001[Music] thanks everybody for uh for coming here today um first I I I want to extend a a deep thanks to our our veterans here in the room um you know you know Society has has advanced you know over over the Millennia and over the the centuries but um what has always I don't want to say necessarily defined a society but certain certainly signified a strength of society of societies across all the ages has been the strength of its fighting forces and I think we're very very lucky in America to have the veterans that we have serving for us now and who have served for us in the past um that is one of the main reasons why America is what America is today um with all its warts and bruises but with all of
002its all of its good things too um we have veterans to think for that and true yes as as things evolve as as people evolve as societies evolve uh maybe maybe the the strength in our fighting forces is not necessarily as um I don't know as prevalent or as as in your- face I guess you could say uh as as it once were but um again today a a nation is still defined largely in part of its armed forces or doing part to its Armed Forces so thank you uh to those of you who served and thank you for being here thank you for uh being willing to uh to serve your country make sacrifices for your country uh and not only your country but the ideals that it upholds so give yourselves a big
003round of applause [Applause] um today is certainly a great day in order to celebrate our veterans in their families but um I also want to take a moment to to think about to than those that actually put today uh together for you all so first I'd like to recognize our uh police and fire departments and their respective associations for the work that they do uh today and every day um it's certainly there's certainly um in the community as part of their jobs but also um just as part of their character and part of who they are and I think just like I spoke about our arm services are a big big reason why our nation is what it is today I think our community in Ashland is what it is today thanks to in large
004part to our police and fire departments so thank you once again for uh for your work um I also want to thank uh candy and Mary and the rest of their staffs for putting helping organize and put this together um it's always a great event year after year uh candy and Mary put on great events all the time throughout the year so let's give them a round of applause as well so uh had a game day audible that we called it right here so uh Mary keeps me on my feet I'm telling you she she stays on her feet too but um and you know I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself I just kind of assumed everybody knows but I'm Michael Herbert I'm Our Town manager and um but again I I was really really
005happy to be asked to to speak here today but so thank you everybody who put today on and um you know before we move further um our arm services are made up uh of a number of branches and what I would like to do is announce each of the those branches and if you served in one of those branches if uh you could please stand up and be recognized uh I'd appreciate it so um we're going to start off with uh the United States Army any army veterans here please stand up awesome thank you all for your service um how about the Navy United States Navy I want to got some Navy that's here oh yes Gabe you were in the Navy yes yes um how about the Air Force any Air Force vets here
006I see Sarah in the back our veteran service director um and Marines do we have any Marines here all right my mom always told me if there was any branch that would let me in it would probably be the Marines but uh she was wrong so and then um let's see the Coast Guard do we have any coasties here all right excellent and I think I don't know if we're talking Sky Force or you know space force excuse me um if there are some space force veterans here I'd love to know who you are and I'd love to talk to you afterwards cuz I bet you got some pretty cool stories seal so seals seals the seals any any Navy Seals here so I believe we oh excellent awesome well thanks to all of you
007again for serving um this great country of ours and I look forward to to serving you um lunch today and then getting to speak to you um but uh let's see I'm going to should I introduce Brett now or do you want me to go ahead and introduce the do the uh Pledge of Allegiance okay so right now I'm going to ask uh David spear to uh please lead the uh lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you thank you hi I'm H David spur I'm the commander at the VF W and Ashlin I'm honored to be here okay I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the public which it stands one nation under God individual with liberty and justice for [Music] all by the dawn's early
008life but so proudly we H at the Twilight last gleaming whose bright stps and bright stars through the perous fire over the ramper we watch th were gently St and the rocket red GL ponds bursting in air gave prove through the night that a flag was still there oh s does that star spangle Banner away over the land of the free and the home of the brave [Applause] I'm aware that there are a lot of concerns about the Readiness of the United States military I've heard plenty of people worry that the United States military is ill prepared for the mission assigned to it I've heard concerns that the military is overly woke that the soldiers are out of shape and they lack that Warrior ethos well ladies and gentlemen I'm here today to tell you
009that you can rest easy that your United States military today stands ready to fight and win this nation's Wars now bear with me on this as I walk you through it but I have every confidence having served in the United States military for 24 years from Frontline infantry to divisional head headquarters staff I know what makes a good warrior and I have every confidence that what stands in uniform today be it in the Army the Navy the Marine the Air Force the Coast Guard and space force these are the people that you want there these are the people that you need there ladies and gentlemen of ashin veterans friends police fire Community leaders let me ask you how that rigid red coat may have reflected Ed upon the UN uniformed undisciplined untrained ill equipped minute
