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Speaker 1: Always start my show off what I call a bragging segment. Basically,

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Speaker 1: I invite people on the show to discuss their journey

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Speaker 1: to success, what it took to make their dreams to

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Speaker 1: become possible. And on my show today, I have a

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Speaker 1: very very special guest on the Bragney segment. She is

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Speaker 1: an inspiration to this country and a shining light that

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Speaker 1: motivates me to believe that all dreams are possible. By

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Speaker 1: guests today on Money Making Conversations Master Class. Today. As

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Speaker 1: a graduate of the University of Kentucky, she's currently serving

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Speaker 1: as the Deputy Commanding General Support to the United States

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Speaker 1: Army Recruiting Command. Please, welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass.

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Speaker 1: Brigadier General Daphne D. Davis. Welcome, well, thank you. Well,

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Speaker 1: let me first say this first, Brigadier General, thank you

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Speaker 1: for your service as much appreciated and uh when I

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Speaker 1: when I met you, it was an honor to meet you.

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Speaker 1: Then there's an even greater honor to have you on

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Speaker 1: my show, Money Making Conversation to talk about your career

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Speaker 1: and talk about the importance of diversity and what I

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Speaker 1: represent was just black excellence and pursue in and uplifting

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Speaker 1: HBCUs Well, I tell you what, I really greatly appreciate

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to come on here and just kind of

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Speaker 1: share a little bit of my story. And I hope

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Speaker 1: that my story will help to influence others to, like

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Speaker 1: you said, stop listening to other people's story and get

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Speaker 1: on about making their own story. And that's that's what

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Speaker 1: we get stereotyped. And and I know that you know,

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Speaker 1: I come from the inner city to come from a

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Speaker 1: big family. My father was a truck driver, third grade education,

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Speaker 1: and my mom, she was a high school graduate. But

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Speaker 1: they wanted me to do better. What pointed you in

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Speaker 1: the direction of the military. And then I want to ask,

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Speaker 1: how do you how do you you know? Because they're

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Speaker 1: always people tell you they're always doubters out there, there's

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Speaker 1: always moments of frustration. How do you come to those moments?

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Speaker 1: But the first question is what pointed you in the direction?

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Speaker 1: Brigadier General Davis. So I'll tell you what you know.

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Speaker 1: Like you, um, I didn't come from necessarily an affluent family.

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Speaker 1: My my father himself, his mom passed away when she

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Speaker 1: was when he was sixteen, and his father was an alcoholic.

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Speaker 1: So my bed as at some point in his young life.

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Speaker 1: Was told, hey, you're you're headed in the wrong direction,

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Speaker 1: so you even need to join the army or you

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Speaker 1: might find yourself in jail one day. And he decided

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Speaker 1: to join the army. So because of that, my life

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Speaker 1: was changed, and uh he he kind of gave me

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to see what the army is all about.

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Speaker 1: Of course, as a youth, I said, I'll never be

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Speaker 1: in the army. That's that, that's just not for me.

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Speaker 1: But then I went off to college and Dad said,

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Speaker 1: no more funding here, you gotta figure this thing out.

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Speaker 1: And so quite honestly, I really wish I could say

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Speaker 1: that I joined the army out of some patriotic convention,

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Speaker 1: but I didn't. I joined for the money. Um. I

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Speaker 1: was told that I could earn about a hundred dollars

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Speaker 1: a months taking a class called r OTC. And then

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Speaker 1: here I am, thirty years later, uh, in the army

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Speaker 1: and loving every bit of it. When you know, we

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Speaker 1: always know what private is, We always know what sergeant, lieutenant, captain.

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Speaker 1: When you when you start going through these these this ascend,

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Speaker 1: can you just tell us one after the other when

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Speaker 1: you started private? How do you get to the titles

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Speaker 1: to get you up to a brigadier general. Well, so

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Speaker 1: there's there's two structures there in the army. You have

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Speaker 1: the enlisted force and you have the officer force. So

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Speaker 1: going through r OTC, you start in the officer force.

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Speaker 1: If you start with the enlisted side, you can eventually

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Speaker 1: switch over, get a college degree and move on to

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Speaker 1: the officers side if you so choose to do that.

