ADM. MICHAEL MULLEN: This is what – a two or three week course? Six days? You haven’t heard? We’re making it longer. (Laughter.) No, I’m just kidding. I actually am going to talk for a few minutes but what I really would like to do is get your questions, all right? I know you’re from all over the country and you’re juniors and seniors in high school. So you’ve got the world in front of you, a couple of the best years of your life actually, staring you right in the face.
And as long ago as I graduated from the Naval Academy – and it was a long time ago – it’s pretty easy for me to quickly reflect back to being where you are when I was 16 or 17 years old and, quite frankly, didn’t have a clue what I was going to do, under what I’m sure is – just like you – a lot of pressure to figure it out even though I couldn’t at the time.
And I’m from California and there’s a bunch of you from California here? Yes? (Cheers, applause.) And there’s actually a couple of you from Encino? What school?
MS. : (Inaudible.)
ADM. MULLEN: And isn’t there another one? Or just one of you is from Encino? (Inaudible.) So I grew up there. I grew up in a small town in the San Fernando Valley called Studio City – 16, 17 years old, didn’t know what I wanted to do, oldest of five kids. I was a basketball player, actually a big UCLA fan, although I had no way that I could play anywhere close to that level.
But I had a hankering to go to school on the East Coast – couldn’t really tell you why; sort of, get out of Southern California, there’s more to life than that, even though I hadn’t traveled. And you’re back here as a junior from all over the country. I literally left California once when I finally got on an airplane when I was 17 to come back to East Coast school.
But there was a Beverly Hills cop who was a father of one of my best friends who kind of stated at me in terms of what might be possible – to go to the Naval Academy because his son had gone the previous year. So I kept looking at it and looking at it and at the last minute, the Naval Academy recruited me to play basketball. And so I got on a plane – and if you grow up in California – you look at dictionaries in California – the word “humidity” is not in the dictionary. (Laughter.)
So I get off an airplane in Baltimore where it’s 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity and I’m going, you mean people actually live in this kind of weather? And that was June of 1964, 17 years old, didn’t have a clue. Went to Annapolis, and that first day, met the best people I’ve ever been around in my life.
And for me, personally, the military – particularly the Navy, obviously – the Navy and Marine Corps – because when you go to Annapolis, it commissions young men and women to go in the Navy Marine Corps. And that struck me more than anything else. And the friends that I had there are still dear friends that I still see, quite frankly, along with my wife, that we made back then. So there’s a bonding and camaraderie and an esprit that’s pretty special. And that’s what seized me back then and, in fact, it’s been like that ever since.
So I graduate in ’68 and you know history. And that was right in the middle of the Vietnam War – my first war. That was my first deployment. Went back out to the West Coast, deployed on a ship in 1969, and it was a very difficult time. The only reason I bring that up – and I realize it’s history – but it is a very important backdrop to me in terms of how I see things now.
We’re in two wars, we’ve been in two wars for – this is our sixth year of that. And I remember those times and I remember at least what I thought was going on even though I was a young officer trying to figure out my job and how to do it well and how to take care of my people on a ship off the coast of Vietnam. They were very, very tough times for us as a country, far beyond just the military.
So that’s a significant input to how I see things right now. I’ll go over as much as I can with you this morning in your questions. Won’t tell you what I tell the president although I see the president very frequently. And I’ve got as a principal military advisor – I’ve got terrific access to the White House in the National Security Council and I understand – who’s playing the president this week? How have you done? Is that why you’re in the back row? (Laughter.)
And there are a few playing national security advisors. I mean, I was talking just briefly with a couple of your colleagues ahead of time and you have a China-Taiwan – actually, I’m very interested in how you sorted out the China-Taiwan scenario. (Laughter.) And I understand you’re dealing with cyber – and solutions there would be helpful – (laughter) – and the other things that you’re looking at.
The challenges that we have right now are daunting and going to grow. And cyber is one. And as challenging as cyber is, it’s going to grow. And I would look to you and your generation to figure out how to solve it because it’s an enormously difficult challenge that is – quite frankly, for not just the military, I think for the globe, and certainly for the country – going to be an increasingly difficult challenge for us to get our arms around for lots of reasons.
So, again, I would only encourage you at your age and at your level – and obviously you do that or you wouldn’t be here – to keep your options open. You’re going to make a decision here about what college you go to – if you haven’t already – very shortly. And probably among the two or three most important decisions of your life. Because whatever you pick is going to change your life forever: who you’re with, what you study, where you go, who you meet, et cetera. And that will then move to – you know, the next decision is what you do after you graduate – those kinds of things.
