Great streete the of hearing from laura bush and Michelle Obama, who are friends and have done several of these events together, and they very much wanted to do this one together, to talk about first andes and the military their own particular roles and that they have promoted very wonderfully over the years and they wanted to do it together, because they like doing that, which is so heartening in these troubled times. Hear from them, we are going to hear from a member of the military, captain william b. Reynolds iii. Family movedlds from guyana and raised him in a tradition of dedication to service, Public Service, and instilled that in him from the time of his birth, and he took it to heart, went to west point, and then was served, first in korea and twice in iraq, and on the second deployment in iraq, he was the chief of reconnaissance in sniper deployment, in sniper deployment, and six months into that deployment he was nearly fatally wounded by an improvised explosive device. E came back to be treated even during that time he served in a staff role at the pentagon as the deputy Operations Officer to the joint ied defeat organization. Since leaving the military, he has been incredibly accomplished, publishing a book making it millennial, a study of how the government can relate better to the younger generation, and he has been the intain of the American Team the Invictus Games, where he met both of our first ladies, who will soon be talking. And a trackist star, despite having lost a leg as a result of his injuries in iraq. Is a father of her children, while doing all of these other things, and is on the board of disabled sports usa, u. S. Military Endurance Sports and the positivity project. Please welcome captain reynolds. [applause] captain reynolds thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And good morning. Nearly the breath of history we have been showered with today to share with you, but i will start by providing a little personal history and my connection with the first ladies. A you heard from cokie, from young age i dedicated my life to service. Ive made the dedication not only because i was a firstgeneration immigrant, to repay the American Dream a family was able to live, but to also uphold those principles but he underserved. I started serving, first through church and scouting, and ultimately through the military. A few years into my professional military service, as you heard, i was leading combat on a second appointment. What i had come to know as my identity with service was ripped away for me. Although i was making a relatively successful recovery, my ability to serve was over. However, that was naive thinking at the ripe age of 24. Walter Reed Medical Center at my hospital bed in 2004 and then 2005 by then bush,r obama, president and senator kerry, i was continually thank for my service and for inspiring them and the American People. It was then i realized i mission of serving a changed from the Army Infantry mission to inspiring the friendlys. To that end, i am thankful to to the families of first ladies Michelle Obama and laura bush to helping me make that pivot and change the way i serve. Because of that motivation, i for thee on the board character outreach and development for youth. I never knew the breath of the breadth of service that could be done through the corporate sector and the community at large. If there are three individuals who embody the full gamut of what is possible, these three individuals im introducing our it. From raising successful families to contributing to successful campaigns and ultimately utilizing the office of the first lady to bring to light important matters of social change, the first ladies have done so much for the preservation and advancement of american culture. Most parents in the room with a parenting is our most important job and i know that rings true with the first ladies. We have seen firsthand the great job they have done in raising their daughters in the public eye and also to serve. And in the midst of all this, they have been very giving up their time. In fact, the first lady gave up her mothers day to inspire the 500 injured Service Members of the Invictus Games this year down in orlando, which we were all grateful for. At that very same event were not only former president bush and former first lady mrs. Bush in attendance, but also jenna bush and her first role as a correspondent and journalist. We are all waiting with bated breath to see how sasha and malia serve. Operation iraqi freedom educated my the American People on my former identification with service. And as we know, bobs service into the way mine did. Not only have i been a benefactor of the Bob Woodward Foundation and the Invictus Games, which bob has been a part of, but i have seen the strides in research and the rounds of Mental Health and germanic brain injury that organizations like the Bob Woodruff Foundation have been able to omatic brain injury that organizations like the Bob Woodruff Foundation have been able to inspire. It is a family affair. Without further ado, i introduce bush, first lady laura mrs. Obama, and bob woodruff. [applause] thank you, well. Bob what an honor it is to be here today. First of all, i want to tell both of you that my wife who is also my commander as it should be. Also wanted me to say hello to you. I also had a chance to see president bush at the Invictus Games, where it was such a clear indication of how absolutely committed he is reynolds is out there, i think winning everything, and i had a chance to talk to president bush about what he is doing. President obama, of course, too. He is deeply committed to this. Its interesting. I just talked to mrs. Obama backstage. I had a chance to see him in the topicsne of there was what he thought of vietnam and the war there, and laos, we have a lot of on detonated bombs still the ground. I asked him all of those veterans. He and i were born august, 19 61, so, he is two weeks older than me. We ask about that, and we looked at war so differently back in the 1960s and 1970s