 Military in Hawaii and May is Military Appreciation Month. And if you didn't know that, write it down on the pad because it's gonna be on the final examination. Okay, and it's really not a hard question, but you never know what happens. People forget. And we're gonna talk about volunteerism and we're gonna talk about the SAM and that's not related to Walmart in any way, right? The SAM is unrelated to Walmart. So I need introductions, Paul. Paul, Florida, can you introduce Thierry and Arturo and tell us who they are? And by the way, you can tell us who you are, too. Yeah, I'll start with the other two. First, Beauty Before Age. So Staff Sir Palino was selected by the 25th Infantry Division to represent for the Volunteer of the Year Award through the MAC program recently last week. And I'll get into the details and she can get into the details later why she was nominated. But she's also served as the vice president of the Sartan Audie Murphy Club here in 25th ID. First Sergeant Beaza is the first sergeant for the replacement company in Yusar Hall. So really he's responsible for receiving every single new soldier on Oahu, getting them in process and getting them down to their appropriate organization upon Arawan Island. Additionally, he served as the 25th Infantry Division president of the Sartan Audie Murphy Club. So two outstanding non-commissioned officers of the United States Army. And we'll elaborate a little bit later why I think that's the case. Myself, I'm the Command Sergeant Major of Fluvoradi. I am the 25th Infantry Divoradi Sergeant Major here on Oahu. And I also serve as the senior illicit advisor to the SAMHC Club through my Division Sergeant Major's office. That's all I have right now. If you've got any questions, we'll restart. Go ahead. Oh, we might think of a few questions for you. So the question is why, Paul? Why are you in the Army? Why are you as a Sergeant Major? And why are you doing this work? Are you have some special experience or designator that puts you in this job? So my why for joining the Army? As you know, I joined the Army 21 years ago. And the why 21 years ago has changed over time. My original reason for joining the Army was a better lifestyle, not only for myself, but my family. But as time has evolved, the reason I wake up every day and put this uniform on is to provide my subordinates and give back to subordinate leaders in the Army to make our Army better. I do have that. So the way it works is I have served previously as a battalion Sergeant Major responsible for roughly about 600 soldiers. And currently, I've got about 2,500 soldiers I'm responsible for within my brigade. As far as the volunteer work, the reason I do that and I continue to do it, it's something internal to myself. I get satisfaction and joy out of seeing others or volunteering to make other people's lives better on a day-to-day basis. And I'm very, I'm the type of guy I don't like being told thank you or things like that. So I think volunteer works a good way of achieving some of the onset goals without having to hear people say thank you all the time and just simply doing it out of the kindness of your heart. Yeah. So you have 21 years in and you didn't retire at 20. When do you plan to retire? If at all. So I have to retire at 30 if that would be the max I could do. And I tell you, I can't answer that question because I live, I wake up every day and I've already discussed with my family if there's a single day that I wake up and I no longer get joy and satisfaction out of what I do, it's then time for me to retire. That time has not came yet. But I ask myself that every day, is this what I want to do? Because I'll be honest with you in the military for 21 years, I don't feel like I've worked a day in my life. Not because it's not hard. It just does not feel like work when you're taking care of people every day. So that's lovely. You know, Kiri, he sounds to be very patriotic. How much of what he said do you agree with? Yeah, I would agree with just about everything. We have two very different positions, but they're just as much as they're different. They're just alike. I, too, get satisfaction with taking care of my soldiers and their families, which is why I do the volunteer work, why I went out and achieved the Sergeant Audie Murphy Award and an active member of that club. So with just about everything that he said, I would 100% agree. You know, let's talk about patriotism for a minute, because I like to ask about that as we go forward to Memorial Day, you know, and ultimately July 4th. And recently, one of the Navy admirals, retired admirals, died. So we had a little eulogy for him a couple of days ago. That was Zapp's lot of her four stars. And we talked about, you know, his patriotism. But can you talk about yours? I mean, to the extent that you think about this, how patriotic are you? How do you define patriotism? So for me, patriotism is getting up every morning, doing your best, not just for yourself and for your family, but for the country that, you know, you're a part of. So that could be, it's not just a bigger picture. It's not always like how all of us on this have done is raise our right hand and, you know, join the military service. It's how are you showing to the world into the American citizens