WEBVTT 00:12.810 --> 00:14.921 Well , I did two full tours on active 00:14.921 --> 00:17.143 duty and that was full time and I was a 00:17.143 --> 00:19.143 very junior marine . I was a second 00:19.143 --> 00:21.143 lieutenant , first lieutenant and a 00:21.143 --> 00:23.143 captain . When you're early in your 00:23.143 --> 00:25.310 career , you're simply trying to learn 00:25.310 --> 00:27.477 how to be a marine and be proficient . 00:27.477 --> 00:26.770 You're very wrapped up in the first 00:26.780 --> 00:28.836 person view . By the time I became a 00:28.840 --> 00:31.173 reservist , I had a lot more experience . 00:31.173 --> 00:33.284 I lived a lot more life . My life was 00:33.284 --> 00:35.451 much broader and I think I was able to 00:35.451 --> 00:37.396 give a lot more of myself , not so 00:37.396 --> 00:39.618 worried about my personal performance . 00:39.618 --> 00:39.360 I had a lot more confidence because I 00:39.369 --> 00:40.591 had more competence . 00:47.569 --> 00:49.625 Yeah , I think uh leadership lessons 00:49.625 --> 00:51.919 from uh hindsight of 30 years , 30 plus 00:51.930 --> 00:53.986 years looking at it , you know , all 00:53.986 --> 00:56.208 leaders , uh the first , the first rule 00:56.208 --> 00:58.263 of leadership in the Marine Corps is 00:58.263 --> 01:00.430 that you have to know your craft . The 01:00.430 --> 01:02.319 marines demand that you know what 01:02.319 --> 01:04.486 you're doing , that you have the , the 01:04.486 --> 01:06.652 uh skills to lead them . And then over 01:06.652 --> 01:08.763 time , you have to be willing to fail 01:08.763 --> 01:10.930 in public and you gotta be comfortable 01:10.930 --> 01:10.319 with that . And that's how you learn 01:10.599 --> 01:12.766 and then when you do that enough , you 01:12.766 --> 01:14.488 get competent and when you get 01:14.488 --> 01:16.543 competent , then you gain competence 01:16.543 --> 01:18.655 and that allows you to think of other 01:18.655 --> 01:20.766 people in front of yourself . You can 01:20.766 --> 01:22.877 truly think about the welfare of your 01:22.877 --> 01:22.819 marines , but you can't get a shortcut 01:22.830 --> 01:25.108 to get there . You gotta know your job , 01:31.910 --> 01:33.854 what event or who has had the most 01:33.854 --> 01:35.688 positive impact . That that's an 01:35.688 --> 01:37.743 impossible question to ask because I 01:37.743 --> 01:39.854 think of my service in chunks of time 01:39.854 --> 01:42.300 and tours . Each tour there were unique 01:42.309 --> 01:44.476 marines in that , in that group that I 01:44.476 --> 01:47.150 was with each tour um created hardships . 01:47.300 --> 01:49.639 Um Certainly post 911 , there was a lot 01:49.650 --> 01:52.099 of events that challenged me to develop 01:52.110 --> 01:54.332 quickly in environments that I couldn't 01:54.332 --> 01:56.054 have foreseen . So it's almost 01:56.054 --> 01:58.110 impossible . So I really think about 01:58.110 --> 02:00.277 the people more than I think about who 02:00.277 --> 02:02.110 and what specifically happened . 02:07.459 --> 02:10.080 The greatest lesson I would say uh it 02:10.089 --> 02:12.729 is that opportunity comes and advantage 02:12.740 --> 02:15.073 is gained and it comes from people that , 02:15.190 --> 02:17.301 that uh doesn't matter what rank they 02:17.301 --> 02:19.301 are , it doesn't matter what billet 02:19.301 --> 02:21.246 they are , what M Os they are . If 02:21.246 --> 02:23.134 you've got good competent marines 02:23.134 --> 02:22.580 around you and things are going 02:22.589 --> 02:24.869 sideways and they trust you , then the 02:24.880 --> 02:26.880 answer will come and it's up to the 02:26.880 --> 02:29.102 leader to , to take advantage of that . 