SFC RANDT B. FELDER

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um [Music]

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oh [Music]

i'll be right back

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and along with his lovely wife

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[Music] with his beautiful wife this is my

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well everyone please stay

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[Music] good

good evening everybody i am so happy to be here this evening it is

so wonderful to see all these wonderful friendly faces here tonight

my name is wayne dobson and i will be your master of ceremony for this evening

we celebration gathered here to celebrate the life and career of sergeant first class randy felder

with his lovely wife of 31 years mrs jacqueline felder randy and i

have been best friends for well over 40 years the ability to foster positive

relationships is one of the things that make randy special i know for a fact

many of you are best friends with randy too i could talk for hours about the

relationship we have shared over the years but times will not commit the single most important thing i would

like to share with you about randy's personality that has guided him throughout his life

is the fact that randy is a god-fearing man he has allowed the hand of god to guide

him in all aspects of his life and affect all the relationships he has developed

let me give you some insight into randy's personality two people that know randy the best are

his mother and his wife his mother once told me

if randy jumped in the river all his friends would jump in too

his wife once told me there are two sides direct there's

randy and there's sergeant phil i didn't understand either comment at

first but as i look back over his life these concepts became clear let me give you some examples

first i learned from his mother that if randy did anything that he thought was good for him he wanted to share it with his friends

i met randy in 1976 at fort hunter liggett in california in the middle of

nowhere he convinced a childhood friend gregory lewis to go in the army with him on the

bloody plan before randy left california he convinced several other friends from

sherwood forest to join the army then convinced them to be stationed in california with him

so adam coins dorset low and others just start showing up in the army in california

with randy here's some other examples randy and jackie started the lingerie

business called jacqueline's private moments then they recruited all

their friends to participate in the business brandon was the president jackie was the

ceo i was the business manager margie was the wardrobe coordinator

and we had actors models production assistants a photographer a dj and a grip and many other friends that

just wanted to participate randy always talked about being a fox

sherani talked napoleon carnegie and me to join the fighter

now let's talk about the coming from his wife about randy and sergeant phil

the middle central was doing a churchyard cleanup we started around nine o'clock that

morning by five o'clock everybody was more than ready to go home

we were hungry thirsty and tired around 5 45 i saw minister johnson

standing over there by the back of the church with his arms full across his chest just staring at randy

blowing off a section of of the parking lot we had blown off one hour ago

i leaned over to minister minister johnson and told him

and shared the insight with him that his mother shared with me i told him randy is tired but sergeant

felder won't let him stop he was determined to do the job right to

the best of his ability and last all the children and his family

loves uncle randy but he keeps them on their toes because they don't know who won't show

up will it be randy the uncle that bears the best gifts are

sergeant felder the uncle who holds their feet to the fire with the highest expectations

because they know he will not accept poor excuses so i hope these thoughts will help you

understand a little better

i welcome you oh i'm glad this day is here dinner with sergeant feldman i dare you

i love him to death though love loving to the moon and bounce i just want to say i am so thankful and

i'm so honored to be married to a man like him when i met him at every waters

college when he was president of the veterans club all the ladies was chasing them i sure didn't know

but he always made time for me so if a man make time for me i'm gonna make time

for him he is the best husband in the entire world and i want everybody to know that i want

you to have a good time this is a night of relaxation no children just relax and have a good time and

thank y'all so much and you are very welcome for being here

good evening everyone i guess you all are sitting i always like to have people touch and agree

just as a point of contact if you're near someone won't you just reach out and grab them by the hand

as we give our indication tonight let us pray heavenly father we come down

we say thank you god thank you for allowing us to come and celebrate this

life god randy felder god you made him you created him from the very foundations of the world

god you've been breathing on him and god it was you who set the trajectory for his life

and god we are so appreciative that our lives have been touched by his we are able to come to know him god and his

journey uh with your service to this community god we thank you that he has been a

faithful man and god it is our prayer tonight as we turn our attentions toward celebrating his many

accomplishments and his life god that we all think fondly of who he is and what he means to us

individually we thank you for this occasion and god we are honored to be invited to be a part

of it and god we thank you for him we thank you for his suitable help meet jackie who has

been his constant companion god we thank you for her and we thank you for his friends

of many years god and and god tonight we ask that even in this celebration your spirit would allow us to fellowship

one with another and god we already feel your presence in this place and we know that you are smiling down on the felder

family even now so bless us god as we proceed with this program we give you praise

glory and honor and it is true we ask tonight that you would have your way it's in

jesus wonderful name we pray let every heart say amen

[Music]

me thy name

with thy kingdom come

thy will be done

on earth as it is

give us this day

our day

as we forgive our

into temptation but deliver us from

[Music] is

ever

father we thank you so much for this awesome celebration tonight

thank you for a great soldier friend and brother

we pray now god you bless us who everybody receives in such a way we may nourish our bodies

for us in jesus name we pray amen um if would you please follow the

instructions from our hostess mrs lizette boston lizette would you raise your hand

and our dj mrs michael robertson raised his hand as michael robinson they will direct you

to the serving line thank you

now it's time for us to continue with the program we will now have the reading of sergeant

first class randy fat felder's biography by my lovely wife of 28 minutes

i'm sorry for 28 years it was marched up

[Music] i read randy's bio i would like to say

that i thank god to be branded you meet a lot of people during the course of 40 years and a very few of

them make a journey called life listen for one reason or another they go this way go that way but you and

jackie have been there and i thank you for that i can truly say that you have proven yourself to be the

definition of commitment thank you

okay military violence sergeant first class randy b filner september 15 1975

to february 17 2017. on september 15 1975 randy joined the

u.s army he entered basic training and was assigned to accompany the sixth battalion first infantry training

division at fort polk louisiana on january 2nd 1976 he reported to his first student

station at fort ord california assigned to fort honey-leggett

experimentation command in september 1976 he went to his pcs transferred to fort

worth company b third battalion 17th brigade 7th infantry division on september 14

