WASHINGTON – Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, on Thursday pressed Garry Reid, deputy assistant secretary of defense, to outline the lessons the Department of Defense learned from last year’s Benghazi attack and asked how they would handle a similar attack differently today.

Partial transcript as follows:

ROBY: Assuming the changes you’ve outlined had been in place on September 1 or even September 10 of 2012, would the U.S. preparation for and the response to the Benghazi attack differ?

REID: Yes. The capabilities in place now and in place on the alert status that we had then – last week – modulated to the very highest level would significantly have increased and improved our response capability. Yes.

ROBY: And building on that, would a different and more robust mix of forces been available to the Department of Defense once the attack commenced?

REID: Again, Yes. And we can talk the details and layout which types of forces would be arrayed to address that question.

Roby’s subcommittee query came on the same day of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about the Benghazi terrorist attacks. The hearing made news as a handful of Democrats on that committee staged a walkout prior to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the parents of Sean Smith and Charles Woods, both of which were killed, along with then-U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack.

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