 O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming, And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. Let us pray, Almighty God, we have come together today To honor the service and sacrifice of Colonel Michael Katona and his spouse, Kathy, After 30 years in our nation's military. From being a young platoon leader to director of Joint Staff Legislative Affairs, Our nation salutes Colonel Katona in view of his countless assignments in leadership, In valuable advisement to commanders and the chairman, Selfless service to countless numbers across the Joint Force, And his impeccable military record as an elite and highly decorated officer. Furthermore, special honor goes to his family, Kathy and daughters Natalie, Ava and Audrey. For you, Lord, know how many days and nights they sacrificed him to military duty and service to our nation's defense. Likewise, only you know Kathy's service to soldiers, as well as fellow military spouses and families. In no doubt, she contributed to the readiness of soldiers in ways enabling the successful accomplishment of the Army's mission. Lord, as the Katona family moves into their next phase of life, I pray them fruitfulness in their endeavors, Along with health and prosperity. But for today, may they know the feeling of a grateful nation and the honor of a job well done In service to the principles of democracy and freedom upon which our nation stands. In your holy name I pray, amen. Please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, General Retired Millie. And we want to emphasize the retired part, so very well done. Hey, look, thanks everybody. I know it's busy here. And depending on thanks for those of you who had to break away from your jobs, And I want to particularly thank Mike's family for being here and making the trip. Not everyone could be here. And Natalie, who is at Baylor right now, She is, it's Thursday afternoon, it's kind of mid-afternoon, class are over. Partying is starting. So supposedly she's on camera. We can't verify that. So we'll see. And then Ava is at home and she's got a little bit, come out of the weather with a little bit of cold and flu. So she's at home. But the rest of Mike's family is here. And we're very fortunate that they're all here and we'll talk about them in just a minute. But thank you all for being here. And I do want to acknowledge that Senator Ernst made it. That's a big statement for you, Mike. So, there she is. So you got a vote of one out of the United States Senate. So this is good. Yeah, so Senator Tubbleville passes her grass. He couldn't make it. But thank you, Senator, for being here. Sorry. Hey, look at this. Retired, baby. What can they do, right? I guess they could probably do a lot. But anyway, but thank you for being here. And thanks also for your leadership. You know, the Department of Defense, the military, writ large, the Army in particular. None of us could do anything without the great support of the United States Congress, both the House and the Senate. And so thanks for being here to represent all the other 535 members of the board of directors. So thank you for being here. And also, I want to thank the former Secretary McCarthy, also a ranger buddy, by the way, of Mike Atona back in the day. So Mike was the battalion adjutant. And Lieutenant McCarthy at the time would be placed on staff duty on a frequent basis. And he owed that Form 6 entirely to the S-1, which is right over there. So today's payback time. So now he's the former Secretary. So I want to thank you for being here. You've, your leadership of the Army and your leadership through the Department of Defense has been tremendous. And I know you've been friends with Mike, you know, all your professional life. So thanks. Arianne, thank you for being here as well. I want to thank the legislative liaison from OSD for all the great support you guys have done. And I will tell you that we'll talk a little bit about LL in a few minutes, but really tremendous support from OSD for Army and for joint staff. And so I just want to thank you. And Jim Griffin's here to represent the entire United States media. So that's good as well. Dave Butler's back there. Way to go Dave. That's good. And so thanks, but thanks everyone for being here and I appreciate it. You know, we're here really for Mike and his family. This is a great day. This concludes 30 consecutive years of tremendous service. Think about that. This is a tremendous service to our nation. And today in this Hall of Heroes, we're acknowledging a great American hero who has served in peace and in war. And today is also Patriots Day. It's the 18th of April and 75 Hardly Man is Not Alive. Who remembers that famous day and year, the midnight ride of Paul Revere. And I know everyone's from Boston by heart anyway. And that's kind of one of those poems you learn when you're in grade school. But today's Patriots Day and we're also not only celebrating American hero, but we're celebrating a great American patriot and that Patriots family. Mike has served commission, you know, back in the day in 94 out of Western Michigan. And he's commissioned in infantry. And at that point, I think it was 6,621 second lieutenants were commissioned that year. And very, very few of them rose to the rank of Colonel. And he was commissioned in infantry and very few less, I think it was 26, actually end up commanding battalions out of that cohort of officers that year, the infantry officers that year. And I think it was only 12 that ended up commanding infantry brigades and out of that particular year, 1994. And you're looking at one of those to make those cuts is an acknowledgement of an exceptional degree of competence. And it starts with the 25th Division, commission out of RTC, heads out to Hawaii, goes with the gimlets, the 21st Infantry. And he serves in the 25th Division as a platoon leader, company XO. He actually does two platoons. He's a rifle platoon leader and also an AT platoon leader. And then he's the XO. Then he gets reassigned and he goes to the advanced course, normal assignments, goes to the advanced course, and then comes out and he goes to command a company. He goes to command a company in the 4th Division. He commands in 1-8, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry. So he was light and now he's mech. And then he decides, hey, I want to go special. So he successfully commands his company and he volunteers to go to RASP, the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program, and to join the Ranger Regiment. He gets selected as a tremendously talented young officer and he gets assigned to the 3rd Ranger Battalion where he, of course, supervises then Lieutenant McCarthy. And he does some work there on the staff and then he comes out and commands a company, HHC. He does a combat parachute jump with the Rangers back in the day at the beginning of the war. And then he finishes, company command goes to all the schools and then he gets some really key staff jobs and operations officers for battalions and brigades, which then, of course, leads to battalion command, or in his case, squadron command. And he gets picked up and that's a very tight shot group. You're looking at probably 8-9% of the officers ever get picked up for battalion command. He gets picked up for a line battalion and he commands the 4th Squadron or the 4th Calvary in the Big Red 1, 1st Infantry Division. Deploys the combat with them and leads them in some really tough fighting, which I'll talk about in just a second. And then finishes battalion command, selected for brigade command. And in that he goes to the 1st, 93rd at Jackson. And just to give you an idea, and I see Pete Johnson back there and he knows this very well, he is now in TRADOC. So he comes out of 4th Com, he goes over to TRADOC and that brigade alone trains in a year, in a given year, trained 100,000 soldiers year in, year out. So what's 100,000 soldiers? Well, that's about two-thirds the size of the United States Marine Corps, is 100,000 soldiers. That is twice as big as the Canadian Army. Think about that. That is bigger than the Canadian Army and the Australian Army combined. And that's a third bigger than the British Army. That's 100,000 soldiers. And that's just one training base, one training brigade of