1979 pets freedom [Music] on october 24 1979

he joined the florida army national guard company c 146 signal battalion in jacksonville

florida in october 1981 randy transferred to the 50th area

support group in august 15 on august 15 1984

he transferred to niu spells for a year in august 1989

he was transferred into the 202nd medical group on november 23 1990 he was activated

localized in support of the persian gulf war operation that shield desert storm

in june 1992 he was appointed detachment sergeant in the 202nd medical group

on july 1st 1996 he was transferred to the rti

with the ocs as a tac in zeo

on march 20 2003 he was transferred to the florida medical detachment

as second platoon sergeant for the camp banding team on april 1st 2005 he was mobilized in

support of operation enduring freedom in afghanistan on july 13

2006 he was transferred to the plant city team as third platoon sergeant in march

of 2009 he was appointed field first sergeant with the florida medical detachment at

campground in september 2013 he was transferred to

the otss jordan force headquarters saint augustine florida as senior medical advisor to the state

surgeon on december 15 2016 he was transferred back to the camp

landing headquarters staying as senior medical non-commissioned officers on february 17 2010

17 excuse me randy was honorably discharged from the florida army

national guard with 40 years of dedicated service

[Music] now that it's time for reflections

we will have the following guests come to the microphone in this order as a pastor pastor carl hodges

as a deacon speaking willie holmes as a brother-in-law mr john miller

as a mother mrs maggie felder as a daughter mrs christine dobson as a firefighter

mr al davis and as a friend mr norman duncan

[Music]

good evening everybody once again y'all having a good time so far

it's been my assignment and privilege to come and share with you about randy deacon randy felder

i guess i can call him deacon since since i'm speaking as his pastor amen i thank god for this opportunity i

remember i remember the first time i saw a deacon fell down i was not the pastor

of central i was visiting central i sat in the back of the church and many of you who've

been there y'all know what that back row i call it the charles king road that's why that's where he sits

and uh i sat back there that particular sunday i was sick i had the flu

and i remember during the fellowship time there was a light-skinned brother came

round and that was he spoke to me firm handshake

but then there were two young guys who had locks in their hair and now this is the first thing that i

heard him say to somebody else and i knew he had to be a military man he said when y'all gonna get that

haircut and this was during the fellowship time

this is when you're supposed to meet and greet people they feel welcome that was my first

encounter with uh with the first sergeant sergeant felder was present and in the

building but i want to share uh real briefly and they told me i could speak for about 30 minutes so y'all

no laughing like i'm playing

they told me i had a couple of minutes but i'm well into my minutes already but

uh there's a passage that came to mind uh when i think about military men in scripture

uh most of the time scripture references of men of service and military men in a

favorable light there is naming we know naaman captain of the hosts

he was the one who dipped himself in the jordan that was naaman and of course we know

king david was a military man himself joshua strategist uh military man but there was one in

particular that came to mind randy as i was thinking about what to share tonight

and that's the story about the roman centurion uh there you can find it in the book of matthew chapter number eight

that roman centurion is the one uh who came up to jesus as he was coming to

capernaum and he he asked jesus to heal his servant and uh jesus uh uh

really was taken aback at his request because this was a roman centurion in

charge of hundreds of men and he asked jesus to heal his servant who was at home

in jesus the bible even declares marveled at this reality but when he told the

roman centurion randy that i'll go to your house the roman centurion said something that

shook up the world he said you don't have to go to my house he said just speak the word and my

servant will be healed and jesus being very impressed the bible doesn't say that he

was impressed very much in scripture but he was impressed that time i think he was impressed when stephen

got stoned because he gave him a standing ovation yeah i believe he was he was impressed when

the syrophoenician woman said even the dogs could eat the crumbs that fall

from the master's table and he's impressed with military people who understand order uh one of the

things uh randy that i want to share with you and share with you all about randy as his pastor as i've discovered this over

the last nearly six years uh randy first of all is confident in god's power

the centurion was confident in god's power he said that listen i'm coming to you to heal my servant

i've noticed if i haven't learned anything else about randy randy will share openly that he he loves

the lord and that he believes god is able to do what he said he's going to do he said to me on no few occasions pastor

we prayed for you we prayed that god would send us a pastor after his own heart so i know

that he was confident in the power of god but randy has also been humbled by the presence of god

the roman centurion said lord it's not worthy for you to go into my house you don't have to come under my roof and

one thing i know about randy is randy is humbled by the presence of god in his life

he thanks god for his wife he thanks god for his his daughter his grandbaby he thanks god

for everything he has and that to me is a spirit of a humble man

you may not uh understand what humility is but humility is understanding who butters your bread

and i believe the roman centurion he captured that but he said lord i i'm not worthy i work for caesar but i

know you god well one of the things i'm almost there

i told you i had 30 minutes i might he only gonna retire one time

so i want to get this on record but he also he's honored god's authority

the centurion said lord you don't have to come to my house he says i'm a man under authority he said i tell

one man to jump and he jumps he asks me how high one thing i realize about randy and it

helps me even as a pastor is to have a man who understands or

and i being a military man myself i appreciate that i appreciate the first sergeant letting

me come and pass the overhand that tells me that he understands

authority and i say to all of us it is imperative that we understand god's order one of

the things that i've learned about deacon felder brother randy fell the sergeant failed to have you know him

is that he is a man who honors the authority that god has and he makes sure that he handles well

the authority that god has bequeathed even in his life but lastly i i want to tell you this uh

he is a man who is wrapped up in faith that god

has allowed him to have listen to this the centurion goes on to say after he said jesus you don't have to come to my

house listen to what jesus and jesus said unto the security go thy way as thou have believed

so be it done unto thee and his servant the bible says was healed in that

self-same hour randy is a man if he didn't do anything else right in life

a long time ago he hooked up with jesus and he decided to make jesus his choice

and as a result of making jesus his choice every good and perfect gift that has come in his

life has cometh down from the father of life amen ready to continue to be who you are

continue to love on the lord i'm going to continue to pass you if you let me i know you got a lot of free time man oh

god bless you i'm so honored to be here tonight honor that you would ask me to come i thank god for you and i will say this

even though this is the chapter that's closing i do believe the best is still yeah

