 Spart, it's our major. I'm really happy to be here, you know, with the Chief and really appreciate everybody coming in. I'll let, we'll kind of go around the room and kind of introduce yourself there. Don't look at me like that. It's our major that's going on in the script, so I appreciate everybody, I appreciate everybody for tuning in and thanks and I really appreciate the whole team putting this together and sorry for the delays. The speeches were just for so good. We just had to wait a few minutes to get going. So we'll go around, let everybody just say who you are and, you know, maybe where you come from and we'll just jump into some quick questions very quickly. Hi, good evening. I'm sorry for Slash Jenkins. I am in 241st quarter master company, 725BSB. I am a parachute rigger and I'm from Indiana. Awesome. My name is Sergeant Anthony Gazillo. I'm with the 3509th Infantry Regiment. I will be, I'm in Charlie Company and I hail from Pennsylvania. My name is Copa Riley. I'm a part of the Sixth Brigade in Juneau Battalion. I'm in Elk Company and I'm from Tennessee. Hi everybody. I'm Staff Sergeant Rosales. I'm from Texas. I'm part of P-FAR, 277 P-FAR. I'm the Battalion S-1-S-U-S-E. Good afternoon. My name is Staff Sergeant Crowlin. I'm with the Military Intelligence Company with 140th Cavalry and I'm a linguist. And I'm the 16th Sergeant. So we're here on, you know, literally on an historic day, you know, 78 years ago. You know, we had D-Day and we do it on, you know, we activated the 11th Airborne Division on the stage. So we've been up with the chief flying around. So what I really want to do is ask and I will start with Sergeant Crowlin. What does it mean for you to, like, what does it mean, like, identity mean to you? Thanks, Estime. Yeah, you know, I think identity is really kind of what defines us as an organization. It sets the basic outline, you know, for who we are, you know, what we're striving for and what kind of values define us. Whether that be our historic legacy and our identity, you know, if we were, you know, with the 101st Airborne, for example, or here in Alaska, you know, now being the Arctic Angels, you know, which I think, you know, really identifies well what we do, which is being America's only Arctic paratroopers. Yeah. But when you look at Arctic Angels, you said that, what was your first thought when you heard that today? Arctic Angels? Yes, I mean, I was pretty excited. I think, you know, personally, I've been up here for about three years now. And I think identity was something that I was kind of struggling with. And, you know, to be able to get, to be reorganized as something that defines kind of what we do up here, which is, you know, jump into austere Arctic conditions, you know. For me, that felt a lot more fitting and it felt like maybe, you know, we finally found it home. Okay, good. So what do you think about the 11th Airborne Division identity? Not just identity, but the 11th Airborne Division identity. What do you think? Oh, somebody, when I think of identity, I think of, you know, like somebody's ID card, you know. Your ID card. There you go, that's it. ID card, we're all starting everything right there. So right away, you look at the patch and say, I think everyone, right away, you're like, you know, where did that come from? You know, so when you take a look at that and you're like, wow, Arctic Airborne, I think that pretty much defines and identifies them as basically Arctic Airborne. Okay, what do you think? I mean, just like Sarah Harlin said, you know, it's up here to find you to be in the Arctic and coming down, especially in the snow. It's something magical. And then just having that define us as, you know, the Arctic Angel, that for me, you know, from their past and now our present and then moving forward to our future, it definitely defines us. It's definitely who we are. And it's great to finally have a name to, you know, to us instead of just being 425, where I, you know, once the Airborne Division. Yeah, so what are you doing? Considering the history around it, I think there's a lot of significance in it, us being the only Arctic Airborne Brigade. I think that it's very important that when people look at us, they know, okay, they're a part of something big, they're a part of something major. So I'm excited. Okay, good. So what do you think it's like for you is to transition from, you know, a soldier in Alaska and then this, first of all, it's really nice. You have like the warmest day. So that's good. But as you transition to be the 11th Airborne Division, and how do you think that's going to affect your life here in Alaska? My life. You were asking me. I'm just over in this direction. I got you. See you guys, I got you. Honestly, it's a really great opportunity for a new beginning. I think that's what US Army in Alaska kind of needs right now. There's a lot like holding us back. We've been fighting a lot of issues on every level that this new identity gives us a fresh start. It's a really good opportunity because we get to say what we're going to be. And I really like that. Well, what do you think it's like holding you back there? You kind of said this is like, it's the pride. I think the soldiers are lacking a little bit of pride in what we were. And now we have something to be prideful of. It's just what we're going to do with it. And that's on us to define what we're going to do. Yeah, I would like that. But the next thing, you