Remarks by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine at the West Texas Legislative Summit Fireside Chat
REP PFLUGER: Tech university system, we all would acknowledge them.
[Applause]
And with that, I'm going to turn the mic over to Jeremy Borash [ph] who will give the invocation.
JEREMY BORASH: Would you bow in prayer with me? Our gracious and heavenly Father, we thank You for all the gifts that You've given us. We thank You for the opportunity to gather here today. We thank You for this food that was prepared for us.
We ask that You bless it to the nourishment of our bodies, our bodies to Your service and at all times, Father, we lift up the leadership of this United States that we all are proud to live in, and the state of Texas as well, to guide them, direct them and help them on their daily basis. Father, we thank You for all the gifts that You've given us. In Jesus name, amen.
REP PFLUGER: Well, good to see everybody. I hope lunch is going good. I know people are still coming in and, guys, we've got quite a treat coming up. As I mentioned earlier, this is the 21st West Texas Legislative Summit, but we have a first today.
We have a first with our distinguished visitor and fireside chat for lunch to introduce to you somebody who is serving his nation in so many different ways and is making an impact with maybe many of your kids and grandkids and family members who are willing to Join the armed services and willing to stand up and be of service.
Obviously, right here in San Angelo, very proud of Goodfellow Air Force Base and all of the airmen, soldiers, sailors, marines and guardians who are trained right here at Goodfellow who go on to do amazing things. And we're going to talk about some of the things that these students, that these graduates, that these professionals, both in the intelligence profession as well as the fire profession, are doing and have done for our nation recently.
I'm going to ask you to hold your applause for just a second, OK. But it's an honor and a distinct privilege to welcome General Dan Caine, Razin Caine, the 22nd Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Caine serves as the highest-ranking officer in the United States Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the president of the United States, to the Secretary of Defense and to the National Security Council.
In this role, General Caine stands at the nexus of national defense and strategic decision making for the future of our nation. And he is working on the daily, small quotes, task of guiding the direction of our armed forces in an increasingly complex, hostile and unpredictable global environment.
General Caine comes from an incredibly unique background, first serving as a fighter pilot in the US Air Force, a CEO, an investor, a special operations officer and most recently as the highest-ranking military officer at the CIA, which one of our own, General Downs, who was Commander of Goodfellow, also is now serving in that same role.
But as a former fighter pilot and a colonel in the US Air Force Reserves and somebody who also served with President Trump, I know, and I've seen firsthand how vital good, strong leadership is and that's what we get out of General Caine. With my own experience but knowing so many other professionals in the military, I think we can all confidently say that General Caine embodies the spirit, the warrior ethos, and has served with character and integrity his entire career.
He began his military career in 1990 after commissioning through ROTC at Virginia military Institute, VMI, and as an F-16 fighter pilot, a weapons officer, General Caine has logged over 2,800 flight hours, including 150 combat hours. His career has equipped him -- uniquely equipped him with the experience needed for the role in both the operational and the intelligence arenas.
From frontline combat, advising strategic military operations at the highest level, and having completed several rigorous academic programs at top universities across the country. As we have seen today, y'all, what's happening here in West Texas with our military and with industry is vitally important. General Caine not only brings a wealth of military experience, but he also has a wealth of business and professional experience.
And I would say one of the most interesting paths to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but he has the full confidence of the President of the United States. It's a pleasure and I hope that you will offer the warmest West Texas welcome to General Dan Razin Caine.
[Applause]
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Thank you. [Inaudible] but thank you for -- Congressman, thanks for having me.
REP PFLUGER: Well, General, this is a commercial [ph] picture ever. Can we put something else there?
[Laughter]
They try to play, you know, jokes on us when we're getting to the stage to see how I react. This is a group of patriotic, God-fearing folks that are involved in lots of different industries. And do a tremendous amount of work for our community, for the state of Texas and quite frankly for the nation.
