 We're back. We're live. I'm Jay Fidel. We have today a military in Hawaii with Jason Chung and Steve Cologne, and they are with the Military Affairs Committee, and they put the military together with the business community, and we're going to explore that with them. So the first thing is, Steve, you mentioned that Jason is going to be doing most of the talking today. So I think I'll give you the opportunity of giving a full introduction to Jason. Ready? Go. All right. Hey, everybody. I'm Steve Cologne Aloha. I'm Chair of the MAC, MAC is the Military Affairs Council. As Jason, we're a military support organization, advocacy organization under the Hawaii State Chamber of Commerce. Jason is the go-to guy at the Chamber of Commerce who basically runs the MAC day-to-day, and he's a veteran and is very well versed in both Hawaii military and actually national military issues and affairs as well. How was that, Jason? You want to rebut anything that he said? Get off your mute now. Wait, he forgot the part, Jay, about that. I'm just a terrific guy and really good looking. I think that should have been the first thing that Steve said, and then it would have been perfect. Well, I'm jealous of Jason, so I won't say that outright. Jason, it was implicit, you know what I mean? So, okay, so let's see. Oh, we need more actually on Steve. So, Jason, can you take a moment and introduce Steve more fully? No, that's great. Thanks, Jay, for that, and hello, everyone. Jason Chung from the Military Affairs Council. You know, Steve has a very similar background, a sense of he's a veteran, United States Naval Academy graduate, and like a lot of folks who then decide to stay here in Hawaii has a second career and works for hunt companies as a president for one of their key divisions. He's been in the MAC for a very long time because obviously, just like me, I think the military in Hawaii is very important to him, so he stayed connected through the military, through his participation in the Military Affairs Council. When I first got to Military Affairs Council after my retirement from the Army in 2019, Steve was one of the vice chairs for the MAC, and then after Connie retired last year, our former chairperson, Steve was just the perfect person to kind of step into those very difficult shoes to be the chair for the MAC, not only because of his commitment to the business commute here, really understanding that, but also how Hawaii operates, but also because of his really deep understanding of the military. And the balance which is great is, you know, Steve is, like I said, Naval Academy graduate, Navy guy, and I'm an Army guy, so despite the whooping that we gave Navy just a little while ago, Steve and I, we maintained a really good friendship and good work relationship as we try to do good things for the military here in the state of Hawaii. And Steve is a very handsome man. Did you catch the nice guy part? Oh, you want to rebut any of that, Steve? You know, I will just get rolling. Okay, what a great idea. Let's get rolling. So I have some preliminary thoughts I'd like to express to you guys. Number one is, you know, we talk about the trouble in Washington, the trouble in the country, Lord knows this is trouble, and trouble in River City, if you will. And the question really is, you know, engaging with the government. There's a lot of people, you know, they haven't been in the military, you may have noticed that, and they're not going to go in the military, and their kids aren't going to go in the military, and they may or may not vote, and they may or may not have paid taxes. And so, you know, we don't have a lot of engagement. You know, I think a lot of people, their engagement with the government is limited to getting their driver's license and registering their car. But all those other things, you know, where people connect with the government, both federal states, you know, it's not as much as it was, or in my day or in your day, for that matter. And so when we see the government engaging here under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce and the Military Affairs Committee, that is impact, that is engagement. So you guys are involved in one of those things that brings the government together with the citizens. So that has a positive effect in more ways than just business. And that's my view of it. Anyway, the other thought is that, you know, it certainly helps Hawaii, it helps Hawaii at a time when the presence of the military in Hawaii is more important, and it's likely to be more important going forward. We really have to have command of the Pacific Ocean. There will be issues in the Pacific Ocean. And so we have to stay alive and alert and connected. May I say, Steve, especially for the Navy, okay? May I say that? I'm saying that. Okay. Thank you. And so now it's your turn. Let's see, Jason, why don't you tell us what the Military Affairs Committee does and how it brings people together and how it helps. This is a multiple compound question. How it helps the, you can write it down if you want. How it helps, you know, the military and how it helps, you know, the economy in general in Hawaii. L.J., hey, thanks for that question. You know, so I'll give you, by answering that kind of just a brief history, right? In 1984, it was decided that the Military Affairs Council should be part of the Chamber of Commerce really to, because of the significance of the military, as the second economic driver here in Hawaii. Hospitality industry is number