 Soldiers, civilians, and friends of the 88th Readiness Division, on behalf of our command, I welcome you to the change of command ceremony for the 88th Readiness Division, where Major General Matthew V. Baker will assume command of the Blue Devils from Major General Daryl J. Guthrie. I am your narrator, Master Sergeant Eric Girald. Today's Presiding Officer will be Major General Gregory J. Mosier, Deputy Commanding General of the United States Army Reserve Command. The Keeper of the Colors and the 88th Readiness Division's Command Sergeant Major is Command Sergeant Major Gregory O. Betty. The Commander of Troops is Colonel Marty Lepeg. We are honored to have many distinguished guests joining us today. We would like to take a moment and recognize the family and friends of Major General Guthrie and Major General Baker. The Honorable Lawrence Doss, 7th District Court of Appeals for the State of Texas. The Honorable Mackie Hancock, former 7th District Court of Appeals for the State of Texas and his wife, Mrs. Tony Hancock. And all the General Officers, Officers, Command Sergeant Major, and Soldiers. The history of the 88th Readiness Division began with the formation of the 88th Infantry Division on August 25, 1917 at Camp Dodge, Iowa. Soldiers from the 88th have served our nation in both wars, the Vietnam conflict, Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Bosnia, Kosovo, and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. This proud tradition of service continues as the 88th Readiness Division answers the call to provide base operation service and support for over 55,000 soldiers in our 19th State Region. The official party for today's ceremony includes Major General Mosier, Presiding Officer, Major General Guthrie, Outgoing Commander, and Major General Baker, Incoming Commander. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the invocation given by Chaplain Weeberg and remain standing for the arrival of the official party and the playing of the National Anthem by the 204th Army Band. Ladies and gentlemen, Chaplain Weeberg. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for the opportunity and the responsibility that we share as servants of our great nation. May you be with and continue to guide Major General Guthrie and Major General Baker. May this change of command bring honor to our division and the United States Army and glory to you. Let us all be good stewards, valuable to our leaders, and worthy of those we lead. May you be glorified, Lord, in all things. Amen. As tradition would have upon entry of Major General Mosier, one would hear the playing of ruffles and flourishes to signify the arrival of the commander. These honors have been deferred by Major General Mosier onto Major General Guthrie in recognition of completion of his command tenure. Accordingly, you will hear two ruffles and flourishes followed by the general's march. Attention! Present! Present! Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. To symbolize her enduring devotion and tireless support to the 88th Readiness Division over the last two years, Mrs. Shari Guthrie is graciously contributing to Memorial Park in lieu of the dozen red roses that are traditionally presented. Mrs. Debbie Baker, spouse of Major General Baker, who was unable to attend today's ceremony, will be presented at a later date a bouquet of yellow roses signifying the beginning of her association with the 88th Readiness Division as its soldiers, civilians, and families extend a warm welcome into our Army Reserve family. The change of command ceremony is rooted in military history dating back to the 18th century during the reign of Frederick the Great of Prussia. At that time, organizational flags were developed with color arrangements and symbols unique to each unit. To this flag and its commander, the soldiers of the unit would dedicate their loyalty and trust. When a change of command was to take place, the flag was passed to the individual assuming command. This gesture was accomplished in front of the unit so that all could witness their new leader assuming this dutiful position. He who held the flag also held the soldier's allegiance. The tradition of the passing of the colors from the outgoing commander to the incoming commander symbolizes the relinquishing and responsibility of the 88th Readiness Division by Major General Guthrie and the assumption of command by Major General Baker. The colors not only represent the unit, but also the unity and loyalty of its soldiers. The colors are the commander's symbol of authority representing his responsibilities to the organization. The custodian of the colors is the command sergeant major. Command sergeant major Betty as keeper of the unit colors will pass the 88th Readiness Division colors to Major General Guthrie the outgoing commander. Major General Guthrie passes the colors to Major General Mosier as a symbol of the relinquishment of command. Major General Mosier passes