So I would just encourage you to keep options open; talk to people you respect and care about and take all those judgments into consideration, and then make a decision. Don’t go to a school because your parents think you should do it. Don’t go to a school because your uncle or aunt or your coach or your teacher – go because you want to go. Take their inputs – I think that’s really important – and who you respect and who you rely on. And then make that decision. And I’m sure it’ll be a good one.
The other thing – I’ll talk about two other quick topics. One is we live in an extraordinary time of change. And where I spend my time – and you’ve talked about a couple of them already in terms of scenarios – but as the principal military advisor, most of my time I spend on the broader Middle East. So it’s Iran, it’s Lebanon, it’s Syria, it’s the two-state solution, it’s Afghanistan, it’s Iraq and Pakistan. And it’s actually pushing out to Central Asia – the “Stans” – about which I didn’t know too much a couple years ago.
I just came back about three weeks ago from Pakistan. It’s my 13th trip there since a year ago February. Each time I go to Pakistan, I learn more, and I learn more about what I don’t know. Enormously complex country, critical country, and undergoing great both pressure, scrutiny, challenges; that has been basically run by the chief of staff of the army – by the military – for well over half of its existence in the 62 years since its birth back in 1947.
And so it’s a critical part of the world to us. And it is, in fact, where Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri and the al-Qaida leadership reside. And so the intellectual leadership of al-Qaida who still wants to kill as many Westerners and Americans as they possibly can lives in that country, and it lives in the border area, which is one of the most complex areas in the world.
And one of the things I’ve learned and I would encourage you as you think about what you’re going to deal with is how do you see – when I go to Pakistan or I go to Afghanistan, or many other places, I try to sit back and see the problems through their eyes, not just through American eyes because we’re raised a certain way, we see things a certain way, we’re not very patient, we want to move. And a lot of the rest of the world just doesn’t match up to that.
So we can’t adequately address problems or in assisting other people, supporting other people unless we understand a little bit more about it. And so that is where history and culture and language and exposure and global connections and all those things is so important in the world that we’re living in – will be more important as you get into positions here shortly.
So a lot of my time in the broader Middle East – a very unstable part of the world and one that I worry a great deal about. I mentioned we’re in our eighth year of war. I’ve got an Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, but particularly Army and Marine Corps who have been pressed incredibly hard.
And since about 2001, our ground forces – Army and Marine Corps – are on their fourth or fifth deployment, notionally about 12 months gone at a time. And they’re back for about 12 months. And I’ve got young dependents – children and families not that much younger than you – who haven’t seen their moms or dads for the better part of the last seven or eight years. And there are pressures associated with that that we have never been through, quite frankly. And we are working hard to address those.
So I’ve got a force that is the best force in the world. And at the same time it’s been pressed hard. And I took a trip on this last trip – and I usually take press with me. And Tom Friedman from The New York Times went with me. And Tom is a Middle East expert. He’s a Middle East studies graduate in his education. And he came back from this trip and he was spending time with our troops and our leaders. And basically what he said was that the soldiers and Marines he met with, they truly have Ph.D.s in the Middle East. Through these deployments and in this time, they’ve grown to understand those cultures and those people more so than just about anybody else he met.
So we’re learning organization but it’s going to take some time. And so we’re trying to balance the needs to send forces to Iraq, send them to Afghanistan, conduct the missions there, and at the same time, figure out if we can take some of the pressure off the force. And for the next couple of years, that’s going to be difficult.
And so there are a lot of things that are changing and have changed or will continue to change. And this is a leadership conference and I know you’re looking at specific scenarios, but worthwhile in your study of leadership, pick up a book on leading change. Don’t really care whose it is because it’s the most challenging and exciting part of leadership. It’s the most challenging and exciting kind of leadership because people like status quo and we’re living in a world where tomorrow is different from today. And that will accelerate as you get into positions of leadership.
And then lastly, I’d just like to talk about leadership. Of all the things that we do – and you’ll all grow up into various fields and various positions – there’s nothing more challenging. From my perspective, it goes back to why I liked Annapolis, why I stayed in the Navy because as a young officer, I was thrown into a tough situation with great young people and I was given great responsibility very early. And throughout my military career, that has been the case. And believe me, I had no plans.
In fact, I had plans to be gone from the Navy at the five-year point, at the 10-year point, at the 20-year point. So did my wife, by the way. And here it is some 40-plus years later. So you never know how it’s going to work but I’ve been given responsibility. And from a leadership standpoint, that has been something that has been very special to me and I feel very fortunate.