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Speaker 1: Some people, we have tons of enlisted soldiers that have

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Speaker 1: master's degree, so they just make the decision that I

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Speaker 1: want to be an enlisted soldier and they choose not

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Speaker 1: to become an officer in the military. So for me

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Speaker 1: get my commission out of r OTC. I was immediately

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Speaker 1: commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army and then

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Speaker 1: with the first lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant, colonel, colonel, and

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Speaker 1: now brigadier journal Well, congratulations, congratulations. You know you can't

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Speaker 1: sleep on that. That's so, that's that's a lot of

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Speaker 1: hard work to go in there. And being a woman,

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Speaker 1: a woman of color, talk about that at it because

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Speaker 1: we always have doubts about what we can do in life,

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Speaker 1: Like you said, like like so many people, I've said

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Speaker 1: that in my life. But other things I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: do that. I'm not gonna do that. And sometimes you

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Speaker 1: shouldn't say what you're not gonna do, and look at

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to what you're saying you can shouldn't do

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Speaker 1: presents yourself to yourself, to you talk about that journey

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Speaker 1: and in some ways blaking a breaking glass ceilings because

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Speaker 1: they always are opportunities to say you cannot or you

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Speaker 1: should not seek that opportunity, but you have and you

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Speaker 1: and you're soaring in and talk about that journey. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, like with many journeys, a journey is just

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Speaker 1: that it is a journey, and it's not always easy.

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Speaker 1: And what I tell a lot of people, it's what

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Speaker 1: you do when no one's looking is what builds excellence.

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Speaker 1: And so what you do in the dark, that's what

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Speaker 1: builds excellence. Um what you do outside of the spotlight,

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Speaker 1: that's what builds excellence. And through that a lot of

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Speaker 1: resilience comes in. So having gone to the University of Kentucky,

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Speaker 1: I was often very clearly the minority is a matter

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Speaker 1: of In my Art e. C class, I was only

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Speaker 1: one of two African American females in that program. Then

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Speaker 1: once I got commissioned and up until this very day,

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Speaker 1: I am often the only black officer in the room

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Speaker 1: or the only black female, and sometimes both. And so

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Speaker 1: you can touch in just in that setting alone, the

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Speaker 1: challenges that present itself out of that and um understanding

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Speaker 1: that I cannot walk into a room not knowing my business,

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Speaker 1: not knowing the craft, not being excellent at what I do,

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Speaker 1: and that takes a lot of work and a lot

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Speaker 1: of effort. When no one else is looking, it makes

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Speaker 1: a lot of sense. I know when I met you

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Speaker 1: at the launch and it was right before the Celebration

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Speaker 1: Bowl and we were talking and we were talking about

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Speaker 1: what I like to always call about Black excellence HBCUs.

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Speaker 1: And the opportunity is that are being able to get

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Speaker 1: your education paid uh, but just the key walking away

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Speaker 1: from college with our loan and also having a career.

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Speaker 1: When you talk about that, what what what benefits to

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Speaker 1: make the Army competitive in the current labor market? Oh,

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Speaker 1: you know what, that's that's an easy one for me,

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Speaker 1: I will tell you. You You can even just start with

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Speaker 1: the fact that the Army is currently offering a fifty

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Speaker 1: dollars sign on bonus and every day every year in

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Speaker 1: the Army you earn thirty days of paid vacation every year.

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Speaker 1: And then there's the opportunity to go to med school

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Speaker 1: for free if that's what you choose to do. If

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Speaker 1: you don't want to go to med school, there's tuition

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Speaker 1: assistant in assistance in any program of study that you desire,

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Speaker 1: and a whole host at a whole host of four

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Speaker 1: year two year technical colleges and university. And then there's

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Speaker 1: the medical benefits, the Army's medical benefits or top notch

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Speaker 1: you can get the prescriptions, doctor visits and procedures that

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Speaker 1: you have with other medical insurance companies often come with

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Speaker 1: an extensive or steep co pays or partial payment that

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Speaker 1: often come free in the Army or at a very

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Speaker 1: very minimal cost with our medical then of fits. And

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Speaker 1: then there's the intangible benefits of leader development, travel, the

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Speaker 1: friendship that you built that last a lifetime, lifelong education opportunities,

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Speaker 1: and the ability to commit to something that's really bigger

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Speaker 1: than yourself. Wow, because there's so many different layers and

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Speaker 1: there's really I'm educating myself here, Brigadier Jeralds Davis. Because

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Speaker 1: there's the Army Reserve, there's the Army now that was

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Speaker 1: just the difference because one allows you to stay close

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Speaker 1: to home. Correct, yes it does. So the Army Reserve

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Speaker 1: allows you to stay close to home. And then there's

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Speaker 1: the active component. So the Army Reserve provides an opportunity

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Speaker 1: really for you to build two distinctively different careers and

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Speaker 1: retirement funds simultaneously. So for example, if as a civilian

