Do it for Dale:

I drove off campus to the nearest BP gas station, just a few minutes away3. In Winston-Salem, NC in 2001 you couldn't pay at the pump, so after I filled up my tank I went inside the station to pay the cashier. There was one customer in front of me standing at the register. I know this man only from behind. He was an older man wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, and an orange baseball cap. He was sweaty and tan. As I walked up behind him I overheard him say to the cashier the most incredible thing I have ever heard a human being say. In a deep North Carolina drawl the gentleman stated:

"As bad as what happened today in New York, I just don't think it'll have the effect on America that the death of Dale Earnhardt did."

Just before my first combat mission in Afghanistan in 20037, I gathered my soldiers together to give some final orders, advice, and reminders before we left the wire. I had been watching them prepare the humvees, check their equipment, and ensure everything was ready. None of us had ever been in combat before. I briefly considered giving them some sort of rousing "Braveheart" style speech to get everyone pumped up for kickin' ass and takin' names. But as I watched those extraordinary men so professionally prepare for the unknown, I realized they did not need to be pumped up. If anything, they were too tight, too mechanical. They needed a bit of the tension let out. So I got them together and I told them about what happened in that gas station in Winston-Salem on September 11th, 2001. I told them what that man said and then I told them: "Let's go fucking do it for Dale."