One thing that binds us together regardless of the industry that they served in, that they've worked in is their love for this great nation and their love and respect for our military. So, we want to thank you. You're the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to come to the West Texas Legislative Summit to be present here.
You can see by the crowd, they appreciate you being here. So, let's kick this off with just a couple of questions about the highlights of your career, because as we talked backstage a little bit about getting to this point, not only do you have a tremendous amount of military experience serving in different conflicts and leading folks, but you also have some business experience. And how valuable that is to where we are today needing a strong defense industrial base but also leading warriors in all of our services.
And you see the men and women that are on the front row who serve in different services. I'd love to hear about your experience getting to this point.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, before I say that, sir, let me say thanks to you for the invite, Rep Weber, Rep DC, Rep Harrington, the team from ASU, General Hawkins and really everybody here for all of your incredible support for our military forces, not just here at Goodfellow, but throughout the state of Texas, whether it's the active forces here in the state or our Texas National Guard who just did extraordinary things down during the floods around the 4th of July.
To our reservists who are here, it's just -- it's great to be home in Texas. It's great to be down here in San Angelo with all of you amazing Americans. And so, just know how much I appreciate being here. I hope I'm not the last Chairman to come to this awesome event. Maybe I'm just the first of many.
You know, I sit here, sir, with a heart of gratitude. I've had this wonderful career that's had a bunch of somewhat interesting and different chapters to it from the chance to fly F-16s to then go to Top Gun in the Air Force. You know, the Air Force's Top Gun, by the way, there's no beach volleyball.
[Laughter]
And there's no flag football or anything like that, it's just about execution, but then to serve in the special operations forces. And I want to share with you; we have the highest-ranking enlisted service member in the United States of America also here today. I'd like to introduce you to the senior enlisted advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, United States Navy Seal, Dave Isom, who grew up serving in the Seal and.
[Applause]
Some pretty famous Seal teams that we don't talk about publicly, but you can put it together. But you know that we -- my chance to serve with the CAC [ph] and then leave the full-time military, join the National Guard as a part timer and become a startup entrepreneur up in Dallas and other places really helped me see the range of opportunities out there and helped me become a better leader. So, it's with a lot of gratitude that I sit here with you, sir.
REP PFLUGER: And by the way, I -- for the record -- said, please do not call me sir, because I'm -- just calm down, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. So, they're probably wondering what is this [inaudible] guy?
REP PFLUGER: Well, this is how it works though, right? Even as the highest-ranking member of the military, the Congress represents each and every one of you. And the way our system works is if we say sir to those Congressmen, Representatives and Senators because they represent all of you. And so, it's with great respect that I say that sir, and it's with great deference. That's how the system works and that's how we hold that truth up.
REP PFLUGER: Thank you. You got a chance to tour Goodfellow yesterday. You should have seen our military in full respect with an all-call Colonel Norton led and a big American flag at the fire training center with great remarks that were delivered.
What were your impressions from Goodfellow? And how important is the business of intelligence and fire training to what we're doing around the world?
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, first, it was a huge honor to be here. When I told some folks I was coming down here, pretty quick the former commander that you mentioned, General Downs, who's now a three star in CIA, blew up my phone and said you're going to my absolutely most favorite place in the entire world, San Angelo, Texas.
And he went on to tell me how he and his family are retiring here and it was a long, long text About San Angelo. So, it was very humbling for me to come visit the wing out there and to stand up in front of a thousand young Americans who could be doing something different, but each and every one of them made a choice to do something more important than themselves and come into the service to either be an intelligence professional or a firefighting professional.
You can't help but walk out of an engagement like that. Incredibly hopeful for the future of our great country. When you see those young kids just standing there wanting to do something incredibly important for their country it's just awe inspiring.
REP PFLUGER: It really is. And you know, you mentioned to them -- we'll get to some of the recent operations, but you kind of mentioned to them the fact that when they left there, how small of a world it is between their profession and the policy decisions that are being made in DC, and especially on the intelligence side. How has intelligence shaped just the job that you're doing and the decisions that you are making or giving to the president on a daily basis?
