North Carolina People; Hugh Shelton, US Army-Retired

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. North Carolina people would always welcome General Hugh Shelton they time we could get it. But this particular evening is a special event. I won't tell you why hold up this book without hesitation. It's an autobiography if I may put it that way but it's a great story about the general's career in those days and speed North Carolina the day he became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Our country needed talk with him about this and other experiences in just the second sponsored in part by a Wells Fargo Company helping North Carolina people realize their financial goals since 879. And through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting you in CTV general

I can't thank you enough law interrupting your very busy life even though you're retired you're about as retired as in a lot of other people I know but that's the story from spede North Carolina to Congressional Gold Medal and knighthood by the Queen of England but never in this text. Did you ever forget home and the people around home and people who gave you the beginning in life but how long to take it put all of us together. First of all thank you for having me it's always wonderful to be here with you. It took about three years from the time we really got really serious about publishing a book. And we through a personal tragedy with one of the one of the authors and so that delayed it a little bit but ultimately we we prevailed and we Carol and I used to joke

sometimes you'd be made to standing in front of a foreign president or a queen or whatever about this is a long way from speed. But we both knew that speed Bush right there with us because that was where who we are and where we came from and where our values came from and so we carried speed with us wherever we went. As I got into the book something became very clear to me. I knew you know Uncle Henry Grey shouted when he was a state senator and he in fact was a great friend and helped me a great deal. And all those budget fights we had over there. So then I understood a lot about Gene would I found that if you have blood kin. Exactly right. The remarkable man he was led on a great uncle when you you did your ROTC training you did you two years and you went back in the textile business and there came that moment when you were talking to Carolyn and you decided that the military was to be your career.

What what was it at that second stage you would be hearing from your old buddies that you just knew you had to be in the military. Well I had been with a great outfit at Fort Benning known as a a love affair assault and we had bonded very tightly because we we were forming a new type of outfit in the army and one that we knew Altman it was going to Vietnam as the 1st Cav Division. And so it was a tremendous experience for the noncommissioned officers the officers that were there. And then after I went to work the text was I was hearing from them and of course they were fighting some pretty tough battles like they are drying Valley and I lost a lot of really good friends during that period of time. And I decided that you know I really enjoyed doing that textile business was great. But my calling was to be an army army officer and go back and leave. But I I can't we don't have enough time to do all I want to do but one of the things that I felt and reading really shape your determination and all of this was Vietnam how you got in

there found what you found. Restructured the whole business. If you were in that vicious combat it must have been a and exceedingly learning experience for a new officer when you get into that and get to the planet as you were as a company commander. It was an eye opening experience to say the least and what I learned out of that was if you want to have a really good army you've got to have really good people. You can't be dealing with drug problems and discipline in your ranks. You've got to recruit and train people and recruit good people and train them well and make a cohesive unit out of them. If you want to have a good unit and I enjoy doing that. But what we found in Vietnam was because of the standards that have a life where a lot Bring that we had set for ourselves the army we were bringing in people that weren't quite up to par in many cases and the whole way the system worked in those days the way they were sent directly into combat and then they

served there for a year and then they went back into another unit. A lot of them got through the net so to speak and stayed in and so it was I have to be it not that those of us that were still on active duty say we've got to clean up this act and we did it through first of all raising the standards. Secondly it was education by establishing a good education system all the way from the private right up through the generals. And you saw to that they stuck to that and that's the important bar point here. We Tod their promotions we tada ability to stay in the service to their to their ability to complete the schooling and at every level I mean you might go to one school is a private but you go to another one as a young sergeant than another one is a mid grade sergeant. And finally as a sergeant major and it was the same thing for the officer corps. Why did you choose to submit yourself to that experience as a ranger in Ranger training that's about the deficit. I've already had to get into that. Well you know I have first of all I greatly admired the noncommissioned

