Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Clark delivered an emotional address to graduating military officers at Harvard, sharing the story of Lt. Skinner's extraordinary courage in combat. Clark recounted how the young officer held his position despite being wounded twice, continued leading his Marines after communications were cut, and ultimately sacrificed himself by jumping on a grenade to save two fellow service members. Using the story to illustrate the meaning of duty, leadership, and selfless service, Clark urged the newly commissioned officers to "hold the line" and remain committed to values greater than themselves throughout their military careers.
#RichardClark #Harvard #Military #Leadership #USMilitary #AirForce #Army #Navy #SpaceForce #Veterans #Service #Honor #Duty #Graduation #News
~HT.410~PR.498~GR.506~ED.103~VG.HM~
#RichardClark #Harvard #Military #Leadership #USMilitary #AirForce #Army #Navy #SpaceForce #Veterans #Service #Honor #Duty #Graduation #News
~HT.410~PR.498~GR.506~ED.103~VG.HM~
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00In his outpost, the enemy knew that it was a critical place and they mounted a massive attack against that
00:08point in the line.
00:11And Lieutenant Skinner was in charge of this outpost and he was told, hold the line until reinforcements come.
00:18When they did, Lieutenant Skinner saw that grenade land between him and two of his men.
00:26And without hesitation, he jumped on that grenade.
00:30He took the explosion himself to save his men.
00:35And there was one graduate that really struck me that I want to talk about.
00:40And I talk about 40 years ago for me, but let's go back 75 years to a graduate from Harvard.
00:47His name was Sherrod Skinner.
00:52Sherrod Skinner was, he was a graduate here.
00:56He was from Michigan.
00:57He lived in Connecticut.
00:59He had a twin brother here, David Skinner.
01:01And when Sherrod graduated, he commissioned into the Marine Corps.
01:06He commissioned and in July he completed his training and he was shipped off in 1951.
01:14Actually graduated in 51.
01:16He went to training in 52 and then he went to fight in the Korean War.
01:21Now, Sherrod was an artillery observer and he was immediately put in charge.
01:27I mean, months after graduation from Harvard, he was put in charge of an outpost that was on the front
01:34lines at a critical point in the front line in the Korean War.
01:39And one of the situations that he faced early on was in his outpost, the enemy knew that it was
01:49a critical place and they mounted a massive attack against that point in the line.
01:56And Lieutenant Skinner was in charge of this outpost and he was told, hold the line until reinforcements come.
02:03He hadn't been a lieutenant that long, months.
02:07But he knew what that meant.
02:09He knew what hold the line meant.
02:11He knew what his oath meant.
02:13And he knew how to lead his men to hold the line.
02:18And when the enemy came forward, he directed the attack, he directed machine gun fire, he directed mortar fire.
02:26Eventually, though, his lines of communication were cut off and he couldn't have any more artillery fire.
02:32So now it was up to he and his men to hold the line.
02:36They continued to fight.
02:38He continued to command from his bunker, even to the point where he had to leave his bunker on several
02:44occasions to bring ammunition to the machine gunners, to bring grenades to some of the soldiers, to continue to direct
02:52the fire.
02:53He was wounded twice.
02:55He refused, refused medical attention so that his men could be treated.
03:01And eventually they were out of munition.
03:05Reinforcements hadn't arrived.
03:06They were cut off from communication.
03:08And the enemy had broken through the line.
03:11They fell back into the bunker.
03:13They defended as long as they could.
03:15Finally, he told his men, feign death.
03:19Play dead.
03:20It's our only hope.
03:21They all played dead.
03:23The enemy came into the bunker.
03:24They looked in.
03:26They saw a bunch of Marines laying on the ground.
03:30And when they left to ensure that there were no survivors, they threw a grenade in.
03:36Just to finish the job.
03:38And when they did, Lieutenant Skinner saw that grenade land between him and two of his men.
03:47And without hesitation, he jumped on that grenade.
03:51He took the explosion himself to save his men.
03:57Lieutenant Sherrod knew what it meant to hold the line.
