 Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to the United States Army Futures and Concept Center transfer of authority ceremony. The host for today's ceremony is the commanding general Army Futures Command, General James E. Rainey. Please stand for the rendering of honors, the national anthem and the invocation given by Chaplain Steve Cantrell. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for our great country and for America's Army. Bless this transfer of authority as we bid farewell to Lieutenant General McKean and welcome Lieutenant General Hodney as our new leader. We are grateful for the McKean family and we warmly receive the Hodney family. Lord bless the Futures and Concept Center with increasing effectiveness in the Army Futures Command mission. And God, our faithful shepherd, do bless the future Army being built by this great organization. For it's in your holy name I pray, amen. Please be seated. We would like to welcome our distinguished guests, the soldiers, the Department of Army Civilians and contractor teammates attending the ceremony today and those joining us virtually. Thank you all for joining us. At this time we would like to recognize members of Lieutenant General McKean and Lieutenant General Hodney's families. In attendance today with Lieutenant General McKean is his wife, Mrs. Kim McKean, along with many other family and friends. At this time, Ms. Leah Jones is presenting a bouquet of red roses to Mrs. McKean to thank the McKean family for their dedicated service and support to the FCC family. In attendance today with Lieutenant General Hodney is his wife, Mrs. Shelley Hodney and daughter Taylor, his brother, Colonel retired Daniel Hodney and his wife Rebecca, and his niece, 2nd Lieutenant Kristen Hodney. At this time, Lieutenant General Hodney is presenting a bouquet of yellow roses to Mrs. Shelley Hodney and a gift to his daughter Taylor, welcoming them to the FCC family. The United States Army Futures and Concept Center was created July 1st, 2018 under the direction of Lieutenant General Eric J. Wesley. It was initially established as the Future Center by HQDA General Order 2003-10 on October 1st, 2003 and subsequently changed to the Army Capabilities Integration Center in 2006. At that time it was responsible to the TRADOC Commanding General for the development of the Future Force, optimization of future combat systems capabilities and joint force integration. The Futures and Concept Center was established to develop future concepts, requirements and an integration modernization pathway to increased lethality and overmatch, enabling soldiers and units to compete and if necessary, deploy, fight, and win future wars. FCC has organizational responsibility of the Joint Modernization Command, 10 capability development and integration directorates, along with their associated battle labs across the United States, which includes more than 1,400 military and civilian personnel. This evening, Lieutenant General Scott McKean relinquishes the duties and responsibilities of Futures and Concept Center to Lieutenant General David M. Hodney as he joins a long list of distinguished leaders and soldiers who have faithfully served our Army and nation as he assumes the duties of Futures and Concept Center director. We welcome Lieutenant General Hodney and his family to the Futures and Concept Center family. The Transfer of Authority is a traditional ceremony that is rich with symbolism and heritage. The key to the ceremony is the passing of the unit's colors. The very heart and soul of a military unit symbolized in the colors under which it fights, for they represent not only the lineage and honors of the unit, but also the loyalty, integrity, and unity of its soldiers. Today, Lieutenant General McKean will transfer authority to Lieutenant General Hodney. The unit's flag is used to represent the Transfer of Authority and identify Lieutenant General Hodney as the new Futures and Concept Center director to each soldier and Army civilian professional now under his charge and signify his commitment, dedication, and loyalty to the FCC team. At this time, General Rainey will conduct the Transfer of Authority. By authority of Army Regulation 600-20, Lieutenant General David M. Hodney assumes responsibility as the Futures and Concept Center director, effective 09 January 2024. Ladies and gentlemen, the Army Futures commanding General James E. Rainey. All right, hello everybody. Well, if I missed anybody last time or anybody wandered in, welcome and thank you. I appreciate that. I thanked everybody last time. I didn't specifically mention the chaplain, but thank you chaplain for both those. I can tell, you know, all chaplains are awesome. Some got a little more fire left in them at this colonel rank. I can tell you still giving everything you got. That's probably our best hope. So God bless you. I appreciate that. And, you know, I was looking around at the break and another thing, it's a testament to these two leaders. I've been really impressed by the amount of command sergeant majors that are here. I mean, I've been to a lot of these ceremonies, but, you know, that's really indicative of the quality of leadership we're dealing with here when sergeant majors come back to recognize and be part of a great day and the commanders that they've worked with and worked for. And I cannot imagine how painful watching two, three stars and a four star dude drill in ceremonies must be for you, fellas. So God bless you, but we really don't care anymore. So you're