officers and the officers of us all the Ranger qualified that had been in war that very prestigious Golden and black ranger tale. And so I said I want to be like that. I want to be one of them and die. And if I knew what that what was in front of me in order to get that payout but I was determined that I would I would get it and so subjected myself to it. Here they are on a four star general and I have a read about it went through that experience and you did yours in the Florida jungles Was it tough or under any circumstance. I was an instructor there for almost two years turning out new young Rangers and back into the Army both in the enlisted ranks as well as in the officer corps. And you knew when they graduated and you penned that tab on that you were given a very valuable asset to the army and that what you had trained this very select and small group of people and would be proliferating throughout the ranks because others would see it and they want to be like them as well. And so it's self-fulfilling. Did you think that you wanted to join the paratrooper experience because you wouldn't if you

wanted to be a paratrooper. Well I was fortunate when I was in order to see it in sea state to be sent to Fort Bragg for my summer training. Oh and guess who was training us there it was a two second Airborne and every morning we'd wake up to hear that airborne chant going down or demonstrate or in this case through the old division area. And and they were as sharp looking crack troops and I said that's what I want to be like just like them. And so I fought for years to get back to the to get to the second. And it took a while to get there because everybody want to go. But as a good discipline for everybody that had that experience really well we don't have a lot of time left but I want to jump around a little bit. The commanders now and all the combat zones of the world served under you and with you one time. Another commander in Afghanistan General does Yarnell in Iraq in the mail all these men we ceased the military part of

the operation in Iraq have we done all we've got to do there. I think the I think that the question is still open as to whether or not in the long term we will judge Iraq to have been a great success I would say first and foremost the military I think has done a tremendous job at what they were asked to do. Our men and women in uniform deserve our thanks and our praise. And now that the Iraqis are moving to the forefront and it is becoming their their country their war is subspace we are seeing a couple things One is they're being very slow to to organize their government and get things going the way it should. The security forces that will be required for stability both the police and the army are being trained at record levels. But they also have got great problems with it with maintaining the ranks because there they are losing them to desertion and other things almost as fast as they try to. I mean it's not a great

story. We still have people love they have to react in the event that they're there it appears to be instability although we've ceased combat operations we do have some reaction forces we're still providing air strikes for them when they're when they're called for. But I think long term the next two to three years will be critical. And I'd say if you that if you ask me that same question again about three years I'd have a lot clearer answer for what I'm sure you know will be in charge or we will we will not be judging of the success of them we have a lemonade of Saddam which you gave the Iraqi people a new a new chance on life. I guess the lesson we all have to learn is patience but that mind and that way of doing things. Sir without a doubt that when you did working find a change of culture almost It takes time. When I go back to some of the happenings in your career that you generously reveal in you but people always talk about the fact that you are direct candor and have amounted to the episode when

Gen.. I mean Admiral Crowe was Joint Chiefs chairman and that submarine sank off to Florida and you did your duty then in the role you had to call him and tell him he said no that's one of those nuclear submarines and he said No sir it's a diesel submarine he said. John wrote it's a new cliques very early that they can take the evidence in and show him that long before the incident you had the information already before I made that call and I had already pulled out Jane's handbook behind my desk which is kind of an authority on all types of equipment in the armed forces then and I knew it was a deal. But still when he told me it was a new play he knew his navy so well that I got to admit a little bit of perspiration. Now I'll go out on my brow as I told him Oh sir you know it's a diesel. What was your reaction when you were riding back with your commanding officer and he turned to you and he said I really made a mess of that thing and before you could stop yourself he said

You certainly did sir. That must have been a moment to remember. So it really was like you know I was away at the time I was a young Brigadier and I was on my way. I rode over with Secretary of Defense Corps Carlucci to the White House and that's when he said he had the day before he had made a decision not to sing one of the Iranian ships. And when he said and I showed him that we had photography that showed it was back in port now and that's when he said that but after I told him that he that I thought I agreed with him that he had made a mistake but on the way back out I must admit a unit of perspiration was bright in al my brow and I want to know what in the world did you do. Tell him the man he made a mistake of that magnitude but it all worked out he. We laughed about it later and working at that level of government. You tell a story and here that I'm sure is going to be the lead line of every viewer of this book. You were there and as high ranking officer says to you in effect let's send an American pilot