one. A very, very, very close second is the Department of Defense and the military spending here in Hawaii. And as I think we all know in the last few years, amidst COVID, arguably DOD spending has been the number one economic driver, because the stability has been there throughout that economic downturn. So from an economic standpoint, in terms of business, it's a tremendous driver to the economy. And along with the job, along with the money, there's also a significant amount of jobs that are produced by that. You know, when you just look at the numbers, J, nearly 20% of the people that live in Hawaii are somehow connected to the military. So that includes active duty, includes reservists, includes like me and Steve, retirees, our families, all the people, the civilians who work at Pearl Harbor, who work at Schofield Barracks or Marine Corps, Base Hawaii, and all the contracting companies that are affiliated with all that support. And then as I think, you know, from your time in the service, the military really tries to be a positive community partner wherever they reside and live, because they live there too. So our kids play, you know, on the different sports teams, we volunteer with the Boy Scouts, and we do all those types of things, right? And we go to the schools. And so it's not just from an economic standpoint, it's the economic, it's the jobs, it's the community engagement, it's the partnership, and then the support that we provide to Hawaii. You know, I go back and, you know, kind of dating myself when I was a really young lieutenant, 1992 at Schofield Barracks, and my wife was a lieutenant in a support organization transportation, and I was in an infantry unit. And the thing happened called Hurricane Iniki, right, that practically devastated the island of Kauai. My wife deployed there to set up the field hospital and get logistics there and emergency care. And I was out pushing vehicles and generators to the island of Kauai to support it. And I'm sure all the other services were doing versions of that. And, you know, so those are types of things that I think a lot of people don't necessarily really understand it's not just, you know, the economic impact that we have here in Hawaii, it's all the other things. So the other part, when you talk about the importance of it, you know, this region has been called the most consequential region at the most consequential time for a lot of the reasons that we're all kind of tracking in terms of the expansion and influence of China within the region and the impact that it's having to what is kind of termed the free and open Indo-Pacific, which means, right, the ability for free trade, freedom of religion, so things don't happen like what we see in Ukraine, don't happen here, right, in this region. And so the commitment from our government to actually have the only place in the world where you actually have a geographic command with Indo-Pakum and all of its service components, you know, the Air Force, the Navy, the Army, the Marine Corps, all in one physical location is basically the physical manifestation of that commitment to the region and how important it is, as well as to our partners and allies within this region. And since a very clear message to our competitors and with the adversaries that the United States is committed to, this very, very important region. Now, all that, the other key point of it, what the MAC is also trying to do is we live in Hawaii, right? So the MAC members and the MAC leadership is really looking at how do we start to bridge that gap between the military and the community more effectively, because sometimes there's always that feeling that, oh, you're in the military, you're the folks that get to go to a commissary or you live behind the fence and you have, you know, different acts and privileges. How do we continue to engage at different levels and not just with like your normal MAC members but with other community members with some of the local community get involved in the schools where there's K to 12 or the different academic institutions and really start to bridge that gap so you have a better community engagement and understanding between what the military does and what it offers holistically and how they can be better integrated here in Hawaii. Long answer to your three-part question there, Jay. Jay, I should have been taking notes. You know, one thing, a couple of things that strike me from your discussion is I think it's really important that we know that. We know that you'll help the state in times of extreme weather, for example, because we know that's coming. You know, just like issues, the geopolitical issues are coming, we know for sure that there will be extreme weather and that means, you know, a climate disaster. And I think we generally see the military as being available to help us. This is really important in terms of public confidence because, you know, Hawaii has had the military since around 1850 in the days of the monarchy. The Navy, Steve, was in Pearl Harbor in 1850. The United States Navy, how about that? Gee, I wish I could have signed up then I'd have a fabulous career. So would you. Anyway, the other thing is that, you know, over the years, it seems to me that the military has provided some really valuable employees in the civilian sector. So if I have a business and I want to hire somebody reliable, I look to Navy applicants or army applicants, whatever military applicants to staff my company, because I know they're cut above