NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Frank Rose's remarks to the Office of Secure Transportation’s Nuclear Materials Courier Basic program

Thank you to everyone from the Office of Secure Transportation, its Training Command, and everyone here at Fort Chaffee for their hospitality. I have had a great visit here over the past 24 hours, from yesterday’s live fire demonstration to getting to meet a group of OST supervisors earlier this morning. Unfortunately, we did not have time yesterday to see where Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army and received his first military haircut, but I was able to meet and talk informally with Nuclear Materials Courier Basic Class 13-23. It would be an understatement to say they are an impressive group of men, and I’m extremely pleased to be able to celebrate your graduation with you today.

For those of you who don’t know me well, I’m a bit of a military history aficionado, so being here today at Fort Chaffee has extra resonance for me. For those not familiar with this post’s history, it was named after Major Gen. Adna R. Chaffee Jr., who I would argue was one of the most important American generals in World War II. This may sound surprising to some, as Gen. Chaffee actually never set foot in either the European or Pacific theaters, tragically dying of cancer in August 1941 just months before the United States was drawn into the conflict by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

But Chaffee had a larger impact, perhaps, than most commanders who led a division or corps into combat. In the 1920s, while assigned as an instructor at the General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, he began advocating for the future of mechanized warfare when most of his fellow cavalry officers were still obsessed with playing polo and arguing that the tanks were just a passing fad compared to horses. Over the next decade-and-a-half, at significant risk to his career, he continued to publish articles pushing for the Army’s mechanization, and as Executive Officer of the 1st Cavalry Division experimented with armored forces. When the rest of the Army finally saw the light after tanks trounced the horse cavalry in wargames in 1939 and 1940 – at the same time that German forces were launching the blitzkrieg across Europe – Chaffee was made the first Commander of the Armored Force and given responsibility for integrating all branches of the Army into mechanized warfare. Thus, Chaffee was responsible for the doctrine and development of the armored forces that proved critical to the Allied victory in World War II even if he did not live to see that triumph.

Beyond the coincidence of where we are holding this morning’s ceremony, I think Chaffee’s example is relevant to today’s celebration.

First, as was the case in the 1920s and 1930s when Chaffee developed his innovative ideas, today the United States is facing an increasingly complex and challenging international security environment. As the U.S. Director for National Intelligences' recent Annual Threat Assessment concluded:

During the coming year, the United States and its allies will confront a complex and pivotal international security environment dominated by two critical strategic challenges that intersect with each other and existing trends to intensify their national security implications.

First, great powers, rising regional powers, as well as an evolving array of non-state actors, will vie for dominance in the global order, as well as compete to set the emerging conditions and the rules that will shape that order for decades to come. Strategic competition between the United States and its allies, China, and Russia over what kind of world will emerge makes the next few years critical to determining who and what will shape the narrative perhaps most immediately in the context of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, which threaten to escalate into a broader conflict between Russia and the West.

Second, shared global challenges, including climate change, and human and health security, are converging as the planet emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and confronts economic issues spurred by both energy and food insecurity.

Rapidly emerging or evolving technologies continue to have the potential to disrupt traditional business and society with both positive and negative outcomes, while creating unprecedented vulnerabilities…making it increasingly challenging to predict the impact of such challenges on the global landscape”

This is the broader strategic environment under which the National Nuclear Security Administration operates, and in the face of these challenges the Biden administration remains committed to “ensuring our strategic deterrent remains safe, secure, and effective, and that our extended deterrence commitments to our allies remain strong and credible.” This commitment is reflected in President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request, which fully supports modernization of America’s nuclear triad, modernization of the nuclear security infrastructure, and investment in our nuclear command, control, and communications architecture to ensure a reliable nuclear deterrent. NNSA’s FY 2024 Budget Request of $23.8 billion reflects support for each of our three enduring missions:

1. Ensuring the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile;
2. Reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism around the world; and
3. Providing military effective nuclear propulsion for the U.S. Navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers and submarines.

