WEBVTT

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I got here in august of 2000 and nine .

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I I was 26 year Navy Supply Corps

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officer retired , went to work for be a

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systems a defense contractor , was

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working for them for about 16 years .

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And then I saw the opportunity for the

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acquisition executive position that mr

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Kenny holds And so I figured I apply

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for that and I was fortunate enough to

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get that job . I had that job for 11

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months and then the deputy commander

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position opened up . We have

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five different business units , five

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supply chains . And it's , it's ,

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there's never a dull moment here .

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There's always something going on in

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one of those supply chains . You know ,

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we touched the lives of every soldier ,

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Sailor Marine , uh , Airmen and Coast

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Guard mint every day with all the

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different commodities that we provide .

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Um , a lot of , you know , so I could

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go down to each supply chain and think

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of probably a key event that happened .

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One thing comes to mind as 2000 and 17 ,

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Hurricane Irma and Maria and hit Puerto

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rico pretty bad wiped out there

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electrical grid . We worked with the

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Army Corps of Engineers and provided

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over 30 million pieces of equipment ,

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about $260 million worth . And um that

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was that was a big event . Um Let's see

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uh Syrian refugees and uh we provided

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food for them over uh probably a year

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periods of time . Um We support the

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wild land firefighting effort . I know

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back in 2000 and 17 again , uh we were

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at P . L . L . Five . That's the

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highest level of fire alert . We

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provided enough hose to reach , go from

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philadelphia to L . A . And halfway

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back uh because it was that bad of a

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fire season . Um Let's see what other

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um Ebola

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West africa . We supported both

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with the cni we were building , helping

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to build hospitals there , of course

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medical supplies . Uh And then we're

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providing PPE through Cny Two . We're

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growing in the whole um whole of

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government business . That's probably

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one thing one area where we're seeing

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more . Um you know , we've always , you

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know , helped out fema during

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hurricanes but we're now working with

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the V . A . Yeah ,

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I think it was about March of of 2020

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when it really kind of hit us . And I

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mean it was it was natural that we

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would be involved because of the

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medical supply chain . We have the

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medical prime vendors that we started

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tapping to immediately . But I mean

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quickly demand Outpaced . Um uh supply .

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And we had had to look elsewhere . We

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weren't located on on on the base for

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24 7 but there were people that were

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online , you know , ready to react on

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24 7 availability . It was it

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was pretty , pretty crazy . I was able

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to take a number of industrial hardware

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personnel and move them into medical .

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I think I've moved about 40 total in

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the medical . Uh , then I was able to

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get some support from my peers at

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aviation and land and maritime to kind

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of backfill those folks so we can

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continue the industrial hardware

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mission while we had those folks

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working in and medical . But uh , it

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was , it was a real , real challenge in

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those early days , working a lot of

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long hours and trying to figure out ,

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you know , where we're gonna get the

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material we needed , shipping that pp

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the nursing homes when there was a lot

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of people dying was , um , you know ,

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an important , incredibly important

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mission , something that we couldn't

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fail at . And uh , so , you know , I

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probably lost some sleep over the last

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year , uh , supporting this effort .

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But if I had one thing out of the last

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12 years that probably really sticks

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out as the support of Covid . And you

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know , how how do I um , provide enough

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people to medical or to the other

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supply chains to be able to get to get

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the job done ? Where am I going to find

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the resources we provided , uh , you

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know , PPE . And supplies to the , to

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the ship's uh , that went to California

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and new york . Um , the Javits Center ,

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we provide all the supplies and

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pharmaceuticals to the Javits Center ,

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uh , when they opened up that facility

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there . So , you know , early on it was

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a real struggle . Well , we're also

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shipping the vaccine across the world

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to all the military bases . Uh , We

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start out with the Moderna vaccine , uh ,

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and then started shipping the johnson

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johnson vaccine , johnson . And now

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recently because they want to be able

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to vaccine some of the younger folks ,

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the 16 and 17 year olds were starting

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to ship the Pfizer vaccine uh didn't

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start out with a fighter because you

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know , you gotta ship it at minus 80

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degrees Celsius , which is a little bit

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more challenging to do that . But yeah ,

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we're we have that mission to where

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we're shipping vaccines across the

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world . The other things too , you know ,

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we got a call from the task force , the

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White House task force that they wanted

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to provide material to nursing homes .

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PPE masks , gowns . So the good ,

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the fortunate thing about our uh

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construction equipment contracts , we

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have a special ops contract , fire

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emergency contract . They're very broad

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and very flexible and we were able to

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quickly hire a contractor that would

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provide all of that material . And we

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shipped it out to 15,000 locations . We

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bought PPE for about a month's

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worth to cover all 15,000 uh

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nursing home . So that was a huge ,

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huge deal . Our clothing and textile

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organization , there was a big need for

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gowns . So they wrote a contract . I

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mean , initially we got over about 120

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proposals that had , we had to go

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through . So we we got some help with

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that . We broke it down different teams

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to look at each of those proposals and

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decided we were going to award those

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contracts to . This is a contingency

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operation that has lasted over a year

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and it's been high tempo . Uh , it's

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once again , no fail mission . We're

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not just supporting department offense .

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We're supporting the country .

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I mean , I I have never worked with

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such a hard working , dedicated ,

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talented and creative work force in my

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life and and they truly , truly take to

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heart supporting the war fighter .