Parents’ Military Weekend – Key Note Speech by CWO-4 M. E. (Buck) Watkins USMCR (Ret.)

Good afternoon parents, guests, faculty and cadets. I am privileged to have the opportunity to speak to you today and consider it an honor to do so. I was asked to share with you some of my thoughts on leadership. Leadership is a subject of which I can speak with some authority and unfortunately for you, at considerable length. However, as a young man, I stood many formations as well as many parades. I used think to myself as you are doing now, “when is this guy going to say something useful and let us get on with it?” So knowing this, I will make this presentation optimistically meaningful and definitely short.

As cadets at Fishburne Military School, you have a unique opportunity to experience a structured environment that serves to maximize your exposure to experienced and successful leaders. You have the possibility of serving in cadet leadership positions that gives you a significant edge on your public and non-military private school counterparts.

While the subject of leadership has many elements, I will speak briefly about three that will apply to your lives regardless of what career path you choose.

The first one is: To be a good leader, you have to know how to be a good follower. A good follower, while anticipating his chance to lead, will be honing his observation skills while accomplishing the mission of the leadership. In the years that follow, you may experience leaders that you don’t agree with. You may experience circumstances that could have been handled better. This is where being a good observer pays off. The leader you become will be based on the leaders you have experienced personally and through the study of history. Learn to find and emulate the best examples and discard those who don’t inspire performance.