aftermath of the arab spring. for those of us in uniform, we are very much appreciated so we can avoid the use of force but we remain ready to do so if necessary. you have moved diplomacy into the 21st-century. your recognize there are limits

to hard power. you use both hard power and soft power. you utilize social media and town halls. you have been one of the staunchest supporters of the military more than any secretary of state in my career. i expect you will slow down a bit. maybe you can add a tony award for your grammy award. would you join me?

>> hillary clinton will be receiving an award. secretary hillary clinton, distinguished herself by superior service while serving as a secretary of state from 21, january 2009 to 1 february, 2013. she has provided outstanding support of all operational efforts of the joint military forces rolled wide, executing her smart power strategy of combining military strength with capacity and global economics, aid, and technology. she enhanced the role of diplomatic and defense initiatives in the international arena. capitalizing on this effort, it she instituted a diplomacy and developmental review for the department that mirrored the defense review to all our endeavors.

secretary clinton' success in the department of state resulted in an expanded role of global issues and greatly facilitated the respect of military groups on every continent. visiting more than 100 countries. she has been an exceptional example of the commitment to fostering better relations abroad and to directly supporting our troops in those areas. most noteworthy in her years of federal service, she has instantly and an advocate of all personal programs and initiatives that have enhanced the lives of military personnel and their families. her accomplishments reflect upon herself, the joint staff, and the department of defense. [applause]

please be seated. ladies and gentlemen, the 23rd secretary of defense, leon panetta. [applause] >> thank you. what a great honor to be able to recognize this very special

person. all the leaders of the department, friends, colleagues, distinguished guests, we are truly delighted to recognize someone who is a dear friend to me, someone i have been working with and for over the last 20 years. a strong and dedicated partner of the department of the defense. without question, one of the finest public servants of our time. this is as marty raised, probably a great valentine's day present for all of us at the department. the second best valentines present would be to allow sylvia and i to get the hell out of town. [laughter]

i feel like it is groundhog day around here. as first lady, the senator from new york, and as the 67th secretary of state, hillary clinton has been an advocate for the u.s. military. that is really why we honor her today. she has been a champion for our service members and veterans. she has been a forceful voice for american leadership in the world. this morning we are honored to be able to honor her the highest award of this department.

it is the highest award we can bestow. as i said, i'm extremely proud of my association with hillary over these last two decades. about 20 years ago last month when i first joined the clinton administration as director of the office of management and budget, it was a different world then. think about the political challenges we had then. health care issues, partisan gridlock, budget deficit. [laughter] on second thought, the only thing that has changed is that hillary and i are older and perhaps a little wiser and a little less patient, particularly with political dysfunction, a little less tolerant of b.s. in general.

and it is probably a good thing at this point in time that we have a chance to get some damn rest. [laughter] i'm going to have a broad smile as she does hopefully in a few days. [laughter] i have a hard time -- [laughter] you know, my office is packed up. i'm ready to go. it's like, all right. [applause]

for four years i had the honor of serving the clinton administration both as director of omb and as chief of staff, i had the opportunity to work with her very closely. she was interested in issues and involved in the important issues. health care, women's rights, and children's rights, all the issues she fought for and pioneered. her passion for the issues that we deal with. the issues we confront in this country, you can study these issues and read about them, but the only way you deal with the problems is to have the passion for the problems that people face and try to find some way to help people achieve a better

life. that is what i saw in her, that passion to try to help fellow citizens. for these reasons, i was delighted to have the opportunity when i was asked to join the obama administration to come back and work alongside her again as part of the national security team. as part of that team, i witnessed early on how hard she worked and dedicated she is and how she truly develop i think one of the best diplomatic skills as secretary of state of anyone that i have known in that

capacity. she has the understanding to see the problem that people are facing. she had the ability to connect with the leaders of the world and understand the challenges and issues that they had to confront. it takes that. you have got to be a human being in these jobs. you cannot to be a robot. you cannot just read the talking points. you have got to have a sense of what others are facing and who they are and what they are about and what worries them. i think having worked with president clinton, one of the great capabilities he had was to always make other world leaders understand what is in their national interest. not is what is in the u.s.