in there he'll get shot down. We'll have the provocation for war. Then we go to war with Iraq. It's saying its ship may sell when I read that was it I couldn't believe somebody at that level of government would ever have such a thought. And you gave the right answer. We'll let you go and send you right over. But it's it's the kind of thing that troubles you when you think that people have thoughts like that. But that was not your experience in this book you use it's always a highly competent well experienced completely dedicated people weren't you. Without a doubt that was an aberration you know what I countered throughout my four years in Washington. But it was one day got my attention and fortunately it was one of my first two or three meetings that I had at the White House maybe the first one. And it was an informal meeting. But still to suggest that I would be that I would be you know I was asked to fly a plane low enough so they could shoot it down as a provocation for war. I

found to be just unbelievable but it served me well because from then all my antennas were up as to who else might have a motives that are not. This is all pure as I may say that's a litmus test of the first order. Yes sir it certainly is. But all through this book it's it's a wonderful story of a wonderful friendship develop between you and President Clinton. You can feel it as you read the warps of the exchanges and I must say as I read it I was moved when I got to that passage in there where you tell the story of the very last time you were chairman. He actually ask you to stand side and go with him. And he wanted to tell you of how much he valued his friendship with you and what you stood for in terms of morality and sprains character. And you had a line in there and tears started coming down his face. He's a very interesting human being and he really yes I think I very

complex individual a brilliant man in terms of his own intellectual capacity and the serval stories in there that I try to show the American people on the other side of President Clinton you know I'm not a Democrat I'm not a Republican I'm independent or not. I like to vote for whoever I think the person is that will do best for our country our state of whatever. But I felt it was important that people see the other side of the president some of the things that go on behind the scenes that show their feelings for men and women that serve in uniform their respect for them if you will their respect and their and their understanding of the sacrifices that they make. And so I tried relay some of that for both presidents both President Bush as well as President Clinton. There's no doubt about it though that over and over again he would he would seek your judgment wholly apart from any other ranking people around him that I thought I was quite a compliment to you

that he trusted you that was a big thing. Well I felt very honored that he would. And also it increased the you know you might say the burden of responsibility hope because you knew that if you had that type of trust and confidence then you'd better get it right. And of course I use my my friends in the joint chiefs to as is the understudies are the people that would give me advice and that I would consult with before going over to the White House to make any recommendation to the president I made sure that all of the other five members of the Joint Chiefs had had input. One of the delightful readings in year about organization skill and style is the way you went about handling Haiti. The structure of the relationship the mobilization of the carriers and all that the planning of the attack that you didn't want to lose a man you knew exactly what you were doing and you know and it came about that way. I know you must feel a great sense of compassion for those people of the great earthquake Cayman.

Now last week or so this gigantic storm that took all those tents away these people suffered a lot haven't they been through a tremendous amount. They really half and I was just in Washington yesterday talking to some of the nongovernmental organizations that are in Haiti right now and they've got some real challenges still in front of them so you can't help but feel a lot of sorrow for the people of Haiti today. The question is how durable our commitment is going to be what we can stay with it is not on the front page every day and not the lead story at night and you know that's kind of a we've got our great government best in the world but we are kind of we get tunnel vision sometimes just whatever's on the front page of The New York Times or The Washington Post that worked and occupy our attention in Washington. We have trouble dealing in a multifaceted manner if you will on handling all these problems simultaneously and making sure that some of them don't drop off the yacht. Off the front you know office

the plan of action. It's almost the same thing that happened to us with Afghanistan after we invaded Iraq. We kind of put it on the back page and forgot about it for a few years until suddenly we sent Stan McChrystal back in and he said I need 40000 more troops or we're going to lose this country and that's what it brought it back to the front page instead of the second page. So the commanding general there now you was under you in the command structure one time as you look at Afghanistan what do you see the day how do you feel about it. I you look at Afghanistan it to be very candid with mixed emotions because we're dealing with a country that basically has a 14th century culture that has its second most corrupt nation in the world. It has a a system that is that is governed by warlords there are 12 of them all together and although Karzai's the president the warlords have the control.

