 between Lieutenant-Colonel Russell E. Henry and Lieutenant-Colonel Amy M. Corey. For today's ceremony is Major General Darren Warner, Candy General, John Hunter, and Armaments Command. My name is John Hunter, and it is my distinct pleasure to serve as the master of ceremonies today. Participating in today's ceremony are the Sierra Army Depot Color Guard, Senator Donneville, Bering the National Colors, and the Sierra Army Depot Colors. Also joining us today are members of the 40th Infantry Division Band from the California National Guard. Performing the National Anthem, we would like to welcome many distinguished guests with us today. Ms. Bruce Ross, Representative for Senator Donne. Mr. Shane Starr, Representative for Congressman LaMoffa. Ms. Debbie Balsinger, Amadeus, Community and Civic Leaders, Industry Partners, and friends and family of Sierra Army Depot. We thank you for taking, please stand for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for honors, the singing of the National Anthem by Ms. Amanda Harper, and that invocation given by the Joint-Face Lewis McCord, Installation Chapter. Oh Lord, know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to take concern for Lieutenant Henry, Lieutenant Colonel Henry, his family, and the team here at Sierra Army. The dedication during extremely difficult times that is unparalleled, this pandemic and sacrifice, they have stood firm and even excelled for his leadership, his care and concern. Thank you for his strength to bless them into the future as they move on to their next adventure. Awesome task. Give her strength and his team. Grant her and him, give her an assurance that even if hard times come that your constant presence, bless them with your grace, your mercy, your strength and courage, we ask all of this in your precious and holy name. Dear Army Depot, a bouquet of red roses is being presented to Mrs. Desiree Henry by Nevea Green and Elizabeth Hottichel. Red is the color of her heart and reflects the loving concern that she has shown over the past two years. The roses are symbolizing the beauty and fulfillment of her time as First Lady of the Depot. Momentos are also being presented to Lieutenant Colonel Henry's mother and father, Doug and Jackie Henry, and Mother-in-law Marie, Mark Corey. Husband of Lieutenant Colonel Amy Corey by Arianna McMakin and Aubrianna Amidst symbolizes Mr. Corey's commitment to Sierra Army Depot during Lieutenant Colonel Corey's tenure. Momentos are also being presented to Lieutenant Colonel Corey as well as her mother and father, Aaron and Nancy Hughes, thanks for one commander to another. The change of command is a simple, presenting his or her responsibilities to the organization. There's two of their new commanders, positions on the field of Army Regulation 600-20, paragraph 2-5 assumes command of Sierra Army Depot, effective 20 July 2021, signed Amy Corey Lieutenant Colonel Logistics. How's everybody? All right, it's great to be in Herlong, California today. Look at the beautiful sunshine in the warm day, nice cool breeze. What a great place, right? So I just want to thank everybody who's come out today and I really appreciate the effort that's been put out by the team here at Sierra, especially our individuals that are part of the power guard, as well as the band and Amy. What a great rendition. I don't know where you slipped on to, what a great rendition of the national anthem. Let's give them there she is. Let's give them all a round of applause. Shane Starr, representing Congressman Doug Love Malfa's office. Ms. Debbie Balsinger from representing Congressman Mark Amadej's office. And Mr. Bruce Ross, representing California State Senator Brian Dahl. Thank you all for your continued support, your efforts, your congressional members' efforts, ensure Sierra Army Depot is acknowledged and recognized as an incredibly important of our Army's impossible. Thank you for joining us. Fellow soldiers, members of the Senior Executive Service, family and friends, again thank you for joining us and taking time to be here today. And those who work so hard, I can't say enough. I know it took a lot of time and coordination with the family for Amy and Russ Jr. and Robbie and Ryan. It's a great pleasure. Prior to this, I had the opportunity to meet with Colonel Henry's family. It was a great pleasure to meet you. In the acknowledgement of the individuals in the room, I realized that among the crowd of supporters that Russ Henry had is Dad Doug Henry, a veteran of the Vietnam War. And I don't ever take it lightly. As a soldier who served over 36 years, I acknowledged the fact that in every war that I participated in, every time I deployed and returned, there was a crowd of people, there were parades, there were paths in the back, there were applause. And that didn't happen for our Vietnam vets. And not too long ago, President Obama made a declaration and signed an executive order that recognized our Vietnam veterans. And he did that and in that action, he designed, had designed a pin that he wearing a lapel. A lapel pin is an eagle that is encircled by a blue ribbon. And it says a veteran of the Vietnam era. I'd like to present that pin to you so you can wear it proudly. Please, Mr. Henry, please join me up here. Thank you, sir. So I recognize your great service. Thank you, sir. Also, I want to thank Colonel Shoffner, our chaplain. Colonel Shoffner came in from JBLM. He's the installation chaplain of JBLM that I talked to earlier. It's great to have you here on the ground here. