 You know and I was putting some thoughts together about Today in this whole week a number kept popping in my head RA 1884 6904 and It was interesting in the fact that why my head kept going back to that and I think it is because it's kind of a major Dividing line the end of a maybe from part one to part two in a book or something to that effect because Up until that point I had been a student You know a kid on the block I had Had the opportunity to live in a neighborhood Where most of the adult males and some even some of the one several the mothers had actually been Horses in the second world war so and Then of course my good dear friend Who I still think almost 70 years after his passing mr. Klepper and I and sir I appreciate you you mentioned the gentleman. He was in fact a little interesting fact about him when he returned from the trenches of the first world war his first job was selling buggy whips and horse tech and He went on to sell a lot of things in his lifetime and He was a humble man and he always tech time to talk to that little kid on the block and It's amazing sometimes the people that cross your lives that get you a certain point. I remember Mrs. Clark my fourth grade teacher God bless her she she gave me the love of reading and Then there was Mrs. Smith who pounded the idea that you got to use proper grammar not only in what you write, but what you speak Mr. Sam Perry a junior high school teacher introduced me to the idea and the love of history and Mr. Thomas a high school teacher He he took that further in the fact that he developed a sense of not only history But the idea of American history and the more I read and talked to people who had participated in places like Guadacanal Monday Tarawa and Normandy It gave me a really a privileged sense that man. I I've met these giants these heroes at least they were my heroes and Then that number was given to me by a sergeant on at the AFI station there in Los Angeles And it's the first my first experience where he said that by the time you get off this bus And I'm sure it wasn't as calm and collected as that That number beginning with RA should be embedded in the back of your eyeballs or something to that effect And so that began a journey that lasted almost 20 years on April 4th 1967 I credit How I got to 11 September 1970 Not so much to my doing but those drill sergeants. I had a basic training AIT the instructors I had for so many months in special forces training and Then the opportunity to be part of the 7th special forces group for a while where we trained and trained and trained I thought my god, that's all we do is train And then I went to Thailand and not only did we train but then we became instructors for the Thai Army and later I worked at the Thai National Police Force where we developed a basic medical training course for the Thai police The Tommels as they called them And all that gave me the skills and the knowledge and the purpose of why I was there and You get a sense of accomplishment when you when you can walk away from an assignment and know that that school was done and There were young ties that are going to go out there and they're going to act as medics And they're going to help because Thailand at the time in the north and the south was just being ravaged by Well in the north supposedly communists and they called them that in the south but to be honest with you I think we find they were really just pirates because they would been doing that for five or six hundred years But the 46th company trained them and trained them well in the Thai police force And it just wasn't me, but it's all the people that have been involved in training Not only the individuals But the units and the people that provide the equipment and the materials on a continuous basis and Then the idea I've always considered a very great privilege just to be a member of the United States Army and to be even Part of special forces is a privilege that if I had walked away with at the end of my three or four years with a National offense ribbon and a good conduct medal. I would have been the proudest young man That could be and I've always felt that I've been Way over recognized for just doing what I think that I owed to my fellows in my unit And then you come back to that mission those four days It's not just me, but my fellows in B company but those Air Force crews and those Marine Corps crews that were Returning they were going back to their unit re-arming Refueling getting out to do their business and take a sandwich and cup of coffee and get back in there and and Fly those crates that were so full of holes that I'm surprised the aerodynamics alone would have kept them on the ground and Then when I left Vietnam, and I continue to serve Run into veterans of the Vietnam War most of us were My good friend who is sitting out here Don Williams who served Two tours Charlie model gunships in a Cobra pilot And you you get to serve with these men and you serve and you get that idea of service and the idea of continuing to be things that Make Not the whole country or the state you live in or the base you live on because you can't fix it as an individual But you can go out and take all that stuff that the army has taught you All that stuff by just good association with good decent people and You can help fix your neighborhood and Your little local community and when you do that You make the city a little better the state a little better in the country a little better And when I look out here with all these uniforms and all these old I Guess we're I guess the word old and veteran could be applied. I guess the most of us or many of us here And it does my heart good to see so many of you young people and I know a fence sir, but you are unfortunately Even the the secretaries and those people sitting here with four stars on their shoulder are somewhat youngsters so But the thing is that this this institution here and And the in the locations we have around the world they function and they function well and It is a legacy that I'm proud of in the fact that we the Vietnam veteran had a hand in and I am so grateful that all of you sitting here today Continue to carry on that legacy That we have a piece of paper called the Constitution of the United States And I when I go out and I talk to children I Talk in reference to the fact that you have a Constitution. That's 230 years old It's a piece of paper in it and a piece of paper can be shredded or burnt But because of the people that are sitting here in this room now and those of us who served earlier That piece of paper is It's going to be here for me and my grandchildren and Hopefully my great great great grandchildren And it all goes back to one thing the courage of a bunch of people men and women Who regardless of the consequences are? What they face are going to do it because they know there is a better better world out there as long as they keep on going down the road and I would like to thank all of you active duty members for all the things that you do for this country today, and I know that You deserve every credit and every accolade that you come about So with that I Think I have Tossed it my time here at this podium and again, sir Secretaries and it's our major I With that we'll say thank you and have a good day