24 May 2006 General Peter Pace: “Grow Where You Are Planted,” And Other Advice

Syndicated talk radio host Laura Ingraham recently played an excerpt from Joint Chief Chairman General Peter Pace’s May 6 Commencement Address at the Citadel.

Here’s the text of the few seconds of the speech Laura excerpted on her show:

I’ll guarantee you every single admiral and general on active duty today, and a lot of the retired guys too, would switch places with any lieutenant or ensign today. Why? Because what you are about to do, those of you who are taking your commissions, is simply going to be one heck of a ride, and those of us who have walked that path before you would do it again in a heartbeat.

I liked his four bits of advice:

First: Grow where you are planted. Some of you are going to go to jobs that were not your first choice. Some of you in the military will go into specialties that were not your first choice. I guarantee you that wherever you go there are individuals who deserve caring leadership. And if you will go to that job or that profession and give it your very best, I promise you that you will find it fulfilling and that you will continue to get promoted because there are more good jobs than there are good people…Second: Check your moral compass frequently. I have seen it both in combat and in peace. If you do not know who you are walking into a situation, you may not like who you are when you’re done. When I was a lieutenant in Vietnam, I lost Lance Corporal Guido Ferranaro from Bethpage, New York, a 19-year-old Marine, to a sniper — the first Marine I’d ever lost in combat. I was filled with rage, and I called in an artillery strike on the village from which the sniper fired. Between the time that I called in the strike and the rounds were fired, my platoon sergeant didn’t say a word, he just looked at me. And I realized I was doing the wrong thing, and I called off the artillery strike, and we did what we should’ve done, which was to sweep through the village. And all we found in that village were women and children…

…The time to decide who you are and what you will let yourself do is not when somebody gets shot, it is not when your wingman gets shot down, it is before you get in that situation so you have an anchor to hold on to…

Third: Make decisions…

Fourth and last, and this is the most basic: Take care of those in your charge…

Read, or listen to a recording of, the entire speech here. It’s worth it.