interest, but what is in their interest. hillary has that same capability to make others what is in their interest. in my past role as cia director, she has tried to understand the importance of intelligence. she understood the importance of doing everything we could do to be able to go after those who would attack our country on 9/11. as a senator, she saw the terror of that moment first hand. she never lost sight of we had to after those who attack us on 9/11 and use every capability we had. during the bin laden operation,

there is a movie out on this. [laughter] you know, the guy who plays me is not quite right -- [laughter] i mean, my preference would have been pacino. [laughter] but you know, i have been asked about that. i lived through that operation. there is no way you can take all the work that was done even in the last four years or two years of that operation that i was involved in. you can put that into a two-hour movie. the fact is that there was a tremendous amount of teamwork involved both by our

intelligence and military officials. they did a tremendous job. it came down to a tough decision that the president had to make. god bless him, he made a tough decision. hillary clinton sat in that room and tried to work through all of the issues. a lot of different views and opinions, but she was always there. i deeply appreciated her support. it has been even more rewarding to become secretary of defense and developed a very close partnership with the state department. this partnership enveloped with my predecessor, bob gates.

as someone who has been in and out of washington for the last almost 50 years, i know from personal experience that rivalry can hurt the relationship between the department of state and the department of defense. that kind of rivalry is very bad for both departments in the country. you really do need a strong partnership between the state department and the defense department. there is so much at stake. you need to work together. put your egos aside and work together on the issues that you need to confront. it is indispensable to the security of the nation. during the time that we work together, hillary and i did all we could to sustain the tightest possible bonds between ourselves and our department. together we have dealt with some very tough issues.

we dealt with a lot of the threats that confronted this country across the world. we have taken part in many tough debates and tough policy discussions on the hill and at the white house involving syria, terrorist attacks, and our own defense strategy. we have also traveled to some of the same meetings with foreign counterparts here, overseas, nato summits, heads of state visits. i do not think many people recognize how long meetings and sleepless travel and endless conferences and tough west -- questioning

can bring to people together because most of the time you're trying to figure out where the hell you are at and you are walking in circles and you have got to look at each other and say, we now have to face up to what we have to do to try to deal with the situation that confronted us. in all of those discussions, hillary has always brought us back to earth with the right argument at the right time. her ability to be pragmatic about what it took to get something done is part of her genius as a leader. the ability to cut their it and to listen to all of the arguments, but in the end to cut through it and make the decision that has to be made. she is honest and forceful. she is a persuasive voice for doing what is right for the american people.

i would rather have her on my side then be against her because she is so good in making her argument. more often than not, she and i have stood side-by-side in making our recommendations. the president has faced difficult choices in the middle east. because of her leadership, our nation's diplomat and development experts are working toward a common mission with the men and women of the department of defense. i'm confident our successes will sustain the bonds that we have dealt the two in department of defense and the state department. our personnel are putting themselves at risk from afghanistan to north africa, in the middle east and asian pacific and making great, personal sacrifices in order to prevent conflict and to help

achieve the american dream of giving our children a better life. that dream has been hillary clinton. the department of defense recognizes her for her great work in helping all of us to better defend this nation and to provide that better life. in my time in and out of government, hillary clinton is one of the most informed, passionate, and dedicated public servants i have had the privilege to serve alongside. she has devoted her life to expanding opportunities for everyone, to build a better future for this country and the world. she believes everyone deserves a chance to fulfill their dreams and aspirations. it was her inspiration that encouraged me to move forward and to be able to bring down the last barriers for women in the

department of defense and to give them the ability to have a chance to engage in combat. thank you for the inspiration. 70 years ago, the only person to serve as secretary of state and defense was george marshall. he is honored with the nobel peace prize. he accepted the award months after the armistice of the korean peninsula marched over "a very strong military posture is vitally necessary, but it is too narrow a basis on which to build a long and enduring peace. we need a spiritual regeneration to develop goodwill, faith, and understanding among nations.

there must be ways down and the will to act on that wisdom." -- there must be wisdom and the will to act on that wisdom." today 70 years ago, it is now clear that we need to maintain a strong military force to deal with the unstable and unprinted double and undeniable dangerous world that we live in. it is equally clear that we must enhance our other levers of power, our economic and diplomatic power, if we are to achieve peace in the 21st century. delivering on that vision will require wisdom and it will require a will to act.