the United States Army. And Mike was there, but not only did Mike just train him, you know, at that point in time, there was a really, really, really good Secretary of the Army and a really incredible Chief of Staff of the Army. And we decided that we had just about enough of Mattis telling us how the Marines are better than the Army. So Secretary Mattis, you know, he's kind of digging in us a little bit about the Army standards and all this kind of stuff. So Secretary McCarthy and I said, okay, what are we going to do? So we first took a look at the Marine Corps and we said, okay, the Marines got this and that and the other thing. And their basic training was 25 weeks long. And they did this thing called the crucible. So we said, all right, we're going to give it to Mattis. We're going to go with 26 weeks. And that's what we did. And we created the crucibles only three days. We did five days. And it was called the Forge. And Pete Johnson and Mike Atona with the guys who innovated all that, brought it to fruition. And we changed the United States Army's basic training and Secretary McCarthy very politely went right back to Mattis and said, see, told you, Army's better than Marines. So that was good. Very well done. And so that's true, actually. Most of it. So Mike was instrumental in that. And that's really an innovative thing that the Army did in training. Not well reported, not well known, actually. But that was important to maintain exceptional standards of combat leadership, combat performance, combat capability and competence on a battlefield. It all begins right there in basic training, AIT and all the training base of trade-off. And then, because Mike did such a good job as a brigade commander, he gets picked up as the executive officer to Steve Townsend who was the trade-off commander. And just to give you an idea, everyone thinks force com. Just give you an idea of trade-off. 750,000 troops are trained by trade-off. That's U.S. troops. That is the Marine Corps trained by trade-off. That is foreign troops trained by trade-off. Every single year, 750,000 troops are trained by trade-off in all of our training bases. And we are training a massive amount year in, year out, year in, year out. And Mike was one part of that. But as the XO, what he had to do was coordinate for the commander for Steve Townsend. He had to coordinate, I think it's 32 schoolhouses. If my memory serves right, I don't think any more have been shut down. And of course, if they have, maybe the Senate can get them reopened. But the 32 schoolhouses on bases that stretch from coast to coast. Just a huge responsibility for trade-off. They also do all of our doctrine. They lead the way in experimentation and so on. So that job as executive officer, Steve Townsend, Steve Townsend himself, who couldn't be here, would tell you that what Mike did in support of him was huge. So all of those jobs, all the way up to command, all through command, were critical. But where I intersect with Mike Atona more formally than when he was a brigade commander in the innovating the base of training was when he becomes the legislative liaison for not only the Army, but also the joint staff. And I'll talk about that in a few minutes about what his competencies and his skills and character were there. So his competencies and his skills as an infantry officer are outstanding. And that's why he eventually makes Colonel. But that's not all it takes, right? So over his 30 years, he's demonstrated unbelievable courage, incredible courage. Not only does he put his knees in the breeze over a foreign country in a hazardous-study operation in an invasion and parachute into enemy territory, not only does he do that, but as a young officer, as a brigade S3, he's leading the tack for his striker brigade. They come under intense fire and ambush and he leads them in a counterattack for about a 30 to 45 minute firefight, ends up eliminating all of the enemy in that particular case, is in Iraq. And then he is the recipient of an award for Valor at a very young age for that action. Flash forward a little bit further. That was 2007, four years later. He's the squadron commander again for the 4th Calvary in the 1st Infantry Division. He's deployed in arguably the most difficult portion of Afghanistan at the time. The Argandab Valley, he was attached to 310 Third Brigade 10th Mountain Division. And he's in that fight, and it's our majors here, I think, as well. And here they are out there in this fight, day in and day out. That battalion took 143 wounded and eight killed in action in their year-long deployment. That's 18% casualties. That's Ewo Jima level casualties, just for folks who, you know, want to relate it to something historically. Think about that. 18% casualties in a battalion. That's the same amount of casualties that the Bandar brothers, the battalion I commanded, the 506, landed in Normandy. The same type of casualty rates. Ewo Jima, Normandy, Sicily, all those big battles of World War II. That's what the 4th Squadron of the 4th Calvary suffered in the Argandab Valley. And Mike led that every single day. And not only did he lead it, on one day in 2011, he's in his command vehicle going on the road of Matt V. And they get hit with a recoilless rifle. And it, you know, messes the whole vehicle up. He gets wounded, five others get wounded, get wounded together. Then he gets out of the vehicle, gathers the troops, and he leaves them in about an hour-long firefight with a Sergeant Major, both Sergeant Major and he are wounded. And leaves them in a firefight, eliminates the enemy, demonstrated enormous courage and perseverance and resilience under fire. That's courage. That's what he did every day, day in and day out in four tours of combat, three in Afghanistan, one in Iraq. Honoring by your presence. You're honoring a genuine American hero here in the Hall of Heroes. But, you know, your competence and your courage, that only takes you so far. What really makes the difference is character. And Mike Katona has an enormous amount of character. And what do we mean by that? We're talking about a guy who selflessly serves. He is a consummate team player, and a lot of the joint staff guys are here, a lot of the Army staff guys are here. Everyone of them will tell you that he has a shirt off his back and he's a consummate team player. It's never about himself. It's always about the team and it's always about you and helping you out. And he did that every single day. The other thing that distinguishes him in addition to selfless service and being a team player is this is a guy, and I can tell you firsthand, who never had a problem with speaking truth to power. And he always did it in a respectful way. He wasn't chipped on his shoulder by me and I can tell you that he would do the same thing to whether it was Steve Townsend or Pete Johnson or Secretary McCarthy and I'm sure he did it on the halls of the Hill as well. He would always be very respectful and professional but he would never hold back in his candor and his truthfulness. That is so important. It is so important in an environment that is potentially contentious as it is to get to the truth, to have people tell you the truth that you don't necessarily want to hear. But he did that, Mike Atona did it all the time. So his competence, his courage and his character and his courage in character to speak truth to power I think what distinguishes Mike. Now he didn't just magically sprinkle magic dust and all of a sudden end up as a colonel and get that way. The Army helps train him but really those characteristics, those traits, those attributes of an individual, same as true for all of you, that doesn't come from just yourself and it certainly doesn't come from all of your adult help from your teammates, etc. That really starts with your family and in his case, Clara, his mother who's here and Tom, dad, it starts right there. They're the folks that made him what he is today and they're the ones who formed his personality, shaped him, gave him the values that are in existence every single day. Clara and Tom's leadership was demonstrated day in and day out in the Argon Dot Valley. It was that character that was given to them and that's been supported for an entire career, for three decades by