call it good because those assets may be gone and deployed but we have work arounds for that. we are looking forward to that as well in addition to the training. lastly is we again kind of relish the opportunity to participate in the operations against an active enemy. at least here, it's fire. we appreciate the fact we can go ahead and enter a tactical command air control. those are operations that are familiar to us and they are, it's a great exercise for us tactically as well. we are able to integrate with cal fire itself with the objective being the fire itself. those work out for us here and we can go ahead and use those skills forward as well. thank you very much, we appreciate the opportunity. >> thank you, i'd like to thank our panelists and open it up to our group for any questions of our panelists today. yes, sir, secretary.

>> there are a lot of things you can do in a forest that tend to make it easier it fight a fire like most importantly burning off the fuel during the wet season so there's less for the fire to feed on. to what extent in cal fire and all your other things do you encourage people to do things in their forest when you don't have a fire that make it easier and more effective in fighting the fire? >> it's an excellent question, sir. we spend a large time in cal fire on public education and prevention and also with respect to you were talking about fuel, the fuels program, or vegetation management program in cal fire, we have a robust program throughout the state where we are conducting burning operations and vegetation management with prieflt ranch owners and

private land owners as well as on state and cooperating with our federal agencies with the u.s. forest service. so two-fold program, vegetation management, we aggressively pursue that, but also from a public education stand point. what we find in these large scale incidents, the public is going to have to be self-sustaining and self-supporting. they need to be prepared. we try to educate them in respect that we say we'll provide the offense, you provide the defense. we talk to them about hardening their structures in a defensive measure against wild land fires. a lot of it is public education, survivability, building standards, but predominately our focus is putting the onus on the land owner, putting the onus on the private property owner, we will attempt to protect your home but the days of staying and defending your home and killing our fire fighters are done. we will not stand and defend a house that has not been

prepared by a land owner and die for it. we don't do that any more. that's one of our doctrinal changes and we set forth some new guidelines with that. >> thank you. >> question, mr. secretary. >> in a large scale disaster relief, where the military is called in to assist the civilian components there is an obvious issue of how you get the command and control and in particular what telecommunications is used to support that command and control. your exercising together is very critical, i think, to working out command and control but you still have an equipment problem because the equipment, telecommunication equipment designed for the military was different from that used. how are you working out to get the coordination of telecommunications, particularly in disaster relief where the cellular infrastructure may be broken

down and not available to support? could you comment somehow are you going to work out this telecommunications problem. >> so from a perspective of fema, we not only have a defense officer appointed by dod embedded with us during a disaster but we actually practice and have communications interoperatability over our systems to be sure we can communicate with each other on similar platforms and also support state and local platforms, whether it was katrina or other events we've actually been able to bring in national guard platforms to provide 911 systems for cities that have lost those systems. we recently in the joplin tornados and also tuscaloosa tornados we brought in dod equipment to replace what was destroyed. from the fire side i know there's a lot of things you are doing to work around

the interoperatability issues with regard to communications between fire and dod and maybe if ray or anybody else wants to speak to that. >> our communications challenges still exist. we have excellent telecom communications, we have a layered effect of our radio systems. we have mobile command posts that we can exercise. so we're prepared for power outages, reduction of telecoms, we have a layered effect for our communications. but as everybody here said, we need help. if somebody here can help me get a navy or marine corps aircraft to talk to my guys on the ground tactically, i need that and i don't have that today. i use a command control helicopter, a civilian helicopter, to handle that and transfer that to an air to air victor frequency. but from a command control

perspective, we're fairly robust. are we perfect, no, but we do have layered defenses against that. >> miss yeager, i don't know if you want to say anything from a national guard perspective. >> we have some mobile explorable platforms we can send out to incidents to help provide additional infrastructure in the event everything breaks down then our units have organic communications capability so i can move that out and i can help reinforce cal fire on their incident with what i have in the aviation brigade and units through the state of california have that same communication but the iceu, which is a mobile communications platform, is ideal in events like this to push out to help. >> any other questions? >> i have one. back in 1992 when it was a big fire season and there was a lot of grass, they came to us and i was down

at camp pendleton and they asked us it train marines on shovel work. what happened about 6 months later, they ended up sending two battalions to yellowstone. i haven't heard any discussion at all, do you expect the military, the guard or the active forces to be training people to do shovel-like work? all you have talked about so far is aviation. >> one of the challenges with a ground-based attack and training a soldier to be a ground-based fire fighter is the training takes time. and it takes approximately 3 to 5 days of solid training to make sure that they are going to be working in a safe environment to learn what's going on. and most of the time that, the incidents in california will become mitigated. now, not to say that we certainly have that as an

option. we have a fairly robust what we call fire crew program using cdcr inmate fire fighters. it is on our radar and it's something that we have as a contingency if we needed to do it. >> lieutenant colonel. >> yes, general, in the mou it does address the ground portion but the focus of effort is mainly on the aviation side but it is built in there for the ground side if necessary. >> i just want to say in 2008 we did activate hand crews to fight fires and we've identified soldiers throughout the state to respond if needed. they've got the tools that they need, the boots and all that cached and available. it's really just a matter of getting the call and being ready to go. >> i was going to end with general myat. i know we've

