Good afternoon everyone. Let me start by just thanking everyone for being here. Terry and I are overwhelmed by so many of you who took the time to be here for us today as we stand our last formation. Our teammates, friends, and family are here and I can feel the warmth, the camaraderie, and the love.

Secretary Rumsfeld, thank you so much for honoring us today. Sir, I am humbled by the award and, more importantly, by your kind and generous words. We have always respected each other and we have always been straight with each other – and that is what a relationship is all about.

Sir, thank you for the insightful leadership you are providing the nation and the tough love you have brought to the Pentagon. And thank you for your support of our Army. The simple truth is that you have always respected and supported the Army and we appreciate your continued support and leadership.

GEN Schoomaker, Chief my dear friend, thanks for hosting this ceremony and for your many kindnesses since your return. I am so proud that you are our Chief and I respect you so much for your decision to put your personal life on hold to come back to the Army you love so much. Your judgment and your leadership have already been felt throughout our Army. We are behind you 100% and we thank Cindy for letting us have you again.

The Honorable Les Brownlee – our acting Secretary – thank you for your wise counsel and friendship. We have been like 2 peas in a pod and I believe that has truly helped our Army.

Secretary White and GEN Shinseki could not be here today, but I thank them for their leadership and support.

Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Thank you for your friendship, your help, and your enduring support of our Army.

Secretary Roche and former Secretaries Hoffman and West, thank you all for being here.

Our top military leaders, Dick Myers – our Chairman, Pete Pace – the Vice Chairman, who will join us later, and the Service Chiefs and Vice Chiefs. This is a great team and I have been privileged to work with them through the years.

Members of the Army and Secretary of Defense staffs – uniformed and civilian – what an honor to serve by your side here these last 4 years.

My fellow general officers, active and retired, to include 3 former Army Chiefs of Staff – Generals Vuono and Sullivan, and 5 former Vice Chiefs.

Members of the Senior Executive Service, our Sergeant Major of the Army, Jack Tilley and other Sergeants Major – active and retired.

My dear friend, Walter Kaye who has given so much of himself to the Army. My ROTC summer camp bunkmate – Brian Keane. While no relation, we have been friends since 1964. My Fordham University school buddies and teammates from the Pershing Rifles… My school President, Father O’Hare, and his successor, Father McShane. My new friends in the private sector who are helping me transition to a new and exciting life.

My personal staff, led by my secretary, Barbara Lentini, who has provided selfless, quality service to the Army for 42 years,

Our great civilian workforce who are the unsung heroes in the Army. Our many dear friends from FT Bragg and FT Campbell. Fellow Soldiers. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this time and this place with us.

Our family – the Keanes, Doyles, Roaches, and Comeys – who traveled from all across America to be here, thank you for sharing one more special moment with us.

My brother, who is a Vietnam veteran, served his country for 8 years and spent his last assignment with the 82nd Airborne Division and has since retired from a career in law enforcement.

Our Son, Dan who spent 25 years of his life with us and the Army. Who was in 4 high schools in 4 years. Who was torn by the loss of friends and companionship as we bounced around the Army. He has assured me that whatever pitfalls and challenges he may experience in his life, they are completely, and directly my responsibility.

He is now a computer graphics designer in the Air Force. We are so proud that he took an oath to serve his country and we are delighted – and thankful – that he loves it.

Terry Keane. I have hung out with her for over 40 years. She loves this Army and this life every bit as much as me. Terry wanted to go forward, as some of you know, and take on the next responsibility. That is so typical of her. We have made this journey together and none of this would have been possible without her love and support.

A special thanks to Pershing’s Own and The Old Guard… Today would not be same without you. You exemplify excellence and all that is good about our Army and you have never, ever let me down.

I stand before you today full of emotion, full of gratitude, and feeling so very blessed to have lived among heroes for 37 years and to have had so much love and passion for this Army and its life style. I have loved it day in and day out.

I am reluctant to tell you this, but I have never missed a day of work. I took leave, but I never called in sick. I always wanted to show up, to be with the team. It became my life and it helped define me as a person.

The family that I was born into lived a modest life, worked hard, went off to war when the nation needed them, and centered their life around family.

I lived a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural experience in New York City, which added richness to my life that I would treasure in the years to come.

My dad – a natural leader – never saw me become a Soldier, but as a former WW II Marine, he thought it was respectable that I wanted to be a paratrooper. My mom – a wonderful, kind person – was with us through the Army War College. And my Aunt Jo has been a surrogate mother for the past 20 years and has been every place we have been.

During high school, my friends helped me to decide to go on to college, and which one to go to. At Fordham University, the Jesuits do not just teach you the subject, they force you to think… and they teach you how to think while they provide you with a philosophical and ethical foundation for life. It was an intellectual toothache to be sure, but the Jebbies – as we affectionately call them – are wonderful men who were devoted to us, and they had a profound impact on my life.

It was The Pershing Rifles and Army ROTC at Fordham that got me interested in the Army as a possible career and I have maintained an association with many of them all these years.

Terry and I were married when I joined the Army and I stepped off into adult hood like so many young men – full of hope and full of anxiety. I did not know whether I could lead other men. While I had some success at Fordham, the real Army looked imposing to me. In an institution where leadership is a premium and it is so pronounced, the lack of it is all so obvious. So I was scared as well as excited.

We were at war and I wanted to go just like my family had. And I wanted to be with the best. So, I volunteered for the 82nd Airborne Division for my first assignment and then went off to war with the 101st. And so began a lifelong journey that would change me forever.

