(Town hall meeting with
U.S. troops at Camp Greaves, Republic of
Korea. Also participating was Army Maj.
Gen. John Wood, commander of the
2nd Infantry Division)
Wood: Good
afternoon, distinguished guests, ladies, and
gentlemen, warriors of the Second Infantry
Division, specifically the Currahees of the
First Battalion 506th Infantry and the
Marines of the Third Marine Expeditionary
Force. Can I have a hooah?
(Hooah!)
How about a Semper
Fi?
(Hooah!)
All right.
Come on, we can do better than that.
All right. It's really a distinct
pleasure, sir, to welcome you to this camp,
to Camp Greaves and the Second Infantry
Division and this audience of soldiers and
Marines proudly serving in Korea and training
today to fight tonight if necessary.
Today's audience of proud Marines and
soldiers is awfully appropriate for this
division as some of you may know the Second
Infantry Division was formed in 1917 in
Belleau Wood, France, and at that time this
great division consisted of one brigade of
U.S. Army Infantry, one brigade of artillery,
various support elements, and one brigade of
marines. Born joint.
In fact, this
division was actually commanded twice by
Marine Corps generals: Major General
C.A. Doyen and Major General Lejeune.
You recognize that name. This marks the
only time in U.S. military history when a
Marine Corp general commanded an Army
division. All part of our proud
history.
The Second Infantry
Division has a long history serving here on
freedom's frontier, standing shoulder to
shoulder with our Republic of Korea allies,
defending freedom and democracy on the Korean
Peninsula. We proudly serve here, just
a few short miles from one of the largest
hostile armies in the world. This fact
keeps us focused on our mission every
day. We stand trained and ready to
fight tonight if necessary. Our
presence, the strength of our alliance, our
joint readiness, keeps the enemy to the north
deterred and peace and democracy in the
Republic of Korea secure.
Like all of you, our
distinguished guest this afternoon has made a
career of dedicated service to our
nation. Dr. Wolfowitz was unanimously
confirmed by the Senate as the 28th Deputy
Secretary of Defense in February 2001.
This marks his third tour in the
Pentagon. Prior to becoming the Deputy
Secretary he served as the dean and professor
of International Relations at the Paul Nitze
School of Advanced International Studies at
John Hopkins University. From 89-93,
Dr. Wolfowitz served as under secretary of
Defense for Policy under then-Secretary of
Defense Cheney where he had a major
responsibility for the reshaping of strategy
and force posture at the end of the cold
war. During the Reagan administration
he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia
where he earned the reputation as a highly
popular and effective ambassador, a tough
negotiator on behalf of American interests
and a public advocate of political openness
and democratic values. Prior to his
three years as Ambassador to Indonesia, he
served for three and a half years as
assistant secretary of State for East Asian
and Pacific Affairs where he was in charge of
U.S. relations with more than 20
countries. He has taught at Yale and
Johns Hopkins and was a George F. Kennan
Professor of National Security at the
National War College. Secretary
Wolfowitz, we are honored you chose to visit
our soldiers and Marines today, and without
further delay, let's give a warm welcome to
our Deputy Secretary of Defense, Dr. Paul
Wolfowitz.
Wolfowitz:
Thank you, General Wood. The honor is
distinctly mine. It's a great pleasure
to be here. I just learned from the
general and maybe you just learned this was a
division that was born joint so let's hear
you Army guys do a real loud "Semper
Fi." Come on, Semper Fi.
("Semper Fi!",
laughter.)
There we go.
Once more, come on.
(Semper Fi!)
Okay. Now, all
you Marines, a big loud "Hooah"
(Hooah!)
Come on everybody, a
"hooah," okay? Show 'em.
Hooah!
(Hooah!)
All right.
Okay. A little military history that
might interest some of you, especially the
Marines, by the way. I didn’t
know the Second Division first saw combat at
Belleau Wood. I learned a couple of
years ago and it amazed me Belleau Wood was
the battle where the Marines first got the
concept of amphibious warfare and that struck
me as a little odd and it may strike you as a
little odd. But they thought about the
fact that they were attacking across open
wheat fields into woods with rocks behind
them and they said if we can do this
successfully, we ought to be able to attack
islands successfully and if you go back
through the history of the development of the
amphibious doctrine in 1920’s and
1930’s which is one of the great
military innovations of the twentieth century
it all had its origin in land warfare in
Belleau Wood and what I didn’t know, it
was the Second Infantry Division so,
congratulations.
