with the navy today. is anyone know the name of that ship? the constitution there's a point , for you. there will be a quiz later on. just be ready for that. we realize that not only did we frigates built and ships being built, but we needed a navy yard to actually build those ships. congress wanted a navy yard that was very close to them though they could keep an eye on what the navy was doing. where a better place to do that than right along the anacostia river, right down the street from the u.s. capitol so they basically could keep an eye on what was going on here? again that suspicion of the , military for the federal government at that time, that's why this area was chosen. the very first commandant of the navy yard, who was tasked with building the yard was a man by the name of thomas tingy. he has a very long history with this navy yard. he builds it, destroys it, then builds it again. but we are getting a little bit ahead of ourselves with that story. but again, this is really part of the original

the way to arise in the navy. code breakers reputation of cryptal sis wasn't helped by the attack on pearl harbor. a lot of the skeptics wondered why this new science hadn't provided a better warning. so cryptal sis entered world war ii pretty much under a cloud. code breakers had staggering problems of their own besides their reputation. their big problem was that there wasn't enough of them. both services had two few trained analysts. the navy did have around 50 in its washington office, but a lot of them were detailed to work on various codes, diplomatic codes, the german enigma code, only a tiny handful worked on the imperil navy operational codes. and this small group was supplemented by 21 analysts scattered across the pacific in the navy two field stations at pearl harbor and manila and this small man was charged with shadowing the entire japanese navy. it must be said they did an amazing job. they did catch a few breaks. walter bornman was talking about the early reigns in the gilbert and marshall islands a

however, the u.s. navy continued to find ways to recover property like an imperiled that they reused. for the next decade, the government sold the rights of recovery to a succession of firms. this created issues in later years because in the 19th century, they sell salvage rights and in the 20th century, it comes up as a question from some divers i'm going to talk about in a little while. although the u.s. government dollars,thousands of nothing less than a congressional act can remove the ship from the ownership of the u.s. government. inquireriladelphia article from 1864 noted that the navy would retain all rights to the ship, including everything of military and historic value. the article reminded potential divers that nothing they found on the ship was theirs, stating that bidders will take into consideration that the government requires the frigate cumberland and whatever may be on board her, either public or private property, will be delivered to the navy yard in virginia. aboutestrictions artifacts

the navy should procure the minimum number of l.c.s. necessary to keep the work force viable to compete for new frigates. secretary stackley has testified that would be one l.c.s. in fiscal year 2018, not more. i want to emphasize, secretary stackley testified that would be one l.c.s. in fiscal year 2018. not more. on the ford class aircraft carrier, while it's encourage to see the ship finally delivered to the navy, the request for the gerald r. ford exceeds the cost cap by $20 million. in addition, the navy wants to award the contract, the construction contract for the third ship, the enterprise, in march, 2018, at a cost of $13 billion which is $1.6 billion more than the previous ship. this is unacceptable for a ship certified to be a repeat design that will deliver just three years later. secretary stackley and admiral richardson, i would like an explanation. generally, given the importance of replacing our age mag rein corps fleets, the marine corps must learn the lesson of past failures such as the expeditionary fighting vehicle a

, if you will, of the navy we have. and i would appreciate it for the record and this may exist in various documendocuments. what is the percentage of readiness of all the equipment? there are 47 out of 70 that are lacking parts. yard like the know what that figure is for destroyers, amfibs, submarines. in other words, it doesn't matter what the nominal navy is. the real question is what ships do we have that are ready to fight? and i would like to see an analysis, god forbid there was a two front attack or the major problems that we're anticipating or preparing for if it occurred tomorrow, how much of the fleet and the personnel are trained and equipped, all of those things so we can compare, as i say, the nominal navy with the ready to fight navy? >> we tracked that and i'll get on your calendar. >> i think that's important and then i think we need to fully understand that and i commend you for focusing in this budget on these issues of getting the higher level of maintenance and repair. admiral neller, one final quest

