WEBVTT 00:00.917 --> 00:02.325 -- the next week ahead. 00:03.213 --> 00:08.768 Well, the next week, basically, my job has been broken up into two basic things. 00:08.768 --> 00:13.614 The first part was from, let's say, mid-September to mid-December. 00:13.815 --> 00:18.352 We launched a website that would allow groups that were interested in 00:18.452 --> 00:21.632 participating in the parade to submit an application. 00:21.943 --> 00:25.493 Myself and I have a colleague from the Army Band that worked together with me to 00:25.526 --> 00:29.730 organize and collect the information from groups that were interested and then we -- 00:29.863 --> 00:33.934 in December we gave a presentation to the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which 00:34.034 --> 00:38.138 is an organization, a non-profit organization put together by the president, to put 00:38.357 --> 00:42.709 together all the events surrounding the inaugural. So we gave a presentation to the folks 00:42.843 --> 00:45.913 and this -- the pick, showing them the groups that had applied and that were 00:46.123 --> 00:49.621 interested and then the Presidential Inaugural Committee went ahead and made 00:49.683 --> 00:53.554 selections based on the folks that submitted applications. 00:53.730 --> 00:58.432 Once that was done, my job transitioned now to, basically, being a liaison between 00:58.525 --> 01:02.696 the military leadership, the members of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, 01:02.796 --> 01:06.048 and the groups that were selected to participate in the parade. 01:09.687 --> 01:14.325 So, for those of us who have never been to such an event, it sounds like there's 01:14.325 --> 01:18.979 a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to pulling off this one day. 01:20.055 --> 01:22.773 Well, absolutely, there's no question about it. 01:22.773 --> 01:27.232 It's a national event and it's watched internationally, so there's so many things 01:27.387 --> 01:32.843 that have to happen in advance to make sure that things go smoothly, 01:32.843 --> 01:37.097 that everyone has a chance to see what they want to see, that the President and the 01:37.197 --> 01:41.969 First Lady and the Vice President and his wife are treated with the respect and the 01:42.102 --> 01:46.624 celebratory atmosphere that is incumbent upon all of us to do that for them. 01:46.773 --> 01:50.208 So, there's a lot of people involved, there's thousands of folks involved, 01:50.243 --> 01:54.069 whether they be folks in the military or folks in the civilian side helping to put 01:54.181 --> 01:59.680 together an event where, hopefully, we'll have several tens of thousands of people 01:59.872 --> 02:03.256 coming down to the national mall to witness the swearing-in ceremony and then 02:03.390 --> 02:06.526 to actually be part of the parade and watch the parade go down Pennsylvania 02:06.526 --> 02:08.729 Avenue. So, it does take a lot of leg work 02:08.795 --> 02:12.632 and takes a lot of planning and a lot of collaborative effort between many organizations. 02:16.610 --> 02:21.541 So, what do you think is a quirky little something you can tell us, a little inside 02:21.675 --> 02:25.846 peak into the inauguration that we might not otherwise know about? 02:26.679 --> 02:30.851 Well, I'll tell you, one thing that struck me almost immediately, we launched 02:30.851 --> 02:36.267 a website in early October for folks to apply for participation in the parade. 02:36.578 --> 02:41.259 From, let's say, October 1st to Election Day in mid-November, or early November 02:41.294 --> 02:44.965 rather, we had about 400 and 450 applications that were submitted. 02:45.098 --> 02:51.840 The day after the election we had 1,400 groups apply, so we had 1,000 people apply 02:51.905 --> 02:56.576 the day after the election and then it just kind of spiraled from that point on 02:56.676 --> 02:59.946 and that showed us right away that people are interested in this. 03:00.047 --> 03:05.493 It's an exciting event and so many people were excited about being a part of it 03:05.585 --> 03:10.157 and they reached out to us and we got a chance to talk to a lot of people, folks in 03:10.323 --> 03:13.344 uniform from around the world who wanted to volunteer. 03:13.393 --> 03:16.963 We had husbands and wives who wanted to march in the parade, people who want to 03:17.097 --> 03:22.069 volunteer their services as singers, dancers, poetry readers, vendors, 03:22.169 --> 03:26.006 bands that wanted to play, folks that had written pieces for the president that they 03:26.006 --> 03:28.341 wanted played for him and for the nation 03:28.503 --> 03:33.180 as a celebration of this inaugural event. So, what really got me was the level of 03:33.180 --> 03:38.318 excitement that it was so apparent right away and that level has not dropped off 03:38.485 --> 03:39.319 since then. 03:43.674 --> 03:45.899 Very good. It's been so nice to chat with you. 03:45.899 --> 03:49.963 Thank you for joining us. Sorry for the crazy audio inconvenience. 03:50.097 --> 03:53.967 Not a problem. It's been a real pleasure and I wish 03:54.101 --> 03:57.611 everybody a Happy New Year and it's been a real pleasure.