Sergeant Major of the Army Veterans Day Engagement with Chicago Public Schools JROTC.
Transcript
Good morning, Sergeant Major. Sergeant Major of the Army, Greenstone. Good morning, and welcome to Chicago Public Schools multi service JROTC. Program. Let me introduce our Chicago Public schools Executive Director of Military instruction, Colonel Daniel L. Baggio, U S Army retired. Good morning. Sorry, Major, I I just want to thank you for being here with us today, and obviously it’s emanate out of Chicago. But the truth of it is, uh, it’s this is a good lead program and and all of our programs across the country really across the globe, including G o D. Programs, Air Able Thio tune in here today. So we’re honored to have you here, but I’m gonna kick it back over toe Brigadier General Hennigan or let the cadets run the show. Come on. Thank you, Colonel. I’m good at Brigadier General Hennigan from Lane Tech High School Army. Jerry TC, along with the 25 cadets from the Joint Service City core staff were very happy that you decided to visit us with your Veterans Day message. Here in Chicago, we have six military academies, one academy within a school and 38 traditional jerry TC programs with 35 Army programs, four Navy programs, three Marine Corps programs and two Air Force programs with a total of 7705 ROTC cadets. So it’s a major. Good morning. I’m Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Alleman from the EXTEND Military Academy. I would like to welcome you to my class of 129 leader training level three R b J out to sea cadets. If there is time for a question and answer period, we will hold all questions until you’re finished with the presentation. Sergeant Major Grimsson, you have our undivided attention for your message. Please continue. Well, first of all, let me thank everyone for being here and enjoying us on this Veterans Day today. You know, it’s a wonderful day that we can always celebrate. You know, the history of our veterans. I’m proud to be a veteran. And for those on the screen and for those that may be hopeful veterans, uh, happy Veterans Day for you all. And I’m sorry, Major the Army and Michael Bridgeton. And I’m the senior enlisted adviser to the Secretary of the army and the chief of staff of the Army. And I advise the Secretary and the chief on all enlisted matters and quality of life issues. For the total Army. About one 0.1 million soldiers across the globe, Forward station and here it home and I helped them make those decisions on a daily basis. And we’re really proud to say that we’re your Army. And we’re really proud to say that we’re veterans, and I’m actually really honored to speak to the Chicago public schools and nearly 8000 Jared T. C cadets on the Spectrum’s Day Inventions. Day began, began, and on November 11th, 1918 after World War One and then later Congress made it a federal holiday for our nation. And in 1938 we started calling it, You know, Veterans Day, as opposed to Armistice Day. But this year we actually commemorate the 75th anniversary of World War Two. You know, this generation was called the Greatest Generation. We had 16 million Americans served in uniform during World War two, and then countless of Americans supported the war here at home. This year, as we look across our country and think about the sacrifices that those veterans veterans have done throughout those years, we think about all the struggles that we have gone through ourselves at this nation in the past year, this year has been like no other. And if you’re like me and you had a graduating student for high school in 2020 and my daughter said, you know, wow, you know, what kind of year was this graduate from? What has your veterans done for you during this year? Well, actually, start with when? Once covert hit, your veterans and those in military actually supported those places hardest hit. We had 14 Urban Augmentation Task Force, where he sent, um, doctors and engineers out to New York City. We sent him out toe Washington and then even recently, as the second wave of covert comes up, we’re seeing our doors and our borders open at Fort Bliss, the hospital to help those in need for Kobe. But that wasn’t all that’s going on in this year of turmoil. When you look at what happened with civil unrest, we watched our National Guardsmen go down and protect places like D. C over in Minnesota, up in and see how for our Campo two and three. That wasn’t Onley thing that happened for them. We had civil unrest. We still had covert going on. And then if that wasn’t enough, we had forest fires out in the West. So all this year, we’ve had all this turmoil and your veterans have been there just like the World War. Two veterans were there for their country when they were needed. The veterans of your military right now are out there protecting everybody in America around the globe, whether that’s at home or abroad. And I would remind everybody that we still have over 180,000 soldiers that are four deployed somewhere, not in the continental U. S. And specifically we still have soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria right now. And as I said, this year has been full of turmoil. It really started off, and I’ll talk about those veterans and what they sacrifice on a daily basis for our country and December of last year before covert it. We thought, we’re gonna have a nice, peaceful Christmas. But unfortunately, on Christmas Day we had a soldier that was killed and we flew up to Dover Toe watch the dignified transfer in combat. So as the nation I like to remind those that we still have soldiers in harm’s way, and we still have soldiers that air out their sacrifice, giving ultimate sacrifice for those their country. And then a few days after that, in the beginning of January 2020 we also killed the General Soleimani, the leader of the Iranian cuts force. And I say that is because we continuously