I’m here in
Korea to update my own knowledge about the
situation in this country and particularly
about the defense issues we have with Korea
and tomorrow I’ll be meeting with a
whole group of Korean officials including the
president, the new president of this country,
but I’m here this afternoon really most
of all to say thank you to all of you.
You’re on the front lines of freedom up
here and the country is grateful for your
service. The President and Secretary of
Defense have asked me to send a message to
you that we appreciate what you are doing; it
is fantastic. The whole country got a
glimpse of what the American fighting men and
women can do in the recent war in Iraq and I
guess a lot of you had the chance, or maybe
you had a few minutes a day, I think you
don’t get too many minutes off, had a
few minutes a day to see what the whole
country saw. You knew already what the
country learned in the course of that war in
Iraq, which is that we have the best men and
women anywhere in the world serving in our
Armed Forces. They’re brave,
they’re professional, they fight joint
and they’re probably the most humane
warriors any country has ever fielded.
We won a war in Iraq in spectacular time
because of that and the same time that we
were winning that war in Iraq we were
preventing a war here in Korea.
We’ve been
doing that for 50 years. It takes
skill, it takes dedication, it takes
professionalism and I know it means long,
long months away from your families for all
of you and that is a huge sacrifice.
But it’s made a difference. It
made a huge difference. General
Wood’s father, I think, was here at the
end of the Korean War. I made my first
visit up to the demilitarized zone in 1983,
which I guess tells you I’m getting a
little old. At that time, if
you’d asked me would we still be here
20 years later. I think I would have
said yes, we will. But, if you’d
asked me, will South Korea be a thriving
democracy 20 years from now? Will South
Korea have the 11th largest GNP in the
world? I would have said that sounds
like you’re dreaming a little bit, but
that’s what’s happened.
With the protections that you and your
comrades have provided over the years with
the dedication and commitment of your South
Korean colleagues, we’ve enabled our
allies to build one of the strongest
democracies in the world and a lot of people
said it couldn’t be done. Twenty
years ago, there were people who thought
somehow those weird folks up north would have
the better of it. It’s pretty
clear now that time is on our side and not on
their side. But the only way
we’ll keep that edge is if you keep
your edge. If you keep focused on your
mission.
I just want to say
for the President, Secretary of Defense, most
of all, from myself personally, I thank you
for your service, I thank you for your
dedication, keep it up, the country depends
on you, both our countries depend on you and
I’m glad to be here this afternoon to
say that. With that I’d be happy
to try to answer questions if you have them
or if they’re really difficult,
I’ll ask General Wood to help me
out. Who wants to be the first?
Q: Good
afternoon, sir. My name is Specialist
Reyes from Charlie Company, First and 506th
Infantry. I’m from Buffalo, New
York, my question is --
Wolfowitz:
I’m from Ithaca, New York, so
it’s nearby. Good to hear it.
Q:
Thanks. With the recent war in Iraq,
what were some of the biggest lessons learned
do you think?
Wolfowitz: Oh,
boy. We learned a lot of lessons in
Iraq. I think one of the lessons we
really learned was the advantage of
speed. We moved with a speed that the
enemy didn’t expect and we moved in
ways that the enemy didn’t
expect. We’re not quite sure what
was in the strange mind of Saddam Hussein but
we’re pretty certain that he believed
the American way of war was you bomb for
weeks and weeks before you even put a soldier
on the ground. We took him by
surprise. We had the first soldiers
crossing the border in Kuwait before the real
bombing even began. And I think that
speed, and the speed of the advance, the
speed with which we got to Baghdad, the speed
with which we went into Baghdad meant that a
lot of things that were designed to happen
never happened. Those oil fields
weren’t destroyed. There
weren’t huge clouds of hydrogen sulfide
that would have poisoned everybody up
north. There was no huge flow of
refugees that he thought was going to
destabilize the region. There’s
no food crisis in Iraq. There’s
no mass of epidemics in Iraq. There was
none of that horrible urban street fighting
that we were afraid of under the nickname
Fortress Baghdad. And, perhaps most
important of all, although we still
don’t know all the reasons, chemical
and biological weapons were never used.
Maybe because the enemy never had time.
We had a meeting of combatant commanders
about a year ago in which one of -- a
four-star commander said, “Speed
kills. It kills the enemy.”