because there were drafts and certainly, we were not attacked on our turf. But those veterans who did serve vietnam, ios and said, do you call them heroes . He said absolutely. This is not something reserved for the more recent wars, the voluntary wars. You know, my experience here, as will say, one we never expected, having been wounded in the wars, we experienced a lot of not diminishing attention, but now that the wars came to an endish, as they say, there is not much attention being given to those who served in the country. And i would love to hear from you what it is like to be in the white house, to have that kind of power and influence on an issue that is extremely important . I would say for sure one thing is worry. You worry in the white house when you know there are troops in harms way and you think about them every single night when you get in bed. And there you are in the lap of luxury, really Beautiful House where your sheets are changed every single day. It really could not be more getrious, and you could not embed without thinking that your troops are lying on the ground somewhere. The main thing about having troops in harms way is you worry about them all the time, every single day. Honor and we had the the experience to visit our winded at walter reed and many military hospitals, and that is a sobering experience. I mean, one of the things barack and i have talked about is when we first came into office, our first term, our visits would last for hours because there goingbe 2550, 75 folks room to room, many with devastating injuries. And now just last week. He went to visit and he was there for 30 minutes because there are fewer of our men and women who are being injured in war. In that feels good. I mean, that is something a commanderinchief things about before they pop off about going to war. When you have spent time on a base and you know these minute women and you know their families, you dont just talk about war like there are no implications. It is serious business. And lives are changed forever. I would hope any commander in chief that would have the privilege of serving would understand these are real lives and real families that are impacted. Bob there is a story that comes out of somebody maybe a large group that comes out of injuries in the war, long conversations that you have with your husband, with the president at night . Mrs. Bush after visiting walter reed, yes. We would think about this families, and in many cases, the families were there with them around them. There is one injured warrior i know we still see that had such , we did notd injury think we would ever see him again. And he is one of the warriors george has painted. And he painted him with this car with his little child on with this scar, with his little child on his lap. What a lot of lawyers warriors will say is their families saw them through. One family george painted, he painted a portrait of him, but he painted his wife with him because this man said his wife was always there, always with him and he had also suffered a head injury where he needed the help he was getting. He is doing great now. But george did not just do his portrait by himself, but painted her. He credited mrs. Obama meeting our Service Members, spending time on military bases fundamentally changes who you are as a civilian. And i know that was true for me because when we my first i was like most americans. I had limited connection to the military community and it wasnt until baracks campaign in 2008 that i started meeting Military Spouses and hearing their voices, voices that you dont hear in regular conversation. We talked about all the challenges that working mothers had, you know, financial worries, worrying about raising your kids but with these women mostly, there were the worries of multiple deployments, understanding that these families are moving their kids every two years in service of their country, worrying about whether there are adequate special ed programs in the schools theyre moving to. And doing all of this with a grace and a pride that would that blew me away and thats one of the reasons why i am such an advocate for this community. I wish every american had an opportunity to sit down, to go to a base, to meet with families, to meet with Service Members, to sit down with our veterans because we would think differently about our challenges as individuals. Let me tell you, it makes me inspired to work harder because i think as laura said, here we are sitting in the white house. We have no reason to complain when we have 1 of our country serving and sacrificing for the rights and freedoms for the rest of us. So that has been a profound opportunity for me and one of the reasons why i will always champion these men and women and their families as long as i can breathe. Bob you know, its interesting id like to children talk about children, too, because you both had a chance to have your kids live with you there in the white house and both of you during times of war. You know, i should mention also real quickly, i didnt hear the full introduction but will reynolds also has four kids and hes gone through what hes gone and it gives you a certain amount of different perspective on things if you do have a child whos in the midst of something significant. I would say most times moving, emotional, maybe even difficult but during these times for both of you, what was it like when you had kids there when this was happening and knowing very well that the commander in chief was the one ultimately responsible for this and probably youre the first ones they turn to . Mrs. Bush well, barbara and jenna were freshmen in congress when we moved to the white house so they didnt live there. Theyve been there, of course, so much bob they were invited to come. Mrs. Bush there were there as 7yearolds when their grandparents were there. They had knew the white house like we did because they visited so often. When i wrote my book and wrote my schedule, after 9 11, the weekend after 9 11 barbara and jenna came home to the white house and i knew she