doesn't matter what the nominal navy is. the real question is what ship does we have that are ready to fight i'd like to see an analysis god forbid there was a two-front attack if is occurred tomorrow, how much of the fleet and the personnel are trained and equipped, all of those things so we can compare, as i say, the nominal navy with the ready to fight navy. you get what -- >> i'll walk you through that. >> i appreciate mat. i think that's important, and then i just think we need to fully understand that, and commend you for focusing in this budget on these issues of getting a hire level of maintenance and repair -- higher level of maintenance and repair. admiral neller, one final question. you have 85,000 but that's a 1-2 dwell to deployment. seems to be a high stress level on your people. would -- talk to me about the deployment-dwell ratio. >> senator, at 185,000, in the aggregate it's one to two. there are some communities that are below that, harder than that. some that are better. when i came in the marine corps and

." >>> next, a 2018 budget request for the navy. the deputy assistant navy secretary took reporters questions as congress makes its way through the budget process. this is about 40 minutes. >> good afternoon, everybody. welcome to the next brief. we are admiral brian luther is the director of the department of the navy's fiscal management branch. he is going to deliver his presentation, roll out the navy's budget and then we'll go over some ground rules and take some questions. >> good afternoon. as he mentioned i'm brian lute luther and i want to thank you ft. opportunity to brief the fiscal year 2018 president budget submission in which i will address our portion of the second step of the department of defense's multi-year effort to restore readiness. the brief will be broken into four parts. the first will briefly review the current and evolving strategic guidance. the second, provides the operational context in which the naval forces operate in today's world. the third i'll review historical challenges that underlie the requireme

-- the royal navy had an awful lot of experience in fleet fighting, but the united states navy d not. the hard work we have put into this stuff in the years between the spanish-american war and the worst world war were what resulted in our battleships' ability to go over and integrate almost flawlessly with the royal maybe -- the years between the spanish-american war and the first world war. americans were not as good at were, and the british that was a lesson we took to .eart in the interwar era i tell my students that probably the most important thing the united states did in the first world war was brought to million members of the american expeditionary force to france and took them all home again and did not lose a single one of them. the u.s. navy's primary responsibility was to face the port of american troops. there were no losses on eastbound convoys. we lost three empty troop transports going back the other way. they were not regarded as heavily going back the other way. once the war ended, they had to bring everybody home. it was a massive undertaking and one that th

way to rise in the navy. codebreakers, the reputation of cryptanalysis was not helped by the attack on pearl harbor on the cymer 7, 1941. a lot of the skeptics in the officer ranks wondered why this new science had not provided a better warning. entered world war ii very much under a cloud. codebreakers had staggering problems of their own besides the reputation. their big problem was that there was not enough of them. around 50 inhave it watching an office, but a lot of them were detailed to work on various diplomatic codes, the german evening with code -- german enigma code. only a handful worked on the german navy operational codes, and this small group was helped by 20 when crypto analysts in the navy's field station at pearl harbor and manila, and this small band was charged with shadowing the entire japanese navy. said, they did an amazing job. they did catch a few breaks. walter boardman was talking in thehe early raids gilbert and marshall islands and the solomons. codebreakers cannot break codes unles

this one on the navy's 2018 budget request. we'll hear from the acting chief of naval operations john richardson and comidant robert miller. >>> good morning. the committee is meeting today to receive testimony on the plans and programs in the department of the navy fiscal year 2018. i want to thank each of the witnesses for their distinguished service and is civilians they lead who are serving around the world today. in recent months, our nation's senior civilian defense and military leaders have testified to this committee about the severe threats we face around the world. they have reported shortfalls and readiness that our military advantage over our potential adversaries is eroding and the dire need for new capabilities. and yet, as secretary mattis testified here on tuesday, the greatest immediate threat that our military faces is right here in washington. fiscal uncertainty, continuing resolutions, arbitrary and inadequate caps on defense spending, four more years of the budget control act and the threat of sequestration.

