the navy had made modest progress in increasing the size of the navy fleet from a low of 274 ships in march of 2007, but that progress would be suspended with this budget. another challenge retiring seven cruisers earlier than planned rather than modernizing by two years, although the navy testified just last year that we needed to maintain the original ssb and x schedule to insure we meet our strateging control requirements. other challenges are reducing the strength of the active component, excuse me, of the marine corps from 202,000 beginning this year to 182,000 by the end of fy 16, and modernizing the amphibious tractor fleet for the programs for the amphibious program model and that would replace the program canceled last year. in this authorization request, we're asked to prevent future counsels to sever programs including the submarine, the arley burke destroyers and the v-22 aircrafts. if we approve these proposals, we will be monitoring these closely to insure that the department actually achieves the proposed savings and gets costs under control in other acquisition program

pipeline of minority offices for the navy and marine corps? >> thank you, senator, and i will return the good wishes and very good to see you. the naval academy has had an t outreach program going now for several years to make sure we get as diverse an applicant pool as is possible. we shouldn't allow -- everybody should be accorded the honor of defending this country through military service. as you pointed out, the number of minority not only applicants but also acceptances has gone up dramatically. we have, outside the academy, taken action to make sure for both the navy and the marine corps that we are gathering in highly qualified, diverse background americans, not just diversity and ethnicity or national origin but also in terms of geography, in terms of backgrounds, in terms of educational experience because we believe we will be a better fighting force having that diversity of points of view that we bring to bear on any issue. the final thing -- well, next to final thing that i would note is that we have also expanded naval r.o.t.c., re

army and the navy and the marine corps and the british navy and the thing that most struck me in is americans have said that there was a second front in world war front along the potomac of washington, d.c. with army versus navy but in tokyo the enter service rivalry was a full contact sport. the imperial navy and the japanese army cordially detested each other. they spoke to each other as little as possible and institutionally they were so far removed that it makes my brain hurt. the air force was heavily influenced by the french from about the per goal for one. in the french aircraft of the era you pull the throttle back to accelerate, the japanese navy was heavily in influenced which was the common sense standard pushed to go throttle so i couldn't help wondering how interesting must have been at the joint aviation conference when the japanese pilots were hopping cockpits. [laughter] schenectady want to answer questions? >> anybody have questions i would be delighted to reply. >> what would be the navigation pilots use early in the war before they had their radar to basically buy it themse

right now the navy is committed to the 1.7 carrier requirement in central command through september. > how is this effecting retention, recruitment as well as navy families? >> well, it's too soon to say on retention. there's a very limited sampling so far of these longer deployments, and, you know, obviously this puts a strain on sailors and their families, especially in repeat scenarios. however, studies have shown that sailors often enjoy and stay in because of some of these deployment extensions. they're getting to do humanitarian missions, they're getting to do war-fighting combat support missions. those are exactly the kind of things that sailors join to do. now, that said, there are -- these are -- the ones we're talking about are 11, eight- month deployments that are scheduled. in the past when the navy has done those, they've seen negative retention impacts, people have been getting out because they weren't getting home and they weren't getting the rest time they needed. the navy went to the six-month deployment standard in 1986 and they did that largely because of negative r

army and the navy and marine corps and the british royal navy, and the thing that most struck me in researching "whirlwind," you know, americans have always said that there was a second front in world war ii, and it was along the potomac in washington, d.c. with army versus navy, army versus army air force. but in tokyo, interservice rivalry was practically a full contact sport. at the imperial navy and the japanese army cordially contested each other. they spoke to each other as little as possible, and institutionally they were so far removed, as a pilot this makes my brain hurt, the japanese army air force was heavily influenced by the french dating from about the. of world war i. so in french aircraft of that era, you carried the throttle back to accelerate, but the japanese navy was heavily influenced by the british royal navy, which uses the common sense, the standard push to go throttle. so i couldn't help but wondering how interesting must it have been to be in a joint aviation conference when japanese army and navy pilots were hopping cockpits? it could've been the same. [laughter] >> y

