i'm particularly thankful for my wife marlo and our five children, noel, pearl, eve, jamison and sonora. through various trends in public service they have also sacrificed including during my military training, deployment to iraq and prior white house service and i would be remiss not to acknowledge ambassador bob lighthizer, former us trade representative and gracious mentor and friend of many years, he gave me my first job in washington out of the military and brought me into the first trump administration to be chief of staff. when he asked me to do that, what is that? it will be fine, just come. and it was fine. it was wonderful. i wouldn't be prepared for this position without him and the many generous colleagues over the years, i'm thankful to senator haggerty for his kind introduction, working with him, the highlight of my professional life and he was exactly what ambassador should be in terms of representing our country's interests while building constructive relationships with our trading partners. i should note my great-great-grandfather greer was born in tennessee and honorar