navy. it's aging. they haven't put in the investment to improve it mainly because when the new development goes in, we're going to set up an entirely new grid for electricity. that being said, we have residents on the island today that depend on that infrastructure and we need to figure out a solution to that issue. and i'm hoping that we'll be able to announce something over the next couple of weeks that we would be able to serve the residents. i apologize. i know it is impacting your daily life but i wanted to address that before we start the hearing. so, without further ado, i'd like to have amy from the san francisco department of health. and i apologize, difficult want to give supervisor avalos who is a co-sponsor an opportunity to say something. >> thank you, chair kim. i have events in my own district as well, but i felt it was important to co-sponsor this hearing so the city could do its due diligence around concerns around radiation exposure on the island. and i want to get more information my

the salvage aerv of the navy which sits in naval sea systems command. it may be referred to in the staff report sue salve, supervisor for all salvage operations of the navy. the navy, then, in order to execute these funds has a previously competitively bid contract with titan salvage for all salvage work on the west coast of the americas. that has been titan to salvage. nav sea has worked with options for how to get it done and where it goes subcontract wise. phase 1, the part all the other options have in common goes with the sections removed this way [speaker not understood]. the previous slides illustrated. phases 2 and 3 get a bit more complicated because we have the option of trying to keep some continuity of contracting and just jump onto the navy's general type salvage and let them work with all the subcontractors. that brings with it some pass through costs. this has a particularly high administrative cost because it is designed for salvage work for ship wreck and there are a lot of unknowns with that. alternately, we may choose to go with one o

so at any time there's probably between two and three thousand actual navy seals, and those navy seals are not only serving on the front loans but working at places like the pentagon, central command, in afghanistan and iraq, and there's probably 2,000 to three thousand navy seals. they started on january 1, 1962, bit president john f. kennedy. the reason why he started the seals, he wanted to have a force -- seal stand for sea, air and land commando. and president kennedy wanted to have a force of people, dedicated and highly trained force, he could put into difficult situations who could not only respond tactically and using physical courage but could also respond and use their minds and be thoughtful about working in some very difficult, dangerous situations, and his theory, the international relations theory was called the flexible response, and the deal was the united states needed to respond in a flexible manner, not just using nuclear weapons which was the theory at the time. we needed to be able to respond in a flexible manner to any threat and that led to the development of th

that was before the navy came in there and after the navy came in there. a lot of fishing was close to 1,000 fishing boat was grounded and it was part of our job to put them in the water again. so heavy lift cranes are absolutely mandatory to have a safe place to move them and to start working. and because as i mentioned to you before, the ships cannot be, get into the port directly, so we make, we pier side two ships floating and all transfer of the cargo was through (inaudible) as you can see we deliver that assistance to different coastal communities. we use the marines to do that so no problem. as you see in the photograph below, you can see that the only way to get it in there was with rubber boats, not any more with the lft's that you used to or we used to get into. so we act, we are participating very active for 23 days, 18 of that at sea with these numbers. and that was what we did. in terms of lessons learned, as admiral nathan said, no one is prepared for an event of such magnitude, so you have to take many things in account but with a guitar in

of the department of the navy. when they served assurer to the army bishop of the regulation of the army and eventually in 1832? became a separate service inside the department. >> out of their mission change? >> commission didn't change so much then. there've been ship cards offer to the 20th century, but they were something of a jack of all trades. they would do other jobs as well, most often serving as landing parties in the navy would send sailors on punitive expeditions, the marines would always participate in that. in the start of the 20th century company took on a variety of other missions, colonial infantry in haiti, philippines, nicaragua and before world war ii, they started creating amphibious landing forces. they became experts in amphibious operations. >> what was the marine corps' reputation throughout much of this? history???????? >> not very good quite honestly? everybody thinks about the marine corps today is the most? procedures or elite of the majo? armed services and has? been?? valid