i don't believe it's a job of the united states navy to do that. lieve it's the energy department who should be doing that and obviously i will seek to act on amendments on the floor to try to prevent this kind of waste of the taxpayers' dollars where they paid for $420 a gallon for algae fuels. i don't think we can afford it. >> i think we should -- you want to take a moment to -- >> if i could. >> if you wish. >> yes. the place that -- the authority that's being used here is a defense production act which has been in place since the early 1950s, which says that if there is an industry that defense needs, but does not exist in the united states, a defense not only can but should invest in that industry, energy is specifically mentioned in the defense production act as something that defense should look at. and in terms of moving toward biofuels, the numbers that we bought small test amounts was high. it's come down dramatically since then, even with the small test amounts we have been buying. and i think that we cannot afford not to do this. we can

navy officer. that's your introduction to the british navy. now, under american law, captains were required to report impressments to the american government and the u.s. government did make an effort to accumulate evidence. if you were a citizen and if officials in london found it convincing, they would order your release from the ship you were serving on. that was a process that had to be done through diplomatic channels and could take years. the rule was if at any point in the service you accepted the royal bounty, you are considered a volunteer no matter what your nationality. we think that something like 10,000 american citizens were by accident or design impressed between 1793 and 1812. probably between 1803 when the napoleonic wars began. that was a number on the eve of the war and i think that number is pretty good estimate. >> thank you very much. a quick one. do we have a handle on the number of casualties and wounded on each side? >> very, very difficult to get at. the official figures for the united states were something like 2300 k

initially that was the navy's plan. they had tugs standing by in hampton roads, several which were assigned to go after it, that of course never happened. right after march 8, the federal government chartered two fast steamers, and sent them from new york to hampton roads to again fling themselves on the merrimac when she appeared next. the only problem was the crews when they found out what they thought their suicide mission was going to be, absolutely refused and mutinied. and admiral goldsborough basically wrote in disgust saying that these people are refusing to do the job that they were hired to do. and it all -- came to nothing. stanton is concerned, the navy is just not going to take care of this problem. so the army, the war department needs to get involved. and he contacts, cornelius vanderbilt the shipping magnate and says, we understand you have an extretremtremely fast boat, vanderbilt" how much would you charge to use that ship to sink the merrimac. vanderbilt graciously says, i won't charge you anything. i

>> the navy had nothing to do it. >> i mean, the navy -- i talked a few times to get some documentationinformation. i have the freedom of information act requests behind this, too of the three denied the appeal, so there was a kind of bureaucratic indication but my information came from things like the case interviews of people as i say i spoke with somebody in the library of congress early on to scirica score at the archives to say where is the sealab archive and as far as anybody could tell there wasn't one, so i had to go on and dig up. >> i must have let you in the wrong direction. because from your research -- from their research at sealab, did they send information directly to the navy? was it secure information on the research? >> the first couple were run by the office of the naval research said they were producing reports and they were learning everything there was to learn from the project to enhance their own driving capability which stated in the navy to sealab and the discontinued the public spaces of sealab and some of the scientific work that was going on the had some civ

i especially like stories about the navy bases. to know how you got interested in doing this. >> how did i get interested in doing the book? >> researching c. ladd and the divers. >> did you miss my she'll at the beginning? >> i did walk in a little weight. >> i get asked that question a lot. for the benefit of those here i will refer you back to the beginning of the tape. the short story was it was my journalistic curiosity that was peeked out of some reporting i was doing in 7 barbara. one thing led to another. that was sealab. the fact that there was no real record or book of what this was all about, that became my job. to tell that. obviously i got a publisher interested in the contract to do it and i went back to my desk and went about my journalistic work as i had done for years before. a little bit lonelier with your cubicle neighbors and water cooler conversations. >> last few questions. >> you describe your early on the sensation you are breathing in those circumstances would it is like. can you go into more detail about wh

the impact of the two ground wars in the last decade on the navy fleet and forces unmistakable. as you pointed out, mr mr. chairman, the fleet has stood at 316 ships and an instrength of 377,000 sailors on 9/11, 2001, dropped to 283 ships and close to 49,000 fewer sailors just a few years later when i took office. th thisstration has made it a priority to improve our fleet. despite the budget constraints, our plan assures that we will have no fewer ships at the end of the five-year budget cycle than we have today although the fleet of 2017 will include more, more capable ships, equipped with state of the art technology and manned, as always, by highly skilled people. although we're presented one five-year budget plan, this is not a one fitted issue. as the defense strategy states, we're building the force for 2020. in the years beyond the kufrt, we have a plan to grow our fleet and insure capacity continues to match missions. our plan will have us again cross the threshold of 300 ships by 2019. overall, we'll fully meet the requirements of the new strategy and maintain the indust