wanted to be with their dad and wanted to be with us. They felt great insecurity off at the university of texas and university of yale after the attacks and they wanted to be there with him. And then i noticed that a few a month and a half after that our childhood friends from midland, texas, came and i knew that those boys, you know, men that we knew as boys, wanted to be with george. That they just wanted to be there with him. And i think that is really no one talked about war. You know, that wasnt a conversation. The conversation was, we just want to be with you. And i think thats really important. I think thats the way the children are too. They dont want to you dont want them to be worried about decisions their ther makes. You know, you want them to just feel the security and love that every parent want their children mrs. Obama you just want home to be home and you want that for the president because they need that refuge with all they handle during the course of the day. You want them to come up on that elevator, come onto the second floor to the residence they can breathe. They dont need kids hammering them with, dad, why didnt you do this . Sometimes malia and sasha will do that. But every now and then at dinner its like, what were you thinking . [laughter] mrs. Obama but for the most part home is home and that helps keep kids normal. I wanted my kids decent and kind especially if we were living on the south side of chicago and it takes work to keep white house life normal for the kids. Mrs. Bush when is it normal . Mrs. Obama its not normal. Mrs. Bush and you have a Slumber Party with 30. Mrs. Obama yeah, just ignore the guys with the guns. I remember one parentteacher conference when barack went and there were swat guys on top of the roof of the school. Malia was like, dad, really . Really . Do they really have to be up there . And its like, yeah, honey, they do. Lets just keep walking. Just keep going. Just keep going. Bob they got to put up with that even after they leave. Theres going to be security. Mrs. Obama well, its different for mrs. Bush its a different level. Mrs. Obama we dont want to talk about it too much but its not the same as what it will be for the president the former president and former first lady. Theyre all singing, hey, were out of here. We get to ditch our agents pretty soon but its a different level of security. Bob im really helping my four kids get back to normal when i leave abc news. [laughter] bob after i was hit, though, i had to tell my little kids, ok. Im a new rule. I am not going to cover wars anymore. Now, im in asia reporting. I can at least do stories about conflict. Conflicts not war. You know, we spoke about the both of you have accomplished so much. Military service initiative, of course. Which was yours, mrs. Bush. Of course, joining forces that you worked on as well. Both of you have worked together, i think, better than most. I mean, i think somebody said you should tell your the husbands to behave themselves. Compared to the others. But what have you accomplished more or less than you expected in terms of what youre doing for those veterans . About 25 are considered to have been wounded. The rest have gone out with transitions when they come back. Some to a new civilian world. But what have you done for them thats the most important and is it more than you expected . Or less . Mrs. Bush well, i think in general, theres just a feeling that people support the military. And that it starts at the top. And its very different, as you said, from vietnam when vietnam my generation when they came home from war and were spit upon. And thats not the way it is now. And i think thats really great. I think i hope our returning veterans really feel the gratefulness and the support of the american public. And i know that and you know this too, bob, the thousands of veteran support groups, little mom and pop groups that have sprung up all over the United States because people do want to support our returning vets. And the other thing we should look at is what an asset they are. There have been 2 1 2 million post9 11 vets and i think another million will be transitioning out in the next year or so. Think of the asset that is for our country. These people who chose to serve, who volunteered to serve and now they want to come home and its up to us, the rest of us to figure out how we can help them keep serving in our community and make a life for themselves that theyre happy with and deal with the trauma that a lot of them have, the trauma of war. Mrs. Obama the thing ive been most pleased about with joining forces is its really been a call to partnership with all sectors corporate sector, with our safe communities, with our schools, our educators, our medical community. And what we have seen when you ask, peep step up without people step up without hesitation. Thats the power of our platforms is a lot of times if laura or i ask for help, people are very receptive. The Business Community has created millions of jobs for our veterans and our Military Spouses because of an ask that we made. Millions of jobs. Helping them get the training, to be able to retain those jobs and to advance within those jobs and the same is true for Military Spouses as well. Weve been pleased with our local leaders who have answered the call to end veterans homelessness which was part of our call with joining forces. The notion we have even one single veteran living on the streets should be, you know, just considered a travesty to all of us. Well, there are many mayors, some governors, some states who have essentially eliminated veterans homelessness because theyve answered that call. Hollywood community has stepped up. We work closely with writers and producers whove helped develop plot lines that involve our military families, our military community because part of integrating those stories into everyday life helps to normalize these men and women and their families and familiarize the rest of the civilian community with those issues in sort of a nonpreachy way. So ive just been pleased bob