the colors to Major General Baker symbolizing his assumption of command. Department of the Army headquarters 88th Readiness Division by Authority and Army Regulation 600-20 paragraph 3-1 the undersigned assumes command of the 88th Readiness Division signed Matthew V. Baker Major General Command Bank. Major General Baker will now pass the colors back to Command Sergeant Major Betty as the keeper of the colors. Ladies and gentlemen it is my honor to introduce the Deputy Commanding General of the United States Army Reserve Command Major General Gregory J. Mosier. Good morning everyone and welcome to Fort McCoy. On this beautiful day Darrell nice job teeing up this weather. So to all my federal general officers distinguished members of the State Department and other agency civilians, fellow soldiers, family, friends and supporters of the Army Reserve on behalf of Lieutenant General Jody Daniels and all the fantastic soldiers, families and civilian professionals of the Army Reserve welcome to this time honored ceremony where we reflect upon the career accomplishments of one of our own Major General Darrell Guthrie as we wish him well and we welcome the new commander Major General Matt Baker. It's always an honor for me to offer the official congratulations and thanks to someone like Darrell for his service to the nation for nearly four decades. He has dedicated himself to the Army and excelled in a series of assignments each one more challenging than the last 40 years in uniform. That's a lot of experience and looking around I see many friends, family, colleagues and mentors who have supported him along the way. Now we all know that none of Darrell's great achievements would have been possible without the love and support that he received from his wonderful family which includes his children Pierce, Darrell, Jen Rose, Chase and daughters-in-law Catherine and Darrell. Pierce and his wife Catherine have both served 11 years in the United States Marine Corps after graduating from the Naval Academy in 2011. Pierce and Catherine have four children, Lilia, Hannah, Ryan and Mara. Another Darrell in the Guthrie family, DJ, served 10 years in the Army after graduating from West Point in 2012. DJ's deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq has served at the 3rd Cav Regiment and 101st Airborne Division. He and his wife, yes another Darrell, this one spelled with a Y, are the parents of grandson Dean. Gene Rose is a Texas A&M graduate, a physical therapist at Children's Hospital in Sugarland and has earned a doctor of physical therapy from Baylor University. So Gene Rose I want you to know the Army Reserve has a place for you in the finest military medicine corps in the entire world. The Darrell's son Chase is already serving overseas in Europe as a field artillery paratrooper assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division. These are some seriously high achievers in the Guthrie family. Now folks, our Darrell, the one with the E, the older one sitting up here, has been blessed to have the support of his wife Shari. And like her daughter, Shari is also a proud Texas Aggie graduate. With more military connections in their past, Shari's father was Easy Eagle Company commander and in the lead jeep in August of 1961 during the construction of the Berlin Wall. Shari's mother was commissioned into Women's Army Medical Specialist Corps as a physical therapist in 1955. So Shari, after growing up as an Army brat, you have excelled in one of the most difficult assignments in the Army, a soldier's spouse. And that includes the support you provided from home during both deployments and domestic contingencies. Not long ago, you provided care packages and meals during those long hours of Operation Allies welcome. So the Department of Defense, the nation, and all of us here appreciate your service more than words can express. So simply let me say thank you on behalf of all of us. So there are no doubt a lot of people who wanted to be here but couldn't make it. I'm certain all of them wish Darryl and Shari the best of luck now and in the future. At the first time I met Darryl was in 2017. But I knew of him before that because he and I were promoted to general officer on the same list at the same time. So as I was going through that list and looking at names, I saw his name. He was then assigned to the 104th training division at Joint Base Lewis McCord. And about a year after that, I was also assigned to a command in Washington State about an hour and a half north. And I remember telling my staff that I needed to go down and visit this other Army reserve general officer in Washington State. But I never made it around there before he was swept off and promoted again to command the United States Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command. So Darryl didn't spend much time as a one star. He flew to two stars and after I started working with him face to face in 2017, I was still a