Kathy who's been by his side the entire time. It hasn't been easy. Husband goes off to war wounded all of the thoughts going through your mind, etc. But she stood by him steadfast day in and day out and the three girls are incredible Natalie, I don't know if you're partying yet I know you're out there somewhere but you know not only do we in uniform sacrifice and suffer, I got that but we're professionals, we know what we're doing we volunteer and recognize the hazards of our chosen profession but our families suffer and sacrifice way more than we do and especially our children. Our children don't necessarily know what is happening on a day-to-day basis when you're deployed in combat for a year or you're making a parachute jump into a foreign country and they see it on the news and they hear about it and the kids in the neighborhood are talking about it, etc. And then all of a sudden, Dag gets wounded and the world comes back to mom and so the impact on children is unbelievable on the family members of the soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines that go off and harm's way and I will tell you that in my case he has been blessed by the Kathy and the girls who have sustained him as a soldier for three consecutive decades. Natalie, party away but thank you very much for what you've done, your unconditional love of your dad, same thing with Ava who's not here and Audrey who is here your unconditional love for your dad has sustained him and that is one of the principal reasons why he's here today after three decades of faithful service to our nation. And the last thing I would just end with making a comment in Mike's case about his singular devotion to the Constitution and it is really a devotion for all of us. We all take an oath to that document called the Constitution and it is Patriot's Day and not throughout history not every human that ever lived lived in freedom not everybody lived in liberty and we were the first country a couple hundred years ago that brought that idea into fruition the idea that the govern should have a say in how they are governed. Before that everyone was ruled by kings and queens and tyrants and so on and everyone was a peasant and you didn't have a voice in your government and your government was controlled and you were living in some feudalistic society but our country with that document called the Constitution brought forth a new idea, a new nation and that has been in existence for two and a half centuries now and our military the United States military is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal and all women are created equal and every single American is created equal in the eyes of the law sort of thing and we are dedicated to protect and defend the idea that is America and the idea that is embodied within that Constitution and I can tell you that not only all of you but Micatona the guy we honor today Micatona has been dedicated for three consecutive decades to the proposition to keep that Constitution alive for not only this generation for his kids but for their grand for the grandkids and beyond right and that's what we all are so we should be thankful Mike to you I want to thank you personally for asking me to do this I appreciate that I did have a little kind of the willies coming back in here a little PTSD but we're doing okay but I do want to thank you for doing that and I want to thank everybody for being here we honor you today we honor your family we honor your service we honor your sacrifice we honor your courage your competence and most of all we honor your character so thank you Mike yeah don't cry would Mrs. Katona and Mrs. Millie please join General Millie in front of the flags yeah well do you cry with your wife Mrs. Katona and Mrs. Millie would you please join them in front of the flags please remain seated during the presentations attention to orders the defense superior service medal is awarded to Colonel Michael T. Katona United States Army Colonel Katona distinguished himself by superior service in a position of significant responsibility as legislative assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from May 2022 to September 2023 as the special assistant and director of legislative affairs Colonel Katona's unsurpassed knowledge of defense related matters legislative expertise and untiring devotion to duty made vital and lasting contributions in several areas critical to the national security of the United States Colonel Katona expertly orchestrated the chairman's legislative strategy and seamlessly integrated the Joint Staff the National Security Council the Office of the Secretary of Defense the Department of State of the Joint Command and Interagency Initiatives ensuring success during this period Colonel Katona was also responsible for coordinating, preparing and executing numerous congressional hearings briefings, meetings and confirmations for the chairman vice chairman, combatant commanders and the senior leadership of the Joint Staff these distinctive accomplishments of Colonel Katona reflect great credit upon himself the United States Army chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed General United States Army retired, 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff the Joint Staff Certificate of Retirement is being presented to Colonel Katona having served faithfully and honorably in the United States Army as a symbol of his faithful service to our nation Colonel Katona is being presented with the flag of the United States the Joint Staff Certificate of Appreciation is being presented to Mrs. Kathleen Katona it reads on the occasion of your spouse's retirement from the United States Army you have earned our country's appreciation for your unfailing support and understanding that helped make possible your spouse's lasting contribution to the nation signed General United States Army retired, 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff thank you Mrs. Katona and Mrs. Milley General Milley will now present a gift from the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Legislative Affairs to Colonel Katona you're representing the entire legislation you're representing the entire American people right now thank you General Milley ladies and gentlemen Colonel Michael T. Katona United States Army retired thank you wow so uh can you guys hear me alright so they always say it takes a village right to make a colonel or make you know leader in the military in the army you know it usually takes a village for me it takes three small midwestern cities to get me here but thanks for all being here we got folks who traveled from all over the place to be here and took a lot of time took a lot of money to get here so I really appreciate it we have to thank Senator Ernst because I was gonna not have a retirement ceremony and I was gonna go quietly into the night and she said no you have to have a retirement so in fact I'm ordering you to have a retirement ceremony you're not gonna get away without one that's right exactly just keep an eye on me still so thank you ma'am for doing this I wanna welcome you Secretary McCarthy thanks for being here I'll talk about you in a little while here Rianne and Tom thanks for being here Rianne it was I'll talk to you afterwards tremendous to work with you so I'm gonna go what's called getting left to the boom and I'm gonna go to the emotional stuff early to try to stave off the craziness here so I'm gonna start with my family who really is the most important thing in my life so we got some stuff up here you probably see that at Audrey it's not all yours I know you like flowers but let me start talking about my wife Kathy so I was single for a long time and I had a good time all that stuff Hawaii, Colorado Springs good place to be single but I had this ex-girlfriend that I went out with in high school and she lived in Chicago she moved to Chicago from Michigan she would write me occasionally just as a friend or whatever and she said hey I have this girl you need to meet you would really like her and I was a company commander in Colorado Springs at the time and I said okay great it would probably never happen we probably wouldn't be married right now if we had so it was a whole year later I don't mean in a bad way she wanted