But the simple fact is that no matter how much money is appropriated in the topline budget, NNSA cannot be successful in any of these missions without the ability to safely transport materials between our laboratories, plants, and sites, wherever they are needed. And this is where you come in.

Just as Gen. Chaffee shunned publicity and concentrated on performing his duty to the highest standards possible, OST manages to stay out of the headlines because you are accomplishing your mission. In its decades of operations, the OST has quietly achieved a remarkable 100 percent success rate with no compromise of nuclear materials. Achieving this enviable track record takes commitment and professionalism, not just from the roughly 300 Federal Agents who are continually separated from their loved ones while on the road, but also the 250-plus supporting staff in diverse roles such as aircraft and vehicle maintenance, armorers, administrative support, and much more.

It would be an understatement to say that NNSA’s leadership respects and values what the Office of Security Transportation does and the capabilities you provide. Equally important, we respect the values and standards OST holds itself to as embodied in the OST Employee Code of Conduct. I encourage all of today’s graduates to read this code and embrace its directives. The high standards the Code establishes are what you’ll be measured against as you train and conduct missions, and I think it is safe to say that OST’s mission success is in no small part a result of these expectations for ethical conduct and professional responsibility

To some, the values of honor, duty, and courage may seem like an anachronism, and a perfect record of mission accomplishment an intimidatingly difficult standard to live up to. But having spoken to the members of Class 13-23 yesterday, I’m confident that are up to this task. Prior to joining OST, nine of today’s graduates served in the United States Marines Corps, four in the U.S. Army, three in the U.S. Air Force, and five previously served in Law Enforcement. In other words, you have already proven yourselves physically and psychologically fit, and capable of high performance before even being accepted as agent candidates.

Since arriving here at Fort Chaffee 18 weeks ago, each day you’ve endured 8-to-10 hours of rigorous physical and weapons training, training in law enforcement control tactics and simulated urban combat situations, drinking through a firehose to learn how to operate the ARES radios, and tactical driving of tractor trailers that make SUVs seem like go-carts. In fact, I understand you did a great job staying off curbs and avoiding flat tires ... although muddy parking lots proved a bit treacherous.

Having proven yourselves through this grueling course, you will now transition to your assigned duty stations in one of OST’s Agent Operations Commands in Albuquerque, Amarillo, or Oak Ridge. Although each newly assigned Federal Agent must still complete a six-month on-the-job training program at your duty station, you are already capable of conducting over-the-road operations with their designated units. You will not only be joining the ranks of current Federal Agents, you will also have the eyes of the broader fraternity of retired agents watching – expectantly and supportively – for you to maintain OST’s standards of performance.

In the end, the effectiveness and credibility of our nuclear deterrent, nuclear security, and counterthreat missions are directly supported by our scientific, engineering, and technological capabilities, or more precisely, by the work performed every day by the 50,000 scientists, engineers, chemists, managers, technicians, and support staff that comprise the Nuclear Security Enterprise’s workforce. Not only it is vital that we work to develop the next generation of nuclear strategists, arms control experts, and scientists and engineers, it is critical that we develop the next generation of federal agents possessing both the unique skillset and the unique expertise to safely transport nuclear materials.

Everything that I’ve seen, and everyone I’ve met over the past day here at Fort Chaffee gives me confidence that OST Training Command is succeeding at this task, and that Class 13-23 will help to maintain OST’s perfect record for decades to come.

Class 13-23, thank you for your dedication and commitment to our nation’s security, and for your willingness to serve so far outside the glare of the public spotlight. The American people may never fully appreciate everything you do, but the Department of Energy and NNSA’s leadership certainly does.

Finally, I would also like to give a special thanks to your family and loved ones, whether at home or here with us this morning. Through the sacrifices you make to help these Federal Agent candidates successful – both in this course and in the future in their daily mission – you are also serving your country. Our nuclear deterrent, our national security, would not be possible without your support.

Thank you all. Travel safely to your next duty station, and on behalf of everyone in DOE/NNSA leadership, I wish you good fortune in your training and missions.