that you care about this country, you care about the people in it? And what are you doing to prove that to them? Audie Murphy, I remember Audie Murphy. They made a movie about him. He was quite a character, quite a character. Why have you elevated him this way? What is it about Audie that makes him the kind of hero that you would emulate and make events around? Well, Jay, Audie Murphy was one of the greatest combat soldiers to have ever lived. He was awarded every decoration for honor that America gives to include multiple foreign awards as well. After his service, he continued his service community. He belonged to several veteran organizations and it really started to seem to spotlight on what's now known as PTSD and really let people know that stuff. So it is in somewhat honor of him, but it's not, it's kind of, you know, I wanna say glorifying him himself, but as what his actions did as a soldier and what he did for community and stuff throughout his time as a veteran as well. I made a movie about him. I remember the movie. That's because I'm older than all of you guys. And this was before they even had Technicolor, this movie. It was black and white in the late 40s or the early 50s. And he was a big post-war hero for sure. Yeah. So what is it about, you know, I know, I'm from the Naval Services, the Coast Guard, but can you tell me what, you know, what a staff sergeant is in terms of the E-designator? You know, when you start at E-1, you go to what, what's the top E-8? Is it, what are you guys, where you've been on the E-scale, Paul? Yeah, so myself first, I'm on, so E-9 is the top of the E-scale. Now there are different echelons of command sergeant's majors and sergeant's majors. You have the sergeant major of the Army, who is at the top of that pyramid. But E-6 is, it's really the second rank of being a non-commissioned officer. E-5 is a sergeant. And really that Sergeant E-5 is where we start to, you really start to hone in and mold your leadership skills prior to becoming an E-6 or a staff sergeant. And really for the first time, that's where you're set your way. You've already developed kind of your leadership influence and you're in charge of a squad at that point. Typically a squad is anywhere from seven to, you know, 12 personnel depending on the organization. And that's really what the staff sergeant E-6 is responsible for. First Sergeant Bayez is, he's a Sergeant First Class E-7, but based off his leadership capability, we felt that he was responsible enough to serve in a first serge ability. So he is actually working one pig right up right now in his current job based off his performance and his level of responsibility and his ability to care for soldiers. You know, in the Coast Guard, we had warrant officers. And as I recall them a long time, I recall there were a number of levels of warrant officer. Does the Army have warrant officers also? We do. The warrant officers in the Army are, there are technical experts. So we have W-1 through C-W-5 and it just, it goes in order C-W-1, two, three, four, five. And they're really, they provide the technical expertise within or inside our organizations when it comes to a variety of equipment and things like that, sir. Yeah. Well, you know, the one thing that always impresses me about the Army and all the military is that if you go into a certain billet, you get trained for it. Training is a lot, it's very important. Not so, you know, in the civilian world, you can have a career on Bishop Street downtown and your boss will never send you for training on anything. And federal government and the military especially, you get trained. So Arturo, you know, what kind of training have you had for your current situation? Did they send you away to a school? Really, there are a couple of schools that are for current position as being a first sergeant. It starts with the pre-command, the company commander, first sergeant pre-command course. And it's essentially, it's a two week class that kind of gives us scenarios and different information agencies when we could run into some issues or how we can solve issues, you know, kind of gives us the right resources to in order to conduct those at these bills as a company commander or first sergeant. With that also, the military we have, as we promote, we have our military education levels through each grade. And so I have went to the military education level right now, currently to promote to the next grade to prone to EA or master sergeant. Yes. Well, how many years of service you have so far? Jay, I am currently at 14 years of service. Oh, you're just a young pup. Yeah, look at that. Yeah, look at that. Okay, how about you, Kyrie? Are you a young pup also? I believe so. I have a little bit over nine years of service. Okay, all right. So, you know, are you guys, have you seen action? Were you in Afghanistan at any point? Or were you in Iraq? Is it possible that in your, you know, designator billets that one day, you know, you get some orders that would send you far away, like maybe Ukraine, who knows Eastern Europe? Is that within the scope of your situations in the Army? Kyrie? I personally have not had any combat deployments, but just about any MLS that you have, any job that you have, the military there's always that opportunity