 do I sign up? Hey, thanks for being here. Alright, thanks for showing up. I think that's what it's all about with it to the day. It's simply showing up because let it not be lost on anybody that these moments matter, right? You being here matters. You showing up matters. It can be the difference. So I want to make sure I just start off there. It brings me great pride to be here with you all and to see the fact that you're showing up. Yesterday was National Vietnam Veterans Day. You know, yesterday was the last day the combat troops came home from Vietnam. And at the same time, a flight from Travis Mac 177 was also returning home to recreate that flight because when they first stepped foot on US soil, it was right here 50 years ago. And I think that's part of something special. And I think today is another opportunity for us to come together to reflect and you reflect. I think it gives us an opportunity to figure out how can we rededicate ourselves in what so many others have done to pave the way. I'll just add on what I appreciate from being out here. Appreciate all the effort that's gone into this operation homecoming celebration week. But as chief said, these moments do matter. Our guest speaker Captain Charlie Plum came back through Travis 50 years ago and has not been back to Travis since then. So so 50 years he'll be he'll be returning to the place where he first returned after more than 2000 days in captivity. And so what I appreciate about you all being out here, what I appreciate about these events about operation homecoming, the theme is how we keep the faith. It's how those prisoners of war kept the faith with each other over those many years of captivity. It's how the collective team mobility air command at the time. Now, military airlift command now air mobility command, how they kept the faith and planning for that time when the air crew maintenance support medical would all come together to bring nearly 600 prisoners of war home, they kept the faith, how the families kept the faith over those many years. And here today, this is how we keep the faith. Both to those previous generations to know that we will always remember your sacrifice, we will remember your legacy. And now it's we've got the watch, we'll carry that legacy forward. And you being here sends that message. And it'll be exciting few days. I thank you for what you do. Thanks for being out here. And let's get after some running here. Thank you. The women of team Travis, one of today's operation homecoming this evening. Conceptional honor. It is joined with each and every one of you your special historic day. To our many honored guests, our veterans representing each of the services and the proud lineage of US Armed Forces, to our families who body the very best ideals of service sacrifice to our tremendous community partners and leaders, both the many leaders and teammates of Travis Air Force Base. Thank you for being here. And certainly, most certainly, our deepest respect and admiration goes to our prisoner prisoner of war veterans. You truly honor us with your presence. We were grateful to share this moment this time with you. Today, we joined together to celebrate mark the memorable occasion of the 50th anniversary of Operation Homecoming, an operation that's been nearly two months early 1973, repatriated almost 600 American prisoner war from captivity North Vietnam. At the time, it was called Military Airlift Command's finest hour as the hundreds of POWs, many of whom have been held in the infamous Hanoi Hill for years, were reunited with family and loved ones at military bases across the United States. Travis Air Force Base served as one such beginning with the first set of operation homecoming flights February 14, culminating with the last two flights that we did 50 years ago today and tomorrow with two Lockheed C141 Starletters sporting tail number 650238 and 650280 brought 34 returning heroes home to Travis and to freedom on the tarmac outside these exits for Air Force Colonel James Seahorn expressed the emotion of the moment when he recounted, as we near Travis, we asked the aircraft commander for a good look to Golden Gate Bridge. So many guys had dreamed of the bridge while they were gone. The aircraft commander got special permission and did a circuit around the bridge. The guys crowded into the cockpit around every window at the lens. The Golden Gate was a symbol of being home. Navy Lieutenant Commander Richard Stratton also recounted his experience at Travis when as the senior officer first stepped onto the ramp and used a bank of microphones to address the gathered crowd. We stand here today as we have stood for so long, shoulder to shoulder. We are American fighting men. We have never forgotten. We have kept the faith. We have never wavered in our trust in our country and our trust in our fellow Americans. Following his remarks, the crowd burst to applause with many spontaneously breaking into song God