The same is true when a forest is on fire. All the Federal firefighters that fly in can't talk to the State firefighters because they are on different frequencies. How do we fix-what is it-I think only Congress can fix this. What should we do to fix it? Or will it fix itself, or can you guys fix it without us? And I'm looking at you, Secretary McHale, but I will ask you all, from you, General, to all three of you. How do we fix the problem? There can't be a bigger-I mean, when we were looking for a sniper in America, or snipers, we didn't know if these were foreign terrorists or locals. And look at the problems there were with all of those law enforcement agencies and all the different jurisdictions and States over who was boss. And the fact that they get together to collocate, coordinate, and communicate is not really the way to run a crisis. Mr. MCHALE. Sir, I think when you were in the Marine Corps, and I know when I was in the Marine Corps Mr. JANKLOW. It was so long ago. Mr. MCHALE. Within the dim recesses of our memory. Mr. SHAYS. A little bonding going on here? Mr. MCHALE. A little bit. Semper fi. You train as you are going to fight, and I believe that we have to make the training for homeland defense missions as close to operational reality, as intense, as demanding, as difficult as we can make it in a training environment. That's Mr. JANKLOW. And you're great at that. I mean, when Payne Stewart's airplane took off from Florida it crashed in my State. We knew real-time all the time from the FAA, from the Defense Department, from the Air Traffic Control, all of them were in sync on it literally as it followed it through the sky. The Kentucky National Guard, the Iowa National Guard, the North Dakota National Guard, the Air Force were all with that airplane all the time trying to determine where it was going to come down. And, that's great. But what I'm talking about is the communication side. How do we fix the ability to grab a radio and talk to each other? General ANDERSON. Sir, if I could. I mean, if you look at the military and where we are today, and you alluded to what it was in Grenada and now what it is today, and we look to see how was it that we were able to achieve that, it was through standards. It was interoperability standards. We didn't go out and buy everybody the same radio. We took the radios that existed and made sure that they were compatible and as technologically available to be done. And I think you will find in the panel that's after this one General Reimer will talk to you about that. Mr. JANKLOW. General, should we mandate that by law? Mr. JANKLOW. Will that fix the problem? General ANDERSON. It may, but it will take time. We're going to have to be patient. And it will take money. Mr. MCHALE. And I would encourage you-4 or 5 years ago I would have been as deeply concerned as you are. I just met recently with the Virginia CST, their Civil Support Team, Title 32 status National Guard, and I peppered them with the same questions that you're presenting to us. Technology now does empower interoperability of communications. And I said to the CST, look, when you roll in on a site, and the police and the firefighters and EMTS and the paramedics and the HAZMAT folks are already there, are you going to be able to talk to them? And as best they could explain it to a government major, they took me into their comm center, and they showed me how they would be able to communicate with all of those diverse entities that 5 years ago I would have been very doubtful that they would be able to do that. Mr. JANKLOW. And if they didn't have a comm center, they couldn't do it? Mr. MCHALE. Yes, sir. That's correct. Mr. TURNER. Thank you. For closing comments, we will turn to our ranking member, Mr. Ruppersberger, and Chairman Shays. We'll start with Mr. Ruppersberger. Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Just I would like to introduce for the record a written statement. I'm not going to read it. Mr. TURNER. We'll make certain that it's part of the record. [The prepared statement of Hon. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger follows:] Statement of Congressman C.A. Dutch National Security Subcommittee Hearing on Homeland Defense: Old Force Structures for New Missions April 29, 2003 1:00PM 2247 RHOB Mr. Chairman, thank you for taking the time to call this hearing on Homeland Security and the role DOD personnel play in securing our borders and protecting our citizens from terrorist threats. As the war begins to enter the latter stages, we have to be more vigilant of our domestic security. Protecting our hometown security is more important than ever. Hometown security involves everyone, the local elected officials, our police and firefighters, and our military. Since 9-11 we have seen air patrols of our cities, we have seen national guardsmen patrolling our airports and securing our critical infrastructures. The military has stepped up their efforts and we need to applaud all of our service men and women. The question before us today is about the role of Department of Defense personnel are assigned during times of threat to our homeland. We are also here to discuss the affect of this constant state of alert on the readiness of our forces in terms of an international threat. I am also interested in hearing more about the communications between the various levels of government. Specifically, I would like to know if there is communication between North COM and local governments, or how the intelligence community and North COM are interacting. We have to remember that homeland security is not controlled by one entity. It is a balancing act between various entities and coordination is the key to this success. We have to remember that North COM's area of responsibility includes the continental United States. We have to make sure that their mission is not compromised or that their personnel are not stretched too thin. We have to remember that fulfilling missions should not degrade current capabilities. The question is how do we do this? Do we look to an increase in military personnel? Does the Reserves mission drastically alter and shift to homeland security and what affect will that have on their support function in major theaters of war? Operation Iraqi Freedom may be able to shed light on how we did and where our weaknesses and strengths lie. |