WEBVTT

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I haven't been able to work with the

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man very closely in a staff position

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and haven't been in his office , you

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know , 34 times sometimes five times a

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day doing paperwork and you think

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signed , you know , I've got a real

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good sense . Uh , he was very honest .

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He's very straight . Um , you know ,

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you told you some things , some things

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you'd like , some things you didn't ,

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um , I've photo is a lot better

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leadership trait to have than , you

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know , and I've been up front with

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people . He was always a straight to

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the point . I had a real good dry sense

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of humor sometimes . He was pretty ,

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pretty witty with jokes , really good

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with talking with the marines on , on a ,

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I guess a man to man level where some ,

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some commanders are a little more

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distant , which is certainly fine .

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Everyone has a different style of

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leadership . This was more personable .

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He was like Abraham Lincoln where he

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would walk around and leave his office ,

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come around and uh talk with different

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marines . I wanna be down the motor t

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bay or uh , there have been office very

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much a uh salt of the

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earth . It could be the best way very ,

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very , very on the level with everybody

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about what was going on . He um , he

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was big with having cookouts and uh ,

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and getting us all together for you

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know , parties . So we had a christmas

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gift exchange . It was all gag gifts

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and uh remember I bought like this

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cheap bottle of liquor to take as a gag

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gift . Everybody else brought goofy gag

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gifts and I ended up going home with

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like this weird looking scented candle

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thing and it was probably one of the

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funniest funnest , you know , I guess

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um after hours get together with , you

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know , really any unit I've had , I was

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laughing quite a bit while I was there

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and uh , I think everybody had a great

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time that should , should reflect upon

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him and his wife and and how they

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always invited people in there home .

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Very , very hospitable and you know ,

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just a good man , uh ,

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personal experiences with the man . He

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um , he did like to work hard and play

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hard . Um , he uh , he took care of the

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marines , had quite a few different

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conversations about taking care of your

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marines doing the right thing and

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looking out for each other in

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particular . And I think most about

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some of his family life , that's ,

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that's what really sticks out in my

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mind . Uh , and some of the personal

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experiences , you know , having gone to

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his home multiple times . I know that

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on the walls in his house ,

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the main wall in his family room , they

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had the pictures set up with each duty

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station , a collage of photos with him

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and his family and his wife there and I

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think his first duty station was humor

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and then I think it was Pendleton or

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Okinawa and it just went on down the

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line . You got to see his family and

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him and a lot of the time they spent

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together and what things were important

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to him . You know , pictures him in the

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Marine corps , picks him and his wife

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and then him and his Children . I know

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he was involved in the community . He

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coached soccer if I remember correctly .

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Uh , one of the captains I worked with

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that M tax , he coached the captain's

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son soccer team and you know , he

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always uh make extra time for that . So

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those things were important . It was

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given back and making sure he was

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involved with not just the lad

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battalion . Also , I gather some of the

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families there at Cherry point and

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coaching , coaching team sports being a

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part of . Um , and I

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think the best way to remember him ,

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what would be to do our best . To me .

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It reinforces the fact that why we're

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here of what happened to him and that

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our work is not finished here and it

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will be finished . We will succeed .

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And we know we need to keep taking a

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fight to the enemy . We need to keep

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looking out for each other and just do

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the best and all we can here in

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anything we do , do our best and

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let's keep pressing forward