welcome, shall, to the uss macon islands. my name is lewis loeven and i'm the executive director of the san francisco fleet week association and what a great fleet week we're going to have for 2012. thank you. this is the second time we've had the uss macon islands and i want to thank captain pringle and his entire crew. what a great ship and what a great crew. they turned this swear hanger deck around all right night and turned it into a conference room and it looks absolutely beautiful. thank you, captain, and your entire crew. i'm going to make this short because we're already running a little bit behind schedule, but san francisco fleet week for the third year is organized with i object credible participation from city, civilian agencies from all around the region and all of us our fabulous united states military, the coast guard has been fabulous in providing assets to protect everybody out on the bay. it is one heck of a logistics program to get this whole program started and here we are the culmination of nearly a year

good morning, everybody, welcome to the uss macon island. it's my pleasure to be here with you this morning on the green ship of our u.s. navy. it's very appropriate that it be here heading the fleet in san francisco. admiral beeman, thank you very much for your leadership. it is impressive what we are accomplishing. just two years ago, we started with an understanding that our military, the coast guard, the u.s. navy, the marine corps, had something that we really needed. it's called logistics expertise. and we recognized that and with the help of our fleet week association, with the help of our honorary chair, former secretary of state george scholtz, along with senator feinstein who started fleet week, we began to appreciate in addition to appreciating the men and women in uniform and the wonderful attributes of having fleet week and the blue angels and the parade of ships, we could also be working on something very important to this city. all across the world there are examples after example and i know the men and women and leadership of

applause) >> what a pleasure it is to be aboard this symbol of america's millery power, the uss macon island. what a pleasure it is to be among the men and women of our armed forces and the men and women of the first responders of the san francisco bay area. fleet week for many years in san francisco was a somewhat [inaudible] affair and it has been transformed into this great coming together by the military and the first responders, the great coming together of our uniformed personnel and a great [speaker not understood] of san francisco. this amazing transformation in the last few years was due primarily to the vision and the dedication of three people, george and charlotte schultz and mike myers. i'd like to pause to thank all three of them for this work. (applause) >> and in april of 1996, my last year as secretary of defense, i met one morning intelligence briefing at 7 o'clock along with general charlie. the previous day general hughes had briefed us that the chinese military were to begin extensive military maneuvers in the taiwan strait. this morning we were stunned to learn that the

and thank you for joining us welcome, shall, to the uss macon islands.name is lewis loeven and i'm the executive director of the san francisco fleet week association and what a great fleet week we're going to have for 2012. thank you. this is the second time we've had the uss macon islands and i want to thank captain pringle and his entire crew. what a great ship and what a great crew. they turned this swear hanger deck around all right night and turned it into a conference room and it looks absolutely beautiful. thank you, captain, and your entire crew. i'm going to make this short because we're already running a little bit behind schedule, but san francisco fleet week for

again echo our thanks and appreciation to admiral beaman and captain pringle on the beautiful uss macon island. if we could give applause to all the men and women serving on this ship, thank you for your hospitality. (applause) >> this is a week where we highlight and celebrate all the sacrifices that military personnel make. in the san francisco fire department, we work 24/7 shifts. we're considered para military, but we recognize in the military the great sacrifices that you make each and every day to protect our freedom while being away from your homes and your family. so, thank you very much. it's an honor to welcome you to san francisco. (applause) >> i'd also like to acknowledge the presence of two people that i consider honored to call friends, and they continue to be treasures to san francisco, to our city, to our state, and to our nation. and i was so impressed yesterday that both of them intently sat here yesterday taking it all in. and it was the highlight really i think of the seminar to have the evening closing remarks capped off by former secretary of state george schultz. so, th

as we sit here this morning aboard the uss macon island, in san francisco bay, looking out to the pacific, it is easy to believe that the united states is, in fact, a pacific power and that to keep it that way we will maintain the best damn navy in the world. thank you very much. (applause)speaker .... >> now i'm going to introduce our next speaker, major general melvin spee splt e i've known melvin for a number of years, obviously we served together in the marine corps. i can tell you he's been with fleet week for 3 years now and the one thing about mel, he's got a lot of ideas and he accepts no as an interim answer because a lot of things that he wanted to do to make fleet week better originally the answer from authorities was no. and he made some amazing things happen just through his will. a commander can will things to happen. and i really want to thank you, mel, for that whole peer to peer medical exchange was your idea and it was just a huge hit and i thank you so much for that. he's offered to be the pifrplg hitter for admiral roughhead who was captured back in massachusetts and c

francisco and it's an honor to be participating in this important panel discussion on the uss macon island. over the course of the next 50 minutes, we will be going to focus one of our -- we're going to be focused on one of the most important elements of our city and that's the resill yepbs of our life line. i am joined by a prestigious panel of experts who i believe have a keen insight sbat resill yepbs of the capacities we will be relying on heavily in moving forward post a disaster. here with me today is kirk johnson, to my left, vice president of gas transmissions from pacific gas and electric. next to him is don boland, executive director of california utilities emergency association. next to him is david brig, regional and local water system manager for the san francisco public utilities commission and finally but not least, romel an jell lus, manager for san francisco wireless. i have drafted several questions for our panel to answer and will hopefully have time at the end to take questions from the audience. before we start our panel discussion, i wanted it share with you what we a

you are sitting on this amazing lhd, the uss macon island, it can bring the heat or it can bring the light. do you want to get a little twitchy around the world and you want to sort of rattle the cage a little bit and test our will and show bravado? you don't want an amphibious group showing up off your shore. that can be a bad day for you. on the other hand, we'd like to bring the light. we'd like to bring the medical prowess, its ability to generate electricity for you, we'd like to bring its cadre of people to rebuild your churches, your clinics, your homes, we'd like to be able to bring its operating rooms and 40,000 tons of icu's and hospital beds and transports and medical evac, whether we fly you in or float you in. that's what we'd like to bring. and like everybody else in the medical business, i wake up every morning and hope the next day i'm out of a job. i hope the next day that world peace has been declared and disease has been stamped out and nobody will be ill, nobody will be harmed or injured. until that day comes, it's my responsibility to be able to speak to the comm

in 2010 we were aboard the macon island, one of the things i was fascinated with as were the attendees was the hospital space. there were a bunch of tours that took place there. last year the idea, it wasn't my idea and i wish i could claim it but i can't, the idea to do a medical peer to peer exchange between the military and the hospital providers here in town. so it was arranged where practitioners and executives, so practitioners and their bosses, to could come out and see the shock trauma platoon and see the capabilities of the shark and see what the military brings to the table in terms of medical. it was a huge hit, to be perfectly honest. it was well received. the medical community here in town was very impressed, really wanted to see more of it, and this year we grew that a little bit. it took flight, literally. it started with looking at rather than be a show and tell, like most things with fleet week, it started with, let's make it more than an air show. then it led to let's get on the ground and do hands on with our middle managers. the same thing is happening in the medica