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Speaker 1: you are a I don't know, a doctor, a lawyer,

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Speaker 1: a radio show host, and then in the military could

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Speaker 1: be a logistician, public affairs, medical, human resources, or even

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Speaker 1: I t UM. So that reserve soldier is that soldier

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Speaker 1: that you think of. This typically one weekend per month

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Speaker 1: and two weeks out of the year, usually in the summertime. Um,

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Speaker 1: there over a hundred hundred twenty different career fields in

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Speaker 1: the Army Reserves to include transportation and I T and

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Speaker 1: so many more career fields and they're all designed in

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Speaker 1: the Army Reserves to support the astive component. And those

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Speaker 1: active component soldiers are those soldiers that you think of

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Speaker 1: that where the uniform every single day are usually stationed

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Speaker 1: in those places such as uh Italy, Fort Bragg, Fort

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Speaker 1: not those kind of institutions when you when you when

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Speaker 1: we talked about diversity a little bit earlier about you

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Speaker 1: what just thearmy done to ensure his focusing on recruiting

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Speaker 1: a diverse group of soldiers in the future. Because you

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Speaker 1: represent that diversity, what continues that that challenge that you

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Speaker 1: need used the word challenge that that ability to I know,

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Speaker 1: I'm on the HBCU platform right now, fortunate that money

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Speaker 1: making conversation, a master class broadcast on twenty HBCU campuses

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Speaker 1: and and those are blessings that I have. But it

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Speaker 1: also gives you a vart to talk to our diverse audience.

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Speaker 1: What is the diverse group of soldiers for the future

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Speaker 1: of the army and also Army Reserve. So I tell

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Speaker 1: you we are working to improve diversity at all levels

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Speaker 1: and it is a challenge. Um but nearly half of

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Speaker 1: our our new recruits each year come from minority populations,

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Speaker 1: and the percentage of women interesting is also increasing every

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Speaker 1: single year. Right now, we have recruiters that speak multiple

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Speaker 1: languages that Ta Gala, Mandarin, Spanish, Korean, and that's just

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Speaker 1: the name a few. And then as you already know,

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Speaker 1: we do invest heavily in our HBCU outreach programs. As

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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, South Carolina State has produced more

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Speaker 1: African American general officers than any other university, with the

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Speaker 1: exception of the Armies, UH Military their Academy West Point.

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Speaker 1: Matter of fact, since South Carolina State r RTCs program

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Speaker 1: began in nineteen forty seven, we produced twenty two general

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Speaker 1: officers out of that program and recently one female general

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Speaker 1: officer bring their general Tia Young. Well, you know I

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Speaker 1: always brag about HBCUs deliver eight percent of the black doctors,

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Speaker 1: of the black dennis, of the black public school teachers,

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Speaker 1: for the percent of the members of commerce. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: add that little note from South Carolina State because I

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Speaker 1: talked about North Carolina and ten delivered the most black

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Speaker 1: engineers South Carolina that South Carolina. I'll just referencing North

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Speaker 1: Carolina A and T does something unique with engineers in

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Speaker 1: South Carolina State does this in the military side, things

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Speaker 1: that we don't know that we need to publicize and

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Speaker 1: promote and let people know. There is a welcome matt

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Speaker 1: for the army opportunities. Isn't that correct? Yes? There is, Yes,

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Speaker 1: there is absolutely, and the opportunities for promotion are there. Um,

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Speaker 1: They're there in ways that you might not find in

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Speaker 1: the civilian sector. Are there challenges, yes, absolutely that that

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Speaker 1: you're gonna find that everywhere and and and all. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate those challenges because this made me a better

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Speaker 1: and stronger leader. Well, I really want to thank you

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Speaker 1: for taking the time. I hope to see you in

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks on the hbc U campus, changing lives.

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Speaker 1: But more importantly, the time that I spent with you

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Speaker 1: had spoken the time you come on my show, I

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Speaker 1: really feel it's an honor. First of all, you serve

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Speaker 1: my country, to protect my family and my my rights

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Speaker 1: to be a free citizen. And again it's a blessing

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Speaker 1: and continue to be who you are and continue to

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Speaker 1: uplift and also that I love the fact that you

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Speaker 1: said more and more women are seeing the army as

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Speaker 1: an opportunity as well as the Army Reserve. Continue to

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Speaker 1: be blessed, my friend. Why, thank you very much and

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Speaker 1: I will see you in a couple of weeks. Stay strong.

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Speaker 1: That is a Brigadier Daphne D. Davis