And so when I graduated, I got drafted in the NFL my senior year by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But I got a chance to make the team playing special teams primarily.

But it was also 1968.

It was a height of the Vietnam War.

And I got drafted at the height of the Vietnam War and I got drafted

at the end of that season and wound up in the Army and put my basic in advance infantry training,

then flew over to Vietnam like thousands of other young men during that period of time.

We ran into contact with the enemy. We had a firefight during that firefight.

I got wounded twice.

You know, you're in a ward.

And across from me, across from me was a young soldier.

He was a triple amputee lost, his left arm of both legs.

And every day that I was there, the aides would come to take him to therapy.

And he stopped at every one of the beds in the ward on the way out and

he'd say you know you look better today than you did yesterday now we got some good docs here and we're gonna take care we'll get you out of here and I'll get you back in the real world one of these days

and that story stuck with me because all of us you know over the period of time and I think anybody you back in the real world one of these days. And that story stuck with me because all of us, you know, over the period of time,

and I think anybody could be embittered or complained would be that young soldier with those atrocities that took place.

But yet he had a positive attitude.

And so it kind of changed my, myself, pity, to go, okay, fine, what do we got to do here?

Hey, welcome back to The Spear, a podcast by the Modern War Institute at West Point.

I'm John Amble, editorial director at MWI, and we recently hosted our annual Class of 99

Sandhurst Conference at West Point.

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