00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome. You are always welcome here on both sides of the aisle, and we are very proud of you, and we are proud of your service and those under your command, your service to our country and to liberty.
00:13I wanted to, all of us come from different parts of the country. The gentleman to my left, Hawaii, so that's Pacific, right? And the gentleman to my right, Texas. Well, I'm Great Lakes, and we each look at the world in a different way based on where we come from.
00:33But I was struck by your testimonies, and I read them all last night, how many of you mentioned, in one way or another, the shortage and need for technicians and those that actually work and create the new technologies of the future.
00:51And General Nordhaus, when we spoke recently, I was struck by something you said related to the Guard base in my region, the 180th Fighter, when you know well. It's because of the maintainers. You said, if I'm quoting you correctly, that the unit scored as high as it did. Is that a correct quote? Am I quoting you correctly on that?
01:16Yes, ma'am. I believe the National Guard has incredible maintainers because of the experience that they have, how they work together as a team. But yes, the 180th Fighter Wing certainly has incredible maintainers.
01:30Well, the reason that I say that is because I'm going to ask each of you, in terms of recruitment as well as the situation our country faces, we can't produce airplanes on time, we can't get our ships built on time.
01:43Each of you faces challenges within the units that you command. What programs do you have or could have that would better work with local assets, be they educational or otherwise, to help us create a stronger stream of people who build and maintain?
02:06There's a program called STARBASE. Some of you may be familiar with. I'm not saying that's a good program that the military has, but it's something that started.
02:17What other programs exist within the military that could be a better funnel to move people into these professions that are so desperately needed, both by the military and the private sector?
02:28We have a serious shortage of technicians and mechanically trained people. We see it in our region every day, even though we try.
02:44Is there anything any of you is aware of within your branch that might be expanded to help in this way?
02:52And I'm talking about younger people, perhaps 13, 12, 13 to 18, that could link to local organizations.
03:05What within the military exists or could be expanded?
03:09Ma'am, if I could, locally near my headquarters in New Orleans.
03:13We have the New Orleans Military Maritime Academy.
03:16It is a 100% Marine Corps JROTC school in New Orleans with over 900 students that bring in and introduce the trades early on to get them interested in that.
03:27Because to your point, ma'am, they make that decision early on in high school, which route they might want to take.
03:32And even though they're not joining, they may not join the Marine Corps, they're interested in the maritime industry and the trades.
03:39Some of them go to the Coast Guard and other services as well.
03:41But that is a program, at least early on, that we've got in the Marine Corps.
03:44Ma'am, what-
03:46Who has the, excuse me, just one second, General.
03:48Who has the lead on that, in that area?
03:51Ma'am, the school is a, it's a privately run school, but the Marine Corps, JROTC, the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, that is a, it is funded by the Marine Corps, by the service.
04:00We provide uniforms, boots, you know, all the basic things for, for the young students there at the school.
04:08Yes, General.
04:08Yes, ma'am, we, we use JROTC as well to navigate into that youth population and familiarize them with opportunities in the United States Army Reserve.
04:17I will tell you, just like in Toledo, though, in the Army Reserve, we have our private-public partnership program, where we reach out into communities, and we try to orient, you know, youth that want to join to opportunities in the Army Reserves, but specifically in the technician area.
04:31We're doing a hiring fair, actually, in Toledo in September, where we'll illustrate, hey, here, here are some of the technician mechanic jobs we need.
04:38We're only funded to 50% of our requirement.
04:40We have a lot of shortages.
04:41You join the Army Reserve, become a great American soldier, we get you trained up.
04:45So we'll continue to drive on that.
04:48We'll follow up on that.
04:50Yes, General.
04:51Junior ROTC, just the same.
04:52That's run by the Active Duty Air Force Air Education and Training Command.
04:56And then it gets down to the individual bases that we're at for community outreach within their, any programs that they have in the local community, ma'am.
05:06Congresswoman McApter, one thing I did in a previous job down at Kona First Air Force was Civil Air Patrol, and so that's another thing that Civil Air Patrol goes across from the Air Force.
05:18And then, as you know, our guardsmen, and from each of the reserve component here, we work out in the community, so I think it's about getting the word out across the board about what we do and how we do it, and then continue to recruit and retain the best and the brightest.
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