know, this unit history, what do you think as an NCO? What do you think like your roles of unit history are other than get your ID card? Definitely live up to it and reactivate in it. Everything that they've done in the past and everything we're going to do in the future. I think it's important to keep that role, like the historic role of everyone. Okay. And start crawling. What do you think your role is as an NCO in unit history? Especially with this unit history, you know, you know, you said angels. What did the senators say from angels from above? Eleven from heaven. It's not that I didn't know what he said. I was listening, I swear. I think, you know, it's important to make sure that our soldiers are aware of not only the history that's come before us and how important that is, but our place in developing the history, you know, by reactivating this unit up here and being the first and only Arctic Airborne unit, you know, I think the field is right to distinguish ourselves and to show exactly what we are capable of and how we set ourselves apart. Okay. So, Sartanians, you've been to other places around the world, you've been in other divisions, but now you're part of this division, you know, how does that make you feel you're part of the 11th Airborne division now? So, as I'm having up here for three years, and I constantly hear the comparison of 425 to the 82nd. I grew up in the 82nd, and it was war brigade. That's a division. It was a big difference. So, now looking at it, you know, we're going and we're considered, we're now a division. And that's a big thing to step into. And now we can fully say, you know, we have moved up, we are now a division, and we can't compare ourselves. And as an NCO, we'll just continue to utilize what was in the past for the 11th Airborne division, what they did then, what we're going to do now, and then continue to strive for excellence moving forward. And that's what's going to define it as far as what we do and how we leave our footprint. Okay. Well, let's ask the 11th... 11th? I'm not going to say that. 11th Airborne Division division. You know, the 11th, 11th... Okay, you're free to do that. The 11th Division major, what do you think? You know, you hear a lot about the 82nd, you hear a lot about the 101st, not that I'm a member of the 101st, I am. But, you know, you're now a division. You know, how does that make you feel? And, you know, what do you do with that? You know, there's a lot wrapped up. And most people don't know about all the things that actually come with that, you know, making it, you know, a division. Yeah, absolutely, yes, man. And it's a great point from Sergeant Jenkins about both the comparison and the movement to us being not just a division, but an operational division, all right, with a capability that's on par with the entire, every other combat formation and army. Now the reality is to address what you guys talked about in reference to 425. So I happened to have been on the field when 425 was stood up. And it was a fantastic organization who has an incredible amount of pride in history over the past 15 years or so. But it was created to fight the G1. That's really where it was at, okay? And we did so valiantly, you know, we lost a lot of people in it, all right? But to your point, it was time to move on. It was time to tie our identity and our purpose, all right, to something larger, all right? And that's really tying it to that heritage that belongs to the 11th, all right? To the incredible gallantry of the people that went before us, okay? You're standing on the shoulders of giants now, okay? Just the same as those from the 101st, same as those from the 82nd or the 1st ID or the 1st AD. They all have ancestors who they have to live up to every day, okay? And we have to do the same, all right? That is where we're going, all right? And then having that shared identity, okay? There's no one else in the United States Army like the 11th Airborne Division, okay? There are other comparables. It's always the same, but there's nobody, all right? Trains in winter, bitter, cold, all right? Who have the air salt, airborne, high mountain capabilities that we're gonna have. We'll forge our own identity and have that true capability to go where we're at. So it's just a natural regression. So at least for me, SMA is a little bit of a sad day because again, we talked about there, you guys all have the unique opportunity to be plank holders, all right? You are standing on the field, all right? The day the 11th Airborne Division was re-instituted and no one can ever take it away from you. And I said we had that same with 425, but this is a natural regression where we're going. I think it really speaks to each one of your points, which is a great jumping off point for us to really establish what the 11th Airborne's gonna be and your heritage going forward. And one day, somebody will be standing on your shoulder. That's the great thing about the United States Army. Over 200 plus years, you just continually stand on the legacy of bravery of all the soldiers who have gone before you. Yeah, you said it's a little bit of a sad day. What do you mean by that? Just for me to see the 425 go, SMA, I mean, absolutely, there's going to be some emotions that are attached to any unit that you've seen combat with. The tour in Iraq and tour Afghanistan. I was a plank holder in 3509. I was standing on the field when I stood that. So anytime you kind of