bless America. Today, we pause to reaffirm what a grateful nation have earned 50 years ago, that Operation Homecoming was the time to celebrate heroes, the very best of America and what this nation stands for. And these heroes here in the first two rows come in many forms. They come as the prisoners of war, whose bravery and commitment to duty while serving their country in the most difficult circumstances serves as the moral North Star, the bright shining beacon for the rest of us to follow through our POWs. We honor the many service members across the aircrew maintenance, support and medical specialties, who selfless action and the planning and execution of Operation Homecoming made the many, many happy reunions possible. Thank you. This team was led by then Major General John Gong, commander of Operation Homecoming, who considers his participation in this operation, the pinnacle of an extremely long and distinguished Air Force crew. To General Gong and your team, we honor you. And certainly to the family members who kept the faith across long periods of uncertainty, fear and worry, you collectively represent the very best ideals of courage, commitment and sacrifice to the family we honor you. Today, we further cement your legacy of honor by dedicating this passenger terminal, Operation Homecoming Terminal, that the thousands upon thousands of featured service family members will transit here, will know and remember the heroes that truly defined a generation. And shortly we will transition to the tarmac for a similar dedication of various spots for Operation Homecoming occurred, accompanied by aircraft nose order dedication, honoring this 50th anniversary. And finally, we'll include a small presentation in today's event, the Operation Homecoming Heritage Flight that occurred earlier this week, where Travis Bay C 17 crew recreated the returning mission profile from Hanoi to Travis, with remnants of remembered ceremonies, both Hanoi and Hawaii. And now, I consider the thank you all looking for joining us today for this occasion. We wish you the very best and accelerate Operation Homecoming today and across the years. No, we will never waver in our remembrance of you and those who remain missing in action. We will keep the faith. Thank you. I was on about my 51st total mission. We were going in inbound just cross the border north Vietnam. Well, I'm proud to represent the brothers in line and two of their families. Indeed, all of the women in the uniform are hundreds of millions of Americans. This day, five years ago, thank each of you for helping us celebrate the most wonderful day of our lives. We wondered for years, how we would find that we were going home? How would they tell us? How would we react? We thought about it, we dreamed about it, we anticipated, we prayed about it daily with this day in the years to come. The idea, you know, I wonder how would they tell us? Will we cry? Will we cheer? Will we hug and kiss everybody around us? You know, nobody else did. The first indication I had was that the enemy brought in a piece of wrapping paper and asked each of us to put our foot on the wrapping paper. They traced around our foot on this paper. Women could shoot us, but we didn't shoot them. We still weren't sure, but they tried to, they tried to trick many times, they came and they were home today, all of them to sign this confession. Of course, the voter contact was no, we were not accepted at the police. And then they came in and on in a pair of trousers, real pants with a zipper. Haven't seen a zipper in six years. They came in and told us, here's how it happened, I was a real Jim Peary, you saw me on the second video, I couldn't have taken hands, I was terrified. He was our SRO, senior residing officer in that business. The camp commander came in and called him a rat. We had to do his real name. He went by the rat. Was a rat. He opened the silk door wider than it ever been open. The first time there was no guard in the 8847 locker behind him, we didn't move, no one was scared. We also saw the rat smile for the first time. He was a bus, and he said today is the day, you're on the bus. The war's over, we're trading prisoners. Jim Peary, our senior guy, stood up. He faced the rat and made a very low ceremonious bow and he had been forced to do for all the six years. When he squared his jaw and he said, sir, we're not going home until all the sick injured and innocent men have left this camp and then we're going home again. The rat was incredulous. He couldn't believe it. He said, Peary, I'm offering you your freedom. I'm very, very concerned. This is a glanky, slow walking, slow talking guy from 8 mile Alabama. When he squared his jaw and he said, sir, freedom, vital to us, but not without our integrity. The rat pulled him out of there, put him in the stockade, beat him up pretty good, and he gave back to the rest of us. The junior off, he said, your senior guy is not going to be penalized