10/1/2001 - Football
Ryan Hamilton Diary

Links associated with this release:
0
0
0

This summer I had the honor to be stationed in Pearl Harbor aboard the USS

Lake Erie. During my three weeks on the naval base I heard about the horror

of December 7, 1941. On September 11, 2001, our country experienced a

horror that parallels the likes of that infamous day in '41. All the same, the armed forces will be called upon to fight a new strategical war in

response to the terrorist attacks. In eight months I will graduate and

become a commissioned officer. Then I will go through approximately six

months to a year of training depending on the warfare community that I am

assigned. I will then be designated to a unit where I will be

responsible for the lives of young men and women. I knew coming to the

Naval Academy that I could be presented with a challenge like the one that

stands before me. The events of the last week have magnified the

main purpose of my training, to become a competent leader. With this renewed

focus I have a different approach to football. I am well

prepared to take the field with my teammates, but in a

year, the field that my teammates and I take may not allow some of us to

return home. It is an honor and a privilege to be a member of the United

States military and I would like to thank those who serve now and have

served before me for this opportunity.