 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the commanding officer of the Marine Innovation Unit, Colonel Brooks Brayden. Welcome to the Relief and Appointment Ceremony. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the invocation by Chaplain Green. I invite you to join me in prayer. Let us pray. Most gracious and loving God, this evening we come before you to thank you for the dedicated and unparalleled leadership of Sergeant Major Robert K. Lusk. For his dedicated and tenacious service to God and to country, we give you thanks. As he now moves on to his next chapter, we humbly ask that your continued grace be over his life and over his loving family. As Master Garry Sar, David Ariano now assumes the mantle of this new challenge, we ask that your divine hand would lead him and guide his every decision. May he not waver in truth or in sacrifice, but may he always yield to your mighty and powerful hand. And like a true Marine indeed, may they both always be found faithful. In your name, we pray together. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. The commanding officer will now take his place in the reviewing area. Since 1875, non-commissioned and staffed non-commissioned officers have carried the non-commissioned officer's sword as a symbol of their ability and prestige as enlisted leaders of the Marine Corps. The senior enlisted advisor is the keeper of traditions for their unit. Today's emblematic passing of the sword of office signifies the transfer of this sacred trust from one senior enlisted advisor to another. The senior enlisted advisors will now report to the commanding officer. To Sergeant Major Robert K. Lust, permanent change of station orders, effective 1 March 2024, you are relieved of your duties as the Sergeant Major, Marine Innovation Unit, Marine Forces Reserve, and will report to the commanding officer, First Civil Affairs Group, Camp Hamilton, California. Signed Eric M. Smith, coming on the Marine Corps. Sergeant Major Robert K. Lust reporting to the old senior enlisted advisor. You are relieved. Master Gunnery Sergeant David Ariano, effective 1 March 2024, you are appointed as the senior enlisted advisor, Marine Innovation Unit, Marine Forces Reserve, signed Eric M. Smith, coming up of the Marine Corps. Sir, Master Gunnery Sergeant David Ariano reporting as the new senior enlisted advisor. At this time, we will present Master Gunnery Sergeant Ariano's wife Emily with flowers from the command. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for honors to our national colors. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. It is such an honor to be able to preside over this post and relief ceremony. It is one of those few honors privileges as a commanding officer to be able to to preside over this. First of all, Emily, excuse me, Dr. Emily Ariano, thank you so much for coming out and participating in this ceremony, and thank you so much for letting us borrow him and letting him become a member of our family here at the Marine Innovation Unit. I know it's not easy for you, and so thank you very much on behalf of all the Marines here. He is exactly what the Marine Innovation Unit names now. We are a collection of uniquely skilled Marines who have acquired our skills mostly from the civilian role, and this is a big collection of uniquely skilled Marines with unique experiences that are not copied within the Marine Corps, and having his experience here now is the best fit for us right now in what we're doing. For those of the Marines who don't know, Master Gunnery Sergeant Ariano comes from the artillery field and he at various different levels has served as a fire chief, so basically what we here at the Marine Innovation Unit are doing are providing strategic fires, creating strategic effects throughout the Marine Corps, and even in the joint community as well. So that expertise of being able to understand the readiness, about being able to understand how to keep the pulse of the unit so that we can create effects across the Marine Corps on call quickly, promptly, and also to keep a pulse on us. In the civilian world, he's a firefighter and recently was promoted to, has been moving up the ranks during his career. And I can say, I mean there's no fires at MIU, but there's a lot of Marines who've been running pretty hot. So having you here to help create and partner with me to create a sustainable pace so that we can continue to have effects going forward, it's a real privilege in order to have you here with us. So thank you very much. Sergeant Major Lusk, it's just such an amazing thing that the Marine Innovation Unit exists because the right people came together at the right time in the right place thanks to so many people. And Sergeant Major Lusk is certainly one of those people that was the right person at the right time and was instrumental in informing it, informing the Marine Innovation Unit. If you look at the skills that he has against a lot of the skills that we have here, he has a lot of experience in the commercial world doing Silicon Valley startups and doing large, working at large enterprise organizations. And I think there's a lot of people have had experienced in one or the other, but not necessarily both. But he also has a lot of experience transitioning those personality led startups to process led, mature organizations on many levels. And so he