WEBVTT

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Hello . Hello can you guys hear me ?

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Yes ma'am . Hi this is Tanya Path

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Nicholas in Salt Lake City . Thank you

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for being with . Not a problem .

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Can you guys started out by telling me

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a little bit about what you do there .

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Mr wife , you're in Germany is that

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right ? Yes that's where I live ,

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correct . Okay tell me what you do

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there in Germany in Germany I just

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retired from the Air Force last august

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and I came into working with Man Tech

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International and I'm the route

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clearance here lead here over all the

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maintenance of all the route clearance

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vehicles here in Iraq . I ever see the

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maintenance now what is it like having

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your daughter uh you know in Iraq and

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kind of knowing what she's gone through .

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It doesn't bother me her being here . I

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love it because it gives me somewhere

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from home that I can talk to and it

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makes my job a lot easier having her

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here . Especially today . Yeah .

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Sergeant Bannon , can you tell us a

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little bit about your dad ? Has he

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inspired you through the years ?

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Absolutely . He's the reason why I

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joined the Air Force . Everything I

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need to know about the military

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and growing up . What was it about him

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in the Air Force that made you want to

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join ? Seems

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different roles . He played especially

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in the different countries . We lived

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in Japan for four years and then

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Germany and it was quite a different

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experience and I wanted to serve my

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country and have you

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actually served in Iraq ? No I

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never served active duty in Iraq I was

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stationed in Germany for the last eight

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years . And while I was there we was

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working on the flight line there . So

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all the aircraft that I pushed through

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Ramstein all came down here to Iraq or

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into other locations . But I never

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actually served here in Iraq . Okay .

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Are you , are you there right now

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though ? Yeah . Yes , I've been here

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since early this year . Okay .

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And what have you been doing there ? I

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oversee the maintenance on vehicles

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that my different sites here that

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repair the vehicles that the army uses

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for searching for IEDs and I traveled

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throughout the country looking at all

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my sites and overseeing the maintenance

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operation and how long are you going to

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be there for ? I'm here for possibly a

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year , maybe a little bit longer . Just

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all becomes . So what is it like do you

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get to see your daughter on a daily

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basis ? We tried to see each other

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every day if we can . My day is

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extremely long and her day is extremely

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long , so we overlap , so we try to see

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each other maybe about a half hour to

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an hour if we can each day and if we

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have time off we try to see each other

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as much as we can . So what is father's

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day like this year for you ? I was out

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staying this yesterday , I was sitting

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down when she told me we were going to

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have this uh and I was thinking when

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the last time we were together on

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Father's Day and it was her sophomore

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year in high school is the last time we

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were together on Father's Day . So does

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that mean a lot more when you haven't

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been able to be together on father's

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Day and holidays like that when you

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finally get three ? Most definitely .

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Most definitely when yesterday , when I

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got here I was like , I need a hug from

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my girl . Then when today

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is like I got an email from my wife and

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my other daughters and then I knew I

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was gonna be able to see one of my

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daughters on father's Day . It makes me

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feel good . Then we had dinner tonight

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together . So it was really good . Well

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that's wonderful sir . Can you tell us

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a little bit about your dad

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and kind of , you know what he's like

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and how proud you are of him . Oh my

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dad , my hero . He absolutely is . He's

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a great guy talking to the

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people that worked for him . They find

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inspiration in him and I would

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like to be able to do that one day . So

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I really look up to him and being able

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to even work near him in this capacity

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is truly amazing . It really is . It's

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given me quite a different insight .

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Even that's great and tell me a little

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bit about what you do there . I worked

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back shop for the aircraft here ,

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testing mental integrity , making sure

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that things are safe , a little bit

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different than what you expected going

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into the military ? Just haven't seen

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your dad all those years . It was a

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different when you put yourself , there

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were some things that have changed ,

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but not much overall . It was , I knew

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what I was getting into when I joined

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the military and I was looking forward

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to it and there was a

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minor changes , but I don't think

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Mr white , How many other Children do

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you have ? I have , I have two other

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daughters . I have one who just

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graduated Penn state and I have another

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daughter who just graduated high school

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in Germany . Oh wow . None of them are

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in Utah right now . No , no , none of

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them . And you tell us where heather

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station that okay , where are you guys

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actually from originally from ? I'm

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from pennsylvania and my wife and all

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my girls are from Louisiana . Oh ,

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wonderful . That's great . How , how

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has it been different for you being in

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Iraq versus being in Germany ,

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the biggest difference would be the

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temperature when I left Germany

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was maybe 50 degrees

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and land in Iraq and 115 120 .

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Uh , everything that's green in Germany ,

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just change it to brown and this is

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then , that's Iraq . So not bad . I

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enjoy it . It's not that bad . It's not

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a problem . That's great .

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And can you talk about kind of what

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it's like just living there on a day to

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day basis ? I mean , do you interact

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with the people there ? Get to see them ?

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I personally do not No , no , ma'am . I

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do not . My job does not take me off

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of the camps to interact with the Iraqi

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personnel . I don't actually do any of

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that , ma'am . Sergeant does yours ,

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ma'am . We stay on the base .

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And when , how long is your deployment

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scheduled for ? Were here 120 days ?

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All right . Mr White , Can you tell us

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a little bit about your daughter ? She

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talked about how proud she is of . You

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tell us a little bit about her . Uh

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Well , I'm very proud of her . When she

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told me she was going to join the Air

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Force , she asked me what job to get

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into and I gave her some suggestions of

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uh some different career fields to go

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into . And uh she went to uh the

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military base where she was living

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close to and she went and looked at the

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uh the operation and she enjoyed it .

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So she chose that career field . And I

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went to basic training when she when

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she graduated basic training , I was

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there and she came out of basic

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training as an undergraduate . Um she

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was a marksman . And then when she uh

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she made Staff Sergeant very early in

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her career , very proud of her for that ,

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she went to air my leadership school

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and uh once she had her first school

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now and she was uh the top graduate

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there and when she called me up , she

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told me she dedicated her speech to me .

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I wish I could have been there uh to

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hear it , but I'm extremely proud of

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her . Has it been hard growing

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up through your daughter's lives ,

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Missing a lot of those moments . How

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hard is that ? Uh for me , I've

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actually , I've been very lucky with my ,

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my Air Force career . When I was in , I

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was never really deployed for an

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extended period of time when I was in ,

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I was at locations where we went on

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short deployments , two weeks to a

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month . So for the most part , I was

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always home to see most of the girls ,

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uh big activities , their graduations

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or awards ceremonies and holidays . For

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the most part , I was home as much as

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possible so that it didn't affect me as

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much . Okay ,

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well , I appreciate your time and

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that's really all the questions I have

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for you guys , but can you tell us , is

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this the end of your day there ? I

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don't know what time it is in Iraq , It

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is uh potential eight man and I

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probably have about 2 to 3 more hours

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of work to go you do ? So this is not

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just the end of your day , you have

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something fun to do and being with your

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daughter , you actually still have work

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left to do . Yes ma'am and she has to

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get ready to go to work . Okay , Well

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thank you guys . I appreciate you being

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with us . Thank you very much and have

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a wonderful day and happy father's Day .

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Thank you . Okay .