So I’m here not having planned to be here, leading 2.2 million young men and women who are the best I’ve ever been around. And in that leadership piece, it requires great characteristics – the characteristics of integrity, courage, commitment, consistency, discipline, caring about people – all those kinds of things. And then you throw in “everything’s changing” all the time, as well.
So I would encourage you to seek out leadership positions. Do it while you’re young. I mean, I led organizations when I was in high school and that actually translated to other things that helped me learn how to lead later on.
And then think about contributing. I didn’t join the military originally because I was patriotic or I understood what service was all about. As I look back on it, look at my family, there was certainly – and other people that I respected – that actually influenced me. I just didn’t know it at the time.
And we’re living in a time where there are great needs out there. That will continue. And so service of any kind – I don’t care if it’s community service or national service or international service; whether it’s the Peace Corps or the military or ServiceNation, which is an organization that is seeking service from young and old people like me to make a difference in people’s lives. And there’s nothing, quite frankly, nothing, more satisfying.
And what I have found in that is you get back – when you serve – you get back a whole lot more than you ever give, even though people are so grateful for that service. So I’d ask you to think about that. So it’s great that you’re here. And I hope that this week, or these six days, has a big impact on you. And I also hope you make new friends and stay in touch because the networks that you are – not just local networks; national networks and, I think, extending to international networks – will be very important as we move ahead in a world that will continue to challenge us in ways that are very difficult to predict. With that, I’m open to what’s on your mind. Yeah.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: Yeah, one of the things about leadership is that – you can go ahead and sit down. One of the things about leadership, no matter what your position, is the more senior you get – the further away you get from where you started – the less you actually get to know about what’s going on. And yet in those senior positions, you’re making decisions that affect them all. So how do I do that?
One of the ways that I tell that story is that in the Navy when you become an admiral, which is a one-star, all the other admirals write you a letter. So I got to it in 1995; I get 250 letters from people – most of them I didn’t know. I knew of them.
But out of all those letters, there was a line in there that I’ll never forget. And it went something like this: Congratulations, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, it’s great that you’re an admiral and all of that. But please remember a couple things: first of all that you will always eat well because they’ll feed you wherever you go. And you will never hear the truth again.
And that is the truth. Because everybody likes to keep the boss happy and it’s as if I’d forgotten my past. It’s as if people didn’t know that I have, you know, deployed in Vietnam and gone through very tough times or come up through incredibly difficult jobs similar to many of the jobs that young people are carrying out right now – and in many ways more so because we’re in combat and we’re losing.
We’ve got young men and women who are paying the ultimate sacrifice. We’ve got families who are doing much the same thing in terms of support. We’ve got many wounded. We’ve put an inordinate amount of stress on them and so I keep that in mind.
And then I go out – and this is what I call management or leadership – by walking around. I get out and walk around and ask questions. And I ask some of the most junior people we have. And there’s a chain of command between me and them and they don’t necessarily always like me asking those questions but I do. And that’s one of the ways I try to get feedback to find out what’s really going on.
I’m on e-mail. I actually get e-mails from all over the world from troops that are out there; from their spouses who are less shy about e-mailing when they’ve got challenges. And I answer those e-mails. And I don’t always give them what they want but I try to connect with them so at least they know someone at the top cares about them.
And it’s back to what I said earlier: it’s where I grew up, it’s what I remember, it’s what I cherish the most were the people that worked for me who are the best ever and how do I – I wake up every day trying to figure out what’s the best thing I could do for them that day. And I make decisions all the time that affect them. So I try to keep that in mind. But it’s a real challenge. It is for me and it will be for you as well.
Q: Admiral Mullen, sir, how do you handle the stress of your job?
ADM. MULLEN: How do I handle the stress?
Q: Yes, sir.
ADM. MULLEN: I don’t think about it much. To some degree, I thrive on it. I mean, it’s just one of those things that have been that way. I mean, I was brought up in a family where hard work was very obvious to me – my mom and my dad both – and responsibility. So I sought that – the people piece, the connection, which I also thrive on.
But it’s a great question because certainly at my age, it’s something that I have to – you know, this is a marathon for me, not a sprint. So I actually try to get away. You know, if world events don’t conspire against me, I’m actually going on about 12 days of leave here at the end of this week. I hope to be able to do that but I do that pretty rarely. I try to stay in shape. I focus my life on rest.
But I get up – not that I did this morning – but most mornings of the week, I get up about a quarter to 4:00 in the morning to go to the gym. And I’m very regular about that. And the physical and mental focus there, in terms of staying in shape, is very important.
And also in all my life, I’ve tried to be about balance. So I try to take care of that, try to sleep, try to get off with my wife just to take care of us and the family. I work hard to stay in touch with friends that have been friends my whole life that I depend on – not friends in the business but other friends. And then I also pick good people. You can’t do a big job without having the best people you’ve got around. And so I depend greatly on them; I decentralize a lot; I give them guidance and let them run with it.