are out on the front lines with all those soldiers, making sure that we protect the nation and our families here while we’re at home. So not only do we go out each year protecting the country here, trying to help with all those things that happened inside our borders were still out outside our borders doing the best that we could make sure that we protect all of you here a home. And I remind you of this because today is Veterans Day. Although we do commemorate the 75th anniversary of World War Two, I would like you all think of the veterans that air still in service right now out there protecting the nation. But those veterans from World War Two, if you’re lucky enough to meet one, I would actually ask you to go up. And maybe in a covert environment, give him a fist bump or an elbow or a foot tap or something, and just say thank you. Um, there’s not that many bit of those veterans around after 75 years, and we should honor them appropriately, because those of our forefathers that led us to the greatest army that we have today. And it wouldn’t for out if it wasn’t without them, we wouldn’t be here today. So I really like to thank you all for attending today’s Veterans Day little presentation. And I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Happy reticence. Stay and army strong. Thank you, Sergeant Major, since we have a little bit of time here, will now move on to the question and answer, period. So our first question is from Cadet Colonel Herman from Bronzeville Military Academy. Good morning, Sergeant Major. I am Cadet Colonel Herman from Chicago Military Academy. My question is, how s the army changed the way you live your data day life and what are the most important lessons the army has taught you? That’s a great Has The army changed my day to day life. Well, I don’t normally I don’t think when I was your age, I don’t think I normally got up at 4. 30 in the morning. Uh, eso um you know, the day to day life of Ah, soldier is you know, we say 24 77 days a week. Sometimes you get some time off, and sometimes you don’t get a normal day. Starts a little bit earlier. I think that most people s o on on a normal day, get up about 4. 30 in the morning. So that’s the way I kind of just your sleeping together is just kind of taint. But, you know, holistically. On a more serious note, um, you know, the Army values and being ah person of character and just the things that I’ve experienced throughout my whole career really shaped me. I wouldn’t be who I am today without the Army, through the Army values the things that I’ve been able to see around the world. I grew up in a very small town in Alabama, and I’m pretty sure if I would have joined the Army. I don’t I’m certain I would not have seen parts of the world that I’ve seen. Um, so when you see those things that shapes that we’re not, you know, it’s not just about your small town. It’s about the world and what I learned and what shaped me to be is, you know, around the world, most people you know pretty much what the exact same things that everybody else wants. They want a better life for their kids. They want they want to provide for their family and then what? Their family to be safe. So, uh, it really shaped my thoughts of the globe. Joining the Army gave me the Army values a person’s character. Um, it’s really taught me those life things. What happens in my little world, You know, when I was a kid is pretty much similar these differences around the globe. But that’s what it’s taught me is, uh, you know, as a society of the world, we’re all kind of some great Thank you. Our next question is from Cadet Colonel Blake from Wayne Tech High School. Good morning, Sergeant Major. I am Cadet Colonel Blake from Lane Tech High School. My question is, but this upcoming generation do you think that there will be an increase or a decrease of people willing to join. And how do you foresee the military looking in a couple of years, we’re gonna increase right? Because everybody on here just is really said you’re so fascinated by by presentation, you all now want to join the Army. Right? So, uh, you know, we’ll see. I think I think we’re gonna be steady. I really, truly believe they. All the services the army and Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Space Force now really can provide you, you know, give you some stability in your life. Teaches some life skills, be resilient. All these things I think is is just everything you want in your society and its grounding in an army in those values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. When you look at that, I mean, you know, I think all that and says that we’re a great place to work and we’ve got unbelievable opportunities. Uh, from you get cyber, you can work on computers to if you really like the outdoors, we’ll put you out there and just let you sleep with outdoors forever and the rain and the cold and the snow. It’s great Everybody wants to do that. So, uh, we’ve actually seen even during Kobe. We saw our numbers increase, so I think those opportunities are still there. We have doctors, we have lawyers and most people don’t even know. And I talked a little bit in the beginning about covert. We have our own medical research lab. And what some of the people on the president’s task force for co vid are actually contractors for the army. And the vaccines are being headed up by a logistician And how to distribute those throughout the country who was on I think of 60 minutes on Sunday is General pern up. So some of the greatest leaders of our country reside in the military, so I think our numbers are gonna increase. And, um, how are we gonna look in a couple of years? I think it’s gonna be It’s gonna be different. And, you know, we can’t you know, first see the future. I really didn’t see a global Pandeli. I really didn’t want that in my lifetime. But I still see us, uh, being a great