see that go, there's a bit of sadness, but you have to understand, hey, we still have one drama. We still have three drama. We still have those battalion units, right? But now we have a focused identity that can take us forward, right? That can establish something a little bigger than where we're at. We're past the GY now. It's time for our army to move forward. Yeah, so the battalions didn't really change. They did not. So they nod at all. Yeah, I think that sadness, when you go from one unit to another, but in all reality, the battalions that where soldiers actually live and thrive, they're kind of still there. And I still remember, it's a little different that I was the last Brigade Sergeant Major before Brigade 101, when we inactivated the brigade, and we split those units up. And I was like, wait a minute, this is criminal. We're not doing that. We are not. And of course we did. But I wasn't in Sergeant Major's army, so. But bring it back. No, OK, we can't do that. But the good news here is that we didn't split the battalions up. It's just reflagging with the division headquarters that's operational. What do you think that sends the message to our adversaries when you say this is an operational division? It's a strong, actually, that's amazing. I mean, now with First Corps, we now have three divisions, six BCTs, with two operational divisions that can play anywhere in the world, all right? Our ability to partner across the Pacific and all the way into the Arctic, all right, is incredible. That's probably the piece that was missing here more than anything. 425 and the 125 had strong legacies of service. But they've never had a division headquarters here. United States Army in Alaska has been around for a long time. However, without the operational capabilities that are going to be inherent in the new headquarters, everything that we can do to empower the brigades, we just haven't been able to get after all the missions that we have that we wanted to. But now we have an ability to partner across the Pacific and really bind some of those strong ties that are out there. And I think that sends a huge message out. OK, I've got to ask this really simple question, because it's on my mind. We're going with all of you the youngest in here. I'm addressing that. What do you think of the patch? Of the patch. When I first started, of course, I didn't understand it. So it was pretty different to me. But you know, the other one had lighting. I mean, it was cool. It was cool. I like this one. I like this one, learning how we got our name, the angels, and then just seeing it like physically on the patch. I mean, I like it. I think it's pretty cool. What do you think about that patch? I love saying it. I mean, the colors, the red, white, and blue, it stands out a lot more than the red and yellow. The blue embraces the cold. And then you have an Arctic tab right on top. OK, I was thinking of that. It's like, we're going with that. We're going, you know, can you just write history? So Basilio said, you know, blue embraces the cold. What do you got for red, man? Oh, and reds the blood of the brothers we lost. There you go. That's it. It's done. It's done. It wasn't in his mouth. That's all. That's all. That's nice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Did you record that? It's like, sir, major, we stopped recording. No, we're good. I mean, what do you think? It's hard to top that, but I'm going to ask. What do you think about that? I love it. I love the colors. I love the wings, especially coming down in the snow. It's something magical when you come it down. And all you see is white and like frozen. That are terrifying. You know, for me, it's not super intense. Oh, it was too, right? For me, it's got to love it. I love it. When you exit out the aircraft and you look down, the first thing I'm looking for is, where's the snow? Where's the roads? Snow is soft. Do you have a problem in the winter of looking down and saying, where's the snow? I had to ask. I thought everything was smooth. You know where the roadways are. The roadways are where the roads is where the ice is. Yes. I was going to question your thoughts on that. So when you come out, all you see is white, but you know where they pave the roads. And you know exactly where it is. So it's something magical about coming down. All you see is the mountains, the snow all over the mountains, snow all over the drop zone. Everything's frozen. And it's soft landing. It's beautiful. I think the patch is a visual representation of what we actually do. It's angelic. It is. It's what? It's angelic. Angelic. Angelic. Oh, OK. Yeah. Man, you got it. Are we right? It's a safety outfit. I'm sure you're not sorry to hear that. OK, so we added this little thing to the Arctic. Sergeant Crawford, what do you think? Good. I mean, you already had that. But what do you think it's all putting that together? Well, I think it's contentious. Just honestly speaking, a lot of. No, I want you to lie. We're recording this. As you said, the Arctic tab has been around. And previously, it was an identification of someone who had attended Arctic school. And so it was kind of a badge of honor. I've been to Arctic school. But so those people are a little upset because now they don't stand out anymore. But that being said, I think adding the Arctic tab is a good idea. And the reason is because we're all up here in the cold and we're all in it together. And whether or not