 Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the arrival of the official party and the playing of ruffles and flourishes. Please remain standing for the presentation of the colors and the singing of the National Anthem of the United States of America by technical sergeant Ainsley Dewitt. Oh, say can you see those early lights? What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Who's broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight? O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? To honor guard, spirit of freedom, and sergeant Dewitt. Chaplain Luzeria Nwaga will now deliver the invocation. Please pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your presence at this Assumption of Command of the 88 Airbus Wing by Colonel Dustin Richards. As Colonel Richards assumes command of the 88 Airbus Wing today, Lord, I humbly ask your blessings upon him. Give him the strength and the courage that he will need to deal with the challenges that he will face in his task to which you have called him to. May you remain with him and his family as he prepares to lead this great Airbus Wing to new heights of excellence. Bless him with every grace of leadership. Strength that he will need. Watch over him and his family with your blessings and sound wisdom and judgment through the challenges that lies ahead of him, but family and professionally. As for his soon to be a leadership team, grant him success in every good endeavor so that through their collaborative work and decisions, the mission of the 88 Airbus Wing will be accomplished with great satisfaction. Please give Colonel Richards the strength to be a man of integrity, especially to have the compassion that will never him to be a leader in a way that is redemptive and caring. As he cares for his airmen and the mission of this Wing, may he always remember the words of President Reagan that says the greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things, but the one that guides his people to do the greatest things. And finally, Lord, inspire us all to do our best each day to support him and his leadership team with energy, enthusiasm, and effectiveness as we continue to uphold our core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do. All this I pray to your most holy name, Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. It is my pleasure to introduce our presiding official for today's ceremony, Lieutenant General Donna Shipton. Sing testing. There we go. Awesome. Okay. That's what good LT's are for. Thank you, LT. All right. Well, welcome everyone. First, I want to say, what a great way to start the day with that rendition. So if we could please just give the vocalist and the band a round of applause for what's wonderful. So it's my great pleasure to be here today as we do an assumption of command for the mighty 88. I want to, I know everyone's been introduced, but I do have a few thank yous to start with. So I especially want to thank our local mayors and county commissioners who are here. Thank you so much for being here. This is such a key relationship that we will have with the base. And so it really means a lot that you could take the time to be here. I also want to thank all of our state and local representatives who are here as well. Again, this is a key base in your districts. We appreciate that. We appreciate the support. And we know that we'll have a key relationship here in current Richards with you all. I would also like to thank Mrs. Step and Chief Fitch for being here from Air Force material command our headquarters. Thank you so much for being here. Additionally, I would like to thank the 88 leadership team. Curl Pond, Mr. Faulkner, wherever he might be. There you go. And Chief Morales, of course. You have been steadfast in your leadership over these past three and a half months of my tenure. And I just want to say thank you personally for all that you've done through these last three and a half months. Thank you. All right. Well, of course I would be remiss if I didn't thank some family members who are also here. So they've been introduced, but we have Curl Richards family from multiple states that are here today in force. And we're just so honored that you could be here to celebrate with Dustin and Ashley, Kennedy and Emily as we're here today with the family. So thank you, Mom and Dads, Sue and Steve. Mother-in-law and father-in-law Vicki and Doug. Thank you so much for all that you have done to help this family through their careers together and to get to this great day. You have raised wonderful children and now parents themselves. And so thank you for all that you've done as parents to get to this day. I want to give you a little sense for the man that is coming into this position. So if you'll allow me, I'll do a little bit of an introduction to him in his career. Let me take these off. So he has only one previous right pat tour at Appet. So we taught him how to be a scholar. Before even that, he started in Galapalese. Did I get it right? Oh, that's a hard one. Ohio where he was born. Gala police. Okay. All right. I knew I'd get that one. But he would grow up and spend a good number of his years at Wood River in Illinois. He went to East Alton Wood River High School where he was the salutatorian. Now he felt the need to apologize for that. And that he said the only reason he wasn't the valedictorian was because that individual was smart enough not to take honors biology. During which no other student, no student earned an A in honors biology. So he lettered in football, basketball and track. So it's very clear early on that he's an athlete as well as a scholar. He went on to Garner and ROTC scholarship where he went to the Rolls woman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, graduating with a bachelor of science in civil engineering. He entered active duty in 2001 and was stationed at his first duty location, Cannon Air Force Base. Yeah. And that would be a very important assignment because that would be where he met Ashley. Now he says that he gave up a short tour in Korea with a follow on to Italy in order to go to AFFET so that he could spend more time with Ashley while she was at law school. So I'm guessing that was a good bet that you made giving up on Italy. And that's just the beginning of the career. I won't go through all of his assignments as I'm sure you probably have it there in front of you. But suffice to