WEBVTT

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Maintenance is not just for mechanics .

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Maintenance is for formations . It is

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for everyone in that formation . Today

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is the Mechanic of the Year competition

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2026 . This is the 3rd year we're

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hosting the competition , and this is

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the biggest it's been yet . A lot of

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people come in with the notion that

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today is about proving you wrong , but

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I wanna tell you that it's really about

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proving you right . First and foremost

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is to learn . Like , let's bring them

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in and let's learn that higher level

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maintenance that they . Don't get to

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learn at the unit level . It provides

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them an opportunity to come into an

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environment where there are subject

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matter experts to help develop them .

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They will face complex problems ,

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things that they might not usually face

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at the unit , and probably the biggest

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thing is that they begin to build those

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networking relationships and everyone

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knows that the National Guard is very

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small , so these soldiers will be in

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contact with different soldiers from

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different units and hopefully create

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some cross collaboration . For future

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operations it very much gives an

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understanding of shortfalls that are

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not there on a regular in base training

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and that might be expected going into

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an active training scenario or even

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deployment . It definitely brings a

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sense of morale to the unit that

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carries on to bring credit to your unit .

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It's just a nice thing to be able to

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represent Gulf Company and uh put a ,

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put us in the spotlight a little bit .