As you continue to enjoy your dessert, id like to begin our program because we have a very special program today. I think the most special of the eight that weve had in this annual observance of steve indicators birthday. Im Stuart Mclaurin and i have the privilege of being the president of the White House Historical association. Welcome you to our campus here at historic Decatur House and on behalf of our board of directors, our National Council on white house history and my staff colleagues, i would like to welcome you here to the White House Historical association and historic Decatur House for this eighth observance. This actually began in 2006, and weve done it every year. Of course, with covid. We had to go virtual, but weve had wonderful, extraordinary speakers each time. And this time is going to be no different. You had the opportunity to hear earlier from former secretary of the Navy John Dalton, and also hes also a former member of the board of directors here at the association, as well as a member of the board of the historic Decatur House. Prior to a merger of a coast stewardship agreement between the National Trust and the association that took place about a dozen years ago. John, service to the association and to our country has been long and distinctive and he and margaret are great friends of the association and great friends to many in this room, and we appreciate both of you and the leadership that you give to our work, to our city, to the nation and to the world. And for those of you who would like to know even more about secretary john dalton. At the end of february, his biography is being released and the book is titled at the helm my life journey with family, faith and friends to calm the storms of life. I need those secrets. Im going to get a copy early. Its out on february 28th. Admiral buckets, terrific to have you with us. Weve enjoyed a wonderful relationship with the Naval Academy that began with admiral carter. And i look forward to continuing that with you in the midshipmen at the Naval Academy and Extraordinary Service to our country thats provided by those men and women that are trained for leadership in service to our country, but also leadership in life. So thank you for what you do to contribute to that. Id also like to recognize and thank our dear friend jan janko. As john mentioned, shes the former chair of the board of the carter house. I said at lunch, shes almost like the chaplain of the White House Historical association. We have many good clergy friends, but shes always available and helpful to be with us on these occasions. I want to recognize as the two other members of the Carter Family that have arrived since the initial introduction, and theyre with us here today. If you gentlemen would just stand up so that we can call attention to you. And its great to have. The wonderful the three of you joining us here today and the legacy of the Carter Family. A continuing and presence with us at this event. Theres another navy leader that i want to recognize here today, a leader on the rise. And this is following todays launch in the historic Decatur House. Lieutenant commander john thomas will have his promotion ceremony to commander. And id like to recognize him today. Please stand. And when he ask about doing this here at the carter house, we thought, what a wonderful thing to combine that observance with this occasion here today. So thank you to your friends and family and to you and congratulations to you as well. Many of you have served in the armed forces of our country in the United States navy and the other branches. And id like for you all to stand so that we can recognize and honor your service to our country as well. Please. Well, i want to take a couple of moments and set the stage and give you some context about why the White House HistoricalAssociation Nation is doing this event for Stephen Decatur. What does stephen, the carter have to do with the white house and with white house history . Well, it was in 1961 that many of you have heard me say that first Lady Jacqueline kennedy founded the White House Historical association to be the nonpro outfit, nonpartisan partner to the white house. Since that time, weve had the privilege of working with 12 president s and first ladies. I began in 2014, so ive been had the privilege of working with the obamas, the trumps and the bidens. And i say that to say that our role is exactly the same, regardless of who the president or first lady may be. We are there on behalf of you, the American People, mrs. Kennedy famously said. The white house belongs to the American People and our nonprofit, nonpartisan mission. We have no federal funding whatsoever. It all comes from the generosity of people like you and our other friends that support our work generously. And we are so grateful to have that support. But we provide a hands on mission to the white house to maintain a Museum Standard so that everything you see in those state rooms is maintained at that standard, is funded not by the government but by the White House Historical association. We also have an Education Mission to teach and to tell the stories of the white house and its history. Going back to 1792, when George Washingtons selected that piece of land just across the street from where we are