2nd update February 2008

Greetings, everyone! I spent about six hours in the office on Saturday meeting with our Board of Directors - literally flying into Milwaukee in the morning and back out to DC in the afternoon. Thank goodness for Midwest Airlines!

It felt great to be in the office, and I thoroughly enjoyed touring the Design Excellence Workshop. It looks great. Thank you to ALL who worked so hard to make it such a wonderful additional to our office.
And congratulations to all who have new or "new to them" offices, many with windows! Bet your missing the conference room already, Beth...

Craig, Dave, Don and Susan spent four hours or so with the board to bring us up to date on all your activities. There seems to be a lot of energy and a lot of potential this fiscal year. It's obvious there is a LOT of hard work going into making things happen. You have my admiration and appreciation for all you are doing. My only wish is that I could be there with you, truly!

Things continue to go well in DC. I am enjoying the challenges of getting to know the inner workings of the Navy Reserve, Navy, Department of Defense and the Pentagon. It is an amazingly complex environment, and therefore has tended to consume ALL of my time thus far. The Navy Reserve is essentially a $3 billion enterprise with 68,000 people whose mission is to deliver "Support to the Fleet...Ready and Fully Integrated". We are doing that pretty well, and in fact, by the admission of people in and outside the Navy, we are doing it better than any other reserve component. Having said that, there is still plenty of opportunity and the imperative imposed by a real war and constant budget battles to continue to improve the way we do business. Sound familiar?

The good news on the family front is that Terry and I have managed to block out time to see Alicia & Nate, John Paul & Grace and Matthew, as well as some nice dinners in DC with friends who have visited from WI.

My current set of orders is set to expire on April 11th. I expect to know well in advance of that date what the Navy's plans are for me.

In the meantime, I appreciate being able to stay reasonable well connected with you and MSI General's operations through a number of regular reports I receive from accounting, admin and Craig, and weekly or so telephone conversations I have with Craig and others.

Thank you for continued support, and I am hopeful on my next trip home that I can spend a few days in the office with you all.

Thinking of you often... Warmest regards, Dirk

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