The first day of the rest of my life...My personal motivation story…How bad do you want it?

52 years ago and counting, thanks to my USNA Classmates, especially my Company Mates from 17th Company, who helped “make it so.”

The small poster drawn in orange, black and yellow read "7 June is the First Day of the rest of your life "

You may be familiar with the quote: "Today is the First Day of the rest of your life"In the 1960s it was a popular slogan/quote which adorned many versions of posters, posters which could be found on college campuses across the US, including a “modified version” at the “UnCollege,” the United States Naval Academy (USNA), Annapolis.

In June of 1972, the passageways of Bancroft Hall, the Naval Academy dormitory, displayed posters that made this bold and positive statement of our future, tied to the service selection, “Surface Line,” which was generally speaking, “driving ships.” Other popular service selection choices were Navy Air, Nuclear Power (Submarines), and Marine Corps. it was 52 years ago today, June 7, 1972, I realized I could accomplish anything I wanted to accomplish if I wanted to accomplish it bad enough. Nothing and no one could stop me. It took me 4 years to come to this realization. I had just accomplished what my life’s ambition up to that point, graduating from the Naval Academy and receiving a commission in the United States Navy…this achievement was my sole ambition from the time I could talk. And it was on June 7, 1972, that I began to feel that the rest of life would be icing on the cake, after 4 years of discipline and accountability, institutionalized at a US Service Academy. It was this feeling of overwhelming confidence that came over me that day, and I can still pinpoint the exact moment of my life. It was a life-changing, paradigm shifting realization. I have since learned that while life after USNA continues to be a blessing, it does have its ups and downs, but I would not trade the experience for the world.

June 7, 1972, as that old slogan goes, really was “the first day of the rest of my life,” and the lives of my classmates, members of the USNA Class of 1972. It was the Day we graduated from the United States Naval Academy, received our Commissions, and the day I headed west to go to sea as the Repair Officer of USS Mount Vernon (LSD39), after first taking a well earned 30 days of “graduation leave,” and then attending 8 weeks of training at the school command at Treasure Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay (another great experience).

Each year, since 2002, (being the 30 year anniversary of our graduation), I send a "reminder" letter (post) to my Classmates of Seventeenth Company, Class of 1972.

What I learned through my Naval Academy experience, came into focus the morning of June 7, 1972, a day we had all been preparing for for four long years.

Here is that letter, going out again today on the 52st Anniversary of the beginning of our new lives…plenty of “water under the bridge” since that momentous occasion.

>>ClassmatesI remember very vividly our March to Navy Marine Memorial Stadium on June 7, 1972. It was a march we had made together as Members of Seventeenth Company about 20 times in the previous 4 years…3 to 4 home football games a year and the graduations of the Classes of 1969, 1970, and 1971…”Those who came before us. As we approached that bridge where we crossed a creek (was it Weems Creek?) I heard the familiar command “break step on the bridge.” (Resonant Frequency, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, etc.) .At that moment, on that sunny Annapolis morning of June 7, 1972…at that instant…as I looked down at the pavement as we all “broke step on the bridge”…the thought that began to run through my mind:“I made it.”The moment was surreal. My lifelong ambition had been accomplished. Everything else from that point forward in life, was going to be gravy. To this day, this event remains the most vivid “aha moment” of my life, and one upon which I called upon at various times over the last 52 years. As the thought, “I made it,” echoed in my mind, I also felt an incredible surge of confidence which has served me well throughout my adult life. A confidence which let me report aboard ship some 90 days later as the Repair Officer onboard Mt Vernon (LSD 39), not knowing how to repair anything mechanical, and now in charge of all things mechanical except main propulsion on a US Combatant, and later reporting to a new Spruance Class Destroyer as the Navigator…and knowing that my lack of experience in these new roles didn’t matter, because I could handle it, I would figure it out…USNA had taught me to be confident…and I was too na?ve to know any better at that point. My graduation itself was proof to me, that I could do anything I wanted to do, if I just wanted to do it bad enough. Most importantly, I know the primary reason I was able to overcome the adversity and challenges of life as a Midshipman, and graduate from USNA, is because deep in my heart and soul, I wanted to graduate from USNA.

And another big reason I was able to make it was all of you, from whom I learned and who were right there with me through the entire experience. My dad always told me, even though he was not a USNA grad, that the bond between USNA classmates is as close a bond as one will ever form, and it is even tighter with Company Mates, a comradery that cannot be easily expressed.

Admiral Calvert once told us that graduating from the Naval Academy would be one of the most significant events in our life, and that has been the case in my life experience. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t have at least a fleeting thought of the time we spent together at Annapolis, and all of you.I still dream every few days or so about being at the Academy. I think it is a mild form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The dreams are almost always about returning to Bancroft Hall after some period of leave or break (Christmas, Summer, Spring)…and almost always, I am about to be late for formation and I can’t find my uniforms…I used to think that maybe it’s a good thing that I could not find them because I think those uniforms might be a little tighter today. Recently I have had a few dreams where I have to report to a ship to deploy, thinking…how is my business going to make it without me for 6 months?

It was my dad’s dream for me, that I graduate from the Naval Academy. He himself had wanted to attend the Academy, but ended up enlisting in 1940, meeting my mother in Hilo shortly thereafter, marrying mom in June of 1941, surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor, attending sub school in New Londan CT, followed by submarine war patrols during WW II in the South Pacific, and retiring in 1970 as a Chief Machinist, CWO-4. He loved the Navy and he loved the Academy. In our home growing up, we all knew the Navy came first. We were a Navy Family.

On June 7, 1972…Harry Ulrich (my last USNA roommate) gave my Dad a hat to toss in the air as we tossed ours. Right up until my Dad passed away, I talked to him every year about how on June 7, 1972, he tossed a hat into the air with all of us. And now, after 52 years, Harry is a retired 4 Star Admiral…who would have thought, those 52 long years ago?Good friends and good memories of days long since gone, and youth fairly well spent!

Yes, Seven June, was the First Day of the rest of my life, and yours too I would wager (have you ever known me to wager, beyond an Army B-Robe?).To all of you and yours, have a great June 7th Classmates. I’ll be thinking of all of you.

Go Navy!

Saul

USNA Mission Statement

“To develop Midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.”

Beat Army!