Through remarks and conversation with Tillman Military Scholars from the Harvard community, Marie shared her own story, and offered insight on how to translate moments of personal tragedy, adversity, and reflection into catalysts for positive social change.
Video Transcript
i'd like to thank the center for public
leadership for all their hard workand not putting this event together
especiallyjen were dellums work tirelessly in
arranging all of this like to thinkhunter in marie for being here this
evening traveling to uh... to join usand i'd like to thank all of you for for
being here here quite an inspirationalstorymany people many of you are familiar
with the story of of pat tillmann_f_l_ story made national news when he
leftthe national football league to join the
u_s_ army mekong rangeras a senior in college at the time i
vividly remember being inspired when iheard the news about pat deciding to
turn down an n_f_l_ contract and jointhe armed services because i had already
done my training for the marine corpsand was headedinto the marines as an officer upon
graduation and it reaffirmed mycommitment that what i was doing was a
noble in worthy causetragically as we all know pat was killed
in afghanistanin two thousand four and it was an event
that really shook the nationyour later i've found myself in
afghanistanpassing through barber mary bassand spent a few short hours at the facts
almond u_s_o_ which was named in hishonor and i remember being there looking
around and andand just kinda feeling a sense of all
and reverence for the man for whom thebuilding was namedknow that i'd be herenow six years laterstanding in front of you tonight with
the honor of being insulin militaryscholar having the privilege of
introducing someone who's life isequally as inspiringuh... we're here tonight to hear from
rates allmanwho's the founder and shareof the pat tillmanfoundationshe's a native of san jose californiawho graduated on ur sch from the
university of california santa barbaraand after her husband's death marie was
instrumental in found its own foundationtwo thousand fourand it was created to honor pat by
investing in veterans and their familiesand helping them to return to college
and pursue an educationsince its inception that someone
foundation has given one point threemillion dollars to veterans and their
families to return to schooland they currently sponsor a hundred and
eleven veteransat forty six schools around the country
better example remembers forty sixschools around the countryin twenty-eight states honor just give
me all the statistics twenty ninechurches i want to make sure it out
those rightwe have five tillman military
scholarships here at horror all graduatestudents and theirwill be speaking with you later but
snide please join me in welcoming returnthank you so much uh... i'm really
honored to be hereuh... and really appreciate the
opportunity to share my story with youmichael like a lot of people at the
merits of surveillance is onetook a lot of timeinseminate each works on the wayi grew up in nnorthern californiaone sort of a small community andmight haveit was not really dear toward service it
wasn't something that was necessarilyinstilled in us we participated inschools who drives meyou know that our clothing and i totally
donated into shelters and that sort ofthing butit wasn't really part of my upbringingso service is something that really came
lawrence my life in a much later timewhen i was growing up was actually i
also want to met my husband nowand i think theyyou know we both legs relatively
sheltered existence and sort of thesmallcommunity in northern california he had
a much more alanhis childhood was much more full ofstories of service and sacrifice and his
familyreally sort of ingrained in thatthe honor ad serving in the military
ally their family member served in themilitary'smilitary success are much more part of
his upbringingsowhen i went to college and you know
releasing didn't think that much aboutwhat was that we wanted to give doctor
you know our communities or or to thecountry but i think that like a lot of
people in this roomwhen september eleventh happenreally took a setback and at that same
pat was playingfor quality arizona cardinals and we
like thisreally great life we hadfriends and family in our coast ninety
nixonyou know we travel him we enjoyed our
time there and it was really just sortof that great sort of happy existence
butin september eleventh happened we took a
step back and saidthis is this is something important
that's going on at this point ourcountry and really something that we
wanted to participate in in a much moremeaningful waywe wanted tosort of deer our lives towards something
that wasmore meaningful at the time and patton
particular feltthat calling sisterand so he decided that he wouldjoined the armyyou know we got a lot of research andi supported the decision i thought that
it was something that would sort of thei mean i know you believe that this is
the an adventure and three years laterwe'll go back to our normal life andyou know and be one of the center of
america holding u_n_think back and i remember when you were
in the military and was not some findinggreatyou know this this great thing that you
didthat waterwaysthink that it was a greatthing that he did but certainlythe road with a different direction than
we originally thought sowe lost his life in arizona ansleymoved up to fortress washingtonand really this is my indoctrination
into what it means to benot only part of a military family but
also what it means to serveand distrusting the phillies asyou know it was it was difficult surely
after patwas adam basic training p deployed to
iraqand a really hard time i was homealone inin washingtonmanager really know anybodyand i was really i was really worried
there's no communication at that time isrunning into getting out of the iraqi
war and so you know i sort ofset him off without knowing at all where
he was going or why he would be doing orwhen i would hear from hanscomit was that there was really stressful
but i think that even thoughit was difficult at that time there was
a lot of really great things that camefrom that as wellfor me it was the first time that i felt
likeour lives for part of something that was
biggeri felt like we are focused on something
that wasgreater than the individual and we
really became a part this militaryfamilyand and i liked that experience and like
that feeling of being part of somethingthat wasgreater than we wereor again really focus on sort of
contributing to a paper cut itselfyou know what they are difficult times
there is also a lot of positive stuffthat came out of timehis to his first sort of deployment
overseasand thankfully he came back home safelyansariyou know i think that when he came home
he he wasit was another big wake-up call it wasthe realization thatthe ideals for which you joining you
know there's a reality to thatthere is a reality tothe hardships that that soldiers go
through that their families go throughand let meneeds toserve your country and serve overseasand soif you came back to have at least over
from the experience but still very muchshe still very much believes in the
reasons why he joined she believed inuser of what this country wasbuilt upon the freedom and equality and
democracy and all of thesethese ideals were definitely things that
sheep he still believed him but it wasit was a more difficult experience and i
think we both originally originallythoughtso shortly after he came back from
actions home for a while and then hedeployed arendt afghanistanantseither during this time to for meit was something noti became much more involved in
interested and the conflicts overseas istarted reading up on what was going on
inin august this point i'm was very remotefrom i think what was going on on that
not only politically in washington ininternational incbut justsort ofnot not is indeed sir interests and
what's going on and i felt likenow these things are personally
affecting me that decisions are beingmadewere having anthrax impact my husband's
life in my lifeanne's you know it's comes from talked
to my friends of my colleagues andpeople are living counter andapplicant is really a aesthetics anddidn't really carenot muchand they were engaged and i was
frustratedyou know it wasit was kind of an awakening for me to
realize that i have been just like thatand i mean we even up until the planting
some pat went overseas we made thisdecision together he enjoys and we were
verysort of happy with ourselves and proud
to be a part of thisthis military family butuh... i hadn't reallydog inin and learned that much about what that
meansin and soi certainly come a little bit more vocal
and i would sort of you knowimplore my friends and family members
and colleagues to sort ofget involved inget into haitian know what's going on inyou know i realize thatyou know when youwhen he signed up and you decide to
serve that you're reallysort of giving your lives up to the
american people andpoliticians in washington you're sayinghere's my life and i dedicate it to youno in service to this country and what i
need from you is for you cannotneedlessly put me in harm's wayyou need to be know that my life is
valuable and make decisionsthat speaks to thati mean really realize that and all
before this happened and so you know wetalked to people about thatand he becamea little bit more vocal than i think i
had been in the pastsobalance outstanding c_n_n_and unfortunately income tax a for this
timeand it was really it was devastating for
me i felt like my world just completelycrumbles endsi hadwithin sort of all of that fog of grief
