as you look at the three of us here, it is a joint goldwater nichols kind of panel, army, navy, air force. also general fraser has been nominated, stanley mcchrystal, legislative quality built into special operations all came out of goldwater nichols. we are proud to be here. i thank you for taking the time to hear a spirit i am here with my family, my wife, my childhood sweetheart. we have two daughters ourselves. i am lucky to have my family here with me. i am obviously very honored and humbled by the president's nomination and the secretaries nomination for this position. i have a fair background in europe, i have travelled extensively over the years, i have operated with nato. i have studied nato as part of my navy work that the navy sent me two years ago. i believe in the trans-atlantic alliance. if confirmed, i hope to be a positive force as senator mccain was just talking about, in convincing our allies we need to stanch -- they need to stand shoulder to shoulder with us. my approach will be collegial, oriented towards international solutions, multilateral approaches. these are cha

as well as it does and thanks to his efforts and the efforts of a lot of other people and to goldwater-nichols law. he was then commander -- he's had two -- i still call them syncs jobs, two commanders and as all know 'cause you wouldn't be here otherwise, he's the commander of the pacific command. it's a real pleasure to have the opportunity to hear his insights into the military and indeed the larger american strategic role in that critical part of the world. admiral keating, welcome to the atlantic council and thank you for doing this. [applause] >> thank you all for this great opportunity. a couple of words by preamble. i had the distinction of working for then-undersecretary defense walt slocombe for a while as he mentioned. and few officials in my experience have had more consequential impact on what the department of defense does, did, and is doing than walt slocombe. he was usdp for a long time in my humble opinion did a magnificent job and it's my honor, privilege to be standing in front of you having been introduced by -- i mean, who would have thunk back then we would be standing he

opportunities also to build those relationships and really just sort of continue on with the goldwater-nichols principle and now apply it across agency lines as well as the dod. we look forward to doing that. with that i will yield to mr. miller. >> thanks, mr. chairman. i've had an opportunity to visit with some of our nato allies, and they are, indeed, proud of the contributions that they are making certainly within the soft community and, you know, certainly in afghanistan. and what i'd like to ask you for the record, if you would, explain the impact of the soft capabilities of those partners in the current fight as it exists in afghanistan, and you could an update as well on iraq as we transition out. >> yes, sir. from your visits to the nato soft coordination center, you understand how this team is coming together, and there's bonding that's occurring across the special operations forces of nato at the headquarters environment. i think it's inspired. its certainly stimulated the activities of some special operations forces being provided to, to the isaf effort in afghanistan. so i'm not t

commend chairman skeleton who has spent a lifetime supporting defense reforms going back to goldwater nichols and championing these reforms to further integrate our national security tools moving into the 21st century. i thank ranking member mckeon for his work on this issue in my four years on the committee. the chair: the gentleman from missouri. mr. skelton: i yield a minute to my friend, the gentleman from minnesota, mr. walz. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. wals: thank you, i want to thank the -- mr. walz: thank you, i want to thank the chairman. it's a simple amendment i'm offering that the secretary of defense in coordination with the secretary of veterans affairs submit a report to congress telling us what kind of progress they've made on a joint medical record, making sure they don't encounter bureaucratic troubles and delays in processing of their claims. there's a -- as a 24-year veteran of our armed forces, i can tell you this is a critically important issue. it was backed and announced on april 9 by the president and this will allow congress do to -- to do oversight o