So it’s a combination of things. But in the end, I don’t think about that too much. I’m mindful of it and I also – I’ve got a physician who keeps an eye on me. And she’s pretty tough on me, quite frankly, in terms of taking care of myself and my wife.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: How difficult is it to deal with – for military issues – dealing with nonmilitary diplomats and making decisions? I believe the best system in the world here is in America and it’s a system that elects civilians to run our country. And that whole process also appoints diplomats and they are obviously the politicians on the one hand but they’re also career diplomats who joined the Foreign Service to serve just like I joined the military.
And from the military perspective, I remain apolitical. I was actually taken back a year ago – starting last summer up through the fall – how many, including many in the military, that would ask me, well, who’re you going to vote for? And I never answered that question because that’s not part of what I do.
What I’m tasked to do is provide the best military advice to then-President Bush and now President Obama and the secretary of defense and the National Security Council. And I do that and I do that in a neutral way. This is what I believe and it’s not just me because I bring in the joint chiefs of staff to assist me in that regard. But that’s my principal responsibility.
And then, you know, the elected leadership of the country makes a decision about what we’re going to do militarily. And then I march off and carry out those orders. It’s been that way. In my view, it should always be that way. It’s a great strength of the system that we have here. So I really keep my mind, sort of, in that place with respect to all the decisions.
And just that I don’t know how many scenarios you played out this week – talk about China-Taiwan, talk about cyber – I could go on a long time. In my life and other people that I’ve talked to who’ve been around a long time, this is the most challenging time that we see in our country literally ever because of just the multitude of challenge overlaid by this global financial crisis, which is having significant impact and will, I think, for a period of time. So that’s kind of how I approach it. Yeah.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: Thanks.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: North Korea and Iran – I’ll focus on one. I can go other places. But when that question comes, to me it’s about nuclear weapons. And I’ll start with North Korea and specifically, the goal is to make sure North Korea does not, in fact, develop and proliferate nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons technology because they are and they become an incredibly destabilizing country in a really critical part of the world.
It is stable in that part of the world. We’ve got good friends there in South Korea and Japan. We’ve got an emerging relationship with China that needs to be, in the end I think, economically driven.
As I travel all over the world, I see parents – I was in Afghanistan three weeks ago – and if you want to read a great book, read a book called “Three Cups of Tea” because it’s a guy named Greg Mortenson who’s just opened his 134th school mostly for young girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And he’s a football player out of Minnesota that didn’t have a calling until he almost died on K2 mountain climbing.
They saved his life and he was in the village where they saved him and he said what do you want and they said we’d like girls’ schools. So that was 1993 or ’94 I think, and here we are 134 schools later in pretty tough towns, pretty tough areas. And his focus is on education. And I had the great privilege three weeks ago of opening up one of those schools with him in Northern Afghanistan. Pretty special opportunity.
Back to things that I’m able to participate in – and believe me, when I was your age and actually much older than that didn’t have a clue that someday I’d have the privilege of being able to do things like that. Focusing on education – but as I engaged parents, there and in other parts of the world – their aspiration is to raise their children to a higher standard of living than what they had.
It is a universal aspiration. I’ve seen it all over the world my whole career. So he’s into doing part of that. And it is in a stable world where you can do that. And so stability in the Pacific, particularly in that part of the world, is really important. And North Korea, with nuclear weapons is a very destabilizing country led by someone that’s very, very difficult to deal with.
On the Iranian thing, same thing. I’ve been a strong – I believe strongly they should not get nuclear weapons, not just for the capability because it will continue to destabilize the most destabilized part of the world and do so in a way that is hard to read the consequences that occur as a result of that. And I worry about other countries, their neighbors now – if they get them, if Iran gets a weapon then do other countries in the area get the weapons and it just goes in the wrong direction.
So a great deal of diplomatic, political, international, financial influence to put pressure on those two countries to make a decision that fundamentally says it is better for me to not have them then to have them. And that’s, to me, the path that we need to be on. That said, in Iran, I haven’t had a relation – I’m in my 30th year of no relationship with Iran. So sort of don’t expect anything to happen overnight.
So in that regard it’s a very dangerous time, certainly as Iran continues to move forward to develop those kinds of weapons. And that’s where I think they’re headed.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: Since President Obama came in, how my responsibility has changed and the goals. I haven’t – actually my responsibilities haven’t changed at all. They are still to advise him and the secretary of defense, who didn’t change, as well as the National Security Council and provide my best military advice.