in the very beginning nowthere was a little bit of clarity
strangely that came particularly in thefirst sort of month or soanne'si have this realization that life is
shortends thatunit one in mind to matter i wanted to
continue this journey of service that wehave started together and i wantedsumit sure that my timecover a martial arts i had left on this
planet was used for something goodthis year she was gone but i was still
here and i should use this timeand known as precious and use it for
something thatand so that's why i think i live in a
month or sohomemiller if she was actually countsby fratricide and sort of what he said
after that were many hereareas adf lies investigations andby really got lost i got caught game
sort of my own creation angusthe fight to find out what happens and i
think thatfrom that point what i really want to
his escape you know i wasi was trying to survive and i didn't
have the energyeight moreyou know anything like that a trend
changed the world southibefore loisthen i'm assuming you'reand i thought in out of hand let me just
sort of get lost in the city you knowone of the street thingalan yeah i really crave sort ofto be able to just to be anonymous and
just kind of like that caught up in theenergy of the cityso it's very hard to and i found a job
with and yes jan television networkand i took this job it was really 'emtechni extremely busy i basically just
u_s_ office might work i've traveled allover the country unitedevents and sort of cater to athletes and
celebrities andyou have to have a good time i love the
people that i worked withbut it was a it was a solution on and i
knew there was a solution have set upwell i was very distractedin thatnot happy about what happy but i was
certainly distracted and content enoughso i just sort of what about my days and
it's did my job into the things that heknows the city late at night i sort of
reserve at times it's worthwhile in mygrief in trying to figure out how to putthe pieces of my life back together in a
waythat will be meaningful to me answer all
along at this time there's a snagging inthe back of my head ofin a room over that past that you
startedera and rememberthat feeling of one in your life to be
worth somethingmore thenand just your individual little anythingyou remember how you wanted to see
something that was going to be impactfuland meaningful and this precious life
that you have when you're dealing withitand suddenly felt great about it at a
time buti was still sort of chancetrying to get onway and so much hot myself a little
extra and i'm trying to get so angry atmyself that i wasn'table at that time to reallyfocus on the things i wanted to focus on
so that that's going on for a coupleyears and thenbut three years afterhouse killed the investigations were
sort ofgovernment you know we've kind of
everything had settled down a little bitand actually went back to the west has
to be closer to friends and family arestill working for e_s_p_n_ and i thought
okaynow it's timeand now i m andbetter able to manage my life in my
briefingand now this has persisted nagging of
what you doing with your life was reallycertain about meseveral but i'm not really sure what i
wanted to know anne's emailduring all this time there was once with
bright spot in all of it and that wasthe work they did with the foundation we
had set upthat have some information shortly after
house calvini ami thought it was really a way to kind of
harness all of his goodwill energy thatwe were receiving from across the
country and and focus on something thatwould be good and his memory and so we
set up this program at his alma materarizona state univ universityand it was a leadership service programwe had about twenty five students a year
that we've gone through this program andit was very service focus buti don't really have enjoyed working with
the students is kind of a service hidingthat i did we had ayou know diedperson who was running initis whispers hitting on important
helping with the direction and that sortof thing but but i really enjoyed it i
would go out to arizona and i would talkto the kids are in the program ini felt like they were young and
ambitious new idealistic gameis inspiring and i reallywas not feeling much of that on a
day-to-day basis at that time sensitivecherish these moments that i have a
standbut wasn't sure exactlywhat to do with all of thatso here in california internet figure
out a commitment to do with my life nowyou know karenhave probably heard long life for land
and it has had no ideacell himso could not be anne's i figured
promises figure it out and somethingthat i often do whichmay sound like a running i think it'smart exploring to find myself but also
when i'm in a tough spoti traveland so that's what i did i quit my job
and i went to south america dementiareference in my family thought that i
was having some sort of nervousbreakdown butundecidedi would just go to south america and see
something you know and sort of get outgetaway trying a new perspective thenand it was great and so i went down
there and i was appointed sorry financereform through the streets in you know i
thought all these big life questions ithought about you know when i was here
wants it all about itwhat i wanted to be about what's might
impact on the south and i try to thinkaboutbut i'm wayi was really happyand actuallyi surprise myself becausewhat closely first as i remember one
time touring armyand i remember how happy we were and how
happy we were to be part of thismilitary familyand to be focused all of us focus on
this thingand was it noteach of us individually but it was about
something betteradults i wanted to get back to that
placeso i was thinking about that and then i
was thinking about some of the work thatwe do with the foundationand i remember to these two brothers
thatcancers are active and were students are
program it is you know and ratingsand they had come home and they were on
campus in a tissue anymorethey were feeling disconnected and my
feeling alrightthey had this experience in their life
that was very meaningful andlife-changing to them and they were back
on a college campusand nobody carednobody saw their experiences valuable
nobody stopped deadtheir perspective was valuable or that
bakeruse their experience and bring it back
to their community into something thatmethodpeoplewereis even apathetic towards our didn't
understandand heart you know all of you think i
mean you know that i felt likeyou know maybe there was a place here
where we could help that may bethat this organization could helpnot onlyyou know take these young veterans in
sort of embraced and huffingtoneducation continue their service back
homebut alsohow to communities on campus understand
rightthey had been through an interest in it
it's really valuable endshighland should be honor soso i cannot go south america reallywas what i was looking for is
rejuvenated iris refocusand and felt like what i wanted to do is
take this organization and that was wassort of really is a memorial
organization that waswe have no idea where we are doing to me
what you know bunch people send checksin with a look at what's our information
at the senate was it was very muchfocused aroundhad stashed and sort of remembering that
in celebrating thatbut i wanted to built from i want to
turn it into an organization that couldbe impactfuland long-standing entebbe more aboutone person staff about the lives of all
these young people that come homeand sealed bottle caps life by pondering
his men and women sosesame ted and that we really sort of
refocus thatthe mission of the organizationsupport veterans in their family members
and it wasand still is not an easy road i mean
just because i came back resolved to dothis is not going to happen overnight by
any meansbut it's something that i'm really happy
thatthat we've done some in two thousand
eightwe started the tillman military
scholarships programnow we have a hundred in london that we
support across the countryanne's were really dedicated towardshelping these young men and women that
we think having valuable life experienceand helping them continue their service
reintegrate into their communities andcontinue their serviceso that's sort of that the next chapter
in the journey of service that startedfor meand it was a momninety zero by any chanceanne's you know they were all a lot of
timesduring that time that i wantsort of particularly times that were
difficult i would looked at somethingthat pat had written actually when he
had decided to join the armyand i wanted to share that with you
tonight it's something that reallyspeaks to meand i hope thataram at something that will will speak
to you as wellit stated april eighth two thousand twomany decisions are made in a lifetimemost relatively insignificantbut others are life alteringtonight's topic being the latterit must be send up my mind is made up
for the most partmore to the point i know what decision
i'm a snitchit seems that more often than not we
know the right decision long before it'sactually madesomewhere inside we hear a voice and we
ensure that we know the answer to anyproblem or situation we encounterour voice leads us in the direction of
the person we wish to becomeit is up to us whether or not to followmore times than not we are planning and
a predictable straightforward andseemingly positive directionhowever occasionally we are attracted to
have a different paths entirelynot necessarily a bad past but a more
difficult onein my case a path that money will
disagree withand more significantly one that may
cause a great deal of inconvenience tothose i lovei'm not sure where this interaction will
