 Hey good morning everybody. Thanks so much for coming out today I really appreciate it and I'd say thanks for bringing the beautiful weather if you've been around this area before this is actually quite nice for February. So thanks for bringing the nice weather with you. Hey I'm Colonel Joe Ewers I'm proud to serve as the commanding officer of the Second Cavalry Regiment. As you heard last week the United States Department of Defense announced that the Second Cavalry Regiment would deploy an infantry squadron to Romania as a measure of our commitment to the NATO alliance. Behind me and around us you can see those words translated into action. Our soldiers are preparing our strikers and other important mission equipment for movement and our very first Second Cavalry Regiment soldiers arrived in Romania within the last 24 hours. Along with the strikers that you see here today some of America's finest young men and women have departed or will depart to Romania in the coming days. They are the centerpiece of this incredible combined arms team and their proud members of the alliance. The important mission of these soldiers is to clearly demonstrate our strong commitment to our allies. From their forward station in Romania our soldiers will work closely with our partnered host nation forces. Together they'll conduct tough realistic training they'll build interoperability and trust. In this manner together we will assure our allies deter our adversaries and stand ready to defend the NATO alliance. Now we are deploying American soldiers under the command and control of Fifth Corps and at the invitation of our Romanian allies. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with them for as long as we are welcome and the mission requires. The Second Cavalry Regiment is no stranger to the Romanian army. Over the past year we served together in NATO's battle group Poland and we trained together at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center. We look forward to working together again in this very important mission. Now while the backdrop of the current security environment is different this type of mission is not new or different to the Second Cavalry Regiment. It's exactly who we are and why we exist. As a forward station striker brigade combat team assigned to the United States Army Europe and Africa we routinely deploy across the European continent and our major training exercises always include our NATO allies and partners. The Second Cavalry Regiment's standing mission remains to provide a ready and trained force that can do exactly what we're seeing today. Deploy professional combat credible forces to partner with our Alliance teammates. Our readiness demonstrates our resolve and it assures our allies and deters our adversaries. Now just as this mission is not new to the Second Cavalry Regiment neither is our service on the European continent in trying times. Most recently the Second Cavalry Regiment led NATO's battle group Poland in the enhanced forward presence mission but the regiment's legacy in Europe spans over 100 years and includes many defining security moments and it now includes this important mission and this important moment. Now at this point I'd like to talk a little bit about the specific unit that we're deploying to Romania. Our regiment's second squadron provides the vast majority of the forces who will establish Task Force Cougar a combined arms team. Under Second Squadron's leadership Task Force Cougar includes soldiers from the regiment's field artillery squadron, engineer squadron and support squadron as well as a mission command node from our regimental headquarters and select other individual specialized augmentees. The men and women that comprise Task Force Cougar have conducted tough and realistic training over the past year to prepare them for this deployment. Second Squadron participated in Saber Guardian in Hungary along with many of our NATO allies. They also participated in Saber Junction at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center with over 15 NATO allies and partners. Our soldiers are true professionals and they are the right team for this mission. I have the utmost confidence and faith in their ability to get the job done and with that I have time to answer a few questions. Okay, yes ma'am. So certainly the focus of the mission at this point is training and really training is the essence of what militaries do. It's the center of our preparedness, it's the way that we interact with our partners and how we build that interoperability and build that trust so the focus is training. As a combat force, as an army, we are always prepared to meet any mission as it as is required but the focus will be on training and we will initially partner with multiple Romanian elements within the region there. So based on our initial positioning, we'll just be with the Romanian forces, training, working together, building that trust and credibility. Thank you. Yes, sure there is in our history. The focus of this particular mission, of course, is to reinforce the NATO Alliance, to build that trust and confidence, to reassure our allies and to strengthen the eastern flank of the NATO Alliance. Well we are a striker brigade combat team which means that we are enabled by the striker vehicle. It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes and enables our war fighting capacities and our readiness in a way that is unique to those vehicle platforms. So there is an array of striker vehicles that goes with the infantry squadron. As a combined arms team, each of the subordinate unit elements is equipped with a variety of equipment to include the striker fighting vehicle. Sure, so we will ingress to a starting location but we are already developing locations throughout the country where we will partner with various Romanian forces and that is to enable that training, that tough and realistic training, which is the bedrock of our readiness and of our interoperability. For us to be shoulder to shoulder with those forces training together, that is the readiness that serves as deterrence and that is really the cornerstone of our trust. As stated in my comments, we are going to be there at the invitation of the Romanian government. We will be there as long as we're welcome and the mission requires and so it is open-ended because it is an open-ended mission at this point in time but for as long as the mission requires and we are welcome. So I would tell you just even speaking from my own perspective as a soldier in this formation, what I feel is an immense pride. I'm proud to be a member of this formation. I'm proud to do what I've trained to do. I'm proud to step forward and be a part of the security that is meant to stabilize the environment and so I'm proud to be a reliable member of the team and I know that my soldiers feel the same way. Okay I just wanted to say thank you again to everybody for coming out today. I know that this isn't the most exquisite location maybe to visit but we are grateful to have you here. We're very proud of what we're doing, very proud of our soldiers and glad to share that with you today so thank you very much for your time.