for the mistake he made. Get on the bus. We didn't know what to do. We hadn't given, didn't give it any last minute instructions. What do you do if you don't know what to do? Have a meeting. We're excited. Nobody could leave this. Try to explain this to our wives and mothers when we get home, that we, that we refuse for free, take it home. And we just couldn't talk. So again, we told the camp commander, through us, the sick internship at Bonham and then at the doctor. And he showed up with a printout, a purized sheet signed at the bottom by Kissinger. And I know from Kissinger said, you go ahead and come, you don't have to fight me. So we formed a platoon outside that prison cell, and then Jim Perry called eight and said, two, three, four, as you march out of their crowd, Americans on the bus over the night. We'd seen that in the airport before, the enemy's airport. Geo, America. We've never seen the side piece on them. The United States Air Force C-141, Simran Randall. The flag of tail, star and side, wow. So no response. Nobody cried. Nobody cheered. Nobody had to kiss anybody else. We're waiting and wondering, what if we don't realize this is all real work or no. It wasn't until we boarded the 140 Martin, rolled down the runway, Nithiloth, Kennedy, so it wasn't until we finally over three waters, we all broke loose and started hugging and kissing the Air Force nurses. The same airport. Jerry. Jerry did. Jerry did was one of the senior officers in the business. He had some very well-expected guys came back and we came to fight. I'm going to close with his comment because of my and their things. He came off the airplane and he said. We'll take our commander in chief and all the American people making this impossible. God bless America. Let me double check. Right on. Thank you so much. If I could take just a minute to read what the temporary plaque says here. Operation Homecoming from 14 February, 1973 to one April, 1973. Travis Air Force Base is at the heart of Operation Homecoming, welcoming a portion of the nearly 600 former prisoners for held in captivity for years in North Vietnam. There were patriots, airmen, Marines, soldiers, sailors and civilians arrived on 14 C 141 flights at Travis, the 22nd Air Force, 60th Military Airlift Wing and David Grant Medical Center worked together on the effort to reunite families and express the appreciation of a grateful nation. Also, draw your attention at this time to the three aircraft behind me, moving from your right to the C 17 directly behind me, the C 5 and then over here on the left, the KC 10. Those are the aircraft that are here at Travis is part of the 60th Air Mobility Wing and you'll know the nose art on each of the aircraft displayed. That is the original Operation Homecoming patch and logo, but updated celebrate the 50th anniversary here today and we'll have the opportunity to mingle around and get closer to take a look at those two last things I'd like to do is is also just to recognize and make a note that Congressman John Garamendi, representing this district here in California, had entered into the Congressional record, the fact that we are commemorating Operation Homecoming the 50th anniversary. So we have the Congressional record here. And the last last piece here, as I mentioned earlier and what happened occurred earlier this week, we recreated the operation Homecoming flight return from Hanoi through Hawaii and back here to Travis. So representing a complete team here from Team Travis went and led by Colonel Ryan Garlow, the Vice Wing Commander, had a small ceremony at the defense POW MIA accounting agency with those ongoing efforts to continue to account for all of our service members who served visited the Hanoi Hilton, paid those respects and then participated in ceremonies in Hawaii and then back here. But it's it's our honor this time, that team, that crew brought with them 50th anniversary coins that we would like to present to each of our POWs again from Hanoi back here to Travis, just as a as a again a reminder of our gratefulness and our thankfulness for your service and for what you represent. We stand on your shoulders as we go forward and we're very grateful for this. So thank you. Attendance here, both from the passenger terminal renaming ceremony and now to this small sort of portion, or just like to highlight a few key elements. First and foremost, this is the tarmac where but it's worth the walk around. So our motto is reason. This is the earlier model of it that we've had in once we got all the journals and the southern part of North Carolina and then we got up outside of Hanoi and we're at the block file and then the plantation garden and so on. And then the fashions changed and they kind of looked a little pale red and very straight. But this is one of the original what I actually like. The story behind each one of these artifacts that POWs and MIAs and so many people talk about. We're so grateful that it's the