brings that breadth and experience. And it's almost that like psychic view when you're talking to him because he's done it so many times before in the civil civilian world. He has brought that to MIU. And even now in his own organizations, he's done it at the technical and the process level. He works in mergers and acquisitions. And now at his company to facilitate other ways of acquiring new capabilities and things for his company there. So for me in particular as a commanding officer coming in here, as you know from a lot of units, when you become a commanding officer, you've probably done a couple tours in that unit. So you're a bit familiar with what is happening here. And so at Marine Innovation Unit, none of us really have the pleasure of that past experience. So having a Sergeant Major who has both that breadth and depth of experience in the commercial world with technology, with processes as well as the depth of that experience on the Marine Corps side to know how to navigate all of it was a real blessing for me and really helped me as I was getting up to speed and learning about what everybody here at the Marine Innovation Unit is doing. So that was just again having the right person at the right place for me was a complete godsend. And I think a lot of you would agree that although we would have very frequent conversations and he as a senior enlisted advisor was a sounding board for me on all of my crazy ideas and things and ideas that I wanted and helped me put him together with everybody's doing and having the institutional history, the problems that you all were trying to solve early on and how you got to where you are today was absolutely essential. And I know that a lot of you have benefited with those same types of conversations late night conversations for hours of mentoring, of coaching, not only at a Marine Corps level, but a professional level as well. And I think it is fair to say without a doubt that this unit would not exist here today. It would not be where it is today, creating the effects across the Marine Corps if it were not for him. And this unit is stronger and better positioned and ready to go out and change the Marine Corps, change the DOD, and I don't know if it sounds too bold, save the world. But that's how I feel about the Marine Innovation Unit is that that's how important we are and that's how important the contribution that Sergeant Major Lusk has made. So at this time, we had put, we put Sergeant Major in for award there. It hasn't come back yet. So it is, it is just stuck in the bureaucracy at the Pentagon right now. So we're just waiting. So in lieu of that, we have some gifts that we would like to give Sergeant Major. So please, Sergeant Major, would you come up? I also have a special guest, my predecessor, Colonel Swingle came by and also brought a gift as well to reflect the support that Sergeant Major gave to him when he was commanding officer as well. Hey Marines, how are we doing? All right. So you know, I like to tell stories. I'm going to tell you. The first time I met Rob was when I checked in the fourth force, having just come off a tour with DIA and prior to that it's here here. And I came and walked in and I was assessing and the first thing we did was we carried a creek about a half mile down. We got in, we rode for about, it was about a half mile over the Almeida Island. Then you had to pick it up and you had to run around about a 1.5 mile, get back, first person back got bragging rights for the entire drill period. So in my boat team was going to restart Lusk, the comm chief. And there's nothing about them. The first thing that we did is as soon as we got in, there were other captains, there were other senior listed in my boat team, they all deferred to him. He gave the orders and went to lift the boat, what cadence we were going to step off off on our left feet. It's a comm chief, right? And it struck me right there, why is everyone deferring to the gunner sergeant here? We all know why. He did. We became fast friends and I stuck with him and I was like, this guy's going to places and he did. One of the first people to get promoted to first sergeant, then sergeant major and then boom, it was no surprise. When the idea for MIU came around, my first call was to another fireman, Dave and Emily, named Dave Winaker. I said, I got this wild ass idea. You went? I'm in. And I was like, what about Ra? Hell yeah. Let's put the band back together. So we did. He came in, he was already the sergeant major of third force and while he was doing that job, working a full-time job and parenting two girls, he said I'm in and he basically became our unofficial senior listed advisor working nights and weekends to give us the capacity we needed to work on. The deal we struck was, I was going to be the up and out crazy idea guy. Dave was going to be the enforcer and Rob was going to take care of all the internal things that needed to happen. By a show of hands in this room, who has benefited from a one-on-one conversation with Rob, whether it's Marine Corps, civilian or just a life. That's my point. You're looking at a man here who I deeply admire, who has provided me counsel for over a decade, who is frankly the epitome of what I think a Marine should be. He has taken lives. He has led from the front. He has volunteered for every leadership opportunity that has been afforded to