Gen. Nordhaus: Good morning. How are we doing? HUA? Everybody, ATTENTION! At ease, at rest. Alright, shake it out a little bit. Hey, thank you for what you're doing for our nation. Incredible job. Secretary Hegseth, thank you so much for hosting this event. It's great to be here. As we celebrate 250 years of our independence, the National Guard has been there from the beginning. We joined George Washington as we won our independence back in 1776. We were there on the beaches as we came on Normandy and Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. We were there for Midnight Hammer, Absolute Resolve, and continue in Epic Fury, and our National Guard will be Always Ready, Always There. Now, here in Washington, DC, as we brought on the task force, General Blanchard, being the JTF commander, we brought 2500 Guardsmen in from 15 states and the District of Columbia, and you all have done an amazing job. You all have saved over 235 lives. You all have done over 530 medical assistance to personnel, you have restored children back to their families 27 times, and you have done amazing things in support of law enforcement to make sure we reduce crime. As we celebrate 250 years on Saturday, most Americans will get up and they'll think about barbecues and family and friends, they'll think about where they're going to watch the fireworks, but our National Guard will have 40,000 globally engaged somewhere, and they'll wake up and they'll lace up their boots and they'll think about going into the ballistic missile defense site to make sure we're secure, they'll think about cyber and how we're making sure we're protecting our networks, and right here in D.C., they'll be lacing up to make sure that they can fly jets into the air, whether they're maintainers or crew chiefs or the pilots, to keep our skies safe, not only over Washington, D.C., but across our nation. And so as we go forward, and we've bumped up another 2500 to celebrate the fourth and our independence for 250 years, that's a quarter of a millennium. Think about that. And so we want to give a shout out to our governors and to our Adjutants Generals for helping to make sure that our Guardsmen can be here and ready to go, so we can celebrate across our nation. Now we have Guardsmen also that are getting ready for maybe a tropical storm in Guam. We have Guardsmen up on the side of a mountain right now, clearing out fire lanes, so that we can stop wildfires. And we have Guardsmen that are supporting Venezuela, as they've just had the two large earthquakes. And so our Guard’s 435,000 strong. We're going to be Always Ready, Always There, which is our motto. Happy birthday, America! And it's super exciting to be here on the fourth of July. Thank you. And now I'll turn it over to Honorable Blanche.