initially, that was the navy's plan. they had tugs standing by in hampton roads, several of which were assigned to go after the merrimac. that, of course, never happened. right after march 8th, the federal government chartered two fast steamers to fling the problem was, the crews, when they found out what they thought their suicide mission was going to be refused in mutiny. admiral goldsboro wrote in disgust saying these people are refusing to do the job they are hired to do and it all came to nothing. stanton is concerned the navy is just not going to take care of this problem. the army, war department needs to get involved. he contacts cornelius vanderbilt, the shipping magnet and basically says, you know, we understand you have an extremely fast ocean steamer, the vanderbilt. how much would you charge to use that ship to sink the merrimac? vanderbilt, very graciously says, i won't charge you anything. i will, in a sense, donate this vessel to the federal government, which he does. although, the navy does not want it. i

all of this was shared information with the navy. hey were learning very much from this. >> so this story seems to have a lot of elements for a great film has anybody expressed any interest in the movie rights? >> interest in the movie rights, no, not that i know of. if jim cameron is in the audience anywhere here -- no, it's funny you ask. you know, obviously a lot of nonfiction books get turned into films. some underwater challenges with the swan, i think. certainly people see movies like the abyss, these kinds of challenges have been overcome. what's interesting to me, the kind of journalistic creative sense. i think in some ways -- i hate to say a better movie could be made at of this than the book, but you would have created places making a movie in a way that i didn't writing this book. when you have a couple of great characters like george bond who had described with pretty different characters, we learn of fair amount. you put that in some of the situations that there were in. you're able to create dialogue and bring of the ch

although the navy does not want it. in fact, wells calls it a white elephant, that in the end no one knows what to do with this vessel. it does become part of the u.s. navy blockade fleet. but again, wells had never wanted it. also very popular, especially with new yorkers, there's a number of new yorkers who write in saying that it's not an unusual occurrence for an east river steamer do clip a pier and be no worse for wear. in fact, charles megs, who's a banker in new york, said i saw the steamer "empire" basically shear off the 19th street pier and it was perfectly fine. and thus he has this idea for creating a steel-nosed ram that would be totally unarmed, only its nose would be armored and it would be exceptionally fast. it would be what he calls fish-bottomed. it wouldn't have much of a keel. and it would therefore be able to turn very quickly. and it would be able to again throw itself on the "merrimac" with great rapidity. and it would only cost $100,000 to build. could be ready in two months. and according to hi

the american navy did break the main cut of the imperial japanese navy in 1942. within, for that matter the army or navy together broke diplomatic code in late 1940 and early 41. they broke the diplomatic code. the americans did pretty well. the root the diplomatic code and the baroque flute and a navy operational code. [inaudible] >> the reader is acting. >> bouquet. i think it says to me that there are all kinds of heroes hidden heroes himself because for 15 months he battled the state department. in the very beginning this department was very, very skeptical. more than skeptical. what kind of scheme is this man involved in that he wants to bring 25 address to come here? and you could see, over 15 months through the memos and what have you that the state department mello's. it wasn't anything technical that finally won the freedom of these youngsters. it was the integrity and the courage and the patients and the stamina for and to battle the state department's in overwhelming odds for 15 months. so what does it tell to be, that there is something about courage a

i believe it was, under the terms of our agreement with the navy. we have an obligation to the families. we want to provide them great housing, suitable housing, comfortable housing. >> they blamed our mold on our dogs. >> reporter: yet military spouses we spoke with tell a very different story. >> the second story was sinking into the first. >> my house is like a moat. it lives in a puddle of water. >> reporter: a story of decaying homes and well-meaning but incompetent maintenance people. >> right here is my home. >> reporter: shelley federico moved into lincoln military housing october 2010. when she moved out a year later, she had filed more than two dozen complaints with lincoln maintenance related to water damage and penetration. >> they would send someone out and they would say miss federico, no problems. we're just going to need to caulk your window. >> reporter: shelley says she developed intense stomach and sinus problems, persistent headaches, skin lesions and chronic fatigue. doctors could find no cause. but she says it clicked the day a

