DJUTANTS GENERAL ASSOCIATION
OF THE UNITED STATES

REAR ADMIRAL KENNETH T. VENUTO, USCG,
ASSISTANT COMMANDANT FOR HR



Transcript by:
Federal News Service
Washington, D.C.



ARNOLD PUNARO: (Microphone off) securing the homeland. This morning
we heard from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense
witnesses about the role of the National Guard and Reserve in homeland security and
homeland defense. We also heard about the unity-of-effort issues raised in Hurricane
Katrina after-action reports, particularly the White Houses Lessons Learned report,
that I know all of you have focused on extensively. Clearly they were, in the testimony
we have today, as well as in our discussions with various organizations and individuals,
as well as our commissions analysis, serious seams, gaps, and friction points between the
federal agencies as well as with state and local governments.

Despite these interagency and intergovernmental balance-of-power issues, there
appears to be widespread agreement that the National Guard in particular and the
Reserves are ideally suited for the roles and responsibilities of homeland security and
disaster relief because they are forward deployed in cities, towns, and rural communities
across the nation. They are, as a rule, an integral part of local communities and are
familiar with everything from first-responder procedures to low-lying roads likely to
flood in the events of torrential rains.

And General Blum, we said this morning I said in my opening statement and
verified by the witnesses that the National Guard has long been the go-to force for both
state and federal officials, whether its fighting fires or preventing looting, providing
airport security, or responding to natural or manmade disasters. The need to respond to a
disaster of Hurricane Katrinas magnitude at a time when many of the National Guards
best trained and best-equipped units were deployed to Iraq, posed challenges in
manpower, equipment, and resources. Eight months later, at least based on the
information that we have gathered to date, it does not appear those issues have gone
away. If anything, the level of concern at least expressed to the commission has
intensified.

Congressional witnesses and there were 11 of them at our March hearing,
including the chairman and ranking members of the two authorizing committees, as well
as the chairs, co-chairs of the Guard and Reserve Caucuses and a number of other
chairmen of the personnel subcommittees they expressed concerns particularly over
National Guard equipment issues: the amount of National Guard equipment left in Iraq,
the inadequacy of plans to replace this equipment, the impact on the Guards ability to
adequately train for future missions, and particularly the impact on the National Guards
ability to fulfill its critical homeland security role without this equipment. Certainly these
are legitimate concerns on their part, but we are fortunate that we have you here to
address those issues at the perspective of the individual charge with carrying out those
responsibilities.
I expect when we hear from the state governors in June after their legislative
session is over, that we are going to get a similar earful when they testify as we have
heard that message from them in their personal meetings with us. One of the governors,
whose Guard brigade perform magnificently over in Iraq and had just gotten back told
Commissioner Dawson and Commissioner Ball and myself there may have been a
couple other commissioners present. He says, Arnold, our brigade just got back and they
are telling me, the National Guard is telling me they wont have the equipment for four
years. What am I supposed to do in the four years when this brigade isnt going to have
any equipment? What am I supposed to do here at home in my state? What am I
supposed to do if my brigade has to go again? I mean, that is just a kind of rubber-hits-
the-road kind of question that I think we need to deal with here today.

And we have the right panel of witnesses to answer these difficult questions:
Lieutenant General Steve Blum, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, Major General
Roger Lempke, the adjutant general of Nebraska. But he is actually appearing here today
in his capacity as president of the Adjutant Generals Association, and so really speaking
on behalf of his 49 other co-adjutant generals if I have got the number correct.

MAJOR GENERAL ROGER P. LEMPKE: (Off mike.)

MR. PUNARO: Okay, so Im a Marine, so add that up for me 54 other adjutant
generals, and Rear Admiral Kenneth Venuto, the assistant commandant of the Coast
Guard. So we thank each of you for being here today and for your continued dedicated
service to the nation. The commission as we have it almost every hearing, would like
to recognize the truly extraordinary efforts of the men and women of the Coast Guard and
the National Guard in saving lives all of the time, but particularly in those particularly in
those critical early hours and days after Hurricane Katrina hit when other government
entities at all levels in some peoples eyes didnt measure up completely.

And, Admiral Venuto, while my remarks have been a little bit more focused on
the DOD reserve components, we welcome you here this afternoon and look forward to
hearing more about the role of the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Reserve in
countering maritime, port, and other homeland security threats. And so while the Coast
Guard may be somewhat smaller in size, I can tell you from first-hand experience, in the
scope, in the positive impact of the Coast Guards efforts in calm times as well as in
turbulent times, its a remarkable outfit; its a crackerjack outfit. We that have served in
uniform know that and hopefully the American people have seen that. So we appreciate
your service and that of your great institution as well as exploring with you a very
important part of homeland defense. And port security, for one, is very much on peoples
minds.

So, General Blum, General Lemke, Admiral Venuto, we count on your experience
and candor in these complex and sometimes controversial issues before us today. And
without objection, your prepared statements will be placed in the records. So with that,
General Blum, why dont we start with you?
LIEUTENANT GENERAL H. STEVEN BLUM: Well, thank you, Chairman
Punaro, and members of the commission. Thanks for the opportunity to come here and
dialogue with you this morning about the role of the National Guard and its important
and essential role in homeland security, homeland defense, and disaster response here in
the United States.

For the last 369 years, National Guardsman have stepped away from their families
and their jobs and responded to the calls of their states, their colonies, their nation, their
communities to do whatever the president required or their local governor, and/or local
leaders required for them. Today the tradition continues. As a matter of fact, we have
probably gone back to our roots and have transformed to become the 21
st
century
minutemen and women because we have to literally be able to transition from our civilian
skills and our civilian jobs and leave our families and our classrooms and turn into
soldiers and airmen on a moments notice to respond to the call of the governor and in
very short notice, shorter notice than ever before, to respond overseas in support of the
president or the secretary of Defense to provide trained, ready, and equipped forces of the
Army and Air Force because we only have an Army Guard and an Air Guard, to the
combatant commanders abroad.

No mission has been too small or too large for us and no sacrifice has been too
great. At the heart of every rescue in a hurricane is a Guardsman or a Coastguardsman or
some heroic person who is willing to step away from their comfortable life and put theirs
at risk to protect the lives and property of others. The Army and Air National Guard in
the past year have demonstrated this ability in spades. We had 80,000 citizen soldiers in
Iraq and Afghanistan shouldering an extremely heavy and rightful load of ground
combat, combat support, and service support, training in Iraq. We were training the
Afghan National Army; we were providing special operations forces in Afghanistan.

We were providing embedded trainers to the Afghan National Army, had actually
fought right along side of them; coached and mentored them and went into combat with
them. We provided counter-terrorism forces in the Horn of Africa. We provided stability
and support operations for all of the regional geographic combatant commanders around
the globe and have a standing state partnership program that has endured for almost 17
years with 51 nations around the globe to help build partners and to expand the theater
security cooperation initiatives of the combatant commanders.

While all of that was going on, while 80,000 people were away from their homes
one year, boots on the ground, an average of 18 months away from their home and family
defending our nation in the global war on terrorism, a terrible storm hit the Gulf Coast,
which generated 50,000 citizen soldiers and airman in a little over a week. And they
came from every state and every territory, to include Guam, Puerto Rico, the District of
Columbia, the Virgin Islands. They left their homes, which were clearly in the path