that they believe in hard work and being educated on the job and so forth. And unfortunately, I think there are not that many jobs now because of COVID. So that, you know, that's got to put a wrinkle in the opportunities that are available to military spouses and, you know, family members and so forth for local jobs. It's just a reaction to what you were saying. Bottom line, though, is, yes, we need to have a, what do you want to call it, a bilateral relationship where each side helps the other. And I guess my question is, how do you guys, I'm going to pose this to Steve. How do you actually do that? You have staff, you know, you have Jason, for example, but you have other staff that, you know, that makes this happen. You have members, presumably that are more than just directors of an organization. They actually participate, their companies participate. So how do we actually bring the two, you know, the two parties together, so to speak? Oh, good question, Jay. Before I get into that, I did want to want to add on to Jason's answer. And that is to explain or just kind of let the audience, let you and the audience know of kind of how the MAC is composed, you know, and really what are, what we're trying to get accomplished in terms of how to support the military. You mentioned one percent of the population serves in the military, one percent. And because of that, 99% do not serve. So the vast majority of the public doesn't understand a lot about what the military does and about the benefits that the military brings to Hawaii that Jason was talking about. And the Military Affairs Council, the MAC, is a great forum for business and community leaders, legislators as well, to gain a better understanding of the military in Hawaii. We have a lot of members that have joined just so they can better understand what the military is all about and how they help Hawaii. And so, you know, I thought that would be helpful to clarify that. Now, how do we do that? We do that by both bringing our membership out to the field, out to the different service branches in Hawaii, as well as bringing those different service branches over to us to talk to us, to meet with us, to brief us, to explain to us what they're doing, to tell us about their challenges, to talk to us about how we can help them in Hawaii. And we do that by getting together periodically every other month or so. We'll get updates, like I said, from the head of the Army in the Pacific, the head of the Navy in the Pacific. These are very, very informative briefings that allow our members to understand what our military is doing in Hawaii. We then combine those with field trips where the Army is operating. Tomorrow, or I'm sorry, next week, we're going to be going to Fort Shafter to get a briefing at their new command center. We're going to be going to the Navy shipyard, the largest private employer in the state, a week from tomorrow. We do field visits. We've taken our members out to PMRF, Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. We do that about once a year. These are very, very informative opportunities for our members to really see, like Jason was talking about, to get behind that fence line and to see and understand what's going on there. And then I know Jason will be speaking about some of the details of this, but next week we have our annual partnership conference. That's a major way that we get the MACS message out. What are we doing? We're bringing together legislators, members of the MAC, senior military leaders, all together at the Capitol to spend a morning with them so that they get to hear about what's going on in the military and the Pacific. These are very informative briefings that I know our members find tremendous value in, and we think are also very informative to our legislators as well. A couple of reactions to that. I sat on the Coast Guard Military Civilian Committee. It wasn't part of Chamber of Commerce, but it was a kind of organization that you're talking about, and every month the Admiral came around, who's star here, and he told us what was going on in the Coast Guard, in the 14th Coast Guard District. And I tell you, it was such an experience to hear these briefings, and he would lower his voice as if to say, you know, this may not be classified, but it's just between us. Everybody would be fascinated to hear what he had to say. So there's really a great connection when you put people together and you have the brass come around and talk about what the unit is doing. The other thing, and I forgot to mention this, is the recruiting possibility. Jason, recruiting is very important now in an all-volunteer military force, and Hawaii has always provided a lot of enthusiastic young people who want to join the service. Is that the case now? And what are you doing, if anything, to encourage people in the civilian sector to join up? AJ, thanks for the question. It's a really good question. I think Hawaii is one of those places. It's been very fortunate if you have recruiter duty, and I think it's like being in Texas or Georgia, where there's no shortage of individuals that are coming to the recruiting station because of the opportunities that it provides to a lot of the local residents. I'm a great example. Both my wife and I, when we graduated from high school here, enlisted initially in the Army Reserve, because there was a tuition waiver to go to school. There's only a number of states that actually offer that, and then I went through the ROTC program to become a