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for your inspiration. Thank you for joining us today and thanks for the invitation. I'm encouraging more of all guys to come in tomorrow. I'm mentioning Demanda and Greenpeace for us also. And we did that great job of conditionally working. We're also recognized by the World Humanity Group as a 2020 emerging training leader. So we're real proud of you and thank you for what you do. Additionally, I'd like to thank the entire Sierra Army Depot team and the real class support you deliver every day in support of our nation's war fighters. You're consummate professionals that provide critical support, readiness, and sustainment to the men and women who serve our great nation. These soldiers depend on your dedication to ensure they have the tools and equipment they need to defend the United States and its allies. Our war fighters succeed because of your success here at Sierra. Thank you for your service and your dedication to the great nation. Two years ago, Lieutenant Colonel Russ Henry took command of Sierra Army Depot. Sierra has worked incredibly hard to bring the workforce together as a highly specialized team of more than 1,300 soldiers, civilians, and contractors. Balancing a budget of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Under his leadership, Sierra has been able to sustain a performance and a promise of above 99%. What that means is 99% of the time, Sierra did exactly what they said they were going to do. Wouldn't that be great if everybody could have that reputation? But Sierra has that reputation. 99% of the time, if they say they're going to do it, they deliver. He and his team responded to and executed rapidly developing changing efforts to support the Army's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To include establishing and operating the COVID-19 personal protective equipment storage and distribution center. I'll tell you, that was a challenge. One of my first challenges was that we were a couple of you, about a year ago, a little more than a year ago, how we didn't have protective masks, we didn't have, you know, there was challenges all across our country. And Sierra has served as the center of gravity to receive all of the different materials that could be packaged up and then sent out to be used by our military, but our partners in the Army. And they did an incredible job. As part of these efforts, the team received more than 15 million COVID-19 tests and collection kits and vaccine sets. We should get more than 600,000 of them to 35 military treatment facilities and over 300 shipments. You and your team have done outstanding work during this time. An unprecedented crisis to our name while helping sustain our Army's readiness. Due to the AJ-1 supply support activity, Russ and the team was $590 million worth of serviceable items, good stuff that was excess out across the Army. They took that, turned it back, they brought it back into Sierra and then filled requisitions from around the Army. So we took $590 million worth of good materials that was going to waste across the Army. And shipped it out for more than $330 million of assets that went back out to the field. What a huge savings that was for our Army in delivering back to the Army, which is what it well could have gone waste. In fact, we had a non-mission capable supply back orders and reducing shipping times across all issue products groups. It had a huge impact on readiness for our Army. You oversaw a parts pull program that harvested more than 7,500 parts from 15 individual fleets, saving the Army an estimated $90 million in completing more than 650,000 shipments of critical repair parts to 26 countries and delivering $330 million of material readiness to the U.S. Army. So these pieces of equipment that you see here, Sierra is the end of First Life Center. It delivers parts to the active Army around the world off these old hulks that are out in the Sierra Storage Facilities so that the new equipment that's out in the hands of the soldiers can be operational. They do an incredible job here without them. Our readiness in our Army would not be where it is. And we can contribute some of that readiness to what the work that they do out here. The team also expedited petroleum and water system programs to improve support during critical Army shortages. They also achieved the continuous process improvement financial goal of $7.4 million improving cost savings. If you get in the picture, Russ and his team here have really dug in and they're not just saying, they're just not using words, they're actually doing. The results that they are executing here at Sierra are providing a considerable impact in material and dollars back into our Army. For those of you that work here every day, it's just another day. But for the Army, it's an incredibly important part of what we need. These are just some of the examples of the outstanding work that Lieutenant Henry and his team have accomplished. It would take us some time to go over them all. Russell, you and the team deserve my heart and congratulations for all the hard work you have accomplished in the last two years during your tenure here. The team has received recognition under the following awards programs. All these awards programs I'm going to mention are all in the Department of Defense and the Army. The Sierra Army team was the recipient of the Lean Excellence Award program. The finest Lean Six Sigma continuous process improvement program in TACOM for sure. I would say definitely within Army material command. And then I would say probably within the Department of Defense, one of the top two or three. They've also received the Army Maintenance Award