During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) questioned General Bryan P. Fenton, Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, about preserving forces while in service.
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00:00Coming this morning, and for everybody here in uniform and veterans, thank you for your service.
00:04General, preservation of the force is one of the things that I really focus in on as a member of Congress.
00:11And it's not, you kind of roll the tape back.
00:17It's not something necessarily we, the shooters, necessarily concentrate on.
00:22I think it's more of the force that needs to apply that, kind of those spaces to the special operations community.
00:32And we have subject matter experts in the special forces community.
00:37We have dieticians, nutritionists.
00:38We have exercise scientists.
00:39We have a myriad of professionals that outline everything for our operators.
00:45But yet, when this information is provided to those operators, they have to go out and buy those supplements and those nutrients and everything for that sustainment and that sustainment process with their own money.
01:00And I wholeheartedly now disagree with that.
01:02I think that that should be something that is provided by the community.
01:07I'd like to get your thoughts on that and see, you know, and get your stance.
01:12Because it's downstream that I'm also worried about.
01:14Once the operators, they exit the military and they start the next chapter in their life.
01:18We want to make sure that they have the ability to move forward and they don't end up bald, broken, with beards and...
01:25Just say my name.
01:27I had to...
01:28Sir, I can't look in that direction.
01:30I don't want to look in that direction.
01:31Yeah, okay.
01:32But you know where I'm kind of going.
01:34Yes, sir.
01:35Sir, thank you.
01:38I'll start with, I do want to thank this Congress and many who came before, those who come after.
01:44For the POTIF program.
01:46That's huge.
01:48Inside of an organization that says people are our number one priority because they are competitive and comparative advantage.
01:54And in plain language, they're the weapon system.
01:57And I think when you think about it that way, we look at it through the lens of human performance.
02:01Vice maybe what standards would be elsewhere for just wellness.
02:05And I think when we go to human performance, you, your alumni representative of what we do, it's a science-based approach to how we work out, which is very different than maybe 20, 30 years ago.
02:18Nutrition, absolutely, as you said, we know that's a key part.
02:22Sleep, it's everything.
02:23And we're blessed that that's part of our ecosystem.
02:26I think on the nutrition side, we do have the greatest nutritionists, dieticians.
02:31They come from the sports, the high-end athletic community, and they're taking it like tactical athletes that we are.
02:37I think in that point, they talk to us quite a bit about upping our game through either third-party certified supplements in a way that they can account for.
02:46We absolutely want to protect our force, put anything in the force that is at long-term endangerment.
02:52But these are assessed and checked.
02:54I think supplements, third-party certified, and sports foods, things that help continue to up the performance, unlike what maybe our adversaries are doing when they're experimenting on each other
03:06and doing things that we absolutely would not do to any of our teammates.
03:10So I absolutely think that's something we need to consider and we'll certainly look for your support on that.
03:16And so, Mr. Jenkins, when you're chatting with the Secretary of Defense, if you would be so kind to bring this point to him that, hey, this –
03:27and he knows this.
03:27I've had this conversation with him.
03:28But I want this to resonate not only from the committee but to the leadership and the DOD that this is an area that needs to be filled.
03:36This is a gap that we shouldn't have any longer.
03:41You bet.
03:42And as you know, our SECDF, our service members are his first priority.
03:46You see him doing PT with them.
03:48At every turn, he's engaging.
03:50So definitely that would be top of mind.
03:52Okay.
03:53When it comes to preventive maintenance, and I like to focus in on traumatic brain injury,
03:56and I want to make sure that the forces are – you know, we're gifted, we're innovative, creative thinkers, and we adapt very well.
04:08I want to make sure that we're concentrating on things that we can carry with us on the battlefield for preventive maintenance,
04:13but post-blast, medical procedures, whether or not we're talking about blast packs, or – I don't want that to kind of take – get back on its heels and stall out any.
04:24So I know that you and I have had this conversation quite a bit, but I just – I need you to hear me say this, and I like – you can respond to that if you like.
04:33I want to give you a commitment right back.
04:35I appreciate you saying I want to double down.
04:38I would just pull a thread from the last conversation.
04:40I think some of these third-party supplements, and I probably don't know them by name, also have efficacy against TBI and other things that our nutritionists have looked at.
04:53So I think there's a thread to be pulled in there.
04:55I double down them on my commitment to you, we will not back up on either the TBI side, which we – when we talk about it as acute brain injury, or even the repeat exposure to blast,
05:05which is a chronic piece that I hope many of you got to see me talk about on – on 60 Minutes and reinforce SOCOM's commitment to that.
05:13So you have my commitment to both of those, Representative.
05:15Thank you, sir.
05:16Yes, sir.
05:16I'll go back.
05:18Thank you, Mr. Jacobs.
05:19You're recognized for five minutes.