who attacked the navy and secretary wells in particular. james gordon bennett, publisher, then editor of the then new york herald was a particularly good credit, who excoriated the navy regularly. the capture of the banshee by an army transport filled bennett with glee. his editorial the next day was blistering in its treatment of the navy department. the banshee ship defied every ship in our navy to capture her. but when she was at last run to ground it will be noted, it was not by one of our naval vessels but by an army transport. this was simply more evidence as far as bennett was concerned that wells was as obstinate as he is ignorant. and that he should be removed at once in favor of some competent person. secretary wells in the audience here this morning? i don't want to get into any trouble. lincoln, however, whom bennett described as a great deal more kind than just, stood by his embattled secretary of the navy who remained in the cabinet for the duration of the war and in fact, the duration of the lincoln presidency. newspaper stori

the royal navy was chronically undermanned. and the royal navy claimed a right to reclaim british subjects. to require them to serve in the royal navy. now, at the same time that the royal navy was expanding and needed all the manpower it could get, our trade was flourishing and expanding. we needed all the experienced seamen we could get, and we started employing british tars. it was very easy to recruit them, because the pay, the working conditions were much better on american merchant vessels than the royal navy. so the royal navy reserved the right to stop american merchant vessels on the high seas, muster the crew, inspect the crewmen, and remove those who were deemed to be british subjects. now, the problem with this was, first of all, it was very difficult to tell the difference between a u.s. citizen and a british subject. the differences in language and the like was not as great as it is today. so sometimes by accident, american tars were impressed into british service. in addition, sometimes it was no accident. you get

this laid bare a number of deficiencies in the u.s. navy's fighting spirit and their doctrine all across the board. all the way to the shores of japan itself, launching airstrikes. but the surface navy, the black shoe fleet had yet to see its day. so the battle on in the potential loss, four cruisers, a thousand sailors, scarcely a scratch on the japanese showed us how far we had to go. so the theme of the campaign becomes from that point forward, how is this kind of high-bound institution that's being torn apart by, you know, the evolving way of war, you've got the aviators over here, the battleship sailors over here. nobody really has a handle on how we're going to conduct fleet operations as such. how are we going to get our feet under ourselves and fight the reigning masters in the world as of 1942? well, the answer is through trial and error and through the emergence of a particular type of combat leader, a type of commander who has that forward-leaning approach and knows that combat is nothing really fancy, it's about putting ordnance o

the navy did take a chance on a. the navy did take a chance on a submarine. i should talk about this one for a moment. another individual wrote in saying, how about a glass-bottom boat that if you can see the little individual there, that this boat would be used to remove torpedos and obstructions from 10:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon on a sunny day, you can see deep in the water to supposedly undue these enemy obstructions and a one-man submarine as well. the one submarine the u.s. government does invest in proposed by brutas devileroi. if you remember warner brothers cartoons, wyle. coyote. villeroi puts on his 18th century sen tus. under occupation, he puts two words, natural genius. he is quite convinced he is brilliant and his submarine is the alligator. the alligator, at least a prototype of it is built and brought down to hampton roads at one point. it also is not terribly workable. the navy officers who command it find that, yes, it submerges but goes straight to the bottom. it does not float very well, doesn't answer the realm. the allig

i have to give the navy credit for that. with regard to the literal combat ship, i'm concerned about the overall reductions in that budget in the future years of the defense plan. i understand it still remains a top navy priority to have 55 ships produced through that program. where are we in terms of cost and schedule for the lcs, mr. secretary or admiral? how does the current contract, the execution of the program compare with the initial purchase of the first ship in that program? and how do you see that program developing? >> senator, i'm very proud of the combat ship program. expensive. very high priced. >> first in class is always more expensive no matter how you build it. >> it is. >> what does it look like now? >> the price has come down from the bids on the -- on ships 5, 6 and 7. the bids, the initial bids have come down from that by 40% and the price is coming down for every ship in this contract. we have a block buy of ten ships from each vendor. so a total of 20 ships. the tenth ship of each one will be significa