one star. And I'm talking to this use of K-POP commander about the readiness of everything across his command. It became evident to me why he accelerated so quickly to the rank of two star. He was talking about every piece of equipment. He knew that inside and out. He would talk about why their equipment was not the same as those that were on active duty. And that whole concept was so complex. I just sat there and listened to him and I said, can you tell me that again? And he rattles it off again. It took me three or four times to start to pick up on some of those bases. But that's the kind of officer that Darryl is. He just had that stellar component of leadership. And when you couple that with his advanced knowledge of everything army, that's why he got the tough jobs that he did. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and he was the distinguished military graduate for the University of Alabama in Birmingham. That experience provided him those first steps of knowledge that he used to develop his own personal style of leading, mentoring and performing, which he is refined to become one of the Army Reserve's top commanders. Darryl is, to say the least, well-rounded. Throughout his career he's mastered field artillery, civil affairs and defense strategy. He's attended the United States Army Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. He's got two master's degrees and something called a jurist doctorate, oh that's a law degrees for those of us that are still brushing up on our Latin. But his experience as a soldier and an attorney made him invaluable to the joint force. He led the civil affairs planning team for U.S. Northcom. He commanded both the 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion and the 321st Civil Affairs Brigade before taking over, as I've mentioned, the 104th Training Division and Yusukei Park. All of that made Darryl the perfect choice for one of the most challenging jobs out there, the CG of the 88th Readiness Division. I'll get into some of his accomplishments a little bit later, but I want to recognize his invaluable leadership. The reason withdrawal from Afghanistan led to a new mission here in the U.S., one that we call Operation Allies Welcome, or OAW. Darryl was the senior commander of Task Force McCoy, one of several locations which mobilized quickly and provided herculean support during the arrival of newcomers for OAW. The 88th, along with the Department of Defense, the State Department of Homeland Security, stood up an entire city with a population of approximately 15,000 people. It was a six-month joint enterprise comprised of over 8,000 personnel from 35 organizations plus volunteers and the job of Task Force McCoy consisted of a lot more than greeting folks in the Tarmac. For example, Darryl and his superb teams oversaw the vaccination campaign to administer over 87,000 shots from measles, mumps, roubellates, chickenpox, COVID-19. This effort was 97% complete in just five days. He oversaw housing, medical care, culturally appropriate food, water, clothing, bedding, religious services, and English classes for the newcomers. He coordinated with non-profit organizations to provide legal guidance and employment information. He helped over 100 Afghan women continue their education by connecting them with universities that provided full scholarships, and 65 birth certificates were issued while he was in charge. And keep in mind, leadership of Task Force McCoy had to be carried out while also leading the soldiers and families within the 88th's footprint. That's 46,000 soldiers, more than 500 units in nearly 300 sites. He had to keep the lights on it, 580 facilities, and keep the grass mowed at over 10,000 square feet of facility space and 18,000 acres of land. That's a lot. The commander of the 88th has to be an excellent communicator for our citizen soldiers. And he maintained the highest professional relations with local government, employers, and communities throughout the 19 states from the Ohio River Valley to the Pacific Coast. Now, I could go on about his accomplishments. However, we don't have all day. So I'll turn briefly to tell you a little bit about the superstar who will be taking the reins, Major General Matt Baker. Matt's coming here from the 416th Theater Engineer Command in Darien, Illinois. Just six days ago, Matt and I were doing this, hoping it wasn't going to rain, down in Bartlett, Illinois. Since late 2020 through the present, Matt has successfully mobilized more than 1,000 soldiers in 17 units, including 9 technical engineer units in support of joint and allied operations around the world. Matt and I have been working together on and off for what seems like a very long time. We've worked through many tough issues, and I've relied on him heavily to keep USARC updated on planning, budgets, overall day-to-day operations, which I know Matt has been a lot of fun for you. Long story short, Matt's been a key asset for the