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, I'll tell you how my day starts. I mean, when I -- I wake up pretty early in the morning and go into this vaulted room in my house with secret computers in it, and I read the intelligence right off the bat. It's the first thing that I do in the morning. And every single day, I am impacted by somebody who graduated from Goodfellow Air Force Base.
And most recently, as you saw when the president made the decision to take some B-2s and go into the Middle East, graduates from right here in San Angelo, Texas and that intelligence program, and graduates from those firefighter training programs absolutely were a key and essential part of Operation Midnight Hammer.
And so, I feel and sense the impact that this community and that base has on national security literally every single day, seven days a week, multiple times a day. I get intelligence briefs from Air Force officers, and Marines and Army soldiers and Navy sailors every day, and many of those Joint Force teammates, not just the Air Force folks, have come through here at Goodfellow Air Force Base.
So, I can't say thank you enough for all of the love that you pour into this community. I see the mayor over there and others, you know, the amount of love and caring that you pour into this. It's manifested by how many times you all have won the Altus Trophy as the greatest community-based relationship out there.
I think you've won it three times in the last couple of years. I wouldn't be surprised to see you win a fourth pretty soon. So, yeah, it's awesome.
[Applause]
REP PFLUGER: We are blessed with incredible local leaders and not just here in San Angelo, but this room represents a lot of West Texas -- Midland, Odessa, Lubbock, Amarillo. We even have a guest from Houston that drove in. So, there are many people in this room that care deeply about the security of our nation.
But as the top military advisor to the president, to the Secretary of Defense, to the NSC, talk us through that. That is a lot of responsibility with the most powerful military in the world, the most respected military in the world and a shining beacon on the hill that our country represents you as the top advisor in the military. We'd love to hear how you think about this role.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Yeah, thanks. I'm not intimidated by that at all.
[Laughter]
You know, first, it's humbling for me to have the chance to serve in this role. It wasn't one I expected to have, but I'm deeply honored the president would trust me along with the secretary to do this job.
REP PFLUGER: What a lot of people don't know about the Chairman is, while you're the highest-ranking person in the military, you actually command nobody. By design you're the senior advisor, as the Congressman said, to the secretary, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and ultimately -- ultimately the president.
It's a job that you get out of bed every morning thinking what am I going to do today to earn the honor and privilege of representing 2.8 million service members, men and women and their families, and making sure that the president has a range of options along with the secretary as they consider -- as the policy makers who decide these things as they consider those most critical and important decisions working across all of the military services and all of the combatant commands, making sure that we present the best possible range of options and being able to do so in a way that the president can understand the complexities of the decisions. And then the second and third order consequences of those.
And then when the president makes a decision, making that decision our own and getting after it. And that's what y'all pay me to do is to understand the world, understand the threat, train the intelligence that's provided by the people here at Goodfellow, the range of military options across all of the Joint Forces that we're so blessed to have in our formations, and then deliver those options to the president and then get after him when he makes a decision.
REP PFLUGER: Again, we'll get to the operation here in a minute, but it just occurred to me that after that operation we had air power highlighted. So, everybody in this room knows that the Air Force is the top service.
[Laughter]
But after that, which is the second service [inaudible] which is the second-best service, would you say that after that? You know, while I'm wearing an Air Force uniform now, I'm now a joint guy, so I have to be very careful. I gave the Navy a hard time a minute ago and I probably need to stick with my jointness and not answer that question.
[Laughter]
You can see the eyes of the Navy Seal in the front row over here.
[Laughter]
Give me the laser pointer. Oh, I mean, we live in a very dangerous world. We've got a conflict that's going on in Russia and Ukraine. We've got the issues with terrorism in the Middle East, Hamas and Hezbollah and obviously the Iranian threat of nuclear weapons and then a near-peer competitor in China and their designs for just greater than regional hegemony, but maybe worldwide.