take my life and positive alone clshared sacrifice and difficultydespite this however and equally
positive but this new direction low inthe endmake our lives fuller richer and more
meaningfulmy voices calling in a different
directionit's up to me whether or not to listenthere's certainly and sometimes the
sacrifice and difficulty along the roadsbut i agree with pat i think that this
relative service has made my life moremeaningfulfall and richerand i'm really glad that i lost my waya many times on the journey that i found
my way back to thattrain and started to gathernot only do i feel like it house on her
hand and the life and he landed but italso helps honor all of these young
matters i come home soand so happy that i found my way back
and able to continue that working hardspecialization and advancedseed has been a chance to meet are fine
letter here it's wonderfuluh... i i just like this but i think i
can to worryand looking up to be able to work with
his inspiration a lady on a daily basisand now to be sure in the state of
arizona an even bigger honor so anotherround of applausethe had also like to add thank you all
for coming tonight thank you to harvardfor having us hereis there a public leadership are center
for public use it thenengineer for everyone else on the staff
of air we addthey had this idea back in the end of
october sometime around there so it'sbeen months in the working and all the
details of come together in the pastthat couple weeks now so welland even up to the point of math
widening in about an hour agoand resting over here and hustling to
act to make it in time for this but ihave three should have known for being
herepad at universidade doubt tonight we're
going to continue with the conversationwith marie and actually four of our to a
military scholars and less jonathanjealous showed up in the roomall right we have four here with us
tonight and i'd like toand do a brief inductionwe have some questions that will start
off the night with and then uh... thesecond half the discussion we'll take
the notecards from what you passed downthe aisleand go from thereso this colors are prepared for what has
been asking for thatlast two weekswe only got one question on twitter
we're trying to give people a tweetpatentevelyn was old-fashioned just fit in
with our cpsmattedso do you begin the right thing
alphabetic orderabide to introduceduh... bright gets inbread is from virginia beach virginia he
isan army ranger who served in both iraq
and afghanistan and is the currentstudent body president at harvard
business school some bread welcome tothe podiumitall right next is the scattering land is
she is first and foremost a mother oftwobut is that it was raised in yokohama
japanuh...she was the naval academy and then
served as a naval helicopter pilotso thank you for joining us their
capitala reagan turn you on that and reduce
marie from fort sill texasdoing the court in that sense it is a
member c_n_n_ became marine corpsinfantry officerand before stepping on campus here was
down in quantico virginia at the basicschool in the infantry officer course
teaching for three years for three yearsso welcome to reaganaand then i warned you all about this job
that many of you may have seen himbefore as before stepping on the campus
at harvard joe was an actor in southerncaliforniaand playing roles in sitcoms such as
houseand in movies such as race to which
mountaina soand she always also actjoe was a marine corps helicopter pilot
oblivion flynn programsand he is now at the harvard kennedy
school so welcome joband just that one last call out at the
johnson is not hereand i think john is our fixed on those
restarthere at harvard is at harvard business
school and start came to harbor afteroccurs in army captainso if you don't see jonathan obviously
is not here tonight for the no instanding upthat could be seen around campus later
you know i'm packing graduate him on hissidehis honor has its own military scholarand right before you started uh... both
murray and reagan mission toyou all tonight that we have a hundred
eleven tillman military started shootingwideobviously five of which arehere at harvard's campusone point three million dollars to those
i mean eleven studentsin the first two classesalone here harbor we awarded almost
seventy five thousand dollars to thesefive sowe are going to continue to try to
increase that number and hopefully ifthings didn't better in the military
commanders in the crowdour application opens up on monday
that's not fun tonightso loudwill get started i have questions for
both that marie that came from thatthere are few peas and for the scholars
but but first what i'd like toto get to is actually avalible toeverything person up hereand i'll just read from the list i haveagain this is first for each of you to
answerthe question is it not many people of
pat's fame and welcome to another threedaywhy do you think that nikki in this casewho i think that this is the case and
what do we in the country need to doto compel people the fluids to serve in
the armed forcesso whoever like to start reviewing say
something thank you know we talked aboutthiscast ondoesn't have a silly i must say i think
it's a matter of adamawful as i think it's more of a matter
of getting them or cross-section of thepopulationchaser and and i've permanent proponent
of compulsory service whether it bemilitary orpublic service soundtwentyloop it it isn't everything really silly
point comi think right now something like one
percent of the u_s_ population served soi think it's less a matter of you know
affluent people notserving but i think it's just that not
many people surftarget in the militaryi can't speak to people's motivations to
server not siri think anyone think that i can bring to
this is that in some studies that i'veread about decisions that people make
the stay or leave the serviceit's not the money if not the pay is not
the bonuses is job satisfaction and itsthe decision stay or leave is this a lot
on how you feel your career progressionis what kind of promotional
opportunities you have and then alsoposting that in the family so i think
maybe on the part of the defense's sidepotentially there could be things that
they couldn't open it up to more in sixof the populationagonist with deftly with what i would
what kate saidand i think a lot of people just don't
know howellincredible of an opportunity at least
you if you do serve in the militarybecause they've been never been exposed
to that met people here in schoolwho didn't know single veteran before
they encounter may hear some of myfriends groovy we go to grad school with
an interesting case with undergraduateveterans may be here on campus so it's
really justfor generations are kind of a disconnect
inhopefully we are working to to correct
that but that no which certainly doingour best but it certainly a privilege to
work withthe fine young men and women in in the
armed forcesif i think if more people knew what they
were missing out on the enjoinadj doti agree completely completely with that
i i look back on a military service andthat the cross-section of people that i
served with the men and women i meanwhere extraordinaryand i wouldn't radar for anythingandyou know i i i think i just need to be
communicated to people thatit was an opportunity to really expand
your horizons and meet people that youotherwise would never meetserved side by side with people that you
would never madeon the other thing i'll say is i wish
that they on a national levelyou know we had more discussion about
serviceand about the merits of surface just it
seemed like there's an absence of thatuh... except for an in certain areas and
certainly this is is a great way to dothatbus which there's more of a national
dialogue about itand i would just add very briefly thati thinkthe there's a perception that certain
skills that a lot of people in this roomhave might not be utilized by the
militarywhere in fact i believe people in this
room of the most neededin the armed forces because ofyour analytical skills your ability to
make a decision your ability tocommunicate that decision your boot
inspire people and align people andbring together a teampalmit's it's sad that i thinkthere's a perception that the military
doesn't deserve the best of our countrywhere in fact i think the military needs
the best of our countryit develops the skills thatinsurance you out in the world as a
leader they can make a differenceso i believe on there was a fantastic
experienceas well as next question actually is
directed at marie but then after heenters again you've got an accuratenmarie you seem to have a great focused
message to share about the importance ofsupportingeducate educational opportunities but i
wonder if that can be overshadowedshadowed by the public awareness of
pat's rightand death and diseasewe meet the press the public or
potential supportershow do you separate out the controversy
in prying eyes to give them the focus onthe goals you're trying to achievethe compassion and definitely difficult
sometimes nagging feelingtime i have learned tosort of spherion conversation
interaction that i wanted to go but ialso recognize thatpast ariashigh-profile and it's an opportunity tohelp tell the stories of all the other
men and women that serve because peopleare interested in and his story so i try
to look at it that wayandkind steer it backanthony whales with comments on putting
the struggle i know i think thaton a daily basis 'cause we get phone
callsme atleast weekly fromdon't even know what we do the
foundation don't know what reed told youabout todaysodo you guys and he doesn't ask those