One of the things that President Obama has done is in Iraq – one of the first things we did was lay out his strategy for Iraq. And in creating that strategy then I’ve got to figure out, well, where do I fit in and it’s a significant part of it so that we are geared to keep our forces at about the same place as they are right now until we get through elections next January in Iraq and then start to come down pretty rapidly through 2010, to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.
So there’s a specific strategy there that President Obama has developed which we’re now in the business of executing. He put together an Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy and while we focus on one or the other, one of the great strengths of that strategy is it’s about a region; it’s not about one country or another. You can’t – I don’t believe you can get where we need to go, which is essentially defeat al-Qaida and make sure that they can’t return to Afghanistan without the regional approach.
So we put that strategy together and again, it’s a very complex strategy. And we put together a strong civilian team led by former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke that I am linked very closely with in terms of executing that strategy. He clearly is approaching – he’s made the priority to go after a two-state solution in the Middle East with the Palestinians and Israel.
He is reaching out to Iran – and we’ll see how that goes. I am encouraged by that and I am hopeful there, but there is a realistic part of that as well. It’s been a long time since we’ve had any kind of dialogue. So I certainly don’t expect – it’s going to take us a while with respect to that.
That affects – that outcome I think affects me greatly in terms of the military because certainly we’re a part of the options that are on the table with respect to Iran, but in my view that needs to be the last thing that we do. But it’s important that those options remain there.
So I’m not so sure that it’s changed that much. Every president develops his policy and then we go out and execute the policy. One of the things that I think any new administration always faces is the multitude of challenges and right now, as I said earlier – at least some from my personal experience and talking to other people that have been doing this for a long time, the enormity, the scope, scale, all those things – just hasn’t, has never been matched.
Other – yeah.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: My favorite part of the job? Easily the favorite part is dealing with the young people who make all this happen. If you go to a unit in the United States military, the average age in that unit is probably 21, 22 years old. And it’s always been thus. When I, in the most difficult of circumstances – when we go to funerals, when we go to the hospitals, when we go to, when I go to the front, and the most difficult of circumstances – and it’s my job as a leader to inspire and say, okay, here we go and in fact inevitably what will happen is I lead much more inspired by my engagement with them then I could ever create for them.
And that’s just – that’s been the case. And that’s actually what gets me up every day. That’s what every single day I’m so focused on. And it’s not just those who are serving because the families are just unbelievable – and the immediate families, spouses, children but also moms and dads. You know, I have engaged untold mothers and fathers who’ve lost their son or daughter and their fortitude, their courage, their bravery is – it’s just hard to put words around it.
It makes me feel so good about our country and about being an American when I’m with them. So it’s that – and that just sort of extends to the whole people side of the business. I don’t spend all my time on the people side, but that’s why I start. I talked about that story in Annapolis with when I went. That’s what happened then and it’s still going on. Yeah.
Q: Hi, my name is Anna. What advice do you have for young people who want to join the government?
ADM. MULLEN: Well, if I were to look at sort of how that happens, at least here in Washington – and I can’t speak because I’m sure there are ways to do this in state governments or city governments throughout the country.
But as I look at that, I see young people who go to school, that major in some kind of either international relations, political or public administration – those kinds of things. But where they seem to connect and generate their future is in what I would call internships in the summer. So they figure out through their professors or other contacts how to do that and then they’ll come here for a month and work at the Treasury Department or work at the Justice Department or whoever it is – and you start making connections and you start establishing relationships.
And you get to, again, figure out who you believe and who you don’t believe and does it fit you and many, many times I just see that connect to a job after graduation – and then not just a job but also a further education. I mean – what you will do in college is you will see, to some degree, an education path for yourself in the future. An awful lot of government institutions have advanced education opportunities, for instance.
So that’s what I’ve seen be very effective in Washington and I’ve been here much more than I’ve been anywhere else. And then the other thing – I’d pursue it. I tell – I mentioned going to Annapolis – I was struck very positively this morning the Forbes came out with the best universities in the country and West Point was number one. Against pretty tough competition – MIT, Stanford, Harvard – you probably know the list.
And it is, and while I’m obviously focused on Navy because that’s where I went, what I have seen for the last 40-plus years is an extraordinary student body that all – at the Air Force Academy, at the Coast Guard Academy, at West Point and Annapolis – and I have said more than once you could probably interchange those and have the same kind of results. And when I see and I focus on Annapolis because I’m a graduate and I care about our young and so I spend time with young people talking about that.