I quickly discovered that Soldiers do not care where their leaders come from, what their father does, where they went to school, or what kind of degree they have. The only thing Soldiers care about is; who is this leader? Are you competent… and do you care?

I had never met people like this before. Dedicated professionals, full of spirit, highly motivated with a burning desire to serve the country. They drew me in and I never wanted to leave them. And that is why I stayed a paratrooper and a Soldier throughout my adult life.

For me, it has always been about the Soldiers – being with them; being part of a team; shared experiences; incredible camaraderie; respect for each other; knowing we would be there for each other no matter what; walking into a room full of Soldiers who are strangers to you, but being completely comfortable because you know what they stand for; Being so proud to be one of the team.

Our Non Commissioned Officers are the true strength of our Army and they made me competent. And the many officers I have known – my peers, those I have followed, and some who have worked for me showed me how to lead, how to set the example, how to be demanding and establish high standards, and yet, be caring and compassionate.

We ask much of our Soldiers and they make many sacrifices each and every day. Our Soldiers do not want to die. But they are willing to and I have been in awe of that remarkable fact for every 1 of my 37 years in the military. They are willing to give up everything they care about in life. Everything: The opportunity to live a full life; the opportunity to be a parent and raise a family; the opportunity to have friends; the opportunity to love and to be loved.

They are willing to give up all of this, for what? They do it for one another and they do it for the simple sake of the duty. This is true honor. You cannot buy this type of devotion and we can never, ever take it for granted. And we never will.

This morning my family and I laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – a place I believe is the most sacred piece of ground in America. I paid my respect for the last time in uniform to all those wonderful, precious Soldiers and civilians who we buried every single year that I have had the honor to serve. For me, it was always about them and their sacrifice will be with me forever.

We have a magnificent Army. Rebuilt after the Vietnam War, this Army helped to end the Cold War and, during the last 14 years, has deployed around the world to stop thugs from imposing their will on their people or on others.

America and its armed forces stand for what is right and good, and we are willing to take enormous risks to achieve it. Preventing people from being killed, freeing them from repression and horror, and permitting them to have a normal quality of life experience is something I have been so proud to be a part of.

I am equally proud to say the Army has never been more engaged with our teammates from the other Services and our leadership in the Joint Staff and the Office of the Secretary of Defense than it is today. Nobody understands better than the Army that we do not fight alone. We cannot even get to the fight – much less win it – unless we are part of the Joint team.

When one of our support units got in trouble during OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, it was a platoon of Marines that raced to their aid. The Army commander on the ground said he had barely finished speaking to the Marines before they took off on their hasty attack.

When our armor units were fighting through the fanatical resistance of Sadaam Fedayeen around Baghdad, it was Navy, Marine, and Air Force aircraft, who pounded enemy positions, exposing themselves to intense ground fire, flying so low and so close, their controllers talked to them about city blocks and intersections rather than grid squares. Our ground commanders that I met in Baghdad raved about the bravery and valor of American airmen.

Today, we are a nation at war – a nation forever changed by the attack of 9/11. For the first time in my career – and the first time since WWII – we have deployed our forces directly on behalf of the American people and our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines get it. They understand the war on terrorism is all about protecting the American people. As such, I have never seen such intensity and dogged determination to succeed.

Our troops have performed magnificently in two stunning victories in two years – two vastly different operations that demonstrate our armed forces remarkable capability. But we have more to do.

I want to tell you something about this war against terror we are fighting in Iraq and around the world. The foreign terrorists, the Baath Party sympathizers, the Islamic extremists who wantonly kill Americans and innocent people from many nations, have no idea what they are up against.

Their strategic objective is the political and moral will of the American people. They want to destroy our confidence. They think they know us because they have heard of Lebanon in ‘83, or Somalia in ‘94, or the USS Cole in 2000. They think we are morally weak and we will lose our resolve. But their knowledge is superficial and their understanding is shallow.

To understand America and Americans, they need to understand the Marne in 1918, or Tarawa in ‘43, Omaha Beach in ‘44 or the Chosin Reservoir in 1950. They need to understand that a nation that produces Alvin York and Audie Murphy; John Pershing and George Marshall; Chesty Puller and George Patton; Randy Shugart and Gary Gordon; produces heroes in every generation. They are out there now… performing every day.

Our enemies are cunning, but they are ignorant and their ignorance will be their undoing. They do not know our will, our courage, or our character.

When we say we are going to win this Global War on Terrorism we mean exactly that. We don’t mean a moral victory, or victory in some abstract sense. The reality of more than 3,000 dead in New York, Pennsylvania, and in the Pentagon does not allow for such nuances.

When we say we are going to win this Global War on Terrorism, we mean we are going to destroy those who would destroy us – wherever they are in this world. We mean we are going to go wherever we have to and stay as long as we need to.

This fight will test our perseverance, our stamina, and our resolve, but I assure you, we will not be found wanting. We intend to protect America and our way of life. The people of this nation are counting on us – we will not let them down.

Saying good-bye to an organization that has defined your adult life is not easy. It is particularly difficult when that organization is fighting a war and there is much work left to do. But I have great hope for the future. I am comforted knowing that the values and ideals that I have tried to uphold are manifested in our Soldiers and leaders.

The Army will change and it will be become even better. Pete Schoomaker, our leaders in the Department of Defense, and the Congress will see to it.

It has been a profound honor and a humbling experience to be a Soldier and to serve with Soldiers – to live a life among heroes and to help protect the American people and our way of life. I loved it and I will treasure it forever.

God bless each and every one of you. May God continue to care for the men and women of our Armed Forces and may God Bless this wonderful, wonderful nation, our beloved America.

Thank you.