him. And as he has excelled in an exchange for that, he has earned the trust of hundreds if not thousands of Marines who have fallen into the darkest bowels of combat, let alone MIU in what we do. And for that, I'm grateful and for all that we are all very lucky. The biggest regret that I have is that I don't get to serve with him. The biggest takeaway that I have is that I continue to call him my friend and I continue to talk to him for the decades that we have after we leave the Marine Corps. So it is with a heavy heart that we do this ceremony, but it passes the torch. Dave, Emily, again, welcome to the family. You've got enormous shoes to fill. It's going to suck, but I think it's going to be worth it in the end when you're two years away from now. So a lot of you pitched in and, you know, when you give a guy who one has just about everything, who gives everything to you, us, and we came together with a gift that you give to a fire and forget weapon. And with that, anyone want to take a guess what it is? What's that? A whiteboard? The fire and forget weapon is a fire and forget weapon. So Rob is very fond of things that shoot and go bang. He's got every single, what is it, every single service weapon from 1918 to the present day. So I couldn't get him an M1. Can't get him an M14. I'm like, what do you want? He's like, well, this six hour AR15 platform seems pretty nice. So for all of you that I'll donate to give to him, and there was obvious reasons why I can't get it to him right here. Here you go from the Marine, Marine Innovation Unit shoot while continuing to do what you do. So Rob, thank you. Life is about building relationships, fostering and nurturing interactions with people that you care about. Each of those interactions will have a beginning and a parting. It's important that you work with each interaction to ensure you have the best possible parting. Because you never know when you're going to work with someone again. MIEU was founded by a coalition of the willing, focused on a dream of the possible. That started three years ago. Colonel Matt Swindle gave me a call and he said, I have an idea. For those of you that know him, he has many ideas. But this one intrigued me. As I mentioned earlier, or as he mentioned earlier, I was a Sergeant Major at Third Force Recon at the time. And he talked to me about wanting to make change in a macro level, but doing it in a way that the reserves had never done before. He wanted to stand up a new reserve unit that would impact change differently. For the last 20 years, we've been an operational reserve and I've spoken to you about this, where we augmented the active force in life for like MOSs. What he wanted to do in his dream that we bought in on was how we take the experience of Marines. Their experience not just in the Marine Corps and in the Joint Force, but also in the civilian sector. And how do we bring that experience to the active component to help better inform their decisions based off our unique perspective that was not organic to what they had to deal with? And he sold us. He promised me long hours, no pay and lots of friction, and he delivered in Spain. But I've already talked about MIU this week and our origins in depth. I'm not going to dig any deeper, but I do want to talk about the similarities of MIU and startups. Success in startups is often predicated at first by sheer will and determination of personality. That's what got us here. Few people wear him many hats. But we are at an inflection point. In order to be successful, in order to scale, we must mature. The attributes that made us successful going from zero to one would not necessarily make us successful going from one to many. We must move past personality based success and move into process oriented solutions so that we can scale, sustain, and remain relevant. Each of you has a limited time here at MIU. And MIU promises you nothing more than an opportunity to affect change. Think about what you want your legacy to be. When you leave, what impact do you want to imprints on the Marine Corps? What future warfighters lives do you want to save? It could be your sons or your daughters, your cousins or your nephews. Your actions will dictate the outcome. Last week I had a long conversation with Sergeant Major Ruiz, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. He sends us condolences. He's currently filling in for the commandant and wasn't able to make it here tonight. But he wanted me to impart to you his concerns, his wishes and his thoughts on what made MIU successful up until this point and what is going to make MIU successful going into the future. If you haven't worked with Sergeant Major Ruiz before, he's very approachable and very down to earth and very focused on taking care of Marines. Number one, when he got a white paper along Lieutenant General Bellin from this random and then they ready, whether we want to admit or not, we all have unconscious or conscious bias. When someone walks in the room, we look at them up and down and we go, are they a good Marine? And if we think so, our minds might be open just a little bit more to what they have to say. And if not, it's going to be that much harder to get something across. He talked about building political capital and we've been single time, we walk in there and act like Marines and look like Marines and execute and deliver like Marines