commission officer. Tremendous opportunity for me and my wife as well. The things that we try to do to stimulate that, because it is a great path, is when we recognize every year the incredible talent that we have here in Hawaii that get appointed and select an appointment to one of the service academies. It's probably from a Mac perspective, one of the most rewarding events that we host, because you really see it. It's the future. It's the future military leaders of Hawaii that are in front of you who have, just to be appointed, have really demonstrated just the incredible potential that they have. The other thing that we've been doing, Jay, and I think you've had us on a talk about in the past is the Hawaii Defense Alliance, that the Mac is really the core group of that, because when you look at the key stakeholders of the Mac and the Hawaii Defense Alliance, they're really the same people. It's Department of Defense. It's your local and state officials. It's the business community, and it's certain nonprofit organizations, whether it's the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce or the Chamber of Commerce, et cetera. The whole goal of that is to look for more opportunities for local businesses and local people. How do we continue to expand those capabilities? What I'll use right now is what has been the legacy industry here, not talking hospitality, but from a DOD perspective, which has been the shipyard. As Steve mentioned, the largest private or industrial employer in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, has one of the most recognized apprenticeship programs where you pay to learn, you get accepted to it. A year later, you basically go into the shipyard as a government employee. Great career. Great career. My cousin graduated out of that about 30, 35 years ago, and then went in there, and then two years ago, he retired as a senior foreman of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Pretty incredible. That's that legacy industry that we see ship repair and shipbuilding, but this new emerging with technology right now is in the fields of cyber, intelligence, data science, and information technology, that there's this huge explosion of jobs and opportunities throughout Department of Defense as well as the private industry. We've been using that to really incentivize workforce development, upskilling of the workforce, working with the academic institutions, University of Hawaii, HPU, and Shamanad to create internship programs, certificates, and degree programs that actually get after this new requirement that is there. Those are just two small examples of how we're trying to get the word out about the different opportunities that exist here in the military for the local populace. You raise an interesting facet of all of this, and it's the reverse recruitment. Here you guys are, you're post-military, and you bring all those skills and management and experience back to the civilian community. It's not just that you two are with a chamber of commerce and the military affairs committee. There's a lot of other senior officers out there who are participating in the economy, and the one that comes to mind is somebody that you probably know pretty well, and that's Suzanne Buonani Varislam, who's a two-star army and she's now East-West Center doing a great job. I know her, and she gave us our keynote at our annual awards dinner a few weeks ago, and the East-West Center is benefiting by her and her management skills, not only her management skills, but her global experience in the Indo-Pacific. That's a very valuable aspect because we know that at some point you guys do have to retire. Not saying when, but when you retire, if you retire in Hawaii, the shot in the arm for Hawaii's management capability, so it's worth mentioning that. The other thing I wanted to talk about the technology, and that is if I go into the military and I want to get a designator, I think they call it that, and all the service designator, to study, for example, technology. At the end of my tour, at the end of my enlistment, or my officer obligation, whatever it may be, I'm going to know a lot about technology, and I'm very valuable to the community, but also I'm valuable in the marketplace, and I can earn a very nice salary because of what I learned in the service. I'm also raising all the boats, so to speak, in terms of America's ability to innovate on tech, so there's a real benefit in teaching people about tech. There's a real benefit in doing dual-use technology between the military and the university and the private sector to make entrepreneurial activity over tech and raise our entrepreneurial capability at the university and otherwise. Every single engagement, that's what we're talking about, that you guys shepherd and encourage has an effect on the community, as well as the military. But, Steve, I want to ask you more about the organization itself. We mentioned members, and as I heard it, you're part of what? The Hunt Company was it, and the Hunt Company does military defense. There's a lot of others on your website, dozens of them, who are military defense contractors and the like, and they support you. What do they do? What do their members do to help the MAC? What are their obligations to you? How much do they participate and provide for you? Well, let's talk about the type of companies we have, the type of members. We have many members that are like me in that they run divisions of companies that are doing business with