00:00Please, airmen, at ease, it's good to be here with you.
00:03Please have a seat.
00:04I see we have some beautiful families out there.
00:07You know, I served a few years in the Marine Corps, and I've got to say, I'm pretty jealous.
00:12This is a pretty fine duty station, if I do say so myself.
00:16This is a beautiful country.
00:17I just spent the past few days here, actually.
00:19Some meetings, some downtime with the family, and we've had a very, very good time here in England.
00:25The United Kingdom, of course, is one of our great allies, so I think I speak for all the pathfinders here.
00:31Is that right?
00:32What I say?
00:34And all the Red Dragon folks as well?
00:38What I say that we are proud of the special relationship, and we are proud to work together with our British friends right here at Fairford Base.
00:46God bless you all.
00:48So, here's a simple thing.
00:51We've got a beautiful country here.
00:52We've got a beautiful alliance.
00:55And I think every single one of you know that for over 100 years, we have worked with our friends from the United Kingdom to achieve great victories.
01:04And if you look at the long sweep of history, every time something big happens for the world, every time a great victory is won for freedom and for peace and for prosperity,
01:16it is almost always the Brits and the Americans that do it together.
01:21And we win every single time we go to war together.
01:24You guys know that as well as anybody.
01:26But it's not just about going to war, and it's not just winning when we do.
01:30When we work together, when we fight together, when we make it clear that we always approach every situation with an open hand.
01:39But if things go poorly, we're willing to do what we have to do.
01:43We make it easier to achieve peace and prosperity all over the world.
01:47So I want to say from all of us back home in the United States, for all the people that you serve with, that you fight for, that you make it possible to live the American dream and peace and prosperity,
01:58we are proud of you, we are grateful for you, and as your Vice President, I am damn proud to be here with you today.
02:05God bless every single one of you.
02:06Now, it would be impossible for me to list every single thing that has happened just from this single base over the past hundred years,
02:25from World War I to our operations against terrorists in Yemen, the history of this base, of its mission, of all of the things that we've done with our friends from the United Kingdom,
02:37it is a very, very proud tradition.
02:39So I won't try to list everything that we've done, but you guys know the mission, you guys know the story, and you guys know the history.
02:46We have done so much with our English friends, with our friends from the UK, and, you know, I started the day, or excuse me, I started the week at a place called Chevening,
02:57with the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, further south in the country, in a county called Kent.
03:03And what we did is we worked on our, one of our most important shared security goals in Europe, which is the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
03:13The President of the United States came in six months ago, and I just talked to him right before I came on the stage, and he said very simply that we are going to make it our mission as an administration to bring peace to Europe once again.
03:25But as you all know, it is impossible to bring peace anywhere unless the bad guys are also worried that we've got a hell of a fine Air Force and a hell of a fine military to back up the peace to begin with.
03:37So what you guys do, even though you may not see it every single day, is you make it possible.
03:43You make it possible for us to accomplish the President's goals through negotiation.
03:48You make it possible for us to go into a room and say, yes, we want peace.
03:53Yes, we want to work together.
03:54Yes, we'd like to bring an end to this terrible conflict.
03:57But we've also got some great airmen back at Fairford and other bases that are going to make sure that no matter what happens, the peace and the prosperity and the goals of the American people are going to be well served by what you do.
04:10So I think if you look back at the last six months, if you look back at the number of lives that we've saved in Rwanda and the Congo, the President ended a 30-year war there.
04:20If you look at what we've done in the East Asia, where the President ended a conflict, in Serbia, Kosovo, where the President has brought peace to that area of the world.
04:30And now, in just a couple of days, with the President heading to Anchorage, Alaska to try to achieve and end to this terrible war in Russia and Ukraine, you guys make that possible.
04:41You guys are the reason why we can go into a negotiation with strength.
04:45You guys are the reason why we have leverage in these conversations with world leaders, because they know that if we cut a deal, it is backed up by the finest fighting force anywhere in the world.
04:56And that is what makes your job so important, and that's what makes it so important and such a proud moment for me to be here with you today.
05:05Because nothing that I do, nothing that we do as an administration is possible without the hard work, the courage, and the skill that you guys bring to the job.
05:16Now, I mentioned earlier I was at Cheevening, meeting with the British Foreign Secretary.
05:19I met with a number of foreign leaders just in the last, actually, hour.
05:24I had a call with about 30 European leaders, and over the past couple of days, I've met with a number of leaders across the UK, across political parties, across the generations.
05:34Because that's one of the great things about the UK's special relationship with the United States is it cuts across political alliances, it cuts across political parties, it cuts across generations, because we've been working together for literally centuries.
05:49And you know what every single person that I meet often tells me?
05:53They tell me about how impressed they are by the skill, by the determination, and by the dedication of the American military.
06:02You all are what make it possible for us to do what we do.
06:06When Marco Rubio, our great Secretary of State, goes to engage in some diplomatic negotiation, he knows that he's got the great people of the Secretary of Defense standing behind him.
06:15And that fact, the fact that people are impressed by you, the fact that so many people are, frankly, afraid of you, is why we're able to do what we do as an administration.
06:25So I just want to say from the President of the United States, who, again, I just spoke to, and he told me to give you this message, we're proud of you, we're grateful to you, we know that it's not always an easy job, we know there are often long hours, but I hope you know that the peace and the prosperity and the safety of your countrymen depend on you doing a good job, and we are damn proud of the job that you do every single day.
06:49God bless you all, and thank you for having me, Vice President, here in the UK.
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