qualities that hillary clinton exemplified throughout her career and as secretary of state. her legacy is the inspiration and the wisdom and the will to fight for the american dream. that very simply is why we honor her today. ladies and gentlemen, hillary clinton. [applause]

she led efforts in alliances and engaged emerging powers and develop new partnerships to advance american interest on security, and values. her sound counsel and steady hand guided the united states response to the global economic crisis. and the arab world and new opportunities and challenges in asia. she provided leadership in iraq and afghanistan during a security transition in those countries. her transformative leadership elevated the role as able partners for addressing the growing spectrum of security challenges and forge a strong relationship with the department of defense. her accomplishments reflect great art upon herself, the

department of state, and the united states government. [applause] >>

it is such an honor to be here and be surrounded by people that i like and respect so much. all of the military and civilians alike, thank you for what you do every day. you keep our nation safe and strong. it has been a real pleasure to work with all of you, starting out with secretary gates, and and secretaryn, panetta and general dempsey, and debbie -- you have all been great partners and colleagues. it has been a singular honor of my life to be able to work with all of you. we need to do what we can in a

time of such momentous change and even turbulence to chart a steady course for the nation that we serve,. they got to fly around with me, per secretary gates and the secretary panetta. i'm trying to figure out how they got off the road, but whenever there was a problem with the lane or there was an issue that arose, i would turn to them to help exit. -- fix it. harry came through time and time again to get us back in the air. i'm grateful to you. i also want to say a special word of thanks and greetings to

my former colleagues on the state department who are here. it is bittersweet. they were not always in agreement, but always getting up every day to work toward our common objective with the dod senior leadership today. i want to thank you, my colleagues, who have served over the last four years. this is a tremendous honor for me. some of you know that i think al

pacino would have been more appropriate, too. the cia to the pentagon, he has demonstrated the highest caliber of integrity, wisdom, and patriotism. he has been a great partner and a great friend. what he said about humanity and being a human being in this role is worth repeating. it is easy to get caught up in the work and the intensity, the drive that is necessary to work those long days and short nights. it is sometimes too easy to forget why we do what we do,

both military and civilian. for many of you, it has been a career choice, both my colleagues from the defense department and rom state, for others of us, it is something that we came to later and were involved in luckily and gave us a chance to serve. for all of us remembering why we do this work and how important it is to the future, especially future generations, is something leon panetta has never forgotten. i know that as leon heads back to california, he will, along with is absolutely wonderful wife, sylvia, continue to use the panetta institute to train the next generation of leaders. i also want to say a special word of thanks to general

dempsey. i really enjoyed working with marty dempsey. women in uniform have no greater champion. it has been a great treat getting to see him in action and also, as i said to you in the hall, to see with their grandchildren a year or two ago. it is no secret or if it had been, that historically the department of state and defense had not always had the best working relationship. in fact, i have been quite surprised and even amused talking to some of my predecessors who are we will third that we get along. they say things like, you know, that is on. as if i am somehow letting down my side.

that i'm not causing you as many problems as i can and trying to push you off stage, as if that were possible. i have been around this town long enough to know that it is an unfortunate and historical precedent. when i became secretary four years ago, i was determined to change that. i like being on the american team. not the state department team, but the american team. when we take these positions and take that oath of office, we really pledged to be part of the american team. we'll have different perspectives and experiences that we bring to the table that we sit at, but we should walk out of those rooms determined to be on that team for our country and for the president that we serve. from day one, we have formed the

strongest partnership in most living memories. i do hope that continues. secretary gates has set the tone by emphasizing importance of fully funding the state department and usad. quite remarkable for them to take. secretary gates, even secretary gates, even before i was secretary, made quite an important speech talking about how there were more members of military bands than the were diplomats. we had increased the strength of our diplomatic corps and our development experts in order to do our part. secretary panetta and chairman dempsey had continued to build our partnership even further. they have been steadfast advocates for integrating our

defense, diplomacy, and development into a unified smart power approach. because of these efforts, our diplomats and development experts all over the world are working more closely than ever with all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, whether it is advancing the transition in afghanistan or responding to the triple disaster in japan or pursuing terrorists in north africa. we have seen that america is stronger and more effective when we work together. i think we have gone a long way to restore america's global leadership. to make progress on some of the great challenges we face, from taking to it -- taking the fight to the leadership of al qaeda, to reasserting the united states as a pacific power. we have pioneered a more nimbler, more effective approach to foreign policy. i am enormously proud of what we have achieved. i am confident about the future,

