Bob

I'm a former Chairman of NAILBA, The National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies, and our annual meeting was being held in Dallas, Texas. The closing session speaker was General Norman Schwarzkopf, known to some as "stormin Norman".

This is my best recollection of what happened at that meeting, November 17, 2001 during General Schwarzkopf's presentation:

"Norm", as he likes to be called now, in his retirement, is into so many humanitarian and charitable activities, it would be difficult naming them all. He may be a retired military General, but like Colin Powell, he represents everything that is ethically and morally good about the American Spirit. The fact that our military leadership exemplifies many of these values and ethics for this greatest experiment in humanitarian democracy the world has ever known, makes our mission on earth that much more meaningful.

Most of his talk was about leadership. He pointed out that what distinguishes leaders is that they LEAD because they are able to INSPIRE people to WILLINGLY do that which they would not ordinarily do.

His two primary RULES of leadership are

1) Rule 13 - Take charge (even when the exact ramifications may sometimes be muddy or even in doubt) and

2) Rule 14 - Do "What's right"; (that which you believe in your heart to be morally right).

It was an incredibly inspirational talk and at the end of his address, he opened things up for Q&A. As you might guess, at this time (November 17 - Kabul had just fallen; women were uncovering their faces and men were shaving theirs; the Taliban was in retreat into the South), he was answering many questions about whether or not we should pursue Bin Laden - you already know his answer, and he also contrasted this situation with why we didn't, and why he felt we really couldn't, go after Saddam in the Gulf War.

Just as the session was about to end, a young lady came up to the microphone. She was a manager for Xerox, one of the companies exhibiting at the convention. A very attractive and athletic-looking young lady, as she approached the microphone, she held some notes in her hand which she had obviously just scribbled onto the notepads provided on the tables in the meeting room.

As she started out, you could hear a slight tremor in her voice, which you simply passed off as nervousness from addressing an audience of perhaps 1,000 people or more. "Good Morning", she finally said, as she looked down at her notes.

Kiddingly, General Schwarzkopf, seeing she was a little nervous, and reading from her notes, asked her if she had memorized that part, or if it was spontaneous (he has a great sense of humor and it was NOT meant to be a cutting comment, but he was only trying to put her at ease).

Audience laughed and she recomposed herself and started reading.

With an ever-increasing emotional voice inflection, she described the PRIDE she, her sister and husband who were veterans of the United States Air Force all felt, having served under him, adding that she served in Panama (Air Force - Aircraft Engineer) and as her father before had served in the Army Air Corps. I also found out later she would have served in Desert Storm had not she been pregnant with her and her husband's first child. As a request from her father, she thanked General Schwarzkopf for his past and continued leadership.

She also expressed her wish that she could have been in uniform to salute him (military protocol required), while she also regretted that even a handshake wasn't possible because of the added security protection in place in the hall. It had already been announced that Secret Service had been advised to "tackle and subdue" anyone coming within the 30-40 foot microphone-to-stage-corridor.

She then asked what advice we as parents should give to our children as the next generation of leaders of this country. He said, tell them, "It's ok to do your own thing, but do it PLUS 1." That ONE something extra is to help someone else up a hill; be a leader and stay one step ahead in helping them meet their goals successfully. That's the advice he says he's given his own children.

With her short-read piece completed and answered (probably taking less than a minute), General Schwarzkopf then asked her to come forward to join him on stage.

As she walked the 30-40 feet to the stage and stood at attention, you could have heard a pin drop. General Schwarzkopf directed her to salute him and she addressed him with a full military salute, which he immediately returned. After she saluted him, he shook her hand, then asked if he could hug her.

That's when she totally lost it and through her sobs into General Schwarzkopf's lapel-microphone, broadcast out into the room, this audience was treated to an event which will stay in our collective memories for the rest of our lives. If there was a "dry eye" in the audience, that individual should have been profiled as a terrorist suspect. It was an event I shall never forget - one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that EVERY person in that room will carry in their hearts, and pass on to their grandchildren. We truly were blessed being in that room and "God Bless America" now takes on special meaning.

The only reason this story came about was because for months, I had been working with a reporter at USA Today trying to get a story published involving a consulting client of mine who was attempting to help locate life insurance policies which might have been in force on victims of the World Trade Center attack, and of which their families were not even aware. That Monday, following the meeting from which I'd just returned, I happened to be checking up on the status of the story with the USA Today reporter, when I also related to him this story concerning General Schwarzkopf.

The reporter at USA Today was very moved by the story and asked me to write it up and send it to him to forward on to their editorial people for possible publication in the Thanksgiving day edition. Although it wasn't published there, it's now being spread around the country by email forwarding of this story and is also being spread around the world to military personnel on the www.americainuniform.com site.

But in addition to the emotional impact and advice from General Schwarzkopf, several other lessons can be learned from this whole episode.

First, had not the lady, Nancy Richardson, been willing to put her emotions and feelings at risk, the event never would have happened and none of us would have been treated to seeing this side of the General.

Secondly, had not the reporter at USA Today given me the words of encouragement and support to write up the story to send to him, even though it wasn't published there, I never would have called the lady to confirm all the facts. I also would never have learned how grateful this lady was for my efforts because her intention was purely to help recognize the way her whole family felt toward General Schwarzkopf. You never know the impact those few extra words of encouragement will have on someone else.

Third, we all saw how timing is everything. Even though after this event occurred, there were several people still at microphones with questions to ask, General Schwarzkopf recognized the power of what had just happened and knew that this was correct note on which to leave the audience.

And finally, the Pay It Forward aspect. I had done all this purely because I thought it was such a great story which should be shared with the world. Nevertheless, the lady was extremely grateful and about a week after the last call I had made to her confirming certain information, she called me. She thanked me again for what I had done and how grateful her family was, and then she asked me what I did for living.

After I told her, she said that, as a manager for Xerox, they would be able to use my consutlting services and we've already had several conversations and will be meeting sometime within the next month. Truly, what goes around, does come around.

Bob Littell