The Days Forward

West Point Class of 1969

By Dick Jarman

Military Families

“When I first heard about the concept for “The Days Forward”, I could actually feel the potential. I was raised in a Military family, one surrounded by relocations, separations, and the risks of flying. I knew my life was different from most kids and the feelings that came with it were different. I expected to be reintroduced to some of those feelings through “The Days Forward”, and I was not disappointed.

Not surprising for me, it was the classmate’s wife who talked about the beauty and importance of her friendships with other class wives, especially when their husbands were TDY or out in the field for days. Or worse. The wives knew there was danger, and we could feel it in the house. The bonds created by the wives were so important for all of us, regardless of our age. The friendships that carried over through the classmates, their spouses, and their children were real. They had our backs. We had theirs. It was real and it was a gift.

So, what seemed like the most tepid story was actually the memory that meant the most to me in my “Days Forward” readings.”

Honor: The Role of Honor – 2011

Once each year during the holidays, the Societies of all the Service Academies in the Greater Kansas City area sponsor a formal dinner in Kansas City to celebrate the cadets and midshipmen from Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas. Cadets, midshipmen, dates, and families attend. Attendance is always good.

I was fortunate to have been in the Kansas City business community and the civic community for some time. I was asked to be the keynote speaker at the 2011 event, and to discuss the role of an academy experience in the development of honorable leaders. I made a study of it to add more impact. Here is the outcome:

     “Good evening and thank you for inviting me. It is always an honor to be among great Americans and great Americans to be. And that is the topic that I have been asked to speak about…specifically, what is it about an Academy experience that positions you to become great Americans? And what will motivate you to truly achieve throughout your career, regardless of your chosen field?

     Tonight, I am going to share with you the wisdom of many great and accomplished graduates. Let’s talk about how an Academy experience sets you apart as you pursue your career, whatever that career might be.

     When I began to prepare for this talk, I quickly realized that I am just one person with just one journey. I did not believe that my input alone was good enough for tonight. And so, I went to graduates of all the Academies, and I focused on prominent general officers, surgeons, lawyers, CEO’s, astronauts, entrepreneurs, authors, actors, congressmen and congresswomen, ambassadors, coaches, university presidents, and many more.

     The very fact that people like Roger Staubach, Mike Krzyzewski, General Wesley Clark, General Scott Wallace, the Chairman of the Board of Johnson & Johnson, the CEO of General Motors, the CEO of 7-11, the Chairman of Comfort Systems, and many others WANTED to share their lessons and perspectives speaks volumes about the importance of the message we have for you.

  • General Scott Wallace (USMA 1969)
  • General Wesley Clark (USMA 1966)
  • Coach K (USMA 1969)
  • Roger Staubach (USMA 1965)

     Once I had inputs from prominent graduates, I sorted them into common themes. Surprisingly, there were but nine themes that came through. Some will not surprise you. But as we move through them, I believe that you will be surprised, even moved, by what you learn tonight.

     So here are the collective thoughts on the truly significant things an Academy experience gives you:

  1. Discipline and the ability to prioritize. You made it this far, so you understand discipline and prioritizing already. It will matter throughout your life.
  2. A strong sense of teamwork. Let me explain ‘strong sense of teamwork’. I struggled in chemistry. A classmate of mine stayed up all night before the final to help prepare me to pass. He was a contender for the top position in rank order of merit academically and could justify studying for himself. Instead, he stayed up all night with me helping me to prepare.
  3. How to assess situations and make good, honorable decisions.
  4. How to genuinely listen to people…superiors, peers, and subordinates. Too many people never learn to listen to subordinates.
  5.  You are learning how and when to lead.
  6. You are learning how and when to follow.
  7. You are learning how to maintain your poise and values in difficult situations.
  8.  You are gaining a deep insight into yourself and what you are capable of.
  9.  And finally, and perhaps most important, you are learning lessons in honor and leadership, to include the ability to motivate people to act for the love of accomplishment, the love of the team, or love of Country. NOT LOVE OF MONEY! You are learning leadership with honor, the truest form of leadership.         