to go ahead and deploy to one of those combat stations, if need be, as of right now. I'm not on any assignment to do so, but you're always continuing to train and continuing to work to make sure that you, your soldiers can all come back home if that situation ever arises. Well, is it fair to say, Paul, Arturo, is it just fair to say that every Army trooper is prepared to go to combat, is actually trained for combat? So I'll tell you, sir, is yes, because below taking care of our people, you know, readiness in being trained and prepared to conduct our MLS specific task is something that we're constantly doing. It never stops. Based on my experience, I have deployed five times and it's our duty as non-commissioned officers to get them soldiers ready to deploy. So my assessment is at any given time as an organization, we could perform our duties in the most austere environment if asked to do so. Five times, how did that change you as an individual? How did that change you as a member of the Army? I will, it impacts you in a variety of ways, not all negative, some positive, but overall I would say from a leadership standpoint, it really showed me what the importance of having a cohesive team proud of deploying is because when you have people that are cohesive want to work together, no matter what environment you place them in, you're much better prepared to accomplish your mission because really when you deploy, you have the people on your left and right at the end of the day, so you got to rely heavily on those individuals. So building that cohesive team contributes to readiness and that's something we continue to hone in our currently now is the importance and value behind building those teams so you're ready to deploy and be ready at any given time. How about you, Arturo, have you been deployed? Yes, Jay, I have, I do have one combat deployment and a few other overseas assignments. Well, so here we are and we're celebrating Military Appreciation Month and I'm Kyrieette, but what would you like the community out there to take away from your efforts at Military Appreciation Month? What would you like them to think and how would you like to change the way they think here in this special month? The first thing I want them to, I would like them to take away is that all of us here that put on this uniform every day are one of our number one priorities to make sure that they are taken care of, their community is taken care of, their family is taken care of, which is why we do a lot of the volunteer events. Not just through the Sardinauta Murphy Club, but just in general, a lot of us don't get our volunteer hours captured just because that's not what we're doing it for, we're doing it to make sure that we are helping the community. So overall, a big picture is that we are all here to help each other, help our families and help the community continue to move forward and in the right path. How do you spend your time during this month achieving that message to the community? So with the Sardinauta Murphy Club, right now we have a few different organizations that we work with. We work with Habitat for Humanity, mainly out in Kapolei, building homes for those in need. We have the Surfing the Nations Food Pantry in Wahiwa and pretty self-explanatory there. We help get those that need food and supplies. We take them to where they can get it and have conversations with them, make them feel like they're more human. And then we also work a lot with the Hawaii Geo-TC programs as well as first-time base I mentioned earlier, mentoring those possibly soon military members and teaching them the ways, teaching them how to just not be a soldier or an airman or anything like that, but how to take care of their families, how to do simple, not always talked about in schools and stuff like that, how to just be an adult and take care of yourselves. What kind of feedback do you get from the community? Do they express their appreciation or do they cooperate with you? In my experience, I've had nothing but the best support from our community. A lot of them reach out to us once they get to know who we are, what we do. They reach out to us to ask for help or to ask for assistance, point them in the right direction. So I've had great feedback from the community. The club has had great feedback from the community and we just hope that we can continue moving that forward. You know, Arturo, one of the issues that comes up from time to time is the state of affairs in an island state. You know, we are subject to extreme weather. We subject all kinds of disasters. And people say, don't worry, don't worry. The army is here. The army will take care of you. The army may have to help on the supply chain. They may have to get in there and keep order. They may have to help you get fed and otherwise keep things going at a time when the society may be under stress. Do you think about that? Are you prepared to do that? Have you done that? So yes, I mean that thought is there but it goes with the army operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So we are a reaction, you know, we are able to react and be prepared to really help wherever we're needed. It's not just really protecting, you know, fighting wars or however else, just serving our nation. That's