[Applause] [Music]

good evening everyone oh i had to come behind past the house

i thought about what i was going to say tonight randy you know i came up with 15 pages of stuff

is saying i know you're not going to stab the ring for 15 things so i condensed it down

[Applause]

we have a strong connection randy and i and jacqueline and i know it's one thing about randy

he's he'll do something for you if you ask him and he can do it he will do it and you don't have to worry about that

but if you say he won't do it you might as well move on to plan b

man they ain't working and randy's very thorough about buying

things and when he buys something he really searches it researches it and

he he gets on that computer and he google it and he'll find out what's what's best and i said

randy you you search everything before you buy a motorcycle before you buy furniture before you buy anything

so i was on this house one day i said randy really toothpicks

[Music] you say man you know you just don't buy

[Music]

well to show you what what type of friend randy is he came by

my house he had just bought his first gold wing and he said man you want to ride to the um

daytona bike week with me i said sure and i got on the back of him and he rode

a1a so we could you know watch all the scenic scenic views and i was having a good time on the back

of that motorcycle man i was just riding randy was just a driver everything was fine until we got to

daytona when we got to daytona i noticed that everybody on the back of everybody

else motorcycle is female

[Applause]

[Applause] okay

you all right and people i wonder why i was looking

you know man that i had a good time that day but

this is the same i'm not getting on the back

that's my friend i love you randy i love you and um congratulations man it's been 40

years let me go before i start crying [Applause]

and you know anytime you go as a brother-in-law you're looking into something you know you got to find out a

few things so i try you know i asked about well you know who is she

she stay around that shirt yeah she got four brothers

what she the baby what sitting now uh two of them in

jacksonville two brothers here no and they're all right be good people

but one of them don't play okay so make sure you don't cross him okay now on a serious note

i'ma say this brother-in-law is a very unique position because you enter a situation

and you know you don't know really what you're getting into okay sometimes in laws to turn the

outlaw let's get real let's get ready okay

and i'll say this as a brother-in-law and i speak for most brother-in-laws in

a man somebody too it's one thing you really really want

and that is respect my house okay when you come in i know your sister

living but respect my house okay randy i thank god in hell

for you and to her being my brother you come to my house

you bring love you bring peace and you bring joy

that's all i want as a brother-in-law

because you you bring no confusion and i love you for that and i mean that

from the bottom of my heart and i'm serious i saw a few words

that i agreed with for my brother-in-law

anonymous from the first day i met you i knew you would be my phone i knew i

could count on you no matter what life since you always have time to listen

and time to give and share by all your works and actions you show

you really care you're very special it shows in all you do i

found a special friendship i've gained a brother too

as a brother-in-law you you're great as a friend you're the best

for us to be family makes me know that i'm truly blessed

congratulations brother

and he's been special all his life i never had a little problem with him

down through the years and when he got in the service i didn't even know what he was going to do

when i knew anything i didn't bother but he just grew up he just grew

up and just grew up and went on went to college i didn't even know he had went down

and you know when i found out since he been grown that he went but then when he met jackie

and then they told me he had a good friend named wayne and they've been together all day long i

think wayne asked one of my children because they stuck so close together but he was a good

child um he was one i could really depend on around that house

and he's the same way today uh if he had to do something at the church he said

well i got something to do to church but i'd be bad at least that's okay so

i really appreciate it and i care a lot for lots but

i had to give him up

is it working okay all right the funniest

but anyway congratulations dad on all of your achievements on all the accolades look at all these

living rooms just here for you nice i like it so i'm very very proud of

you very proud to be your daughter very proud to be your grandbaby's mama and she loves her

grandpa and granny over there and um but to everyone he's just a great person

he's really a great dad he's a nice guy i like him

but thank you all for coming and just appreciating my dad with me thanksgiving one uh i'm al davis randy

and i um was at station 16 together i didn't like randy because randy was in

the um i'm a marine right away

he talked trash to me i talked trust to him

how many of you ever wondered when you see those fire engines going up and down the

street and rescues going down the street why do those guys do that

anybody okay thank you audience participation i had some

things i had down in the car but everybody's taking up my time i had 42 minutes

practically 30 minutes he took up my time so bank of bass appreciate it

the reason why we do what we do is for you guys so that others might live we go into

burning buildings to hazardous environments for you guys

so that others might deal we put our life in danger every day we go on the job we don't know

if we're gonna make it home the next morning or not we do it so others might live the bible

says over in john i believe no greater love than a man would lay down his life

randy's my friend you got it

[Music] we all right you know what i'm saying but anyway he always been this guy

i mean everybody already doesn't say it i'm just saying have you always been this guy he never let you down always look doctor

not just me for a friend but everybody he knew y'all know randy i don't know what i'm talking about he will not let you down

for anybody you already looked up for me i had issues going on in my life

randy always come always come talk to me about the law and everything

right now in the past 10 years i'm in church you know giving us your boys servant

trust me everything thank god for a friend that what don't let you down

you know i mean he already looked out for him you know he know that his mother died his family's down

his wife children you know he always will especially church he will not let nobody down i've

he did not let us down

one more time randy i mean me and randy we always been tired

brandon went to the army he did a little time came back he was glad to get home he was like man

i'm glad i'm back uh i was in nestle when he got back

next time i came up i'm like friend come on man let's come see what we doing i'm gonna tell the first sight i was