having left the state department in the capable hands of secretary john kerry, himself an accomplished diplomat and decorated navy veteran. i believe that we have established a strong base for this kind of collaboration, which i think is essential going forward against the challenges and threats we face. i happen to have grown up in a navy household. during world war ii, my pother was chief petty officer, trained sailors -- training sailors. he never forgot and used to tell us how it felt when it was like watching the young men getting loaded onto troop trains, killing many would never return home. after he died many years later i received an outpouring of letters and photographs from some of the men he had trained at surt and returned home and

build lives and families of the run. i could not believe that that experience, getting yelled at by my father, was so formative for them. i was glad to hear it, frankly. i saw this same sense of dedication and duty when, as first lady and senator from new york, i visited with service members and families all over the world. . >> was honored to serve on the armed services committee and to work closely with men and women throughout this building. in particular with secretary mccough, was a great partner with me on behalf of our military bases in new york. what we did to try to keep moving forward in improving readiness and modernizing capabilities -- i was so impressed by the quadrennial defense review that i did launch a similar effort at state called

the quadrennial diplomacy and development review. four years as secretary of state has ended, but my appreciation for everything that you do is deeper than ever. i have had the chance to visit with many of our forces overseas, sometimes in the company of some of you in the audience today. especially in afghanistan, but also here at home, from hawaii to norfolk, to annapolis. this past may, i had the chance to go to tampa and speak to a special operations conference sponsored by admiral moca raven. i had a chance -- mcraven. i had the chance to thank them for their remarkable service and the complex threats we face. we do have to keep innovating and integrating. we have to get our house here at home in order.

we have to avoid a devastating, self-inflicted wounds. we have to remain committed to upholding america's global leadership and our core values of freedom and opportunity. leon and i have both seen this as we travel the world. american leadership remains a respected and required. there is no real precedent in history for the role we play or the responsibility we have shouldered. there is also no alternative. i often remind myself that our global leadership is not our birthright. it has to be earned by each successive generation. staying to our values and living up to the best traditions of our nation. secretaries and presidents come and go, but this responsibility remains constant.

it really must be our north star. in the years ahead, we will be looking to all of you and your successors to carry this mission of american leadership forward, to keep our nation strong, free, and exceptional. thank you for this tremendous honor that has been bestowed upon me by the chairman and also the honor of the secretary. i thank you all for your service, and i think both of you and others of you for your friendship. let's wish our country godspeed and please extend to all with whom he served my deepest gratitude, not as a retired public official, but as an american citizen. thank you all. [applause]

>> ladies an >> please remain standing for the departure of the official party. please wait until you're roe is invited to report. >> next, a conversation with apollo astronaut charles duke. then the state of the state speech from gov. dave heinemann of nebraska. and the weekly addresses of president obama and -- and representative martha roby. >> recently, the apollo club posted a conversation with charlie duke. he talked about the current state of space exploration, his experiences as the lunar module pilot for apollo 16, and what it was like to be the youngest person to walk on the moon. this is about an hour and 20 minutes. [applause]

>> i think the first thing i would like to do, charlie has the amazing lunar footage on apollo 16 in april of 1972. first we will talk about that and then he will take us through it. the first question being -- a lunar olympics. i know you have a checklist. you did something that was not on the checklist. >> john and i decided, the flight before were in munich so we were going to do the moon olympics and do the high jump record. john was going to do the long jump.

those were the two events we were going to have on the moon olympics. we did not tell anyone about this. apollo 15, they have the hammer and feather. 14, allen sheppard hit the golf ball. but we were running behind and mission control was bugging us to get in. part of the rover, let's go. so john starts bouncing. he says we were going to do the moon olympics, houston, but we're behind. so john starts bouncing and i start bouncing. john had better balanced than i did. i give a big bounce for the record and when i did, i street and up. the backpack weighed 150 pounds. and i weighed 150 pounds so the

cg went back word, and there i went back words. it was the only time in the whole mission where i had fear. here is not a bad emotion if you responded training instead a panic. so training took over and i bounced onto my backpack. i cannot know exactly what the john said. that was a very smart, charlie. something like that. so he comes over and picks me up to my heart was pounding. i check my pressure, it was okay. you could get quiet and hear the pumps running in the backpack. fear turned to embarrassment. mission control, they did not use bad language but i know what they were thinking about. that was it.

