My wife, Paula, and I want to extend our warmest greetings and best wishes to you and yours.

This past year has been exciting for the Corps, with a historical workload in our Civil Works, Military Programs and research and development missions. Our Corps Family can take pride of the integral role that we’ve played in helping the Army improve the lives of our Soldiers and their Families. We’ve worked diligently with our local, state, and federal partners to reduce risk to Americans through key flood control and coastal projects, and we provided our Nation with critical engineering expertise.

Our Corps employees served selflessly in assisting the good people of Louisiana and Texas recover from Gustav and Ike during a very active hurricane season. I am especially grateful to our Corps’ Civilians and Soldiers who will spend this Holiday season away from their loved ones- many in harms way. Please join us in praying for them and their families and giving thanks for their selfless service and sacrifice. Have a safe and joyful Holiday season and a prosperous New Year.

ltg.van Miscellaneous "neat stuff" deployed civilians, deployed servicemembers, Holidays

This week I am in Memphis hosting the Corps’ Small Business Conference, sponsored by The Society of American Military Engineers. Small businesses play a key role in strengthening and restoring our Nation’s infrastructure and supporting our service men and women with first-class facilities.

Small businesses provide an important link to our communities and local governments. They are entrepreneurs responsible for most of the new inventions. Did you know that the majority of our Nation’s patents come from small businesses?

Last year, fiscal year 2008, was a record year for the Corps, as we awarded nearly $7 billion to small businesses- $1 billion more than 2007. Dollars to “Service Disabled, Veteran Owned Business” doubled to $541 million. We predict 2009 will be an even better year! We plan to award 115 civil works contracts in New Orleans alone- many to small businesses. We are depending on our partnership with small businesses to help us deliver superior performance!

ltg.van Miscellaneous "neat stuff", Small Business Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business, Small Business, Society of American Military Engineers