And I think that is
a major lesson. The one other lesson
which we’ve been learning over and over
and over again, and you represent it right
here, is that jointness counts in
combat. The ability to work together as
an integrated Army and Marine Corps - Air
Force - Navy - Coast Guard team has made all
the difference in the world and it’s
astonished the world and frankly even those
of us who thought we knew something have been
astonished. But, finally, it’s
the quality of the American service men and
service women that counts most of all.
Q: Good
afternoon, sir, Lance Corporal Schooly,
Parks, Oklahoma, my question is about the
Montgomery GI Bill, if the service member
chooses not to use it, can they pass it down
to another family member or to their
dependents, sir?
Wolfowitz:
That’s one of the hard ones that I
could ask General Wood. What I’m
going to have to do is take that home and get
-- write you a letter back with the
answer. I honestly don’t
know.
Q: Good
afternoon, sir, I’m Senior Airman Shaun
Curzalack. I’m from Cooperstown,
New York. My question is how do you see
air power in the event of a war here in
Korea?
Wolfowitz: In
Korea? I think it’s one of our
great advantages and I think the North
Koreans know it and I think it’s what
keeps their heads down. But it works in
ways it didn’t work before -- much,
much more effective because it’s not
only that with long range air power we can
attack targets deep in the enemy rear, but we
have the ability now and that’s where
jointness really makes a difference. To
bring air power and ground forces together
with an effectiveness that is simply
stunning. In fact, one of the things
we’d like to urge our South Korean
colleagues to do is to have more of that
capability in their own forces. You saw
it in Afghanistan, where literally a handful
of American soldiers riding horseback were
able to bring air power to bear on an enemy
and change the course of a whole war and
similarly we saw that applied in Iraq and I
think the North Koreans understand that and
it would be one of our big advantages.
But not air power by itself. It’s
air power integrated as part of a joint
team.
Q: Good
afternoon, sir, my name is Sow Num from South
Korea. What do you think about the
KATUSA program? In it young Korean
soldiers complete their military service in
United States Army units, sir?
Wolfowitz:
I’m going to ask you to answer the
question after I do. I think it’s
terrific. Everything I know about it
just seems like a perfect model of
cooperation with one of our closest allies in
the world, and I was reminded in the briefing
earlier this afternoon that it had its
origins in the worst moments of the Korean
war when we needed all the help we could get
and we turned to Koreans to help us and
it’s continuing to this day and
I’m told that some of the very best
soldiers in the Korean Army are signed up as
KATUSAs so I think that is a great
tribute. You can just give me a short
answer. Do you think it is a good thing
or a bad thing?
Q: Good.
Wolfowitz: You
like it?
Q: For me,
sir, to be KATUSA is a good opportunity for
work with other country and in the other
culture, sir.
Wolfowitz:
That’s great. Well, I’m
sure we’re learning other cultures by
having you with us, so thank you.
Q: Good
afternoon, sir, I’m Major Al Stall,
I’m the executive officer of this
(Inaudible.) body of infantrymen that stand
before you.
Wolfowitz:
Hooah. (Laughing.)
Q: Sir, I hail
from the great state of Kentucky. Sir,
my question is, what major choices about
force structure roles and missions are you
facing in the near future?
Wolfowitz: One
of the things that I’ll be talking
about tomorrow with Korean officials and
we’ve been talking about for some
months now with General LaPorte is how best
to structure our forces in Korea and indeed
worldwide to take advantage of the new
opportunities that are presented by our new
capabilities. But also to be able to be
more flexible because in the wake of
September 11th we’ve come to realize
that the threats are much less predictable
than we used to think in the past. If I
had ever gone to the Congress in June of 2001
and said we needed money to base forces in
Karshi-Kanabad, the first thing is we’d
all have to get our maps out and discover
that that’s in Uzbekistan and having
discovered that they’d say what on
earth do you want forces there for?
And, if I had said well because we might have
to fight in Afghanistan, I think we
would’ve all agreed we were
crazy. Three months later, four months
later, we were doing exactly that and I think
we’ve been taken to places in the world
we never expected to go.
We need to have the
flexibility to deploy rapidly and fortunately
we have that flexibility in part because of
new technology and in part because of the
enormous expansion of the doctrine of
jointness. So that has application here
in Korea as well, I think and, you know, we
have an enemy for all its crudeness that
keeps adapting, keeps looking for our
weaknesses to try to exploit them. We
have to keep adapting and looking for their
weak -- fixing our weaknesses and exploiting
the enemy’s. So, we have agreed,
we agreed last December when the Korean
Minister of Defense was in Washington to have
a study on the future forces in Korea.