So, I've asked other members that were on this stage earlier that they're involved in different national security aspects what keeps them up at night, and I'll frame it in a different way. Maybe tell us about the threat landscape as you see it.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, I think as you said, we're living in historic and complicated times. I tell young leaders that Tom Clancy on his most creative day, and then I have to stop and explain to the new service members who Tom Clancy is.
[Laughter]
Reference some books that are reasonably good reads back in the day. He's an author that writes a lot -- I see some people over here telling me who's Tom Clancy. The ladies right here at the table are going on. We'll hook you up later. Don't worry, OK? All right. But the amount of things going on in the world is, I think, unprecedented. The number of simultaneous dilemmas that are happening out there requires us in the Joint Force to deliver even more options than we normally would.
Between Europe, the Middle East, North Korea, China and of course Iran, there's no shortage of really interesting things to think about. But our job, as the president has said and the secretary have said, is to deliver peace through overwhelming strength and to go from the strength that you give us as taxpayers to even more strength out there.
And that's what's so great about the young men and women up at Goodfellow and across the Joint Force who take that road less traveled to come into the service and to allow us to generate those options for the president. And frankly, you know we don't -- we sleep pretty well at night here in the United States of America. It's those other people that are the ones that stay awake, wondering what we're doing out there. So, it's a great, great place to be and it's humbling to be a part of it.
REP PFLUGER: Well, I love that. One of the ethos of becoming a weapons officer and going to the weapon school, the better version of Top Gun, is that you are humble, credible and approachable. And I think by now in this discussion, you're seeing that General Caine is obviously all of those and very well respected by the Joint Force to do the job of delivering that peace through strength to the president. We appreciate that.
Secretary Hegseth has three pillars to rebuild the military by matching threats to capabilities, and he's a huge proponent of reviving the industrial base. And I think that acquisition reform is something we need, something that Congress has talked about. And how we bring emerging and adaptive and innovative technologies to bear is really important, but what do you think the most critical investments are that we need to make to keep our deterrence level high and be viable for the future?
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Yeah, it's an interesting time, right. Technology is evolving at an unprecedented speed and scale. If you look at the way the fight in Europe has gone, you see this movement into small drones that are becoming very important on the battlefields of the future. So, there's an autonomy and drone investment effort that we need to look at as we think about not how we're going to fight and win the war of the past, but how we might deter, first and foremost, a fight in the future.
And then if called upon to fight, how do we do so in a dominant way and come back victorious? And so, between drones and artificial intelligence and quantum and newer munitions and weapon systems, those are all some of the things that we look at in the Joint Force, but we can't do it alone.
We can't do it without the help of Congress and the rest of the executive branch. So, it's leaders like the Congressman in this room from frankly both sides that help us to deliver the combat capability and the capacity that we need as a joint force to create multiple dilemmas for the other people who think about us in the middle of the night versus anything else. So, those are some of the things I think we need to keep looking at.
REP PFLUGER: Which of the domains, air, space, cyber, land, any domain, which one is changing the most rapidly? Which one do we need to keep our eye on? And which one will state actors, and even some non-state actors, use to exploit vulnerabilities around the world and ones that we can pay attention to?
GENERAL DAN CAINE: You know, sir, that's an interesting question. I think it's a bit of a foot race between the cyber domain. There's a lot of action and activity happening in cyber. And I know there's a lot of work right here at ASU around cyber and homeland security, which I appreciate. And all the investment you're pouring, General, into the students, into the community.
I think the space domain is going to continue to push pretty quickly out there. We've now got thousands of things on orbit. More going up every day between SpaceX and other entrants. Within our lifetime, we'll have space capability at much higher altitudes than we do right now. There's work in the undersea domain.
So, it's really the simultaneous look at all of them is how we look at it in the Joint Force. And our job is to stay ahead of, on your behalf, the technology development curve so that we're buying the weapons that will allow us to be victorious on the battlefields of the future and everybody come home hopefully.
