Col John R. Boyd, USAF
"Tiger, one day you will come to a fork in the road," he said. "And
you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you
want to go." He raised his hand and pointed. "If you go that way you
can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have
to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the
club and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments."
Then Boyd raised his other hand and pointed another direction. "Or
you can go that way and you can do something – something for your
country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide you
want to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get
the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of
your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. You will
be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a
difference." He paused and stared into the officer's eyes and heart.
"To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll
call. That's when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do.
Which way will you go?"
[July 1, 2007 - Of all the things Boyd wrote or said, we probably get
the most requests for his "To be or to do?" invitation. Although Boyd
associated with many junior officers during his Air Force career, there
were a few, perhaps half a dozen, that he had such respect for that he
invited them to join him on his quest for change. Each one would be
offered the choice: Be someone - be recognized by the system and
promoted - or do something that would last for the Air Force and the
country. It was unfortunate, and says something about the state of
American's armed forces, that it was rarely possible to do both.
Boyd's biographer, Robert Coram, collected the invitation from an
officer who got it and selected the "to do" option, and he confirmed
its essence from several others. CR]
Source:
dnipogo.org