going to have to, I didn't embarrass my sergeant majors that don't embarrass me. That was my prep. Make sure I got the right notes. My last speech was awesome, but I'm sure you don't want to hear it again. Okay. So changes of command, unlike promotions, which are about recognizing excellence in an officer in a family or retirements, which are coming up on the 19th, which are about recognizing, you know, decade long excellence. Change of commands are about units. It's about the unit, FCC, one of my favorites. And I had a great, like most generals, I had a great first platoon sergeant, a most great officers. That's one of the things they have in common. They got that great first platoon sergeant. And mine was a guy named Rick Shuck, who was legendary, but he had this thing he called the reverse pony express. He mentored me as a young lieutenant. I've kept that for 36 years. And y'all familiar with the pony express, right? We got a rider. They ride every 100 miles or so and get a fresh horse. But he's coaching to me as a guy leading our enlisted men and our great NCOs was, you know, in the army, we do the opposite. We ride the hell out of the hole, you know, and we just throw a fresh rider on a tired horse. Every couple years, you know, and he was like, Hey, I know you're here to shock the world, man, but there was a dude here last year. There's going to be another dude here next year. Steady, steady there, Lieutenant. So, Dave, because, because FCC is a well ridden horse right now. General McKean is a lot of things. And he's compassionate leader, but but he drives his organization that in a way that is indicative of the tremendous responsibility that FCC has. I used to say FCC is one of the most misunderstood organizations in our great army. I now say it's the most not understood organization. It's not even like you have to kind of understand something to misunderstand it. You know, a large part of the army doesn't even understand what FCC does. And that's okay because they know exactly what they do. But let me brag on them a little bit. So the chief has got four priorities. You're well familiar with them. One of them is is transform continuous transformation. Another one is build the profession. General Brito's sitting here. So the chief's got four things he has to do. He's given one to each ACOM. So of AFC, we have six essential functions that we do in Army Futures Command. And three of those six are done by FCC concepts, requirements and experimentation. So if the chief wants to do four things, he's counting on me to do one of them, and you're doing half of them here in FCC. That's how important this organization is. Not to speak for my my dear friend, General Brito, but a big part of FCC is the CDIDs who live on centers of excellence, who make sure that those COE commanders have the time to focus on the profession. And they're able to do transformation, doctor and organization training and leadership. So I mean, I would offer that FCC has to win for Treydoch to win, but they have to win for us to win. And I just want to thank all the great teammates here from FCC. You guys are just absolutely phenomenal at what you do. And that's that's why we're here. And, you know, sometimes an organizational change is about fixing stuff. But when we get it right, this is about taking over an excellent formation that's been incredibly well led and incredibly successful, which gives you an opportunity to, you know, I mean, you're not taking over from somebody who fell out, you know, Scott just ran a leg and is handing you the baton with some fresh legs so you can ride that pony. And I will talk more about Scott and his great family at his retirement. But AFC in general and FCC is unique. And I'm glad to see so many of our great DA civilian teammates here is we're a 90% civilian organization, 90%. That's pretty unique bigger than any, any proportional unit in the army. And that's awesome for us because what you get with those great DA civilians is two things deep expertise in what they do and continuity, you know, we in uniform come and go. And our civilian teammates have the ability to do something for decades. And your organization is FCC is full of those folks. But, but what that means is the 10% like anybody in uniform in AFC is there for one reason, they're war fighting excellence and their tactical experience and their ability to lead and drive change. So Scott is absolutely that, you know, he's good at this, but, but you know, he's not an acquisition fellow as honorable as that is. He's not a technical guy. He's smarter than me, but he ain't, you know, nobody thinks he's genius or anything. You know, he is here because he's, you know, he can do math, but let's not get carried away. But, but he's here because I'm our whole career together and we're close friends. I mean, I'm not, I'm his boss technically right now, but I mean we grew up together in the army when he was commanding 166 and Baghdad in the darkest time of that war when we were, you know, how many casualties did we take today and not did we. Scott was the guy that everybody who was going to war called and said, Hey man, you know, coach me up a little bit on this that kind of peer credibility as a warfighter. And I soldiers and NCOs benefited from that as leaders trusted him, but he's also one of the one of the best drivers of change. And I talked about it earlier. You know, we're at the point in life where this isn't managing change and leading change. I mean you got to drive change to have the effects and you've