I want to thank the men and women of the Ford Carrier Strike Group and their families

and let all of them know how grateful I am for their leadership and service.

The crews on board this strike group have already been endured months at sea,

only to get their deployment extended.

These exceptional Americans, rogered up, all supported by their families, continue to stand

the watch, taking the fight to the enemy over and over again night after night.

Aboard ships like the USS Ford and the Abraham Lincoln are a special group of sailors

I want to highlight today.

These are the men and women, the sailors up on the roof

running operations on the flight deck. With an average age of the early 20s, these are the

unsung heroes of naval aviation. These young sailors, known for wearing yellow shirts, are in

charge of the catapults, taxiing jets around on the flight deck,

shooting jets off the front end, and recovering jets off the back end. They are literally

involved with every single movement on the roof on an aircraft carrier. They are the last

ones that a naval aviator sees before getting shot off the front end, and the first one that a naval aviator sees before getting shot off the front end, and the

first one that a naval aviator sees after safely trapping on the back end.

And just for a minute, imagine you're standing on that aircraft carrier flight deck.

There's 30 knots of wind in your face.

The deck is slippery, covered in grease. It's noisy. There are propellers spinning. There's jet blast everywhere.

The helicopters are running. Your head is on a swivel, and you're trying to direct a multi-million-dollar fighter into a one-foot square box so that those naval aviators can be shot off into the black of night to go do

America's work. Those jets are fully loaded with missiles and bombs, and they are a world-class

team combined with the naval aviation and the aviators in those jets. This beautiful symphony of American spirit

...