Good afternoon, thank you all for joining us here to recognize Colonel Frank Rubio and his extraordinary and unique accomplishment. It is my pleasure to present COL Rubio with the Army Astronaut Device today, one of the most rarely earned qualifications across the Army. In fact, there are only two other active-duty soldiers who have this device right now.
As I travel and talk to different audiences, I often highlight the opportunities and possibilities that the Army offers. COL Rubio is a stellar example of someone who has made the most of every opportunity.
What started as a way to pay for college turned into quite the adventure. From the time he entered West Point as a cadet, Frank has taken advantage of all that the Army has to offer. Whether that was joining the Black Knights parachute team, earning his degree in international relations, or learning how to fly Blackhawk helicopters, he gained the education and training that would set the foundation for the rest of his career.
As he deployed to Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, logging over 600 combat flight hours, COL Rubio developed his leadership, team building, and resiliency skills. But his adventure didn’t end there, as he applied for medical school through the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, and earned his Doctorate of Medicine. As a physician, he brought these skills back to the Army, serving in Army hospitals, clinics, and 10th Special Forces Group. In between school, training, and deployments he married his high school sweetheart Deborah and they raised four children together. And then finally in 2017 he was presented with the chance to become an astronaut. Clearly, he is an underachiever!
In all seriousness, COL Rubio has a powerful U.S. Army story to tell: how his experiences in the Army developed him into who he is today, how he has maintained strong relationships with his family that can weather deployments on Earth or a year in space, how he learned to adapt to unexpected changes to the mission as an aviator or as an astronaut aboard the international space station, and how he built and relied on the trust he had with his teammates - whether in operational theaters on Earth or in space, hundreds of miles away from the mission control center.
Few in the Army have such an unusual story, but many soldiers will say that like Frank, the Army enabled them to be all they can be.
COL Rubio, you are an incredible example of the Army’s core values and what it means to lead a life of service. You inspired audiences around the world as you orbited the planet for 371 days, and now, back on earth, you continue to inspire others as you share your experience with the public.
Most Americans would probably be surprised to learn that you – an astronaut – are an Army officer, but in fact, the Army has worked closely with NASA to advance space exploration since the beginning of the U.S. space program. It was a U.S. Army rocket that carried the first American astronaut into space, and the Army remains at the forefront of maintaining our nation’s ability to explore and defend against threats in space. Today, the U.S Army Space and Missile Defense Command works tirelessly to advance the nation’s interests by integrating space capabilities into military operations, countering space-based threats to our nation, and supporting the nation’s space exploration programs through the Army Astronaut detachment.
Since 1978, our partnership with NASA has produced 19 Army Astronauts. These uniquely skilled and extremely qualified astronauts represent the very best and most talented officers and warrant officers from within the Army. As we humans explore further into space, and NASA returns to the moon and sets its sights beyond to Mars, the Army will continue to play an important role in the exploration of space long into the future. And we will build on the research that COL Rubio did on the International Space Station for 371 record-setting days.
Few humans have gone into space, and even fewer have conducted a spacewalk, much less three, or spent anywhere close to the amount of time that COL Rubio has spent orbiting the planet – so it’s a privilege to have him representing the nation and the Army.
Frank, you’ve inspired so many people across the country and around the world. It’s my pleasure to present you with this Astronaut Device today, which is fittingly on your Army aviators’ wings – wings that reflect over 1100 hours of flight time on Earth, and now 371 days in space.
So, please join me here on stage, and we will present you with your Army Astronaut Device.
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