Be Whatever You Want

I enjoyed being a good soldier. And I had such wonderful teachers.

Interviewer: A great deal of determination...

I don't know if it was determination or just pride, pride in what I was doing. I was good at what I was doing. And it was through my friends, Brow Anderson, George Arthurson, Jim Stevens, who gave me that encouragement to go on, to succeed, and saying the limits were only those that I put on myself, believing in me. I never had that as a young man growing up. I was always that dirty little half breed. And all of a sudden I had Veterans, World War II Veterans, Korean Veterans, who said, I could be whatever I wanted to be, and I was. I went through the ranks, every rank from private, lance corporal, corporal, master corporal, sergeant, warrant officer, and company sergeant major. I did, I did it all, and I, I enjoyed it all. And the biggest thing I learned from those Veterans was, without the soldier, we have no army, without the private in the trench, we don't have an army. The officers, they make the plans, it's the soldier in the trench that executes the plan. And it's how well he's trained, is how well the battle will go. So I was very, very lucky, very blessed.