010man of 1775 standing on Lexington Green it's probably a bad example because we actually lost at Lexington Green but let's fast forward two hours to conquered to the standing on the bridge at conquered they probably didn't think they looked very soldierly now did they but did they not repulse them from that bridge please understand that it is an error to try to compare the Warriors of today to the era of yesterday sitting in this room I'm surrounded by 80 Warriors of different eras and yes I include myself in that I fought in Afghanistan I fought in Baghdad but that does not mean that the war that I fought is the war that our current soldiers will fight to the contrary they will fight an entirely different war and they will bring an entirely different skill
011set to that fight the skill set that you want I sitting right over here to my left to your right John featherston US Army veteran himself Desert Storm and I believe you are a red leg were you not red leg artilleryman the way that Mr featherston over here learned to fire cannons was probably using that old worms equation we'd have to hand write it out you'd have to hand write out how this projectile was going to launch through the air that's not how we fire artillery these days we fire them through mlrs through high multi-launch rocket system mlrs through high Mars we fire them through paladins that can fire whatever it is like six rounds in the air all at once so they're all calculated to land at the exact same time and essentially hit
012an entire one km by one km grid Square all with one shot all at one time and that's not a Captain John featherston sitting there calculating It Out by worms no that is the new intellectual highly thoughtful calculating soldier that knows how to use computers to calculate that type of artillery the type of warfare that I fought where there was a guy standing with a rifle shooting down range that is not the way that we should be thinking that future warfare will be taking place and it's not the way that your current US military is planning on those Wars we have more sophisticated equipment now we have equipment that allows you to fire from essentially video game consoles do you happen to know anybody that plays a lot of video games might it be the
013very generation we're putting in uniform today go watch your children your grand children play these games like Call of Duty and such and understand that the modern United States military is updating its equipment so that the people who have mastered those very video games that your kids are sitting in the basement playing are the same ones that will win this nation's Warfare or will win this nation's battle in the modern form of warfare let us not try to think that the soldier of the past is what we need for the soldier of the future be confident recognize what is necessary for the next great generation of Warriors it would be a Fool's errand to try to compare what made a good soldier in the American Civil War to what made a great soldier in World
014War II would it not standing there disciplined in a line showing your chest to the enemy while loading your muzzle loader and then firing In Cadence with the 10 men to your left 10 men to your right right that did work in what we'd call first generation linear Warfare such as we Ed in Civil War that didn't work in World War II so what made a great warrior in World War II well my personal opinion not saying this is definitive but I would suggest what made a great warrior in the World War II era was the ability to independently maneuver and Lead small groups I think that's one of the things that made American Military fantastic in World War II was cuz remember look back at World War I a bunch of soldiers all online
015getting up in line and charging across a battlefield in line with one officer you whatever waving a sword in front of them or something like that that's no longer how we were fighting in World War II and to our benefit no in World War II we empowered those captains to lead companies those lieutenants to lead platoons those sergeants to lead squads independently this created the ability to fight small small unit maneuver Warfare and that was one of the major contributions that America made to victory in World War II so that's what made these World War II soldiers great in their time was their ability to lead these small unit Maneuvers but that's not what was true in Vietnam I would suggest to you once again speaking only for self I would suggest some of the
016best warriors of Vietnam were those who were quick Learners let us not forget much of the US military during Vietnam were oneyear draes you had one year to get into uniform to get trained to get over there to handle your business and to come back but also when you're handling your business remember you also had to train the newer younger soldiers Marines Sailors Airmen that were coming in after you so the best Warriors of the Vietnam era I would suggest were those ones that quickly learned and were able to quickly impart that knowledge in that very short period of time that they actually served in the military that's different than World War II now flash forward to my generation of warrior Afghanistan Iraq operation enduring Freedom operation Iraqi Freedom we had the benefit of s