      These attributes that you are gaining have great value for you and the people around you. They create trust and respect that are fundamental to great teams.

      Keep in mind, too, that your development is a 2-part process. First, you gain these important attributes at the Academy. Then, you serve in the Military, where you are given great and challenging leadership responsibilities very quickly. It is the military experience that hones your attributes and builds your courage about accepting responsibility and making honorable decisions.

     But having these unique and wonderful attributes and leadership experiences is only a portion of the final equation for you. To achieve great things, to be a great American, you must have the drive to achieve throughout your lifetime.

     What you probably least recognize about what you are experiencing at the Academy is that you are being shaped by the integrity, the honor, and the drive of the people around you.

     Every day you are surrounded by great individual leaders, famous visitors, upperclassmen and women who excel, and great young professors who themselves have your attributes. Consider this, the young officers who taught me at West Point included Major Pete Dawkins (Heisman Trophy winner), Major Norman Schwarzkopf (Commander, Operation Desert Storm), Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Haig (U.S. Secretary of State), and Specialist 4th Class Arthur Ashe (Tennis Grand Slam winner). And you are surrounded by similar talent, advancing on their respective journeys.

  • Arthur Ashe
  • Alexander Haig
  • Norman Schwarzkopf
  • Pete Dawkins

     Just the singular honor and dignity of being a cadet or midshipman in these environments is shaping you and your drive. YOUR PHILOSOPHY FOR LIFE IS BEING INFLUENCED RIGHT NOW BY THE VALUES AND INTEGRITY OF THE PEOPLE WHO SURROUND YOU. And most important in that group, especially after you graduate, is your bond with your classmates. As they go forward and achieve, so too, will you, because you are bonded, and you all have the power of honor and integrity within you.

     I recall like it was yesterday being at one of my reunions. We had gone off post for a casual dinner dance. Our class band was playing our class song and we were all out on the dance floor going nuts like we were still cadets. I looked this way and saw a classmate who was a veteran astronaut; I looked that way and saw the Ambassador to Germany… the same man who had just negotiated the end to the first Iraq War; and I look over this way and see one of the first Dot.com billionaires; and over here I see the head basketball coach from Duke. Besides these classmates, I see many who are advancing fast in their military careers, and in other careers. Believe me, the honor and the motivation you feel at the Academy only grows within you as you get older, and everyone’s responsibilities grow.

     By the way, our class song was the Animals hit “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”. Our class band, “B. Arnold and the Traitors”, still plays at all of our reunions. So, my class was no less irreverent or playful than your class might be today.

B. Arnold and the Traitors at Camp Buckner 1966 (courtesy of Chris Sauter)

     I leave you with one last piece of wisdom; something that has helped guide me several times in my career. You will go on from your Academy experience to do great and wonderful things. But you will also be different from some of the other people you encounter. You will meet people whose motives are not driven by honor or integrity or choosing the harder right over the easier wrong. Often, it will be you who is in the arena fighting to make something good happen when these critics come along. I’d like to share an excerpt from a famous speech by President Teddy Roosevelt. The speech is about the man in the arena. It goes like this:

     “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles; or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who knows great enthusiasms; who spends himself in a worthy cause”.

     There will be times in your career when you see greed, or ego, or questionable practices. Stick to your values and protect your honor. They are, after all, what define you, what motivate you, what make you exceptional in the eyes of others, and what bond you to all Academy graduates.

     Teddy Roosevelt, later in his speech about the man in the arena says this:

      “There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion; of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm of the men [and women] who quell the storm and ride the thunder”.

     Ladies and Gentlemen, be true to your honor and your values; be true to your bond to all of us who have gone before you; and be especially true to your classmates and your family. And go forth with confidence as you ‘quell the storm and ride the thunder’.

