coast guard admiral and commandant paul zukunft. first i like to introduce our head table. i ask each of you to stand briefly as your name is announced. from the audience is right natalies de blasio, a member of the national press club speakers committee, max lederer, stars & stripes. lieutenant commander natalya best. jen judson. master chief petty officer against its coast guard. skipping over our speaker right here. kevin wensing. skipping over speaker, information systems technician second class transit. john donnelly, senior defense writer, "congressional quarterly" and culture of the national press club press freedom committee. will watson, american legion post and john gallagher, senior america's reporter, trade fair play magazine. [applause] i also want to welcome our c-span and public radio and online audiences on press.org. i want to remind you you too can follow the action on twitter using the hashtag npclunch. as 25th commandant of the united states coast guard, admiral paul zukunft leads the largest component of the department of homeland security. the non-reti

coast guard admiral and commandant paul zukunft. first, i would like to introduce our he had table guest and would ask each of you to stand briefly as your name is announced. from the audience's right natalie de blasio ron haven and a member of the national speakers committee. make leaderer, publisher of "stars and stripesch" lieutenant command mer natalia best of the u.s. coast guard, jen judson, defense reporter at politico and co-chair of the national press club young members committee master chief steven cantrell, master chief petty officer of the united states coast guard and skipping over, kevin wensing, retired united states navy captain and the press club member who arranged the event speaking over our speaker momentarily, information technicians specialist second class janai, john donnelly, senior defense writer "congressional quarterly" and co-chair of the national press club press freedom committee, will watson deputy commander of the national press club american legion pest and john gallagher, senior america's reporter i

a warm national press club welcome to the commandant of the united states coast guard admiral paul zukunft zukunft. [ applause ] >> jeff, thank you for the flattering introduction, and i had a chance to meet many of you before, and i just want to thank you. there's a lot of places you could be right now, but i'm just delighted that you're here to learn a little bit more about what i would say the little engine that could, the united states coast guard, whose roots trace back to august 4th 1790 and i will tell a little bit about our history talk a little bit about the present talk a little bit about the future and then really open it up to question and answer and just have a very spontaneous dialogue recognizing everything we say is on the record. so this has been a phenomenal week for the coast guard. i just returned from grand haven, michigan. it's called coast guard city usa. it's a city of about 10000, but this weekend it was a city of 200,000 here to celebrate the united states coast guard. and every coast guard man and woman walking the streets of grand haven michigan young teenagers

the commandant today is paul zukunft. he was a pacific area commander. now he is the coast guard commandant. the admiral was very happy about the new coast guard museum that is being designed. to be at the campus of the coast guard headquarters. he is very concerned with coordinating assets with, as he said, our sister services in these modern times. we must articulate and integrate. he, too, has a masters degree from the naval war college. and the top enlisted man in the coast guard -- steve cantrell, master chief petty officer of the coast guard. he advises the commandant on explicit affairs. look at all his ribbons. look at the hash marks -- how long he is been in the service. he was enlisted chief petty officer in charge of coast guard units and coast guard cutters. quite a distinguished career in himself. now women in the coast guard. here is ida lewis, lighthouse service in the late 19th entry. she was a lighthouse keeper. she went to see with a rowboat and save hundreds of lives. very brave and very skilled at sea. very courageous. we have already

paul? admiral zukunft: i will be in the philippines. will be in vietnam, and i will with a six way discussion five other nations, including russia, china, japan, korea. table asll be at the well. china has created a china coast guard. they used to have a seagoing service called the five dragons. comeof these services under the auspices of a china coast guard. there has been a lot of discussion that we should deploy cutters over to the east and south china sea. our u.s. policy is one of nonintervention. i liken it to a dog that chases a bus and you caught the bus, what do you do with it? if i send one ship over there, d 10a consent 10 -- can sen to my 1. if it's a numbers game i am never going to win. if i look at the one ship over there -- i look at the opportunity cost. this last fall we wrote out a strategy for the western hemisphere. the uss kauffman, the last of the. class bigots -- last of the decommissioned [indiscernible] there are some trade-offs being made there as well. if they are vacating one region, i need to make sure i'm

as 25th commandant of the united states coast guard, admiral paul zukunft leads the largest component of the department of homeland security. the nonretired coast guard boasts some 88,000 personnel including active duty reserve, civilian, and volunteers with a budget of about $8.1 billion. down a bit from last year, right? members of the coast guard operate icebreakers in the arctic ocean and help mitigate recent events like the migrant crisis coming over, the greenpeace blockade protests against the royal dutch shell, excuse counter drug operations in the caribbean and provide security in the u.s. and even some places as far away as the south china sea. they respond to natural sasters such as hurricane