20 Days, 20 Pictures, 20 Stories: DAY 6

At first glance, today’s picture may seem odd.  Then, when I tell you it’s a picture of me during my senior year at West Point, you may immediately think I’m completely narcissistic.  Well, I’d like to convince you that it’s neither of those.  My point in today’s picture is to tell a brief story that’s evolved over the past 20 years.  This week, many from my graduating class from the United States Military Academy (USMA) will  gather at our hallowed institution to celebrate two decades since most of us completed our time at the academy, were commissioned second lieutenants in the Army, and went about to “do good” in the world, or so we thought.

I was especially grateful to graduate.  I was a very good student in high school, but struggled with academics at West Point.  I was constantly on the Dean’s “other list”.  At one very low point at the midway point of my junior year, I was certain my GPA did not justify my return back to school for the second semester.  Fortunately, some leaders at the Academy, “took a chance on me”, and I graduated within the 4-years allowed.   It wasn’t easy.  I had to attend summer school to make up two classes I failed and was overloading credit hours the second semester of my senior year to finish on time. 

I was commissioned a 2^nd lieutenant of Infantry office in May, 1990.  As an infantry officer, I was sent off to a series of schools in Fort Benning, GA such as the infantry officer’s basic course, airborne school, Ranger school and the Bradley Commanders’ course.  It was the middle of the night while preparing for a rubber boat assault mission in Ranger School that the first Gulf War month-long bombing campaign kicked off.  Suddenly, everything because hugely important in the military instruction.  I was thinking, “This really stinks.  I’m tired, cold and hungry (in Ranger School) and I’m going to graduate, then shipped overseas to be some dead lieutenant’s replacement!”

Fortunately, I suppose, the Desert Storm conflict was very short-lived and I was instead sent to my initial duty assignment where I meet my first platoon of infantry soldiers.  They had just come back from the conflict in Panama and they really didn’t want to listen to a “cherry” 2^nd lieutenant who thought he knew everything.  “Sir, that’s not how we did it in the war” referring to the even shorter conflict in Panama to oust General Noriega, was a common comment I would hear from the soldiers in my mechanized Infantry platoon.

I won’t belabor anyone with all the details of my seven years in the Army.  I enjoyed most of it.  Very proud to have served this great country and I personally think I am wiser because of it.  I have now been in Corporate America nearly double the amount of time I was in the Army.  I have had my ups and downs.  I have made money, lost money; made friends and have a ton of memories along the way.

So what is my point, you may be asking?  When I look at my Cadet Lieutenant picture from 1990, I know what I was thinking about; it was something along the lines of my eagerness to “conquer the world” in my own way.  But life has a way of sending most of us down different paths.  I have had many bumps along the way, made some dumb decisions, and maybe now that I’m older, it’s given me cause to reflect.  You see, in the Academy’s “perfect world” as a cadet, I perhaps wasn’t so prepared to deal with the “not so perfect world of real life” upon graduation.  However, West Point did instill in me a tremendous willingness and passion to never quit, always move steadily forward, and persevere.   West Point taught me that life is never a sprint.  Rather, life is a marathon with many miles along the way.

I think about where I am today.  I recall many of the principles I learned from college, from the Army, from business and from my family.  They have shaped me.  I would never have guessed I would be leading a non-profit organization 20 years beyond graduation.  Many of the classmates I’ll see this weekend are still on active duty in the Army.  Most have served in conflicts overseas.  Other classmates are leaders in all kinds of industries around the world.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to see many of them I haven’t seen in a very long time.

Shortly after I arrived to the Academy in July 1986, Lieutenant General Dave R. Palmer, changed the mission of the school from the building of leaders of the military to leaders of the nation.  I didn’t exactly know what that meant back then, but I certainly have a better idea today. 

So whatever you’re doing, whatever curve balls get thrown your way, my message today is that you realize that everything happens for a reason AND that everything that happens in your past prepares you for what lies ahead.  I am grateful for the many second chances I’ve gotten in life.  Many of our athletes can echo the same sentiment about their own lives.  I have learned, there is “life beyond limb loss” and there is “care beyond the chair”.

BEAT NAVY!

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