So the other thing I’d tell you is don’t just back off because somebody said no the first time. Or whatever the normal path is – I can tell you there area lot of ways to get into one of the service academies, not just go see your congressman and fill out the forms and take your exams and hope you do okay. There are many paths, and so if it’s something you really want to do, figure out a way to get it done.
And at some point in time, you’ll break through and people will go – what was I thinking? We need you and many others to serve in our government.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: The hardest decision I have to make in my job is who should lead. In these very challenging jobs – and they are very challenging times, it is – again, I was taught very early, as I look back even by my parents – but one of the reasons I thrived in the Navy is because you’re given command. And you’re held accountable, captain of the ship.
It’s an age-old rule: No matter what happens on the ship, whether you can control it or not, the captain of the ship is responsible and held accountable. And key to moving forward in any organization is having terrific leaders. And the opposite is true as well.
And I’ve seen situations where leaders would just work around one of their other leaders. That they weren’t delivering, but they wouldn’t make the tough decisions. And, in fact, they also wouldn’t lay it out in front of them and say, hey, these are your weaknesses and this is what you’ve got to improve on or we’re going to be moving on to somebody else.
That is tough and yet it is the fairest, and actually, one of the most rewarding parts of everything I’ve learned throughout my career because people get to know where they stand. And you’re honest with them and open and then they can either do it or not.
So fair evaluations is a very hard part of it. But when you have someone, recently a very specific example in my life – in a time of war who is leading in a place like Afghanistan, and I think I have a better solution than that individual, than I make a move to change that out. We did that by putting in General McChrystal in Afghanistan.
In a time of war which is obviously very tough, but it is also an example of for me of many of the decisions that I’ve made throughout my career. But they are tough decisions and they have big impacts on people. Over time it becomes – these kinds of decisions are not about individuals; they are about institutions you care a lot about. So they are about the Army or the Navy or the military or – that’s where I am.
But you pick the institution. And it’s not about individuals; it becomes about the institution. And at senior levels, decisions have to be made to protect the institution. At the senior level in Afghanistan, when I’m asking young men and women to pay the ultimate sacrifice, I have to have the best leader I have got in the United States Military in that position. And I can’t wait another day to get him there. And that’s what I do.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: What’s a typical day? Well, about 40 percent of my time is – please sit down – about 40 percent of my time I’m on the road. And about a third of that 40 percent – because I’m a Navy guy – I’m traveling around our country. And principally, I visit our Army bases with my wife to find out what the truth is – back to the question earlier, how do I get that. And the rest of the time, I’m overseas in lots of places.
But a typical day is up at a quarter to 4:00, go to the gym, back by 6:00, get picked up at work at 7:00, and usually from 7:00 in the morning until about 7:00 at night, in the office, and it includes probably two or three or four or five or six trips to the White House during the week.
So hours a week in the White House – usually at least one meeting with the president each week; that’s in a very small group – myself, Secretary Gates, a few of his principle advisors, the vice president.
Most of those meetings are at the National Security Council level, so, with the secretary of state, secretary of defense, the national security advisor and some of his principle players with respect to the overall National Security Council.
There’s a lot of media, you know, so I’ll do media. I did an editorial board yesterday and with the Washington Times. I will probably give a presentation like this two or three times a week. I didn’t grow up in the military; I actually grew up in North Hollywood and Studio City, and I actually grew up in the entertainment business. And people say, well, how did you get from Hollywood to here? And I haven’t figured that out yet. (Laughter.)
But I did grow up in publicity, specifically. So I am aware of what communications, public communications – you probably wouldn’t have seen, but we’re going through a – you know, I’m up on Twitter; I’m up on Facebook. And that’ll probably move you off it – (laughter) – at least it has my kids. (Laughter.) But I really do try to stay connected. And I’m not as facile with that, but I knew very early the importance of communications and publicity and messaging and all those kinds of things. So I spend a fair amount of time on that.
I deal with an awful lot of difficult issues, and then my staff gives me – typically, I’ll take home three or four bags full at 7:00 at night – “Just in case you have any time this evening, would you please work on this routine correspondence?” – you know, that is a stack about that high. And then I try to get in bed by 9:00 to 9:30 at night.
Occasionally – well, actually not occasionally – I try to read books. I mentioned “Three Cups of Tea.” I’m actually reading a great Van Lustbader book right now called “The Bourne Deception.” And I’m also reading a book called “The Forever War” by Dexter Filkins, which is a pretty incredible book about the wars that we have been in. And I try to alternate, you know, a fun book with a serious book. And I have to say, I love to go to movies and I haven’t seen any lately. (Laughter.)
