roebling for his establishments and contribution would be the recipient of an award by president truman at the end of world war ii for his indispensable contributions to victory in the pacific. subsequently the marine corps acknowledged by giving an acquisitions award in defense procurement. named after him. so he remains an icon in many ways, but a minor figure as we popularly know him to be. we often see these vehicles, we often see pictures of things in battlefield use, but i would suggest rarely do we think about how they get there and how the concepts for anticipating their use, their organization, the optimizing their battlefield effectiveness are actually developed. this is just the tip of the spear in so many ways. so why don't i close now and open it up to questions. we have about ten minutes or so. >> so what role, and this could be in the pacific, what role did technological superiority play when it came to the combat operations on ward. did that play a significant r e role? it doesn't seem to be the case that we were ever repulsed as the japanese would have hoped. >> that's