gonna get you to come man didn't i tell you i ain't getting back in the military

so finally some kind of way when he's decided he's gonna come just look frana came out there and just look he

got the first song and everybody say one time the first time that right he won them so bad he made a deal with

randall and said all right i'll do one year

[Applause]

i'm randy oldest brother and i'm gene and what i want to say is um

in the beginning uh randy was in the military a long time ago

he was in my military and he knows that

we don't play losing it's going to be fans well but you better win because if you don't

win i'm going to find out about it now

i'm not going to go into all of the details but i remember one time

when he was in the military and there was the wall was going on and i was worried

and i was worried and i was worried and i was worried and uh i was saying to myself

i've been protecting him all his life and suppose he gets shot

over there what i'm going to do i mean in my mind i have to do the same

thing i've always did i'm going to go over there and find out what's going on

that's capone good evening wow i don't know what to

say after everybody but i've been in the family a long time

back in the 70s uh when i learned about randy

he was still in school but just like miss maggie said he always kept the family together

he's all the friends are saying he's always there every time you look up randy is there

especially with my boys carlos and travis they needed randy

but everywhere you look there's randy even at the football field

there's randy and jackie right there behind him

and i want to say that anything that i have randy and jackie was always there i can

always depend on them i love them both i still love my first family

we're not the obamas but we're the founders thank i you

across the street from sergeant randy uh but what i want to say is

as a neighbor you couldn't find a better person to be a neighbor of than randy

and jackie uh i know randy's getting all the accolades tonight but let me tell you something

jackie is who jackie is and i think she makes randy who really is

but what i want to say is that uh randy keeps me on my toes because i know on thursday what's going to

happen in my neighborhood and that's randomly going gonna do his law so

i have to get my dog like on wednesday i know randy gonna be out there randy's gonna have his looking good so i

like to have mine looking good too but uh i was just thinking and the guy was saying randy google

everything i was coming home probably about a week ago ran in the garage right and you know

randy have the nicest things he really have nice stuff he he wants the nice thing

and that's that's fine with with me because i wanted to so randy's got a very nice longer and i

went over there i said what you're doing guess what he was on google

he tried to fix his ball boy i think he finally got it right but i just want to say randy congratulations

uh your fine neighbor there's no better person that i would rather live next to across the

street from that randy i always known sergeant felder as

deaconfelder and um his wife one of the reasons i joined central initially because i felt

so welcome when i first got central walked through the door a lady sitting right there oh it's so

nice to see some young man's coming to church today you know so i felt very welcoming on one

of my first encounters with deacon randy we had one of our clean up days and

we were just out there cleaning up the church browns and i heard he can randy man what's going on you just started

talking and then uh he told me i was in the military i said how long you been in the military

well uh i don't really usually tell people how long i've been here

it's been 38 years but me and you know we just started talking and every so often he just said some

encouraging words to me while i was going to school at j.u and he just always been that person from you know always uplifting you know

living a college life playing football school up and down he always say something like hey man we

proud of you you know we appreciate you and i appreciate you for that

talk about deaconfield he a good man i say nice things first i forget my first

sunday at central he um i came in and i was you know most

musicians sometimes be late i think i was five minutes late and i was trying to rush to get to

the keyboard set up and he stopped me to my sony

uh say that we need to consecrate and so i really didn't know who uh

deacon filled the world but you know every time i look around the church he just got this important walk

like like like i'm the man in charge and so he prayed he prayed with me and

in that prayer he said i let him play like never before and my my fingers were sliding like never before

that son i don't know i just couldn't get it right but um but me and him always arguing

backwards and forth and you all say how he uh always come through for y'all and

how he you know y'all saying some great things about him but i don't know what it is

you know i look around this building there's some people that should be here because uh deacon felder

you know he support a whole lot of people and about since you get uh you got the cameras on

me i feel like sean cohen and uh craig taylor should be here as much as

he support the jazz

he coming through for everybody but you can't it ain't working for the jaguars

and if i was the tv preacher i say put the camera on me i'm retiring tonight and i think the

team needs to retire too

randy on the basketball court i didn't even in the military i didn't even hear the waters my first

encounter with randy was when i first brought my wife and i first moved to jacksonville and that first encounter

was at central baptist church kevin and jackie was probably one of the youngest called well imagine my wife and

i so the meetings ran in there it was more of love compassion and just

an integrity of him even working in the trustee board counting the money and just his distinction and our

authority of just doing things correct but that's that's not the main piece the main piece

is when we had our son adam adams we would

go out and eat at the church of sundance after church without and all of this stuff and we would say adam's uncle ran and

that was adam may have been like one or two years old then and as of this thing the rain is just

like dub dial windex

all those cleaning products in the house it's like a common name so iran is a common name in our

household even though it's been many many many years and adam and lauren still to this day say uncle randy

uncle randy and so technically around your history because they haven't seen you in years

so we have passed your name

[Music] let me see we're supposed to give our name

and why we're here i don't know i want to get my name out

i think i'm up here to see brother randy felder retire

actually my name is alan hooker i live in daytona beach area and i first of all appreciate the

christian field here thank you brother thank you pastor

you know i come up here really to make sure that randy retired until i'm sick i'm taking pain for her

salary every month and and this man here and this lady here

you retired at 40 years i'm glad i'm not paying your salary

actually randy you know randy looked so good in his uniform you noticed when

he walked in how he looked you know his uniform is properly pressed

the pockets the buttons are all pocketed and buttoned the way they're supposed to be

i mean he wears a unicorn he looks like a mannequin in a clothing store

and that's exactly the way he he looks and so uh brother randy i congratulate

you and miss jacqueline i i think i met you once before i'm not sure but i have to say this