you've been to Arctic school, we've all been to the JPMRC, Joint Exercises, up in Delta Junction, where it's negative 50 on a good day. So we're all birthed in the ice that is Alaska, whether or not we've attended that school. And so I think the addition of the Arctic patch is a really good one. OK, sounds like you just gave me more homework on Arctic school and patches and that. I got it. I'll work on that. OK, so in history, you got any questions for me? I would like to ask you, SMA, what your plans are with the 11th Airborne. Now that we are a division, we are our own and we will be establishing a headquarters, what did you want to do with this division? Well, I'm really excited about the operational part of the division, too, and because I'm a former first quarter star major, I was like, maybe that was part of it. I'm saying, we just had a division up there. So we need to be focused, but you need the headquarters to do that. And most people, even in this room, you don't know how important that is for an operational headquarters to have that identity. But more importantly, something we could utilize to deploy. To answer your question, we just don't know. But we got something we could do something with. But before, not that we couldn't do anything with you, but you couldn't do much. You could maybe say, hey, you're doing a really good job up there. So you didn't have the staff that you could actually deploy and do something with. So we just don't know. I hope you don't do much. I hope you do a lot of training because I know this whole combat thing comes with a steep price. But having an operational division that's ready in the Arctic is a capability. I'm not sure that we just said the easy button. Now, 10-mountain division might argue a little bit against that. And I am a member of 10-mountain division, too. So we don't put that in today. But having another capability in this region with an airborne unit, I think, is something that our adversaries just hadn't seen yet. But we just don't know. So we've got to have it. We've got to get it fully manned and equipped first. And then we'll see. And that normally will be up to the combatant command. So I'm really excited about it. But just for the fact that we have a full division and everybody's associated to something as opposed to, well, am I part of 25th in Hawaii? Am I part of some human in JVLM? So we had all these little things. But when you have that, you have a capability that we could deploy where in the past we just didn't. So right now, we don't know. I'd like to say, yeah, this is what we're going to do. We've got to get you fully manned and equipped as an operational headquarters. And then we'll see. And like I said, I hope nobody really wants to go, hey, let's go to the port of this Takabahat because there are things that will happen. But it just gives us another capability that we haven't had. OK, since that's a good question for me. What any other questions you have for me? And I'm coming back to torture you some more. There's talk, SMA, about Gabbardy's coming up. It says the artillery guy to the artillery guy. I don't know. Have we talked about it? I'm sure we talk about a lot of things. No, we are, SMA. Obviously, they've got to work through FU and work through the force design. But in the end, I'm tracking the army is looking at Gabbardy's across. And we are, so we'll be in line potentially to have it aborted. OK. So I've asked you all a lot about what do you think? But what about your families? You got families. What do you think they thought? Think about the batsmen. I mean, I'll speak for me. I'm Bill Military, SMA. So it was nice. My husband was out there as well. When we leave work for work, when we come home, we both have different patches on. So today was a great thing to take off both patches, 425 and the USARC patch, and put the same patch on. So it kind of felt like we were coming together as a team, as a family, instead of having different patches, different organizations. So for me, I thought it was a great thing. Oh, that's cool. We've got the same size. You can start wearing each other's uniforms. Yeah. He unfortunately cannot fit my uniform here. I just tried to put my PT vest on, and I have to come hunt him down. I need my small one back. So no, unfortunately, but we do still patches. So now we'll be able to still each other's patches off for uniform. We can't find the other one. So I think that's going to be a struggle in our household. OK. Oh, that's cool. What do you think? You know, honestly, SMA, I think it's great. Especially not just for me, but also for my soldiers. Having our families support us and understand what we do is such an important part of being a soldier. It's really critical. And by being relabeled Arctic Airborne, they better understand exactly what our function is up here. And I think that helps them be able to make those sacrifices and to support us when we are going up to Delta Junction every single winter to freeze our heads off or go on another jump. Just your toes or every piece of your body. Still looking to get my left foot back, doesn't it? OK, good. I know nobody here has strikers. But what do you think, sorry, Major, what do you think the soldiers feel about getting rid of the strikers? I know how they felt. So I was at Fort Knox. And I may or may not have mentioned this before ahead of schedule. So quite a few months ago, I casually mentioned maybe we would take the strikers