     Thank you again and Godspeed to each and every one of you.” 1415 words

Global Air Adventure

In early 1971, I was a co-pilot in a global air refueling squadron that rotated crews in and out of Eastern Thailand and Fairbanks, Alaska from our home base in Michigan. I had been in the squadron a few months when my crew received orders to go to Thailand. We flew our own aircraft, a modified Boeing 707 called a KC-135, to Thailand. We planned to be there for 4 months.

At U-Tapao Air Base, a KC-135 with a B-52 Landing Overhead

Our combat air refueling mission was to fly to one of several designated orbits that wrapped around the southwest, west, and northwest edges of North Vietnam. Once orbiting, we were joined in formation by our “chicks”.

Refueling with 4 ”chicks” (F-105’s) in tow

Chicks were our receivers, combat aircraft that were flying missions deep into North Vietnam. Each receiver was refueled with a specified amount of fuel using a 20-foot long hard refueling boom.

“Phantom On the Boom”

We also flew the RC-135 on several totally different missions. The RC-135 was a reconnaissance plane and we had Vietnamese riding in the back using very sensitive listening devices to monitor radio conversation between Hanoi and Haiphong. Each mission was a 10-hour orbit between those two cities, with heavy fighter cover under us. The RC was a Boeing 707 with big domes and antennae sticking out.

 We had reasonably good air superiority, allowing for a variety of recon, jamming, and fighter bomber aircraft to operate up north. Each needed to refuel going up and coming back. Aircraft joined us in formation to top off with fuel and get ready to complete their missions or head home. Sometimes there was damage to returning aircraft resulting in loss of fuel. We would go further into North Vietnam to get them. On some occasions we went further in to loiter and support aircraft attempting to recover downed pilots. It was a bad day or night if recovery was not successful.

I have a strong recollection of how hollow I felt each time I crossed deep into North Vietnam. No one wanted to end up in the “Hanoi Hilton” prison. Another strong emotion hit whenever I flew in a southwest anchor at night and could see the illumination flares and explosions on the ground. I would always say a prayer for my Classmates who were down there living that hell.

To Hanoi and Haiphong

It was uncomfortable trying to link-up at night when the weather was bad. No visibility and unstable air made it tough and we would fly all over the place trying to get these heavily armed or sometimes heavily damaged jets the fuel they needed.

One day an enemy Mig-21 managed to pop-up and get within firing range of our KC-135. I will bet that few people have ever put a 200,000-pound Boeing 707 into a 90-degree, 4 G turn. Our plane creaked and groaned but we remained in one piece with no new holes. It was very eerie as the AWACS (airborne command post) radioed the closing distances between us and the Mig-21. I thought I was done for on that day.

I had over 30 combat missions in or on the edge of North Vietnam in KC-135’s and RC-135’s when my crew was pulled out a few weeks early to go to Okinawa. I thought it was a good trade-off until I found out what unfriendly country we were encroaching upon this time (North Korea). Kim Il Sung was in power and already creating big trouble in the area. Lots of concern about weapons he already had.

Okinawa to North Korea

By early 1973 I was in the left seat and had my own crew. It was our turn to go to Thailand, but we were sent to Alaska instead. That also struck me as a good trade-off until I realized that we were going to be flying directly over the North Pole and into Siberia to check on Soviet nuclear testing.

Rare photo of a KC-135 air-to-air refueling of an RC-135 at the North Pole

This was the heart of the Cold War. Do you know how many tall pine trees there are in Siberia? Billions.

 

Siberian Trees as Far as the Eye Could See

I got out of the Air Force when the Vietnam War ended. Air Force pilots were encouraged to get out or take a desk job. I was hired by a company in Kansas City. My first day at work I was sitting at my new desk on the 3rd floor, by the windows. The cafeteria was directly below me and it developed a fire. Flames and smoke were coming up the outer wall right by me. I could not resist seeing the irony of it all.