where that patriotism that you talk about comes in, like if there's, you know, other people around our community that are in need, not just in volunteering, but if the army has to step in and provide water, if water goes out or, you know, waste to purify water, we are more than suitable to do that across our organization, yes. I wonder, is there a plan Paul? I mean, for example, climate change is upon us. There was a report a couple of days ago that the temperature was gonna increase by 1.5 additional Celsius points by 2026. That's only four years away. And, you know, that's gonna affect, of course, agriculture is gonna affect, you know, people's lifestyles in this country and elsewhere. And I wonder if we do have extreme weather, is there some kind of plan where all you guys, you know, know what you have to do and you get out there and you marshal the troops, you rally the volunteers, you, you know, participate in some kind of community effort. If I said tomorrow there's a storm, not that it's gonna happen tomorrow, but it could happen this summer, you know, are you ready? Yeah, I mean, not to answer the specifics on the question, but we have in the past, you know, if there's a hurricane warning and things like that, typically what would have happened is we'll receive notification by echelon to do with the things that you just talked about. And it depends on the scale and scope of the issue and the situation we're talking about. So do we have the ability to marshal up and get water and do things like that, fill sandbags? Absolutely. And that's all done through the orders process. And that's not my decision to make, that's the division, the user pack level commander's decision, but do I have confidence if I got, if my organization, my commander's organization got called today to go fill sandbags, get water, react to a storm tomorrow, could we do it? Absolutely. I think we would be able to do it because there's been many, I'm not gonna name specifics, but there's been a couple of instances recently where we've seen the organization come together to go help out some families in needs. And it was, for me to personally witness that, I was in awe of what the organization was able to do so rapidly to take care of families that were in need during the water crisis issue that we had a few months ago. And you've seen how quickly multiple organizations could come together to solve a problem. Yeah, impressive. Let's go back to you for a moment, Kyrie. Did you ever feel that there's an anti-military out there? You know, I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Massey case back in the 30s. There was an unpleasantness between a Navy family and it was a whole big story. And I wonder, and people took from that a kind of anti-military feeling of local people. So Kyrie, do you ever sense any of that? And how do you deal with it? To one of my mentors has always told me you can't please everybody that goes in just about every block of life that anybody could ever take. So I'm sure that it's out there. I haven't personally experienced it, but between formal military training, just talking with my leadership, my direct leadership, talking with my soldiers and everything seen what they've experienced, like we received the training to just be able to amicably live amongst each other or if we were ever to experience any hostile reactions, just how to just leave the situation, don't cause a further fire than it needs to be and just continue showing that we are here to support the community, we are here to support each other and just continue moving forward. You've been in the service nine years and I wonder how it's changed in that period. Do you have recollections of life when you first came in? Do you have recollections of the way things were? Have you remarked to yourself over the last nine years? Gee, this is changing on me. How has it changed for you, Kyrie? I joined straight out of high school at 17. So my experience and comparison comes from high school teenage me. Not, you know, I did not have an adult life before the military, but even then seeing who Carrie was when she joined in 2012 and who I am now, there's definitely a difference. I'm able to understand other thought processes, understand other cultural backgrounds, and I'm also able to use that to our advantages, use that to help everybody feel inclusive, help everybody come together, form a unified front and just continue, like I keep mentioning moving forward, but that's what we do, is just continue helping each other progress upwards. So are you gonna spend a full career, you think? Do you have the same aspirations that Paul does? As of now, I do. There's nothing right now that's saying, I'm gonna get out or I should get out. Army's been treating me real nicely. How about Hawaii? We've talked to these senior officers, a lot of them retired here. They liked it here. And they made a plan in their careers that when they were gonna retire, they would retire here. Have you had those thoughts yet or is it too early for me to ask? It's too early, in my opinion, to think of just staying here and retiring here. But like I said, I only have a little over nine years. That's several years that the Army still, has an opportunity to place me in other areas around the world, around