Roy Exum: General Boykin Helps ‘Warriors’

  • Friday, May 29, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

General W.G. “Jerry” Boykin is one of the most fabled warriors in modern-day warfare. He is also one of the most polarizing men who has ever served his country. General Boykin, retired after 36 years as a soldier, spent 13 years in the secretive Delta Force. At one time he commanded the Green Berets and was in one some pretty impressive engagements.

In 1980 he was in on the hostage rescue in Iran. In 1989 he headed the team that went after Manuel Noriega. In early 1993 he was one of the guys who brought down Pablo Escobar and, later that year, was in a famous battle in Mogadishu that was immortalized by the movie, “Black Hawk Down.” General Boykin was even rushed to Waco, Texas, one time as an adviser to Attorney General Janet Reno in the stand-down against the Branch Davidians.

But there is a smear on his name, first discovered by a psychologist who recommended he not be allowed into Delta Force.

He was “too religious,” the doctor ruled before the Amy’s top-brass overruled the notion. “He cares too much about others to be effective,” was another thinly-veiled insult and you’ll be able to see for yourself a week from tonight when he will be the guest speaker at the greatest dinner that is held annually in Chattanooga.

The second annnual American Heroes Dinner, the brainchild of “Wounded Warrior” Andrew Smith and his wife Tori, will be held at the Chattanoogan hotel with proceeds going to the Honoring the Sacrifice Foundation. In the past year the foundation has assisted “Wounded Warriors” and their families in at least six states and General Boykin said Friday afternoon, as he drove home from his office in Washington, “That’s why I am delighted to be coming.”

Asked about his past wounds, the general said, “I’ve been hit with a 50-caliber bullet and I got banged up pretty good in Mogadishu so I’ve been graded as 90 percent disabled. But to look at me you’d just see a regular guy who looks like he’s fine but doesn’t know what he’s doing,” General Boykin laughed over his cell phone while in late-afternoon traffic.

So I asked if he thought we were doing enough for our “Wounded Warriors,” young men and woman who come back home from places like Afghanistan with both of their legs blown away like Andrew Smith, who was injured on his first patrol. “Yes and no,” the General answered

“What we do for soldiers at Walter Reed and in San Antonio is mind-boggling, really the best medicine with the best experts we have. But then we turn them over to the VA (Veteran’s Administration) and it’s the worst experience they’ll ever endure. The indifference and arrogance is incredible and I’m speaking from first-hand experience.”

I interrupted, “What would happen if we did away with the VA, gave these people Social Security benefits with valid health insurance, and let them pick their own doctors?”

“The difference would be incredible. Their health care would be immeasurably better. What you have to know is the VA has government employees. They are going to be paid the same amount if they see two patients or 16 on a given day. Why try? They could care less and what should be a marvelous system as a tribute to our veterans is instead an insult.”

General Boykin doesn’t give a rip what others think and some feel he plays far too loose with government “standards,” especially when he unashamedly professes his love for Christ. “When I was in Ranger School, I failed miserably on an important exercise," he wrote in his acclaimed book, Never Surrender.…"Now, very silently, I began to pray, asking God to help me get through the course." 

“Up until that point, I trusted God mainly with my spiritual well-being, the security of my eternal soul – ‘fire insurance,’ as the old joke goes. For everything else, I now realized, I had been depending on myself, on my own mental abilities, my athleticism, my determination. But when I failed that patrol, I suddenly understood I had been relying too much on myself and not enough on God. For me, that was the beginning of a life lived relying on God moment by moment.

"I began Ranger school a colossal failure. I ended it as an honor graduate.

“One day during the course, I found myself on top of a mountain, hopelessly lost. I sat down, shed my ruck, and looked up toward heaven. ‘Lord, I don’t know where I am, but You do,’ I prayed. ‘Now I ask You to guide me to where I need to go.’ Then I stood, put my rucksack back on, and walked off the mountaintop straight to my RV.

“I can assure you, I began Ranger school a colossal failure. I ended it as an honor graduate.

“In the freezing mountains of North Carolina, I learned to rely on God. When my legs felt made of pig iron, when I knew I couldn’t take another step, I felt His strength. Many, many times, when I was unsure of which way to go, when the terrain blurred into sameness and my map meant nothing, I sensed Him shepherding me in a literal wilderness. When life gets tough, every man draws from a different well of strength, but I am not ashamed to say I depended on God.”

As he spoke outwardly of his devotion to Christ and railed against a Muslin infiltration in America, many critics turned his words into a right-wing zealot's attack on the left. “I had no idea of the national firestorm that lay ahead – that pundits would concoct outright lies – such as that I had said the terror war was ‘a continuation of the Crusades,’ or that I had issued instructions on how to torture the detainees at Guantanamo Bay – and that I would face criminal charges based on those lies.

“I had no idea that within days, Muslim extremists across the globe would begin issuing death threats against me and my family, and that George W. Bush, my commander-in-chief, would stand in the White House Rose Garden and, without even an investigation, publicly disavow me.”

You think that is good? Wait until you hear General Boykin speak as a large crowd will help our ‘Wounded Warriors”. Due to planning and reservation restrictions, all orders for tickets must be submitted by noon on Monday, June 1. To get tickets or learn more about how you can help, please go to honoringthesacrifice.org.

For group reservations, corporate sponsorships and table reservations, contact banquet chairman Todd Smith at tasmith0179@gmail.com or his daughter, Tori Smith at torismith1776@gmail.com

A SPECIAL GUEST at the banquet will be Wounded Warrior Taylor Morris (Ret. Navy EOD) who is one of five quadruple amputees to survive injuries from Iraq or Afghanistan. (Yes, he can do anything you can do, only better!)

royexum@aol.com

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