today. And the white house was built largely with the help of enslaved workers. And part of our Education Research has been focused on now going into seven years of research onto the slave workers at the white house. In fact, here at historic Decatur House, we maintain and teach from the last remaining example of slave quarters in the president s neighborhood, a very hard and difficult. But important story in white house history. Well, about a dozen years ago, the association had the opportunity to engage in a coast stewardship relationship with the National Trust for historic preservation. Which gave us this wonderful campus to host events like this, to have our staff officers, to have our wonderful gift shop. The proceeds of which also support our mission and to have the opportunity to convene like this is quite important to that mission. So therefore, we take a year, take a day every year. On this day, january, the fifth, and honor the birthday of the man whose name this house bears. Now, theres a long and difficult and conflicted story about the inhabitants of the Decatur House. Over the span of years. As i mentioned, slavery is a key component to that. But the dictators moved in. This house was built in 1818. The renowned british architect benjamin latrobe was engaged. The same architect that built St Johns Church just across the square. Tragically, Commodore Decatur accepted the challenge from another former naval officer to a duel and he well, i think with the ticktock of admiral carter, gives a fantastic speech, which i think is available on youtube. Admiral, thats i would really encourage everyone to watch that tells the story of the tick, the tick tock, the volley back and forth between these two officers and commodore baron felt besmirched by Stephen Decatur in a navy proceedings, and this festered and blistered for years, and the correspondence grew and became more and more difficult. And finally decatur relented. On a spring morning in march of 1820, left here Decatur House. Early one morning before dawn went to bladensburg, maryland. And it was there at the hands of commodore baron that he was mortally wounded and was returned to this house where he died later that into the next morning. The newspaper hours of the day say that over 10,000 and people gathered in front of this house to mourn the death of commodore to carter. It was believed that he would have been president of the United States had he lived, perhaps even followed james monroe, though as president , he had actually hosted the wedding dinner for james monroe daughter here in Decatur House. The week before he passed a tragic loss and a sad scenario in american history. But weve lost many officers in promising years of their lives. And lets use this occasion to remember their service and their sacrifice and all that. Their lives have given to our country in a short period of time. Well, today we have the privilege of honoring steve indicator, honoring that legacy, appreciating the Extraordinary Service of naval officers to our country by having two of them in our program here today. And this is our heart of our program. We have, as youve heard, the former superintendent of the Naval Academy and now the president of the university of nebraska, admiral ted carter. And we have Lieutenant Commander kayla barron, who is joining us back by popular demand is admiral carter. He actually has given a talk twice, as i said earlier, and is really an extraordinary speaker on the subject of leadership. And Stephen Decatur and kayla, i believe the last time you were here with us for this occasion, you were a flag aide to admiral carter and accompanied him on this trip. And you have certainly literally gone on to much Greater Heights since you were with us on that occasion. Admiral carter is the eighth president currently of the university of nebraska system. There are four campuses in this wonderful system of Higher Education in our country, educating more than 50,000 students and the leadership that he gave also at the Naval Academy, where he was the longest serving superintendent of the Naval Academy since the american civil war. Prior to that, he was also the president of the u. S. Naval war college, and hes now retired from the navy after 38 years of service. He logged more than 6300 flight hours as a navy pilot to this day, he still holds, i believe, admiral, the american record for career arrested landings from 19 different aircraft carriers. And id like to welcome you and your wife, lynda carter. Now, this is lynda carter, but not lynda carter, superwoman. Lynda carter. But i think to admiral carter and to the United States navy, you are certainly superwoman to all of us. So thank you for being here with us today as well. Lieutenant commander baron is someone that i personally believe, and even more so, having had the opportunity to sit and visit with her here at lunch, i believe that she is someone that even steven, to cater himself, would be in all of she was selected by nasa in 2017 after receiving her bachelor in Systems Engineering from the United StatesNaval Academy and her masters in Nuclear Engineering from the university of cambridge. Shes actually a submarine officer, although her career is now in space. And from may of 2000 excuse me, november. Of 2021 until the splashdown in may of 2022. 