4 Star General

As an alumni of MIT and MIT's ROTC program, David had the opportunity to go to this year's commissioning of MIT's ROTC Cadets. That may not sound that exciting, but what if it was scheduled to be at the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) in Boston? If you think it's still just sort of cool, what if one of the Cadets had a father who was going to be speaking that was a 4 Star General and is the current Commander of US Central Command and one of the smartest men in our military? Well, if you're a military geek like David, you don't want to miss hearing General David Petraeus.


When David (our David) was in MIT's ROTC he held the position of Cadet Battalion Commander, which is the head of the Army Corp of Cadets from Tufts, Harvard, and MIT. It was at this ceremony years ago that David got his Army commissioning into the Infantry after receiving his duty assignment to the Berlin Brigade.


Due to weather, they had to move the commissioning indoors to the National Guard building. The General arrived in an impressive procession of Boston police officers and plain-clothed Federal agents. We noticed immediately that General Petraeus is shorter than we thought he would be, but a commanding presence none-the-less. He was definitely funnier than we expected him to be. He spoke to the cadets about working hard and leadership; including a quote from Roosevelt, "Work hard at things worth doing" and gave them some points to lead by. 1. Lead by example. 2. Listen and learn 3. Lead from the front (except going through the chow line) 4. Keep your troops informed 5. Lead and build your team 6. Learn how to sleep in any circumstances.

The rest of the ceremony was very nice, then General Patraeus led them in the commissioning oath. Afterwards, there was a reception and David got to meet General Patraeus.

I was glad David had the opportunity to do something for himself and not just for family, work, church, or school district.