proud that north carolina is home to the joint special operations medical training senator hat fort bragg and as you know, all special joint operations combat medics are trained at that facility to obtain the skills they need on the battlefield. just several months ago, i had the opportunity to visit this facility and witness the great training that's taking place there. but i understand that combat medics need to have of the capability to perform complicated procedures, often in the dark, in the middle of the night, and under hostile live fire conditions in remote locations. i also understand that the dot seep ups -- dot searches tremendous value in live tissue training, especially since they're tasked with taking young people and training them in to combat medics in 26 weeks. while simulators may have hold promise according to the secretary of defense, simulators currently lack the reamism to replicate combat wounds and the emotional stress found on the battlefield, and also, moreover, all patients don't bleed the same or react to medical procedures in the same fashion. admiral olson, c

you know, aim proud north carolina is part of the training center of fort bragg and as you know, all special joint operations combat are trained to obtain the skills they need on the battlefield. several months ago i had the opportunity to visit this facility and i witnessed the great training that has taken place there. i understand combat medics need to have the capability to perform complicated procedures often in the dark, in the middle of the night and under hostile live fire conditions in remote locations. i also understand that the dod sees tremendous value in live tissue training. especially since they are faced of the task of taking these young men and women with no prior medical schooling and transforming them into combat trauma specialists in 26 weeks. while simulators may hold promise according to the office of the secretary of defense, simulators currently lack the realism and the ability to

bragg. ashville, north carolina, could see two to four inches of snowfall. it is snowing there and has been snowing the last couple of hours as well as spots further south where it's been around 34, 36 degrees. richmond is at 36. raleigh and atlanta, georgia, has been cooling down from out of the mid-30s to the low 30s here the last couple official hours. damascus, it's 34 degrees. here are the neighborhoods that had light snow reported with the rain mixing in. arlington, virginia, at 34 degrees. your wind pretty light, too. up in howard county, 34 degrees. as we cool, about another two degrees or so, we'll see more of that. the mixing with snow showers and then changing over to all snow showers. maybe even sleet by tomorrow morning. meanwhile, for the foothills and for the high spots west, accumulation of snowfall during the overnight period. even for part of the day tomorrow, too. the storm, as i said, is down south. really low pressure just off the coast of georgia right now. it's going to be making its way east and northeastward off the coast as opposed

in october 1866, i broke out as a lecturer, twain bragg and from that day to this i've always been able to get my living without doing any work. two months later he left san francisco for new york city, six years into a trip yet expected to last three months. in many ways, these were the most important years of his life. it come west to samuel clemens out of work mississippi riverboat pilots, army deserter. he was returning east of mark twain renowned journalist travel and stage performer. he later wrote about his western experiences in a book called roughing it, which offered a somewhat sanitized account of his adventures and misadventures in the wild and unruly west. in roughing it as huckleberry finn would say in another book a few years later, mark twain told the truth mainly with some stretchers thrown in for good measure. that ain't no matter says the easy-going hike. i've never seen anybody but lie one time or another. after all, it went with the territory. thank you very much. [applause] >> anybody have any questions? i'll be glad to try to answer them. >> he made up a bunch of

i am proud that the medical operations center is located in fort bragg. as you know, special operations combat medics are trained here to obtain the skills they need on the battlefield. several months ago i had the opportunity to visit the facility. i witnessed the great training taking place. i understand that combat medics me the opportunity to perform combat procedures in the dark in the middle of the night, under tossed out conditions. i also understand that the department of defense sees tremendous value in this training, especially when faced with the task of taking these young men and women, transforming them into combat trauma specialist in 26 weeks. while simulators' might hold promise according to the office of the secretary of defense, they lack the realism and ability to regulate -- replicate combat wounds and emotional stress that you find on the battlefield. many patients do not believe the same or react to procedures in the same fashion. can you describe the operational and institutional impact that would be seen if live tissue training was

. >> you know, in that area around fort bragg area, the unc system has 16 public universities with fayetteville state, nc state, chapel hill all within a very close and then we have some excellent private universities, too, such as duke university and wake forest that does excellent work, too. so i think this mou will go a long way to helping from an educational needs especially for our men and women in the special operations in these special forces. i also wanted to talk about the iranian influence in iraq. despite the fact that the iraqis are increasingly expressing their discontent with iranian influence in iraq, we need to keep in mind that iraq has -- that iran has people in iraq that it uses to drive a wedge between the sunnis and the shiites in iraq. and these actions ignite the ethnosectarian tensions. these iranian actions undermine iraqi security in the delicate political situation. how do you foresee dod using its future relationship with the iraqi security forces to steer iraq's defense strategy and acquisition of weapon systems in order to avoid iranian meddling that could jeopardi