ED TERRY RHODES & COLONEL BRIERTON Remarks @ CSE, FHP Colonel Brierton retirement at FL Capitol

ladies and gentlemen the next speaker needs no introduction it is a privilege and honor for me to call upon executive director rhodes thank you well i had the opportunity today to say some comments about colonel breyerton and that's a great honor and the rabbi thank you so much rosenberg thank you so much for this opportunity what you've done for the colonel rabbi workman and your wife thank you so much it means a lot because i personally know how important and how proud colonel bryanton is of this partnership you're absolutely right he did plant the seed and i can assure you he wouldn't leave if it wasn't growing so let me just say a few things i've had i'm proud to have opportunity to work alongside a man who amplifies dedication and service to the people of florida and i'm fortunate to call him a friend colonel bryarton served with distinction is still serving the distinction as a member of the florida highway patrol since 19 september of 1983 and he was a member of the 69th recruit class he's got more than 32 years experience and he knows better than anyone the challenges facing the florida highway patrol today and in the future colonel bryarton also served his country in the united states army and was a member of the military police prior to joining the patrol i think rabbi you mentioned earlier the colonel has over 17 years in miami-dade and he certainly you know is well aware of the community and he got promoted to lieutenant went to bradenton for four years he didn't achieve the rank of captain and for the next 10 years and went to palm beach broward monroe county served all those counties and was promoted into the major investigations in tallahassee ghq we call it and he then was selected to serve as lieutenant colonel in 2006 and then finally in 2011 he was chosen to be lucky 13 colonel of the lucky 13th colonel the florida highway patrol your initiatives you've moved us forward you've implemented internal improvements you've defined higher ethical standards you've initiated new strategic goals benchmarking and you've also enhanced rit and you have placed the highway patrol as a national leader with technology and the safety of our officers and for that we are we're so proud you have directed successful public awareness campaigns uh done different traffic enforcement campaigns that we all know that you've saved hundreds of lives and just by this project and this program and this partnership today speaks to that unfortunately you've had to do one job no colonel wants to do you've had to honor a fallen officer and just as last week he and other members of the patrol traveled to washington dc to attend the national police ceremonies where trooper chelsea richards name was added to the hot wall when we lost chelsea it was a very difficult time for all of us however the colonel carried us through with grace tenderness fortitude and most of all with his heart but one of the best jobs the colonel likes to do is watch as of today the 65 new troopers of the 130th recruit class this is his 11th graduation he's overseen as the director of the highway patrol the highway patrol shines brighter today because of his leadership rabbi and the colonel summed it up earlier this week when he said it's been my honor and privilege to be a florida highway patrol trooper and colonel it's been my honor to work with you and i know us for everyone at the department in saying your wisdom dedication and integrity will be missed but it will never be forgotten and i just again i want to stress how much you've been a leader and what a dedicated trooper you are and how committed you are to your family and what you've done for all of us and you are a mitch god bless you colonel thank you colonel at this time could you come up here please and join us it is a privilege and opportunity for us to have this special moment of an opportunity to finally show our appreciation and represent the colonel with an award and you know such a distinguished day especially today that it was what do you say the 11th graduation class and this is the last graduation class and we're fortunate to have this opportunity thank you so much executive director for giving us the opportunity to have you to call upon the colonel to come accept his presentation rabbi gluck i would like to ask you please to read if you can you have your glasses we could we could go like this make it bigger thank you thank you very much with endless gratitude and admiration for your unwavering support and friendship because of your understanding of our jewish traditions and culture now notwithstanding the hardships because of your knowledge direction and training to the troopers and citizens of this state reflects your over three decades of service because of your warmth of heart kindness of soul and hard working of character forging out an unforgettable relationship with hessed shel emes we hereby humbly recognize colonel david breyerton director of the florida highway patrol upon his retirement of service this 20th day of may may the good lord press you and keep his eyes on you signed by rabbi mandy rosenberg president rabbi oh yeah rabbi glock rabbi mark rosenberg of course rabbi schneider oriferman and rabbi meyer berger use this in good health maybe you could enlighten us with a few words i know you didn't prepare for it so we want it from the heart now and executive director thank you so much for your wonderful speech from the heart thank you so much first i just want to thank you for this recognition i mean i appreciate it very much and i was not expecting this so it was a surprise they kept it from me and i don't know how much i'm going to enlighten you but what i will say is is this is that four years ago when we met what what this was about was the jewish traditions and rituals and what i was surprised at is i i served most of my career over half my career in miami and i did not know that we had the second largest jewish community in the nation i believe next to new york and at no time have we ever been trained in the in the traditions or or anything or any of the rituals or or what was expected and so what we did when we met we came up with a plan and that was to train every trooper and it really didn't stop right there it went beyond that because mark and i actually went to the sheriff's association and some other places and mark started doing classes around the entire law enforcement community the medical examiners and other areas and i think it's it's grown from there over the past four years and i think it's important you know we we live in a very diverse state with a lot of different cultures that are are working together and the partnership has been great and been very important and it went beyond that even because there were some some concerns in some of the communities out throughout the state when certain situations occurred and we had our troopers actually participate in security details and i think and mark will correct me if i'm wrong here it also brought some of the law enforcement community together within those communities to work together to ensure that everybody had a safe and secure holiday and i think that was very important that we all work together so this has really been about a partnership and as executive director said it truly has been an honor and privilege for me to serve and it's uh it's been a very um great career and i appreciate everything that everybody's done but i will say this also for our people that are here i just got a set in the right direction they made it happen and they are the people that really deserve the credit the people out in the field the ones that do the work each and every day deserve the credit for making this program and this partnership work because they're the ones you work with each and every day so i thank them for what they do i thank you for for your friendship and partnership during all of this and again thank you for the recognition