Officials Announce First DoD-Wide Audit, Call for Budget Certainty

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2017 — The Defense Department is starting the first agencywide financial audit in its history, Pentagon officials announced today.

Norquist said he received the DoD Office of Inspector General's notification that the financial statement audit begins this month.

Taxpayer Confidence

The audit is massive. It will examine every aspect of the department from personnel to real property to weapons to supplies to bases. Some 2,400 auditors will fan out across the department to conduct it, Pentagon officials said.

"It is important that the Congress and the American people have confidence in DoD's management of every taxpayer dollar," Norquist said.

Audits are necessary to ensure the accuracy of financial information. They also account for property. Officials estimate the department has around $2.4 trillion in assets. "With consistent feedback from auditors, we can focus on improving the processes of our day-to-day work," the comptroller said. "Annual audits also ensure visibility over the quantity and quality of the equipment and supplies our troops use."

The DoD Office of the Inspector General hired independent public accounting firms to conduct audits of individual components – the Army, Navy, Air Force, agencies, activities and more – as well as a departmentwide consolidated audit to summarize all results and conclusions.

"Beginning in 2018, our audits will occur annually, with reports issued Nov. 15," Norquist said.

Looming Shutdown

Norquist also addressed the looming government shutdown. Military personnel will continue to report for duty to ensure the safety of the United States and its citizens, he said. Military and civilian personnel conducting operations around the world will also report, he added.

"Any time we get close to the end of a CR, we automatically go through and update our contingency plans," Norquist said. "And so we've had to do that several times this year."

If a shutdown occurs, military personnel will report to work as normal, but the department cannot pay them until the shutdown ends. Civilian employees – and the department has roughly 700,000 – will be notified before the shutdown what to do. Employees performing an excepted activity – such as law enforcement – will report to work, he said.

"I cannot emphasize too much how destructive a shutdown is," Norquist said. "We've talked before about the importance of maintenance on weapons systems and others, but if it's not an excepted activity, there'll be work stoppage on many of those maintenance functions."

Congress is considering passing a two-week extension of the continuing resolution, which would give the legislators until Dec. 22 to pass a budget. The Defense Department has operated under a continuing resolution for 1,081 days over the past nine years, White noted.

Continuing Resolutions Affect Readiness

"And so we are optimistic that the Congress will pass a robust and predictable, fully funded [fiscal year 2018] budget," she said. "Nothing has had a greater impact on combat readiness than CRs, … and at a time where security threats are high, we really do need the predictability in the budget -- certainty that we don't have with CRs."

Continuing resolutions are supposed to be short-term bridges for financing. A long-term CR is disruptive, Norquist said. "Every time … you add to it, it creates more challenges," he added.

One problem with a CR is there can be no new starts, the comptroller told reporters. "In the administration's budget, we requested additional money for munitions, and so we would like to increase the production of some of those munitions," he said.

"What the CR says is, 'Stop, wait, don't award that contract yet,' which delays when you begin to increase the quantity and the production," he explained, adding that none of this can be fixed until there is a proper budget.

Pacific Fleet Commander: Pearl Harbor Response Had No Shortage of Bravery

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2017 — Amid the chaos of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 76 years ago this morning, there was no shortage of bravery, as sailors, soldiers, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen overcame shock, uncertainty and fear to find something greater within themselves: a grim determination to survive and an unwavering resolve to fight, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet said today.

At the 76th National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Commemoration, Navy Adm. Scott H. Swift told an audience of World War II veterans, Pearl Harbor survivors, families and friends that American service members stationed at Pearl Harbor that day in 1941 were heroes.

"Unsurprisingly, … none of these heroes considers themselves as such," Swift said. "They all say they were just doing their jobs. I guess that is true if just doing your job entails 15 Medals of Honor and 51 Navy Crosses being awarded -- many posthumously – [and] all of which highlights the valor displayed that morning 76 years ago today."

The USS Ward, a destroyer, which had been decommissioned for two decades after World War I and brought back into service in January 1941, was the first U.S. Navy ship to fire a salvo at the Japanese after their attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, he said.