randy felder and i and my brother here smiley we were in the persian gulf war

together and i met him uh 30 something years ago i believe

we are in the guard together and from the day i met this man

right up to the time that this man dies his countenance

his mannerism his character has been one that should inspire anyone

who knows him or spends time with it and i am very honored to

and proud to know you randy because i thank a lot of you all right and i'm a

member of century baptist church and that's my deacon

i haven't heard anybody say anything about what kind of deacon he is

and i thought i better say just one word two words three words

uh i always had old deacons and then when he was named my deacon

i was a little worried what kind of guy he is and i happened to

go to the hospital and before the nurse got to checking me out

he showed up usually when you're in the hospital your pastor or the deacons come in and

they pray with you so i wondered about randy

and he said before he got ready to leave he said uh brother dave let's pray together

and i said i'm gonna watch this guy so i didn't close by i watched

but he was a young man to me and really i was kind of down in the

dumps but when randy fella got through praying for me i'm ready to get out the hospital

just that impressive if you can be impressive pray he did a magnificent job

on coach day and not all of that he prayed for everybody else in my

family and he was there before we get sick before we

take aspirins he was there it was just that important so what you

uh they've talked about you in every other way as a deacon you are fantastic i know

i have a lot of diggers and i me and my family my daughters

my entire family just appreciate you would you please get in my hand for

being a dream [Applause] [Music]

good evening my name is uh matt mcclellan um first of all i want to thank sergeant

felder and his uh lovely wife for inviting us and i know this is a special night for him

i want to also thank him he assigned me this table to see how close i am to the

buffet that means a lot to me i mean you really care about it

sergeant felder and i have no spring chickens we've been in the service a long time when we first joined we both served with

general washington

when we both went to the range to qualify with our weapon we had to qualify with a bow and arrow and a sling

seriously i would like to say it's been an honor and privilege to serve with him he's an outstanding soldier i'm not sure

unless you're in the military you don't realize you just don't come across people that serve 40 years

20 years is a long time 40 years so he's an exceptional soldier and i want to thank

you for all your service and all you've done for us no

randy understands no my name is canela collins and it's a privilege to be here the invitation tonight i have

to tell you i've known randy for over 30 35 years and it's amazing all the

wonderful words tonight but just last night i had the honor of being in his presence he had

jackie and i have to tell you just a quick story i asked jackie i said what was the hardest

part of having randy in the military for so many years what was really hard about it

and she shared some of the the struggles and and then she asked randy she said what was hard for you

baby and randy shared and he said but you know having good friends and good family and my church my church members

he mentioned everyone probably in this room with a few words by saying that but the most

poignant moment during that conversation last night i said you know it must um

must have been pretty amazing having jackie walk next to you for

40 years while you're in the military he said oh she didn't walk next to me she was in my boots with me

so when you talk about a man and you talk

about his character you talk about humility you talk about his stamina

you talk about 40 years of service you talk about him as a husband i've watched over the years and i know

how much he loves jackie and i have to tell you that was just last evening and it was such a poignant

moment i had to just share it with everyone today randy i love you jackie i love you thank you for having

us and congratulations for going to this i remember being very

comfortable around starfield and uh i said hey sorry bro call me jane

i suppose should i call you he said sorry bill

you've been the same throwing through hi everybody my name is jamie many of you don't know me as staff

sergeant chase some of you really don't know me at all tonight i am honored and privileged to

babble about my platoon sergeant sorry first class builder otherwise known to civilians as ranking

we met in 2003 when i was transferred into the florida attack medical detachment

i remembered encountering him and i was looking for some assistance some paperwork needed from the aid station next door

was friendly to the extent again all teeth in addition to ask to what i asked for

he introduced me to the staff i remember staff sergeant johnson and the other fellow ncos

even after only having just met we connected because we both were big football fans

even though our loyalty lies with different teams we could thank you

from the year from from that year into 2011 i worked with him as a member of his team

2012 after i left the military and remained in touch with him he became like a father figure to me i

will always appreciate the advice concern that he showed me not face adversity

pain both mental and physical i could always turn to him for fatherly life type of bites and friendship i can

clearly credit him with motivating me to pursue my civilian career path and help me find my internal faith and

strengthen my personal life i am not the only person who has been lifted from knowing this fine man

because he has been an outstanding firefighter a church leader husband

as well as a friend to many of you in the audience oh i don't know his jokes are

such him are so humorous that he should be a stand-up comma

also he is a jacksonville jaguar fan regardless of their record by the way

that's a joy i also as young being a younger man

admire his perseverance as a mature cross-country motorcycle enthusiast go easy ride

since my time is almost up i really want to convey how much our first class sergeant felder has

meant to me and i wish him a long happy prosperous retirement with his wife his queen

weekends and at days and deployments and he spent over five years away from

his family so thank you for sharing your husband

and your father to help this make this nation better and to make our florida guard a stronger

force mrs felder mrs jackson

i know how tremendously proud you must be of randy and jackie and you have every right to be you

instill the values that have made them a credit to our nation

to this country parents carry a special place in our hearts because they are the ones that instill

the values in us when we are younger and make us who we are thank you for doing such a fine job in

rearing your children to be virtuous and with integrity

now as we know sergeant felder started his career in 1975. he raised his right

hand and he took the oath to support and defend the constitution of the united

states 1975. let's just

think about that let's go back in time a little for just

a moment and let's remember what was 1975

like in our country now this is at the risk of making us all feel a little older but i'm going to

take that rest so we had president ford as our president

and we were recovering the country was recovering from a little scandal called watergate

that's right um it was the end of the vietnam conflict

so that was a good thing what about at the home what were we doing at home well

we were wearing bell bottoms and hip huggers and going to disco clubs

i think i saw some bell bottoms i don't i don't know about hip huggers

so now for those of you that can't relate to remembering back to 1975 because you

weren't born or you were too little to remember let's put it in some perspective for you

uh you could if you worked your minimum wage was two dollars and 10 cents an hour but you

could buy a gallon of gasoline for 44 cents that's right that's right so you can buy a new car

for four thousand dollars and the average median home only cost eleven thousand dollars well we've come

a long way from those stages i don't know what what were the factors

that propelled you to raise that your right hand that faithful day on september 15th of