the country. So do I love Hawaii? Absolutely, what I'd like to say. What's on your wish card? As far as what? I don't know what they call it in the Army. It's when you tell them where you wanna go. So honestly anywhere, the Army is sending me somewhere. It's for a good reason. I can explore everywhere. Everyone, you know, majority of people would love to go explore Europe. So anything continuing overseas, absolutely back to Korea, even back to the mainland. I'm honestly not very picky as far as where they sent me. Where are you from, by the way? I'm originally from Dominican Republic, but state flies, I'm from New Jersey. Ah, I know, I'm going to New Jersey in only a few weeks. So Arturo, you know, what about you? I'm really interested in how you see an American trooper in the Army, in our United States Army, as opposed to troopers in other armies around the world. I mean, we all been watching, for example, the Russian Army and the Ukraine Army and they're pressed every day, every day. How would you compare a member of the United States Army as against some of the armies we read about? Well, that's kind of a difficult question, but I think the biggest difference where we shine is our non-commissioned officer corps. And that is the backbone of our Army. That is where we, you know, where the rubber meets the road, that's where we're able to lead soldiers and carry on our orders. And that's really where other countries aren't as strong and where we excel at. Would you recommend the Army as a career to somebody getting out of high school like Kylie? Um, you know, as generations continue to grow, people join the Army for different reasons. What we're seeing more now is, you know, for the college benefits. And then it's, you know, as they continue, as they serve their first couple of years, you know, how they adapt. And if it's for them or not, they really realize if it is worth it for them or if they want to, you know, just get their benefits and serve their time honorably and, you know, move on to other things. Yeah. And I wanted to ask you also the question I asked for Kylie. How have things changed for you in your 14 years? Certainly it's changed. It's not the same. It's got to be different. How is it different? Well, that's another hard question because I think we all grow with those times that are changing. So as it's changing, we are changing. We are getting better. We are growing as leaders. So we see things change around us, but at the same time, we're growing with it. So I would just look at it the same way as the culture of our country. It changes just the same in the military, pretty much hand in hand. So right now, the biggest thing changes is the use of technology of how we're communicating right now through these video chats. You know, when the pandemic hit, a lot of things went to Zoom and other platforms like this and we're able to continue to train and communicate effectively. So I think just with the culture and technology advances, the Army's also went side-in-side with the rest of our country changing as well. Let me ask you the same question, Paul. I mean, you know, you're the old man of the crowd here and I'd be really interested in how it's changed for you around you and how you observed it and dealt with it. Yeah, what's it been like in terms of observing how the Army has changed? So, yes, you're right. Over 20 years, I've seen a lot of changes. The one highlight I see is over the last 20 years, I think the non-commissioned officer and listed side of house, we are a lot more educated, more professional now than we were 18, 19 years ago. 19 years ago, when I first became a non-commissioned officer, everything we did was done through compliance. It was no very little commitment. And now what we see, we see more mature leaders and there's a focus on taking care of the individual in order to accomplish the mission versus focusing on the mission with using the individual. And what you see with that is a really just a more professional organization who really cares about the people at the end of the day. And if we take care of the individuals, the mission is gonna happen regardless if you take care of the people. I don't think that was the mindset 20 years ago. And we've adapted well with different changes in society. And it's come up, you know, we've taken that on inside the military. And leaders at every level have been very adaptable and flexible with Institute Notes changes to minimize or get rid of any challenges at all that may be associated with those changes. For me, I don't know about a soft land and when I get out, I'm taking it day by day. If I do decide to retire soon, I think the military has given me the tools to navigate the waters for that soft landing when I do get out. Yeah. And how do you compare the American trooper with troopers and other armies? I mean, for example, you know, we've seen a number of war crimes in Ukraine by the Russians. And in the fog of war, you know, people do really crazy things. My sense of it is that the American military would never ever do that. You agree? I do agree because at the foundation of our profession, when you look at the army profession, one of the foundations is to provide the American people a service that others cannot provide in an ethical