nasa is working with the navy on this issue. currently working on our part to the defense committees and the episodes go to the oxygen generating system that's absolutely critical. it also goes to the confidence of our pilot, the ability to know the system will operate and they are not putting lives at risk. we do not have confirmation, but certainly the canadian staffer worked diligently to lessen the threat and look at the reports and see what actual risks people have sustained. we called called roundtables and miss. we've called the navy and for hearings. in this billabong we had the navy aggressively taking action to address this. we've asked the air force to expedite research and we also have $10 million into the navy's aircrew system development program that is the same thing program to determine whether toxins are present. this is a serious issue. i appreciate my ranking member withdrawing it. we certainly know the time we've been working with the navy, the response has been sufficient and we will continue to work through

we talked about the surface navy, but within the surface na navy, got got those assets which are very large, very complex and important. could you talk a little bit about recovering their readiness and are you satisfied and the cross talk between the navy and the marines on that? >> well, i've got a marine on my staff who manages amphibious ships for me. the c-21 staff, which does maintenance, talking to the marine corps all the time, n-95 is a very strong advocate for the amphibious warfare branch. and it may have been in the past the tendency to place it on the nuclear side of the house, today, i think we have robust class maintenance plans across the board and, you know, we understand the service life requirements of the amphibious ships. starting with lpd-17, they're being well maintained today. we're sending, about ready to finish up a maintenance available down in norfolk, she's going to be an fdnf ship. i've been on a lot of the amphibious ships, as well. i don't see any indication that they're, you know, they're the last person in line for the maintenance dollars. >> right. yo

is the u.s. navy and you may have information coming that isem equipment coming off of om equipment. how do you see handling that? we talk about cyber, but who owns the data? who protects it? and who is able to interpret it in a way that enables you to gain efficiencies? i am a big believer that the navy should own the data going forward. and you are right, we have a lot of data come off our ships today. we don't make great use of it. you talked about rolls-royce engines. the navy leadership has been up to general electric to see what they are doing in what they call digital twins and making decisions. i think that is a direction we absolutely need to head in. on surface ships today, i have a system called the integrated condition assessment system. you have the ability to collect data for years, but we don't do enough with the data to make decisions. but with the systems we have today, we have the ability to collect vibration data and temperature and stuff, and we absolutely have to take a step forwa

last night was a ignite for the navy. band played on the waterfront. the forward tod the navy. it was a big night for us having worked on ford for most of the past 10 years. the navy accepted delivery last night. you heard it here first. the theme that i was given was the maintenance challenge and how to reset the fleet. context of talking about headed.e c-note is more importantly, to talk about how the maintenance side of that equation fits in. it is not either. you have to do both. we tend to forget about that. forng been a ship loader most of the last three years, but having spent most of the readiness, i am well aware that you have to do both. if you have not read the sea notes white paper, it is a good read. a short, it has pictures in it. it is great for command master chief's. their lips do not get tired when they read it. key points.ree applicable whether you are talking construction or maintenance. it is some of the things we're getting after today. it applies across the board. figuring out how to design these ships quicker and build them quicker. the pace today is expo

we spent months asking the navy this very question in a subcommittee. the program executive officer told chairman whitman and myself and everyone else that the navy needs three ships per year and need it to keep the production line hot to facilitate that transition. stack li's name was invoked. let's also recognize the administration was forced to defend top line number 603 sent to them by onb without doing strategic evaluation behind what numbers actually needed. lcs program is of critical importance to our navy. the designs are stable, new yard facilities are in place with the right size qualified workforce and both shipyards and industry teams are in full productions in order to ensure each can deliver two ships per year. today the lcs program is on budget and below congressional cost cap. gao was invoked. if you actually read the gao report, which is not friendly to the lcs in a manner of respects conclude cost simply isn't the issue. strategically, what are we talking about with this ship? why do we need it? why do the war fighters keep asking for i

