By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, March 31, 2015 – Defense Secretary Ash Carter
spoke with students, faculty and leaders at Syracuse University in New York
this morning, describing his vision and plans for building the “Force of the
Future.”
The secretary visited the university on the second day of
his first official domestic trip, which began yesterday and included a stop in
Pennsylvania to speak with students from his high school alma mater in
Abington, near Philadelphia.
Afterward he stopped at Fort Drum in Jefferson County, New
York, -- home of the 10th Mountain Division. There, he met with troops who
recently served in Afghanistan.
Syracuse University includes the nationally ranked Maxwell
School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public
Communications.
Research on Post-service Issues
Also at Syracuse is the Institute for Veterans and Military
Families, or IVMF, the first interdisciplinary national institute in higher
education focused on post-service social, economic, education and policy issues
affecting veterans and their families.
“You have done so much to welcome our veterans and their
families,” Carter told the audience.
“And now [you’re doing] what we really need,” he added,
“which is to couple thoughtful intellectual work to understand the … tremendous
opportunities represented by this amazing group of people we call our
veterans.”
On March 17, the department, the IVMF and the Schultz Family
Foundation announced the launch of Onward to Opportunity. The new national
program will deliver tailored, industry-specific training and certifications to
service members and spouses on U.S. military bases before they transition to
civilian life.
Onward to Opportunity
Onward to Opportunity is designed to give participants the
skill sets they need to qualify for jobs with leading U.S. companies, offering
a seamless transition from military careers to civilian employment.
Carter said he’s been in his new job as secretary for five
weeks and he has a lot on his mind and a lot he wants to accomplish.
“But uppermost in my mind is ensuring that we have in
generations to come what today gives us the finest fighting force the world has
ever known. And that's not our technology -- that comes second. It's our
people,” he said.
This means the department must recruit and attract the best,
the secretary said.
He added, “We need to explain, we need to reach out, we need
to recruit.”
Thinking Big
But today’s national security challenges are not purely
military in character, Carter said, they are also political, economic and
social.
“You see that in the role of social media, you see it in the
attention we give to conflict prevention and the connection between issues that
we used to think were completely different, like public health or Arctic issues
and security,” the secretary added.
That’s another way in which the department needs to think
big and broadly, he said, “and our people have a lot of that breadth, a lot of
that experience. They're a great asset for our country, so when they leave us
we continue to consider them ours.”
The department’s obligation is to help service members
transition from military life to civilian life, said Carter, adding that
Syracuse University is a pioneer in helping service members and their families
to make that transition -– “pioneering in thinking and in doing.”
Changing for a New Generation
“We’ve learned things in the last few years through the
research of folks here and through the experience of having 2.6 million service
members cycle through two very long wars,” he added.
“We’ve learned, for example,” Carter said, “that it's best
for [service members] and therefore best for the country if they start thinking
about life after the military as long as they’re in the military.”
This is because people today want to think about their
futures, the secretary said.
He added, “They don't like being locked into anything. They
like the idea of choice and agility and moving here and there.”
“If we're going to have a new generation we … can't offer
them a conveyor belt that you get on and you don't move until you get off,”
Carter said. “We're not going to be appealing if we do that, so we're going to
need to change the way we think about things.”
New Transition Assistance Component
The secretary said the department has recently put in place
an improved transition program that will evolve over time. It’s called the
Military Life Cycle Model, a new component of the DoD Transition Assistance
Program, or DoDTAP, to be implemented soon forcewide.
The model will help service members start preparing for
transition early in their military careers, according to the DoDTAP website.
Service members will have key "touch points” throughout their military
life cycle that will allow them to align their military career with their
civilian goals.
The department is committed to the program, Carter said, and
is working with other government, state and local agencies and the private
sector to ensure its success.
“I think we can improve our game further, and the way we'll
know how to improve is to build our programs on the back of careful research of
the kind that … this institution -- and this institution almost alone in our
country -- is actually doing,” the secretary added.
Part of Something Bigger
Military service is one form of public service, he said, and
other forms include working with the university and its schools, or working in
policymaking, journalism and more.
“Even as we need to think about conflict and the solution of
conflict in the broadest possible way,” Carter said, “we need to think about
public service in the broadest possible way.”
He added, “I look out on all your faces, and you wouldn't be
here if you didn't have at least an inkling of this. There's nothing better
than getting out of bed in the morning and knowing you're going to be part of
something bigger than yourself.”
It’s worth everything, worth all the effort, worth all the
trouble, Carter said, “and it’s worth not getting paid a zillion dollars, which
you're certainly not going to get in public service.”
‘We Care About the Needs of Everyone’
One of the reasons Carter believes the United States is
exceptional, he said, is because of the spirit Americans bring to public
service.
“We don't just care about ourselves, we care about the needs
of everyone, and that's reflected in the way we conduct ourselves around the
world,” he said.
“You guys are part of that so I'm grateful to be on your
team,” Carter added.
Posts