02:29.102 --> 02:31.269 But you have to create a culture where 02:31.269 --> 02:33.491 the answers come to you and then you've 02:33.491 --> 02:33.270 got to be bold and act on them 02:40.279 --> 02:42.580 Well , for us , in , in this command , 02:42.589 --> 02:44.756 we have two commands here . You know , 02:44.756 --> 02:46.756 one of them spans the entire United 02:46.756 --> 02:49.033 States with 100 and 58 different sites . 02:49.033 --> 02:51.200 And the other one is all activities in 02:51.200 --> 02:53.145 32 different countries . So it was 02:53.145 --> 02:55.690 simply impossible to , to stay in touch 02:55.699 --> 02:57.866 with all of our stakeholders , all the 02:57.866 --> 02:59.810 marines and sailors and all of our 02:59.810 --> 03:01.477 friends and partners by using 03:01.477 --> 03:03.643 conventional methods . And of course , 03:03.643 --> 03:05.755 I um from Gen X , I'm not comfortable 03:05.755 --> 03:07.977 on social media , but it was very clear 03:07.977 --> 03:07.970 to me that that's where the marines 03:07.979 --> 03:09.979 were . And so you have to go to the 03:09.979 --> 03:11.979 decisive terrain and I watched best 03:11.979 --> 03:14.360 practices and I became uh inspired by 03:14.369 --> 03:16.425 the people that were out . There was 03:16.425 --> 03:18.480 very similar to what I said before , 03:18.480 --> 03:20.702 you know , the rank and their billet on 03:20.702 --> 03:22.925 the roos is didn't , didn't matter . It 03:22.925 --> 03:22.399 was , were they competent ? And were 03:22.410 --> 03:24.466 they trying to be constructive ? And 03:24.466 --> 03:26.688 there was a lot of different ways to do 03:26.688 --> 03:26.160 it . So it really interested me , 03:33.380 --> 03:35.639 I , what I look forward to the most , 03:35.649 --> 03:37.760 what I enjoy the most is seeing young 03:37.760 --> 03:40.309 talent rise , you know , the the job of 03:40.320 --> 03:42.639 the leader is to set the conditions for 03:42.649 --> 03:44.929 talent to thrive . And so what I'm 03:44.940 --> 03:47.051 trying to find is the next chapter of 03:47.051 --> 03:49.107 my life where I can continue to help 03:49.107 --> 03:50.940 people reach their potential and 03:50.940 --> 03:53.162 probably reach beyond what they believe 03:53.162 --> 03:52.360 is their potential . 03:59.619 --> 04:01.675 What's kept me motivated it's , it's 04:01.675 --> 04:03.675 always the marines . Uh , and , and 04:03.675 --> 04:05.786 that's not , I'm not just saying that 04:05.786 --> 04:05.559 because I'm , you know , I'm not gonna 04:05.570 --> 04:07.681 get promoted . So , uh , uh , there's 04:07.681 --> 04:09.792 nothing in , there's no reason for me 04:09.792 --> 04:12.014 to say this other than , you know , I , 04:12.014 --> 04:14.126 I remember specific nights like , you 04:14.126 --> 04:16.292 know , being able to , being with your 04:16.292 --> 04:16.250 marines deployed someplace and it's 04:16.260 --> 04:18.427 raining and it's uh , awful conditions 04:18.609 --> 04:20.665 and you can tell who they are by the 04:20.665 --> 04:22.776 silhouette of the way they wear their 04:22.776 --> 04:24.942 gear at night . And the fact that they 04:24.942 --> 04:26.942 just keep doing their jobs and over 04:26.942 --> 04:26.600 time , you know , watching young 04:26.609 --> 04:29.299 marines ascend and to reach a level of 04:29.309 --> 04:31.309 confidence and leadership that they 04:31.309 --> 04:33.309 didn't know had in that they had in 04:33.309 --> 04:35.531 them and you get to watch that over and 04:35.531 --> 04:37.642 over and that's been the best part of 04:37.642 --> 04:36.500 my career . 