Yesterday, November 11, 2010, Veteran’s Day, I was privileged enough to meet Maj. Gen. James Mallory (USAR) Assistant Deputy Army Chief of Staff. Please excuse my boy-ish likely over-dramatic reaction to this encounter. Most people would think it’s no big deal…just some military guy. To that I say, in the words of John Pinette, oh Nay Nay! This was a GENERAL–a two star “Major General O-8″ to be exact; three away from the top! One of only 302 allowed by law in the US Army. This is one of two ranks (the other being “Admiral”) that kids pretend to be when playing war with friends: “I’m the General!” This is a rank that hundreds, if not thousands of troops look up to for leadership and direction in times of war! I won’t get into the nit-picky details of whether or not this specific General actually stands on a battlefield and points at things and demands his troops to “capture it!” The fact that this guy has dedicated his life to service in the US Army (Reserves, to be exact) long enough and distinguished high enough to reach this esteemed rank is impressive enough (for the money-oriented types out there, the position comes with a base pay in the range of $120k-$150k per year, depending on years of service). Add to that the immortal history of the rank (think: Generals Eisenhower, Patton, Lee, Grant, Jackson, Washington, LeMay, et al) and there’s just an air of awe surrounding someone wearing the star(s)–at least, to me there is.
Maj. Gen. Mallory and I