WEBVTT

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Yeah , You go back to the to the

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war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq .

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One of the things that was going on and

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you know , we we we uh we invaded

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Iraq in 2003 from that

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point until around 2007

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US was taking a lot of casualties from

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uh what it was called I E Ds or uh

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improvised explosive devices . We were

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taking a lot of casual are up armored

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Humvees uh even though they were up

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armor and just are soft skin vehicles ,

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there were no match for uh these I E D

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s and we were losing a lot of soldiers

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uh and marines uh to those to those

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bombs , roadside bombs and those kinds

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of things . Uh so the force needed some

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of something else to protect them . Uh

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Uh and and so in

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2007 , the Secretary of

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Defense made a commitment two to

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start deploying , developing and

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deploying uh my resistance armor

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protection devices or in wraps and

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putting those in the field so we can

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protect our soldiers and and allow

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people to come home . The criticality

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of getting these vehicles on the

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battlefield in sufficient quantities to

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make a difference . Was really

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stressing industry at the time . And so

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the industry was at the same time they

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were trying to produce him perhaps to

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put on the field the configurations of

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the M raps they were making were

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changing even as they were coming down

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the down the production line and from a

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logistician point of view , which is

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where land and maritime and de Ella

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came in , we were now having to buy

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parts in support of systems that were

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even before we bought the parts , we're

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becoming obsolete because they have

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been superseded by some other

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variations . Um , so uh ,

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our challenge was to get the right tech

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data to get in with the suppliers , to

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make sure we got ahead of the curve uh ,

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to buy the right things at the right

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time to get it in the hands of our

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soldiers and marines , uh , so that we

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can protect our life . It didn't do any

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good to put an end wrap in the field

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and it doesn't run or it doesn't have

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the parts to sustain it . Uh , it just

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becomes a uh , becomes a stationary

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peel box . Right ? So we had to get

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that , we had to solve that logistics

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problem . Um , and my role was , was

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trying to help facilitate that process .

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A lot of great folks , we have a lot of

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technical people uh , from our , from

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our engineering standpoint , we had the

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buying activities both in the marines

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and the army , uh , and then we work

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very closely very closely uh

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with the suppliers and we had a variety

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of suppliers around the United States

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who were struggling craig frankly to ,

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to , to meet the demand for the

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vehicles and then meet the demand for

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changing threat and then meet demand

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for the logistics . And so it took a

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lot of work and effort um , around here ,

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it was in rap in the morning , and it

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was in rapid night . And , uh , I'm

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rapping between , because we were

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constantly trying to figure out , and ,

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and I used to call it looking around

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the corner to see what was coming on at

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us so we could be in a better position

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in the better posture to support , uh ,

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the field .