 The purpose of our training is while being part of the 101st Airborne Division, we are required to execute and be certified in our assault task and missions. While we are here in Romania, we have the Romanian allies with us, so what better way to certify ourselves while also trained with the Romanians, showing them our ways that we do things to further increase our readiness and increase our NATO allies readiness. It's important to train with NATO allies, always train as you fight. There's going to be times where our closest asset is going to be a NATO ally, so having the relationship is going to increase our readiness and increase our lethality for years to come. The partnership is very strong and is growing every day. We want to train our powers, our capabilities, and to train each other in case we need to do something, it's nice to see that we can trust each other. We submitted the request to just do training, but once they saw it, they actually pulled us over and they wanted to do it with us. They want to keep moving with training. They want to do other tasks, other missions with us. We want to continue to keep doing this too. Just amazing people all around, amazing leaders, amazing soldiers, really enjoying it. As soon as you allow that standard to go lower, that's the new standard. Never settle with the minimal. Never settle with the 70 percent and hold that standard. If you increase it, you go above it, that's the new standard. I am Sergeant First Class Devin Gironi. I am a combat engineer, 12 Bravo, and I'm the platoon sergeant for First Platoon Bravo Company 39th BB 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. I joined while I was in high school. I knew it was going to bring a lot of opportunities. I choose to be a 12 Bravo combat engineer. At the time, my recruiter told me I got to blow stuff up and he showed me the videos and it seemed great. I got to do that. I got to blow up all the demo I wanted and I loved it. I signed for an initial three-year contract. I deployed twice. I had the best soldiers to the left and to the right of me with the best leaders too. And that's what got me to re-enlist. It went from just something to get out of high school to those first missions, that first time like taking care of soldiers is what just keeps me going on. New young leaders ask questions. If you're a leader of someone that subject matter expert gives you an answer, check them. But understand that you have to do your due diligence and ensure that what you're being taught is actually the correct thing to do. We're all human beings. We make mistakes. Corners are getting caught. Standards are slipping a little bit. Just make sure that you maintain that standard and that you ensure that you're doing the right thing. And the person teaching you is actually doing the right thing also. You have to prepare for anything. As soon as you allow that standard to go lower, that's the new standard. Never settle with the minimal. Never settle with the 70 percent. Hold that standard. If you increase it, you go above it. That's the new standard. I am Sergeant First Class Devin Gironi. I am a combat engineer, 12 Bravo. And I'm the platoon sergeant for First Platoon Bravo Company 39th BB Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. I joined while I was in high school. Which was a thing. It was not part of what I was wanting to do. Not yet at least. So I joined the Army. I knew it was going to bring a lot of opportunities. I choose to be a 12 Bravo combat engineer. At the time, my recruiter told me I got to blow stuff up and he showed me the videos and it seemed great. I got to do that. I got to blow up all the demo I wanted and I loved it. It's nice to be able to shape the battlefield. I love working directly with the infantry, directly with the mortarmen, artillery, the medics and everything. Seeing all the pieces put together and moving towards and being one of those pieces on the battlefield on that chessboard, I do enjoy it a lot now. I signed for an initial three-year contract. I deployed twice. I had the best soldiers to the left and to the right of me with the best leaders too. And that's what got me to re-enlist. It went from just something to get out of high school to those first missions that first time like taking care of soldiers is what just keeps me going on. And that's what's keeping me going every day right now is just the ability to take care and train soldiers and develop young leaders and to bring them hopefully to a further point to make a mass impact in the Army. So I was an instructor at Fort Leonardwood at the Stafford Leader Course, which is the premier engineer school where we train leaders and certify them to become Stafford leaders and to earn and bear that Stafford tab. Seeing the growth and seeing what other people are doing, it was extremely motivating. To see even though I'm at Fort Leonardwood, I see the big picture of the Army is moving forward, doing all kinds of great things. So I was able to take that motivation, that expertise, bring it here, and now I'm just giving up as much information, as much knowledge, as much motivation as I can. New young leaders ask questions, right? And when you ask a question, if you're a leader of someone that subject matter expert gives you an answer, check them. And in a very courteous, implied way, check your regulations, get that cross training, get that cross check with someone else. There's so many resources that are open and available, so understand that you have to do your due diligence and ensure that what you're being taught is actually the correct thing to do. We're all human beings. We make mistakes. Corners are getting cut. Standards are slipping a little bit. Just make sure that you maintain that standard and that you ensure that you're doing the right thing. And the person teaching you is actually doing the right thing also.