made a lasting impact. It's going to, it's going to transcend and echo for generations, both in the people you've role model for and the way you've moved this organization and being great at your job at this level is not something that distinguishes you. It's an expectation. But what Scott is also great at is he and FCC have made AFC better. And Scott, you've made me a better officer. I need candor. Scott's 10 plus in that skill. Come in and shut the door and say, Hey, boss, you know, you don't you're wrong. And that's invaluable. And it was always genuine and kind. So thank you for everything you've accomplished. You know, we grade commanders on three things. Did you accomplish a mission? Did you take care of your people doing it? Did you leave your organization better than you got it? And you crushed it. Absolutely. I'm all three. So thank you. And Kim, kind of like I was talking about Shelly. I haven't known you a long time. And and the grace by which you, you carry yourself selflessly. And then, you know, you know, those days I was talking about it, Scott, that was that was care teams that was spending time with families that just lost the most important thing into life. The way you're pursuing your profession, the way you raised your awesome army kids and anybody who knows Scott knows that, you know, he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. And I'm sure he'll talk more about that. But thank you also. Dave and Shelly, I talked about you and Taylor and Matthew, but the same thing. Our army is so awesome. I mean, there's, you know, you can't I'm like what the heck am I going to do when McKean leaves were doomed? We're going to be okay. Dave is going to pick it up, you know, take him 30 days to learn the FCC and then we're just going to go to the next level. Our ability, whether it's non commission officers or officers to just replace one superstar with another and keep going is it makes me really, really confident that the army is going to get through a little bit of disruption. Disruption we're dealing now and it's going to be the greatest army in the world, you know, tomorrow, 2030 2040 and you're absolutely the right person to do that. And Shelly, I know you're going to keep making Dave way better than he would be if you weren't helping him. So I appreciate that Dave's also a great warfighter, unquestioned, you know, chief talked about it. I talked about it. Commanded a Ranger battalion, which is, you know, for us infantry folk is kind of the pinnacle of tactical level warfighting. He was a phenomenal brigade commander and just finished up just just absolutely crushing division command of our probably the second best division in the army out there for Carson. It was the best when I was the DCG and G3 Sergeant Major. So it's great through one Bravo, maybe. But Dave just had an incredibly successful division command which caused the chief and the secretary to decide that, you know, he's going to be in the army for a while. And we're blessed. But that that ability to lead the ability to fight, you know, that that's a prerequisite. But now you get to take that to the next level and start learning the institutional army in a way. I know you're coming back to the army, but but I mean, you're going to be the person that figures out what the war is going to look like in 2030 to 2040, what the army needs to be able to do. You're going to write that concept experiment with it, turn that into requirements that we can hand off to make sure that that, you know, anytime we go to war, the United States Army is going to dominate the land domain and it's going to win. And that that's a big responsibility that I know you're up for. You're the perfect person to lead FCC. Scott, thanks again, Kim, Sergeant Major, everybody. God bless you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the outgoing Futures and Concepts Center director, Lieutenant General Scott McKean. Well, I guess we're a good evening now. We've we've exceeded the good afternoon piece, but again, just thanks for everyone who showed out here and a great ceremony honoring the Haudenosaunee family. I'm so appreciative to be able to be here and see that as part of this transition. But General Rainey, Sergeant Major, General Brito, Michelle, Sergeant Major Harris, everyone, Maria, my great Ranger classmate here. Well, thanks for being here on this special day. And as General Rainey said, this is about the organization. It's not about individuals. We've had a great chaplain, Chaplain Cantrell, my favorite chaplain. Thanks for being here and honoring us and having two prayers ready to go. It's always, you know, in the band, you guys have continued to knock it out. Second rendition sounded just as good as a first. So well done. But it's been a great honor and privilege, and I mean that honor and privilege to lead FCC over the last three plus years. It's been quite a journey as well. And so, you know, the conditions at the onset of taking over this position were kind of interesting. So, starting with the interview with the Secretary of the Army. At the time, I'm the CENTCOM Chief of Staff, and, you know, things were kind of rolling in that, you know, 2020 period. And we're, like, in the middle of a briefing with Jay Sock getting ready to talk about an operation in Syria to go kill somebody really bad. And hey, the Secretary of the Army is waiting for you on VTC for an interview, you know. So, okay, roll down there and we do an interview. And he says, okay, I'm going to hire you, but you've got to go to