army fight and win our nations wars. thank you for the fiscal year 2018 national defense authorization act which authorized army to grow by 8,500. also appreciate the two year budget deal which will improve readiness and ensure our formations are filled in the years to come. to build fuel tour army, we must recruit a diverse men and women high quality and character and competitive market as a chairman talked about, where only one in four, 17 year olds is eligible to join and one in eight has propensity to enlist in the military. maintaining the quality will continue to be our priority and the army will not sacrifice quality for quantity. our recruiters across the country are doing incredible work to achieve this mission. the army must also continue to retain the most talented soldiers and noncommissioned officers with the experience and skills necessary to meet our future needs. we project historic retention rates again this year for ncos. the army leadership embraces