for Excellence, staff of the Army. The Army Safety Award program at the battalion level from the Chief of Staff of the Army. And the 2021 Army Material Command Fire Department of the Year. Across this installation, everywhere you look, you see excellence. Commitment to excellence, it's unlike... It has been a complete... Russell has recently come to my attention that you refer to Sierra as the coal mine because of the value of the soldiers. The civilians and the contractors and their skills to the Sierra mission and what they contribute to overall Army readiness. And I'd agree with you. What we have here is a gold mine. Mr. Bill Rowland shared a story about a team building exercise you held shortly after you took over. And it's a demonstration of who Colonel Henry is and the leadership that he brought into this organization. So Russell organized this offsite and it was a battle, if you will, involving blindfolds, trash cans, plastic balls, and goalies. It was amazing to hear about what began as a friendly team building exercise that eventually turned into an all-out competition. As Bill recalls, during the fun, you became more motivated, louder, and it was more of an urgency and determination for your side to prevail. The competition is a great motivating factor. Competition is a good motivation, but something Bill remembers about the event is that it showed him a lot about your character. The way you tackled that challenge in the same way he saw you tackle the mission here at Sierra. He saw that as one of Sierra's newest team members, you identified Sierra's mission set, a set of goals, and you learned and motivated a team and achieved exactly what you set out to do. This team is truly better off because of your leadership than you are, right? It is a gold mine. So for you, Russell, we are proud. You're a great soldier at Sierra. The Army General and Lieutenant Colonel Henry goes off to Fort Knox. Russell is off to the Resources Command. It is an incredibly important mission to oversee the assignment of Army logisticians. Did you assign your officers across the Army? Do you ever take on all the different organizations inside of Army material commands? Because we're looking for good soldiers coming our way. We wish you the Deseret and your sons the very best that you embark on your next chapter. And hope your new team quickly realizes the assets you're gaining. Feel tested and very, very capable leader who's a little bit competitive. So when the Army takes a good leader from an organization, they strive to send another one right in behind. We don't even have that problem in K-Con. We were looking for a leader with outstanding skills, experience, leadership qualities, and David Lutter. Lieutenant Colonel Amy Corey comes to Sierra with an impressive track record. She graduated from the College of the Ozarks in 2003. And was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps. And later transitioned to the Orc Ordnance Corps. Prior to assignment to Sierra, she was the commander of the Student Attachment for the Command internal staff college at Fort Leavenwood, Kansas. She has four deployments under her belt with two tours to Operation Iraqi Freedom, one to Operation Nidon and Kuwait, and one to Kosovo. Along with all her service medals, Amy has also earned the Recruiters Badge, which is an incredible accomplishment in and of itself. The parachute is badged and completed a jump master course in 2017. Lieutenant Colonel Corey, you have my confidence. And you take command of Sierra. See the Sierra team today. I know that you will guide the team successfully, setting ambitious goals to keep our war fighters equipped, and adapt to new challenges and obstacles as they arise. And there will be many. Whether it's a fire or a challenge on the installation, they will come up. And I am confident you will be able to handle them. With your expertise, I trust that you will understand the needs of your soldiers, of our soldiers, and do what is necessary to support the Army's mission. I know that the Sierra Army Depot family has already embraced you and your family as one of their own. We welcome you, your husband Mark, and your two children, Catherine and Seth. We welcome you to the K-Con team, the Sierra Army Depot team, and we're very thankful that we can make a transition from Russ Henry to Amy Corey and move our organization forward. I want to thank everybody again for joining us today. It's an honor to be here to be part of this. I wish you all the very best as the day goes on. Thank you very much. Sierra Army Depot. Lieutenant Colonel Russell. So the sun's bright. So if I get a little teary-eyed, the sun is bright. At 07 when we were rehearsing, you said, well, this is the right time, but I have to change the command at 07 because it was nice and cool and the sun was not too hot. But make sure to do your work. Thank you for fighting over this ceremony, sir. Thank you for your leadership, and thank you for those very generous words. So it's all dependent on the words how grateful I am to have had this opportunity to serve as the commander of Sierra Army Depot. And part of the opportunity, I'm too humbled and I'm perfectly interested in having this opportunity. Thanks, our HRLs. Appreciate your leadership and your support. Of course, your mentorship back on of the Army. It's Wicked 5. We appreciate your support, your leadership. There you are. Appreciate you being here and supporting us. Mr. Bruce Ross. Ms. Debbie Bolzinger. Mr. Shane Starr. And Mr. Tom Hammond. We appreciate your support and advocacy for Sierra Army Depot. We appreciate you being here with