As we prepare to celebrate Veterans Day, we’d like to recognize and thank the FSIS employees who are veterans for your continued commitment to public service. After years of uniformed service, each of you has chosen to continue to serve our country by ensuring that everyone’s food is safe. We’re grateful and proud to have you among our ranks.

Sandra Eskin
Deputy Under Secretary

Paul Kiecker               
FSIS Administrator      

Terri Nintemann
FSIS Deputy Administrator

By Frank Mays, OM

As we celebrate our veterans this month, I am honored to count myself as a part of the 20 percent of FSIS employees who are veterans.

All our veterans have protected our democracy – our freedom, our way of life. On Veterans Day, we honor and thank those who unselfishly placed their lives on the line for our freedom. Those men and women were ordinary people until they heard the call of duty and answered it. They left their families, their homes, their lives – not for recognition or fame or even the honor we bestow upon them. They fought to protect our country and to maintain our way of life. As we honor our veterans and remember their great deeds, let us also salute those who are currently fighting for our freedom.

The best way to honor our veterans is to take an active part in maintaining freedom in America. We must teach future generations about what it means to be an American. We must volunteer in our communities, take care of veterans and their families, vote in elections, and continue to try to make America the very best that it can be. Please take time out to honor our veterans and approach tomorrow still honoring them by living in the freedom they protected.

Frank Mays
Assistant Administrator
Office of Management

In April 2003, Lt. Cmdr. Frank Mays prepares to take off in an EA-6B Prowler in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Mays was aboard the USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75) aircraft carrier in the northeast Mediterranean. Photo by Lt. Robert Bland, U.S. Navy.