story of the prisoners is a far bigger story than just prisoners in the south. The operation linebacker too for all of those who have participated in that. The lives that were lost getting us home and sacrificed from all those folks. When we were sitting there in Hilton, we could see those boxes blown up in the sky lights dying and so on. All the prisoners, you know, have this fixed emotion of, you know, we knew they're trying to get us home because of the sacrifice that was being made by people really giving their lives to try to get us home. So when you think of POWs, you think of the sacrifice and then something I've always said is you've got to think of the families that for each one of us that were there, the moms and dads, the spouses, the loved ones, brothers and sisters. When I finally got home, I could see the toll that had taken on my parents and they were very active in this whole program. And so I always like to give a major shout out to say the wives, the parents, siblings, everybody, all the loved ones that sacrificed along with us. And I always said, I'd rather spend the rest of my life in the worst conditions that has ever happened than to have one of my sons go through what I went through. So it tells you sort of what the families have gone through. So anyway, this is the original garb. There's some very interesting stories here for folks who talk to you about. Appreciate a lot of those. What a spectacular. I want to thank Travis Hirosame and everybody here. What a spectacular presentation. And that's what he does, you know. I just, the folks have done. I think we're all thinking back at just what a wonderful job you have done for all of us in the last night as well. So a gratitude to all of you and thank you so much. You can imagine where high visibility with Congress, the family members, Veterans Service Organizations, we actually have quarterly updates with all the national leadership of Veterans Service Organizations to give them an update on the status of cases. So this is just a snapshot of what we're doing in 2023. So we have 40 countries and territories that we're operating in and organically, which is just teams built with DPA team members and often teas from various services that support us going out to the field. We have 29 investigations. I think it's 11 17 recovery teams that are organic. So an investigation is really I equated to we send out an anthropologist to scientific recovery expert team leaders, team sergeants and they kind of kick the dirt around. They go out and look. We look for any kind of material evidence. We have life support investigators that are experts in aircraft they can identify pieces and parts of an injection seat and tell you what aircraft that came from. They can identify oxygen masks. I mean, I'm talking scraps of these things that we're finding. And it really just is amazing. So the Vietnam War, like I said, it's our operational priority. Our first destination was just over 35 years ago. And like so we have teams there today. Last year, we identified two service members in Vietnam War the entire year. This year already we've identified four. So that kind of gives me hope. We've actually created a team called the Vietnam War identification project within our lab. And they're kind of going back to cases, working some of the older cases, trying to turn up leads where we didn't have leads for technology is advanced even in time. So we're able to get those things. During COVID, our partnership with Vietnam, there's an organization called Vietnam Office of Seeking Missing Persons. They during COVID, we couldn't deploy it. We were locked down. The Vietnam teams actually did recovery mission on our behalf. And we identified two Vietnam War veterans are missing an action from their efforts. So really, I mean, this is an example of the partnership that we've made since that time. Korean War, there's over 7,000 missing from the Korean War. 5,000 of those are in North Korea. You can imagine access there is tough, but we have a really strong partnership with South Korea. We're missing. We had 2018 North Koreans turned over 55 boxes to our folks of those 55 boxes. You know, they told us 55 boxes, 55 remains. There were over 250 unique DNA sequences in those boxes from those boxes. So it's sort of like getting a thousand piece puzzle box dumped on a table with no box top cover. We did a repatriation a couple of years ago. President Moon at the time, the president of South Korea was there, Adelaide Alino represented. And a full story with that is not only do we repatriate six Americans back home, but we returned 68 South Korean soldiers back to South Korea. One of the soldiers that was identified hit a granddaughter with a lieutenant in a Korean army. So she flew out, that she was flown out to the ceremony and escorted her grandfather on the plane, on the president's plane and took her back home to her family. I mean, those kind of stories are just amazing.