but here's the army and the navy cooperating together in a combined operation. it didn't really matter, though, because the forts under attack were overwhelmed by that heavy union naval ordinance, and soon, even before butler would get his men to line up, fort hatteras surrendered and the union gained access into the north carolina sounds. now, this was a bracing little victory for the north, and an even more consequential one occurred three months later in november of 1861, this one aimed at port royal and south carolina, a little further down the coast. located almost exactly halfway between charleston and savannah, port royal was ideally located to constitute a base for the south atlantic blockading squadron. this time the naval mission would be led by captain, now flag officer and later rear admiral, samuel francis dupont who emerged as the union hero of this war. dupont's plan was pretty straightforward. as in north carolina, he would guard the sound, and once they were suppressed, then the army could come in and take possession. i've been tempted to say som

that's the way the navy likes to operate. unfortunately i think this wastes a lot of time in transit. i know sometimes the ocean transits are used for good purposes. we do exercises with allies et cetera. but for the most part it's a lot of steaming time that's fairly unproductive. when you do the math, this is not my princeton math, this the navy math, the navy needs five or six ships in the fleet to keep one on station. that's not a ratio that we should be tolerating. it's not a ratio that's good enough for the fiscal times in which we live. we're deploying billion dollar warships all over the world with this fairly inefficient way of using them. and i think it's time to stop wasting that month in transit each way and at least for surface combatants. i'm not proposing this for the aircraft fleet with 5,000 people. for the surface combatants with typically 300 people on the ship. i think it's time we start flying the crew which has trained on one ship in u.s. waters to meet up with the ship over in japan or somewhere else on

there had been a fair number serves in the navy, but after the chesapeake affair in 1807, the navy department ordered that no more british suggests be employed and most once war was declared, left the us navy any way because they knew if they were captured, they were likely to be hanged. teddy roosevelt who is a great historian reckoned that no war ship had as many as 10% of the crew as british tars. he is probably right about that. they didn't rely on pit crews and british tars. the last part of this myth is the american myth. because we won a series on the high seas, that we won the war. not so. the british gave about as good as they got in the course of the war. won about as many as they lost and they used their naval power to blockade the coast and that had a devastating impact on the u.s. economy and cut sharply into government revenue. if anybody, the british won the war at city and one would expect that. kentucky and tennessee won the battle of new orleans although this was fought after the war was over. rifles did not play a significant role in the battle. all the evidence suggests th

in letters to his wife he complained of the navy department's pressure on him in ignorance of the difficulties he faced. they will keep us in the river until the vessels break down and the reputation we have made has evapora evaporated, he wrote. the government appears to think we can do anything. fighting is nothing to the river. to secretary wells farragut reported the elements of destruction to the navy in this river are beyond anything i have ever encountered. more anchors lost and vessels ruined than any i have seen in a lifetime. and those vessels that do not run into others are themselves run into and crushed in such a manner as to render them unsea worthy. no doubt an exaggeration. and wells' reaction to this letter is unknown. he knew that farragut would be named the first rear admiral in the history of the united states navy. wells told farragut we know that the job of capturing vicksburg will be challenging but we also know you can do anything and are about to become an admiral so go do it. so farragut took his beloved flagship "hartford" to vicksburg in june 1862. and when i will g

the memorandum of understanding, that mannerie, and navy that e the. it's in response to the skres, competitively priced biofuel industry for the country. na navys' contribution paid, it specifically mentions energy as one of the things that defense production act. i think it's important that the requirements, drop-in fuel, that we're not going to change the. we have to have a fuel that will operate on the fleet we have today with the aircraft we have today. secondly, that. it. it helped this industry reach commercial viability. we have seen the cost of severe fro froerricht. we biofuels to test blue aen jelz on, the largest purchase, we believe, in american history, 450 thol. the cost has been cut in half in the last two years just in those test amounts, and we are convinced that as the military brings a market here that the cost of biowill be competitive with existing fossil fuels and finally, one of the things that we have to talk about at the hearing is that this is one of the core things of the united states navy. we move from shale to coal in the

the navy is pretty nervous about its version of the f. thirty five partially because the british just are about to cancel their version which is the same point and the navy has really never really liked it whereas one engine and one hundred planes were made well folks and over see they're going to crash into the water and so people have been wondering for a while if the navy was going to try to get a different kind of plane and this may be sort of the first shot over the bow as it were in terms of the navy's search for a different fighter aircraft well i guess they would have you know that asking for . money had been spent but if you're right in terms of hillary clinton everyone else maybe they might be lucky in that sense robert thanks so much for joining us tonight thanks for having me. time for a quick break but when we come back you said it i wrote it and we'll have all the latest on stop cyber spying week then the e.p.a. released their first today on fracking i think if they don't actually think of that i still want to know if they t