out of Alaska. And I got a round of applause. So it was like, they're like, yeah. What do you think from families? Absolutely, SMA. I think overwhelmingly there is a lot of relief that having the strikers move out. The reality is they're not well suited for the art environment. They're very difficult to maintain. They haven't been very mobile in that environment. And the ability for 111 now to be able to focus on their light infantry tasks and not have to worry about the maintenance and the headache that they've had to. And I think you've seen from your visits up there the incredible amount of money the Army has had to pour in between the heating shelters and the rest of it just in an attempt to try to get them to operate in an environment. I think it's pretty clear to everybody and definitely clear to the soldiers who are ready to go ahead and transition them out and move on to SMA. Yeah. I got this. I was here last time in February. And believe it or not, the families were like, so our major, these strikers. And when we went back, we had these conversations. I tried to put this in perspective for everybody when we were having this conversation, I said, imagine. And I spent an extremely long amount of time at work trying to fix a vehicle that does not operate in the Gulf. And then I come home late or I'm working these weekends trying to fix the striker. And then my spouse is all mad. It's like, where have you been? He's like, well, I'm in working on the striker. And then you go to the field and it doesn't work. And it still doesn't work. And then it actually causes issues at home. Because I'm constantly trying to maintain a vehicle that doesn't work. And then I complain to my spouse. My spouse gets mad. And eventually, this doesn't happen. My wife's still with me. But you know, she leaves, right? For anything on Facebook, I am still married. And I do not have a Facebook account. So in my relationship, it's not complicated. I've said everything. So that is not me. I'm just telling you. But I've seen this is where I spend long hours working on a vehicle that's not designed for the Arctic. My wife gets upset. Then she says, you know what? You're never here anyway. So I leave and I go back. And then I'm drinking more. So I can really see this as really getting rid of those strikers is really an help for our resiliency. And now we still have to equip you with really cool gear for the Arctic. So you've got some really cool gear. That's all I saw last time, too. It may have a different pattern. But we got to work on that, too. So we still got a lot of things that we had to do. Get you the latest equipment we have for the Arctic. We got to work with PEO soldier. Absolutely. And if we just had the former PEO soldier, or major that was here, he could help us out. He could help us out. And if his successor, PEO soldier, wasn't the current 1 in 11. Yeah, and we might be in good shape. SMA year 100% on point. Obviously, I think that's true for anything, is that when soldiers are not happy at work, that translates back to the house. All the assignments that my wife disliked the most out of my 30-year career have been the ones where I was the least happy at work, generally speaking. And obviously, the strikers do the same thing. And as far as the equipment goes, there's a wrath of it coming to SMA, as you well know. There's a number of initiatives out there, both for cold weather clothing and with mobility that we're working on right now. And we'll be using 1 in 11 and 2 in 11 to really pile it and look to be incentivized, but to really lead in the direction that we're going to go forward with that. I think before we close, I will say that there's some people that say, well, just because you're giving me a new patch, doesn't change the culture, doesn't change about how I feel about last year. But it goes to your point, you can really get behind something. You're going to make this culture. But there's some tangible things we're doing to help. With all the things that we have up here, we're going to fix your squatter track that we have up in Wayne, right? We're going to make it round until then, maybe cut the corners. But we're trying to give you that identity. But there's a lot more behind it. One thing that I would ask you all is, you are in the culture. And that story today, when you look back 40 years now, and you're talking about the 11-31 division, and your kids are, and you can be proud of that. And that culture, you own that. The vehicles and all that stuff, that's going to be up for us to figure out where you go, how we're going to deploy it. That's not even me. That's somebody else who's going to figure this all out. But that culture down in the unit, you own it. And when you put that patch on, you're going to be just prideful that this is, I'm part of something bigger than myself. And is that the culture that's in my unit every day? Everything that I do, from the PT to lunch to dinner and everything in between, and all the field, and all the cold, you're going to be proud of that. It'll be a badge. And it'll be a badge of honor that you should wear proudly. I'm really proud to be here with you today. Thanks for joining me. And for anybody listening on the internet, I really appreciate everything that our army is doing for our country. And this is just one step forward for the United States Army. So thank you. Cool. Are you tough? Are you tough? Articangels. Articangels. Oh, Articangels.