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Media Availability with Secretary Carter at Fort Drum, New York

STAFF: So, we have about 15 minutes with the secretary of defense, and without further ado, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ASHTON CARTER: Am I allowed to drink this one?

STAFF: Absolutely.

SEC. CARTER: Or is this someone else's?

STAFF: Please go right ahead.

SEC. CARTER: Thanks. Okay.

STAFF: Lita, do you want to start?

Q: Sure. Mr. Secretary, you're probably aware about some back and forth over Iranian claims that the U.S. has possibly killed two Iranians in airstrikes around Tikrit. The CENTCOM obviously has said that didn't happen, because the strikes hadn't started yet, but I'm wondering if this raises concerns in your mind about the potential conflicts that could occur in and around Tikrit as time goes on, and do you believe that conditions like General Austin talked about the other day, that the Shiite, the Iranian-backed Shiite militias must pull back and stay back from the city? Do you see that as a condition for U.S. military action in other locations around Iraq?

SEC. CARTER: There -- we're -- on your first point Lita, we are very careful about where we drop ordinance to make sure that those are ISIL positions and ISIL fighters. That is why all of those operations are commanded and controlled out of the operation center that we and the Iraqi government jointly man, because it's important to us that the targets be targets that are ISIL targets.

And so that's how we guarantee that the targets that we choose are deliberate ones. I'm sorry, the second part was?

Q: Seeing that this occurred, this sort of controversy of whether or not Iranian --

SEC. CARTER: I see, about -- yeah.

Q: What is that saying?

SEC. CARTER: Well, I think the critical feature to us is that the operation on the ground be under the command and control of the government of Iraq, and that's important because our whole strategy is to enable a multi-sectarian government of Iraq to make sure that when ISIL is defeated in Iraq, that it stays defeated. And the only way to do that is to make sure that to the best of our ability to do this, that the government of Iraq is in charge of security operations, in charge of the security forces there.

So that -- and that is one of the things that we were wanting to ensure before we conducted airstrikes in the area of Tikrit, and we understand that the forces that are around the city of Tikrit are of several different types, but the ones that we are supporting are those that are in the command and control of the government of Iraq.

Q: You expect that to continue as the U.S. moves operations?

SEC. CARTER: Well, that's certainly what we'd want to have continue because it's related to -- as I said, to our entire strategy there.

Q: Over the weekend, the group of Arab states got together and decided they're going to create a multi-national force to deal with some of the insecurity in the region. Was the U.S. aware of that? Was the Pentagon aware that that was going to happen? Does it view it as a force for stability or potential instability? Will the U.S. cooperate?

SEC. CARTER: Well, they announced -- they announced that the meeting was going to take -- going to take place, and I think that you know when I was in Kuwait, when I very first became secretary, and wanted to get our diplomats as well as our military leaders together, one of the points they were all making was that within the coalition, we needed to get the regional members of the coalition to do more and to help them do more. So, I think if they're willing to do more, especially in this case, with respect to Yemen, that that's a good thing, because it ultimately it is their region. We protect our interests there. But it's their region. And I think the willingness of the parties there to step up and do more for stability in the Middle East is a good thing.

Q: Do you see the U.S. military cooperating with that or providing --

SEC. CARTER: We cooperate with the Saudis, for example, all the time. Likewise with Bahrain. All of those are security partners of ours. So yes.

Q: Mr. Secretary, since you took office and you've spoken a number of times about being -- having a more open military in terms of gender, sexual orientation, and including earlier today, but as you know, one group that's currently banned from serving is the transgender community. So, I was wondering if you intend to specifically order a review of that issue to see whether that ban should be lifted, and if not, why not?

SEC. CARTER: I'm going to -- I, in that matter and in -- in every other matter affecting our people, I start with the principle that what -- that those who can contribute to our mission should be allowed to serve. And that's the principle from which I begin with respect to this particular matter and every other matter. Whether you can contribute to the accomplishment of our mission. That's the important thing.

Q: But do you intend to order a review of the issue?

SEC. CARTER: It is being reviewed. It is. That particular matter is being reviewed.

There's a bigger point, I think, which is that the -- the principle behind what we do should be who can contribute to the accomplishment of our mission. That's the principle from which I'll start.

Q: So you ordered a -- just to be clear, you ordered a review of this issue?

SEC. CARTER: There is a review going on, which I strongly support.

Q: OK.

