WEBVTT

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Hey , I'm Colonel Chris Bergdahl . I'm

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the new 3 25th fighter wing commander .

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Excited to be here . Uh , so I'm

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married , I've got uh two kids , an 11

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year old daughter and a nine year old

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son . Uh , as a family , we like to be

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outdoors . We like to be active . Uh ,

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both kids play soccer . My daughter

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just started running cross country . Uh ,

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they both like to read a lot and of

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course , the , the other standard

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things that kids like to do these days .

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I was the operations group commander

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before . Uh , so I have a pretty good

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idea of that aspect of our , uh , wings

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mission with the introduction , the

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F-35 . And we , we were starting to

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think about how we exercise and how we

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focus on our readiness , practicing

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against a more advanced threat ,

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practicing more serious scenarios and

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really getting the entire wing involved

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in that practice . But what has stuck

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with me since I was a squadron

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commander is that if , uh , if I take

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care of the people that I'm responsible

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for , uh , they're going to take care

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of the mission and they're going to

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take care of the people that are

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responsible for them . Uh ,

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when I was a kid , all I ever wanted to

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do was fly jets . Um , you know , I got

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my pilot's license in high school . Um ,

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I've always loved and enjoyed flying

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and so initially I wanted to join the

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Air Force to fly and then over time

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that's evolved to , um , really , I

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just enjoyed the mission . I enjoy the

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people . Uh , I enjoyed seeing new

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parts of the country . What started out

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as a , as wanting to fly jets that

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hasn't gone away . I still like doing

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that . I still love to do that . Uh But

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the things that we do as a force are uh

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pretty exciting and , and enjoyable .

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This has uh been by far my favorite

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assignment . Um I've lived in a lot of

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great places . I had a lot of great

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assignments . Uh but to be the OG here

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and then uh get the opportunity to stay

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is , uh it's been pretty awesome . I ,

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I'll be out and about and uh I'm always

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looking to learn about what our airmen

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are doing , uh what their experiences

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are and really what their questions are ,

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right ? So a lot of times , uh people

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have questions like , why the heck are

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we doing this or why ? Uh why are we

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closing the gates or why is there so

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much construction all at once ? Uh So

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Chief Lucas and I will be out . Uh

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Colonel Cable gets out and about as

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well . Just ask us , right , if we're

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available and we're there , uh , we ,

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we're , uh , looking to learn and , and

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answer questions and hopefully shed

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some light on why some things are

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happening the way that they are .