We affirmed the importance of that study when
President Bush met with President Roh in
Washington last month and we’re going
to be proceeding with that. We
haven’t come to any conclusions on it
yet but we believe there are real
opportunities for both U.S. forces and Korean
forces to be more efficient, more effective,
more deadly and better deterring. Not
that we aren’t good right now but with
that enemy up there you want to be as good as
you possibly can.
Q: Good
afternoon, sir, my name is Corporal
Richardson from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. My question is, Marines
currently serve a twelve-month deployment
tour overseas. Is there any talk in the
near future of changing that to a 24-month
deployment, sir?
Wolfowitz: I
haven’t heard it. Let me just say
that. I think -- I don’t want to
get in trouble with the Commandant if
he’s thinking of any changes like that,
but let me put it this way, in a general
way. There is a deep recognition at the
highest levels of the Pentagon both uniform
and civilian that one of the greatest
sacrifices you make when you’re in
uniform are long deployments away from home
and in fact this deployment in Korea for Army
folks, for most of you, is a 12-month
unaccompanied tour, is a real hardship,
it’s a real sacrifice. We
understand it. I think the country to
some extent is coming to understand it.
Pushing those limits is something we really
don’t want to do. We’re
trying to figure out ways where people can
get more time at home with their families and
have deployments be less extended. That
doesn’t mean there won’t be
exceptions, but I’d be very surprised
if we were talking about anything of that
kind.
Q: All right,
sir. Afternoon, sir.
Wolfowitz:
Thank you.
Q: PFC Kahns,
sir, Delta Company, First and 506th Infantry
Regiment, from Brooklyn, New York. My
question is, sir, some people we have the
strongest military because of high technology
other people say because of our quality
people, what do you think, sir?
Wolfowitz: I
think it’s people most of all.
During the Persian Gulf War 12 years ago I
think it was commented correctly that smart
weapons aren’t any good without smart
people. And I think we saw in both
Afghanistan and Iraq smart people is
important but brave people is important,
dedicated and committed people is important,
we have all of those qualities in the men and
women of our Armed Forces. As I said,
and you may just be starting to appreciate
it, I think thanks in part to those embedded
journalists we had with us in Iraq the whole
country came to understand the quality of the
men and women serving us and I think
we’re having a love affair with the
Armed Forces now and it’s a good thing
-- it’s a great thing actually.
Q: Thank you,
sir.
Wolfowitz:
Thank you, all.
Q: Sir, Staff
Sergeant Wolf, Delta Company, I’m from
Honolulu, Hawaii. My question to you
is, we say that in the Army and Marines, the
NCOs form the backbone of our organizations,
how can NCOs best contribute to the
military?
Wolfowitz: I
think it is true that our NCOs are the
backbone and I’ve heard a number of
stories over the years where foreign
officers, in one case a very senior Russian
General, Soviet General, came to the United
States some 15 or 20 years ago, he expected
to find good officers, he was astonished that
he found good NCOs as well. It just
didn’t exist in the Soviet Army.
I think maybe that’s part of the reason
they’re in the shape they’re
in. It’s a special talent,
it’s special experience, it’s
special leadership and I think we
couldn’t possibly do it without the
skills that are developed in that NCO
corps. Do I have any advice? I
guess it’s just keep focused on your
mission. I think that is what’s
getting the job done and we’re trying
to make sure as best we can that we’re
giving the kinds of benefits to the senior
enlisted ranks that can make staying in the
military for a full career attractive because
I know there are a lot of civilian firms that
are eager to get their hands on our good
capable senior NCOs as well.
Q: Sir, we
know you’re busy, but I think we have
time for one more question if we could.
Wolfowitz:
Okay.
Q: Good
afternoon, sir, I’m Private Hayes, HAC
first and 506th, sir. My question is,
what will you tell Secretary Rumsfeld about
your visit to U.S. Second Infantry Division,
sir?
Wolfowitz:
Well, I know one thing I’m going to
tell him is you guys are an imposing crew and
I wouldn’t want to be the North Koreans
going up against you.
(Crowd cheers.)
Wolfowitz: And
I’m going to tell him that I gave you a
great big thank you from him and he’s
going to say well why only one? So,
I’m going to give you another one right
now. Thank you all and hooah!
(Applause.)