to go to the laundry man instead and didn't show up at the bar she wanted to do her laundry instead of meeting me so a year later my friend is like hey my friend still wants to meet you you need to meet her so I'm in Colorado Springs and she's in Chicago and so I write her a note on an email this is 2000 right not very high tech so I write her a note and I answer for two weeks she's like what the hell so I guess this guy's blowing me off again so then I come back from the field we have no phones or anything and I write back oh I'm sorry I was in the field we don't have any phones all that good stuff and so we write to each other for a whole month didn't even know anything about her didn't know what she looked like I had no idea I mean my ex-girlfriend wasn't that bad looking so she couldn't be too bad I was like okay I really like this girl I like the way she writes so I'm going to call her so then I started calling her I called her and we talked for a month so I had no idea what she looked like and we just talked back and forth and so then I invited her to come out skiing in Colorado I was going to take her to Breckenridge and so she actually moved down to Texas in the meantime and was living in Texas with her sister and so sight unseen she came up to Colorado Springs and she looked like she got off the airplane I'm not kidding and she's like first thing she says to me she's like you're a lot shorter than I thought you'd be I'm not kidding I'm like thanks and so we go skiing and she had a friend who lived in Denver so she had a bailout plan I wasn't some creeper or anything so she figured okay this guy's alright so I take her skiing and she comes back home she comes back again and this time I take her in the summer I take her bike riding, road riding and so this is her first time on a road bike and I've done a lot of road riding with some unit out here and we're like way out in the middle of nowhere in like Fountain Colorado like 30 miles away and we've got a couple pros with us Murray Holden who won the bronze medal in the Olympics and Alison Snyder anyway there's a guy their coach is on a motorcycle with wheels on it this is her first time on a bike like in a long time I probably shouldn't have done that but she did it anyway and so halfway there she's like I'm hurting a little bit so this guy comes behind her and pushes her with the motorcycle and no one Kathy she didn't like that so she put the brakes on she's like nobody's going to push me and she made it back in on her own that's the way she is so I love my wife before on the inside and he left the boom here I love my wife on the inside before the outside so let me give you this next are my kids and Nally you better not be drinking anything right now yeah they don't no not at that school so I have three daughters right and all of us have daughters that's the way we do it and I'm very lucky to have three daughters because they take care of me and they honestly do and hopefully they'll take care of me when I'm you know General Melly's agent beyond young man still a young man looking good in a suit but so I'm immensely proud of my daughters Nally's 19 Eva who is very under the weather today she feels horrible she couldn't make it but she needed to stay home she's watching right now too she is 17 and Audrey is 13 and all of them are scholars and that all points back to Kathy because that's not in here they got all that from them and they got their looks from her too so Nally is at Baylor she wants to be a PA that's her Kathy's dad in God rest his soul he died in 2020 he was a cardiologist and a tremendous man bigger than life and I think she got a lot of that from him so she wants to go she wants to be a PA she's doing great it's her freshman year I was very nervous about starting out there but you know she kind of didn't want to leave mom and dad but you know anyway her sisters down there so it's all good she's a semi professional spike ball player I didn't even know spike ball was a thing like six months ago and no idea what that was and she I'm very proud of her she got a scholarship so she didn't have to use all our GI bill up save that for some of the other kids and she's doing great Ava who's homesick in bed right now hope you can see me Ava Ava is a junior at Yorktown high school she's in a national honor society too and she is kicking butt so I said here's the deal you keep the grades above a 3.8 there might be a car in the future go below 3.8 I don't know I can't control it so she's well above that I'm very immensely proud of her and then Audrey is our seventh grader Williamsburg high school or Williamsburg middle school I'm promoting you already straight A's already and you know what I'm retiring it's like a fun day she's like no Dan I have to go to school you have to take me to school I don't know what it is I wasn't like that right must have been my wife so very proud of all of them Audrey and Ava are figure skaters it's not quite hockey I play hockey but they're still on the ice I'm out there every Wednesday with them so very proud of all three of the girls and the influence that my wife has had on them and she has set the example that's the other thing I didn't mention so not only is my wife all these other great things I talked about but she is my worst critic and she is my biggest supporter she keeps me straight all the time on the straight and narrow I wouldn't be standing here right now I literally wouldn't be standing here I'd be fired from the range regiment and Secretary McCarthy knows that but he knew her when we were dating and she literally sets the example for our family so I really appreciate it let's give her a hand please I'm going to give some flowers to Audrey and you're going to represent your sisters look at that all right so everyone knows the Katonas are my parents and I hit the jackpot I literally hit the jackpot so I was adopted a lot of you know that right I got some different representations of my different parts of my family here right now and it's pretty cool and I'll talk about it but I was born in 1972 my birth mother was in say hi to Mary Lee she's on TV right now she was in college she was going to school and my birth father or my birth grandfather was a cop he was a Detroit cop a hard guy who was also an Iwo Jima infantryman could have served with General Milley's father we're trying to figure that out right now and I'm not kidding but he had some hard times in Iwo Jima and Roxanne how long was he a cop 30 years somewhere around there a long time yeah so he was a hard dude and he recognized very Catholic recognized that this kid needs to have a life and a chance so he threw me out the Catholic services and along came the Katonas I don't know a couple months later right and some non or something gave me to you and I started getting raised that's kind of how it happened in a nutshell right and I'm very lucky to have General Milley talked about I mean you summed it up and the example I got grown up were from my parents my dad alright get this done early my dad is like MacGyver he literally is he is in my friends from high school back here know that so every time my friends from high school would come over and I got five of them here and it's awesome for you guys to be here my dad would put them to work so we moved from Lincoln Park Michigan where my dad worked for four in the sixties the first one in the seventies and GM from 81 in 2001 and we moved in 1978 from Lincoln Park Michigan which is a city out to the country north of Detroit about 40 miles north called Rochester and he bought 12 acres and built a house literally himself and that's where I grew up and my friends would come over and there was always a project going on so they were like is your dad home I'm like yeah he's not doing something he'll be fine and I knew hey just a second see if you guys come over here help me with this railroad tie just hold on to it hold it up for a second I mean there was endless projects just endless and I mean my dad taught me how to shoot I went hunting a lot with him he taught me how to fix vehicles and if you know me and you know my dad we've had a lot of vehicles so he built the dune buggy in 1972 when I was 73 maybe it was a 73 73 from a Volkswagen bug that he got for $100 he