us. Distinguished guests, family and friends of Sierra Army Depot, thank you all for being here to attend this change of command ceremony. To the band, you sound great. We appreciate you being here. To the colorball. Moving the knees is just a little bit. Stand tall, you're looking good. Amanda Harper, thanks for the beautiful addition of the National Anthem. Amanda's an amazing person, amazing leader, amazing senior. John Hunter, appreciate all that you do. Of course, as a master of ceremony, the Consonant Professional appreciates you and all that you do. Melissa Olinger, who's responsible for planning this entire change of command ceremony, has been running around crazy for the last week plus. And certainly today, I appreciate what you do. Mr. Aaron Reed and her support of our transition and all that she does in support of me and my nuances can be a little particular at times. Of course, Mr. Don Olson, deputy to the commander, standard bearer for the depot. Sixth change of command is the deputy to the commander. Sixth change of command is while he was an Army officer in uniform and now six as the deputy to the commander. There's nobody that cares more about this depot than Mr. Don Olson. There's nobody that's invested more in this depot than Mr. Don Olson. He has ensured my success as a commander. He's ensured our success as a depot and as an organization. Thank you, Don. Well done. Give Mr. Don Olson the round. I'm very fortunate today to have a lot of family and friends here. So I do want to take this a minute to recognize that whole road of family and friends. And certainly thank you so much for recognizing my father in his service in the Vietnam War. First and foremost, my beautiful bride of 24 years, Desiree, thank you for your continued love and support of me and our three Hube them Henry boys sitting there. Even though you think that I'm married to the Army and I kind of am, I still love you more. Thank you. Three boys. We're here today. One is on the path to becoming an Army officer currently at Fort Knox. I'm very proud of him. My old son from the years here. He is wearing his red, bright blue socks. If you haven't seen him, he'll speak around here real. He's an operations manager for Amazon and he'll continue to do good things. And of course my youngest son is going with us to Fort Knox and the football coach can't wait. So we'll take him, not entirely to your ancestors yet. But I appreciate my boy. I love them. It's my parents. That's the best parents in the world. When Wavering supports unconditional love, I certainly wouldn't be here without you. So my big brother, you down there? You better look at it than I am. Thank you and Nancy for your love and support. We always seem to come through in the time of need. I know we did, but I appreciate you. I want to be realizeable. Thank you for your love and support. Of course, my wife's family is here today. My family too. Desiree's parents. Mother-in-law can not make it this morning. I was feeling ill. The father-in-law is here. 93 years old and going strong. And then of course, brother and sister-in-law, Big Ralph and Melissa Thomas over there all the way from Rhode Island, West Virginia. That was the inside joke. Rhode Island, Virginia. That was the inside joke. I appreciate my family being here. So now the Sierra Madepo. Team Sierra was an absolute privilege to serve as your 42nd commander. Sierra Madepo has the longest team's legacy. Desiree and I, to be a part of that, it's an absolute, absolute art and truly humbling. You know, I was talking with the chief staff, Mr. Eric Manor. He thought I was going to forget him. He was retiring at the end of this month after 40 years of service. Giving him a round of applause to the chief staff and the chief staff here for 12 years. I was talking with Mr. Manor on how I would open this change of command speech. And we talked about it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. So for those of you that have read The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and for those of you that understand Eric Manor's story and other survivors here on the depot over the last couple of years, you'll know where that notion comes from. But if you think about it, if you think about the tragedy, the loss, the hardship, the challenges over the last two years, at least in my ten year here, may be the worst of times. But think about the goodness, the strength, the genuine care for each other, the success of our people and the accomplishments of this organization may be the best of times. I can go down on this to the back of the days, much of what Major General Werner shared with us and the billions and billions of dollars of value back to the Army and Army readiness. It's absolutely incredible what CR Army Depot has done and will continue to do. That is worthy of celebration. From Two Teeth Teams here at the Army Depot, do not ever forget the importance of our mission here at the U.S. Army Premier Facility dedicated to regeneration, immunization, storage, and redistribution of the Army to the First Life Center. And never underestimate your vital role in delivering Army readiness now and into the future. It's all about strategic readiness and support of our soldiers. You have done everything that I've asked you to do and you've done it well. I'm extremely, extremely proud of this organization. I'm proud of this organization how we came together and lifted each other up and how we continued to successfully accomplish the mission. Well done. I believe and I might be a little bit biased but I truly believe the United States Army and our joint force is