trained soldiers to do that kind of thing. after the colorado fires just recently they did put a lot of soldiers that trained, so we do still have that program who can do that if the need warrants. any other questions from out there before i turn it over to general myat? let me thank our panel here. >> thank you. (applause). as we leave here today, we need to keep the ball moving forward. we can't -- i think most of us all here would agree, we really can't prevent the next disaster from happening. but by building the

partnerships that we are here today and will continue to build in the future, we can certainly limit the number of deaths and long-term destruction. we can surge a lot of things: resources, people. but we cannot surge trust. so venues such as this is what helps us build that trust so that when the bell does go off we know -- a comment i made yesterday and i'd like to use it again in closing today, the most important thing for me to come out of this two-day seminar and sbat -- into the future is the ability for us to physically face to face look each other in the eye, shake hands and say to each other, we are in this together. thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

. (applause). >> thank you, admiral beeman. you have helped me carry out one of the instructions secretary schultz gave to me 3 years ago, bring the fleet back to fleet week. we couldn't do it without you. i thank secretary and mrs. perry for coming, just -- i know it's, you've got some other things, people are waiting on you right now but i really appreciate you coming here. of course secretary and mrs. schultz for the entire program. vice admiral nathan, i don't know if he's here, he may have gone already, but he gave a great talk yesterday on the medical side. and vice admiral z, coast guard, our

senior rep here, i can never pronounce his name but he's made things great. general speese, thank you for making this happen. rear admiral hubner, he was here, he's been terrific working with us. rear admiral rivera coming up from the chilean navy, thank you so much. i learned a lot. we need the kind of input that we got from you, really, and we thank you so much. i would be remiss not to mention the two people that really are responsible for all this. first was lewis loeven. lewis loeven works hours and hours to do this. thank you so much. but the other is because she's committed to make it happen and it's her focus that always to learn from everything that happens, ann koninberg at

dem, thank you so much, ann, for everything you do. you had to have a pass to get on the ship. i've asked captain pringle, to get off the ship, i wonder if you can secure the hatch until they fill out their participant form. if you could do that, i would appreciate that. fleet week, we are a neutral convener of the process to improve the relation ships between this global force for good and the local civilian officials. and one of our goals is next time you put up your slide with all those logos on it, general, you are going to have the san francisco fleet week logo on it, too. i look at what we accomplished in 2010, we had a meeting to

understand dsca, in 2011 we had the table top exercise, we debriefed that, we had a great speaker then we had an education seminar. this time, this year we had a functional exercise in august which was terrific, you saw the panel, a medical exercise as part of fleet week and you saw the enthusiasm of the participants, then we had the back brief. now we've had a strategic operational and tactical discussions about going forward and the things that we can accomplish. so what are you going to do in 2013? well, fill out the form and tell us what you think we ought to do but we're going to be working hard to move this forward. i think ray cheney said it from cal fire best today: we are all better off because we're in here for the last day and a half and i'm sitting here wondering, all my contemporaries, what have they been doing for the last 36 hours? they haven't been doing

anything near as important as what we've been doing. i thank all of you so much for participating and stay in touch. if we've got your email address you will never be lonely because we're going to get you back here next year. thank you all so much. (applause).

>> so again good morning everyone. i am ed risk. i am the transportation director in the great city of san francisco and it's my great pleasure and delight to welcome you today to a great celebration. what we're celebrating here is the partnership that many of you that are with us today that have gotten to this point. we are celebrating the fact that we have gotten to this point and the investments that will central sup way will bring to san francisco and what it means for this city and this region. i can't tell you what an honor and privilege it is to serves

as the transportation director in this great city. we ordered san francisco weather to deep the dust down and we are in a construction site and it's a great time for transportation across the nation largely because of some of the folks you will hear who are to my left and your right. it is also a great time to be in san francisco because we have leadership here in the city that are encouraging innovation, that recognize the importance of investment and infrastructure, and there is no better manifestation of that than this project and that prt is man manifested in a way that i can see no more strongly in our great mayor who have been been a public works director, a city administrator, and helped build the city's plan he really gets this stuff. he is really engaged in this stuff. i don't think a week has come gone by

that he hasn't asked me when this day is coming and it's a pleasure to introduce our mayor ed lee. >> thank you for your wonderful leadership. over 20-25 years ago when we were struggling with the earthquake, when people in chinatown said "gosh we're really going to suffer, and if we're going to be participating in our great economy in san francisco we have to find a way for better transportation routes to transfer people up north and down south of the city, and when we call ourselves a city as a transit first city there is no better example than that than what is reflected in the plans for the central subway. this project is a vital enhancement

of our public transportation system. it's going to significantly improve the movement of tens of thousands of franciscans and if you were here this past weekend when people were predicting it would be jam san francisco instead of san francisco you knew that folks were educated because of the great leadership at our mta, our county transportation, all of our transit systems and were at the highest level of educating the visitors and others to use public transportation. it will work for all of us and as we build the housing units we identified in hunter's point and treasure island and welcome more people to our great city and we are growing as a result. we are going to have the greatest subway system that can connect to our bart, to our caltrans, to up and down our muni lines.