shortened it 14 inches and got aluminum fence posts like chain link fence posts got those from the garbage welled them together in our garage and built a dune buggy and he still hasn't it still works it's up in northern Michigan and the thing is still lighting and do wheelies Volkswagen's got like 30 horsepower but this thing can do wheelies and still light and that's how I learned to drive a stick when I was 9 years old my dad said you're going to learn how to drive a stick and I kept stalling it and I think it was he taught me how to drive a stick with that Volkswagen dune buggy and I taught my daughters all of them how to drive a stick on the same dune buggy when they were 9 years old each of them I said you've got you've got to know this that way no one can ever drive your car because the manual transmission is now the millennial theft anti-theft device right no one knows how to drive it you know you can go you can go over to Anacostia or somewhere around here and you know try to get car jacked go ahead take it if you can drive it you can have it but so that I think that's important I think that's an important skill so my dad is MacGyver he can fix literally fixing anything he has tractors he has all kinds of stuff my mom is the voice of reason she is literally the voice of reason for our family he's like yeah I don't think you're going to do that my dad's a big dreamer my mom's the voice of reason keeps him grounded biggest supporter and honestly the first woman I ever loved so I appreciate that mom so I've got some stuff here I've got a little Jeep it's made out of it's made out of chainsaw blades here chainsaw chain and you'll like this is really heavy too but my dad's got so he's got two Jeeps right now he used to have like four he's always building them and we build a couple together so this represents you and these flowers represent you mom now I'll go to my mother-in-law you asked my mother-in-law my mother-in-law Felicia she was born on June 6th 1944 her birthday's coming up gonna be 80 years old she just got done walking eight miles a day in Disney World like it was nothing literally like it's nothing I'm not kidding all over the place following kids all over the Star Wars seeing you know the whole thing so if you're going to have a mother-in-law you got to have one like Felicia because she doesn't really counter us she doesn't act like a mother-in-law she is incredible and I talked about her husband Larry a little example for Kathy growing up Kathy has two sisters she has a younger one and an older one so I have to deal with that too the older one lives in Texas she's probably online right now Hi Kristen and the younger one lives in New York the older one her husband Todd is an entrepreneur and I don't even know how he does it all but he does all kinds of crazy stuff and then her younger sister's brother is an extra hockey player played Tony Tosley don't play for the Rangers played for all kinds of stuff so I'm very lucky with my brother-in-laws they are awesome it's just incredible so you know it's rare you get a mother-in-law who is so caring and so willing to do stuff she's gone to the ends of the earth to help our family so I really appreciate it and we all miss Larry but I know he's watching us right now so I want to give you this almost done with the presentation of awards here so I grew up with one sister Michelle and I hope she's on TV right now she's back in Michigan she's got a big event coming with her daughter so she's prepping her for that but Michelle was adopted too we grew up together two years younger than me about four years ago five years ago through the magic of DNA testing I discovered that I had this whole family out there and back in 2013 Kathy had me take the ancestry test what I was or whatever we also had Natalie's EFMP so we wanted to see if there's any she's doing great, doesn't affect her we wanted to see family health all that kind of stuff well fast forward to 2018 when I started working for General Townsend and all of a sudden these people started calling us like hey I'm your mother I'm your aunt I'm your cousin and it was pretty overwhelming and actually actually they were stalking me on cyber stalking me for a week people even contacted me so out of that the benefit is I have two new sisters two more sisters and they're both here Roxanne so Roxanne and her husband Brett they live in Pittsburgh Roxanne is from my birth mother's side I haven't gotten to know Roxanne a lot we've been gone and all that kind of stuff but I look forward to getting to know you and I'm so glad you guys are close and I'm really glad you guys came here and then Christina is from Sterling Heights, Michigan and she's from my birth father's side and her husband Jeremy he's actually from England, believe it or not I give him a hard time about that remember Christmas Day just awesome awesome new brother-in-law to have extremely lucky I'm extremely lucky to have two more awesome sisters who are literally self-made literally pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and did it themselves they didn't have they didn't have everything I had the tools I had to be able to get here and I'm incredibly proud of you for that so I've got a couple little things here probably not get flourishing your brother but here you go so I got the left of the boom out early now I'm going to talk about here and it's really the reason I'm standing here too Sir, I want to talk about you first Not very long No, not very long I wish I could bottle General Milley and I wish I could bottle events like this and broadcast it throughout the world because only a sliver of truth comes through out in the news agencies and I always say we are apolitical we follow the Constitution I'm not Democrat, Republican after no offense center but I'll talk about you in a second that's even better but we follow the Constitution and as military officers we're apolitical and General Milley embodies that and you talk about somebody who has literally held our country together he is the person who's done it I mean I got to witness for almost two years a person, a man who first hand, literally like 5 feet away from him, who went through so much chaos and stress that would have broke all of us literally would have broke us his ability to take pain that way I know it goes way back to Lynn Burney and people like that who trained you along the way that's right 10 mile run, 1000 push ups all that kind of stuff he did that and the best part is he led by example, we watched him and by watching him, we learned how to do it and I see Butler back there, we sat there every day and watched and to be on his team was just a privilege just to be there and see that man work and he didn't take it out on us he's frustrated because he's got to deal with two different he went through two what Chairman and Joint Chiefs of Staff has gone through he has gone through two completely different administrations and he's survived and is sitting right here well sir, you're still here I mean you can't beat that so sir, and Holly Ann who is the voice of reason, just like my mom was tremendous, tremendous team I wish I knew you earlier in the Army but I'm glad I did get to know you and thank you for picking me out of the crowd and smacking me around and bringing me up and I'll never forget it so let's give General Millie a hand Holly Ann alright, now I'm going to get to Senator Ernst so like I said, we wouldn't have this ceremony if it wasn't for Senator Ernst I got the pleasure of working with Senator Ernst during the Military Noms fight so as many of you know there's a certain Senator that for some crazy reason held up Military Noms for almost a year Military Nominations General Officer, Flag Officer Nominations and part of her own party so I immensely admire Senator Ernst because she is the epitome of bravery she went against her own party and did the right thing for the Constitution so ma'am, you deserve a round of applause more than anybody she understands us she's an Army Officer from Iowa, she's combat vat she knows the deal and I wish we had more of you I really do because we need to spread you around that's what sanity is supposed to look like so I say this all the time so I used to think politics was left and right left and right