And that's part of the job that I have as the Chairman. One is to advise the president and do the things that we were talking about earlier. The other big job that I have as the Chairman is help build the force of the future, working with the services to think deliberately about what does future warfighting look like, what do the forces need to look like, how do we work with the military services underneath me -- or not underneath me, but at least on the org chart. And then procure those weapon systems with the Congress to bring that capability to the Joint Force.
REP PFLUGER: We were, again, talking backstage and most of the time, in probably in every case of the 21 predecessors of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, I thought that they had maintained a uniform service for that time. And your experience in manufacturing, in business in the civilian sector and the military sector both, active duty and in our guard reserve component has proved to be exceedingly valuable right now.
We in the Congress are very worried about just the pace that the manufacturing base can keep up with those weapons systems or our partners and allies want certain things. What do you think it takes to transform that into the speed of warfare, the speed of what we need it to be?
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, I am very lucky in this arc of experiences that so many people gave me between flying jets or being a special forces officer or running a machine shop up in Denton, Texas, making aerospace parts or a metal processing firm up there. We're working with 500 awesome employees up there, cutting chips every day, running 50 CNCs or other business experiences that I've had as a startup entrepreneur. I think the thing that I took from all those experiences that I'm now with, again, a heart full of gratitude coming back into the military is culture.
We have to change the culture in the military and in Washington to be way more entrepreneurial and to take the mindset around those of you -- and I know there's many of you here because I looked at all the list of people who've had the courage and tenacity to start a company or be an owner of a business, whether it's oil and gas or you name it out here, energy in West Texas. That spirit of attack, that tenacity, that don't give up attitude and figure it out, mindful of all the challenges in front of me. I'm going to figure it out.
That's the same culture we've got to bring in to the military about how we're going to work with the industrial base, not just the defense industrial base, which is the Lockheed's and the Northrop's and the RTXs, but also those small businesses owned by great Americans who are cranking out bushings, pins and sleeves and complex parts out of all sorts of things and bring all of that together to create the capability that we need for the Joint Force.
And a lot of that's just good old American leadership. And so, keep going here and your small businesses out here in West Texas, and we thank you for pouring into us so that our primes can buy your products and services and we can create better capability for our warfighters.
REP PFLUGER: Fantastic. You mentioned something about the tenacity and working hard and earning it. And maybe we'll shift gears just a little bit to how you got started in the military. And if there are any young up and coming students that are here or folks that are interested, it's not just handed to you. People don't just hand you anything. And I know that our business community knows that ever so well but talk to us about how you got started.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, I was lucky that I grew up with a dad who was also in the military who taught me a lot about service. He was an F-4 Phantom and an F-16 fighter pilot, and a mom who was a nurse. In fact, she was a night nurse because she wanted to be home when my sister and I got home from school. And so, this great example of service was out in front of me.
And I'd always wanted to fly jets, watching my dad fly airplanes. And by a whole bunch of luck after going to a school in Lexington, Virginia was able to come into the service and get lucky enough to fly airplanes myself. But I just want to pause for a second about service.
And if there are youngsters, I know there's one right here in the front row. I just talked to him. But actually raise your hand if you've been in the military or law enforcement or a firefighter or a schoolteacher or a nurse or a health care provider.
[Applause]
For those young people, if they are in the room, the opportunity to serve -- to serve your fellow human, to serve your fellow American is a chapter in your book of life that you will never ever, ever forget. And it doesn't matter if you're in the armed forces or if you work in a hospital or you work in a classroom or you work in a firehouse or out on the streets as a police officer. That thread of service will give to you more than you give to that service.
And I just hope you strongly consider it. And it can be volunteering in your church or whatever it may be but do something to serve. And I didn't honestly figure that out until September 11th when I was in DC as an F-16 fighter pilot that morning. And to me, up until probably September 10th, I thought it was cool to fly jets. And then on September 12th, I realized what this oath of office that we take and the opportunity to serve something greater than yourself really, really meant.