this central subway will be a great success. it will connect to some of the most densely populated and rapidly developing areas, and it will improve access to all of our vibrant communities, and really is investments like this that will foster loyalty among all of our public transit customers while we reduce carbon emissions, make our city cleaner and cleaner. i'm not the only one that thinks this way. you know i'm among many, many friends today in the audience, on stage and i would like to invite at this time someone who has made it a practice to visit our city regularly, to make sure this project was being planned well, that the initial funds that were granted to us by president obama

and with the great work of our congressional delegates and speaker pelosi and senator feinstein we would make sure to use it in the right way and creating the jobs and the investment that people wanted to see. u.s. transportation secretary ray lahood. please share this announcement. >> hello san francisco. i am delighted to be here to celebrate with all of you three very important champions for this project. senator feinstein who doesn't often call me, but when she does i pay attention, and four years ago when i went to see her about a number of issues this project was number one on her list. we need to get it done. we need to get a full

funding grant agreement. she has been a champion for this project from the beginning going back -- i am sure she will tell you, i don't know how far. speaker pelosi, a champion for this project. [applause] speaker pelosi doesn't call me very often, but when she does it's always important. four years ago when i took this job i went to see the speaker. this was number one on her list. how do we get this project done? jackie spear a strong advocate for this project. you have three great champions, and i will also tell you that in working with senator boxer on the transportation bill this project was always at the top of her list.

[applause] so i am delighted to be here. i don't know of another place i would rather be, and i know that all of you are so thrilled with the opportunity that this will create. every one of you sitting out there deserves credit. you've all played a role in this in some way or another. this is not about you. it's about the people. it's also about the next generation of transportation for the next generation for san francisco. that's what this is about. this is your vision. it's a clear vision, and so i am delighted, and very proud to announce today $942 million to the san francisco -- [applause]

for the san francisco mta to extend the central subway light rail system from the downtown business district to chinatown. thousands of people will be enabled with good transportation as a result of this project. now, i have a long speech here but i'm going to stop because i know every one of these other people has more important things to say. thank you to the champions. congress women spears, speaker pelosi, senator feinstein and senator boxer you will well served in washington d c and the people will be well served by this project. thank you san francisco. >> secretary lahood. thank you very much for that wonderful news. >> [inaudible] >> it's a really truly a great

day for san francisco. great cities need great public transportation systems, and you know what? you know what makes our city great with all these leaders? they listen. they listen to our communities. they understand -- because for years our communities pleaded we need better transportation systems what makes our leaders so great they listen and they act. that is so wonderful. that is what standard that we have for all of our public officials. secretary lahood if you could thank president obama from all of us. yes. [applause] because i know today we're going to spend a lot of precious moments thanking leader pelosi and congress women fine 79 and

boxer and. >> >> we're going to thank all of our community members and from china town and all of them have worked very hard. these are not easy projects. they're very complicated and people had to work at the highest levels to make sure that every aspect worked, and a person who has worked tirelessly for 20 years and we join in celebrating 25 years of being in our congress and sought at every stage to make sure these funds were projected, to make sure we're doing our part, that congress is doing their part, all of the federal agencies, the person that first called me to share the news we're out of the white house and into the congress and wait our magical 60 to 90 days

and lees give a warm welcome leader nancy pelosi. [applause] >> who is also keeping track on the giants. >> you know mr. mayor i always listen attentively to every world you say but i know you want me to say it's the bottom of the ninth and one out and in a matter of minutes we have another cause for celebration and you said jam san francisco didn't happen last week. we may have another potential for this weekend as well. thank you mr. mayor for your kind words. thank you everyone for the role you played in making this important day possible. i am here with my son paul and he can attest to the fact we are part of the 30 stockton crowd. we used to take it downtown and we would say "here comes the bus.

there goes the bus". because it was always crowded mr. secretary. it would always be crowded and today is one things that contributes to the mobility of families, bringing people to work to play and improve their quality of life. secretary lahood has been one of the truest friends to san francisco. he has been a leader that has -- [applause] -- he has helped us make our case to the white house, to omb, and the rest. as we celebrate today we also have to recognize that this fits comfortably in an array of projects under his leadership as secretary of transportation and with the great leadership of president barack obama whether it was the presidio park way, transway

terminal, completion of third street rail and all of that. in recent years when he served in the congress and now as the secretary of transportation. he knows full well the role that senator boxer played and he was a member in congress of the transportation committee and the consensus she is building in the senate on this is quite remarkable so i am honored to be here with senator feinstein and our colleagues and share in this for san francisco and what you see here mr. secretary is consent. our great mayor lee -- he is the consensus maestro and brings people together and he said "listen, listen" and we act upon the consensus of our community. it's about consensus. it's about community. it's about here comes the bus and now we can get