questions when you tell people thatyou're from a military scholar do they
obviously uh...yeah experience a couple times where you
there's sort of an assumption from somepeople who don't know the worked at the
foundation does that this isthat sort of acult of personality and isn't the best
way and i'd get the question sometimesyou know why is that some in designing a
foundation more than any other than anyother person of the four thousand near
people who have passed away in hiscomplexand i guess what what i've said is that
iswhat murray's already intimated which is
in when you havepublicity when you have a publicly
recognize nameto not to use that to do good is
irresponsiblehe has a really what this is that they
are going as a ship it took advantage ofthat made the without their to do so
much good and also i said to make thepoint that really that kind of you know
cult of personality doesn't reveal heroworship is really antithesis to what pat
did he stepped away from the n_f_l_ toserve to become an anonymous army major
inside that's one of my answer to thatit's really his legacy ofstepping away from themyou're also just like to add to that
that uh...appoint people back to commission of the
the foundation which is really aninvestment in the future and the men and
women who arestill aroundyou can't really argue with that i mean
that'sthat's goodthat's what iethnicquestions for uh... you all the scholarsand it's and pretty basic question i'm
sure you do it on a daily basis fromyour professors your classmatesbut how does your military experience
shape your view on your educationalgoalsand vice versa has replaced on screenaffect how you think about your militarydressing as we can get used to think you
so much settlement foundationit is a complete on encountered in
giving self an introduction to hunterwas one of pat's close friends and willi'm not i'm not going to pass both
inquiries friend here and their familiesaren'tthat i described sits on my the way
they've respectedpat onthrough this foundation sohow does this really dedication goals i
thinkyou know there's a of quote that says
friends whom so ever much is given ofhim much is requiredand for those who are in their served
oneyou know we've come back we're here we
can tell the story we've briefserved over overseas and and develop the
the kind of leadership capacity fromthat now it's our responsibility to go
back and give moreand it by being a place like heart my
gosh i mean i would never grew upthinking out end up in an institution
like this to learnand that just doubles the responsibility
to go forward and you better things andmore service to the communityand i agree agri phyllis little or brett
saidis on msnbc he's famous i don't do this
whole time ho humbut also i think that my military
service has really given me such anappreciation for being in school year
and i view it is such a privilege ithink that some of my classmates who i
see eric get mad at me probably what i'dlook at them affirm across from the you
know put their laptops for their cellphones away in class or you know and
just view it as such an honor to be herein school every day at suchwin have such a responsibility to learn
in syd soup is much as you can out ofthis experience because once it's over
it's over and then we'll go forth likebread set and were expectedand beam we want to do these great
things but it's such a preciousopportunity and i think by military
service really showed me how valuablelife isn't anson ever take things for
grantedand so i approach my education in the
same waywell i guess noti mean i i definitely agree that i think
the did ten years has been the navy alummaturity and after the service po
rapidly child's group overseas andwith the naval academy in the navy after
they're really really changed my lifeand change the direction of my lifei think one thing also though that for
for me this education is a pivot pointit's a pity career shiftand the reason i say that resent the
size that is that i think that everybodywho serves in the military certainlyalso in places like the department statein foreign service officerswhenever you have this kind of position
and they are both incredibly i willprofessionsyou can bethe absolute best of your profession and
strive for it and as an honorable a goodthing to do but you also have to be very
comfortable with the factvideo ritual a policywhether you agree with their not your
true love policy in your job is to goout of execute their policy
operationally without ssc disagreeingwith that implicitly without voicing
contention complaining i personally hada moment i wasn't on the gulf regret at
the same time the palace to play for thefirst timeand that is vivid memory of passing
through the streets approvesprecluding an aircraft greasy into my
elbows a hundred twenty during theflight deck elaine preemptive strike are
you kidding kim and i had a sort of momand and that's why i realize that i felt
like i haddone everything i could do as a military
officeryou know with the very few exception the
very senior people your actual nadacrafter policyand so for me this education is a chance
to take that experience and pivoted intobeing a crafter of passing so i can
actually influence the policiesglickman said in her speech you make
sure that this country iscarefully upline force and carefully
using those job to those of those livesthat are presented to ityeah i i i agree completely edgeshad a commanding officer squadron
commander whomade a statement to the entire squadronthat you wish there was more military
veteransamongst the policymakers andamongst the members of congress amongstdepartments in the federal governmentand that stuck with me in and put a lot
of moneyfella pilots felt the same wayuh... i think about what theypull me back thenwe discussed over the yearhis and soif it is very seriouslyuh... wayit business questions actually had tolittle lighthearted buti like this path from the list of were
probably actually got thirty to thirtyfive questions from our cps and one from
twitterthis one was actually aimed at marie and
i think it's also a good question andanswermary what did you want to do before all
this happenedwhat do i mean when you grew up when you
were a younger girland his momand it is more lighthearted i'm going to
do is take it a little bit nancy and ithink because i think that one day and
i've learned from this is thatamino acids and choosing a life as a
jury and whatit needs to be here is to continuehim home and growand having experiences and learn from
the andi really do appreciatethe experience of my life has hadand over at the labs conscience thempasses passionate he hears finance andas so are much more open intoto life and not saythis is where i need to be when i need
to be in a record this is what i want tobethey say it doesn't come and sort of
using as experiencesyeah has goneso when you were a little girl in one of
the about real estate hadallison and rockingalready and we're going to have
resources around in a junkiespends his timeuh... then both the underlying growthuh...i want to be a an actor yeah iand uh...you know i ii didn't reallyi kind of letter similar life growing up
where service wasn'tthe silly emphasize i mean they're a
little thingsand a really was untilgetting to college in r_o_t_c_ when i
started to expose the militaryandover the course of my time there are
really fell in love with itand i realized thatyou know life is not about me it's aboutyour friends and family and the people
you served within your community in yournationand uh...so yeah but then i wouldn't was an actor
after therec_n_n_ oxfordservice birds keep reading which class
in the asswhat we wanted to be when we grew up in
the context of your stranded on a desertisland and your profession isn't like
help all the people you shared withsurviveand uh... i said i want to be a baseball
adoing less a very much needless but i
went to school i thought i was going tobe a tension heirloom math and physics
and i was admired it was like due incalculus and computerproblems and stuff on saturday nights in
the laband then i just got inspired in college
i want to professor should deny in thec_i_a_ for thirty years i heard of it
allkind of in a setting like we're attonight and he talked about living a
life time a service and it reallyresonated with me and inumber i went home i thought about it
and uh... and had to grandfather saidthatand will work toi'd called mum on the next incident and
join the military and she started cryingand sothat's kind of paiva dupyou know she really sears later onbut i'd still don't know what i want to
be when i grow up thoughand figure that outi had no idea uh...when i applied to college by a pledge
everywhere from around school design topre med programs i really had no ideabut i'm going to the naval academy was
actually enact a rebellion on my partmy parents about ivy league egghead
academics and their only daughterand they want to be very very seductive
at the cd private high school in japanabout placesand assessing story a mom and dad i'm
joined the navy and i went off and mymom called me baby killer for two weeks
when i thought i would say that i thinkthatfidel president arafata might my dream was a little less
inspiring i in all seriousness wantedtrash man when i was a kid his just
because i thought was amazing that theygot to ride on the back of the truckand on the had started a lot of fun butyou know what murray's words resonated
with me when she when she read pat'sletter on because of the hunch that it's
out he had that he kind of had knownthat it was the right decision to join
the militarythatthat if final decision is just a
combination of many sort ofserendipitous things that happened
