operations, and mr. john pendleton, director of defense for structure and readiness issues at the government accountability office. i'd like to take a moment to recognize family members who lost loved ones in the fitzgerald and mccain collisions who are here with us today as our honored guests. from the fitzgerald, eric rooem, the wife of chief petty officer gary reem. steven ritzco and show know douglas parents and brother of petty officer third class shingo douglas. senior chief petty officer victor and carmen shah boy yn -- sa buyian, and they're son luke. parents and growth of petty officer first class carlosvictor sa buy on. wayne and nikki rigsby, father and stepmother of seaman dakota rigsby. darryl martin, chief -- father of petty officer first class xavier martin. and from the mccain, jennifer simon, wife of petty officer first class kevin bushel, and his mother karen bushel, along with her wife anne shane. rachel economiels, mother of metty officer secretary class timothy ekels, teresa and austin palmer, mother and brother of petty office every second class logan palmer.

sailors, including changes to current law. i am deeply concerned by mr. pendleton's written testimony, which indicates 37%, that is over one third, of the training certifications for u.s. navy cruisers and destroyers based in june.were expired as of as he notes, this represents more than a fivefold increase in the percentage of aches fired warfare certifications -- percentage of expired warfare certifications in the last five years. that is the ship's ability to fully be prepared to engage in combat. press reporting paints and even bleaker picture. the mccain had experienced expired training certification in six of the 10 key warfare mission areas. the fitzgerald had expired certification in all 10 mission areas. admiraly spencer and richardson, i don't need to tell you that this is troubling and unacceptable. we acknowledge and appreciate the accountability actions of the navy has taken to date. the navy has relieved to commanding officers, a commander and captain, it has issued reprimands, 20 reprimands to other officers and sailors. since august 23, the strike group and fleet comma

you. mr. pendleton, do you have anything to add? >> not really, sir. that's not something we looked at specifically, the schoolhouse training. what we pointed out with respect to the forward deployed naval forces is that they were just so busy that they didn't have dedicated training time. so most folks arrived. we heard when we went on ships and did focus groups the fact that sailors would arrive green and untrained put a burden on the sailors that were already there and we heard that consistently. >> thank you. admiral moran, i also fear that the current tempo is not sustainable. but that we seek to sustain it to the detriment of training and certification requirements. recent reports indicate a large margin of separation when it comes to training and certifications between u.s.-based cruisers and destroyers versus forward deployed naval forces. so were there any indications or warnings that forward deployed naval forces up tempo was leading to a train on the margins scenario and not meeting qualifications or certification standards for key surface warfare systems? >> sir, it's a

moran, naval operations, rear admiral boxall, and mr. john pendleton, the director of the structural ises on the u.s. account ability office. i would like to know turn to ranking member, congresswoman met them but i'll of lo for any remarks we may have. >> thank you for agring to convene this timely hearing. particularly with regards to the seventh fleet operations ithe indo asian pacific region. chairman whitman and i recently returned from japan, where we visited and met wi vice admiral sawyer and saw the damage to the uss fitzgerald firsthand. thank you to our witnesses for joining us today. admiral moran and boxall, i appreciated our meeting and look forward to the discussion. your work is critical to aiding our oversight mission on this committee. the rent mishaps of the uss fitzgerald and the uss john mccain resultenot on in significant damage to the vesss, but also the tragic, tragic loss of life of 17 american sailo. earlier in the year, we saw two additional mishaps, avoidable as i understand it, also involvg surface ships assigned to th seventh fleet. while investigations i

have with us admiral bill moran, rear admiral robert boxall, and mr. john pendleton, the director of the structure issues of the u.s. accountability office. i will now turn to the congresswoman for any remarks she may have. >> thank you for agreeing to convene this hearing on navy readiness, particularly with the seventh fleet operations in the indo-pacific region. we recently returned from japan, and saw the damage to the uss fitzgerald firsthand. thank you to our witnesses for joining us today. i appreciated our meeting earlier this week, and i look forward to continuing our discussion. mr. pendleton, thank you as well for your time and work on this subject, as it is critical in our mission on this committee. the recent mishaps resulted not only in significant damage to the vessels, but also the tragic, tragic loss of life of 17 american sailors. earlier in the year, we saw two additional mishaps, avoidable, as i understand it, also involving surface ships assign todassigned to the seventh fleet. and investigations are still ongoing, with reviews of surface fleet operations, i'm in

then we'll be conclung. but mr. pendleton, how will you be able to determine when the services are ceving readiness recovery? >> mr. chairman, we -- we're doing a broader body of work, sentially monitoring the recovery efforts. we made a series of recommendations in september of last year. basically saying that the department of defense needed a readiness rebuilding plan that atched the priority it was aiming that it had, that said what the goals were and when hey would be achieved and what it would take in ter omoney and time and that need to be agreement on it from the top. because what we saw when we looked at it in depth was all h rvices were pursuing individual plans izeal but not necessarily being pull together in a department-wide plan. so what we're looking for, is it clear what the goals are d how are we going against those goals? in the case of the hey vinavy, they had a glide path. and our concern was the glide path idn't necessarily constitute exact goals. so he mentioned earlier this is going to knock them off the glide path. so being able to articulate the impacts of

and mr. pendleton, we all appreciate the government accountability office for independent professionalism. particularly important to me personally, i have a son serving in the u.s. navy and your recommendations are so important for the health and safety and protection of the people. additionally, i particularly appreciate that a report was presented as a report to the congressional on june the 14th, which highlighted the issues of readiness just four days before the fitzgerald incident. so your efforts just could not and your organization's efforts could not be more timely and they're greatly appreciated by all of us. provided by the training group and the cruisers and destroyers in japan. and the 15 report from 7% expired to 37% expired in june of this year. again, in the month of the incident. mr. pendleton, can you explain the short trend of the training certifications sent your report or the gao's observations and what's happening with the forward deployed forces. >> we updated the information and preparation for this hearing and not been back out to talk to the fleet

law. i'm concerned with mr. pendleton's written testimony which indicates 37%, over one third, of the training certifications for u.s. navy cruisers and destroyers based in jap japan were expired as of june. this results in a five fold increase in expired warfare certifications for these ships in the last two years. i would point out warfare certifications are a ship's urb ability to fully be prepared to engage in combat. press reporting paints an even bleaker picture. the mccain had experienced expired training certification in six of the ten key area -- key warfare mission areas. the fitzgerald had expired certification in all ten mission areas. secretaries spencer and admiral richa richardson, i don't need to tell you this is troubling and unacceptable. we acknowledge and appreciate t it is unacceptable. and we acknowledge and appreciate the accountability actions the navy has taken to date. the navy has relieved two commanding officers, a commander and a captain, it has issued reprimands -- 20 reprimands to other officers and enlisted sailors since august 23rd, this quadrant t