Army Reserve, the Army, and the Joint Force. You already heard that his wife, Debbie, of 23 years, wasn't able to be with us today. She's been a jack of all trades during the times Matt's deployed, taking care of everything on the home front, highly involved in volunteer programs, fundraisers, and coordinating events, and the list goes on. So Debbie, whether you're listening now or whether you see this later, do know that we in the Army Reserve thank you for all your efforts and what you've done to support Matt. Matt and Debbie have four children, Courtney, Brittany, Brandon, and Nicky. Eight months ago, Brittany gave birth to Matt and Debbie's first grandchild, Jackson. So Matt, you've just taken command of an entity that models Army Reserve readiness at its finest, one of the best organizations in the Army Reserve, period. You would not have been handpicked out of a pool of exceptionally qualified officers for this post if we didn't already know you were up to the task and you would build on the great work Daryl has done here. So to the soldiers and civilians of the 88th Readiness Division, just know that you are in good hands. In closing, I'd like again to thank all of you for being here to witness this monumental and momentous occasion. We do this in a formal fashion to show everyone that the leadership in some of our important organizations never goes without being under the careful eye of a commander. That inspires confidence in our soldiers. All of you watching here today should take confidence that your Army Reserve continues to maintain its readiness to defend the nation and the times that it's needed. Thank you all. God bless America and God bless America, the Army Reserve. Ladies and gentlemen, Major General Daryl J. Guthrie. So Major General Mosier, Nancy, Major General Baker, Command Sergeant Major Betty, distinguished guests, and there are many. My wife, Shari, and our children, Pierce, DJ, and his wife, Daryl, and their son, Dean, and Gene and Chase, and my brother, Danny, and his wife, and personal friends, and friends and families of the 88th Readiness Division, and Garrison McCoy, Shari and I are humbled by this outpouring of love and friendship. And what a beautiful day here at the Total Army Training Center in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. So Chaplain Wieberg, thank you for a wonderful prayer, and I feel like the Lord is smiling down upon me today in so many ways. And principally, so many friends from over the years have been, that have been part of my military service are able to attend. Master Sergeant Gerald, did I get that right? Nailed it, sir. Caw, awesome. Our narrator, and he was our narrator like, he won the narrator like three days ago. You have done a great job, so keep it going. The 204th Army Band, you sound awesome, and the Soldiers of the Mission Command Sport Group, and Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, you also look awesome, and I'm honored that you are participating today. So when Lieutenant Gerald Daniels, and I changed command two years ago, it was a virtual high five in the Park and the Lot event due to COVID-19. And I'm not sure when the last time a change of command for the 88th RD was held at this spot at the Memorial Park, but I just think it's beautiful setting this time of year. And the museum items behind you let you know the history of our Army in Fort McCoy. So now the last two years have been among the most rewarding of my Army career. And I've also had to learn a lot of new things. I've had to learn about HVAC systems. Now my brother tried to teach me that along the way, but I've had to learn about them. I've had to learn about overhead lift and maintenance support and personnel systems and military construction, and what a senior commander really implied being during Operation Allies welcome. But mostly I've been reminded daily what we do in the Army does not just mysteriously happen. It is only possible because of soldiers and civilians do an incredible job providing world-class personnel support, maintenance and logistics support, and infrastructure facilities and computer networks in a cost-efficient and effective manner. Personally, this has been a great assignment because I had to continue to learn about new things. Note to you, Sark, you might want to make sure there is really a good vetting process. I do think you got it right. So Matt is from Chicago. So sending Alabamians to Minnesota and Wisconsin, it was a trick. You did it in July and then the winter came. And so that was a little bit tough on me. But Matt, you know, outside of, there will be some good things. So Matt will not start every conversation with, I'm so cold. There's so much snow. But for those that are local, you just might have to hear, how about those bears? That may not go over well here, I'm just telling you. But seriously, the colors today were placed in the hands of one of the finest officers serving in our Army today. And