it's not, it's a circle so the further left you go and the further right you go you end up in the same spot so the crazy people are down here and people like Senator Ernst are up here and I'm not going to name names but people like Senator Ernst and other people are up here at the top that support and defend the Constitution so thank you ma'am and now we have our Secretary of the Army, McCarthy so I got the third Ranger Battalion and I was jacked up and I was messed up man I came from a mech unit never been on staff, didn't know what I was doing never been in an airborne unit I had like five jumps, maybe six one to rasp and then never been in the Rangers and being in the Rangers is a whole other thing it's not just like being in any second and so McCarthy was a platoon leader and he's like oh who's this jacked up guy coming in here this guy's going to be the S1 he doesn't even have senior senior wings, why did they hire this guy and so I was the S1 and that's when I was dating Kathy, she was living up in Atlanta we didn't live in Sen, she was living in Atlanta and we were dating and she would drive down a weekend I'd come up there but Secretary McCarthy was a platoon leader and you know I got to know him right away and I'm like okay this is a good guy he's one of the guys that will help you some guys will be like hey screw you, you're out of your own and the Ranger Regiment is one place where the NCOs have the most power there's a couple other places but they have a lot of power and I wasn't used to that, I was like oh hey usually I'm like dragging people around so anybody will call you out hey sir you're effed up, your rucksack's not tied down right, what are you doing what are you doing this for and I'm like wow and I'll never forget the first time we did an airfield seizure at Cecil Field when I was there we're all strapped in, we're on the ground we're strapped in the C-130, we're going to do a ramp jump there's a motorcycle here there's a Ranger Special Operations Vehicle Land Rover here, there's mortars over here and there's Rangers everywhere strapped in the ground all the way from the battalion commander down and I think McCarthy was on my plane and they opened the ramp up and I'm like holy crap I said these guys are Ranger this is real and I'll never forget that you know the first time and so General Milley alluded to it so I was in charge of staff duty before you take command of the Rangers there's like eight captains that have to compete for four command so it's competitive it's hard and I was the S-1 so the S-1's a personnel officer and I'm in charge of the roster where there's a lieutenant that stays overnight every night and they watch the battalion and so Secretary McCarthy may have been a few minutes late a couple times coming to staff duty might have been a couple minutes late and I said hey man you know you're gonna get freaking fired if you don't you know show up on time but you know oh I know that old sir I know and so he did great he didn't even get fired but anyway so flash forward I'm with General Pete Johnson there at Fort Jackson I used to do these runs with all the Alpha Company guys one day and all the Bravo Company so we'd run around the brigade area and I'm running through the brigade area and I look on the wall they had these chain of command things on all the walls outside you know so the soldiers the trainees could see it and you know all the way from you know Company Commander all the way the President that kind of thing and I'm running and I look over and there's McCarthy's picture on the wall I'm like holy crap Secretary of the Army what the hell have I been doing that's real that's real I can't believe it but I tell you what there is there just a tremendous supporter as I jump in the next world here I'm doing job interviews and all this stuff and you know you got the master right here he has been giving me tremendous advice he's been helping he's just mentorship so thank you sir thank you for your friendship and your your mentorship and everything unbelievable now I'm gonna go to my joints my OSDLA folks Rhianne and Tom you guys are tremendous you are team players you know so a lot of people understand you know the military is run by politicians I mean it's civilian controlled military right you know whatever administration is in power they put people in so Rhianne is a political pointy but she doesn't act like that she acts like a soldier she acts like one of us that's where her priorities are you know she told me one time she said at the State Department they stab me in the back and the Pentagon at least they stab me in the front so yeah a tremendous partner I like to say people are like oh that's your counterpart well I'm not the honorables not really my counterpart so I mean she's led with grace she's an incredible person to get to know a great friend so I'm really glad I knew you and Tom filled in a lot before Rhianne got confirmed and Tom is a consummate professional former Marine officer never former always a Marine but he and it's such a professional organization that kept us out of trouble no one realizes how much the office of the Secretary of Defense and the chairman's office coordinate things with Congress and do things and to see the inside of that and the complexity of all that and all the stuff that you see on the news well all that down it comes down to these people right here and Rhianne and Tom led that so thanks for your leadership alright I'm gonna finish out the family and I'm gonna talk about some other people here I've got two cousins here retired Mike Toth the guy who looks like a MacGyver and then I have Lieutenant Colonel retired John Toth and his son Ethan so these guys are my second cousins they're their grandmother my grandmother my dad's mom were sisters in Pennsylvania and my dad his dad Joseph Katona came here from Hungary that's what Katona is it's actually Hungarian it's actually the Hungarian word for soldier with nothing with his family he was 13 years old working in a coal mine and he would give his paycheck to his mom that kind of sucks but he gave his paycheck to his mom and I'm not kidding and their families all work together and so he's like this is my grandpa I need to get out of here I need to go up to Michigan so he went to Michigan and got in the auto industry completely self made 13 years old great school education and made it already in the auto industry interesting you know incredible and was a supervisor what a paint shop or something yeah the paint shop and got in a real estate on its own and was a real estate man and that's kind of an example my dad grew up with he was the first one in his family to go to college so pretty incredible but Mike is a special forces sergeant major near and dear to your heart sir I'll never forget I was I think I was 12 years old 1984 was it 84 you went to airborne school yeah 84 so my mom comes over and she said hey your cousin Mike is jumping out of airplanes and the first thing I said is that's crazy why would anybody want to do that shows me this article so along the way he goes to SFAS we happen to visit their house a couple of times I was in college he's a weapon sergeant and he has remained a tremendous mentor and friend along the way along with his brother John so John is four years Mike's six years older than me John's four years older than me John's an ifterman as well and John was Randy George's battalion S3 in combat yeah in the iron triangle so both have been in some pretty serious combat throughout the years and John was kind of like my older brother he knew everybody ahead of me and all that kind of stuff and kind of hey do this don't do this and your knucklehead don't do this so I appreciate that and I appreciate and your son Ethan is growing pretty fast there being an ifterman pretty soon maybe not maybe he's in pretty good shape so I think he will but I appreciate you guys coming out here Mike flew up here from Florida he was here last weekend and then flew back here to be here for the ceremony so I really appreciate you being here Mike and John flew from Colorado lives in Boulder that's a rough place to live right so really appreciate you being here and your friendship and mentorship from both of you and I got some stuff I kind of skipped