FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
Resiliency isn’t a switch you flip but a character you cultivate, retired Army Col. Gregory Gadson told Defense Logistics Agency employees during a Warfighter Talk at McNamara Headquarters Complex Nov. 17. The former Fort Belvoir garrison commander spoke on resilience and his commitment to the values he learned during his time in the military.
Gadson, a bilateral above-the-knee amputee, said he was often asked about resiliency: How is he resilient? Why is he resilient?
“We talk about resiliency like it's on demand, like it's something we have to be when we need to be,” he said. “But what I would argue is that resiliency is really about our character. It's not about what we do but who we are.”
His character was built day-by-day starting with habits, he said, and his character is what got him through his darkest days.
In 2005, Gadson was selected to command a battalion: the 1st Infantry Division, 4th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery in Fort Riley, Kansas.
It was a newly created unit, so he arrived with no guidance on how to start. Gadson said he relied on what he had learned as a cadet at West Point; he played for a coach whose program taught him the ideals of pride, poise and team.
Over the next two years, as they prepared to deploy, Gadson’s brigade was subject to several mission changes as the situation in the Middle East changed.
In early 2007, his battalion deployed to Baghdad. Gadson said those months were the most violent of his career, and it seemed they lost a service member almost every day.
There were many difficult days, he said, but none more difficult than May 7, 2007.
While returning from a memorial service and contemplating whether the sacrifice of service members’ lives was worth it, Gadson's vehicle was struck by a command-detonated explosive device.
"The blast lifted my 15,000-pound armored Humvee off the road and ejected me out of the vehicle, where I can still remember flying through the air and hitting the ground and coming to a rolling stop on my back," he said.
Gadson credits his team with saving his life. In the hours after he was wounded, he received 129 pints of blood and died six times.
Arriving at Walter Reed Army Medical Center four days later, Gadson faced a series of surgeries and complications. He ultimately lost both legs and partial use of his right arm and hand.
“There was not one single thing that I could do in my life by myself,” he said. “Eat, go to the bathroom, bathe. I absolutely had to have assistance with every single aspect of my life.”
In early August 2007, Gadson wanted to give up.
“For two days, I cried. Just wanted it to end,” he said. “But that wasn't me… In my darkest, lowest moment, I found out who I was. And I certainly wasn't a quitter.”
Gadson decided to rededicate his life to being a father, husband and soldier.
“My legs were gone. There was no need for me to look into the past. Nothing I could do was going to bring those back.”
Gadson decided to continue his active duty service.
“Everybody looked at me like I was crazy… I said, ‘you guys aren't paying me for how fast I can run. I can still soldier. I am not defined by what I don't have. I'm defined by what I'm willing to give. And I'm going to make you throw me out because I'm not leaving.’”
This outlook brought him opportunities such as being a motivational speaker for the New York Giants, sitting on the sidelines of their games, and acting in the movie “Battleship” while still on active duty. Event attendees asked him about both opportunities during the Q&A after his talk.
Jeff Waldron, from DLA Human Capital Transformation, thanked Gadson for being an ambassador, especially for children with limb difference. Both Waldron and his father served in the military, and his son wanted to follow in their footsteps. After his son lost his leg in a cancer battle, Waldon showed him the movie “Battleship.” Waldron told his son he could persevere to do anything he wanted, just as Gadson had.
“Our challenge every day is to make the most of that day,” Gadson said. “It is absolutely that simple. If you're dragging around, encumbered by yesterday, by something that happened in your past that you cannot change. Relinquish that… Be where you're at. You know what? This life will enrich you.”
Before the session concluded, Gadson expressed appreciation for DLA’s role in his military career.
“I think about my earliest days in the military… taking for granted that everything was going to be where it needed to be, whether it was fuel, bullets, the civilian contractors that were going to be there to help us fix our equipment when it wasn't operating correctly,” he said. “All those were never questions of ‘if.’”
The U.S. military’s logistical system is second to none, he said, which is why we are arguably the most capable military in the world.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you all do every day so that men and women like me on the tip of the spear can do what we need to do,” Gadson said.
A recording of the event will be available on DVIDS.