Matt arrives totally prepared to lead this command into the future. And Matt and Debbie welcome to another command. There are few that have the honor of commanding at the two-star level twice. Now we'd be here for a long time if I thanked everybody. So we've split this into two deals. So there's this one and then there's the retirement ceremony later where I'll thank some more people. But I did want to say thanks to some. So Brigadier Generals Wallace, Haley, Juarez and Linton, you were each and currently are tremendous deputies. Kelly McNeese, I cannot have asked for a better Chief of Staff. Bob, Scotty and now Marty, you have each transformed the role of the G357. Colonel Lewis, thank you for your service as the regional engineer, keeping stuff running and most importantly keeping me from the trauma of Mr. Flummer-Feltz driving. Colonel Stenerson, you're truly the best command judge advocate I could have asked for. Mr. Zavala, Mr. Kompf, Mr. Fife, Mr. Chernaki and Mr. Helgeson, you are each among the finest and most professional Army civilian employees that I have ever worked alongside. My other brother Daryl, B, Mary Lou, Z, Ike, Mr. Snow, the aforementioned Mr. Flummer-Feltz and Captain Smoke, thank you for the support and keeping me on time. You really are the best. Colonel Dietrich and Command Sergeant Major Burr, what you have done leading the most diverse group of units, the 1st Corps Mic Pied, 7th ID Army Reserve Element, 4 Army Bands, 6 Military History Detachments, 9 Chaplain Detachments and 2 Theater Public Affairs Support Elements with multiple Public Affairs Detachments has been truly amazing because you've improved readiness. Major Hilt and 1st Sergeant Mays, you have made the hardest command assignment in the Army. A headquarters and headquarters detachment of a two-star headquarters split between two locations look easy and you are equally amazing and I'm glad you've been here. Garrison McCoy, you've made my job as a senior commander easy. Colonel Messenger and your predecessor, Colonel Mike Posse, Command Sergeant Major D. Domenico and that may be the first time I have pronounced that right while I've been here. You keep doing what you're doing with your great group of civilian employees. My Command Chief Warrant Officer, CW-5 Dan Eckhoff and my battle buddy, Command Sergeant Major Greg, not George, Betty, thank you for being awesome advisors and teammates and I could always count on you to tell me what I needed to hear, not what I wanted to hear. And finally, General Daniels, thank you for your leadership and energy and giving me the latitude to lead this amazing organization. Lieutenant General Roper and now Major General Mosier, thank you for your support, guidance and top cover and your role as the Deputy Commanding General. Thank you. Most of all, I really want to thank the soldiers, civilians and contractors of the 88th Readiness Division. I cannot do what each of you do and that's frankly the first time that I've held a job where the skills required were not known to me. So you're a human resource specialist, program manager, security specialist, maintainers, logisticians, IT professionals, designers, architects, environmental specialists and engineers just to name a few that this division provides. And I'd really like to give you a big round of applause. And last, I want to thank the garrison, the division, the 181 Multifunctional Training Brigade, Volk Field, the active and reserve component soldiers of Task Force McCoy. The two Task Force McCoy commanders, Brigadier General Chris Norrie and Brigadier General Drayne Carter. Brigadier General retired Joni Matthews, who's here with us today, the dual status commander for Volk Field. The members of the interagency, non-governmental organizations and international organization partners. In their leadership, Angie Salazar and Trina Swanson and Trina is here with us today. The work that you did with almost no time to prepare was nothing short of amazing. We received 13,000 Afghan evacuees in 17 days last August and September. And we cared, fed, provided a place to sleep and a time to physically and emotionally heal. And then you all assisted in the resettlement. So to those today who are part of that undertaking, thank you. A job very, very well done. And I'll close with just a couple of words from General retired Stan McChrystal that I use at every change of command. A leader isn't good because they're right. They're good because they're willing to learn and to trust. And being a leader isn't always fair. You can get knocked down and it hurts and it leaves scars. But if you're a leader, the people you've counted on will help you up just like we did. And if you're a leader, the people who count on you need you on your feet. Soldiers and civilians of the Blue Devil Division, thank you for keeping me on my feet. You've made this a great two years. Now do the same for Major General Baker. People first winning matters, ready