ahead a little bit I got some alright I'm going to speed this up I want to talk about a few more people we have Command Star Major Charles S Cook Charles Sturges Cook just crazy and his wife Mary Miss Mary Lee Cook Lou Miss Mary Lou Cook sorry coming from South Carolina and Star Major Cook was my star major like General Milley said during 4 Squadron 4th Cav and so Star Major Cook is a 19 kilo he's an armor ancio tanks that's what he does tanks and I showed up I was came out of the battalion I said socom came out of the battalion Command List and I was supposed to go to Fort Carson the 5th Brigade 4th ID that they never built and we ended up getting redirected and I get orders for Fort Riley and it's for two three four armor I'm like okay well Rommel's you know armor battalion armor battalion gets to be alright and so I get there and they change it they get reflagged to 4 4 Cav and they had been doing a training mission and training mid teams to deploy and so I show up and Star Major Cook's there and you know he's like you know welcome sir we do the ceremony the next day I show up and it's only his Bronco in the parking lot you know old Bronco and I'm like I go in there with my box of stuff and I'm in the office I'm like hey where is everybody he goes oh they show up about nine sir they show up about nine and so we had to change the culture we had to change the culture of that unit to do PT to do everything and that unit went through a lot of pain and we went we had a mission to go to Iraq did not Iraq did not Iraq again and then and then we got notified to go to Afghanistan the Oregon River Valley in 45 days and it was a brutal time we did a lot of training that people didn't like but I'm glad we did it because we did individual through platoon level live fires we did company force on force you know offense defense we did a mongodai and some guys were like why are we doing this why are we doing a mongodai because we need I need to know who's who in the zoo here and Star Major Cook Charles was with me every single step of the way and he didn't plan for this he thought he was going to a sleepy little cab squad in Kansas and now we're on the road to craziness and I mean he's 10 years older than me he did everything he did everything the soldiers officers and NCOs did every single thing so just a tremendous friend mentor person to keep me straight on the straight and narrow keep me from getting fired and a person who really cares about soldiers ones that care about him in combat and like general Milley said Mary and Kathy were back in the rear and we start taking these casualties and we're the only unit from Fort Riley that's in Afghanistan everyone else is in Iraq or back so they have no idea Mary and Kathy are on an island and all of a sudden these massive casualties are coming in and they did it on their own which is unbelievable so those two ladies need a round of applause so thank you for being such a great friend now I'm going to go to the Johnsons Pete and Sheila Johnson, Major General Retired Pete and Sheila Johnson so like general Milley said we came from the war college here and you know I was very lucky I was lucky to get a brigade I was tremendously lucky I felt blessed how are you getting a basic training brigade aren't you pissed off because of that and I'm like no I'm getting a brigade I can't even believe I'm getting a brigade you know I'm the guy who was going to stand in the army for four years I'm the accidental guy all the way up so I meet Major General Pete Johnson and instantly I knew this was a good guy this guy and I understood each other he's got a range of regiment background he's a smart guy way smarter than me Orsa guy but he knows people that's the biggest thing about Pete Johnson with this better half over there Sheila by far Sheila knows people too and the bond that Sheila and Kathy had and you know Major General Johnson and I had was incredible as command teams and I would have probably got fired if I had somebody else honestly because we had to do some massive change we had to change the army and I expected to go to Fort Jackson and you know the drill sergeants would be super fit men and women all hardcore six-minute miles it wasn't like that it was like maybe one out of five of that and I'm like okay we got some work to do and we in a positive healthy way changed that place and Major General Johnson changed that place and without him the army like General Milley said would be hurting right now it's got ripple effects that people don't see you start people you know you take somebody who's been in the army a while doing a certain way they got the bar right here you try to raise it to here it's massive pain if somebody who doesn't know any better and you start them here then that's easy and that's what he did we raised the bar what the people have been doing it the drill sergeants the company commanders the first sergeants and then the people coming in the army only knew this bar so sir thanks for your leadership and Sheila thanks for yours and keeping my wife sane through all that pretty awesome now he's an industry tycoon he's the leader in industry so he's one of my advisors along with Secretary McCarthy and other people in the defense industry I want to jump into the defense industry I think the defense industry gets a bad name unfairly if we didn't have all of us folks like this go straight into the defense industry we would be hurting as a country I mean we would be sucking it's the arsenal of democracy it shouldn't be demonized we should pass on what we know and whatever it is and yeah do you make more money of course you do for a while especially if you're a four star general who's been in 44 years yeah yeah he is that is true but he's got a short time yeah so I really appreciate all of you all who have been coaching me on what to do and where to go and all that stuff it's an honor and a pleasure so I'm going to go through a couple other people we'll be done and we'll go have some cupcakes with soldiers on them so I have friends here from Michigan that made a long trip guys I went to high school with I've known them for 40 years believe it or not some live in Texas now some live in South Carolina and they're guys who you know I'm very lucky to have lifelong friends so really appreciate you guys being here and your better halves that's even better but you know they have lifelong friends through anything so you know I don't know what it is but we're the kind of friends who can go you know weeks without talking to each other and just pick the phone and go hey I need this or can you help me with this or what's going on with this so I really appreciate your friendship all you and you know you can call me anytime anywhere anyplace so thanks for being here the the other piece talking about friends so some reason I didn't design it this way we've been in Arlington, Virginia since 2012 except for two years for brigade command now I was down and living in a trailer in Fort Eustis and they were up here when I was the XO but the girls have been in the same place literally since 2012 except for two years and so they grew up together so you know we have we have some great friends here we have the Brubakers Joel Katrina Joel was the former chief of staff to Senator Capito you know that ma'am who's been a tremendous advisor to me Katrina and I have gone to some concerts with our kids together all the cool concerts which is a big concert goer so really appreciate your friendship and then we have Christine Hamilton who's a huge supporter of us too taking us out shooting all kinds of stuff and sorry Kurt couldn't be here but our friends in Arlington that have made friends with Kathy and I through the years you can't replace that and you make it feel like home I want to recognize a couple other people we've got some famous news people here we have Jennifer Griffin and we have Jackie Heinrich in the back there thanks for making it so I like to say you know and we all watch news and all that kind of stuff and it's left right whatever but to find hard news people I respect that and I believe that Jennifer and Jackie actually report real news and that's hard in this day and age and I really admire both of you because you both put the Constitution first I wouldn't