what is the navy league of the united states and what do you guys do?>> the navy league of the united states is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. we were founded in 1902 at the direction of president teddy roosevelt. we support the maritime services and aviating marine corps coast guard and u.s. flag merchant marine and we support them through advocacy, we inform the american public about the need for maritime services and we support the families and the servicemembers by supporting youth programs, the navy league see cadets, young marines and junior rotc. and one of the ways that we do all of that support, helps us support is the nation's largest maritime expedition, the sea, air space. >> the show obviously has been going on for a very, very long time, very important conference that goes with this side and also the trade show aspect of it. what are some of the differences we'll be seeing this year when we go to the show? >> that's a good question because after last year after last year's show, if you remember right before the show, right before the gove

they were the senior ranks in the navy. they actually liked ericsson. who tended to oppose him were people like this, jeffers, young officers, highly trained in engineering, very familiar with steam engineering. they called them the steam generation of officers. in fact, jeffers was a protege of the great ordnance pioneer dahlgren who designed the "monitor's" guns, became the first head of the pure of ordnance, which was the technical organizations in the navy. and this generational conflict was not the radical lone inventor versus the old fogies in the navy. there was a lot more going on there about the technology. similarly, and we saw a few of these already today, this is the illustration from "harper's" which is pretty famous about life inside the "monitor." it looks a whole lot more spacious and comfortable. it looks like you might as well have a gymnasium in here and a beautiful galley here and the lovely ward room, which actually was pretty lovely. that's the one part of it that may be accurate, although not quite that big. and everybody enjoying

the united states will be given the power to resist all the world's navy. and he also says, i am fully willing to do a test and then will sit back and wait for the offers to flood in. well, if shells and other machines couldn't destroy the merrimac, it is suggested, how about using one of nature's basic elements? fire. or fire and patrolling. this idea of turning the monitor into some sort of flame-throwing vesuvius, equipped the monitor with tanks of in flflammable, benzene, coil oil, naphtha, which is very close to gasoline. you spray the merrimac using fire hoses and then either the fire of her own guns will ignite it or you use a rocket to do so. and that, in a sense, this will take the enemy out with almost no effort. in fact, one of the most elaborate plans sent in was by robert chesebrough. you may have come into contact with him within the last few days. he is the inventor of vaseline. i was also thrilled to know that how to burn the merrimac was written by brooklyn fire company, so they knew how to start fires. he said what do you sput a $5,000-tank

the situation room." >>> now, breaking news. a navy jet slams into apartments in virginia beach sending flames and black smoke into the air. the two crew members ejected and survive. an urgent search is under way on the ground. you'll hear gripping accounts by witnesses, one who saw a parachute deploy from the stricken jet and rushed to the horrific crash scene. another who found a pilot, his parachute hanging from the apartment building and more trouble for marion barry, the d.c. city councilman and former mayor who was once caught on tape smoking crack. now he makes shocking remarks about asian-owned businesses. wolf blitzer is off. i'm joe johns. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> breaking news, a horrifying scene in a crowded apartment complex in virginia beach as a navy jet crashes into buildings there, shooting flames and thick, black smoke into the sky. the crew members ejected and were taken to the hospital. now an urgent effort to account for all of the people on the ground. our brian todd

he went to the navy. as it was fairbanks, he didn't go to the captain above him or even the commander. he went to the admiral. the second highest ranking admiral in the navy. admiral kent hewitt. hewitt said, that's fine. i think we can do this, but in terms of your more grandee oes plan, fairbanks had them, you have to go to the joint chiefs of staff with those. so you can imagine a young lieutenant in the naval reserves going to speak to the joint chiefs of staff today with his plan how to create an operational scenario for the whole war. i don't think it would play very well, but, in fact, he did, and it played very well. even though the joint chiefs deceived him and said, well, this is all very well and thank you, but good day, commander. actually at that point, lieutenant. but they adopted many of the things he had put forward and, in fact, either by coincidence or because they deliberately adopted the plan, his template for battlefield deception became a way the americans did it in europe. so fairban