before itmom i'd say most of my life has been
that way except for me for joining themilitary because sort of like pat and
i've always felt connected to the storyoftillman nine eleven was sort of game
changer for meuh... it was a senior leadership urging
at the time had already accepted afull-time corporate job positionhad expected to serve both my
grandfather's much like reagan hadserved in world war two one was a marine
corporal uncertain work or to vietnamand koreai admire them very much but never
thought i would love up their legacywhen an eleven happeni felt just like as a young american
again serve like with great reward ofbeing in this born in this country i had
a responsibility at that timealongside decides it to serve in and i'm
not sure what life looks like in thefuture of still nash's stormy national
guardon and i think thatno asstgreatest moment of my life so far was
coming back from from my trip to tabs onafghanistan in my grandfather who had
served for those thirty three years is akrummel marine corps was there on the
parade fieldhe passed away just days later com but i
felt at that connection his legacy andfor himnow left the second generation on this
planet that served behind him that wasreallysomething i'll never beheroinai will answer the question 'cause minds
are not is cooler or fighting outwish i could have been jockey have been
calledcreatedand that you know really had marino's
this in my friends from arkansas here inthe crowd and they know this obviously
brotherwho he is an artist inhow we just thought i'd prefer to be
whatever he wanted to be him but nowit's like doing nothing with his these
david artists that you had a lot of hislife but it's a lot different than the
way my life's gone so i decided to havea piece of what he's doing it whatever
i'm doingso the next question uh...actually this all the go ahead and skip
what i hadn't in order hereaccepting this is a uh... a really good
question for marie and i know it'srathersomething that we also talked about when
we saw what people hadin interested here tonightand and and the question is is it hard
to afford in your personal life giventhe connection your professional life
now has the patand how do you mansion about thati think apparently there's a point i was
living in new york restaurant escapemy lifeescape the connection sonneti realize that wasn't really what i want
toone possible even if i didn't want
itselfunfairly to sort of embrace all of that
standsreally orphanages and has not aboutsundown patand it's aboutdisarmamentand so cindy taylor wrote tohow committed education to be a month it
you knowif it's much more forwardthinking than it is looking to the pathgetting throughthis next one back to the for the
scholars his green can answer itwas it hard to transition from the
military just talk about this a littlebit andwith kind of how your experiencewith military and your spirit of the
studenthow they compare but with the hard to
make that transitionand if so what popsicles in the face and
specifically this person said you everget frustrated by training mission with
your fellow studentsof may not understand what finishing pati was in front line frustrated guys i
love you all playeruh... their there are a lot of veterans
in the audience and in the ineverybody's got got their own and storywe've got you knowmembers it were still active active duty
here and so for each of us i think it'sit's definitely differentkind of transition to school frnd for me
wasn't maybe as difficult as forsomebody to come straight out of combat
zone i hadthree years basically from when i got
back from iraq to started school yearbut i only get myself about two weeks
from what i stops my service in virginiaand drove a u_-haul truck up here and
started school i don't recommend that soit certainly you know you need to be
time but i think to transition in thiskind of figure things outand his decompress a little bitas it is a difference until emirate and
yet i can assurethat is anybody an ideahereeventmilitary uniforms you you talk show the
church's dishonesty in franceand i believe is a polo shirt and jeans
but they were here ayesterday's helddidcoming back froma deployment isrover first culture shock and i know
that many people here willunderstand this butwhich member for me as a little bit of
time before commute schools well saludatime decompress butthe next day after i got home my parents
had flown out to californiato to welcome you back andicr we're going to grocery storehand is kinda like the movie her locker
restraining their with all this excessand itit really overwhelming and i remember
seeing this woman who wasin a hurry and frustrated and
complainingand i thoughtwere you doingyou know and then we can we meet angryactually meet angrybecause i'dsol iraq and i didn't see grocery stores
you knowthey don't have thoseanalog a lot of the places in our
country and and probably have consumerswelland i had to get over that angerbanjorealize ityou know it's notthat person's fault necessarilyit's more an opportunity to engageat whatever level as possiblerealisticwith the time you get intoshare with peoplehow amazing this place really isgetting over that experience i was
little more forgiving ofmy classmates coming herebut stillor cherish opportunities toto sharethe things i saw overseas with my
classmates were conservedand sometimes i don't know how best to
share those things and sometimes it'shardi kind of use more martiniso i also had about acts leaders at the
right leftservice before he came back to nineteen
ninety two campaign might difficulttransition was actually from going going
fromlieutenant glenu_s_ navyuh... that was my big transition point
and um... its heart it until that pointi never really realized howell wrapped
up my identity was inindiana military and i was sort ofyeah i guess it is that that's what i
just really didn't realize how investedmyself hall being wise indeed lieutenant
glen and i had this violent momentsthe first time i drove on base for the
dependent i_d_ cardi deplore my car over and samatha from
hyperventilating so i was so angryideas areten even describe so that that was
really the heart of this information andabout two years my husband selectivity
orderswe are in corpus christi texasum... and you know i had a assigned i
had another baby during that time but ithink by then working part time i was
certainly a scam on thingthat it was great and i didvalue that time i have my children will
alwaysalways value thatbut i felt stagnant and i felt like my
life is doing nothing hazardous treadingwater in place so for me ain't coming to
schoolwhat was the beginning it was the
beginning of the pan-am plane and it wasnothing but positiveuh...i hear from a lot of veterans you know
justin discussions likeverisign there's never been a sense of
purpose that they've had coming backthan when they were overseas and i think
that's a difficult transition that allotof us might have armed but what that
also gives you is distaste for what itdoes feel like to the feel really
purposeful on fuel needed in someleadership capacity which i thinkcauses us to strive for something
greater and to strive for a team toserve again in to strive forcalled sure that you believe an intent
to be a part of something as mary saidthatyou knowlife is short i want my new matter you
what you like to be seen be worthsomething contribute to a greater goodthose are all things i hear you hear
monks military folks thata lot of folks there in the civilian
world having a silly experienced andgives you high bar to strive forso i i don'tto ask questions and then agus i'll take
the notecardshotel so we have some ones that had been
addressed ok within theseone last question for marie and we also
degree not discussed all thesebeforehand so this in practicebut we do have a conversationthat was the most influential in helping
you start the foundation and you talkabout appear without my start coming in
you know we had to do something with itbutpast that pointwho did you look to return to meandhuge responsibility an obligation for
what happened when the money was comingin that people entrusted us with us and
i really felt like we wanted to dosomething worthwhile and good with its
so unsort of my process is always to seek out
as much information as i possibly canand to learn as much as i possibly can
so that's really what i did and you knowmorethere's only one person that was most
influential there were othera bunch of service so i'm proud of frank
there is a expertise ingathered information and read it on a
boxing that sort of thingand last question uh... for the scholars
and i think you've touched on this nightbut what weight your sense of duty you
carry with you in terms of future publicserviceinto because of your military service or
allied to this question included thisfor because we're philly asian with some
of the nationso i say i i told hundred a story along
a long time ago 'emvia email but aand this may sound patrick them back to
me for tonight opensons for a half of the daughter who's
two-and-a-half am and my son was threewhen i got accepted to that looters
program and one of the things we got wasa little graph of packing his arizona
cardinals uniform and up my son's oughtour football thereand it is very excitedand very much a little boyand you know he's like one of the
football and that is that daddy and ithink that that daddy and size of the a
try to explain it in as much as you cando three rolesyou know instead of what i said was he
able this his name is pat just like anyname is pat and that's not daddy a and
that you know and he was a good guy andshe got hurt and he's not here anymore