is the u.s. navy and you may have information coming off oem equipment that is owned by, say, the oem. if you're trying to bring this information together and gain insights from it, how do you see handling that? i mean, we talked about cyber, but how do we handle -- who owns the data? who protect its? and w -- protects it? and who is able to interpret in a way that allows to you gain efficiencies? >> so, one, i'm a big believer the navy should own the data going forward. and you're right, we have a lot of data coming off our ships today. we frankly don't make great use of it. you talked about rolls-royce engines. the navy leadership has been up to general electric to see what they're doing in what they call digital twins and the digital age and making decisions. i think that's a direction that we are absolutely need to head in. so i have, on surface ships today, i have a system called ikas. we've had the ability to collect data for years. frankly, we don't do a lot with the data to help us make decisi

what is the navy that we need in the mid-20's. and go make some decisions based on kind of that navy we need in the 2020s. there have been a number of recent studies some done by the navy, and some by independent groups about what is the navy and what should it look like? they have various mixes of ships and stuff but in the end they all came to the same conclusion we need a bigger navy than we have today and they are all around the 340 to 350 ships. clearly the size of the fleet does matter going forward, and the cape and tability of that f also going to matter. how do we get there? when we talk about the size of fleet and i know i'll get questions about how the '18 budget didn't add a bunch of new ships, what happened? we were never going to be able to turn that around overnight. i think what you're going to see and i'll get to it later in my remarks is the '18 budget holds what we have on the new construction side but makes a significant investment on the readiness side of the house which i think is, if you listen to the vice ch

it shattered the reputation of the navy is unmatched and unbeatable as the best navy in the world, the navy was a bigger presence in the public's eyes than it is now. newspapers routinely covered the changes of naval command, big stories when admiral x was replaced by admiral why. even in peacetime reporters went out to see to file long, detailed reports about the complex exercises of atlantic and pacific fleet. the navy was the newspaper that landed on the front steps of homes in honolulu on sunday morning, december 7th, it was sitting there when the plane showed up overhead. the newspaper had a front-page announcement that santa claus would be in the newspaper bobby starting at noon like he was every year. ready to hear christmas wishes of the children of honolulu. i never did find out whether santa claus showed up that day, i suspect not. we also need to remember this was the age before spy satellites. there were no cameras in the stratosphere up there snapping photos as you would have today as 30 japanese warships silently sailed out of an obscure bay in the farthest most remote re

you talked about the service navy within the service navy you've got those assets which are very large, very complex and important. the guitar will be about recovering the readiness and are you satisfied? >> well, i've got a marine on my staff who manages amphibious ships for me, which does maintenance, talking to the marine corps all the time, a very strong advocate for the amphibious warfare branch. where there may been in the past a tendency to place more of the resources than the nuclear side of house, today i think with robust classification across the board. we understand the life requirements of the amphibious ships. starting with 17, being well-maintained today. we're sending them ready finish up -- i'm [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> you mentioned industry helping out with the submarines. i was wondering if you could say which yard that is going to and why -- [inaudible] >> i

became ensins or joined the navy reserve. whatever their pathway, cadets pass through months of flight training. at 40, 60, 70th areas, they were checked. the last flight check was most difficult called shooting the circle. at 800 feet the flight instructor cut his engine forcing the plane to land on a 200 foot circle on an auxiliary field. some students would almost crash their plane to do it rather than drop out. in 1980, 40% failed the check or killed themselves in the process. aviation cadets were doing flight training, the fighter base or tricks. and an advanced carrier training quads from veteran instructors. when all was said and done the pilots had logged more than 600 hours in the air before going to the front. their combat experience was little. all the enterprise squadrons had fought several times before. research of the air group in march resulted in a group of brand new ensigns, fresh from the u.s. carrier group. >> only one of us from the war and they were replaced from the squadrons of uss saratoga and had yet t