We found a country where the sense we went in there the the the heroin production has gone from 12 percent of the world's supply at over 90 percent of the world's supply. And so now and we lost the initiative so now we've got day to train us in their first Stan McChrystal on that day to train us trying to regain that initiative from a war fightings and to provide enough of a secure environment that that government can function the way it'll have to function for it to be a success. We can do it and we've got the right leadership in there to do it. But I'm not sure we can do it if we're going to plan right now to start pulling out troops in 2012. First of all that sends out a very clear signal that they can kind of lay low for a little while and will soon be gone. But I have real concerns about our ability to complete the plan if we're going to start coming out in 2012. Well it's a it's something that's going to occupy us and has now for a decade it will and it means that if it is don't

feel comfortable right now I guess I don't know where my country is going as I have. And you you've got to have a greater stability in the policy. If we do it thing like that not a lot of hate about surrounds what has a leadership problem going to the NC State it's going to ref a QB all it's the scholarship program where you have 10 national scholarships per year there are big scholarships they provide opportunities for the students even to travel abroad during the summer. The institute sorry you and I would call on his summer camps. We were up to that to all five this past year that were done right here we've got good ones going on and a hotmail Hi-Lo as well so it really has taken off and the we're trying to expand that even as we speak. But we're reaching in each one of those anywhere between 70 and 100 young people and we get good quality people coming in. But you can feel the difference in them when they leave after one week and on

having parents come to me and say it's changed my young person's life and that makes it all worthwhile. We'll soon have the first Friday in November we have all of our annual leadership forum there that NC State in my chem and center and in the past as it has been a capacity crowd we're expecting the same thing this year. But we we cover everything from the academic side all the way up to the corporate world and military educational exciting or wonderful. So it's going well. I want to say this about this book and I want to I want to tell you how I reacted when it was all over. It's a marvelous story about the relationship of good health and great mental acuity. Mind and body relationship the first part of that story second is that hard work never hurt anybody. Physical work mental work whatever for long as you keep a sense of perspective.

What impresses you so in here is like in every one of these episodes whether it was dealing with the secretary of defense or dealing with a young lieutenant making to you you made it yourself. You made it your mission to know more and be better prepared to be ready to answer. Even though it might not be necessary you had that kind of drive to go ahead and really really be prepared. The fourth phase of it is that two men in the military history of this country I think about whom this can be said. You were the soldiers general. The men looked up to you. They had confidence in you. And Omar Bradley was that kind in my generation. And that's that's quite a thing to say you know. And finally I got the feeling after I read it that underlying everything you did was you a biting face in this country

and its people and you have written your own personal religious faith that deep in your heart and in the affair thing was Carol Carol. She was there 24 hours a day. Every time every crisis every promotion every thing it went along. And I know I'm not wrong in that situation. So you don't have to answer. But I wanted you to know that that's what. But what I got out of this book because and I hope that the war colleges and the different steps in these careers of the junior officers will get to read these chapters because there it is as wrong as you can put it. And as real as you could put it and as honestly as you could do it and I'm so glad you took the time to write it. Why is your good lady she is home with her cover buddies this week if a fight spill and thanks for your kind words about the book.

Carolyn is down the number a while this week with her brothers and sit there with her brother and sisters and having a great time. She actually gave me a pass so I could come up for all that today agree with you. Been anyone else I'm not sure she would have. Well that's wonderful you get the impression here that family is terribly important to you Faith Family and friends and you know the one thing that I hope comes out in the book is that I have lots of help the last of them was on the shoulders of giants I mean I know we hear that a lot but I really did talk about the Haiti operation Brigadier General Frank Akers that took the time Colonel Dan McNeill my own four star dam and me oh those are my two main men my chief of staff and my G3 So when the president said turn it around you know let's go from one operation into the next. We never missed a lick and it but it was those two guys that were last and it was it was that way everywhere I had some great people that I worked with. I can I can relate to you because in my family the chickens ran

around in the backyard the same way. And we gathered to exit the same way. But I want to hold this up again because I want everybody of you in this show tonight get a good look at this without hesitation. That was a remark he made in accepting the appointment and to the president. He planning a fall rating no. Go to a bookstore get a copy and enjoy a short course in military history and learn a great deal about a great American. Next week then. Thank you and good night. Sponsored in part by walkover via a Wells Fargo Company helping North Carolina people realize their financial goals. Since 1879 and through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting you in CTV.