Q: Mr. Secretary, I'd like to ask you about personnel costs. You know, for some years now, top Pentagon officials have raised concern about the rise in personnel costs. But today, you were expressing some concern about potential retention in the future, and you also talked about possibly supporting a retirement benefit for service members that serve less than 20 years, which would be potentially very costly.

When you look to the force of the future, do you see personnel costs? Maybe specifically per troop personnel costs continuing to rise?

SEC. CARTER: Well, one of the things that has caused us to look, and most recently this commission that has looked at compensation matters, is that we need to have balance in our budget. We have to have balance between -- in -- in personnel costs between those who have served in the past, those who are serving now, and those who will come in the future. And as I was saying earlier today, we have to have balance in the overall budget between how we compensate the individual and whether there are enough of those individuals to be the fighting force that we need, and whether we're equipping them in the best possible way and whether we're training so that they can be both successful and safe.

And at a budget of a fixed size, we have to have balance, both generationally, and among the different elements of -- of the budget, of which compensation is one.

Q: Mr. Secretary, I know you've been traveling all day, but have you gotten any updates on the possible motivations of the two gentlemen who apparently were dressed like women, who attacked Fort Meade?

SEC. CARTER: I don't know, and I think it's one of these things where we need to wait and see what the investigators find out. Obviously force protection is a very, very big issue for me, and for all our installations, and so whatever happened here, this kind of thing is a concern to us. And I don't know, and I'm not sure anyone knows at this hour everything that went into that particular incident, but certainly I'm concerned about it.

And here, as always when it comes to force protection, at home and abroad.

Q: Are you satisfied with the response?

SEC. CARTER: It seemed to me that to the extent I know what was done, it seemed appropriate to me. But again, this is the kind of situation that's fast unfolding. You have to wait and see everything that happened. But certainly, I'm concerned for the safety of our people.

Q: Sir, may I ask you something you raised this morning in talking to the young folks about whether you're -- you said, "woman, gay, lesbian, or straight, no matter who you are, you should be able to serve." And you mentioned that in response to John's question.

Do you think that there is a need to reach out to those communities on the part of DOD, gay, lesbian, straight, in a way that makes them feel like they are more included? Do you need to advertise to them to bring them in?

SEC. CARTER: Tom, I think there -- I'm going to answer your question in a very general way. I think we need to reach out to everybody who can contribute to our mission. That's my -- one of my points of -- of trying to emphasize in this day and a half, the people dimension to our force. And so I was talking about the different ways people think about their careers, different kinds of sub-specialties, like cyber, the question of the very young and whether they'll come to join us, and the question of whether those who are further along in their career will choose to stay with us or retire and go off and do something else.

We have the greatest force in the world today. And I just said that, and I very much believe it, but that's not a birthright. It's something we need to work at year after year after year.

And I think to do that, we need to constantly be reaching out to our society, explaining what the military is. It's not the case that everybody has a parent who served any longer, as was the case in my generation in World War II, for example, and so we're not a known quantity in the way that was true generations ago, and we need to constantly reach out and explain ourselves and welcome people into the military if we're going to have the very, very best people in the next generation.

So, that's something I'm really, as you can tell from the way I'm talking in this trip today, very committed to doing. And I talk about change. The only way to -- to be competitive, as an institution in today's world, is to constantly be changing, and the only way to change is to be open. And so we need to be open to the trends in our society and in industry and technology and I'm trying to make sure that -- that the Pentagon is that kind of open institution.

STAFF: There's one more.

Q: No, I guess I just -- I'm going to quick follow up on David's question about the Arab League. Do you see the U.S. participating more broadly or more deeply in either the operations in Yemen militarily, and in the other operations that they get involved in? How -- what do you see the U.S. role in this, their agreement?

SEC. CARTER: Well, I mean, our -- we -- these are partners and security allies of ours, and when they're acting in a way that we regard as in our interest as well as theirs, we'll continue to partner with them, as we -- we have in other -- other matters. And it's a -- enough said.

Q: Anything more in go in Yemen? Do you see the U.S. expanding its activities in Yemen?

SEC. CARTER: Well we -- we're certainly supportive of -- we've been supportive of the Saudi efforts. We're very supportive of any danger to Saudi territory. We've made that very clear. Where the political situation goes in Yemen, we just have to see how -- see how it goes.

STAFF: All right. Thanks very much guys, appreciate it.