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TRANSCRIPT | July 1, 2026

Remarks by Gen. Thomas Carden, vice chief, National Guard Bureau, at the Singapore Armed Forces Day Reception at the Embassy of the Republic of Singapore in Washington, D.C. (As Delivered)

Gen. Carden: Thank you all very much, Mr. Ambassador Lui Tuck Yew, Defense Attache Brigadier-General Lim, Honorable Davies, all of my uniformed teammates, and everyone present tonight. I cannot tell you how honored and humbled I am to be in this space with you tonight. As I walked down the stairs and looked across the room, I think I brought half the Pentagon here with me, Mr. Ambassador. If this is any indication of the special relationship the United States military shares with Singapore, I don't think we can find a better example anywhere. So, let's give this entire group a hand. Thank you so much for hosting this important celebration of success. I often say after 40 years of experience in uniform organizations that fail to celebrate success generally have less success to celebrate. So, thank you for being intentional with celebrating Singapore's Armed Forces Day. I have a whole list of accomplishments, but between all of the previous speakers, I think they covered almost everything, but there's some important lessons in this room tonight I don't think we need to walk away not observing. One of them is that we’ve grown this deeper trust and we are what our results say we are. When you think about F-16s and F-35s and all the work your rotary wing aviators are doing with the Idaho National Guard, and you think about what we just finished doing at Exercise Tiger Balm with the Washington Army National Guard. So, 435,000 men and women in the National Guard eager to partner with the Singapore Armed Forces - day in and day out - not to mention the entire joint force that's represented here tonight. I think it's just emblematic of the results that we have collectively achieved, the trust that we built not on paper but over decades of standing shoulder to shoulder. And when we're stronger together, we're going to be stronger today, and we're going to be even stronger tomorrow. We are eager to ensure that all of the theater security and cooperation activities that you wish to engage in, that your National Guard is Always Ready and Always There to stand in that gap between freedom and tyranny. And I will tell you, as you move to Ebbing, Arkansas, and train to F-35 as General Lim mentioned earlier, we recognize that you're bringing families along with you, and I want to ensure that we're in a position to welcome those families and make this their home away from home. Congratulations on the Armed Forces Day of Singapore. More importantly, thank you for being intentional in your celebration, and for allowing all of us to be in the room with you tonight. May God bless you all. Have a great evening!