And so, for me, it was a gift of an example in front of me, my folks and those that also served, it prompted me to want to do that. But I don't think I figured it out, sir, until around September 11th.
REP PFLUGER: That had to be quite an experience being in Washington DC as an F-16 pilot on September 11th. Tell us what that was like.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, it was a gorgeous day. It looked like a San Angelo day. I mean it was blue skies and, you know, we started the day, just a regular day at a fighter squadron. And I remember our intel. In fact, a Goodfellow graduate came bursting into the meeting room I was in and said, an airplane has just hit the World Trade Center. And I thought, gosh, the weather was so good, how did that happen?
I was responsible for the flying program that day and got up and went into our squadron lounge. It's really an apartment; everybody calls it a lounge. That seat right now, there's mediators. So -- but I, like all of us, I remember the helicopter news shot with the first tower building burning, first tower burning.
And then I still -- 911, for most of us is that were around then, is just a series of Polaroids that we all remember. And one of them for me was watching that helicopter news shot when the second airplane entered that frame and tragically struck the other tower. And you could hear -- you could feel and hear a pin drop in what felt like minutes and minutes, which was really only seconds.
We realized at Andrews Air Force Base, which is where I was stationed, that we were at war, and went back to our operations desk and picked up the phone and called our -- where we store our missiles and told them to bring missiles over. And they probably thought I'd lost my mind, and the next phone call was from the White House saying, scramble anything you can, America is under attack.
And you know, it was a chaotic morning that morning, but for me 9-11 was an incredible gift because I got to see firsthand and feel and experience firsthand what heroism is like. And it's not us, by the way, we just did our jobs. It was the weapons loaders that were hanging weapons on our airplanes at Andrews that just over these beautiful trees, we could see the Pentagon building.
But in particular for us, as I launched that morning, and we knew that there were other airplanes hijacked out there, it was the passengers on Flight 93 who knew -- who knew what was going on in New York and Washington. And you know, the Congressman and I and my teammates here in the front row, we take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We do it knowing what could happen.
These folks just got on an airplane, and yet they had the courage to run forward and prevent me and my wingman from probably having to do the most important and horrible thing that a fighter pilot would ever have to do. And that's either shoot at an airliner or ram our airplanes into that airliner.
But we didn't have to do that. They had the courage to do that, and all of those passengers on Flight 93 and the firefighters in New York and the police officers in New York and those first responders in DC. We talked about -- we fought back a couple weeks later in Afghanistan -- no, we fought back immediately. When America makes a decision to respond, manifested through those passengers on Flight 93 and those first responders, that shows the world what we're really up to and what we're like. So, that's what the day was like.
[Applause]
REP PFLUGER: I firmly believe that Leaders are in different places at the right time for the mission that's been given to them. And many in this room, some may have heard some of the stories that President Trump will talk about meeting General Caine for the first time. And if you listen to President Trump, sometimes things are embellished a little bit.
[Laughter]
But to say that he has full faith and confidence in General Caine is an understatement. And I believe the first meeting, because I've heard the story from President Trump's standpoint a couple of times, was when we were fighting ISIS, you were in a leadership position, and he asked you your opinion on the conflict.
And I think he immediately came to respect you in that moment because he was so impressed by your answer and your awareness of the Joint Force's capability to win because we were in a conflict at that time. And I'll let you comment on that.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: I'm waiting for the question. I'm not sure where you're going to go with that.
REP PFLUGER: You fast forward to Operation Midnight Hammer and you are in the position of providing the best military advice to the president of the United States on a mission that is critically important for our security, for our safety and for our partners and allies around the world. What was it like being in the Situation Room and how do you go about giving those options? And obviously we're not talking classified but just talk us through that.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, back to being lucky. Earlier in my career I heard of this program called the White House Fellows Program, which was founded in 1964 by President Johnson. And each year, the fellows program takes between 11 and 19 promising young Americans who are early in their career and drops them in at the highest level of government to learn about leadership and service.