1975 but it was a great move i doubt you ever

thought that the journey would last 40 years

now it wasn't until 2006 that i came to know sergeant felder he had just come back

from deployment and he was been told that he was going to transition from his very close home station of camp

landing all the way down to the plant city team i know this was not an assignment that

he wanted and i know that it was a long

drive for him but i will tell you he knew that we needed him

and i believe it is his faith that was able to allow him to accept that excitement and many other

assignments with grace and knowing that the lord had opened a door for him

to be able to do good and it was such a blessing that he brought to our unit so i am

so happy to have had you by my side since that time

your career has been highlighted by various assignments you have served to support

this nation during desert shield desert storm and operation enduring freedom and you

have your career has culminated at being the top medical nco in our state

now i can't speak to all of randy's accolades and accomplishments but i do believe that the time i have

spent with him allows me to be able to really speak to the soldier

the leader and the man that he is he is a man of faith

a family of honor and of duty and those characteristics he

brings with him and anything he does including his military career

he is a professional soldier he embodies the profession of arms in his military

bearing in his example to and his ability to complete the mission but still

take care of his troops he was such an extraordinary soldier

that he was selected to be the rti ocs attack nco it is only our finest soldiers that

are selected to to groom the next generation of soldiers

it is a true credit to his character his leadership his physical and mental capabilities to

be entrusted to train and shape our future force

from a commander's perspective sergeant felder has always showed support for his for

my plans and for my policies regardless of how unpopular they were

so i i remember times when our mission would change and we knew that it would

our troops would not really reflect on it and want that change

and i needed a lot of support from him to be able to

build the morale for our soldiers because we were afraid that the mission change would drop our soldiers morale

and we would have attrition in our unit i have always been impressed with his effective

communication he is he is has a gift for evaluating and presenting information

in a grounded center way that's balanced and the soldiers embrace that he's

always called he's always brings that calm demeanor whenever no matter what the

situation is he is a quiet leader unpretentious

and grounded he has always portrayed the wisdom that he realizes a successful leader

needs to inspire and they need to influence their soldiers not just command them and inspiring and

influencing people means that you have to take time and listening you have to take the time to earn the

respect of those that you want to learn you need to be gracious but also

persuasive one of the most important responsibilities as a senior non-commissioned officer has

is to support his troops a duty that randy never lost sight of he is a leader

has always put his troops and his mission before himself he has never shied away

from providing me and the command staff with the hard truths the honest deliberate feedback related

to his troops welfare to ensure that his troops are taken care of

soldiers recognize this they recognize that he wants their success and that he supports them as such he is

beloved by those that he leads and he is respected by the command groups he has served me and

my role as the florida medical detachment commander and he has served the state surgeon honorably he has lightened my

load he has shared my burdens of command and he has always provided me with excellent honest

guidance some people live a life a lifetime

wondering have i made a difference sergeant felder you do not have that problem

you have influenced many people in your military career and outside of it as well it sounds from

what i hear this evening so you can go forward knowing that you have impacted many lives

i wish you and jackie a long life blessed with happiness and health i will

miss your lighthearted stories and our conversations and i know i'm not alone when i say i look forward to carrying on

a relationship as friends as you move on to the next chapter of your life congratulations on a job

well done

before i um depart i would like to go a little out of order and ask

sergeant felder if you could meet goes down to the front floor for a few presentations in honor of recognition of your 40 years

of service sergeant felder had so much in his shadow box that we had to take a little

extra time and present it here for him

wow

um

for the extraordinary leadership that he has portrayed to the florida medical detachment and to

the united states of america we present to him the army nco sword

with an appreciation that has his name for 40 years of service

[Applause]

mhm [Applause]

i would like jackie this thing

i've had a privilege of knowing randy and jackie

for a very long time randy and i were best man best men to each other at our wedding

he was my best man when i got married to martin and he was not and i was his best man

when he got married to jackie i can honestly tell you not all his hair

fell now getting ready to get married it's one spot and the bag is here i don't know

why for whatever reason just one spot in the back of his head

went both every day just one spot i said what was wrong with you i i i still

can't explain why i grew back but i couldn't understand it but anyway

jackie has always been there for randy and all the things that he has tried to

achieve she has always supported him and been a voice of encouragement to him

has always given him sound judgment and has always loved him all of his life randy

once told me something that was impressive to me he told me i have never

thought about the voice of jackie for any reason and they have been married well over 30

years he's never considered it whatever problems they had he was committed to

trying to figure out how to work those problems so we thank you jackie for the support

that you have given randomly over the years brandon has

randy has demonstrated throughout his life the true meaning of commitment and devotion to the things he believe in

humble a great smile a good listener a mentor to many an excellent son

father brother and friend a firefighter who has served the citizens of jacksonville florida for

over 25 years a deacon who has served in the ministry of central baptist institutional church

for over 30 years a husband who has loved his wife for over 31 years

a soldier has served his country for over 40 years i would like you all to stand and help

me give sergeant first class randy felder and his lovely wife

mrs jacqueline

[Music]

so um my heart is um

i'm just overwhelmed

well the hardest part for me was afghanistan

he couldn't tell me where he was we didn't have face time you know we didn't have cell phones you

know at that particular time what got me through and i just want these people to stand

the nights that i cried they didn't say shut up jack and he

gonna be all right they just said go ahead on a crack child we're going to cry a long picture that was my adoption you could stand up

is that boston that's kenny um lynn carlos

stan um randy these are the the ones that set up

with me all night long i said marge it's time to go home the wing will put you out girl

but wayne said he understood and i appreciate y'all so much y'all just don't know once y'all left i

had my pity party but i thank y'all for the bottom of my heart for being there it was hard it was not easy but i knew