opportunity, whether numbers increase or decrease, I can say that your military is gonna be very steady and provide some continuity as the country moves forward. And that’s what we’re really proud of. And it is, really There’s lots of opportunities in the military, and I wouldn’t say Don’t limit yourself to people. Think, Oh, if I join the Army, I’m in those comment arms because we have lawyers and doctors and scientists and computer cyber warriors. You know, you name it, uh, in the military and it za great place to work. We saw those numbers increased during Kobe, and I think we’ll continue Thio do small growth in the next few years, but I think we’re gonna look very similar, but we’re gonna increase some of those capacities, especially in the artificial intelligence and in the computer realm in the next few years. Thank you. Our next question here is from Cadet Command Sergeant Major raise from Phoenix Military Academy. Good morning. Starting, major. I am. Could that, um, CSM raise from Phoenix, That military academy? My question is, how do you balance family life and work life when you travel a lot while working? Uh, work life balance is you know something? I think you really have to dio even, you know I do travel a lot and cover. It kind of slowed me down a little bit, and then you kind of pick back up. So I do a lot of travel, I think. How do you balance that is when your home be home. And what that means is you have all these devices you have, you know, phones. Um, you know, I’ve probably asked at least to work computers, a couple of vtcs in my house. So, um, so you can all I’m always connected for all the right reasons, but my phone’s I try to keep them right there at my desk. I do try to be when I’m at the dinner table, you know, there’s no phones and we eat together. So when your home, make sure your present, you know, engaging with your family, that’s how I do it. And as I travel, you know, I still call my wife, and I still, you know, do some facetime or some kind of video chat with my my daughters. And, you know, we still stay connected. And even when I was in combat, you know, when you’re going for my longest tours, 15 months, Um, that’s hard eso work like balance. Um, you know, when you’re doing a 15 month combat tour is that’s really difficult, but as much as possible, I still tried to call once a week and then, you know, as the nation, as the world evolved with Internet, you get WiFi, and I could still make those video calls. Try to do that once a week because your if your family is strong, no matter how long you’re gon, you’re gonna have a strong family if you had, you know, if you had a week, you know, relationship in the beginning, and then it doesn’t get stronger with distance. So, um, but you still have to stay connected. I still like said, Try to connect with my family daily if I’m here in the US and on all those other combat tours. I tried to make a phone call for video chat once a week to stay connected because that’s really important. I even did homework a couple of times when I was deployed. I guess I’m the math guy in the family, and I get these math problems. You know, photos of a math problem sent to me in Afghanistan said, Hey, Can you help me solve this problem? It was great. Eso uh you know, that’s kind of how I balance it. And I think it’s really important Thio maintain contact with the family no matter where you’re at in the world. And plus, I love my family. Thank you. Our next question here is from correct Colonel Martinez from Lane Tech High School. Good morning, Sergeant Major. My name is Cadet Colonel Martinez from Lane Tech High School. And my question is, what motivated you to continue working hard through all the special schools and training that you’ve completed? Uh, working. You know, I think I just wanted to be I want to get to the toughest harvest thing that the Army had to offer. And I wanted to test myself, and I didn’t like the blues or not make it through anything. So, uh, that was just the mentality of I could do this. And I call it later. I read a book. Um, her name is Carol Drag and the beginning of the title. His mindset, and it talks about a growth mindset and a fixed mindset growth mindset says I may not be able to do something right now, but I could do it. I’ll raise my hand. I’ll ask the question. Some people. Oh, that’s a silly question. And I think of, Well, I don’t know the answer. That’s why I’m asking, you know, raising my hand. So having the mindset of always saying I could do this, that kind of drove me and I have a I have an internal drive to be my best and doing those schools like Ranger School or, you know, jumping out of a perfectly good playing, which I absolutely love. Being a paratrooper, eso and all those special schools really were a test to see. Can I make rise up to the challenge and having that mindset saying, I’m willing to learn. I’m just gonna keep pushing and learn and learn and learn and keep going. Um, that’s what drove me to get to those schools, and it just was a new internal drive that I said I could do this. And even if I you know, even if I failed, you know, said I could go back and I’m gonna do it again until I make it through, um and that that growth mindset says I could do this, and I’m gonna keep pushing. But I had an internal drive to be the best I could be. And those schools are extremely challenging. And, uh, you know, I think we changed it. But at one point in time, you know, Ranger school, they would only give you one meal a day. And when you go through 72 days of something like that and not a lot of sleep and then they don’t feed you, it really will test you internally on that drive of just wanting Thio be the best and taking those most challenging jobs for me, it was something that I as crazy as it sounds. Enjoy doing. I wanted the challenge to see if I would be up to the test. Uh, and I would not have changed