Austin. At first I'm like, well, what's wrong with that? That's not a bad. He goes, no, but everybody else is staying in Fort Eustis. I go, well, my Sergeant Major? Is my Sergeant Major going to move? Nope, just you. You know, and I'm like, okay, so that was an interesting start to this. That time was COVID, if we all remember the mask, the great mask time, right? So COVID was an interesting piece. And at the time, the mission of FCC was still kind of forming. And as I was selected to come to this position, much like Dave experienced coming here, there was a little bit of a delay because, you know, surprise, shock for everybody. The promotion list was held up back then, but this time it wasn't for me, but it was for the person replacing me at CENTCOM. So for five months, this great organization ran under the great leadership of then, you know, Brigadier General Brown and Sergeant Major Biggs, who were just great leaders and kept the, you know, the ship running during that timeframe. But as we were in this little interim period, I asked General Brown, I said, tell me what we do. He goes, let me get back to you. Next week's VTC, I'm going to tell you what we do. And so that was the beginnings of building a foundation, and you'll hear this theme throughout here, building a foundation to make sure that FCC could do what Army Futures Command needed to transform the Army. We stood up requirements during that phrase. As much as everyone thinks FCC has done requirements forever, General Murray gave that mission to FCC during this period. And the great Larry Larimer, who's now at DEVCOM, stood up, transformed the organization, stood up a FID, and then we had requirements. And then General Murray, as I arrived, said congratulations, promotion, all the great remarks that you just heard for Dave. And then he said, oh, by the way, I'm going to give you Army experimentation as something that you're going to do. And then the last little nugget was, hey, this whole MDO concept we've been working for the last five years, we need you to transition that to Doctrine and give it to CAC so they can write 3-0. So I was like, okay, so good times, good start, right? But as I got here, there's two themes that persisted. Empowered people will make a difference, and driving change requires a strong foundation. Those are the two things that really, as I look at FCC, I see it in spades. And the staff took on the challenge of this distributed C2 where, you know, the director of the organizations is Austin, Texas. The staff, the Sardar major, everybody's in Fort Eustis, Virginia. We got CDIDS in 12 different locations around the country. We got this JMC thing out in El Paso, easy business, right? But they took on the challenge and absolutely excelled because of the leaders that we had here. It started with General Brown and Sardar Major Biggs and then there was Guy Jones and Sardar Major Rob Olmer who's now in Korea. And, you know, finishing now with Colonel Pete Glass, Colonel Promotable Pete Glass and Sardar Major Justice. Their leadership, their steady leadership helped us continue this mission even through the challenges of operating distributed. The concepts team, no one cared about concepts. You know, we got here, it was like, what is concepts? You know, it's all this crazy stuff. Nobody understands it, move on. But in the leadership of General Steph Ahern and her team, the doc team, they've transitioned concepts and drove concepts where now the future studies program is under the Army's premier warfighter type of event. And, you know, they transitioned the MDO doctrine over to CAC and they're already working on the next concept. And just because of the leadership of a bunch of strategists who nobody really understands and they're a little kooky but they're great people. And Dave, you're going to love them. There's some great nights on this stuff. I talked about Larry Larimer starting off the requirements piece. Requirements, if there's one thing that's hard, it's requirements. And, you know, we won't get into what it is and all that kind of good stuff. But let's just say we were blessed to have Larry Larimer and the FID team put that together so that we can actually move our Army forward. And then our G3 and JMC teams, Joint Monetarization Command. We want to talk about small and powerful. Joint Monetarization Command is about 270 people. And right now today, you have them out in Europe, you have them out in the Pacific. They're over in CENTCOM. They're getting ready for one of the largest experiments that we do since 2002 out at Camp Pendleton in the National Training Center. And this team of 270 plus are engaging with four stars in the theaters, the theater commanders. They're trying to solve these combatant commands most challenging problems to ensure that we stay safe as a nation. 