The Army as a Cornerstone

MY early years growing up in Allentown, Pa., gave no hint that I would have a 32-year career in the Army. I came from a middle-class family, played trumpet in the high school band, ran track and joined the football team. I had a newspaper route, and in the summer I washed dishes at a country club.

I became interested in going to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., when I learned in junior high school that my father had been awarded a Silver Star as a combat medic in World War II. Dad was a high school social studies teacher who, like many veterans, never talked about his service.

At West Point, I thrived on the discipline and leadership training. I ran track, played intramural sports, was the top-ranked cadet in physical fitness over four years and graduated near the top of my class. Three weeks after earning my civil engineering degree in 1976, I married my high school sweetheart, Marla, and joined the Army Corps of Engineers.

After I went through Army Ranger training at Fort Benning, Ga., I was posted to Fort Ord in California. There is nothing more challenging, or rewarding, than that first experience as a platoon leader. I was hooked on the Army.

Our first daughter was born at Fort Ord, and in 1981 the Army sent the three of us to Boston so I could attend Harvard Business School. I then taught economics at West Point, where future Army leaders like David Petraeus and Martin Dempsey were also teaching.

In 1986, our second daughter was born, and our family moved to Washington. I was chosen for a White House fellowship and was the executive assistant to the director of the Office of Management and Budget. I met President Reagan and had a front-row view on how the country’s civilian leadership tackled deficit reduction and similar thorny issues we are still facing today.

In 1989, I deployed to Panama as a battalion operations officer during the mission that ousted Manuel Noriega. Three years later, it was back for a second tour in Washington. I like to joke that the Pentagon is a magnet since I spent 12 years of my career there.

From 1992 to 2002, I served as commander in three locations. I was commander of an engineer battalion at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska, a regimental commander teaching leadership to West Point cadets, and brigade commander at Fort Hood in Texas.

We moved a lot and our daughters had to change schools often, but they learned to adapt to change — with much guidance from my wife. This didn’t sour them on military life, as both would join the Army — one would serve in Iraq and the other in Kuwait.

I became a brigadier general in 1999, first doing Army strategic planning, then commanding the Corps of Engineers Southwestern Division in Dallas, which oversees public infrastructure. By 2002, I was back for my fourth, and final, Pentagon tour. My job for the next six years was to equip the Army at war, and to help oversee allocation of the Army’s annual budget; I retired in 2008 as a lieutenant general.

In August of that year, I joined ITT Defense, then part of the ITT Corporation, as vice president of strategy, and was named president four months later. In October last year, the unit was spun off. I was named chief executive, charged with leading the company, now called ITT Exelis, through the current era of declining military spending.

Even in these leaner times, my life experiences, especially the coaching and mentoring I received, have been invaluable in setting company goals and developing leadership among our employees.