second point, the u.s. navy had long thought if there was a war, the japanese might attack pearl harbor without first declaring war. they had done something similar to the russian in 1904 in the war of the two empires. i would like you to meet the second of the four people. adam bellenger who was designated as naval air pilot number four and that is because he was the fourth person in history to ever fly a plane for the navy. he had all kinds of aviation first in his career. he understood this relatively new source of naval power. in those days of early december, 75 years ago, he was in charge of the pacific fleets patrol planes. what is a patrol plane? those are the planes called to search out the enemy if the fleet can find the enemy. it fars out in front of the fleet if they are out in sea or far out in oahu if the fleet sin port to make sure nothing threatening is out there. in march of 1941, patrick bel belenger co-authored a report and it is like he had gotten into a time machine and gone to the future. th

the u.s. and japanese navies. leading off is a review of the war in pacific prior to june 1942 then new information about the japanese at the battle. this is live coverage on cspan3. >> we are pleased and very very proud to be hosting it. i would like to thank our partners that helped put this together. the hampton roads naval historical foundation and world war i and world war ii come mem ri -- commemoration. we couldn't have done it without you. [ cheers and applause ] >> now, before we get going i do have housekeeping items to pass along. first of all, turn off or silence your cell phones. keep your programs. we have something of a limited supply of those and please wear your fwbadges throughout the da. keep in mind we are on cspan so during the q and a use the microphone deployed here on the square. at this time i would like to bring forward my counter part john pentanjelo who will make some remarks, john. [ applause ] >> thanks, chris. good morning and welcome. the hampton roads naval hue see yum is proud to s

that's also the navy's conclusion. three ships not only maintains a healthy industrial base because without three ships, the skilled workforce will suffer a 10% to 40% layoff, result in an extended production timelines and unit cost increases of 10% to 15% which comes out to be $50 to $70 million annually. the labor force is not a spigot. when you turn it off, you can't turn it back on again and people go to other jobs and go to other places and it's a skilled workforce that has been in both shipyards will remain to provide small surface combatants on time and under cost caps and benefiting the taxpayers and the navy that has told us it needs it. three ships also insures the proper supplier base continues to provide new and repair parts in an economic order of quantities maintaining low cost for taxpayers, as well. the navy cannot get to a 350 or 355-ship requirement and we've had repeated testimony to that effect. it fills a gap in the navy's capabilities. lcs serves as the low-cost capability in the distributed locali

code breaking and navy at the battle and new information at the state of japanese navy. all of that is tieonight starti at 8:00 eastern. >>> each week, american history tv brings a archival film that helps tell a story of the 208th century. >> hollywood directors making films for the u.s. government during world war ii. we featured john ford. he made for the u.s. navy about the june 1942 battle of mid way. the film presented a victory and vivid color to an american public eager for some good news. first, we speak with author mark harris about john ford. >> author harris focused on the five books. heart atta mark harris, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> what can you tell us about the work of ford? >> he's the most respected before the war. between 939 and 941, he went on an unmatched terror in hollywood making the grapes of wrath and how green was my valley and drums along the mohawks. just a set of movies that gave him the reputation as one of the most intelligent and serious minded directors. he was also the most precious of the five directors

namely, the navy consider them expendable assets. as he reminisced in years later, they could always get more pilots and planes, but they could not get more ships. chuckling to himself, though i doubt he chuckled the afternoon theune 4, he explained reality. sorry, you do not get a fighter escort, you are on your own. that is the way it was -- we were on our own. i believe we can take his message about the battle of midway seriously. the navy in the early days of the pacific war was so desperate for victory it made no effort to hide the fact they sent aviators on seemingly impossible missions without sufficient weaponry, intelligence, or fuel. the navy expected pilots to figure out the battle on their own. if they failed come it would be no great loss. it would be another wave of flyers and planes to replace them. the surface ships needed to survive the engagement at all costs. in essence, the pilots were figuratively and sometimes literally on their own. today this mode of thinking seems heartless, reckless, and costly. to send pilot

