Thanks Chairman McCain and ranking member Reid and distinguished members of the Senate Armed Services Committee for the privilege and opportunity to appear before you today and I appreciate the confidence of President of the United States and Secretary of Defense have shown by nominating me to be the next Chief of Staff of the United States Army and thank you all for your continued non-wavering support and commitment to the soldiers and civilians and families of what is your army and as your army is the strength of our nation our soldiers are the strength of our army and all of their families are the strength of our soldiers and likewise my family has been my strength throughout my life both my mother and father served our nation in World War II as part of the greatest generation with my mother attending the medical needs of soldiers sailors, airmen and Marines from the Pacific at a military hospital in Seattle, Washington. Well my father served with the Fourth Marine Division in the Central Pacific making the assault landings and coaguling Cipan Tinian in the bloody battle of Iwo Jima as he got on 19 and 20 year old. Sadly my mother passed over 20 years ago and my father passed just last April a week's shive is 91st birthday but I'm absolutely sure that they are both very proud from above for their soldier's son and will always be a source of leadership and guidance for me in the years ahead. I'm also unbelievably lucky to have by my side as I previously introduced the last 30 consecutive years of my service the most dedicated and strongest woman in the world my wife Holly Ann. She like my parents is a constant source of inspiration and love for many years during seven contingency deployments on various operations and thousands of days of training. Holly Ann has essentially been like so many army spouses a single parent who has raised two wonderful children who are now young adults are a daughter Mary Margaret and our son Peter who unfortunately could not be with us today but it is for them and for all of our children and the future generations that I and all of us in uniform continue to serve and are willing to go in arms way to give our today's for their tomorrow and I'd like to just take a moment recognize Holly Ann as a representative of all the army families of all the army spouses and for their incredible resilience service and sacrifice. I'd also like to congratulate my predecessor General Ray Odenero and his wife Linda who have given over 39 consecutive years a distinguished service to our great nation I want to personally thank them both whether tremendous leadership is our current chief of staff in leading spouse our nation has been well served by the selfless soldier and his entire family Chairman Senators service in the United States Army is a privilege it's a distinct privilege it's not a right it's a privilege and it's on the old fashion way to hard work and meeting exacting standards of discipline and excellence and your army's contract with the American people is a combat ready force built around our nation's most valuable asset our sons and daughters who become soldiers of character in the best trained and best equipped army in the world and our fundamental task is like no other it is to win and to win in the unforgiving crucible of ground combat there are many other tasks and roles and missions that your army can do as part of our joint force and we perform those every day in support of our nation's interest we assure allies we deter adversaries we shape outcomes and build partner capacity we provide foundational capabilities to enable other joint forces in a variety of ways we provided needed help to victims of disaster but our reason for being our very reason for being at the very core of what it means to have an army it's to win and to win decisively in ground combat against the enemies of our country so that American citizens can enjoy life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and every year 120,000 of America's sons and daughters raised the right hand to take an oath of allegiance to serve our nation in the uniform of your United States Army in every turn we make the commitment to develop them as soldiers as leaders and importantly as citizens these soldiers are the core of our all volunteer army made up of three components the act of the national guard and the reserve we are a total army we are in fact one army where America's army and all of us from private to general come from the people and we are dedicated to give our life and our limb to serve the people and we do it with great pride and a cause that transcends ourselves I have huge confidence in our army today I have served in it in both peace and war and right now we have the most skilled and combat experience army in the nation's history but in this time of increasing instability of increasing uncertainty throughout the globe we must fairly face and solve significant challenges as chairman you mentioned in manpower readiness and modernization if confirmed it's the chief of staff of the United States Army I look forward to working with this committee to get the army the resources it needs and I also pledge to be a careful steward on behalf of the American taxpayer whom we recognize we all serve as well and finally if confirmed as chief of staff of the army I want to ensure that the army meets the expectations of the American people the American people have expected your army to fight and win our nation's wars at any time any place and your soldiers are ready to do that today as we have done for 240 consecutive years today we have a great army and we stand on the shoulders of those that came before us it'll be a tremendous honor to lead our soldiers of today as their chief of staff and I thank each of you without whom we would not even have an army I thank you for the opportunity to appear here today and I look forward to your questions