now, shaping tomorrow, enabling readiness today and always. Ladies and gentlemen, the commanding general of the 88th Readiness Division, Major General Matthew V. Baker. Alright, wow. So first of all, thanks Daryl. Thanks General Moser for all those kind words. And I really appreciate being here. My wife, as General Moser said, my wife's actually moving my daughter today out of one apartment and into another apartment at Mizzou. So somebody had a stuff up and it wasn't me today, right? It was her. And that just goes back to the spouses. They always take the hard pole and I appreciate all she does, even though she's not here today. I also want to thank my brother for coming out. He drove four hours this morning just to represent the family. He goes, hey, you should have somebody there. So I appreciate that. As General Moser said, my command ceremony was last weekend for the 4th, 16th Tech. So this is awesome that I'm here today. I want to thank all the distinguished guests, all the general officers, all the certain majors, and everybody for making this happen today. This is an awesome feeling. I can't believe that I'm actually here. And to the Guthrie boys, I can't believe you're here either. You stressed out your dad. You made SP by two minutes. He noted it, by the way. So it was good that he was stressed on his last day and you guys caused it. So good job on you, all right? Most importantly, I want to thank the soldiers and the civilians of the 88th Readiness Division. Without you, this doesn't happen. And I'm the figurehead. You make everything work. The good news is that my speech is not going to be very long because I haven't done anything yet as the 88th commander. But I'm on my transition. I've been truly humbled and honored that Lieutenant General Daniels selected me for this position. And following in Daryl's footsteps is going to be a really big shoes to fill. And I do, Daryl, I appreciate everything you've done in the transition. If you know Daryl Guthrie, he writes novels and emails and things like that. He's given me, I was just the opposite smelling and there's actually literally a PowerPoint presentation that says, 88th transition and it's about this thick. It's about an inch thick. So good reading for me when I get back to the office there. I really do appreciate your professionalism and friendship over these last few months and your friendship over my tenure as a GO. You are truly an awesome human being and an awesome leader. And I think everybody acknowledges that and we look forward to your retirement ceremony later on today. So during this transition, I became evidently aware of what I don't know about hegemist divisions. These acronyms that are very foreign to me coming out of the operational world and everything I don't know. But one thing I do know coming from the operational world is that the readiness divisions make it happen. They are put in a position to make units ready to deploy to make sure that their training happens and play an instrumental role in the quality of life, the sustainment and the effectiveness of all the soldiers that do deploy. And without readiness divisions, it would be much more difficult to deploy forces and train forces throughout the Army reserve. So with that, I'm going to leave it as, you know what? I'm ready to take on this command and I don't take taking on the Blue Devils lightly. Daryl is an outstanding and successful leader as you can hear from what he did and what he accomplished. And if I can hold a little bit of that, I will be very, very happy. I look forward to being your leader and I look forward to working with each one of you and getting to know you and work together to try and take it to the next level. I'm already taking it to the high, high, high level. And if I could just move it a little bit, I'll be very, very happy. So again, thank you, General Moser, for presenting over this. Daryl, great luck, good luck to you. And I am now officially a Blue Devil. So I look forward to that. Thank you everyone for coming. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the benediction, playing of the Army song and retiring of the colors. Let us pray. Lord God, we ask for your blessings and give thanks for the leadership and service of both Major General Guthrie and Major General Baker. Bless them, their families and all of us as we continue to serve selflessly, especially by enabling the readiness of the Army Reserve today and always. May our leadership and our service reflect the great quality of our Army and our nation and always give glory to you now and forever. Amen. Division, attention! Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's change of command ceremony. I will be a breakfast reception to my left under the canopy and please feel free to tour the commemorative area. The retirement ceremony for Major General Guthrie will be conducted at this location beginning at 1330 hours. Thank you for attending today's ceremony.