WEBVTT

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Good afternoon , ladies and gentlemen ,

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on behalf of Colonel Page M Jennings ,

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the commander of the United States Army

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Financial Management Command and

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command . Sergeant , Major Kenneth

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theft law , the senior enlisted advisor

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to the commander of the United States

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Army Financial Management Command .

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Welcome to today's ceremony as we honor

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Colonel Ralph M Mac Crumb with the

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presentation of the Major General

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Nathan Tosin medallion . The host for

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today's ceremony is Colonel Page M

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Jennings , the commander of the United

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States Army Financial Management

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Command . The official party for

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today's ceremony consists of Colonel

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Rebecca Be McKell Wing , the Assistant

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Chief of Staff for Resource management ,

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U S . Army Central and Colonel Ralph

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Mac Crumb , the Chief of staff for the

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United States Army Financial Management

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Command , the Major General Nathan

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Thompson regimental medallion . There's

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the name of Major General Nathan

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thomason who as paymaster general of

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the United States Army from 18 19 to 18

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21 and from 18 22 to 18 54

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envisioned and shaped a financial

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department which met the army's needs

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up until the 20th century . Our career

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soldier , Major General Yasin fought in

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the war of 18 12 as an artillery

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officer during the war . As a captain ,

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Major General Yasin commanded artillery

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during many confrontations including

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the Battle of Fort George , the Battle

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of Stoney Creek , the Battle of

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Queenstown Heights , the Battle of

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Cipolla , the Battle of Lundy's Lane

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and the Siege of Fort Erie , the rate

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of fire of his batteries during the

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siege of Fort Erie was so rapid that

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his position was called Thompson's

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Lighthouse by the american soldiers .

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He was promoted to Brigadier General in

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18 34 and then Major general in 18 48

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for his service in the mexican american

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war . Under his supervision , army

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paymasters assumed responsibility for

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paying all U . S . Troops on an area

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basis geographically the world's

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largest nation at the time yet to

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sean's new systems and strict standards

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of accountability brought costs down

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and reduce losses to 1/5 of 1% .

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Major General Thompson died while still

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on active duty on July 20 , 1854 after

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serving in the Army for 42 years .

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Fortas in Oklahoma and the american

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liberty ship Ss Nathan Thompson were

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both named after Major General Yasin .

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The Major General Nathan Thompson

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regimental medallion was established by

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the US Army Finance Corps Association

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on seven may 1993 to recognize

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exceptional achievement or exemplary

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service by currently serving US army

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financial management and comptroller

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commissioned officers , non

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commissioned officers , enlisted

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soldiers and civilians demonstrating

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exceptional leadership and his

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accomplishments , clearly distinguish

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them from their peers appearing before

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a most arteries and discriminatory

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committee of proven finance and

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controller professionals . Be it known

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that the following individual has been

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tested and found worthy of special

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recognition for his outstanding

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contributions to the community of

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finance professionals and will receive

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the Major General Nathan Thompson

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medallion , attention to

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orders in recognition of demonstrated

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exemplary contribution and service to

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the U . S . Army Finance core , be it

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known that Colonel ralph crumb is

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awarded the 855th award of the Major

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General Nathan Thompson medallion and

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is entitled to all rights and

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privileges here in Presented this 6th

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day of June 2022 signed Paul

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Morrissette , President , Finance Corps

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Association

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Ladies and gentlemen , Colonel Rebecca

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B McElwain team . I just want to say

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thanks for coming out here today and

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we're here to honor Colonel Matt Crumb

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and his team's accomplishments . Really

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I know that some of you went to the P .

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D . I . So you were able to see he and

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his team recognized in front of all of

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our peers and fellow organizations

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across the US army . It's a real honor

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to be up here today and Mac , I'm so

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glad that you were able to redeploy

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safely and you're here with us today .

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But I just really want to say a couple

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of words about how fantastic and the

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type of legacy that you've brought to

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the finance and control record to your

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family , to yourself . Um And as you

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know , you know , we've been at war for

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what 20 years . That's an extraordinary

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amount of time . 20 years in

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Afghanistan alone , countless lives and

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we know what the cost of all of that

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was . It's very clear and the U . S .

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Populace is very well aware of

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everything that happened in Afghanistan .

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They tracked it closely . They took

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care of our soldiers . They cared about

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everything that we were doing there .

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And as you know , financing control . I

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mean the bottom line is we're first in

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last out , aren't we and matt Chrome

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and his team are no exception to that .

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I mean after all of the time that we

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took to um spend in Afghanistan really

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the collapse , the dissolution as the

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disestablished the movement back was

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actually very rapid . By the time

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september hit , they were full board

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and fully moving out doing full

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evacuations , we're talking hundreds of

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thousands of evacuations were talking

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our own soldier types of evacuations

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and then let's not forget the marines

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and the army um that happened at Abbey

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Gate and all of that was underneath

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matt crumbs watch as well as all of his

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Air force counterparts didn't even have

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an army team to get him through that

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with the fibs and most of you

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understand what it would be like to

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train our Joint force on G fibs and to

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try to work through hundreds of

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thousands of transactions . To be quite

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honest , $22 billion worth of things

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that they were working through closing

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out . And really frankly almost 1000

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contracts . And when you think about

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contracts and I just want to put it in

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perspective , the folks that you're

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contracting with are actually probably

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a lot of them are from Afghanistan .