the defense sector here in Hawaii, and you have the typical large defense contractors that are very busy right now supporting all of the branches of service over at Pearl Harbor, over at the shipyard, over at the Indo-Pacific Command and elsewhere. But you also have a lot of smaller businesses. You know, we have a lot of small businesses that are involved in supporting Hawaii's defense sector, and I'm pleased to say that we have many, many members that come from there, as well. So these aren't just big corporations that send to representatives. Some of these are, a lot of these are our folks. In some cases, we have members that own their own companies and are members. What do they do? Well, they help by providing a sponsorship fee that helps us be able to put on all the various programs that we can put on. And then their involvement can be pretty much limited only to their time and interest in what they would like to do. We have members on our executive committee with me, and we have executives that, you know, support in ways that they can, where they'll, you know, take on certain advocacy roles or certain parts of Hawaii's military that may have more of an appeal to them. For example, somebody who was in the Army and now is involved in working with the Army here will have more of an interest in helping the Mac with Army relationship building and getting the Army to in Hawaii to participate in different functions that we're putting on. The same thing with others from the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, et cetera, Air Force. Don't forget the Coast Guard. Would you mind singing the song? Never mind. So Jason, you know, I really like to do case studies. I want to do a case study with you. So we have this conference coming up and on one side of the military, presumably the brass, on the other side are the entrepreneurs, the executives from civilian companies, defense contractors and all that. And they're going to mingle. You know, one of the most interesting issues is the problem, the challenge of rotation. So if I'm a senior, I'm not going to stay here more than X years after a while, I'm going to get rotated out probably. And somebody's going to come in may not know as much about Hawaii or the Hawaii business or, you know, supporting civilian community. How first question in my little case study at the conference is how do you deal with the brass who just arrived? How do you bring them up to the Acomai in, you know, dealing with the civilian side of the formula? Jay, that's the that's a million dollar question, right? Thanks for that. There's there, that is something that we're always looking at how to better address. As you know, unfortunately, a lot of times where relationships are all personality dependent. Every once in a while, you'll see where it goes to an institution or it the the relationship goes beyond just the individual. And so people will recognize certain organizations that yes, that is a key stakeholder that we have to establish and maintain a relationship with. And that's what we kind of strive for with the Mac between the military as well as the Mac with state and local officials and the Codel, right? The three or four really, really, really key stakeholders. And now I would include in there the community at large because that is also in a very incredible or very important stakeholder. So one is what we found is once you start to develop the relationship with a lot of the senior officials, if it's truly a value proposition for them to invest a time in energy to develop that relationship, they are passing that on to their successor. Hey, here's the top four or five people you must establish a relationship with. Number one, number two is what we're finding is that the military is fairly savvy about this because they have this not just in Hawaii, but everywhere when I served in Korea, it was the same way. And so what the military is doing to a large extent is you'll see individuals who are senior leaders. Very, very rare is that the first time they've served in that region. You know, if you look at Admiral Aquilino, he has served multiple times was just the pack fleet commander, and now he's in a role as the end of pay comp commander. General Charlie Flynn served back here as a major. I think he has a total of 14 years in Hawaii. So very significant, long history, long background to develop those different relationships. The other component is and what we're seeing in a lot of the organizations is establishing civilian deputies or senior civilians that are in critical key positions as advisors to the command. And that also because that provides you the continuity. And now you're going from two, three, four years to someone who has been working in that position, but developing relationships with key stakeholders for five, six, seven, eight, 10 years. Very key. The other part that you see in that is the leveraging of like the reserve and the National Guard. So one of my favorite people in the world, Susie Varis-Lem, who's my classmate from college, her husband, me and my wife are all classmates from the ROTC program at University of Hawaii. When she was a special advisor to the end of pay comp commander, very strategic selection to make her the special advisor and, and run with all things, not just in terms of how in the pay comp in the United States, few women in the military, because she was an advocate throughout the entire end of pay comp region for that very specific reason, but also as the, as the