[The Honorable Daniel Winfree will administer the Oath of office to Governor elect Bill Walker. Please place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand and repeat after me:]

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Alaska, and I will faithfully discharge my duties as Governor to the best of my ability. Thank you very much. Thank you, Byron.

Before I start, let me just say what an honor it is to be doing this journey with Byron. We have shared a lot of things together, including four wheelers at Gambell. We have done a lot of things on the campaign together and not together. Byron says we forged a friendship. We did. And it will be a life long friendship. It's one that I am so honored and humbled to be part of, his incredible family. I'm just, I literally am speechless at times when I try to follow Byron Mallott and what he has to say, what he says, and the depth of what he says. Thank you so much my friend, Byron. Thank you.

And I thank Governor Sean Parnell, First Lady Sandy Parnell, Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell. Thank you very much for the courtesies you have extended, the graciousness in transition to make sure we have a smooth transition. Your kindnesses to my wife Donna I'll never forget. This is a transition. They can be awkward and you made it absolutely as smooth as possible, and I thank you very much for that.

And I wanted to thank Craig Fleener, Hollis French for their selfless sacrifices to make this unification journey possible. Thank you so much.

And I want to thank all of you for joining us. My goodness, I'm just, I really am humbled by the turn out. I see people from across the state that have put their lives on hold to be here on this day, and I just can't thank you enough. It's very, very touching. You know, what an honor it was to walk in to this hall, Centennial Hall, and walk by the Egan Room, the Hickel Room, the Hammond Room, in to the Sheffield Ballroom, literally to have this moment. Literally I'm standing on the shoulders of giants of Alaska. And I thank them for that.

A little about myself: My parents, Ed and Francis Walker, my sister Kath are no longer with us, but oh how I wish they were beside me. They're a significant part of the fabric of who I am. My sister Sue is not able to be here today; she is watching, I hope. And I'm so grateful to have my brother Bob here with me today.

My family's story is Alaska's story. My father fought in World War II in the Aleutians, one of 65 of a group called the Caster Cutthroats in the Alaska Scouts. My mother came to Alaska to work on the building on the Alcan Highway. They met on the Alaska Railroad near Mount McKinley Park when a snow slide stopped the train and they met and they were married not long after that. There were a thousand soldiers on the train. There were ten women. I always told my dad that was his greatest accomplishment, was for that.

I was born in 1951, in Fairbanks, before statehood. Much of my childhood in Delta Junction we were as the term they say, poorer than poor. Our roof leaked, we often did not have electricity or running water, we gathered wood for firewood to heat our home, and I remember very well at the age of five, returning from the family outhouse at about 40 below and opening the door and there was a herd of buffalo. I had to make a decision. That was my first bold move. I knew what would happen if I stayed in my pajamas in the outhouse at 60 below very long, so I carefully walked through the herd of buffalo.

I remember my parents' efforts and advocacy for statehood. Forever etched in my memory is the very day that eight stars of the Alaska flag became the 49th star of the United States of America flag. I didn't fully appreciate then what it meant but I knew that something had happened because we went to the A&W root beer stand and it was nobody's birthday. I knew something big had happened. The headlines proclaimed "We're In" and boy, did we celebrate, across the state, an accomplishment of working together on a common goal and succeeding.

Soon after statehood we moved to Valdez where my father started his own construction business. He had a crew of two people; my brother Bob and myself. I was ten-years-old. We would leave the house each morning and work at 5:30 in the morning before school because our father had the philosophy that you should never eat breakfast before you worked at least three hours. So that was the way we would start every day.

A few short years later on a spring day in 1964, the earth trembled, it nearly swallowed our town. It did swallow all of our building materials. That sitting on the dock in Valdez at that time and almost all of our other possessions, we lost about over 30 people in Valdez, died during the earthquake. Many were children, many were my friends. I was 12-years-old. Rather than declaring bankruptcy, our family of six took every odd job we could. We scrubbed every toilet, we mopped every floor. I won a janitorial contract at the post office and I was pretty proud of that. That worked out pretty well until the postal inspector came to Valdez. He looked at me and said there's no way a 12 year old kid can have a contract with the federal government. I pointed out that the bid document didn't ask how old I was. That was my first battle with the federal government.