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How do you track down vendors to pay

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them when they're in the midst of a

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complete um movement out of country

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trying to save their livelihoods ,

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their lives and their families . How do

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you track all that down ? Well , Mac

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did that . And then on top of that with

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NATO partners , um , all of the

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countries that we have under NATO that

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had contributed over the years to what

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was happening in Afghanistan . All of

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that collapsed extremely quickly . And

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he and his team worked hundreds ,

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hundreds of millions of dollars . And

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frankly , I think Mac , you did over Um ,

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billion or something like that , just

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in transactional work , let alone what

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it leaves us . And when we look at his

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transition from Afghanistan , the

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entirety , you know , one year , one

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year ago today , we had a four star

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general in the seat that quickly went

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as we started to transition , we took

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Celestica . You know , are the folks

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that were paying for all of that Asif ,

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Afghanistan security forces fund paying

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for all the security cooperation , um ,

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you know , roughly anywhere depending

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on the year 10 to $22 billion program

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of different things that we were doing

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in Afghanistan . And then you took use

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of our alpha . Those were the combat

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forces , right ? Those were everybody

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else that was there working through the

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mission at hand . And so what happened

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is we created what's called a DSC em

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off . It's a dense security defense

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security cooperation . It's a

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transitional organization . And you

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know , when everybody else redeployed ,

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he said , you know , Mac , are you

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going to redeploy with everyone ? He

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said , I'm not leaving . Of course . He

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went , why would he write financing ?

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Controller stays last in the seat to

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make sure that it's a good battle

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handoff . He knew that are sent needed

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his help . He knew that army needed his

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help to make sure that It was an

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orderly transition . And even under the

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midst of chaos , he found a way to make

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that happen with a very , very small

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team of six and that included

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himself . So when you think about just

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the enormity of that mission , the

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billions of dollars and frankly one of

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the most expensive wars that we've

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fought , not the most expensive , but

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one of the most expensive wars that

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almost $2 trillion . Um , the amount of

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you know equity that the US had in

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their soldiers and frankly military

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lives that were lost . Um , it all came

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down to a controller in the very end ,

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the last one boots on ground signing

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the document for disestablishment . And

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then now Ds sumo alpha is completely

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and totally disestablished and our

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operations in Afghanistan underneath

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the normal operations have ceased as we

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know them now . And so he took the time

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to carefully give that back to our son

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and our son is now closing out . And

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for those of you that are fiscal

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managers , you understand how much it

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takes to close out all those fiscal

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tales because it's not even just those

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closing years , the canceling year ,

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it's actually gonna be about 10 years

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of litigation as we try to figure out

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those contracts right with all of our

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vendors that we hope we find and we are

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able to pay them their due um and close

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out those contracts . So Mac I um I

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can't thank you enough . You've written

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history , You've written history again ,

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not just for financing controller , but

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you've written history for army . You

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had written it for your family . You've

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written it for your Children and your

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Children's Children . So thank you .

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Alright , so at that I will pass

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this over to Mac for his comments as

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well . We'd like to hear from you , Mac .

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Ladies and gentlemen , Colonel Mac

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Crumb . Well , good morning everybody .

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Thank you so much . Uh First off thanks

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to the Commander , Sergeant Major ,

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Command Sergeant Major for for hosting

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this event . Um Colonel McElwain ,

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thank you for a wonderful words . Um I

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do appreciate that . Uh And I think you

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said it perfectly at the beginning ,

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which is I get to receive this award

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and I get to wear this award . But it's

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a team effort and it really is and it

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required just the work of the team I

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had while deployed . Um but I'll be

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honest with you if I didn't pick up the

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phone and call back to Arson very often .

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I didn't call back to our very own

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command here and talked to folks

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because when Afghanistan Fell , we left

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the normal course of events . We took a

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hard left and there were a lot of items

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that , you know , you have to call on

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all your controller tricks and you have

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to call on your friends and you have to

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call on the people that can help you

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get to the next level and make you

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aware of the close out procedures and

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where to go next . And , and so it was

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a battle of comptroller ship . It was a

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battle of contracting . Uh , and it was

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a battle of transitioning all of the

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work that we did back from a forward

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deployment back to the arson team ,

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back to NATO , back to D . S . C . A .

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And back to centcom . And I certainly

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could not have done that alone . So I

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appreciate that . And it's it's a great

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thing to again receive this award . I

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appreciate that . I can't thank

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everybody enough . So thank you

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ladies and gentlemen , this concludes

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today's ceremony . Colonel Crumb and

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his family would like to thank you for

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attending service to soldiers , Winning

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matters Army Strong