 Members of the 102nd Intelligence Wing, I'm honored to be delivering the command message on this drill weekend and on the 20th anniversary of 9-11. As service members, as Americans, it's a weekend with many mixed emotions, and it's a time to reflect. However, it's also a time to renew our dedication to service and to country. Likely you've heard many stories of the events on September 11th, 2001. Many of us watched the fall of the Twin Towers, the strike on the Pentagon, or the crash in Pennsylvania in real time. The seconds, minutes, and days afterwards are still vivid. We were aircraft maintainers, command and control specialists, intelligence analysts, logisticians, personnelists, and many other AFSCs. We executed our duties in real time against a real threat at home. It was monumental and life-altering, to say the least. We faced warfare on U.S. soil, enemies killed our fellow countrymen before our very eyes, and we were determined to defend our homeland from that day forward. There was chaos, there was adrenaline, and there was confusion. It was quite literally life or death as we were determined to ensure the safety of our friends and family. This weekend we'll have the opportunity to hear from those members of the one of second who demonstrated noble patriotism on that tragic day. In a moment the world changed. Deployments and mobilizations for service members changed, both in terms of location and frequency. America needed us, and because of our commitment to service, sacrifice, and country, we answered the call. Operation Enduring Freedom, the American-led effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan began just weeks after September 11th. With rapid planning on October 7th, 2001, American forces dropped bombs on Al Qaeda and Taliban air defense radars, airfields, command and control facilities, and training camps. We carried the message that acts of terrorism on our soil would not be tolerated. At that point the bond between first responders and our military was never stronger, and the global war on terror began. We fought hard in Afghanistan. Over 2,300 Americans were lost, and over 20,000 suffered wounds, many due to horrific improvised explosive devices. Personally I was deployed to the Kayak, which was located in Saudi Arabia at the time, during the first few months of the conflict. I remember briefing to operational commanders during the many days of Operation Anaconda and watching FMV footage as brave servicemen fought on the mountain known as the Whales Tale. Now as we acknowledge the end of our presence in Afghanistan, we may again reflect on how best to honor the 3,000 American lives lost on 9-11. We may wonder how to keep the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice over the last 20 years during overseas combat operations against the terrorists who were responsible for 9-11. How do we ever compensate for the years away from family and friends because of frequent and often difficult deployments, and how do we ever repay those 13 service members who died from a suicide bomb just days ago while helping Afghan citizens flee the Taliban in the final days? To me it's this, we stay confident in America's commitment to preserve freedom throughout the world, to stand firmly against atrocities of all forms and to protect our homeland. We honor the past by continuing to serve, by upholding the core values of the Air Force, integrity, excellence in all we do and service before self. We should move forward by pivoting from an emphasis on counterterrorism and ready ourselves for the next strategic challenge. We should support the national security and the national defense strategies renewed focus on great power competition with Russia and with China. We must commit to training focused on these much more sophisticated competitors. We should focus not on a single domain, but on operational concepts that integrate all domains, air, land, sea, space and cyberspace. We should embrace innovation and learn to employ technologies that allow for interoperability, all with the goal of strengthening our capabilities against any entity who might try to threaten our vital interests, the principles of freedom and the homeland of the United States of America.