And I was lucky enough in 2005 to be a White House fellow and spend a year actually working at USDA. And raise your hand if you're a farmer, rancher or anybody in there. So, I couldn't spell USDA at the time, but now I'm a giant fan of America's agriculture capability and spent a year there but spent two years on the White House staff after that.
And so, I share that with you because it was a gift. I've been given many of these gifts along the way. But the fact that I'd been in the Situation Room and briefed President Bush, 43, a bunch of times, it gave me a level of quiet comfort in not being intimidated by the importance that you all pay me to tell the president what he's got to hear, right, to be able to do so in a way that the president can think about the range of things that presidents think about.
So, when I had the chance to spend some time with President Trump out in the Middle East, I just told him what I thought, which is what you all pay me to do is to tell him what we think, and the great news about the president is that's exactly what he wants. He wants me to tell him all the range of things without holding anything back and he carefully considers the range of options and then he's a quick decision maker after he finally gets all the facts. So, I'm not sure I answered your question, but there you go.
REP PFLUGER: That was some dodging and weaving. It was appropriate.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: I did work at the CIA for a long time.
[Laughter]
REP PFLUGER: Well, just talk to us about the strikes in general. I mean this mission set of being able to go halfway across the world with our bombers and to orchestrate the Joint Force in a way where we send the strategic deterrence message and achieve objectives -- it's amazing.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, that's what the United States military does is we can project power at the time and place of our choosing, and that is an important deterrence for those who would want to do things to us, to know that we can strike you at any time and place as we need to, based on the decisions of the president.
This was a long time coming. As I said to the media, this effort began in 2009 with some Goodfellow graduates that started looking at these targets along with some folks from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency that looks at deeply buried underground targets.
And then our job in the United States military is to integrate all of those capabilities to do the target planning through Goodfellow graduates. To build the weapons, to load the weapons, get the aerial refueling tankers in the right place with the crew chiefs and the maintenance people that get those airplanes airborne. To the Navy that's doing the things on the carriers and then bring all of that together in this amazing orchestra at the time and place of our choosing to achieve an outcome that we are charged to go do and, God willing, to bring everybody home.
And that's exactly what this great country does. And there is no other military in the world -- I say that -- I didn't do much other than do my job. It was all those youngsters that were out there putting all this together. But there is no other military in the world that can do that. And you should be incredibly proud of the Joint Force that works for you out there, getting after it every day.
[Applause]
REP PFLUGER: Shifting to China, they compete in every aspect. Every industry that is represented here has to deal with certain things and tactics that they use. We see them trying to buy ranchland and farmland next to military bases, including here in Texas, which the Congress has taken a strong stance on that.
But let's kind of hone in on the military side of it. It appears to us that they are building their arsenal of weapons, that they are improving their weapons systems. Are we competing? And which types of domains are they really making gains in? And peace through strength is so important right now. Are we achieving that?
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Yeah, absolutely we are. Back to the comment that I just made about the greatest military in the world. And so, I don't spend much time staying awake at night thinking about the Chinese military, but I know they spend a lot of time staying awake at night thinking about the United States military.
They are increasing their number of weapons. Our job is to carefully consider what's out there and move from the strength that we have now to the stronger position that the president has directed us to do. And so, we're working on -- and I'll leave here and go up and see that the teammates up in Arkansas who are making Patriot missiles.
And earlier this week, I was up at Lockheed seeing those making the F-35. That's the beauty of America's industrial base is that we make great weapons that can help secure your kids out there on the battlefields of the future. So, we take everybody seriously, not just China and others. And our job is to have options, whether it's China or the Middle East or Russia or you name it, and to have capabilities that will keep us all safe through the Peace Through Strength initiative that the president and secretary are driving for us.
REP PFLUGER: That's awesome. We just passed a reconciliation bill, and we've talked to this crowd about pieces and parts of that. And one of the aspects was $150 billion to the Department of Defense. Think of that as a supplemental, not attached necessarily to the annual appropriations that we do.