the strength of this nation and CR Army Depot, you are a critical, critical part of that. With the long value of history since 1942, CR Army Depot's most critical assets have and I will be our people. Our workforce. Our community. And of course our teammates and our families. All the extremely important part of Team CR. As we get ready to embark on our next adventure to human resources command at Fort Knox where they say all the gold is at Fort Knox. However, the real gold is mentioned. The gold line is here and the gold is our people. Just a few more folks I want to mention in groups and I want to thank the senior leaders here at CR Army Depot, our managers, directors, our division chiefs much better here. We have about the depot representing the depot here and much of that is our senior leaders. But there are a few folks that I want to mention who I will never forget, just like you that I will never forget Mr. Jim Barcott, Mr. Carl Oaks who lost us last year to COVID-19. Each of us can remember and each of us can find something in them. They live a life of service although it cuts you. So I ask that you continue that legacy and that service as I know you will. Thank you again Team CR for all that you've done. Your service to our country. Your service to our Army and your service to each other. Welcome and embrace Lieutenant Colonel Amy Corey. Her resume as you heard fall exceeds mine. She is absolutely the right person at the right time for this job. To take the mantle of leadership and command of this organization. We welcome the Corey family and of course Lieutenant Colonel Amy Corey. And she's going to order and command Sergeant Major Charles and closing them again so there's no question that Team CR will not let you down again. My family and I are truly part of this team forever. I thank God for this incredible opportunity for today. I thank God for our continued blessings. Lieutenant Colonel Amy Corey. Major General Warner. Commander Major Charles. Mr. Bruce Ross. Mr. Shane Starr. Mr. Debbie Balsinger. Mr. Tom Hammond. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, family and friends. I want to thank you for joining today's ceremony. First I would like to thank my family for their unconditional love support without which this milestone would not have been possible. Mark, you've always encouraged me to follow my passion and you've really given so much of yourself to our Army family for this opportunity with you and I love the man, husband and father that you are for each of us every day. Katie and Seth, I love you with all of my heart. Thank you for always choosing to look upon these transitions as adventures worth taking. Even though it means saying goodbye to your friends and everything that's familiar. I have no doubt that we will make a lot of money. Thank you for sharing this occasion. You gave me exactly what I needed to find my way in this world and I'm therefore of this life that I've been given. Thank you for your unwavering support through multiple moves and many deployments and for celebrating our Army family and all of the Americans have unfortunately just here with many talented officers and CO's officers and civilians over the course of my career. But I would like to thank individuals in particular that have had a significant impact on my career. First Colonel retired Catherine Graff thank you for tolerating my impressive nature as a young Lieutenant or how exhaustive the day. I also want to thank you for extremely dissatisfied with my long-term plan which at the time did not include a career in the U.S. Army. I'm standing here today because you saw potential in me that I did not see in myself. Colonel LaHavie Bronson truly the highlight of my career up to this point was serving under your command. You got me with five jumps to my name and gave me every opportunity to excel as an airborne leader. I will never forget the number one rule and count myself privileged for your continued mentorship and friendship. We will be thinking of your family tomorrow and wish Colonel LaHavie Bronson the very best in his command. And to the family of Colonel Scott Grain I miss him terribly because he is enthusiastic and exceptional leadership. I will never forget him and I will do my part to honor his legacy every day. Major General Wehrer I am humbled to have this opportunity to command Sierra Army depot and look forward to working closely with you and the TACOM team Lieutenant Colonel Henry the hospitality that you and Desiree have shown in my family has been truly remarkable. Your passion for Sierra Army depot and its mission is palpable. Thank you for everything you have done to assist us through this transition and I hope you and your family enjoy Kentucky and that you make many wonderful new friends and memories while you were there. And finally to the Sierra Army depot team I have been nothing but impressed by your skill, commitment and passion for the work that you do every day. You are an integral part of the U.S. Army's strategic readiness and I am privileged to share in Sierra's rich history and promising future alongside of you and I do not take lightly that which I have been entrusted. Thank you all. Sierra strong, Army strong. I wish you to retire the colors. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for a play of the Army song and remain standing for the retiring warriors. This concludes our change of command ceremony. Lieutenant Colonel Henry will be in front for those of you that wish to save farewell. Invite a guest or rebind of the reception located at the Skedaddle Inn. Please drive safely to your destination.