last night was a big night for the navy. we played at the waterfront for most of the past ten years accepted it last night. given the challenge how to reset the fleet, i would like to talk about this in the context of where it is headed with the size of the fleet and what we are giving on the new construction e side and the maintenance side of the equation how it fits in. we were talking before hand. it's not either.t you've got to do both. sometimes we forget about that most of the last 15 years also having spent three years on the readiness i am well aware that you have to maintain and continue to build going forward. it has some pictures so it isuri great to not get tired when they read it. it talks about with the current security environment is and he makes three key points that are applicable whether you are talking the maintenance of keytn points are the time matters and there has to be a sense of urgency that we are getting after today. i think that applies across thee board to figure out how you can get them built qui

that's a view that's not well-known, even in the united states navy. the last couple of years has the navy decided that -- and determined officially that it is the greatest naval battle ever fought by the united states navy. and as such, is celebrated at all ships and stations in the navy marine corps. as regards the public, it's particularly unknown. if you doubt me, pick up your son's history book and see if it rates more than one paragraph in 2,000 pages of american history. so i'm not going to correct that, i'm not going to rectify that difficulty. but the american veterans center here has taken a big step forward by doing their part to see that every american child knows and understands the significance of the battle of midway. let me begin with my beginning. i was ordered after graduation from the naval academy to pearl harbor to join the carrier "yorktown." i got there in late may, and went aboard the ship the night before she deployed for the battle. now, "yorktown" had just come back from the battle of the coral sea, where it had been heavily d

the navy guys didn't think i was too rough but perhaps i was. i think the end of the day, the friction, traditional army navy rivalries, i think they've been really overstated. i think there were people on both sides, mcarthur's staff and nimitz' staff who hated one another and quite frankly, mcarthur's chief of staff, southerland, was one of those. once they got together, like nimitz -- excuse me, like halsey and mcarthur got along and embraced the bigger picture. thank you very much. picture. so thank you very much. [ applause ] >>> the battle of midway took place from june 4th to june 7th, 1942 and resulted in a decisive u.s. naval victory over japan. next, author

's been going on the bottom line is that the navy still cannot say when the t45, the navy only jet trainerill start flying again. a six to five page review said finding a solution to the problem has pthere is not one y. the issue with was systems with the trainer and the f-18 hornets. the systems are supposed to provide clean breathable air to air crew and when they don't, pilots may become dizzy, euphoric, or even pass out off-line. reports of these kinds of incidents have been on the rise. it's is the navy has been taking a quote unrestrained resource approach print listen. >> we are putting everything we've gotten to this. we've got a lot of people converging and swarming on a problem. were going to find ways to mitigate that risk and ultimately fix it. >> the f-18 is still flying while the navy works on on the problem and as for the t45, he tells me that if they are not able to get training flights going again by the summer, it will impact operational readiness. so the navy's close. >> what are the changes expected from this review? >> the navy plans to establish a dedicated new organi

there was a this where a reporter said the u.s. navy for the first time did not have an aircraft carrier at sea for the first time since world war i. part of that is because it took 13 months. so it wasn't lost to me when i came into the job a year ago that sees the ability to get it out on time. it is critically important. so back to my original comment. one, we need more people, clearly. it can't be only about the people. there are a couple of other things we'll have to do here. i have to have the capacity to do the work. i have to figure out ways to train the work force. kids today are coming in. they learned differently than we learned. the typical time line to get a worker from the time they can go down and do something useful on the ship was about five years. we'll have to make an investment than we are getting it today. many of our shipyards, some of them are several hundred years old. a lot of them designed to build ships in the early part of the 20th century. they are really not set up to handle maintenance the way it should be

like hopskins, most aviator felt attach into the navy. as a young boy, -- fisher's revelation came in at age four while playing at his front yard. he heard a distant noise and looking up, it looked like a monster. the noise frighten him and he ran panic stricken into his front door. eventually, his father came to his rescue. the army pilot landed in a near by pastor and showing him that planes are of no danger and voicing his son over his shoulders and taken him to see the monsters. fisher touched the propellant. i was hooked and i wanted to be an aviator. >> whatever hooked them in their youth. the navy pilot followed at mid kay followed three pathways. they went to the naval academy and joined the naval reserve and rose up the ranks. whatever their pathway could pass through 11 months of training at the air station at pensacola. flight checks are meant to push them onto the flight way or flush them out. the last check was difficult. it was called shooting a circle. the cadets and -- some students would craft their planes to do it rather