say, in addition to Cannon and his time at Wright-Pack, he would go on to Garner Experience in USAFE at Lake and Heath and Pac-Aff at Osan and Cousin and in multiple AFSAC tours where he was squadron commander, a deputy group commander, as well as a group commander. He had multiple Pentagon tours, both at the Headquarters Air Force as well as the Joint Staff. Most recently, he was the senior mil-assist to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Installations, and Environment, which is principally the pentacle assignment for our CE career field in support of our entire Air Force from that perspective. Schools. So I mentioned he is an athlete scholar. He continued his schooling in our Air Force. I told you about AFED, but what I didn't mention was that he also won an award while he was there from the Society of the American Military Engineers for top program award. At SOS, he was the top third graduate as well as the number one flight. At the Marine Corps, Command and Staff College where we sent him for joint experience, he scored a superior on the Marine Combat Fitness Test. And I can tell you, nothing means more to a Marine than that. So well done. I'm sure you impressed a lot of folks while you were there. And then most recently, he was an Air Force Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Now I could give you multiple firsts, many strats, but I'll just mention a few. So from his performance reports, he was stratified number one of 24 squadron commanders, number one of four group commanders, and was promoted below the zone to both Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel. So that gives you a sense for his career. What about him as a person? So I asked him about his goals in life, and he said, have a successful marriage in progress. Raise our two daughters to be good humans, also in progress, and travel to all seven continents, which he's actually already completed. So be a good husband, be a good dad. Can't ask for better. Can't ask for better. So along the way, of course, through his career, eight years ago and five years ago, respectively, there'd be some additions to the family in both Kennedy and Emily. And I have to say, I think that from what I've heard, the two have already started investigating the right pat base. So the turtle pond, I think has already been viewed as well as the very large backyard. And the basement is now all set up for Barbies and Princesses, right? So girls, so far, I think we're good with Ohio. I'll get, okay, great. And your dad is so proud of you for all that you do. Thank you, girls. So I guess to close here, I'll just say that, you know, his personal hobbies, we already mentioned, travel, all seven continents. I'm not sure what you do after you visited all seven continents. Like, what more can there be? I guess you got to do all again. Yeah. He roots for Ohio State. I'm sure that goes over well for some of the folks in the room. And he also roots, though, for St. Louis Cardinals. I'm not sure how well that goes over. He ran the US Marine Corps Marathon in 2018 before turning 40. So good on you. After 40, it's a little harder, but he is already signed up for the 2024 Air Force Marathon right here at Right Path. So you're going to see him running around the base a lot. Training. You know, when I asked him about his leadership philosophy, he said he leads with compassionate candor and is focused on building lasting relationships and wants each person he serves with to have their best possible life. And I think that he will do well here with those goals. So I like to look back as I'm looking at someone's career to their very first performance report. So what did your boss say about you when you were a second lieutenant? Do you remember? Probably not. Well, thankfully, he had only good words to say. Excellent officer, respected by peers and subordinates. A dynamic team player who provides outstanding leadership. So pretty prescient if you were to ask me. And then I look at the last performance report. And Honorable Chandra had to say about you that you build both. You will have a bias for action with a commitment to airmen. And we can't ask more than that. So my charge to you today to continue to be that warrior scholar that you are. Build strong relationships both on and off base and lead our airmen with compassion, accountability and integrity. And with that, let's make it official. Thank you, General Shipton. Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the assumption of command. The custom of assuming command of a military unit in formal ceremonies traces back as early as Roman times. This assumption of command is physically represented by the new commander accepting the command flag, the tangible symbol of the unit from the next senior commander. The formal ritual is conducted before assembled members of the unit, colleagues, military counterparts, honored guests, dignitaries, family and friends. I'll wish you order. Attention to orders. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Air Force Materiel Command right Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Under the provisions of Air Force Instruction 51509 and in accordance with special order number G2411, dated 8 April, 2024, Colonel Dustin C. Richards is hereby appointed commander of the 88th Air Base Wing, effective 9 April, 2024, signed Donna D. Shipton, Lieutenant General, United States Air Force. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. At this time, the men and women of the 88th Air Base Wing would like to render their first salute to Colonel Richards. It is my distinct honor to introduce the 41st commander of the 88th Air Base Wing, Colonel Dustin Richards. Thank you. Thank you all. Still going to shake this off a little bit. