Thomas Byrd has been the civilian public affairs officer for four years at Fort Jackson, which is the primary facility for Basic Combat Training of our nation’s Army soldiers, located in Columbia, SC. Tom also served as an enlisted soldier, non-commissioned officer and commissioned officer during 28+ years of active military service, from 1986 until 2015.
Tom talks about, among other things:
-the Army’s rank structure
-how the Army forges a sense of unity among its disparate recruits
-his service in Africa and Southwest Asia
-coping with the unimaginable stresses of real-life military combat
-the balance of freedom and responsibility
Tom finds hope seeing the motivation and training of the Army’s next generation, noting it reflects a cross-section of American society.