and the investigation the navy plans on launching. matt gutman is on the story from our los angeles bureau this morning. good morning, matt. >> reporter: hey, good morning, paula and dan. we knew that the collision with the behemoth cargo ship was devastating. the u.s. naval ship nearly sank, water. the container ship plowing right into the sleeping quarters of 160 sailors in the middle of the night. the navy now calling the crash and the fight to save the ship traumatic. this morning, the navy revealing the hellish collision almost sank "the uss fitzgerald." the damage to the mangled midsection relatively minimal compared to what happened beneath the water line. >> the water flow was tremendous. there wasn't a lot of time in those spaces that were opened to the sea. and as you can see now, the ship is still listing. >> reporter: the collision with the 30,000 on the "acx chris call" friday night occurred in one of the busiest shipping lanes. gutted the middle compartments. the container ship's bulbous bow plunging right into the living

ahead of him, but he served our country and he did what he loved so i'm proud of him. >> reporter: the navy says the collision happened in clear weather at 2:20 a.m. saturday, but japan's coast guard says the accident took place an hour earlier. this marine tracker shows the cargo ship making a hard turn at 1:30 a.m. and a u-turn, backtracking at 2:20 a.m. >> for a u.s. navy destroyer to be involved in a collision with loss of life at sea is extremely rare, once every decade or two. >> reporter: the navy says the crew of the "fitzgerald" fought heroically to keep it afloat. commander bryce benson among the injured, but seven of his sailors including carlos sibayan, who followed his father into the navy, won't be coming home. >> my son is a survivor. he knows how to survive. this time he wasn't given a chance to. >> reporter: tonight, the navy says the investigation will take weeks, but for seven of these families, the heartbreak will last a lifetime. miguel almaguer, nbc news. >>> there is new information tonight in the death of carrie fisher. while the coroner says the cause of her death w

now, let's talk about the size of our navy's fleet. the current fleet has 276 ships, but the navy's requirement is now for 355 ships, a figure supported by congressionally mandated future fleet architecture studies. last week i spoke on the floor about the national imperative to build a larger navy. i outlined the critical missions our navy performs every day to help secure the country's vital interests. i also described an intense naval competition with our real and potential adversaries. this is a competition that america cannot afford to lose, mr. president. america needs a bigger navy. how do we get there? related to that question is when we get to a 355-fleet ship. according to the chief of naval operation, admiral john richardson, we should reach our 355-ship objective in the mid-2020's. to do that we should have started yesterday, building and sustaining technologically advanced ships as a long-term national project. it cannot happen overnight. it takes years. as chairman of the seapower subcommittee, i intend to lay a firm found

the publication "navy times" later confirmed all seven bodies were recovered aboard the guided missile destroyer. a navy spokesman said the sailors either drowned or were killed by the impact of the pre- dawn collision yesterday with a filipino-flagged container ship

the navy guys didn't think i was too rough, but perhaps i was. but i think at the end of the day the friction, the traditional army, navy rivalries, i think they've been overstated. i think there were people on both sides, macarthur's staff and nimtz's staff. who really just kind of hated one another. and the chief of staff or macarthur, sutherland, was one of those. but i think that nimitz and macarthur once they got together macarthure halsey and , they really got along and embraced the bigger picture. so thank you very much. [applause] >> you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. coming up on american history tv, purdue university professor caroline e. janney looks at the process of disbanding the remnants of the army of northern virginia, following the april 1865 surrender to union general ulysses s. grant at appomattox. she focuses on the confederates that avoided or escaped, and retreated into the shenandoah valley. she discusses general grant's concerns that s