that he loves the military now i gotta get him used to saying stop

saying at ease i gotta get invited to randy felder now

so i told him i said this is my last night saying sergeant fielder

randy phil bernard filmer oh he doesn't like brunei

but anyway thank everybody for your prayers my church family oh god thank you guys

um just thank my pastor thank you thank my brother-in-law my sister thank

my sister brother-in-law my daughter everybody just thank

[Applause]

everybody

thank you

amen

i'm all right give me time i didn't expect this

i won't say that that i didn't deserve it because if i

did i will be discounting the love that has been shown to me tonight

i never expected this day if i would have tried to plan this day

it would have never happened this is not about me

this is about you each and every one of you you don't understand what it means to me

when i'm going through something i'm talking to you in a casual way and you say something to encourage me

in a joke or whatever it is if i say something to you and you make

me feel like it was beneficial to you that gives me the energy and inspiration

to continue on if i would have dedicated myself like i

probably should have over the 40 years i am i probably could have been a sergeant major

i probably could have been something else but i'm a true believer that the lord

allow wherever i am to be where i am

i didn't expect to stay in 40 years matter of fact i didn't expect to stay

in past four years most of the things that people said i say most of the things not all of the

things administer mercer

are true everybody a a raised pool hall uh boom

boom room uh when you were in high school we had a friend named ray allen

his mother built a den onto their home for the regulation-sized pool table and

that's where we would go after we played basketball we'd go there and we shoot pool high school was over and

i was walking home with greg lewis i have some names of some people that might sound weird like bubba gum

bubble gum and i were walking home from school from uh shooting food and we had a casual conversation school

was over he was in college and i asked him you know what are you planning on doing from this point

forward i told myself without thinking about going into the military he said well i was too

i said you're kidding we went in his front yard and we set from 11 o'clock to 4 o'clock that

morning and we talked about joining the military

now with no guidance about to walk into the clutches of a

recruiter who has his only desire is to

satisfy his comeback arm requirement for that month so we went in

and he offered these two great jobs 11 bravo 11 charlotte greatest jobs in the world

one was a foot soldier that dug the holes and attacked the enemy and the other had

a radio that they could dug holes and attacked the enemy one offered 2500 bonus one off of the

fifteen hundred dollar bonus obviously i took the 2500

once i found out what i was into i realized i was into the wrong thing

but the commitment was made and i said i would see it through but once i

got out i would never ever ever

ever put on another military uniform in my life

i got out i had a great friend of mine called norman duncan

and norman tried to get me out to 146 signal and i told him i didn't want to go out there exactly what he said i'm not going to repeat everything he said but he could

he convinced he talked me into he couldn't understand how i got out there he convinced me to go out

first thought he came out and he offered me to be a company clerk i said i'll come in for one year

wow two years i went to an a.t with the 50 eric 50th

area support that was the first time that i realized that the national guard could be a great place to be i met this

table this group of people over at this table and we were all young

we were all impressionable and they had a great commander and they had a great first

charge one that we 146 didn't have then and they don't have

now and they've never

but they showed me what a military could be and so i transferred over

and as i ended that term i found myself eight to ten years in and at that point i say i may have

twelve today but i appreciate the family that i

accumulated the fifth of their support sergeant hooker

i love you you are you sit in the middle of the floor as a master sergeant and you told

stories to us like we were your little kids uh kept us you know encapsulated with

your stories um i understand that your mother was a hooker and your grandmother

[Applause]

that's been a story that's been a story the entire time i've known him and it always gets a laugh you know what

he said he cried he never let his wife get off the hook but it it it showed me that not only can

i serve but i can i can serve with joy once i left there uh the 202nd bedroom came up from

daytona and i rolled over into the 202nd bedroom which some of them rolled over with me after that we went

over to desert storm um and and i'm not going to use this time to bully anyone

but i need something smiley ac smiling to stand

uh we were roommates together there's a storm um i played this cassette

no day in and day out and i woke up one day and my tape was

gone

bacon didn't have it i guess the camel came in the room

okay

and i tell people all the time

i have sleep out there so it wasn't because i could help it but i tell people all

the time i know my wife loves me i heard him doing that with me but i i

really just want to say thank you to you all when i went over to the forum at ocs

i thought of iran too amazing

is it major lieutenant colonel major all right so i promoted you

i i i have to mention the ocs program office of candidacy schools one of my proudest moments in the

military to have been chosen to go over and help train officers wow to see

a young man come in uh wide-eyed not understanding exactly what they're involved in but to see the light come on

in their eyes and then to actually go into afghanistan

and be commanded and led by soldiers that i had trained

under me underneath me gave me a sense of joy that you just can't understand uh it it

had validated the seven years that i spent at the ocs program and to actually train a

candidate see him grow to the height of what you could become in the ocs program

and then to be invited back because of how well he did his job major verrant

came back and we worked together and trained side by side with each other

that was one of my most proudest moments i was burned out seven years i moved over to the florida med debt

i needed to get back to training sold not officers but soldiers

i had a totally different commitment in mind when i went back to trained soldiers and some of us well

i won't say my swords as well i have what ferc lieutenants now that were actually

enlisted and going on to to greater heights sudden uh chase

a lot of soldiers that i didn't realize the impact that i had in their lives until tonight

the impact that i've had in my community james i appreciate you uh you didn't have to stand up and say what you said but i appreciate it

i thank you and i'll be cutting my yard on thursday

in the neighborhood growing up you were my mother when my mother wasn't watching

i appreciate you how many 11 12 children all i had to do is just fall in line

but the love that you showed helped nurture me i have to go to my mother my mother

instilled something to me many many years ago my mother worked extremely hard

and that's all i saw was working independence a strong woman she raised three

hard-headed boys at at one point and she was no joke

my sister my mom asked my sister why she never ever gave her any trouble

my sister looked at her and said i saw in that house what you did to those

three boys [Laughter]