04:01He knew what it meant to commit to something bigger than himself.
04:05As a result, that was on October 26th, 1952.
04:11Three days before his 23rd birthday.
04:13He was 22 years old.
04:16A year later, he was posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
04:23One of 18 from Harvard, but the one that struck me the most.
04:2722 years old.
04:29A year in the military.
04:33And led with everything that he had.
04:36And gave everything that he had.
04:40And when I hear stories like that, I asked myself, what would I do?
04:46Could I do that?
04:48I asked myself, what were the values that were instilled in him that made him do what needed to be
04:57done to hold the line?
05:00And I study leadership.
05:02I look at other leaders.
05:04I try to learn from other leaders.
05:06And there's three values that I think had to be ingrained in him.
05:11And if they weren't, he certainly demonstrated them.
05:13The first being integrity.
05:15Integrity means that you execute and exhibit actions that are in alignment with your morals and your ethics and your
05:26beliefs and your commitments.
05:27That your actions and who you profess to be are in alignment.
05:32Lieutenant Skinner did that that day.
05:35He showed integrity without question.
05:38Integrity.
05:39The other one is humility.
05:41Humility doesn't mean that you think less of yourself.
05:45It means that you think of yourself less.
05:49And if there's not an example of thinking of yourself less than dying, than dying for your teammates,
05:57I don't know what is, he certainly had humility ingrained in him and excellence.
06:06He was less than a year, less than a year as an officer.
06:12And he knew how to lead.
06:13He understood what it meant to hold the line.
06:16He understood what it meant to give everything he had, but really to execute his job to the fullest.
06:24In a short time, these things were ingrained in him.
06:28Excellence doesn't always mean that you're the best or that you're at the top.
06:33But what it means is that you're always, always elevating performance.
06:36You're always getting better.
06:37You're better today than you were yesterday.
06:39You're better this year than you were last year.
06:42You're better this time you did in action than you were the last time you did it.
06:46It's about being better.
06:48There is no end to better.
06:50And I have no doubt that Lieutenant Skinner continued to get better because he became so, so incredible in such
07:00a short time.
07:02Integrity, humility, excellence.
07:04Those are the values that he had.
07:06But I will say this too.
07:08Values don't mean anything without action.
07:12And there's a quote by Lao Tzu.
07:14He's a Chinese philosopher, 500 BC.
07:17And most of us have probably heard that.
07:20Your thoughts become words.
07:23Your words become actions.
07:25Your actions become habits.
07:27Your habits become character.
07:28And your character is your destiny.
07:31His thoughts translated to destiny like no other story I've heard.
07:38And his actions were exactly what his thoughts had instilled within him.
07:44And when I think about those, what are the thoughts and the actions?
07:48Because we know what the words and the thoughts were.
07:50Integrity, humility, and excellence.
07:52And so what I want to tell you is the way that I see the actions and the habits coming
07:57from those words.
07:58For integrity, it's about living honorably.
08:02Live honorably.
08:04Do the right thing.
08:06Even when nobody's looking.
08:08Live honorably in accordance with your own beliefs and your own moral standard.
08:13Live honorably.
08:15That's what integrity is about.
08:17When we talk about humility.
08:19Humility isn't, like I said, thinking less of yourself.
08:22It's about lifting others.
08:24Lift others before yourself.
08:26We've all been a part of organizations where people climb on the backs of others to get to the top.
08:31But it's about lifting your teammates to be their best possible selves.
08:36Helping them to grow and to learn.
08:39And doing everything that you can.
08:40Imagine if everybody on a team was committed to helping everyone else on a team.
08:45How great that team would be.
08:47Lift others.
08:48Those are the actions and habits of a humble person.
08:51And excellence.
08:53I mentioned it's about getting better every day.
08:57Elevate performance.
08:59Elevating performance is about a mindset.
09:02It's not necessarily about the, you know, the things that you do or the levels that you achieve.
09:07But it's about every day saying, I'm going to be better today than I was yesterday.
09:11In everything that I do.