"The crew was made up primarily of enlisted reservists from the Midwest who previously honed their seamanship skills on the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River," Swift noted. "Both ship and crew had been activated as part of America's leadership effort to prepare for potential hostilities, but peacetime training can never be as trying as operating in war. Ward's performance that morning was exceptional. I'll take a moment here to highlight how her story still speaks volumes to our fleet today."

Heroes Delivered Freedom

America's experience at Pearl Harbor reminds us we cannot be trapped by our most recent historical events -- that the heroes with us today ensured Pearl Harbor would not be the end of the story, the admiral said. If that had occurred, he added, it would have been a gloomy day, but the sweeping defeat there that morning 76 years ago was short-lived.

"Instead of retreating from the fight, America's Pacific Fleet dug in its heels," Swift said. "Along the way, they forged a cultural heritage of resilience that sailors continue to draw upon today. Indeed, America's sailors, civilian sailors and members of all military branches made sure that the adversary intended as the first and last battle of a short war was only the opening act."

Within days, he said, Pacific Fleet submarines launched offensive patrols, taking the fight to the enemy. Likewise, fleet cryptological analysts Stage Station Hypo refused to give up, despite earlier setbacks that failed to foresee the attack.

"Instead, they redoubled their efforts to break the Imperial Navy's code to anticipate the adversary's next move," Swift said. "All along the waterfront, dive and salvage crews, shipyard workers and ship's company labored around the clock to save lives and resurrect the vessels that they could."

War-Changing Blow to Adversary

Across the island and across the United States, Americans were rising to the challenge, he said. "Within six months, the critical victories at the Battle of Coral Sea and Midway, the Pacific Fleet sailors and civilian sailors had delivered a blow to the adversary that shifted the momentum of the war, thanks in no small part to Station Hypo's dogged tenacity," the admiral said. "By the end of the war, Pacific Fleet submarines had conducted 488 war patrols, and were responsible for more than half of all enemy ships that were sunk."

Swift thanked the Pearl Harbor and World War II veterans "who yet carry the burden and bear the scars of those fateful days."

"We honor you today for the proud cultural heritage of victory and toughness that you have bestowed on each of us that now wear the uniform in your honor," he said. "We remain forever in your debt."

Not Trapped By Fear

The admiral noted the strong bonds that have formed between former bitter adversaries.

"I cannot help but note that just as the crew of the USS Ward was not caught unprepared by peacetime mentality, likewise the Pacific Fleet was not trapped by fear and uncertainty following the attack that morning," he said. "And at the war's end, American and Japanese leadership did not remain bound by our former wartime hostilities, but instead chose to forge a new future of reconciliation that has benefitted both of our nations, and indeed the entire Indo-Asia Pacific region, in incalculable ways."

Dec. 7 holds a number of hard lessons that no sailor of any nation should have to relearn, Swift said. "Though the wounds dealt here of more than seven decades ago are fading," he told the commemoration audience, "we will never forget the valor, heroism, wisdom and leadership displayed by all those who gave their lives here 76 years ago."

Malmstrom AFB Unit Earns Top DoD Maintenance Award

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2017 — The 341st Maintenance Group, 341st Missile Wing, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, is this year’s recipient of the Defense Department’s Phoenix Award for Maintenance Excellence, according to DoD officials.

Best Maintenance Unit

The department announced the Phoenix Award winner at this year's secretary of defense maintenance awards ceremony, Dec. 5. The Phoenix Award is presented annually to designate the single best maintenance unit out of six Secretary of Defense Field-Level Maintenance Award winners.

In fiscal year 2016, the 341st Maintenance Group led three major modernization efforts at their facilities, including a $6 million upgrade to the Re-entry System/Re-entry Vehicle maintenance facility, a $14.6 million upgrade to the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile maintenance facility, and a $20 million upgrade to their training facilities.

The group’s efforts propelled them to the top of many of Air Force Global Strike Command’s combat metrics, including best launch control center fully mission capable rate, best scheduling effectiveness rate, best minimum essential equipment levels rate and best transporter erector service rate. The group also reduced its overdue preventive maintenance inspections to the lowest level in command.

The professionalism and commitment to excellence demonstrated by the men and women of the 341st Maintenance Group unquestionably demonstrates the unit's worthiness in being recognized as this year's best field-level maintenance unit in DoD, officials said.