Leadership

Keynote Speech given at the Southern Vermont Regional Fire School on April 24, 2004.

Leadership, for me, consists of three traits: Faith, Courage and Determination. In the Military we would speak of: Honor, Duty and Service.

Since September 2003 Bill Timmons and I have been training Security Officers and trying to instill in them those traits. They are traits that can also be found in Police, Firefighting and Military Officers.

They require a strong sense of discipline and of serving others and they are traits I have seen in a great many people of different class, status and background in America.

When I think of leadership, I must tell you I think of your first Commander in Chief, George Washington.

I think of Valley Forge in December 1777 where about 11,000 ragged and exhausted soldiers of the Continental Army staggered in for winter quarters. They left bloody footprints in the snow and had poor clothing. They suffered in the cold, ice and sleet at a time when everything was going wrong and Washington could have given up. But he stayed the course. He had a dream, vision and greatness, even when harassed by British Generals Howe, Clinton and Cornwallis, and after a while things began to change.

Baron Von Steuben showed up. He was a Prussian Captain who only spoke German and French and who had fought under Frederick the Great. Washington liked him at once and Von Steuben wrote the first manual of arms and drill of the Continental Army and became Inspector General. He wrote it in French and it was then translated into English. The end result was that the Army that went into Valley Forge weak and suffering in the winter of 1777 came out in the summer of 1778 strong and disciplined.

When I think of leadership, I think of another American General, this one fighting on the Confederate side during the Civil War. He taught at the Virginia Military Institute and his name was Stonewall Jackson.

He was a great and inspiring leader who won brilliant victories in the Shenandoah Valley at Mcdowell, Front Royal and Newton and in Maryland at Harper's Ferry and Sharpsburg.

He was fatally wounded at Chancellorsville and his famous last words were : "Let us go across the river and rest in the shade of the trees." Stonewall Jackson was an extraordinary General who understood speed, flexibility and mobility. His flanking moves in the Shenandoah Valley and in Maryland were nothing short of magnificent. But I think that, with his last words, Stonewall Jackson also understood that when a man's mission is done on earth, it is time to let go and go on to a well-earned rest. That day, in Chancellorsville, I believe the Virginia Military Institute was truly heard from.

When I think of his legendary sacrifice, I go on in history and think of a town called Romagne-Geste on the Meuse River in France. I think of the American Cemetry of Meuse-Argone in an area where, in September 1918, more than 600,000 American troops were involved in the St. Mihiel Offensive to reduce the German salient. When you are in that cemetery you look at the symmetry of white crosses and at the grass that is so well-trimmed it seems like a carpet. The wooded ridges and Meuse River made that place an ideal terrain for defense and 14,246 Americans paid the supreme price. They fought in a war that was characterized by deep mud and rat-infested trenches at a time, when the Generals of those days, could not solve the power of the artillery and the machine gun.

And when I think of those losses, I move on in history and find myself in a forest that is about three hours' drive from Belgium and stands near the town of Vossenack, in Germany. That forest has huge tall fir trees and the wind blows through them over the strange eerie stillness that hangs all around.

That forest is known as the Hurtgen Forest and in the period of mid-September to mid-December 1944 it was shrieking with artillery shell bursts and the whining of flying shrapnel. This was a forest were G.I.s learned that to hug the trees rather than lie down was the only way to survive and that, if you gained 15 yards in a day, you had had a pretty good day indeed.

In that forest, where the American 28th Division fought and where Regiments and Companies vanished overnight, over 24,000 Americans paid the supreme price. These were soldiers who had also heard the call and gone on to do their duties.

And then, if I go on further through history, I can mention to you names like Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Irak, where more American young men and women went and did their duties.

In all those wars close to (2,728,888) three million American men and women, who believed in their country, had the courage to fight for their values, way of life and freedom, and were determined to stay the course no matter what the price, were killed and wounded.

That's a great price. A very great price indeed. But, I tell you, there can be no maturity and greatness in a country without such a price and sacrifice.

In the great Antonine period, the Roman Emperors Caesar Augustus and Marcus Aurelius understood that. Marcus Aurelius, that stoic Emperor who was also a profound philosopher, understood that for a responsible Emperor there was no staying at home with his loved ones. You just stood on a horse, a beautiful white horse, mind you, and lived on that horse and died on it in some distant outpost fighting some stubborn, senseless and unreasonable tribe.

The Bible has a wonderful saying: "Let us now praise famous men and our fathers that begat us." Tonight I am here to pay tribute to you and be candid and speak from the heart. My mother was American. Her name was Edith Marie Fraser. She was born and raised in Chicago. And throughout her difficult and often tragic life she always worked hard to foster in me those principles of faith, courage and determination.

These were also the qualities that were found in another American who traveled to Germany in June 1963. He went to Berlin and his name was John F. Kennedy. At the City Hall in West Berlin he stepped in front of a crowd of over 500,000 people and said: "Ich bin Berliner." "I am a Berliner."

The very same qualities that he so well exemplified can today be found in a very large number of American young men and women serving abroad in over 150 countries.

That's why I have come here, tonight, to stand in front of you and tell you honestly and truthfully, with the utmost pride, admiration and gratitude: "In 2004, we are all, I repeat, we are all Americans. Thank you."