-- navy s.e.a.l. training. and one of the things we talk about when you have to make tough choices, we talk about how you make tough choices on the front line. in the military will we talk of the front line, we talk about it as the place where you come in contact with the enemy. the place where you are most challenged. yet the fact is that every person and every young person also has in their life. for your people that fall lion is a place where they are challenged. a place where they come up against your, come up against hardship, against difficulty. and on the front line is important for young people to find ways to navigate those challenges. and what i know is that if they make the right kinds of choices on the frontline that all of them have an opportunity to create themselves. we create ourselves because on the front line is the place where we can grow. if we make the right choices we all have an opportunity to become people of compassion. we all have an opportunity to become people of courage, a

navy. are you hearing that on the ground about how that's playing? obviously a lot going on in virginia with naval production. >> there's no question the romney campaign thinks it gives them a bit of an edge here. romney will be back here in a couple days and one of his stops is in the southern part of the state, the norfolk area where you have heavy military presence, big navy ports there. i talked to jerry conley, democratic congressman in this area, northern virginia, and he said come on, virginians are smart enough to know, modernization, higher technology, better technology, smaller, leaner and meaner is fine, but other privately, some other democrats say boy, the president might have had a snarky line there but it could hurt him a little bit in virginia. with things so close, just a little bit sometimes matters. >> jessica, last night we saw the president kind of using a tone that you say you have seen popping up in the campaign trail, sarcasm, then kind of a softer, more neutral tone

navy now? >> guest: they are. they are a separate service inside the department of the navy, but this became can tensions throughout the history. the core would claim when they served aboard ships that they should follow the rules of the navy, regulations of the department the navy. and eventually in 1832 to become properly a separate service inside the department. >> host: how did their mission change? >> guest: domitian didn't change so much that. they remained all the way to the 20th century, but they were something of a jack of all trades. they would do other jobs as well, most often serving as landing parties when the navy would send sailors and marines ashore in punitive expeditions. the marines for anticipating that. and the start of the 20th century they took on a variety of other nations, calling out infantry in haiti, philippines and nicaragua and just before world war ii, they started creating amphibious landing forces. they became experts in landing against suspended islands. ? hos

and we had absolutely first-class leadership in the navy. you will hear later today from admiral gary some examples of just how impressive that leadership is. the operational readiness of the fleet was a result, first of all, of having bases all around the world. but secondly because the strong program of exercise we conducted. the exercises were not only conducted on military scenarios, but we had an extensive set of exercises involved in humanitarian response. during the time i was secretary, we had a disaster response very similar to the one they're doing here in san francisco today. we bought naval forces from the united states, from russia and japan all to honolulu where we had simulated a tsunami disaster. and these three great nations brought their fleets to honolulu exercising how to respond and alleviate that disaster. well, that was then. how about now? last year the united states released a new security strategy. most of you probably have not even heard of that, but i have to tell you this was a big deal. it was one of the fifth a

we greatly respect navy, marine corps and guard safety policy. cal fire has an aviation policy as well. we work cooperatively with the agencies here at the table to ensure when we are engaged in an aerial fire fighting event we are working within each other's policies. we have trained in a work around, we can do close air support with navy and marine corps aircraft, with the current system we have. would we like to improve upon it? absolutely. we have gone very high up in the organization to try and look at getting the r210 radio modified to the point where it can work on our vhf spectrums, that's one of our challenges we need to move forward with. but overall we're confident when we do call upon dod assets to integrate with civilian aircraft, the training regimen we put forth will keep aircrews safe and also have them be effective. there was a lot of questions from a political level as well as a public level. you've got aircraft sitting at north island, just launch them, get them in the fight. it was hard to explain to them that that's a very de

i want to make sure we have the the ship required by our navy. >> you mentioned the navy, for example and we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because thee nature of our military has changed. we have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. we have the ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines so the question is not a game of battleship where we're counting ships. >> warner: as it happens bayonets are still standard equipment for u.s. marines. but analyst harrison and others say the navy is not smaller than 90 years ago or even four years ago. >> right now our ship count is 285. in 2007 it was just 278 ships. sactually we were smaller in 207 than we are now. we've been increasing the size of the navy under president obama. but moreover i think this was the president's point in the debate about horses and bayonets is that it's really not a valid'

we have american navy ships, united states navy ships, we have canadian ships coming in, coast guard ships. they all have to be put somewhere. and working out those complexities are the folks at the san francisco port. i'd like to call up monique moya. (applause) >> well, thank you. good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming. there isn't much that i can say on top of the eloquent words of both the mayor and the general. so, i think what i will do is invite you all, please, to come to the waterfront. our job is to not only welcome the vessels and give them safe berthing, but also to welcome the men and women in uniform who come ashore. and it is a great place to meet these young men and women. last year i had the honor of talking to many of them and i got to realize that several of them were coming home to meet their families. they may never have been to san francisco. they may never have sailed under the golden gate bridge. they were coming into san francisco bay to reunite with their country men and families, in some cases to meet their newborn children. i found an amazing fea