Are we doing enough to provide the resources that are needed from the Congress? And which types of programs not specific to the services, but domains that you're looking at should we be focused on in Congress?
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Well, I think first with a lot of gratitude for any capital. Obviously, the president submits a budget and then Congress submits their own and works through it. And we will always spend whatever money you, the taxpayer, give us with a lot of gratitude. So, thank you very much. And thank you for what you're doing.
You know, I think that the space domain, the cyber domain, the air, I mean they're all -- they're all critical. And what we want to be able to do in the Joint Force is nest together from seabed to lunar orbit and everything in between.
What we have to do is nest together the capabilities that the Congress gives us, the capital to go buy products and services and capability in an integrated way to provide those dilemmas. And the reconciliation bill and the president's budget are all great tools to do that. We appreciate all that you all are doing. And yeah, I'm chinking [ph] a little bit.
REP PFLUGER: Well, one of the things we talked about earlier, and my colleague, Congressman Arrington, talked about in that bill and efforts that we've had recently is to help, especially our junior enlisted force, keep up with the rate of inflation, which has been very high lately.
And it's something that we're proud of, but I know that there's a lot of sacrifice and a lot of service that comes out of especially some of those younger service members. And if they have young families and it's hard to keep up, that's where we will count on good advice and telling us the truth.
And I'm looking at the front row here as well, because even though we have made some adjustments on pay, we want to make sure that it is still a volunteer force; that we don't do it for pay. But that it's fair; that it compensates fairly to keep up with families. My question for you is, there's a lot of family members here in this area that support their loved ones, their spouses, their parents that are doing the job of serving in the military. What is your message to the families?
GENERAL DAN CAINE: I mean an incredibly humble thank you. We have -- and the CAC and I talk about this a lot. We have 2.8 million service members but more than that in terms of family members. And having been a dependent kid in the service, I understand it a little bit.
But when your loved one or your son or daughter, husband, wife, sister, brother, cousin, you name it, decides to take that that road less traveled. And you go along on that journey because of the unlimited and unending love that you have for that service member. That's a special gift that that spouse or significant other or family member gives to the United States of America.
And I always end my talks with a thank you. Thank you to those that serve. I told all those awesome people in the hangar yesterday, but to also say thanks to your families. And I really mean it, and CAC really means it. One of our priorities is to take good care of our force and their families. And that's things, congressman, like the pay that you talk about. It's things like making moves easier and benefits better and all of the things that go into selfless sacrifice, not just for the service member but also for their family.
And so, when you mobilize the military, you mobilize families, whether that's the active military or that's the guard or reserves. And so, that's one of the great things about this country is we do care deeply about our military.
And when you look at our system compared to others, it's pretty darn special, especially our enlisted service members. They are the envy of the world's militaries, and you should be so incredibly proud of your military. I know, I sure am.
REP PFLUGER: General, we're getting to the end here. I don't think there's any doubt in this room that our military is in good hands and good leadership with a vision to be able to deter but, if needed, win. I'll give you the floor for anything we haven't covered; one more attempt to talk about the best service of the Joint Force or anything you want to tell us.
GENERAL DAN CAINE: Sir, I just again would say thanks and thanks to all of the leaders here, thanks to all the business community leaders that are here. Thanks to all of you who come to this event to understand what's going on in the Hill and in Washington. The one thing I always chuckle at is I always strive to meet engaged citizens, citizens who are all over it when it comes to the responsibility of being an American. And whenever I come home to Texas, I'm reminded that there ain't no problem with that in Texas.
[Laughter]
Because everybody is an engaged citizen. And just on behalf of all of us in the Joint Force, thank you for all the support that you give, not just Goodfellow, but all the Joint Forces here in Texas and around the world. It's an honor for my team and I to be here. We hope the rest of the summit is awesome. And for those of you that have kids or family members in the service, just know how much we take the stewardship of them very, very seriously. So, thanks for having us, sir.
REP PFLUGER: Let's give General Razin Caine a big round of applause.
[Applause]