and so now people are trying to rememberhim but helping everybody elseintendedsurprisingly my son really absorbedmore than i thought he would any sort of
related to his dad when his that camehome at nightand so i think you know that was a man
first experience ofyou know well these are really do have
thisability to you knowinfluenced this missionary shin you know
how these children who really delis andreally do understand more than we give
them credit forand so i think it'll be a good example
to them is very very importantand that's one of the reasons that i
came back to school and want to deepservice that and now have a daughter and
i want to be a good example for her andwhat they have a strongworking mom can be and i think that's
probably where my biggest and theresponsibility lies these dayson issues this time to plug the path
rightthat i am a just itis met with kim
kimberly cap at the she's a student thebusiness school and was one of the very
first into a sponsorletters overstate several years ago and
she and iare going to be sponsoring a pass run
here in boston on april sixteenth ofthis year and what that is is the major
fundraiser that the foundation doesevery year as four point two milesthat's number was forty twoand we are uh... were in the works of
planning that so i certainly feelobligated to give back to this
organization and it's a huge privilegeto beappear representing all of my classmates
to you know i've donejess'smuch as i have a military if not moreyou know what their service general ryan
is here i meanused to be the listener me talk about my
military service but but saw that thereis certain city in a sense of of duty
that you always have about getting backand i feel thatbeing compelled her to serve in whatever
professional capacity maybe for thisorganization soapril sixteenth argueso my grandfather usasay all the timetough times never last stuff people doand listen emory up there and seen her
composure made me think of that quotenamit always be tough times and you know
the people who served in the militaryindustry in this audience and does it
serve in the pet someone foundation noand tough times but itself people
persevere and after coming out of uh...a military and going to business were
really want to deck but we've alltouched on give back com a lotand uh... i think the folks at pat
tillman the my younger cousin who isvery close friend passed away answers
the marine corps in afghanistan lastyear gone right when we got to schoola couple of friends here in the audience
new uh... about un hearing about ourloss of him his wife still here and
she's so persevering in just just sopositive and anytime i start to feel
sorry for myself i think about here thefuture and what i want to do and how how
hard i want to run it how far i want togo i think about him adding about herand hematoxylin foundation in the people
it up here and just want to push harderi think i told hurtled under the story
awhile back but if figures shirtso one of the missions that we didas call reply once was casualty
evacuation of other helicopters thatwerecarrying wounded twovarious hospitals inside of iraqandwe had a masscasualty mission where they wereabout a hundred iraqi civilians who were
woundedan attackandit kept us busy for aboutsix to ten hours that day going back and
forth of trying to take all these iraqisto the appropriate medical facilitiesaround the countryand i remember looking over on the
flight line in seeing a really long linewrapped around the medical facilitywhere she was iraqis were being treatedand i don't i don't know it was as kind
of confused it was people in shorts andt_-shirts andcivilian clothes and some in uniformandand they were wrapped around the entire
buildingjust wait in line and i i'd i couldn't
figure it outthen it dawned on methe all those people on the base were
standing in line to give bloodtwo iraqisthat they've never metthat one experience like summed up to mehow speciala placethis country is and how much we value
lifethe people go out of their way to save
people they don't even knowand that that sticks with mehere and i i and love the fact that the
pats on the foundationrecognizes that kind of sacrifice that
his inherentand americans in generaland the militarythat's what really motivates me as to
protect that legacythat all their shareacoustic guy like to get out there for
eastern europe effectone of the questions that we haveduring the interview process for the
finals for the scholarship ismoment whatexperience during a realtor services up
most of the emory bringing that upand each of you actually went through
that processuh... it's two-and-a-half months
selection process and this is what youget out of it so i'm actually proud of
itwell i'm sitting here if you are in
seeing act as a result ofhard work from a reason and our other
staff members and twoto really make an impact premier and ra
homeso and we havethat about half a dozen questions here
and how much time do you think we havenevercastle maybe get to three mplaidmaybe more and just try to look through
my until they're a little bit sofor a lot of them actually discuss some
hot topic hot button issues todayand all did see one of thosefirstsand it was actually in here somewhere
about r_t_c_so it's the easiest grad students
especially in the school like thisunderstand service an api returning from
deploymentbut how do you helped undergrads
understand the future service of r_t_c_students and i think with this person is
getting that is obviouslya lot of what's going on it when you all
spear schools the columbia soanyone canin answer that question or speak that
topicbalanced diet haha i think i'm such a
thing that you said about there beingmore of a national dialogue aromas and
what's interestinginsanityand not just being in a room like this
with you know i select number of peoplethat really something that's going on
across the countryfamiliarity cd person appear butpersonally drives me crazy thatmore campuses don't have r_o_t_c_you know itinjury disservice to the military should
not open up the storesand allow people to learn about the
military and serve inside ofbefore they actually go to go down their
careersand i know for me personally like it it
totally change my view of servicein r_o_t_c_ and and having on campus was
garden incredibly valuable for myclassmates the people isaw every day who are asking the
questions about what i did on theweekend or what we did for one of our
r_o_t_c_ classes in cellgoing back to raising awareness that is
that's like a tremendous place to startis on college campuses across countryand i was that i think you know that
veterans can work to mentorundergraduates on campuses and kind ofprovide them with with some insight into
our servicemen to us and i know thata senior uniformed fight they sure for
major you with the the harvard veryeuropepossibly worse todaywhat woodbridge you're going to be
rapidlyplace firstthanks for the individual jurors listso i think arraignedyou know due to be country if you know
what should i won't say in in timeshareunits question shows classmates all the
time passed him what's on his uniformare or what he's doingwith his future you know and andyou have an obligation afrikaner passes
legacy on and we have an obligation toso work and i think the president
university fears alreadymade it made an effort she spoke with
abnormal in the fallout out beingcommitted to bringing r_o_t_c_ back or
don't ask don't tell was rescinded sothatsthat it easy process is not going to
know when i fix is not something thatyou can just do there's going to be a
lot of discussion on how to do itbut the important thing is that we're
talking about itgreen you get to that green i've been
reading a lot lately about what's goingon equality nto understand a little bit about the
process we select our scholars to anat-large process half of them which the
students came throughand the other half of the room
partnerships andy clone the universe isactually one of our newuniversity partners for two thousand
eleven because of what they're doing forveterans at that campus and because of
all the great applicants we've gotten inthe past two yearsdid the conversation is happening
obviously has been the newsit's a startthis next questioni'll answer briefly 'cause it it's
really directed at the work i'm doingeight says can you explain how the
scholarship differs supplements the g_i_billso i'll give you headthe kind of the a specific answer and
then i'll ask for something to give yourstories of how r scholarships support ityou beyond what you're getting from
other sourcesso the post and eleven g_i_ bill was
passed two-and-a-half years ago orimpending implemented a year and a half
agoit is abid improvement on what was in
place in the governing she advil andactually just two months ago revision
was paschal g_i_ bill to point out whichimproves even morewhat they had for the post nine eleven
g_i_ billmost people how would say most of the
liens even members of my family and imiss blame myselfwould just think you know you're betting
your getting money from the g_i_ billit covers everything for the eastern
specifically 'cause they're at a privateinstitution there definitely is a gap
there also gaps that are present acrossthe boardand it interiors such as funding for
those who had served more than threeyears so there's aa system in place that you served less
than thirty six months you know i get apercentage of ngo advil there's alsogaps that we consider gaps for military
family so you cantransfer benefits to the payment must
you serve six years and committed formore served ten yearsbelieve that is still post outlet in
