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, it was a little bit different for us as far as what happened there. like cal fire wants to, just like we all do, is aggressively attack things. but we have the applicable policies and orders that really regulate us a little bit because it's got to meet certain thresholds and sometimes like in this last one, it was a remote fire, very small, but it didn't meet some of the thresholds initially but we postured and as soon as it crossed the line they were ready to attack it aggressively. those are challenges we have to work with as well but we're ready to provide that immediate response when necessary. >> we talked a little bit so far about training exercises but maybe from the navy perspective, the marine perspective, the national guard, what training exercises are you doing right now to integrate with cal fire or other local governments to make sure that we're ready for this fire season? >> well, as far as i expressed earlier, we have the springtime exercise. that was our fifth annual one. we will obviously continue that through. just like we were speaking about yesterday, maturing the proces
's a technical term and it's used in a lot of different ways, but this is organic sewage sludge. basically what it is is, oh, maybe things that come out of your garbage disposal, things that are fecal in nature. it's sludge left in the water after the primary treatment, then we blend those two over and send them over to digestion. this building is built to replace tanks here that were so odoriferous they would curl your hair. we built this as an interim process. >> is there a coagulant introduced somewhere in the middle of this? . >> this coagulant brings solids together and lets the water run through. that gives us more time in the digestion process, more time to reduce the amount of solids. these are the biggest ones in the world, like we always like to do in san francisco. they are 4 meter, there's none like it in the world. >> really? wow. >> three meters, usually. we got the biggest, if not the best. so here we are. look at that baby hum. river of sludge. >> one of the things is we use bacteria that's common in our own guts to create this reduction. it's like an extra digestion. one of the
command air control. those are operations that are familiar to us and they are, it's a great exercise for us tactically as well. we are able to integrate with cal fire itself with the objective being the fire itself. those work out for us here and we can go ahead and use those skills forward as well. thank you very much, we appreciate the opportunity. >> thank you, i'd like to thank our panelists and open it up to our group for any questions of our panelists today. yes, sir, secretary. >> there are a lot of things you can do in a forest that tend to make it easier it fight a fire like most importantly burning off the fuel during the wet season so there's less for the fire to feed on. to what extent in cal fire and all your other things do you encourage people to do things in their forest when you don't have a fire that make it easier and more effective in fighting the fire? >> it's an excellent question, sir. we spend a large time in cal fire on public education and prevention and also with respect to you were talking about fuel, the fuels program, or vegetation manage
the establishment of the dual status commander helps us pull title 10 and title 32 forces together in a more synchronized dod response. the new attention and focus by dod is only part of the puzzle, though. dod success in helping in response to a disaster will ultimately be determined by civil authorities and their ability to properly plan their initial response and then the means by which dod capabilities are requested and properly employed. we know dod is in support of civil authorities and the real burden to that effective support is going to be sound planning to ensure we're properly directed and we can best benefit or provide benefit to the need of the place where we're supporting. the guidance now being given will drive training and exercises. and recognition of our effectiveness at providing relief for our fellow citizens does require preparation. vice admiral beeman spoke emphatickly of readiness yesterday. readiness is no accident but is a deliberate outcome of focus and hard work. dod is now stepping up to the plate in a very formal and direct way but this will only w
in the event of a complex catastrophe, so that is a little bit different for us. there has been movement within dod and we have grown and matured certainly our presence in the fema regions has expanded, new capabilities have been delivered to the states, and we have developed the much more responsive and functional command structure, i believe, with the dual status commander and that's somebody who can bridge national guard and active or federalized forces as they flow into a disaster response. but more recently the secretary of defense has elevated this and defense support to civil authorities has been dregted -- directed into the departments to start developing plans and policies that will adjust how we respond. so we're seeing a directive that will make things more expensive and specific in defense for civil authorities and this is the most significant move in dsca that i have seen in my career. since late november, 2011, comprehensive planning meetings have taken place to analyze the issues surrounding dsca and have provided a laundry list for recommendations of actions to be taken. the d
be a good idea for us to hear about the operations that the chilean navy had undertaken for helping out their citizens. we have a panel here today, we actually have two panels we're going to roll through. one is stories from the field, if you will, people's experiences in working in international environments to help promote humanitarian missions. fleet week got involved with a humanitarian mission back in october in the earthquake in van, turkey. there's a heavy kurdish in san francisco and the ... better recover from their event and how to better prepare in the future from the katz traufk event that had taken place would not occur. we got a phone call at the fleet week association to ask if we could help bring together some resources and leet a fact-finding mission and we did that. one of our panelists is up here, second from your left, rob dudgeon, he's with the department of emergency management and he's the director of emergency services. rob's organization has been instrumental in creating the program that we have from back in 2010 all the way through to today and i know in th
believe that the u.s. navy is capable of maintaining that unambiguous military strength. as we sit here this morning aboard the uss macon island, in san francisco bay, looking out to the pacific, it is easy to believe that the united states is, in fact, a pacific power and that to keep it that way we will maintain the best damn navy in the world. thank you very much. (applause)speaker .... >> now i'm going to introduce our next speaker, major general melvin spee splt e i've known melvin for a number of years, obviously we served together in the marine corps. i can tell you he's been with fleet week for 3 years now and the one thing about mel, he's got a lot of ideas and he accepts no as an interim answer because a lot of things that he wanted to do to make fleet week better originally the answer from authorities was no. and he made some amazing things happen just through his will. a commander can will things to happen. and i really want to thank you, mel, for that whole peer to peer medical exchange was your idea and it was just a huge hit and i thank you so much for that. he's offe
to keep the ball moving forward. we can't -- i think most of us all here would agree, we really can't prevent the next disaster from happening. but by building the partnerships that we are here today and will continue to build in the future, we can certainly limit the number of deaths and long-term destruction. we can surge a lot of things: resources, people. but we cannot surge trust. so venues such as this is what helps us build that trust so that when the bell does go off we know -- a comment i made yesterday and i'd like to use it again in closing today, the most important thing for me to come out of this two-day seminar and sbat -- into the future is the ability for us to physically face to face look each other in the eye, shake hands and say to each other, we are in this together. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. . (applause). >> thank you, admiral beeman. you have helped me carry out one of the instructions secretary schultz gave to me 3 years ago, bring the fleet back to fleet week. we couldn't do it without you. i thank secretary and mrs. perry for coming, just -- i k