017we didn't have draes we didn't have conscripts all volunteer Force everyone's there for four years or more we had much longer to train our soldiers and our Marines and our Sailors and our Airmen so that was no longer the major [Music] issue I would argue from my experience speaking only for self what made the best warriors during my generation of of war was cultural competence cultural intelligence we were fighting in some very complex cultural networks here the tribal circumstances in Afghanistan in particular went back thousands of years and there were alliances and host hostilities the likes of which none of us could ever fully understand but the best Soldiers the best ones were the ones that understood how the various cultural networks worked with one another because that's what allowed us to get the best
018intelligence and to make sure we're fighting the right people and not the wrong because things can look awfully similar in fact let me share a story with you I was one time on a mission we had actually been uh we air assaulted in it was awesome was hot LZ uh taking fire as we come and we land uh it was a place called um uh chora was the name of this Village it was in Afghanistan it's in ruson Province and uh we'd been fighting all through that night and into the morning but we were told we were told at some point reinforcements were coming in from a local militia here's the problem when you've been fighting one enemy who fighting in an asymmetric form and not really uniformed or anything and you're expecting reinforcements from
019someone else who is also an asymmetric type unit not necessarily in uniform how do you know which units coming in are your own reinforcements versus the enemy's reinforcements and I'm not going to get into the whole story but um when I saw a unit coming down a mountain Pass marching more or less at formation we had to make a very quick judgment call us to whether we engage this as enemy reinforcements or we bring this in as potential friendly reinforcements and fast forward it ended up being me my my radio operator and me going out just the two of us uh from the compound that we'd been occupied we go out just hoping that these guys aren't going to draw down on us and the person walking in the front when as I get closer
020and closer I realize the person walking in the front has not carrying a typical Afghan style weapon he's carrying a very Western weapon and he's got a long black beard and uh skin that's been out in the sun for a long time and I try to ask as best I can and Posh tun whether uh he's the friendly militia to which he responds hey good day mate you must be Lieutenant Walker then guy was Australian turns out he was Australian Special Forces he's the one that had actually gone out and found the uh the friendly militia and brought them back so any put all that aside the point is one of the things that really distinguished good Warriors from bad oh I'm and there was one other thing and this doesn't just like an officer
021or leader thing we once had uh U we once had an enemy proner of War epw right uh and uh and one of my soldiers was guarding him and at the end of his guard shift came up to me and said Hey sir just so you know this guy who we just captured in Afghan territory is speaking Arabic he's doing prayers in Arabic Arabic and this guy this guy was from Massachusetts of all things we were stationed in the 10th Mountain division together uh I had no prior connection until I showed up into this his unit but he was from Massachusetts but he had spent enough time in the Middle East that he actually recognized difference between Arabic and Posh tun and so we we uh we interrogated him further it turns out he actually
022was uh he had come to Afghanistan specifically to join up with the the counter- American militias but so the point is these these types of things that made great warriors during my era and it's different than what made great warriors in World War II and it's different than what made great warriors in Vietnam and I ask of you have confidence have confidence that the Warriors we need for the next War are the very Warriors that are being trained right now and 20 years from now there will be some new Brett Walker standing up before you telling you all the great things that were necessary of his generation of warrior so having discussed the present readiness of our military and with four minutes left in my allotted time I move on to my plea to you
023CU for those of you have had to heard me have to hear me speak you know that I I always end with a plea to my audience and here it is while what makes a great warrier varies from generation to generation there are some characteristics that endure the best veterans are does this sound a little bit familiar David the best veterans are those who have commitment who have loyalty who have energy who have selfless service to their Community veterans was that not you the entire time you served in uniform and I ask that is that not you now to whatever extent that you want to find yourself as someone committed to serving the community someone who is loyal someone who is energetic someone who is capable and competent I beg you continue using that volunteer
024in your community now today there is never a shortage of Need For Good volunteers to do good things here in Ashland in Massachusetts volunteer to read at the schools volunteer to help right in fact candy and Mary you wouldn't have any use for volunteers here at the Ashland Community Center would you volunteer to work right here I checked on my way in here I checked the Ashland b bash web page we currently need volunteers for the historic commission for the society the the committee on Aging surely something else right Michael I'm sure Mr her we got something else out there there's always need for volunteers even if it's not here in Ashland get out and continue serving you were what made you a great veteran vetan was your service then what continues to make US
025veterans great is that we continue serving tomorrow thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share some thoughts with you God bless our veterans and I really want to thank uh Mary and candy and everybody else who put this together the food was delicious [Music]