Leader to Leader Reflections
November 2, 2009

The Leader of the Future Celebration (2009)

Acceptance Remarks by The Honorable Eric K. Shinseki, (U.S. Army, Ret.) 

Frances, I know that a recipient’s remarks are welcomed, but they are most welcome if they are also brief. So let me begin by thanking you for that kind introduction—generous, as always—and thank you also for many years of friendship and mentoring. You honor me greatly this evening with this recognition. Your founding of the Leader to Leader Institute, from which we have all benefited, was visionary, and your contributions to the enhancement and enlargement of the study and practice of leadership has been unequalled. Congratulations, as well, on your recent appointment to the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership at the United States Military Academy. My compliments to West Point for this absolutely brilliant selection. The cadets and, in turn, the Army they will lead will benefit immensely in the years to come.

Since my appointment, nine months ago, to the Department of Veterans Affairs, people I know have asked a number of times, “How are things going?” And when I answer, “Things are going well,” they respond, “Really?” After repeated exchanges like this, during the past winter and early spring, I began to realize that folks were not asking, “How are things going?” They wanted to know, “Why would you take such a job?”

To be clear, I am both honored and privileged to have this opportunity, at Veterans Affairs, to give back to those with whom I first went to war in 1966, those I sent to war in Iraq and Afghanistan as Army Chief of Staff, and those on whose shoulders I stood as I grew up in the profession of arms—those Veterans of World War II and Korea.

Welcome home! That’s the greeting Vietnam Veterans reserve for one another. Welcome home! We should be immensely proud of that generation of Soldiers. They did their duty under incredible hardship, with little complaint, serving with honor and valor. Because of divisions in this country over that war, members of that “draft” army were never welcomed home after sacrificing so much and serving with such distinction. Hence, their greeting for one another. I am a member of that generation.

Seven months after being commissioned in the Army on 9 June 1965, I was in Vietnam. Because of those early experiences there, 37 years later, in 2002, months after the attacks of 9/11, Secretary of the Army Tom White, another Vietnam Veteran, and I commissioned the Warrior Ethos Study. The country was already at war in Afghanistan and appeared headed to Iraq. We felt that the Army might want to better define what was expected of those, who served in its formations, in what might be a long conflict.

The Army needed Soldiers who would validate its values—loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage—and build the kind of pride, loyalty, discipline, and competence that must serve everyone in the formation on the darkest of days, when danger was high. Out of that Warrior Ethos Study, a survey of Soldierly behaviors throughout history, came the Soldier’s Creed, which Frances referred to earlier. It states, in part:

I will always place the mission first;

I will never accept defeat;

I will never quit;

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

Four simple declaratory statements—promises, really, from each Soldier about what others could predictably expect. These promises become the foundation for trust within formations: Soldier to Soldier, leader to led, unit to unit, the Army to the American people. Soldiers lived by these promises long before the Warrior Ethos Study captured them in the Soldier’s Creed.

Captain “Rocky” Versace distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism during the period 29 October 1963 to 26 September 1965, while held as a prisoner of war. Severely wounded during an attack by a heavily armed enemy battalion, Captain Versace fought until he ran out of ammunition before being taken prisoner, where he continued to resist his Viet-Cong captors for two long years—assuming command of his fellow prisoners, scorning the enemy’s brutal mistreatment of him, making three unsuccessful escape attempts.

Unable to break his indomitable will, his faith in God, and his trust in the United States of America, his captors executed him on 26 September 1965. The last time his fellow prisoners heard him, “Rocky” Versace was singing God Bless America at the top of his voice to rally his fellow prisoners and strengthen their resolve in resisting the enemy’s efforts to break their spirits. For his valor, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. 

At a time of such great divisiveness in our country, when so many Americans had lost faith in government, when deep and wide divisions tore at the very fabric of our democracy, “Rocky” Versace—one lone Soldier—acted with unimaginable dignity, strength, and courage in the face of unspeakable torment.

It reminds all, who command military organizations, that there have always been young Americans like him in their formations—young Americans who will rise and do magnificent things in the most frightening and painful moments we can imagine. They represent an ideal. No one can train them to do these things, but their leaders can strive to be worthy of their courage and their selflessness. It is a reminder that all who are privileged to command should approach their duties with a sense of reverence for those whom they serve.  

So, “How are things going?” I cannot think of a better way to cap 38 years as a Soldier. I am incredibly proud of the youngsters who serve tonight in some of the most remote, least hospitable, and difficult places in the world. They do so because they are well led. In turn, we will do for these youngsters what we failed to do for the Vietnam generation.  

Frances, thank you, once again, for this high honor. God bless each of you. May God bless all those who have kept us the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” and may God continue to bless this wonderful country of ours. Thank you.