she graduated my sister graduated with honors one of the most beautiful people i could

ever make i love her to death the thing that impressed me the most is when she would write me letters when she

was eight years old and i saw her letters change and i saw the intellect growth

just in her letters uh for things that were so impressive to me i don't want to be too long my wife

she'll be pulling my coat in a minute my mom got our arms across

but i can stand here all day and and and and look in the eyes of all of

you and it's really not about me pastor i appreciate you you know you

came in and just like i said we pray for you you know i'm there to do what i'm

supposed to do uh as your d okay love you

uh and i'm wherever life sends us together i'm willing to go my other family that i

uh oscar

yeah yeah yeah i was in his army

the things that i've appreciated about him and you can't give good advice even though you're not

taking heed to that environment

no no no i say that because it was strictly out of love he did what he had to do he did what he

did you know but he always made sure

that i did the right thing he would always tell me what he better

not see me do what he better not catch me doing you know

and i listen i'm a lot taller than his now but it was the opposite a long time ago

but he was the one that gave me the walk and the courage that i have because he was the one that prepared me

it was it was his job he felt that he took upon himself he took it upon himself

to strengthen me and to make me and prepare me to go out and meet other challenges in life and i've had

i've told him that before and i just want to say it publicly i appreciate you i really do uh he he understands who he

is and i just want to let her know i understand who he is christine you know i love you

you always uh have a smile on your face uh i don't think you've ever given me

any trouble at all but um

give me my only grant uh uh it was my pleasure

who's almost identical to you so when you tell me about the things that she does i

look at you like hey that's just you all over here but thank you i appreciate you being

here moana love you

that's all i can say you gave me a beautiful daughter your daughter and i thank you but but nathan lee

schiller helen ronnie uh sivi uh

big got to be you know all my sisters and brothers you know i love you uh travis

sneak on in it's awesome but i'm not gonna hold you i i don't

want to belabor tonight uh i just want to thank you my central baptist institutional family

through my entire 40 years

new or young you prayed for me and i know that's what kept me strong

when i was over in whatever country i was in i could focus on my job because

of the prayers i know that were being set up for me um to be able to go over

see and know that someone was back home that can take care of anything or any problem that i might have you

just gotta i would like for you all to really just applaud norman duncan

wayne uh digging home when i left i was moving they moved my

entire house my entire house while i was in

mississippi i didn't have to worry about a thing jackie didn't have to worry about a thing

i knew that it would be taken care of to have that type of support

when you're away is invaluable my wife

has allowed me i've seen so many men been torn down by their wives

because their wives want them to do and be what they want them to be

i thank god for giving me a wife to allow me to be me

and that ain't easy

my wife she knows that everything that i do i compare with her

but it's for the betterment of us i feel as long as i keep prayed up

and i follow god's hand and i do those things now we we get it

backwards sometimes we say that our wives should honor us and cherish us and all those good things

that the bible says but if we live all we need by the part if we are obeying god's word

now everything is in the proper order amen and so i tried my best to do that

and not only my wife but i'm telling you not honestly from the bottom of my heart

every last one of you is a part of who i am

every time i step out and anything that i do i feel it though that i'm representing

you and if i didn't do something properly it's going to reflect on you and we all

whatever entity you're part of that's the way it is you whatever you do it affects someone

else you cannot go out here and do anything without someone being affected if you do

something great they're affected by you something that they're affected by and i take that to heart

so whatever i do i i i just i try my best to do it in a matter that i'm not proud

of but you will be proud of it amen i thank you all

um i just thank you all and i know i've missed some people i know i should have said some things

about some people uh kung gower uh turn wigan uh thank you for the effort that you put

into this uh something that you know you've done your entire career things you don't have to do okay i just

wanna let you know i appreciate it but thank you all i i apologize if i was too long

40 years ago but like i said i i just was not

planning uh for me to be here for 40 years uh

i just prayed held my breath and kept running it kind of works out one thing i found

out is that regardless of what move or decision you have in mind to make it really don't matter you know because

unless the lord allow it to come to fruition it's a waste of time so i just pray and

i move and god will open the door or he'll close the door

uh it really made it easy for me i really didn't have to really think hard about what i needed to do i just prayed

and go and uh and people come into my life uh colonel mcnamara came and asked me if i

would be uh interested in coming to the florida medical detachment that's how i got there

on the fire department they called me when i was out two weeks they called me and said they want to have an interview with don't know

anything about them fire department at the airport they call me god open that door

ocs i'm in a class i'm on the group leadership they called came to me and asked me hey we want to put the ncos back in the

ocs program we think you'll do good and they call me

so those things i didn't have to sign the filter we needed attached massage testing started going

to a second bedroom okay um that's how god has lived my life

i i'm not done anything that i feel extraordinary but i will be

reluctant to say that because of the love that you guys have shown me to say that i do deserve it i thank you i appreciate

each and every one of you uh coach jay your entire family has been

uh outstanding in my life you know thank you uh

thank you all i appreciate you uh for coming out

god [Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

breathe

[Applause]

randy told the story before i can tell it it's five more minutes the cd that was

took from him you don't know this anita baker love needed paper

so i was like okay need a baker you should think what you're thinking about me to bake are you thinking about me

so vivian felder is going to sing that favorite song that

you liked on that cd so this is vivian felder so if y'all can

just bear with her while she's saying his favorite song the surprise is on youtube

[Music]

testing [Music]

this is

and

my love has come along

[Music] my lonely days are over

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

my heart is

[Music]

[Music] [Applause]

[Music] i

could call my own

[Music] never

[Music]

was [Music] now here we are

together

[Applause] you are

[Music]

uh i would like to thank all of you for

allowing me to be your guide for this evening

now it's time to greet our honorees

thank you

[Music]

oh [Music]

if you don't head home

[Applause]

[Music]

you