>> inside the navy but it was contentious. they've good claim they should follow the navy and ashore follow thearmy, d regulations of the army. they eventually 1832 they are a separate service inside the >> navy. >> host: how did the mission changed? of >> guest: dave remained ships guards to the 20thng as century but jack of alles trade most often as a landing party when the baby on would send silly it -- sailors and marines would participate.phibiousanding then colonial infantry inood. haiti, nicaragua, haiti, nicaragua, philippine about before world war ii started training for amphibious missions. >> host: what is the marine corps is reputation? >> not very good. c people think of them as the elite that has been validated routinely. most critique -- prestigious but a at the start of world war ii parents found them to be the most desirable. the least popular and io nationwide study.these were similar also prior. the third big guys serving. then maybe and the army did not like them.chrimas day aley had problems getting call t

we work closely with cal guard, navy and marine corps aviation. we do that with squadron training. we still have khal lefrpg wills, i'm not going to lie to you. we have issues where tactical to air communication is difficult. cal guard, we purchased the radios for national guard aircraft and they installed them in their aircraft so we have robust communications with california national guard, with navy and marine corps it's still a work in progress. we have a work around with that with respect to tactical communications and we use coordinating helicopters to handle air to ground tactical situations and that is relayed to the aircraft that are in trail. it's not perfect but it's a work around and it keeps everybody in the fight. >> prior to 20011 2011 the navy fire fighting capability was concentrated in one squadron. in 2011 it began to expand to other helicopter squadrons. one consequence of that would be multiple squadrons providing aircraft to cal fire to support the fire fighting effort and one somewhat simple but very effective solution was the use of defense connect on line,

and each time we picked a site, the navy turned it down. finally, about six or eight months ago we found two sites and we asked the navy again and they refused. but this time they actually gave us an answer and they said that they really didn't want a dog park because it was too detrimental to the ground. it tore up the ground. and, you know, they didn't want it. and, so, shortly after that we found that the radiation sites had -- there had been more sites that had opened up. and, so, we find that it's a little bit strange that this all happened at this particular time. and we're sort of wondering why did this happen at this particular point in time and who is involved and who knew and when. one of the things i really want to talk about is that, for the record, i'm very much for this redevelopment because i'm not certain how much longer i can take twice weekly blackouts and roads that haven't been repaired and cannot be repaired because it's too costly. the state apparently has to come supervise the digging of the roads up and, so, nothing

is completely separate from the navy now? >> >> guest: they are, they are a separate service in the navy, but it was contentious throughout the history. the corp. would claim when they served aboard ship, they should follow the rule of the navy, and when they served the army, follow the regulations of the army, and in 1832, they are a proposerly separate service inside the navy. >> host: how did the mission change in 1832? >> guest: it didn't change much then. they were something of jack of all trades doing other jobs as well. most often receiverring as landing parties when the navy would send sailors and ma reaps ashore on punitive expeditions, marines always would participate in that. in the start of the 20th century, they took on colonial infantry in haiti, philippines, and then just before world war ii, they started creating amphibious landing forces, landing against defended islands. >> host: what was the marine corp.'s reputation throughout history? >> guest: not very good.?? quite honestly, everybody thinks about the

them pipes have been in those grounds every since the navy been there. who is to say they are not contaminated themselves? we have to drink that water. we have to bathe in that water. i also need to let you guys know you have my own medical health concerns. my days are already numbered. i have a ten-year-old daughter and one year old grandson. i want to see them make it. i have a 16-year-old son and 16-year-old niece in the audience. who is to say that my kids are going to make it? my daughter was just diagnosed with [speaker not understood] intest ins. my daughter was healthy at birth. this one here came out with no problems. last year they told me i had to start giving my baby liquids. when i look on the paper they send around about some of the things that can happen and what it can cause, why is that on that paper? so, do i have questions? a lot. do i have anger? a lot. i mean, i love the island. i love raising my kids there. no, they don't have to be on 3rd street, they don't have to be on tl. it's a safest place in the city. if we're in danger, let