point person for all things that deal with the community and engagement for end of pay comp for, for that command and her replacement, Mark Hashimoto, local boy went to Punahou, I won't hold that against him. But same thing. And that's what they're looking at is how do you keep that critical position, right? Someone who understands the island has the personal connections, professional relationships, so we can continue to have, so there's some semblance of continuity, because you're absolutely right. Those, those relationships are so key. The last thing I would tell you is that, and Steve has really emphasized this to both myself and Jennifer Sabas is that we really need to have a more formalized way of when new commanders or senior leaders come into their position, that we immediately sit down with them and walk through the significance of these different relationships and how we as a Mac can facilitate a lot of these, a lot of this for them. I don't have to tell you that food is an important part of that. Yes. Well, anyway, I wanted to go to another, another point and that is you talked about the alliance with members of the legislature and the government. They also turn over, right? They turn over a couple of years and when they come in fresh, they could be very fresh. And how do you, how do you bring them up to speed in terms of this, you know, two-party conversation? Jay, another great question. This is, it's the same thing, right? In fact, the next two Mondays, Jen and I are having lunch with some of the new chairs that are coming in with the new legislature. I think I can't remember the first name, but the one who, the individual who's taking over for the, as the military rep within the state legislature, we're having lunch with them to walk over what the Military Affairs Council does and how we can advocate and support him. We invite a lot of them to a lot of our events, to get exposure to these different things, as Steve had mentioned, so they understand what the military does here in Hawaii and what their key issues are and what their key concerns are and how do we start to build partnerships. The MAC Partnership Conference is part of that as well as some of the other engagements. And we also work with the commands to actively reach out to them. So we've been working with INOPACOM and this was initially under, when Susie was the Special Advisor, for INOPACOM to host a day where they would host the House and the Senate up there, so they would understand, hey, this is INOPACOM, this is Camp Smith, you know, this is what our mission is, this is what the threat is within the region, but here's the other things that we do. And you start to then start, you know, to develop those relationships between those different individuals. So if you have a question about what's going on with DRIDOC-5 or Pearl Harbor and the new optimization program, you know the individual to call to have those questions or to talk about, you know, the environmental study that's going on out there that's going to impact your district. So those are all different ways that we try to also bridge that and start the dialogue and develop those critical, very critical relationships. Okay, now for my case study, we have a few minutes more for my case study. I want to make Steve, let's see, why don't we make Steve an entrepreneur, an executive and a defense contractor, okay? And he's sitting at a table in the conference or whatever the environment is next to you, actually, Jason. And you're the Military Affairs Committee or you're some, you know, senior in the military community sitting next to Steve, and you're there for familiarization, you're there for maybe making a deal, you know, setting the ramp up on contract negotiations, who knows what, okay? So what does the conversation sound like? So Steve, you begin with, hi Jason, it's nice to meet you, and then Jason will respond. Well, yeah, I mean, it would, this is an example of what I was talking about earlier. So I'm brand new in Hawaii with a defense company. I wasn't in the military before. Maybe I haven't even, you know, lived in Hawaii before. So Jason, here I am, I want to do good things in Hawaii to support, you know, the military want to do well in my business career, but I really don't want to trip up with, because I know this is a place that is a lot of relationships. Can you help me and give me some guidance and background on how the military operates here and, you know, what are some of the things I should do to make sure I don't stumble too hard? I love this conversation. All right, Jason, your turn. Well, like you said, Jay, the first thing I'll make sure is that we've got something really good to eat, because it's always better with good food and good drink, right? And welcome kind of Steve, right, as a guest and say, hey, thanks so much for this opportunity. You've come to the right place, right, to really kind of understand this. And I would give them, you know, the reader's digest version of why the military is so critical here in Hawaii with all the different statistics, but really tell them it is all about getting integrated into the community. It's really about understanding what the mission is and how important it is. It's really understanding that all the other things that just don't do with economy, right, but deal with community engagement, deal with opportunities, and whether that's if you're a civilian or in the military or in the defense industry, or you're not in the defense industry, because