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you

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ladies and gentlemen friends shipmates

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of the class of 1971 this is captain

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Frank Culbertson the United States Navy

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retired the commander of the third

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expedition to the International Space

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Station and a member of the class of

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1971 I want to welcome you all of you to

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this place today I have two messages I

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would like to give to you from space if

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you would listen for just one moment

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first I want to say welcome to all my

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classmates who are there I really wish I

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could be with you see you beat Boston

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College I want to say hi to our

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classmate Tom O'Brien on the other side

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of the field sorry about this time but

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we're going to have to work on you today

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I wish I could be there for the army

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game I'll miss that but I'll be rooting

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for you from space we have the high

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ground and I believe and today I think

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it's an important day for all of us to

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gather together to remember our time at

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u.s. Naval Academy our leadership in the

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country and our participation in all the

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things that have happened over the years

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but especially in the last week the

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second part of my message I would like

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to remember our classmate chick

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Burlingame the captain of American

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Airlines flight that of course crashed

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into the Pentagon she was a hero in my

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book as were all of the Academy

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graduates who perished last week and I

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think that we should take a moment to

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remember them as well as all of the

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victims of this terrible tragedy America

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is a great country America is the best

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country in the world and I know we will

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pull together to go through this we

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don't see any boundaries from here in

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space we're working very hard to build

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an international partnership I hope we

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can overcome the problems that have

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given us what we experienced in the last

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couple of weeks

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by working together by leadership and by

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the strength that we know is in our

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I would like to send a message from the

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station down in memory of chicken and of

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all of our graduates who perished and of

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all the victims of this tragedy

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something that has never been done

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before from space so I like to ask all

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of you to rise for a moment of silence

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as we play something from International

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Wow

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Oh

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I

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[Music]

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Oh

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[Music]

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god bless the Naval Academy god bless

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our country god bless all of those last

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starting to become a motion

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I realized our country was under attack

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I was ironically halfway through a Tom

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Clancy novel about a similar situation

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at the time and it almost put me inside

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the novel which was a very strange

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feeling but as we listened and events on

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the ground were described to us by our

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flight surgeon and then by the Capcom's

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it became very real and then once I saw

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it out the window and we took video as

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the second tower was collapsing I didn't

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know exactly what was happening but I

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knew it was really bad because there was

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a big cloud of debris covering Manhattan

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that's when it really became painful

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because it was like seeing a wound in

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initial reaction was shocked of course

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how could this possibly be in habit be

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happening and then as the reality sunk

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in some fear that some family member or

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someone close to me might be affected by

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this and then the realization that

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thousands of people really were affected

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and then eventually that turned into

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anger at some point that someone would

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because when we got home was the

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increased security we knew it was there

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and we knew to expect it but the reality

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of it from when I left when I came back

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all the barriers up all the additional

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security checks at the airport at that

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time going into any public building was

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even more onerous than than it is now

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but but it really was startling how

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things had changed him we clearly were a

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I've met a lot of people that were

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affected by 9/11 in a lot of different

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ways so I don't count myself as

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especially unique I just had a the

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privilege of a fantastic vantage point

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yes there was some isolation but there

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was also a viewpoint that that I will

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always be blessed with but I think it's

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important for people to to continue to

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learn the lessons from this and make

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sure that we are in fact making

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ourselves a better country as a result

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you

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[Music]

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have you ever seen the commander of the

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International Space Station with me a

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flight engineer called and then goes on

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this day we pause to celebrate the

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birthday and meaning of the u.s. flag a

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sign of strength and unity for our

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nation the American flag is more than a

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symbol the Stars and Stripes tell our

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history and reinforce our future goals

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as a nation and today more than ever

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it's important for all Americans to

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honor and celebrate our flag the

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foundations of flight day can be found

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in New York where it first became a

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holiday in 1897 but it wasn't until

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President Harry Truman signed an act of

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Congress in 1949 that designated June

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14th as National Flag Day in December we

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were on the space shuttle flight

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designated to honor the victims of the

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September 11th terrorist attacks along

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with flags from the city of New York the

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Pentagon and the state of Pennsylvania

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we also carried nearly 6,000 small

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American flags into orbit on station

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shuttle Endeavour as part of the flags

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for heroes and Families campaign the

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flags are being distributed to the

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survivors and family to the victims of

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the attacks from space we have a unique

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view of our planet we see a world with

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no borders no war and no political

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differences we hope our work onboard the

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International Space Station will be seen

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as a way for all nations to work

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together to pioneer the future and in

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some small way show everyone how people

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of different nations can come together

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in space today's we pause to show our

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pride for America and to pay tribute to

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all the heroes of the terrorists

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by taking the time to honor and

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celebrate the American flag so it is

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fitting that we return the items flown

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for the flags for heroes and Families

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campaign on the day and to the place

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where it all started

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New York our prayers are with all the

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families and friends of those whose

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lives were forever changed by the events