177 days. She orbited the earth on the International Space station. And it was just inspirational for me, kayla, to sit and talk to you and and learn from you and to be inspired by your life. Shes actually married to an Army Green Beret officer. And so they have a family of service to our country. And i hope and expect that one day we will welcome you back as either secretary barron or maybe president barron. Even with an extraordinary promising future that you have. But for today and the purposes of this occasion to honor steven and carter on his birthday, please join me in welcoming these two extraordinary leaders, admiral ted carter and Lieutenant Commander kayla barron. And everyone stewart that was an incredible introduction and a great scene setter for this conversation. And kayla and i have only compared a little bit of notes for what were going to talk about. Were going to try to keep this dynamic. Were going to talk for about 20, 25 minutes, and then were going to open up to questions. So i want to just give you the lay of the land. I am honored personally to be back here at historic Decatur House and and i are honored to be here. Its great to be in the presence of admiral sean buck, who will leave me as the superintendent of the Naval Academy. And and i am also particularly honored to have the direct descendants of Steven Decatur here with us here today. It makes it really, really special for me personally to have been involved in the first of these celebrations of Steven Decatur day. I still remember like it was yesterday and my only role was really to tell the story about Steven Decatur. Im not going to do that today. You did a great job talking about his 41 year life and how it ended tragically here. I guess i should hit the elephant in the room first, though. Were talking to somebody here whos married. Name is barron, the same name as commodore barron, who took steve indicators life. Im not going to say theyre related, but that doesnt just happen every day. So even though thats kaylas married name, tom is an extraordinary young man himself. And i just thought it was an interesting kind of a connection here. The the day the reason we celebrate this day is really to honor the courage and leadership capabilities of Steven Decatur, arguably one of the most influential naval officers in our in our navys history. You often hear about Commodore Barry in John Paul Jones in chester nimitz. From my perspective, i would argue that in the very short lifespan, steven to cater 41 years, he had as much influence on creating the culture of our United States navy and our war fighting spirit. And in fact, as we celebrate the most watched movie this year, top gun, maverick, i would argue for any moviemakers that are out there, theres a time to tell the story of Stephen Decatur and put that into a movie, and that would grab americas attention like maybe no other movie that tells the navys history. So as this is getting shown on cspan and others, i hope somebody picks up on that because those stories are amazing. But today, our fireside chat is a chance for me to let kayla talk a little bit about her journey, which is quite extraordinary. Stewart talked a little bit about her start at the Naval Academy. Im going to offer kayla and maybe just go a little bit further back into your childhood, your inspiration to go to the Naval Academy, maybe talk about how we came to meet and that path to become an astronaut, which could be its own book on itself. But maybe you could just talk a little bit about your beginnings and your inspiration to go into the Astronaut Program. Yes, sir. I im the middle of three girls. I grew up with an incredibly supportive family. We moved a lot as kids. I wasnt a navy brat or a military brat. My dad actually works in the civilian Nuclear Power industry, specializing in waste cleanup projects. So once his clean, you move on to the next one. So we moved a lot as kids, but i had an incredibly strong grounding in my family, incredibly encouraging parents who really taught me and my sisters to tap into what we were passionate about and always try to do our best and in most importantly, to be committed to the teams we were a part of. Whether that was our family or our sports teams. My mom actually coached me in crosscountry and track in high school and was a big influence for me, and so they were always interested in what we were interested in and helping us figure out, you know, your first mentors in many ways, are your parents. And so when at a pretty young age, about 12, when i was in middle school, i started expressing an interest in serving in the military. I have a lot of extended family in the military, but i dont really come from a traditional military family. So that was kind of an unusual aspiration to communicate, especially as a pretty young kid. But my parents were really encouraged and my dad actually introduced me to the idea of maybe looking at the service academies. We lived in colorado at the time, so the air force academy was the obvious first thing to consider. But as i matured and grew as a person, i realized that i should be looking more at the Naval Academy. Never, never considered west point with any sort of seriousness, but found myself, you know, in high school studying science and math, re