no more moon olympics. to this day, i hold the high jump record. >> how high was it? >> maybe a meter. >> i recently interviewed mitchell. he said that he and alan shepard did a lunar olympics. mitchell says i threw further than alan shepard. so these guys are competitive. >> speaking of apollo 14, allen said he finally hit it. the moon is like a big sand

trap, if you play golf. he took a picture and you can see the ball right in front of him. so it did not go miles and miles. >> you are going to see that high jump. >> it's in the dvd. >> there were 12 of you that what on the moon. tell us in layman's terms what you remember, what your thinking when you were stepping on the moon, your sensations. describe the view. give us some kind of sense what it was like to be on the moon. >> let me say for the five hours before that, my emotions went from the depths to the

mountaintop. an hour before we were to land, we had a problem with the command module. the main engine was uncontrollable and in the secondary system. the engine was searching for its center and could not find it. so it was rattling the spacecraft. so that is an abort. with that problem, that meant we were not going to get to

land. you were one hour before landing. we were on the backside of the moon. so if your heart can sink to the bottom of your boots in zero gravity, ours did. we came all this way, flew 250,000 miles. we were really down. then mission control came through and solve the problem. six hours behind schedule, we landed. we were very excited about the landing. i screamed to mission control, fantastic. the flight control -- we were six hours late so they set by the time he gets out and get back in and get ready for bed, you will be up 35 hours. you will be tired and probably make a mistake. so we have changed the flight plan and you're going to go to sleep before you go out. >> but we slept really well. >> we agreed to that. we took off our suits.

can you imagine trying to go to sleep three hours after landing on the moon? but then we got up the next day, ate a meal, put on our suits, got outside. emotions were overwhelming. most people ask how did it feel? there is no feeling as far as barefoot on the beach. he cannot feel the surface texturally with your overwhelmed with the duty of the moon. we landed in the plains. our landing site was the highest elevation wise of any in apollo. we were in a valley about ten miles across maybe and you could look out. i love the desert in the u.s. so here i am on this moon a desert with just brilliant

colors of gray and shades of gray. that blackness of space. the thought occurred to me, how fortunate i am. nobody has ever been here on this spot on the moon before. those were the kinds of emotions and experiences i was going through. >> you were very cognizant that you have a long checklist of things to do. >> we probably 110% planned more than we could do. but we did that because if something failed and we had to abandon that, we had something else to do to take the time up. so we had very little time to sit and wonder about it.

and think about where you were. you just experienced the duty of the moon -- the beauty of the moon and character and color. it was mostly covered with dust. very fine like powder. gray in color. everywhere we walked, we left footprints. we left tracks. see where never worried about getting lost on the moon. it is impossible. all you do is a u turn and fall your tracks back. >> those tracks are still there. >> unless a meteorite landed on top of our tracks. as of two years ago, they were still there. go look it the web site on nasa. you can see every landing site. if anybody does not believe we

ever went to the moon, does go look at that. [laughter] >> charlie, it's funny. i met you in texas. i did not know this but you were the guy who had some very famous words as apollo 11 was going through its trials and tribulations. talk about that. you are part of history for that. >> i was very fortunate to have been involved in five of the nine missions we sent to the moon. i started with apollo 10. it was not designed to land. i helped develop the procedures

to activate the lunar module. i was in mission control when i started talking to them when they started the descent. that was a dress rehearsal for apollo 11. the first time we going to attempt the landing on the moon. neil armstrong asked me to do the same job for them on apollo 11. two months, we had to get ready. we modified the procedure somewhat. then we were ready to go. so i was in mission control of the dissent. as we started down, things started coming unglued we have computer problems. we had a trajectory problem taken into a big rock field.

so he levels off as ours flying over this rock field, using a lot of fuel we did not plan on. so now the critical consumable was fuel. we were concerned we were not going to make it. the propulsion guy was calculating so we came down to one minute before abort and i called eagle 60 seconds. they had 60 seconds to land. then i called eagle 30 seconds and they still have not landed. but they were close. according to my watch, 13 seconds later, i heard them say context, engines stopped. so they stopped the engine. there was silence. then neil comes back with