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Uh his name was Ray Wilson . Um He was 

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a , uh he ended up retiring after 20 

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plus year career in the army . Um as AC 

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W-4 , an inspirational example 

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of someone who overcame a lot of 

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adversity to realize his 

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goals . So he grew up 

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and , you know , it was born right 

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after world War two , came of age 

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during the , the civil rights era um 

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and was born into poverty . And so 

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there's a lot of things that were 

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stacked against him from the beginning 

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and he just had a fantastic character , 

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great attitude , overcame it all . Uh 

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was able to become a pilot in the army 

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uh when that was not something that was 

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really open a lot to , to someone like 

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Ray . So we went up to uh Minneapolis . 

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Uh and uh just before a great big storm 

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came in and had a good time . Uh we met 

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him in a local hotel there . Uh So we , 

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you know , running out a conference 

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room and had him come in and uh had a 

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great two days just talking with him 

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about , about what he did and what he 

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did for the , for the army and , and 

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for the uh for men in uniform period . 

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It was good to listen to him and get a 

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sense of how much people that I'm going 

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to lead are faced with this as well . 

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Um He grew up without a lot of , 

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he rose in aviation that looked like 

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him and that I have to be aware of that 

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when I , where I'm going , you know , 

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what message am I sending as a 

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commander in my awards program who gets 

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awarded ? Um And the plaques that are 

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on the wall , the heroes that are on 

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the wall um that resonated with me .