04:43.790 --> 04:45.957 That's a tough one . I've enjoyed them 04:45.957 --> 04:48.068 all . But uh I think first Lieutenant 04:48.068 --> 04:50.068 and captain are pretty good because 04:50.068 --> 04:52.290 you're finally figuring out who you are 04:52.290 --> 04:54.123 and you're gaining uh confidence 04:54.123 --> 04:56.012 because you're getting better and 04:56.012 --> 04:57.957 better . And , you know , all your 04:57.957 --> 04:57.910 marines , you , you have a very close 04:57.920 --> 05:00.253 relationship because the scale is small . 05:00.399 --> 05:02.510 But being a battalion commander uh in 05:02.510 --> 05:04.566 Iraq was great because I had a great 05:04.566 --> 05:06.899 battalion . Um , every rank has been 05:06.910 --> 05:09.077 good . But uh if I , if I really think 05:09.079 --> 05:11.190 back on it , I'd say first lieutenant 05:11.190 --> 05:10.980 captain , 05:18.200 --> 05:20.260 I think that the uh the reserve 05:20.269 --> 05:22.790 component is going to be more and more 05:22.799 --> 05:25.040 vital in the years to come when the 05:25.049 --> 05:27.649 blended retirement uh system fully hits . 05:27.660 --> 05:29.730 Uh I think that marines are gonna be 05:29.739 --> 05:32.000 just as likely to get out at year 14 as 05:32.010 --> 05:34.066 they are at year four . That's a big 05:34.066 --> 05:36.121 change . And I also think that young 05:36.121 --> 05:37.859 people uh will demand multiple 05:37.869 --> 05:39.980 opportunities in past to answer their 05:39.980 --> 05:42.202 call to service . They wanna be marines 05:42.202 --> 05:44.369 but they wanna have options and all we 05:44.369 --> 05:46.369 want is the very best . We want the 05:46.369 --> 05:48.529 very best of you and from you so that 05:48.540 --> 05:50.762 when the nation calls , you're ready to 05:50.762 --> 05:52.929 answer that call . And so Mar four rez 05:52.929 --> 05:55.096 is gonna have to be deeply involved in 05:55.096 --> 05:57.151 providing those paths to service for 05:57.151 --> 05:59.096 our best and brightest and hardest 05:59.096 --> 05:58.660 marines . 06:06.160 --> 06:08.216 I would say not just reserve marines 06:08.216 --> 06:10.271 cause Mar Forres is made up of every 06:10.271 --> 06:12.438 type of marine , active duty marines , 06:12.438 --> 06:14.604 uh A R marines , active reserve um and 06:14.604 --> 06:16.660 then select Marine Corps reserve and 06:16.660 --> 06:18.882 individual augments . So my , my advice 06:18.882 --> 06:20.716 is if you still have the call to 06:20.716 --> 06:22.779 service in you as you go through the 06:22.790 --> 06:24.734 hard parts of your life where life 06:24.734 --> 06:26.901 starts getting complicated into your , 06:26.901 --> 06:29.068 your senior twenties and your thirties 06:29.068 --> 06:31.179 and you begin to think that you can't 06:31.179 --> 06:33.234 do both . You can't both be a marine 06:33.234 --> 06:35.234 and meet all of life's challenges . 06:35.234 --> 06:37.346 They get more and more complicated as 06:37.346 --> 06:39.290 you get older . I would say you're 06:39.290 --> 06:41.401 looking at somebody who's telling you 06:41.401 --> 06:43.568 that yes , you can answer your call to 06:43.568 --> 06:45.512 service and struggle to be just to 06:45.512 --> 06:45.429 remain a marine . And what that'll do 06:45.440 --> 06:47.496 is it will compel you to be a better 06:47.496 --> 06:49.607 version of yourself than you would be 06:49.607 --> 06:51.829 on your own . And when crisis strikes , 06:51.829 --> 06:53.996 you will thank God that you're still a 06:53.996 --> 06:53.250 United States marine .