09:13Elevate performance.
09:14Live honorably.
09:16Lift others.
09:17Elevate performance.
09:17Those are the actions of a man, of a woman, of character.
09:23Now, I want to give you one more example.
09:27And it's a personal one.
09:30So, in 2008, I was deployed to Iraq for a year.
09:35And left my family.
09:38And went.
09:39And I was part of the, I deployed with the army.
09:42Imagine that.
09:45And I was part, I led a team of about 45 people called the Joint Interagency Task Force.
09:51And I worked for Multinational Force Iraq.
09:54And it was, without a doubt, the hardest year of my life.
09:57I will never forget it.
09:59But it was also one of the most meaningful of my life.
10:02And I led my team.
10:04And I was committed to the same kinds of values that we just talked about.
10:09I put everything I had into leading my team, into lifting others, into living honorably,
10:15into elevating our performance, and making us better and better.
10:18And when it came time for leave, I even let my team go first.
10:22I said, when everybody else is done with their leave, then I'll go.
10:25And so, it was about eight and a half months into my deployment when I finally got to take leave.
10:30And I got to go home.
10:32And I remember going to the airport, Baghdad International Airport.
10:37And when I got there, you know, I told myself, I said, man, I have been leading hard for a
10:44long time.
10:45It's time to take a break.
10:47And I started my leave right then and right there.
10:51And I walked into the airport.
10:53I checked in to get on my plane.
10:55And the airman at the operations desk said, Colonel Clark.
10:59I was a colonel back then.
11:00Colonel Clark, you're the senior ranking officer on the airplane.
11:04So, you're the talk commander.
11:06Meaning, I was in charge of everybody that was getting on that airplane.
11:11And I was like, no, I'm not.
11:16There's got to be someone else.
11:18He said, sir, not only are you the senior ranking, you're the only officer on the airplane.
11:23You're in charge.
11:24So, I took the list.
11:26I looked down at it.
11:27I got everyone together.
11:28And then I said, and the next senior ranking person was a tech sergeant on the list.
11:35And I said, hey, come here.
11:39I got a job for you.
11:41And I gave him the list.
11:43And I said, you're going to be responsible for everybody on this list.
11:49And I wanted to make sure that we're communicating and that everybody's taken care of.
11:54You got it.
11:54He's like, yes, sir, I got it.
11:55And he took it and he owned it.
11:58He led.
11:59He was being a leader.
12:00I was delegating.
12:03Right?
12:05So, we go and we're all waiting and everyone's sitting on the, you know, on the ground outside.
12:10And then the ops airman, he comes up to me and he says, hey, Colonel Clark, I got some bad
12:16news.
12:17The plane is broken and you guys are going to be delayed.
12:20And I was like, are you kidding me?
12:22Come on.
12:23He's like, sir, there's nothing I can do about it.
12:25It's just the crew says it's broken.
12:27And being a pilot, you know, it's not good to fly broken airplanes, but I, you know, I was like,
12:33okay.
12:33And so, I sat there and I thought, oh, I better tell the tech sergeant.
12:36So, I went and I told him, hey, let everybody know the plane's broken and we'll be off in a
12:41little while.
12:41So, he goes and he does his duty.
12:43Well, then it keeps, the time is just dragging on.
12:47And I'm just getting so impatient.
12:49And I go to the ops airman probably four times.
12:52And I said, when's the plane going to be ready?
12:55What's going on?
12:56And he finally got to the point, he was just like, sir, I don't know.
13:00I think he was getting a little bit scared of me.
13:01And he was certainly a little bit tired of me bothering him and pestering him so that I could go
13:07home to my family.
13:11And I didn't even tell the tech sergeant as I was getting this information.
13:17I just let everybody sit outside and, you know, and I did my thing.
13:21Well, the last time that I went to the tech sergeant, I said, hey, what's the status?
13:27Tell me where the plane is.
13:28What are we doing?
13:28He said, hey, sir, you know what?
13:30There's a distinguished visitor lounge for colonels and above that you could go sit in.
13:36Do you want me to take you there?