serviceso those are just a tad two examples of
where there are gaps across the boardand then you reachpast circumstances with individuals
where they may be just fall through thecracksuh... i think bill i'm not as we have a
hundred eleven to one military scholarseach of them as a part of application
process and identifysomewhere where they had financial needand beginning understanding of what the
scholarship is used for it's not justfor twitching empties in books so the
g_i_ bill make over a hundred percent ofyour schooling but you still have need
for child care of this error have ofcatherine phan if she can speak to that
did make sure you have a full time focuson school and havemagna hundred-percent invasion on campus
and get the most of yourexperience soyou can do what marie talked about and
go on and continue to serve and and theservice leaders that for this next
generationthe expense of the question about that
definitely feel free to email me and ithink i send you a memo that i just
wrote for the board on what those gapsare but i'll get to the scholars as you
guys want to tell you what it tells usyou know your story and where your
specific at this time i'd love to hearitso i fall into where hunter describedassumed it gets a percentage of my com
of my tuition paid for by does noteleven g_i_ bill unbiased i think it's
sixty percent and i'm over at thebusiness school which is notoriously
extremely expensive omg sothe way works for me is like i get sixty
percent of the annual tuition at themost expensive state school in
massachusetts which turns out to theonly be a small percentage of what it
cost to go toharvard business school arm so this is
helping me allot com i'm not sure icould actually easier without some of
that someone foundation support fromwhere those families where my dad in
graduate college in my mom special needsteacher down in virginia beach for jimmy
nthis is all kind of campaign fraud is
out of debt so it helps a lot to have anorganization like someone foundation
that supplements the tuitionguardian admitted this at the federal
intimidation as being the children'stuitionno questionunity you go ahead with itasked a questiona and these are just two examples you
again etcthis isn't the implementing just
launched a new websiteit's a month ago and you wouldn't
believe how small the staff of thefoundation is but were pretty small
right now they're just four of usand tempe arizona so im kinda sorta
webmaster as wellan just built our new website at ended
the biggest improvement that i willpoint to is that we have an interactive
scholar map on thereso if you go to the foundation website
you'll see a link to thatyou can read the stories of most of the
hundred eleven tillman militaryscholarshipsin in read what their financial news and
read what their story is so what you'veheard tonight just foror out of hundred eleventry if you have any more questions that
you don't email me go to our websitenancy the impact for makingyou'll see yet tonight all fouror were actually service members
involved in some ofthe people who support our depended so
we have been a lot of cases stops isendangered and because of the transfer
ability of the g_i_ billi am they wouldn't be able togo back to school and they're fighting
with injuries that their spousesand sustain due to combatthat they really need to go back and
sort of refocused to take carethrough this melissa screw is to agree
stigma specifically she's at theuniversity of idahono that his next questionabout was really good idiomatic i think
hit on this is a little bit but argosysomewhere in the crowd went to hear more
where your peers how can we not veteranscivilians and military speakseek to understand the experiences
veterans well-respected both respectingand supporting themat incomewe like as the lease on speak for myself
why i don't mind talking about myexperiences i mean i think it's a way tothese healthyfor for as an individual i think it's a
way to honorthe guys who served with us and i think
it's a way especially are those guysand gals who didn't come back at alland there's obviously a way to do thatbut we encourage itnot bescared about it dotbut ask questions that are meaningful i
i thinkike again if i get the question like a
u_s_ iraq how is thati don't i don't know what you want me to
say and i likebut if you askif you have a dialogue like i'd love to
have a dialogue with you and to tell youexactly what what it was like in a givendairy given situationi think it didthe benefits everyonei would encourage you not be intimidated
by that now it's really all that weone is justyou know nobody sp seeking anything you
need to standyou know precio asianmore than anything or just understandinguh... questions and i think i think that
there's anythingmovies are documentaries are bucks or
things 'cause there's a lot now outbindsort of your experiences that'sare accurate and words speak to youthat you can recommend someone heretime has experienced the pain liveyou know that i think ityou know mainstreammedia and entertainment you get a lot of
personnel of part of what is going onand i think sometimes that changes in
thailand and not some positive waysometimes just curious if you missed out
anything was good that's out there heyanything specifically like the fields
off the top of my dad's appwell actually will what what movie
that's out there really reallyappreciate your time is that navy pilots
that this was not my personal experienceit is intended to restrict or banand i thought that was fantastic and nowthis scene there weren't you know to
these ngo internet service of theirdancing around a lot of music and that
has reminded me treatof the aircrew and a sister wentand i think that to me and yet the many
people and to serve in the ground inspeak more to thatbut that's a good onebut if it gets over to the question of
you know in part of the eightiesunrealistic portrayalsi think there are uand i think the biggest thing that all
of you can do is sort of spread themessage that you not everyone in the
love the military is the same we're notthis monolithic female clone baatwarriors in at alland i myself and i'm a progressive
democrat feminist navy veteran like andevidentiary any alike hereso and there's a lot of writing out
there and i think they're so thisassumption anything here are my first
semester here i went to a hound progressassitance caucus meeting and we're
citizen ourselves andi said oh yeah i was in the navy for ten
years ago but i like what what do youknow here u_n_so i i think sometimes we and looking at
people at as individuals rather thanthis monolithic military personis the biggest thing that i have anybody
can doyeah himoh i'd i've gone out to sea filmsbut remove betray the militaryonce all her locker with a bunch my
classmatesand despite what you may think of the
accuracy of thatmovie i was on the ground andso i i can't speak to that person on the
ground but their word there weredefinitely scenesthat you see that arereally resonate and it could spark a
dialogue it it didn't in my casebut also friends who've who've read
books and asked meabout what was in the bookand whether that was accurategeneration kill was one of the books
that some of my friends retin asked meabout the betrayal of the people in thatand andi'd like that like that my friendsfelt comfortable come to me and asked me
about these books in the movies they seeand more stepping stone intoan honest dialogue aboutmy experience andwhat i saw landmy friends experiences in that countryaltrec when the same refer a pro at the
best dancing again being a civilian whoworks in the military spacei had to educate myself on a daily basis
andbesides reading remaining glory which i
actually haven't finishedhat which is the book of the autissier
pat tillman and goes into ally detailsabout the comp without this and i think
that's very educationalbuttressed reposerelease in the case of afghanistan been
very educationalactually want to ask that the final
question import from did list of reservequestions i hadcoming into tonightbecause i i remember highlighting itplayed inhabitprimary speech herelanded with hannahso i don't have that question soall go back to what i have been for me
which is one of the notecardsas of this question is how it goes back
towho what we talked about earlier inwhat you would tell someone who wants to
join the military or what you tell yourstudents about military this person
askedmonday if you want to join the military
out of high school but it appears whichprint itto choose another career pathwhat message would you relate to parents
a potential military recruitsum i wouldlook them in the united states one of
the greatest decisions of their son ordaughter could ever make itnamyeah i come to an anecdote of that
someone's once shared with me and saidyou think ofthink of like the five seidel award
winners in the past five years or thinkof you know the five first men get to
the moon or think of you know the uh...the ten winners of the oscars in the
past ten years you can't recall thosethingsbut think of five peoplethey have really cared for youor think of five people there hasn't
been really good listeners for youor think of five peoplethat haslately vitor good leaders and they haveinspired youand i think of those types of people i
think the people i served withonand the opportunity of people that
qualityenvironments that bring out those
qualities is something that i think isjust invaluableand as a young person you can really getexcept for in the militaryto me at the age of eighteen or the age
of twenty five responsibility fargreater than many people in throughout
their entire careers will ever havei sit on my guys on the groundyou know you might forget about it