you're not in defense industry, you're also benefiting from the defense industry, right, from a second and third order effect element. And really kind of walk them through that, give them my card and say, hey, anytime you want to talk about this, that's what we're here for from a Mac. If you want to come to one of our meetings, let me know. We'll get you into a meeting, you know, I'll send you an example. And, you know, there's this really, really cool show that we're on all the time that gives an archive of the things we're doing. It's called, it's called Think Tech Hawaii. And this really great guy, Jay Fidel, runs this and he'll give you a really good understanding of, you know, the menu of things that we do here in Hawaii, right? It's not just defense, it's all these other things, you know, partnership, etc., etc. So that would be my pitch to him. I'm laughing because I was going to suggest a very same thing. Okay, so, you know, you do have an agenda to make deals, you know, to do contracting, to get involved as a matter of business. How do you open that subject, Steve? What do you say and how do you pursue it? Well, now, that's a good one for somebody, let's say, who's coming over here and is either with a company or has their own company and wants to do business, wants to start getting in the middle. Jason talked earlier about not only the importance of the defense sector here in Hawaii as the number two industry, but also how going forward, given the geopolitical situation, particularly with China, everything we are reading and hearing is that the spending is only going to go up, which is going to lead to more opportunities here. So as somebody that would be looking to get involved and get his perhaps share of business here, I'd be coming over to Jason to say, hey, Jason, you know, I want to want to see if I can, you know, win some of these contracts here in Hawaii with the different defense industries. Can you put me in touch with some of the contractors that are going or what about on the PR side, any ideas on public relations firms that can help me on the work on the community engagement? I hear that's a big deal over here. Legal side, you know, legal resources, you know, it's a classic chamber of commerce function for both businesses, individuals who want to get involved and get their slice of pie of the defense sector, as well as, you know, ones that want to be more effective in the work they're already doing by improving their relationships with the military here and really just getting more involved in that in our military community. Wow, you know, wow, what a great conversation. So, Jason, there you are. You're impressed because this fellow has really thought it through. He knows what to ask you. What's your response and what's your follow-up on that? Yeah, Jay, what I would tell them is, hey, that's great. We can definitely help you, but we want to know what your commitment is to Hawaii. What's your investment into Hawaii? What we don't want is, you know, let's say a large company comes to Hawaii and they're looking at, oh, right, there's a lot of great work that's going to be, that could be done here. You know, how do we just parachute a bunch of folks to come in here and take a lot of these really great jobs? Or how do we bring in this one company as a subcontractor to lay a bunch of concrete for the new dry dock? So when we approach, when large companies approach us, we're like, hey, that's what we're here to do is to kind of bridge that gap and to kind of look for opportunities. But at the same time, we are very focused on not, well, it is by American, but more specifically, it's by Hawaii, right? By Hawaiian. How do you buy local, right? So if a large company comes here and wants to do contracting work, we're trying to figure out, all right, well, what investment are you making here into Hawaii? You know, if you're going to have someone as a site lead here set up an office here, look at the local companies that you get subcontract work out to. We'll help you kind of develop that relationship. We'll point you in a direct, right direction to a native Hawaiian organization or other small businesses here in Hawaii that can actually round out your capability that then allows you, right, to be much more competitive in the eyes of not only the contracting commands here who have their small business set asides, right? But also when we start to advocate for additional funds with the CODEL. So if you're a large company and you're there and you're standing and you're partnered with University of Hawaii and you're partnered with the National Guard doing some internships and you're also partnered with some local small businesses, it's kind of a no brainer, right? For everyone to look at that said, yeah, this is exactly what we're trying to do versus, hey, we just, we brought a bunch of engineers over from Pennsylvania to kind of do this initial work in scoping for the Pearl Harbor build out. So that's basically what not only what I would say to Steve, but what we are saying to people when they ask us those questions is how are you invested in Hawaii? What a fabulous discussion this has been. Thank you so much, Jason Chung and Steve Cologne for this very, very educational experience. I may go to your website and join right away. And we should do this again. I'll be following you. You can run, but you can't hide. Jason and Steve, thank you so much. Sounds great, Jay. Thank you for having us. Thank you, Jay. Welcome back anytime.