matter. So that word ethical is really what drives that home to prevent things from those happening. But I go back to what first R&B is a set in. If you talk to civilians or people not too familiar with the military, the core of the non-commission, the biggest difference across us in a wrestle is our non-commission officer core. You will not see that in too many organizations throughout the world. I mean, it is really, there's a huge difference when you utilize your non-commissioned officers in the right way to get off the mission versus being a very officer-centric driven organization. So I encourage people that aren't familiar with what the non-commissioned officer core is that to go Google it, get a little context behind what we're actually talking about here because that's the biggest difference between us and the other organizations in the world. You encourage them to join. Straight out of high school? I mean, yes, I do think there's good in everyone to join the military. I mean, for me, it made me mature very quickly. And it got me out in the world to provide for myself. So I encourage anybody to join. I mean, I have a daughter, son-in-law, my son-in-law, he just joined last year. And if I had any qualms against joining the military, I would have advised him against doing it, but he did join and he's enjoying it right now. So there is benefits to joining the military, but you got to come in with a right mind frame of, it is a job at the end of the day. Yep, yep it is. On the other hand, there are a lot of jobs that are a lot worse, I'll tell you that. So we're about done here and I just want to give you all you guys an opportunity to tell us what you'd like to leave with us. Kari, what would you like us to think about? What would you, what message would you like people to think about, about Military Appreciation Month, about the Army, about Sam, and about Audie Murphy? Something I'd like to leave everybody with regarding Military Appreciation Month is, a lot of us don't do it for the kudos, right? We do it like we keep mentioning is to serve our country, to serve those people. So when you see anybody out there, just doing what they need to do to make sure that's happening just, you know, or even if you don't see it, we're out there doing it. So just keep that in mind. And then just for anybody that's wanting to join the military or having questions about it, I'm sure that we can all help guide you or not necessarily guide you, give you our thought processes behind things, let you know what the benefits are, just like Sergeant Major said earlier, and then just thank you to the community of Oahu and just for all of the support that has been given to us for letting us have platforms like this to express what we do and show our gratitude to the community. So just overall, I just thank you to the community. And the community has gratitude for you guys too. So Arturo, what would you like to leave with people? What would you like to memorialize in terms of your experience, your message, your involvement in the program? Well, Jay, just, you know, that military members were people too, or just like everybody else. A lot of times, you know, we are displaced from home, but we're also glad to be welcomed anywhere as well. And I think that's a big message is there's a lot of, you know, military members that, you know, do miss home at times and any welcoming that we're more than happy to take part of any culture we arrive in and give back to any community and just having that welcome feeling really goes a long way with us as well. That's great, you guys. If I ever need your help, I'm gonna call you. I'm gonna call you first, Paul. Incidentally, Paul, how do you think they did today? I mean, Kyrie and Arturo, what would you, on a scale of four, what'd you give them? I'd give them a four. What message would you like to leave with us today, Paul? Really, I'll tell you, my message for the community is it is not beyond our beyond us that we realize that we could not do our job without the community. It's not a one-way street. In order to do what we have to do day to day to train and prepare, we need it to be accepted by the community. So I greatly appreciate the community and their willingness to work with us to allow us to better prepare our soldiers on a day-to-day basis. If you guys do see members of the SAMC out, the one fact we didn't talk about in here is with this club membership, there's a selection process to be a member. Less than 1% of the Army are actually served inside the Sergeant Artie Murphy Club. So when you see these individuals out in your community, they're some of the best and brightest members that we have in our non-commissioned officer ranks. And if you wanna go dialogue with them, talk to them or you need help, don't hesitate to ask. And I appreciate you, Jay, for having us on this platform and allowing us to get our message out. When I talk to people in the service these days, I say to myself, these are the best and the brightest, the most committed, the most patriotic people in the country. That's what I say. Thank you very much. Thanks for making the time. Kairi, Arturo, Paul, appreciate your coming on and appreciate your service. Aloha. Thank you. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.