'cause we feel disconnected but backhome your communities are reading about
your newspaper you are on the frontp_l_o_ front page the new york times
today you are on the front page of thewall street journal or the washington
post these peoplewondering care about what's happeningand at the age of nineteen you like
america's little sila city of thisvillage you're doing nation building you
are in uk at the age of nineteen yearinteracting with peoplethat are leaders in their communities
and to give a young person thatresponsibility at that age i think is
the greatest thing as a country we candothat actually the question i had startedis abroad ur aramquestions that situation and it is what
advice can you give degeneration offuture leadersin terms of identifying embracing and
learning from the kind of cruise willexperience that packs that must have
been for youand your insists that the military
service you performed had for you soanyone else has any final commentson thati think that we hadclosing remarks from a rebound of
there's anything prepared so i'll needto know that you allto save some final words and leave some
final thoughts with your classmates andii guess the advisory give peoplewe're thinking about this yearhave friends or family members are
thinking about itdo it thensupport each other if it's the family
member support the family memberit's so hard on family members have
somebody the military's as marie sharedearlierspouses cfr appro into wordand uh...yeah just at stake step on women doing
an annual you won't regret it i meansome of my best friends ivethat's my best friends in the worldcome from my marine corps experiencethe crazy under the fifth we band of
brothersit's really truei think i would add to that is a a
mother of midshipmen glenn classifytwenty-eightuni don't think i would have definitely
say you know that you do it is anhonorable fresh and it's a good
profession you will gain more from itdid you give even though you can give a
whole heck a lot you knowalso going to with your eyes wide opennow my husband i worked at complete
opposites image of a four year for methe naval academy was accurate and i
didn't know what i was going myself andjimmy husband went to the naval academy
here ahead of me his dad was aboutrichard marinehis brother was a marine his sister
stella maria more officers he came froma very very marine corps family and he
had a very idealized vision of what thenaval academy and what the recordingand so kind of like annemarie mention
that i came back from a rack for hisfirst deployment you know there's a
reality thatthat is notthe ideal it ishardwork and it is oura lot of people worked and it is you
knowdealing with nineteen year old temple
heads all day n it's it's wet and drymeant a lot of those things i think
people don't realizenot to dissuade anybody from doing it
the chance to say you know think aboutit and think about what is really means
and have realistic expectations ofwhat you're going to be doing away life
is going to be likei think it paralyze really you know
we've all everyone's covered a lot ofthe uh... the reallysalient points here and i putuh... for methe marine corps unit set me off our
introductory four of the rest of my lifethink it reallyinstill a lot of values in new yorkcomtaught me groundwork what's really
important and so i justi'm going to take out with me four i
want to reiterate thank you everyone forfor being here tonight and to marie in
floats a hunter for coming all the wayout here i know thatyou have a provides that in the middle
of midterms and so this is valuable timebut i really appreciate and thanks to
all the guysand gals out there who serveyou know we we can identify with you in
and it's been a veryin very comforting thing coming to
graduate school having that instant bondwith youso to echo wet what reagan cedric
waiting to get our banks in ad thank youfor general run for being here tonight
we actually are meeting with himtomorrow so we can talk about some of
this if you have any questionsi'd like to thank the senator after
public leadershipengage in tassie jennifer here and jeff
and donna i've seen all your picturesand read all your profiles themi don't know about missing anyone that i
a m thank you for being here and mostspecifically banking to those of you
herewho have served in the military or are
serving in the military or going toserve the militarybecause obviously that's what's brought
us all here tonight nine i can't thankyou enough i know that we have a
reception afterwards that so please joinus in the any specific questions for
celebrities here tonight with themilitary scholarsbut we starting autographs in the corner
on the right and if you have anyquestions from reno about the work of
the foundation were here all night aswell or stain just down the streetso they said and i appreciate your time
Former Army officer Russell Baer chats with me about his good friend Pat Tillman and what Pat would have thought of "The Tillman Story." For more scoop, go to RedCarpetRoxy.com.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform holds a hearing entitled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield." The hearing focuses on the death of Army Ranger Specialist Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture and rescue of Army Private Jessica Lynch in Iraq. The Committee examines why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate Administration officials have been held accountable. Chairman Henry Waxman gives opening remarks.
Michael Moore discusses 'The Tillman Story' with (L-R) Actor Josh Brolin, former soldier Russell Baer, producer John Battsek and director Amir Bar-Lev following a special screening at AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 on August 11, 2010 in New York City.
'The Tillman Story' opens Friday, August 20th in New York and Los Angeles. Don't miss it: http://www.tillmanstory.com/
After great concerns that the Hoover Dam could be a target of muslim terrorists several of America's most important pieces of infrastructure were re-designed or re-built. The new Hoover Dam Bridge, repalcing the old dam-top roadway is the latest project to be completed.
A full wrap up of the festivities surrounding the opening of the Hoover Dam Bridge that is officially named the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.
During the April 24, 2007 "battlefield misinformation" hearing held by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Army Specialist Bryan O'Neal describes Pat Tillman's April 2004 death in Afghanistan by "friendly fire."
"... I don't think they are very honorable people. I know they were lying. I mean, and I think that -- you know, like, you know, Pat and I are talking about, you know, we feel that there could have been something else that happened to Pat but -- I mean, we can't prove it. Every bit of evidence has been destroyed. ... Rumsfeld, Abizaid, Myers and Brown collectively said, 'I don't know, I don't recall, I don't remember' about 82 times and no one on that panel pressed them. No one did their research. Neither faction of that committee." -- Pat Tillman's mother Mary on Larry King Live
Check it out: http://www.tillmanstory.com/
Not the only ones hungry for justice at http://www.michaelmoore.com
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform holds a hearing entitled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield." The hearing focuses on the death of Army Ranger Specialist Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture and rescue of Army Private Jessica Lynch in Iraq. The Committee examines why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate Administration officials have been held accountable. Army Private Jessica Lynch gives opening remarks.
The Oversight Committee holds a hearing, "The Tillman Fratricide: What the Leadership of the Defense Department Knew." The hearing is part of an ongoing investigation and follows a previous hearing held in April. Witnesses will include former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Former Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. John P. Abizaid (Retired), Former Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard B. Myers (Retired), Former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown (Retired). Gen. Kensinger has been served with a subpoena, but has not been able to be located over the past several days and will not appear. Rep. John Tierney questions witnesses on why nobody informed the White House that it was likely a case of fratricide.
MARY TILLMAN: The documentary in part is to try to present Pat as a human being and not this caricature that was created. But the biggest reason for this documentary is to point out the horrible way that he was used. His death was lied about by the military, by the government. But he's not an isolated incident. This happens on a regular basis. It's a systemic problem. It's not isolated to the Bush Administration. It's happened for years. And it's tolerated.
Telling the truth about Pat Tillman at
http://www.michaelmoore.com
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform holds a hearing entitled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield." The hearing focuses on the death of Army Ranger Specialist Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture and rescue of Army Private Jessica Lynch in Iraq. The Committee examines why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate Administration officials have been held accountable. Rep. Bruce Braley questions whether edits were made to original reports about the incident that resulted in Tillman's death.
