from iraq and its deserts to the afghan mountains to the philippine jungeles, our soldiers have continued to fight and defeat terrorists and stabilize governments and support our allies, in december, the army successfully concluded "operation new dawn" leaving behi behi behind demauk rasy in a country. they completed one of the largest missions in the history of warp fair, removing 3.4 million pieces of equipment and more over we continue to support the state department as it works with the iraqi government to further support freedom, and stability in that nation. in afghanistan the army made steady progress in fighting al qaeda terrorists, and trained thousands of afghan security forces from conducting regular and extensive operations to provide medical communication support for the entire force. soldiers were at the front of u.s u.s. operations and success. over the last year your army did more. with soldiers deployed on six of seven continents and more than 150 nations around the world. in 20 11, we saw our citizens suffer some of the worst natural disasters in our history. our soldier