Page 63 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine
P. 63
John Casper Integrity First, People
Always
by Teresa Casper
how to take care of my soldiers.
And taking care of soldiers
never means taking it easy on
them. ‘People Always’ means
preparing yourself as a leader,
developing difficult and realistic
training scenarios for your unit,
evaluating the unit’s strengths,
addressing its weaknesses, and
having the emotional intelligence
to know when to rest or when to
push harder.” Shortly after the
ground war phase of Operation
Desert Storm commenced, John’s
Following high school, John unit loaded into Blackhawk
applied for and earned a four- Helicopters and conducted an
year Army ROTC scholarship air assault mission designed to
so that he could attend go deep behind enemy fortified
college. He attended West positions to seize key terrain
Virginia University where for the Army’s armored and
he graduated in 1989 with mechanized infantry that would
a degree in Political Science later pass through the area.
ocal attorney and Retired and an Army commission
Lt. Colonel John Casper as an Infantry Officer. He was Following 9/11, John was
Lcredits his military also recognized as a national deployed to combat numerous
service for instilling in him the Distinguished Military Graduate. times, primarily in Iraq and
character traits and leadership During his initial assignment as Afghanistan, spending more
skills essential to launching a platoon leader, John deployed than six years in battlefield
a successful solo practice in with his unit to Saudi Arabia assignments between 2002-2012.
Lubbock, Texas. John recalls in August 1990 for Operation From 2002-2004, John served
his early years in the Army Desert Shield. He was part of consecutive deployments in
while serving as an infantry the expeditionary force that Kosovo, Turkey, and then Iraq,
platoon leader in the famous arrived soon after Iraq’s invasion each time as an Operations
82nd Airborne Division at Fort of Kuwait, to prepare the way Officer or 2nd-in-command of
Bragg, NC (now Fort Liberty). for follow-on forces and
“I learned quickly that Integrity the nation’s build-up for
meant doing the right thing, Desert Storm. Fighting,
Always! Even if nobody else was training, and living in the
watching or would even ever same desert conditions
know.”
as his soldiers for months
Although John was born and at a time taught John the
raised in New Jersey, he had meaning of ‘Mission First,
the upbringing of a typical West People Always.’
Texas kid: playing three sports “When I was deployed
in school and working on his with my platoon for Desert
uncle’s farm in the summertime.
Shield, I truly learned
Lubbock Senior Link 63