277 folks. That's a pretty good return on investment. And so guys like Toby Magsig, Joe Escondone, and now Zach Miller have just absolutely excelled. To make all this happen, though, it took a group of folks who have to be able to operate without a lot of direct guidance, but they get plenty of it. They get plenty of guidance, not from me, but from a lot of different organizations. That's our CDID directors. And these folks have, again, teams that are doing just about everything for everyone in the Army, whether it's the Army staff, whether it's a COECG, General Rainey, myself, General Beagle out at CAC, everybody has a task for a CDID director. And they're out here right now and they're kind of shaking their heads because, yeah, they live it. But what a group of professionals that every day ensure that we have the best capabilities and organizations to provide our soldiers and commanders the best opportunity to accomplish their mission and survive on the battlefield. And I can't think of a bigger task, a bigger burden of responsibility than what we give these group of colonels and SESs to take on. And so I'm just really thankful. So overall, the FCC team has built a strong foundation for our Army to transform and modernize. This foundation, our Army can move fast now because of that foundation. And I can't think of someone who's better ready to take this foundation and move it fast than Dave Hodney. Dave and Shelley, welcome to the FCC team. I know they're just excited to have you here. They're really excited to have you here at Fort Eustis today. We'll see what tomorrow is, the tasking start. We'll see how that goes on. But I know you're going to be an awesome piece. Kim and I just want to welcome you and say thanks for your leadership and, you know, Godspeed as you guys take on this job and move on forward. I'd like to close with kind of a special thanks to a team that supported me the last three years. I had some exos, John Poole, Jay Macelli, and Varmin Chung, my two aides, Matt Pratt and Nick Drake, Dr. Jean Vettel, who really kind of saved my butt because she explained everything that I was supposed to be doing. Matt Sarnibin, who's just a great NCO. And Ms. Rolltide, Barbara Calhoun, who took care of everybody here in FCC. But with all that, I couldn't have done any of this with my lovely wife Kim. You know, the bag always stayed kind of right there by the front door as we changed out laundry and we went from one trip to the next trip and all those things. But Kim is just an awesome Army spouse. I'll talk more here. I don't want to take any more time because I know she wouldn't want me to. But just to say that she's a great Army spouse. She's a great behavioral health nurse who helps take care of folks out there. And she's continuing to do that today. Even, you know, at her young age of 29, she's still like taking on some folks with challenges, you know, in the middle of the hallways with choke holds and all that kind of good stuff. But no, Kim is my true hero and everything that she represents, the model she does for other spouses to include junior spouses that we had the opportunity to mentor and try to provide an example during their formative years. So thanks to y'all. It's been a great ride and I appreciate the opportunity to help our future Army succeed in everything that it's tasked with. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, the Futures and Concepts Center Director, Lieutenant General David Hodney. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending this ceremony. First to my Army teammates from Futures and Concepts, Army Futures Command, TRADOC, the Army Acquisition Corps, and the Army staff. Thanks for what you've done and what you continue to do in support of our Army and our great nation. It's great to be back in the Army's modernization enterprise. Having served in Army Futures Command at its inception and having invested energy and effort in delivering signature modernization capabilities, I have a deep respect for all who commit to making tomorrow's Army better than today's. Informed by this experience, I also know that it's not an easy task. Frustrating might best describe the melee, applying limited resources against many gaps. This might even be more profound when you endeavor to yield capabilities that you yourself might not see delivered in your professional lifetime. And when talking about our future, it's important to maintain perspective. After all, the future will come. There's no stopping it. To maintain perspective simply stated, who you are, what you do, and why you do it is important. Victory on a future battlefield is not guaranteed. It is hard earned and hard fought. But today's efforts and investments in our future will make a difference and tomorrow is worth protecting. General Rainey, sir, thank you for your confidence in me and thank you for this incredible opportunity to serve once again in Army Futures Command. To the McKeen, Scott, and Kim, thank you for the warm reception and the great transition. Your leadership in the modernization enterprise has been impactful for this command and for our entire Army. And Shelly and I wish you both the very best in retirement. Sergeant Major Justice, thank you. Last time we crossed paths, it was in the Mojave Desert, investing in Army readiness. I look forward to investing in the Army's future with you. And to everyone who played a part in organizing this ceremony, thank you for making this event very special. And to my teammates at the Futures and Concept Center across the country. Again, thanks for what you do each and every day. I'm honored and humbled to serve with you. Lastly, as we bark on this next phase of our remarkable Army journey, I owe everything to the love and support of Shelly, Taylor, and Matthew. Love you all so much. Thanks again. Forge the future. This will defend. Ladies and gentlemen, please stand and sing along as the band plays the Army song. The words are in your program. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's ceremony. We invite you to welcome Lieutenant General Hodney as the new FCC director and his family at the front of the ballroom. Thank you for attending today's ceremony. Forge the future. Bring the hammer. Be all you can be.