Our family struggled to rebuild what we had lost in the earthquake. Times were tough. Then came the oil pipeline, 1971. I went to work unloading pipe off of the pipe ships from Japan for the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline. When I got my first paycheck I was stunned. I had never seen that much money in my entire life. It was absolutely a life changing moment for me. I worked as a laborer, as a teamster, journeyman carpenter on the construction of the pipeline.

It put me through college. It also led me to Donna, or maybe Donna to me because I was already here. She came up. Donna, my brilliant, hard working wonderful wife, the smartest person I have ever met. Were it not for her, I would not be standing here today. There's absolutely no question about that. Our greatest accomplishments, that we have had, is our family, the four children we have raised together. We're so proud of them, Lindsay, Tessa, Adam, and Jordan. And our son in laws Greg and Dennis, daughter in law Tessa, and how we adore our two grandchildren, Mere and Porter. And I can't wait to meet our two new grandsons due early next year. Donna and I do have a wonderful family.

I often think of Alaska as one big family too. We pull together in tough times, just as we did when we survived the largest earthquake in the world. We came together as Alaskans to rebuild this great state and make it stronger. Then we built an oil pipeline. Just as it forever changed my life, the pipeline broke new ground for Alaska. Today oil is hovering in the $70 range. We're heading for lean times. There is no reason we cannot turn that around. We live in one of the most resource rich states in the nation and one of the richest countries in the world. The key to every growing economy is low cost energy. We don't have a resource problem in Alaska. We have a distribution problem. I am steadfastly committed to developing that distribution system, to bring Alaska's natural gas to Alaskans and to the lucrative world markets.

And for far too long, far too many Alaskans have gone without health care. When one person is sick and doesn't get medical attention, the entire family suffers. I told you that accepting expanded Medicaid was a high priority for me. We will begin the wheels in motion today, to begin accepting family Medicaid. Up to 40,000 of our friends, family members, neighbors, and co workers have gone too long without preventive care. We must fix that.

My Administration will work to restore some faith and trust that has been lost. I vow to you that we will have an open and transparent government. Our transition team got us off to a great start recently when 250 Alaskans came from all over the state to gather together to cross party lines, diverse backgrounds, diverse issues to discuss some of the most divisive issues in the state. That was an awesome process. There was some risk associated with doing it the way we did it. I am so glad we did. It was one of the most inspirational things that Byron and I could have done to send us off to watch those groups work together, people that had never talked to each other. Some said I wouldn't have talked to that person because of that person's belief. They did, and they spent two and a half days together. It was absolutely phenomenal. Some groups said, "We're not splitting up. We're staying together. We're going to continue this on." So it was an incredible, incredible opportunity. Open dialogue, inclusive problem solving strategies will be the hallmark of my Administration.

I also promised you that I would assemble leadership comprised of some of the State's best and brightest. Already, many accomplished top of their field individuals have stepped up and said "Yes" to the call to help Alaska at this critical juncture. Many are leaving high paying jobs in solid career paths to serve the State and the people that they love. I thank them for their sacrifices and taking the field with me to help secure the promise of the future for all Alaskans, one of prosperity and generational security.

I have ridden the highs and lows of our state's history. I know the peaks and valleys we find ourselves in and I know firsthand that every valley we faced required a steep climb uphill. But we have always found a way to do that. And we will do that once again. I know that hard work is not a partisan effort, but an Alaskan value.

There is no natural disaster, man made catastrophe or fiscal crisis that can withstand the force of the mighty Alaskan spirit. Like a family, we are diverse. We are passionate, especially when we disagree. But we're all united in a common thread. We are rising as one. We are on that steep climb to our peak. It is with great honor I lead you on that journey.

Many of you know that Governor Hickel was a mentor of mine. As we face challenges for the next four years, I am reminded of his words in which he said, "And let us be sure that those who come after us will say of us, that we did everything that could be done. We finished the race, we kept Alaska strong. We kept the faith. We put Alaska first."

Thank you, Alaska. I'm honored to be your Governor. You put me here. I will put you first. I will never forget that. God bless you and God bless Alaska.

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