Alice, Brittany, & Dakota, thank you for the opportunity to dial into yesterday's memorial service. If I wasn't limping with a walker from knee surgery, Cheryl and I would have joined you in person. Your husband and father was an amazing man who will never be forgotten. The best way I can express what he meant to me and so many others is this portion of the remarks from his retirement ceremony following a distinguished and remarkable career. "But all of those events only marked the year in which Master Chief Eggert began his remarkable career. When most people retire, their departure is similar to your footprints in the sand at the water’s edge on a beach. Shortly after your departure, they’re filled back in, most of the traces washed away. Not so easy with this guy. I have been very fortunate to cross paths with him several times over the years, and I became very familiar with his professional reputation. Pretty hard NOT to know who he was. Ron spent time underway with VFA-203 onboard KENNEDY, STENNIS, and EISENHOWER during the same timeframe that I flew helicopters with HSL-48 on those same ships during their attached squadrons’ transitions from H-3s to H-60s. Ron was a boot chief when he transitioned to C-130s a year-and-a-half before I did. On 9/11, he was able to see the Pentagon burning from the top of his C-130 hangar at Andrews AFB and I was in New Orleans, flying C-130s at Belle Chasse. We would routinely stop at Andrews AFB for fuel and maintenance assistance. Ron’s squadron, VR-53 had an amazing reputation for operational and maintenance superiority…and generally, just being really squared away - and if you’re familiar with Ron’s career, you know that every command in which he served – EXCELLED. He transferred to Electronic Attack Squadron 209, a squadron that shared my hangar when I flew G-IVs with VR-48. Another kick-ass squadron in which he led the command to success. He served as the Senior Enlisted Leader at VR-1, THE HIGHEST visibility squadron in the entire Navy, which transports the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief and Vice Chief of Naval Operations, The Commandant and Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Fleet Forces Command, the 4-star Director of Navy Nuclear Propulsion, and congressional delegations. There are 10,000 ways to screw that up every day, but the squadron thrived during his tenure. Ron Eggert returned to 209 to serve as Command Master Chief and to guide two deployments to Afghanistan. I was the Executive Officer of the squadron at the southern end of his hangar during that time, and when I checked onboard, I saw Ron Eggert’s name on one of the squadron’s doors and asked my skipper how 209 was doing. Commander JK Mitchell said, that squadron Rocks, you don’t have to worry about them. After that tour in DC, Ron reported to The Fleet Logistics Support Wing, which is headquartered here on NAS JRB, as their Command Master Chief. I’d served at the Wing as the C-130 evaluator and model manager, and for those of you who don’t know, at that time, the Wing had 15 aircraft squadrons, nearly 60 aircraft, two executive transport detachments in Hawaii and Sicily, and 4000 sailors scattered around the world. What could possibly go wrong there? But once again, the entire Wing thrived, thanks to his leadership, his guidance, his calming influence, his remarkable judgment, his patience and tact (refined over the years), and his sense of HUMOR. And then, he reported aboard as the Command Master Chief of this entire installation. Nearly 11000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines, and National Guardsmen. Herding the Joint cats, speaking all those different languages and navigating all of those diverse service cultures, and enabling dozens of dynamic missions. He understands our responsibilities better than anyone, grasps the importance of our community engagement, and our support to veterans and retirees. In so many ways, Ron Eggert was this Command’s first line of defense. I trust his judgment implicitly and his advice and recommendations never let this command down. In a job like this, you don’t have a whole lot of confidants. Nobody really wants to be your confidant, because it’s a tremendous burden. I have just a few confidants, people not afraid to tell you when you’re out-to-lunch and who will quietly listen when you just want to unload. I’m married to one of my confidants, and Ron Eggert is another. Serving with Ron Eggert gives everyone around him confidence. If Ron believes in the mission, EVERYBODY believes in the mission. His Goat Lockers, his sailors, his maintenance crews and tiger teams, his staffs, all would have eagerly followed him to the gates of Hell if he told us it was high time we kicked the Devil’s ass. Master Chief Eggert worked very hard to achieve balance in his life. He understands priorities – that is one topic on which I should have listened more to you, by the way. Whenever Ron would either 1) describe spending time with Alice, Dakota, and Brittany… or 2) when he was blasting out of the office to spend time with them, his eyes would light right up and that was the only time I would ever see him drop focus on the Navy. One night when we were working late, we had a talk about priorities and balance, and I mentioned that in 25 years of my own service, I had never, ever gotten the balance right, that I had always put the Navy ahead of my family and I regretted that I hadn’t done a better job at that. He didn’t skip a beat and just, kind of matter of factly said, “you generally don’t get to these positions by putting your family ahead of the Navy very often…but you can get that right in your next career.” It was kind of like an order. Once again, it confirmed that my CMC – gets it. They say that serving in the military is a young person’s occupation. High energy and a fresh perspective are demanded with each new set of orders, but even after 30 years of distinguished service, Ron Eggert can still run most of us into the ground. Those who have served alongside him, under his leadership, accomplished the mission under his watchful eye, where he gave you just enough rope so you didn’t kill yourself or anyone else but really learn your own limitations, you’re well aware that serving with Ron Eggert is the U.S. Navy equivalent to the Sports Illustrated magazine cover curse. ‘Cause once you’ve served with Ron Eggert, it’s pretty much downhill from there. He sets the bar extremely high. Once you have experienced the leadership, the honor, courage, and commitment to others that is Ron Eggert, the best everyone else can ever hope for is second place. Thanks a lot, Ron, you ruined it for all the rest of us. He’s as good as it gets and he will be missed. Master Chief, thank you for the honor of sending you ashore for the last time."