Professional and Personal Examples:
Story 1:
The Capeman is a musical playwhich was opened at the Marquis Theatre in 1998. The play was written by Paul Simon based on the true story on the life of my uncle who was a convicted murdered Salvador Agron. My uncle a teenagergang memberwho murdered two teenagers in a Hell's Kitchen park in 1959. During a rival gang fight, it is believed that my uncle mistook two teenagers for members of a gang called the Norsemen. My uncle was sentenced to death at 16-year-old, youngest prisoner sentenced to death row in New York.Despite all the negative publicity throughout the years,my family suffered for the humiliation and embarrassment from my uncle action.
My family claims that they felt this systemic discrimination. As a result of this situation, I found myself with ambitions to be a better man. Ibecame determine to make big changes in my life. So,Ijoin in the Army, established self-determination in learning new skills, obtain new knowledgesuch as goal setting by understanding my abilities, and developed problem solving skills.
Story 2:
During Operation Desert Storm, my squad was selected to lead the initial breach against an Iraqi trench line. The entire squad was convinced that this would be our last mission knowing that any attempt to breach this particular enemy position during daylight hours was dangerous and most likely we would be spotted and killed by enemy fire.
As a young leader, I was suddenly in charge of a fifteen men team ready to embark in the most dangerous mission of our life. Wecrafted our mission statement to ensure that everyone understood the execution plan.Our mission seems simple. We had few days to practice and worked all issues to ensure success. Few hours before the mission, the lead Soldier was scared and unwilling to lead the squad. Althoughthe entire team was scare, we knew that our mission had to be accomplish. I immediately remember of the of the World War II propaganda poster in my office with a young women inspiring others workers with the words “We Can Do It!
Considering how he felt, I explained that we trusted him with our life and without him, most likely we were going to fail the mission. My goal was to boost his morale and courage. He understood his duty to the squad and his oath to do his best. Without hesitation, he led the squad across the danger desert allowing us to breach the barb wire as plan. My team successfully secured the parameter and to everyone surprise, no one was hurt and the mission was a success.
Story 3:
One afternoon in the 1980s, during food shopping I was walking between the aisle searching for items on the list that my spouse gave me to purchase for a family dinner. I came a wallet on the ground. I thought that most likely was a children wallet because it decoration pattern of Mickey-Mouse. I picked the wallet and immediately noticed a bunch of dollars and no identification card. I counted more than $1200.00.
I looked around and saw no one in the aisle. For a brief moment I felt lucky but immediately felt guilty by thinking about keeping money that was not mine. I returned the money to the front cashier and asked for a receipt just in case. The lady said thank for your honesty and smiled at me.My fathertaught me that I should always be honest in words and deeds. The Army values also speak about honesty. But most importantly, I understand that honesty is absolutely fundamental for success in life. I continuously taught my children the same values I learned as a young man.