WEBVTT

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Hi , my name is Giro Rodriguez . I am

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the chief business officer at the Krock

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Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue

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University . I was part of JCOC 91

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in 2019 .

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You know , I grew up in California and

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for me I wasn't part of a military

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family . I wasn't just surrounded by

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the military all too often so for me to

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have this opportunity to spend a week

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with the military , go to JCSC , learn

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a little bit more about the different

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services , uh , it was really impactful

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to me in a lot of ways , so I was

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really excited to join the the event

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back in 2019 . I

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still vividly remember being at Fort

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Carson , Colorado , and having lunch

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with a service member . For me it was

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actually a conversation with one of the

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moms . She was a brand new army mom and

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I spent time with all these generals

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and the admirals , but having this

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lunch with this service member . Um ,

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to me it really impacted me . I was a

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fairly new father at the time and

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getting to spend some time with the

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service member and hearing about the

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decisions that they made to join the

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military , um , it really impacted me .

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It reminded me how that there are men

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and women that wake up every day that

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are willing to serve our country so

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that my son , my daughters , my wife ,

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my entire family gets to live in this

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free country .

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Just the amount of people that are

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waking up every single day to keep our

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country free , um , and I don't mean to

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get ahead of myself , but I will share

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what ultimately this inspired was my

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wife asked me when I came back home

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from JCSC , she goes , so what are we

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doing next ? And I said I gotta go

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serve my country . So I actually ,

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because of JCSC left California , left

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my family left Silicon Valley , and

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ended up joining the uh US Department

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of State . Uh , honestly , a big part

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because of my time with JCSC .

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Impactful JCOC left a big impact on my

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life .