This weekend I attended an annual Army-Navy game watching party at Top of the Hill Restaurant in Chapel Hill, NC. The experience is second only to actually being in Philadelphia at the game itself.

In both places current and former cadets and midshipmen gather in the most meaningful rivalry in college sports. As I watched this year, I did so not just as a member West Point Class of 1988, but also as a student of leadership and a civilian who depends on the military to insure my freedom. This blog is a partial list of the lessons I learned.

Lessons – Not All of them are on Leadership

• I love having this bond with my father! General Jim Anderson, USMA Class of 56.
• The prayer before this year’s game was a warrior’s prayer! “Hooah!” replaced “Amen” at The Top of the Hill. Thanks to CBS for airing that! Click Here to Watch Video
• The last part of that prayer was a quote from Douglas MacArthur. Every West Point graduate at our party finished the quote aloud and in unison with the Chaplain on TV.

“Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that upon other fields; on other days, will bear the fruits of victory.”

• I have 100% belief that with these current cadets and midshipmen and the ones still on active duty, we will “bear the fruits of victory” over the scourge of ISIS and Al Quada.
• 300 plus Army and Navy graduates standing together in a packed room singing the National Anthem gives me chills.
• Army fans had the best College Game Day signs. My personal favorite: “Navy eats pizza with a fork!”
• Military spouses are saints! They need a statue in Washington DC.
• I have friends who are the type of heroes John Wayne used to make movies about.
• The Top of the Hill Restaurant in Chapel Hill has 6 different beers and they are all excellent!
• I missed my best friend who was killed in Desert Storm.
• The Army-Navy rivalry is built on the respect each side has for anyone who volunteers to be put in harms way to defend the rights of the rest of us.
• The Army-Navy game is the only day of the year the Marines admit being part of the Navy.
• Nobody plays football with more heart than a senior playing in the Army-Navy game. It is there last football game ever for 99% of them.
• 50 year old Army Graduates who went 3-1 versus Navy are a lot louder than more recent graduates who have not had that type of success.
• These are my people. Our bond is different than anything a college fraternity can forge.
• Every Naval Academy graduate I met are men and women I would follow in combat and in business. They all know what selfless sacrifice means.
• I hate when our Alma Mater is played first (loser hears theirs first).
• I still get chills when I hear the West Point Alma Mater played no matter when it is played.
• This is the only rivalry where every player on the field is willing to die for every fan in the stands.
• If you have lost hope for your country or want yours strengthened, go to an Army-Navy game.
• Finally, wisdom comes with age…until you are having a beer at the Army-Navy game with your 50 of your classmates.  No Task Too Great 88!

The Bottom Line:

If you do not watch the annual Army-Navy game on TV every year, you are missing the best and potentially the purest rivalry in sports. It is a game played the way a game should be played by men who truly deserve the honor and adulation many professional athletes erroneously receive.

Duty-Honor-Country and next year is our year! While that may feel like West Point’s new motto for Army graduates, hope springs eternal immediately after a defeat at the hands of Navy.

When the final notes of the Alma Mater are played after the game, the entire Corps of Cadets in Philadelphia, every graduate in Chapel Hill, across the US and in Iraq or in Afghanistan yelled “BEAT NAVY” in unison!

Because we believe “Next year is our year!”

BEAT NAVY!

Question:

How many veterans can you thank this week?  How many can you hire? Read why you should by clicking on the title below:

Three Traits Veterans Bring to the Workplace