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Esther, Chief Fitch, Mr. DiAngelo, Chief Weary, fellow commanders and directors, chiefs, first sergeants, national, state, local elected officials, Miami Valley business leaders, and members of the 88th Air Base Wing. Thank you for attending today. I am humbled and grateful for the chance to lead this wing and all struck at the atmosphere in this amazing venue. Nothing but thanks to the museum team, Mr. Tillitson and his team for the support and the partnership that we continue to have, to have this resource for the community and for the Air Force. I also want to say thank you to Tech Sergeant DeWitt and the band for that amazing rendition of our national anthem, Chaplain Nuwaga for his inspirational words, the protocol and public affairs teams for all the work that they've done behind the scenes and continue to do, Lieutenant Collins, thank you for narrating today. And all the volunteers that we don't even have time to mention who just put their work into making this a successful event and it's such a special occasion for my family who was able to be here today. So as General Shipton alluded, as a lieutenant pursuing my master's degree at APHIT 20 years ago, it never would have occurred to me that one day I'd end up on this stage. And over my career became something of a dream to one day command at the wing level. And so it's hard to believe that today that dream is coming true. So first and foremost, I would just like to express my appreciation to the Air Force and to General Shipton for entrusting me to lead the mighty 88th. Thank you, ma'am, for your kind words and for your trust and confidence. I owe a special thank you to the leadership of the 88th Air Base Wing. Colonel Pond, Mr. Faulkner, Chief Morales, Captain Luzerka, Tech Sergeant Lou Davis, Mrs. Agard, the front office team, thank you so much for the warm welcome, your guidance and leadership thus far. So Wright Patterson holds a special place in our nation's military history. It's the birthplace of aviation and a hub of innovation. This installation has been at the forefront of technological advancements that have shaped our Air Force. And that's not stopping, it's going to continue. To the outstanding airmen of the 88th Air Base Wing, it's inspiring to see you lined up in formation today as a total force. I want to personally acknowledge your dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to service to each other and this great nation. You're doing amazing work. To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, it is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong stumble or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the one who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, comes short again and again, but who does actually strive to do the deeds. Who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends themselves in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if they fail, at least fails while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold, intimate souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Each of you is in the arena, and you are in the arena at a critical juncture in our nation's history. You will play a vital role providing strength through support to our mission partners on Wright Patterson as we re-optimize the Air Force for great power competition. The success of that mission stems from the strength of our people, so I am committed to ensuring the well-being, professional development, and morale of each and every airman in this way. Together, we will create a culture of trust and mutual respect, which allows everyone to reach their fullest potential and live their best life. Together, we will dare greatly. I look forward to joining you in the arena. Our mission extends beyond the perimeter and into our surrounding community. We are part of a larger family of patriots ready to defend our nation's interests at home and abroad. Relationships are very important to me, and I will do all I can to strengthen the partnerships within the base and with the Miami Valley community so vibrantly represented here. The Dayton area and the state of Ohio have a well-deserved reputation for world-class support of the military, and I'm excited to experience it not only for the quality of life improvements that it brings, but to enhance our collective capabilities and ensure our collective success. In closing, I want to recognize my family. There are going to be some tokens of my appreciation coming, but Mom, Dad, thank you for everything, for being so present and supportive. And all the things that General Schimp did mentioned as I grew up, you were there for almost all of it, and so I couldn't be more grateful. Doug and Vicki, thank you for trusting me with your daughter, loving me like a second son. Kate, Doug, Tessa, thank you all for your love and for being here. This is the first time in my whole career that my extended family and friends have been able to attend a ceremony with us. So, Uncle Bill, Uncle Dick, Uncle Rick, Chuck and Michelle, Kelsey, Scott, Wyatt, Jeannie, Rebecca, Ben, Mary, Tony, Ryan. Thank you all for being here to share this moment with us. Chief Gilbert, thanks for being my wingman during our time together with Herbert, and thank you for making the trip up here. It means a lot. Your influence is present in how I lead and everything that I do. Finally, I'm going to thank my amazing wife, Ashley, for being my best friend, my trusted consigliere. She's a lawyer, retired Jag, so my consigliere, my confidant, and the love of my life. You're an amazing woman, and our family would not be what it is without your commitment and love. Kennedy, Emily, I've missed a few meals, missed a few movie nights, missed a few other events over this past year, and you've endured some long days without me around. But I know you're excited to start exploring your new home and taking advantage of all the opportunities it offers. The doll town you've created out of our basement definitely shows you off to a great start. I also want to thank all the leaders and colleagues who have mentored coached and supported me throughout my career, who are hopefully watching online. You know who you are. Whether you're here in person or online, you're in our thoughts and you have our appreciation and our gratitude. Again, I'm honored and humbled to serve alongside everyone in this room, and I look forward to the journey that lies ahead. Together, we will continue to write the history of the mighty 88th Air Base Wing and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Thank you. Thank you, Colonel Richards. Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the playing of the Air Force song and remain in place for the departure of the official party. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's ceremony. Please follow our distinguished visitors through the receiving line located at the Overlook and Hangar Four as we welcome our new commander, Colonel Richards and his family. Thank you for attending and have a pleasant day.