My youngest sister married a local guy that she fell in love with in high school. She waited for him to return from the Viet Nam war. Life has taught them that anything worth having is worth fighting for They have concluded that love is not just a feeling, but a commitment. Their marriage has survived the loss of a baby son, moves from San Francisco to Albany, New York and all in between, plus Wanda traveling the country as a traveling nurse. But sacrifices on both their parts has brought them to a beautiful time in their life. Wanda has had to learned that she has as much of Thomas' heart as anyone could ever have. The Army has the other part. After retiring from a very successful career in the military, as Command Sergeant Major of Army Recruiting, his heart longed to continue to give to his country. He is now working for a company as the Project Director of the Military Personnel Services Division. Here he has direct contact with hundreds of young soldiers as they leave to serve their country. He has the opportunity to mentor these young men and support them in their decisions to unselfishly give of themselves.
Each Monday, Thomas sends out what he calls a Monday Gram, kind of like a pick-me-up for Monday morning blahs. It always has encouraging words, an uplifting story and praises for the workers in his office. I share one of his Monday Grams here. It is a story of a man that could say he was down on his luck, someone that could have thrown up his hands long ago and quit. I share this to say that no matter what your circumstances, things could be worse. If you and your wife are at odds, if you no longer have contact with children because of divorce, if the stock market has taken away much of what you have set aside for later years, if you don't have a job, you can't stop hoping. Again, I say life makes us bitter or better. We choose. The man is this true story knows all about adversity and he made a choice. I hope your choice is to overcome as Scotty did.
From The Desk of Thomas R. Brooks (unclassified) :
(printed with permission)
"In 2007, at Fort Monroe I had the opportunity to work with a young Army officer by the name of CPT Scott Smiley…I’ll call him “Scotty” as we all did. Scotty came to us as a young 1LT and was assigned duties as an IET analyst. He would visit the various training installations and talk to the troops and inspire them to be all they could be. We sat across the room from one another but, we would share e-mails and stories. It was a lot of fun just being around this fine young Soldier. Not long after, he was promoted to CPT. We all celebrated, along with his wife Tiffany who loved him dearly and really looked out for his well being. Scotty was nominated and selected as the Army Times Soldier of the Year in 2007…you may have read about him in the Army Times. Scotty had to learn much about new equipment and technologies just to do his job. He loved public speaking and joined the local Toast Masters club on Fort Monroe. He was interviewed by the Army Times, the 700 Club and traveled and delivered his testimony to several churches in the area…After all this, you would think he had a full life but Scotty wanted to teach at the United States Military Academy (West Point) as this was the school where he graduated and was commissioned from there. Of course he would need to get his Masters degree to become a Professor at West Point…"
"Before I continue, I must share Scotty’s assignment before coming to TRADOC. He was a Platoon Leader in a Stryker unit in Iraq. While on patrol, he noticed a vehicle approaching and warned the vehicle to stop. But the car which appeared too heavily loaded and driven by an Iraqi civilian, just kept coming. Scotty advanced his stryker in front of the platoon and attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver turned out to be a suicide bomber and detonated the vehicle and Scotty took the brunt of the blast rather than his whole platoon. CPT Smiley lost most of his face, both eyes and was paralyzed on one side of his body. But this young man was determined. He survived, and although Scotty is totally blind, he still managed to learn things about himself that even he did not know. For him to still be productive in the Army, he had to prove that he still had something to offer. The Army provided him with a computer which is designed for people without sight. He had a scanner which would scan the documents and then read them back to him. When he received e-mails, his computer would read it to him. Once I listened to his earphones. The words were spoken so fast, I asked how he could understand. He said, “You get used to it and just listen.”
I just talked to CPT Smiley last week and he has just graduated from Duke University with an MBA and en route to West Point where he’ll teach Military Leadership for the next few years. Diligence is doing a lot of little things over and over until something BIG happens like becoming a Professor at West Point… when the odds are totally against you. Scotty and Tiffany have a young son, Grady who is two years old now and another child due anytime. All of us must have our dreams and our goals because, what we can conceive and believe, we can achieve!!! Most, including Department of the Army, assumed this aspiring young West Point graduate’s career would be over…but CPT Smiley had other ideas and is one of 39 severely wounded warriors still serving and I think he is the only one who is blind. May God Bless America and God Bless Scotty Smiley."
