 I enlisted in the Army and reported to basic training, AIT OSET, one station unit training for 19 Delta Cavalry Scout in April 3, 1990, when I first reported to basic training. And it was a country at peace at the time, we were not at war with anyone, the world was relatively stable. I arrived in my unit shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait and I remember I stepped off the aircraft on September 1st, it was about 1300 in the afternoon, on the black tarmac at the air base in Saudi Arabia and the blast of heat just hit us in the face and I got to the base of the stairs of the aircraft and someone's handing me a gallon jug of drinking water to hydrate with and I still remember getting that mission like, you know, your first combat mission is a brand new private and I came in as an E1. I also remember distinctly, once the air war started the aircraft we could see them come in from Saudi Arabia with their lights on flying very, very low, as in, with under a thousand feet and you could see the lights in the distance and there was always about the same point, you'd see all the lights shut off and that experience did for me was understanding the sheer awesome force and power of an armored formation. Of watching a tank battalion on the move across the open desert in formation was just an amazing sight and then watching that formation swing into battle and how it operates when properly trained it is an amazing and awesome thing to see and to witness the fire power that it can bring to bear is what is truly the decisive arm of our nation's military. Some things that just ring true over the last 30 years are readiness matters, fitness matters, training matters. You never know when you're going to need those things. You never know when you're going to need each other.