13:37I was like, oh, that sounds good.
13:40So I go in this little room.
13:42They have cookies and soda.
13:45There's a TV playing the Armed Forces Network.
13:48And I just sit there and I am fat, dumb and happy watching TV, just relaxing.
13:55It was even a little bit air conditioned as much as you can get in Baghdad.
13:59And I just sat there for a long time.
14:03And the airman was right.
14:04I stopped bothering him because I was good.
14:07Me.
14:08I was good.
14:10And so then he comes in finally and he says, hey, Colonel Clark, the plane's ready.
14:14And I was the first one.
14:16I put my helmet on.
14:17I put my vest on and my battle rattle, as we call it.
14:20And I line up and I'm standing at the door.
14:22And I realized, wait, I'm standing here by myself.
14:25And so I went and told the tech sergeant, I said, hey, the plane's ready.
14:30Can you let everybody else know?
14:31And he was like, yes, sir.
14:33Got it.
14:33And he went, rounded everybody up and we got on.
14:35We lined up and I was first one in line.
14:37We walk out.
14:39We go to the C-130.
14:40The back's open.
14:41We got on really quickly and we all sat down and we took off and we flew.
14:45And we landed in Mosul.
14:46And that was one stop to Kuwait and then home.
14:49And I was like, man, one step closer.
14:51We land in Mosul and the crew tells us as we're getting off the plane, we're broken.
14:57We're going to be here a little while.
14:59So I told the tech sergeant, hey, we're broken.
15:02Make sure everybody's taken care of.
15:04And we walk in.
15:06We get to the ops desk.
15:07Guess what my first question was?
15:10Where's the lounge?
15:12They stuck me in the lounge.
15:14Better cookies.
15:16Better soda.
15:18TV.
15:19And I just sat there.
15:21I just sat there.
15:23And I enjoyed my time.
15:28Then the ops desk, they come in to the room and they tell me, Colonel Clark, plane's fixed.
15:37Well, plane's not fixed.
15:38We have a different plane for you.
15:39And we're going to be able to get you to Kuwait so that you and your team can go home.
15:44My team.
15:45And so I made sure this time that I told the tech sergeant, I said, hey, we're going to go.
15:50We're getting on a different plane.
15:52So let's get everyone lined up.
15:53So we line up and I'm first one in line again.
15:57And we start walking and we get out to our C-130 and it's all buttoned up.
16:02It's all meaning closed.
16:04All the doors are closed.
16:05And I said, why is this the one?
16:07It's closed.
16:07And he said, yes, sir, this is the one.
16:09But we're going to enter through the front.
16:10And I was like, well, that takes too long.
16:12Why can't we?
16:13He's like, sir, I'm just the ops desk airman.
16:17That's the crew's call.
16:18I was like, fine.
16:19So we walk out there and we go on the front.
16:22Normally I would give a fist bump to the load master as I'm walking into the plane.
16:26But I was just like, hey, why didn't you guys have the back opened up?
16:29We could have already been on here.
16:30I don't understand.
16:32And he's like, sir, please, if you could just have a seat.
16:34So I kept, you know, I was like, fine.
16:36And I walked as soon as I walked by him and I looked back to the back of the plane.
16:41And there's two coffins flag draped.
16:47And as soon as I saw them, I just felt this like sense of dread.
16:54Like what a jerk I am.
16:59What a poor leader.
17:04What an anti-everything that I said I would be that I was that day.
17:14And when I was the first one on the plane, that meant that I got to go all the way
17:19to the back.
17:20And I sat right with those two coffins right in front of me.
17:26And I got to do some thinking.
17:29And I got to think about myself.
17:33And what kind of leader I had been that day.
17:36And my choice to not lead that day.
17:40I thought about the people that were in those coffins.
17:47That gave everything.
17:50Everything.
17:51And I couldn't make it through one more day of leadership.
17:55One more day of helping people to be their best.
18:02And I made that choice.
18:06Subscribe to One India and never miss an update.
18:11Download the One India app now.
Comments