Donald Norcross

I can't say areas it was not expected, because the maintenance schedule suggests that we should do things to protect those.

We don't want to get too deep in the weeds, but closing up the proper way. It is not the opening, it is the resealing that is the problem.

Right. Just quickly, and this is for all our witnesses. Coronavirus. We see what it is doing to the Italians right now.

I will just close by saying I have my ear to the ground with that community, and I know they would be pleased to hear what the plan is because, at minus 30, it is hard to operate a machine gun with an open door.

If you go back to the Cold War, we were generating most of the technology that found its way to the battlefield.

Calling the hearing to order.

Well, I think what we will stipulate, we all know we aren't where we want to be.

Lower the bar for investment?

I like to refer to Reagan. We will trust, but we want to verify before we start doing this.

understanding that the still-pending force structure modernization priorities we spoke about earlier, yet we are in the middle of a budget season, explain to us what 'lightened the force' means

we understand the dollars and cents, but the direction is the important one, that we are investing and we are now measuring that investment, that it was the right way.

Good morning. We will come to order.

We want to make sure that, when we address their questions that they are based on reliable set of figures.

Democracy takes time, and certainly we just went through some of that.

But what was the mechanism that didn't work to stop this further back before they went all the way through the submission phase?

What can we do 81 years later as a Congress to enable you to achieve the diversity, not just for the sake of the diversity, but to enable you and our Nation to meet the readiness needs and the challenges that are faced by a shortfall in…

It really changes fundamentally. We keep talking about it, and two ships doesn't do it.

Today, there are only 47 African Americans who fly fixed wing in the Air Force. That is 1.5 percent.

Buy some used vessels quickly, and then really work hard on this CHAMP [Common Hull Auxiliary Multi-Mission Platform] or whatever program we need to do to get numbers out there greater than onesie, twosies.

I am also very excited that your successor, who has been nominated by the President, I am confident will be confirmed by the Senate, General Charles Brown, the first African-American Chief of Staff not only for the Air Force but of any…

Thank you so much for your service over the years, and we particularly appreciate your frankness when you address so many of our tough questions.

There is not a combatant commander that we have a discussion with, there is virtually nobody we deal with, day to day, who doesn't need more.

We need each of those in our society and most importantly, we need to value them equally.

The narrative that somehow in order to make it in this world you have to go to a 4-year degree is something that we are hearing today over and over.

There are 214 lawyers in Congress and only one electrician, and you are looking at him.