have invited you if you didn't not that you're going to come but I mean you really do you put the Constitution first and you tell the truth and you know you get a way through all this other stuff but you know I tell people watch every station and do all that kind of stuff but to have you both here and represent the media and what you do every day I really want to thank you so let's give them a hand please alright I got another buddy back there and I didn't forget you Jeremy but Jeremy Fick so a lot of my buddies were in the military so Lee was in the Navy you know college took a little break from college, joined the Navy it's good stuff and I'm glad you did he was an aircraft carrier Rich was in Desert Storm pretty serious stuff there and then Jeremy was in the Michigan National Guard and he went to Iraq twice and he's a little bending when the Rangers I'm a captain and Jeremy's going on a basic training at Sand Hill and he's like he gets a hold of me and he's a Merrill Lynch advisor that's his job and he's like 30 years old so he joins the Michigan National Guard the 425 Airborne Infantry F Company it doesn't exist anymore but it was a Vietnam Airborne Infantry Unit yeah Ranger F Company Ranger and I'm sorry no they're gone yeah no this is different 425th Infantry not 4th Brigade 25th but 425th Infantry sorry so Jeremy anyway Jeremy's at Fort Benning he's yes senator it's the 425th Infantry no senator no senator that's what I said so it's a good training hopefully I don't get drug infreining a good example so Jeremy calls us and he's like hey come and see us I can sneak you in I'm like I'm not sure that's a good idea but we'll go over there and see him so it's one of my good buddies so we go to Sand Hill I didn't think we were married yet she had come down and some kid comes up to me he's like 18 years old he's like hey Vic your parents are here I'm not kidding that's real that really happened so I'm like now we're the same age they're really looking at old so anyway he went on deployed twice and he's a really trusted friend and an awesome he works for Merrill Lynch but pretty cool stuff I got my what's that I love your leadership sir yeah whatever and then I've got my buddy Pat Macken here so Pat was one of the pioneers of signals intelligence that's where you use phones and triangulate things and locate people with phones and stuff he was a company commander and what's the name of the unit over me what's your battalion over there 704th MI he was a company commander in the 704th MI that pioneered the singin stuff this is in the 90s and then fast forward 2007 when Cheryl Milley talked about 5th deployment actually 2007 in Iraq we use strikers to target bad guys with singin and we did aerosol raids and we did all kinds of stuff because of that man right there Pat Macken and for 15 months we did that and rolled up I don't even know how many guys you probably know how many guys but I was a brigade S3 he was a brigade S2 and we were in the same office and it was like the brain trust he was more brain than me but we were in the brain trust and Brigadier General Retired John Lair he used to walk in there and Waltz in there what do you goomba was up to I think he was watching the Sopranos at that time he he would Waltz in there and the other character we had was command star Major Troxell who might be watching the Brigade Sardin Major so it was a high adventure brigade no lack of entertainment but Pat thanks for being here now he's a cybercom civilian who's still contributing so he has really done a lot for our country we need to owe him a round of applause alright I'm going to finish up here I can't forget my friends in Army Legislative Liaison all the friends there led by Miss Catherine your canon SES a long time ago so Catherine is the deputy of Army Legifairs I've somehow been there twice or three times I can't even believe it I don't even know how I didn't get fired from there I was the deputy before General Milley and so we were partners in crime and she is a tremendous person she did 20 years in the Army she was actually a boat officer at first time transportation officer had a boat platoon but she you talk about self-service, 20 years in the Army and now she's doing this and she's running literally the continuity running the place and I can't thank you enough for your mentorship and leadership and putting up with me all through that and then we've got all the folks just that are representing Maria, Mary Williams Lynch representing Army OCLL and I never knew it, OCLL is mostly civilians Army OCLL, Army Legifairs is mostly civilian they handle when you're a commander and somebody makes a complaint called the congressional and they're supposed to go to Senators, Congressmen they go through Army OCLL first and get vetted and sifted and so I'm going to the Secretary of the Army and all that kind of stuff but these ladies do that and that's another huge part of it that people don't even understand that keeps our country running so I appreciate you being here thanks for all you do and then finally I'm going to go to my partners Tremendous Chief Dave McSorley Brian and Keith over there but I'll talk about you guys last Tremendous teamwork General Milley said it we're a team of teams and we've got to be that way and I learned a lot from you guys and great stuff in the future for all these folks so thanks for being great team players I appreciate it I'm going to end this here and then we'll go get some cupcakes but last of all Joint Staff LA so the Joint Staff LA is a unique animal you've got officers from every service we are the only organization in the military that can talk to appropriators and authorizers so in Congress there's appropriators and authorizers we're the only ones that can talk OCLA can do it, they have to have a separate organization do it OCLL can do it, they have Staff and Bowl so it's a unique thing and the best part about Joint Staff LA other than getting to work for General Milley all elite team we had 12 people working just insane amount of things so those awards you read about me, that's not about me that's about all of you and what you did they did a hearing yesterday with the chairman all that stuff requires preparation and 24 hour stuff and these folks are all rock stars they're all hand picked from different parts of the military we've got soon to be ship commanders we're coming up in the Navy next summer I've got two folks we have two folks in school right now, one's a C-17 pilot, going to be a commander down in Charleston the other's going to be a recruiting commander MP, Army and she's down in pre-command of course right now we've got Lee who's a National Guard police officer slash EOD guy who's a tremendous just tremendous person along with Keith in the Air Force and then finally I want to thank Lou who put this whole thing together this whole thing is because of that man in the back Lou Kazbar, so give him a hand alright I'm going to end here, I've been talking way too long I don't have a watch, I did it on purpose I guess you get to talk along at your retirement my wife's giving me this but thanks for all of you thanks, my biggest critic, biggest supporter thanks for all of you being here and you have all, my favorite Bible verses something like steal, sharpen, steal, one man sharpens another man or woman sharpens another well all of you have sharpened me so thank you ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the singing of the Army song led by Sergeant Strube the words to the Army song can be found on the back of your program army of the free come the brave come the true who were brought to victory we're the army and proud of our name we're the army and proudly proclaim first to fight for the right and to build the nation's might and the army goes rolling along proud of all we have done fighting till the battles won and the army goes rolling along then it's high high hey, the army's on its way sound off the cadence loud and strong forward there we go you will always know that the army goes rolling along this concludes today's ceremony you are invited to congratulate Colonel Katona and his family in the receiving line they invite you to stay for a small reception in the back room thank you for attending and enjoy the rest of your day