and we need that political capital. By the nature of what we do, we are going to stumble because when you innovate, that's what happens. There's friction, but we get back up, we fail fast and we execute on what is needed to be successful. And if we don't have that political capital built up, we won't be able to carry ourselves through that. We have to have the momentum. So every interaction that you make across the board build that political capital. You are United States Marines. You earned it. Show everyone what you can be so that we can get through those friction points and impact change at a greater level. The other thing that made us successful is that we were not on the blotter for anything. Well, almost nothing. I'll get to that in a second. We are not on the blotter for anything Marine really does make no mistake about it. There is no MIU standard. There is only the Marine Corps standard and that is what we must live by. We're all proud of this because we earned it. We're not proud because it has a name tape on it. We're proud because that is a bureaucracy. We're proud of the history and tradition and the honor that Marines that wore this before us, their actions, their deeds, not just their words and that's what's going to carry us forward. He wanted to tell you the success of MIU hangs on a knife and if we waver just one bit and we fail, we will cease to exist just as quickly as we became. From one June 2021 to March of 2022, less than nine months we became a unit out of nothing from ideation and execution. Normally it takes two to four years or never to stand up a new unit. What we have is special because it is finite, because it is fragile. If something is infinite, there's no value in it just like your lives. They're valuable because they're finite. Consider how you want to spend that time and what you want your legacy to be. Success in business and in life is about building relationships and it's more important to have those deep relationships than is to have the quantity of relationships and good relationships spend distance and time and due to what we do and this disaggregated nature of everyone here, we all have friends that would be their force in a heartbeat or we have those that because there's something else they have to do, they're scattered around the world but doesn't make them any less loyal or dedicated to us. I've had, I have many good friends here today and I may, they could not be here today but those that are here today, you grace me with your time and your presence. Thank you. Life is about building relationships and learning from those that interact with. To all of you, spend your time with your family and your friends and your colleagues, building those relationships, deepening those interactions because with every single interaction there is a beginning and there is a parting and you should struggle and focus and put the effort in to ensure that every single parting is the best possible parting it could be because you never know and you're going to see someone again, some food elsewhere. Sir, distinguished guests, my wife, Emily, ladies and gentlemen, Marines say today and I have to be honest here, right now they're all seeming like it's going to get lost in in in an emotion so forgive me if I stumble through this. I want to communicate what a privilege this is and how grateful I am to be standing here to be part of this unit as this responsibility has been handed to me I consider the hands of the man that I received from a man that I have profound respect for as do I expect all of you a man that is a compassionate leader a superb Marine and a man among men. Sergeant Major Lusk, you have not made this easy for me but I promise I promise to carry on your legacy with passion dedication and integrity and it's my distinct pleasure and privilege on behalf of a very grateful unit and please everyone join me in wishing you every heartfelt bon voyage. It's an honor to stand here alongside you to be a part of a unit that's so unique and so young in its inception I've been part of this gun club now for well since 1997 and an artillery scout observer since the very beginning I say all that to give you all context that I've I've walked the long path of the reserves for many years now and I'm not trying to say that I have all the answers to everything in fact I don't but I know how to get the answers to nearly everything so I will use my expertise like you said sir as a school trained scout observer to navigate the tough terrain of the marine reserves to help you all be successful whether you like it or not so but all joking aside confidence that I'm the most qualified master gunnery sergeant in the reserves to take the baton and run this next leg of the race it's uh it's everyone's responsibility to manage our own civilian careers but what I want to communicate to you guys is the core value that I bring to MIU it's how to help you both officer and enlisted how to manage your reserve career and navigate that reserve core as a center saved by grace to serve with you Marines I'm eager to get to know every single one of you and I'm I'm proud to serve alongside you thank you and the Marines him and be sure to sing along to the Marines him ladies and gentlemen this concludes today's ceremony on behalf of the commanding officer and Marines of the Marine Innovation Unit thank you for your attendance