So it’s pretty full. And the weekends are not free. I try to do this better, but two weekends ago was the first weekend that my wife and I had free in almost four months – to do what we want, you know, as opposed to something else. So it’s pretty busy. That’s why I try to sleep.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: The emotional strength – I actually come from a pretty emotional family. And I would certainly say, more than anything else, from my parents – although, a strong, spiritual upbringing as well; that, when I was young, I didn’t pay as much attention to it as I probably should have. But it was there.
I’ve seen peers of mine – to go back to that – I’m talking again about that letter when you make admiral at that point in time – that’s a big cut in the military. So it’s 0.2 percent or something like that. So at that level, which was 1995 for me, your friends start to drop off. I mean, you’re sort of with them in many ways – competing with them, getting promoted with them, advancing with them. At that level, it’s a whole new world. And I worried a great deal then, as I do now, about not being in contact with people that I cared about a lot who were a great emotional support. And so I’ve worked hard to try to stay in touch with them.
I – a tremendous amount from my wife. We’ve been married since 1970. And we’re in this together. And I also get – because I’ve got two sons – who also give me pretty good emotional support. So I’ve actually got multiple networks far outside the military that I still work hard to stay in touch with. But I really think it comes from a very strong foundation both in my family and spiritually and, actually, educationally.
I mean, I was a good student in high school. I got good grades; I didn’t have to study. And quite frankly, I had a good time. And when it came time to, what are you doing the rest of your life? I was going to go to University of California-You Pick It. For me, it was UCSB.
When this other opportunity came along, I grabbed it. And I couldn’t – not sure I could have qualified normally to get into Annapolis. And in fact, my first semester there – my mother will tell you that was a blank year – my plebe year at the Naval Academy – based on the letters that I wrote, which I don’t even remember, but she does. And I didn’t have any family back here; my family was all West Coast. I had one aunt up in Westport, Connecticut, who was sort of my Walden’s Pond. I would get away for the three our four years I was there.
And I went home – back then – well, we were still on semesters – but just to give you an idea of that first year, I went home Christmas of my plebe year, and my grade point average was 0.95. (Laughter.) And the scale wasn’t, you know, zero, one and two. (Laughter.) You know, it was 4.0 like it is today.
And, you know, I was really on a knife edge. In fact, I had a senior midshipman who said the day I arrived that he’d had me run out by Christmas. And he just latched onto the wrong guy because he wasn’t going to make that happen. And in fact, he almost did. But somehow – I couldn’t tell you how – I got through exams; ended up actually having above a 2.0.
But my record at the Naval Academy was not unlike high school. I had a good time; wasn’t a great student; made great friends; worked hard on leadership. And then I got thrown into the Navy on a ship. I didn’t – you know, I grew up on the beach, not on the water – (laughter) – out in Southern California. And I went to sea on a destroyer and it was something I just fell in love with. So you just never know how that’s all going to fit.
So I was a good student in high school, but I made a decision – I needed to go somewhere where I was going to be subject to discipline so I had to study because I’d seen too many of my friends take off the year or two in front of me. And they had a great time in the fraternities, but within a semester, within a year, they were back at Valley Junior College, which is exactly where I didn’t want to be. They’d gone to Stanford and USC and UCLA and all those schools out in the West Coast and they were drinking and having a great time. They certainly weren’t in class. And I knew I didn’t want to do that. So I was trying to put myself into a position where the system would discipline me enough where I could recline.
My boys – actually both of them ended up going to Annapolis. And I would beat on them about grades and studying. And one day, they saw my transcripts, like halfway through. And my oldest son goes, Dad, what is that?! A 2.3?! (Laughter.) So you learn as you grow. I was fortunate to adjust, but, again, it’s my family that really got me off to a great start.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: Pardon? I’m sorry.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: Do I get to pick my leave time? Yes, I do. I actually try to do that. But every year of the last four years, it is literally at the brink whether I’m going to do it or no – having nothing to do with my seniority and having everything to do with world events. So a year ago about this time, as I was about to go on leave, as I am this year, what happens? I’m asking you. (Laughter.) Or anybody. What happened last August? Russia invades Georgia. Could you find that on a map – (laughter) – before that? Okay. (Laughter.)
So that became a big deal. And it turns out, after relationships and contacts, I end up being the principal contact between the United States and Russia to my counterpart, the chief of their military. And I end up talking to him multiple times – I’d never met him; never talked to him; don’t know him – over the weekend about this crisis.
And I came about that close that I wasn’t going to go on leave. And some event like that has happened almost every year. So I get to pick the time. Other people get to pick whether I go or not. Usually, they’re not living in the United States. (Laughter.)
MR. : Five minutes left for the scheduled timeframe.