it for anything in the world. Thank you. Our next question is from Cadet Colonel team soon from Juarez High School. Good morning, Sergeant Major. I’m correct, Colonel. Seems soon from Juarez High School. My question is, what is the most important value that cadet needs to become a better citizen? Well, I think my favorite and you heard me already list off the the Army that he was. But there’s one in there is honor, and it says live upto all the army values. And sometimes you hear people say you know is that, you know, honorable person. And I think that’s the biggest, you know, compliment. You can provide me. So I think he’s honorable. That means you’re you’re loyal to those you serve. You’ve got this selfless service, your your integrity, your honest And then if you can live upto all that and the personal courage. And, uh, that’s why that for me and the Army values that that honorable means that I can live upto all those. And that’s really hard to do. I mean, and just just think the one simple one of personal courage, personal courage doesn’t always mean, you know, courage under fire. It could be personal courage. When you’re in school and you see somebody booing another person, personal courage could be When you see someone, um, you know, doing something they shouldn’t be doing. You have, you know, the courage to come up and say, Don’t do that. Sometimes personal personal courage is just saying I need help, and it’s okay to say I need help and you’re not ashamed of it and you don’t hide. You don’t try to work through it. If you need help, just say raise your hand and say I need some help. Um, but still, when when you keep when you can say honorable and you can live upto all that, all those army values that have quoted in the beginning, I think that’s the most the best value that I think you can have that would be try to be a person when you’re when you’re when all of one of you is sitting here on this side of the screen 33 34 35 years from now, you can say, Am I an honorable person? And that’s the most important value I would advise you to live up to. Thank you. Our next question is from cadet Colonel Clarke from Air Force Academy High School. When you’re a sergeant major, what is your favorite memory or place visited while in the Army? Well, you know, got a long time in there, so there’s a lot of lots of great memories around the world, and normally I say, you know, corny things like, you know, I really wouldn’t want to change anything in my life until 1993 because that’s where I met my wife. My wife’s German. Um, she says, No, she goes, Well, what would you do after that? I was like, Well, that’s what I’m talking about. What would you change? So my most memorable place in the Army? Um, I would say I really enjoy being in Italy. I lived in Italy for three years. Um, it’s a couple of reasons you have what’s called the 173rd Airborne. Her gate. It’s an airborne unit. Eso paratroopers, jumping out of perfectly good planes, which I enjoy doing. You live about 20 minutes west of Venice. So great job. I love being a paratrooper. You could drive to Venice in 20 minutes. It’s probably preferably to take the train, because there’s It’s a city on the water, so there’s no cars, so it’s probably better to take the train. Um, you could do scuba diving. We took scuba diving lessons before we went there. So great job living just south of the Alps. You could go snow skiing. You go to the beach, you could go and then you had a lot of great opportunities to be a paratrooper. We jumped into the Czech Republic. We jumped into Germany, tempting, hungry. So going out on the training was really hard. And then when you’re back in your duty station, you had a lot of great things to see. Went to Venice, Rome, Milano. He’s a so and then just traveling all over Europe. And we did all that from Italy, and it was just a fantastic time. Uh, my wife and it was great, and I totally enjoyed that. But I would say I will caveat that I could say great things at every duty location that I’ve been to. And after all the years that I’ve been in the military by one piece of advice is where you are is the greatest place in the world. It’s why it’s because you’re there and you can make it as great as you want it to be. Um, I would say, you know, Iraq, Afghanistan, you can make it is graves you want, have some goals, you know, I want to get through this deployment. It I want to be, you know, come back with all my fingers and toes. My head attacks, But I want to be more physically fit. I want to save some money on. Do you know, I’ve seen a lot of people go places and be frustrated because I can’t believe I’m at this wherever this is. And sometimes I tell soldiers, you know, if you never leave your room, uh, you never leave the barracks. The whole world looks the same. So if you’re staring at the inside of the wall So my still my greatest advice, I’ve had some really great locations. But if you never get out and see it, it’s still gonna look the same no matter where you’re at. And I still firmly believe that wherever I’m at is the greatest place in the world because I’m there. And about 80% of the time I’m there with my family. Eso That’s probably the biggest advice. That gift. Great. Thank you. And that. What is our last question from the cadets? So that is all the time we have for questions this morning, Sergeant Major Grimsson, on behalf of our Jerry TC programs citywide. Thank you for serving our nation for visiting Chicago charity C and for giving us your Veterans Day message. Please be safe and your travels. And we hope that you can make it back for the military ball or the Memorial Day parade this year. Thank you very much, Sergeant Major. Thank you. I look, hopefully I can I could make it to those events. Thank you. You upset you? Alright, This concludes our presentation for today. And if you have to walk off now Thank you for attending.