countries and 43 states to include Afghanistan Iraq South Korea and the Ukraine he is also first generation college graduate and went to earn his master's degree in public administration a certificate in project management and two cyber security certificates Bernie currently works in the information technology and cyber security sector has been an active Mentor for the Youth particularly young black men in the greater Baltimore area that's my area thank you Bernie for your service he is a to advocate for his community and Christian and a role for many young a role model for many young men throughout our state Bernie is a resident of elage and Howard County where he and his lovely wife of over 33 years have raised two children come on up birdie about to hear from a great Patriot great man in Baltimore City going some great things very much needed in Baltimore City Chris why' you tell all those lies thank you guys for coming out I see a lot of faces that I recognize and know I won't get into re trying to acknowledge everyone cuz when you're in front of a crowd you might get nervous and screw it all up my brother Dr Ray over here told me I had about four minutes to speak um so I wrote down some words rather than trying to remember from memory although it's etched in my brain but I could go for days talking about this so with that said this is what happened to me on September the 11th 2001 I was a young Air Force Major working at the air staff at the got September 11th 2001 was a typical day My Wife and Kids slept as I left the house at 0445 hours to begin my daily commute my old friend kale Morris and I met at one of the local slug lots and picked up a rider and headed north on 995 we had to access the high occupancy vehicle Lane before 0500 otherwise we'd have to pay you know military people at notoriously cheap so we headed north to the city from our homes in Woodbridge Virginia we parked in the parking garage under our building and Reed ourselves for the challenges of the day it's now 0600 it was a typical day we checked email for tasks and orders and we determined what needed to be done and then a few of us walked downstairs to a little cafe for breakfast by the way we weren't at the Pentagon at the time we were in least space in rosin Virginia since the Pentagon was under renovation it was a typical day after morning huddles and briefs I had to catch a shuttle most mornings I had to go brief my miserable Colonel and his staff at the status of whatever issue we might be working that day that happens usually at 1000 hours on that morning I had my new captain with me his name is Chad Lewis he was a brand new captain and I was showing him the ropes so at about 08:40 I grabbed Chad and we headed out the door me and the noob had a shuttle to catch at 08:45 me and the noob got to the bus stop and he had forgotten his notebook I was mad but we had to go back we'll catch the next Plus show no big deal it was a typical day we went back inside the building and all of a sudden something wasn't right I didn't know what it was but there was great confusion among our leadership we were told to lock down stay inside the building shelter in place I'm happy it's just another real I don't have to see that Colonel I'm good to go I couldn't have been more wrong it was not a typical day the news was out New York's World Trade Center had been attacked we the United States the mighty US military were on our knes none of our disaster preparedness plans and drills have been followed our leaders locked us down in commercial spaces and we were all sitting ducks Communications were down no cell phone no nippet no superet no jwi we were the United States Air Force Communications directorate we couldn't communicate with anybody all of a sudden the word came across CNN our only link to the outside world the Pentagon had been attacked we were 3 Mi away in an office building and we couldn't hear what was going on but we knew it was bad all of a sudden the order came for us to get outside and reconstitute in the parking lot across the street I guess the local leadership thought we were safer outside than inside our least space so there we were outside vulnerable and confused we smelled the dark metallic smell of jet fuel Fu burning metal and the explosion that happened 3 mil away and just think that Chad Louis not had remembered his notebook we would have been on that shuttle bus that delivered to the north side of the Pentagon we would have been on Deck to brief my miserable Colonel right where The Airliner skidded into the building it not had been for Chad Lewis's missing notebook we would have been on the north side of the Pentagon within the air staff's offices waiting to brief at 0937 hours we would have been incinerated it was not a typical day thank you for your time [Applause]