ADM. MULLEN: Okay. In the green.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: Did I have a backup plan? Well, I had indicated I was going – I was actually on my way to the University of California-Santa Barbara, so if I had not gotten into Annapolis, I probably would have gone there. But I honestly wasn’t thinking about it in terms of a backup plan.
One of the things that goes back to just a part of that story about this guy when I got there, the first 30 minutes I was at Annapolis – you know, I’m “at attention” along with all my classmates – I mean, I have no idea where I am. I mean, the world’s spinning around me – this guy says, you’re gone by Christmas.
Now, one of the things about me is once I get my mind set on a goal, it’s pretty tough to take away. So it doesn’t mean I don’t think about backup plans. Certainly in the business I’m in right now, I do. But for myself, once I set my mind on it and I know it’s right, I go after it pretty hard.
And the other thing about the Navy, about the military, that I’ve also seen payoff is persistence. I mentioned I had command as a young officer – 26 years old – as a lieutenant, which is very young to have a command. Normally you don’t get it for another 15 years or so – or, another 10 to 15 years. But I had my own ship, 100 troops, 1973, as we sailed off from Norfolk, Virginia, and off to the Mediterranean; I’m seeing the world.
And I ended up right in the middle of the Arab-Israeli war – or, sorry, the ’73 war – which was also an enlightening experience. But my evaluations in that two-and-a-half years would not serve to keep me in the Navy another day, they were so bad. But I wanted to command again. I persisted. And 11 years later, I recovered. By that age, an awful lot of people would have said, see ya, you know, I’m not doing well here, I’m going to go do something else.
But I wanted to command a ship again because I hadn’t done as well as I expected myself to. And the Navy rewarded that persistence. And the military does that in a very healthy way. So I’ve been blessed in that regard. And it’s a characteristic of the service that I greatly admire as well.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: Great question. With the increase in the technology that’s available, do I foresee a decrease in the military – in manpower that is required? Theoretically, yes. I haven’t seen a lot of it yet. And we’re developing systems – I mean, specifically ships which will have far fewer sailors on them than have had in the past because of the technology. But those ships are really – they’re probably still five years out before they’re fielded in any kind of numbers in other systems in other parts of our military.
So I think we’ll eventually get there but I think it’s probably a decade or two before we really see the benefits of that. People ask me about investing in the future of the military and typically everybody thinks stuff – airplanes, ships, tanks, other systems. I’ll end where I started: I love this job because of the people. There’s no more critical part of our military than the people and their families. And if you gave me one more dollar to invest, it would be in our people – and then they’ll figure it out. No matter what we buy, no matter where we go, the best in the world – they’ll figure it out. I’m watching them do it right now and I know that they will do it in the future. Yes, ma’am.
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: There is.
Q: Oh, okay. I’m Alexandra and I was wondering if there’s a current military – (inaudible) – or formal code – (inaudible) – chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
ADM. MULLEN: A current military official?
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: Well, I mean, sort of historic figures that I have great admiration for, one of whom is George Marshall who led World War II and in the Navy, an admiral – (inaudible) – that are kind of – they’re iconic to me. I got here and you all have them and I would encourage you to spend time with them – I got here because of a lot of great mentors – people that I cared about me sometimes when I wondered whether I had a future.
I talk about this 11-year period it took me to kind of get back in the game in the Navy. And so my commanding officer who’s a former actually retired Navy captain when I was a junior officer, and he made going to sea fun and he’s a guy that said, you’re good at this and he just opened up doors that were very special to me and I still am endeared to him and others like him.
Believe me, I didn’t get here by myself. None of us do. I talked about the friends, the network support but I’ve had great mentors and friends. And as I become more senior, there actually are now civilian mentors, individuals who served in government and have become friends over time. So I put it more along the lines of mentors that I spent time with, somebody that has made a big difference in my life and has been terrific to me in this job.
I was running the Navy when all this started. I was going to be the head of the Navy for four years and then I was going to transition and go do something else. And obviously life changed when I got picked for this job. And somebody who’s treated me exceptionally well that I have the highest regard for who had this job is Colin Powell, who I still see as a great model and a great mentor and a friend – a terrific friend as well.
Okay, I see the hooks all over the place; they want me out. So, again, send me some of those solutions for some of these tough problems you’re coming up with, particularly the out-of-the-box solutions because I’m anxious to try to solve problems in a different way than I’ve done in the past. I wish each and every one of you the best of luck. Take care of yourselves; take care of your families and then stay in touch with each other. You’ve got a great future and your being here says a lot about that. But it’s going to take a lot of hard work and that hard work has got to match up to these very challenging times. Take care.
(Applause.)
(END)