He quickly addressed the recent stance by some professional athletes of sitting during the national anthem.
“I want to congratulate personally the singer of the national anthem and the color guard — that is the best I’ve seen,” he said, recognizing those who performed at the event. “I do worry today that people are disrespecting our flag and our anthem. I don’t understand it. Maybe it’s because we as a nation take freedom for granted because that is all we’ve ever known.”
He added that, over 1.2 billion have given their lives serving their country and defending the freedom that Americans enjoy today.
“We are a nation at risk and we have people sacrificing their lives right now in places like Iraq and Afghanistan for our freedom,” Lynch said. “Freedom we didn’t get for free.”
Coming back to Hamilton left the retired general in storytelling mode of fond memories and also proud of seeing the city he grew up in become more modern and more successful.
“Both my parents worked at the old Champion paper mill and I got a job there when I was 13 because we needed the money,” Lynch said.
He said he wanted to go to college after high school, but knew his family couldn’t afford it, but thanks to Eileen Lowell, a high school administrator at Hamilton Taft, who told him about military academies, he said he was able to have a career.
“I walked in to see Eileen Lowell in 1972 and said, ‘I think I’m supposed to go to college but I have no idea how to do that because my parents don’t have any money,’” Lynch said. “I said ‘do I have any options?’”
He explained that Lowell informed him that he could apply to military academies and they would pay him to go there if he got accepted.
“I applied to West Point and Annapolis,” Lynch said. “I got my acceptance to West Point on a Monday and Annapolis on a Tuesday. The only reason I went to West Point is that I got the acceptance the day before. I tell people that the postman truly determined my fate.”
Lynch is currently the CEO of his own company, RLynch Enterprises, and has recently published a book on adaptive leadership entitled “Adapt or Die: Leadership Principles from an American General.”
He said the book espouses several different ways to become an effective leader and also ways to embrace diversity when comprising ways to become a successful leader. Lynch added that he is shocked by the way people are tuning in social media while tuning out each other.
He said he and his wife, Sarah, moved 27 times during his 30-year military career and the sacrifices that spouses make in the military deserve special recognition.
This year’s presidential election also made it into Lynch’s address. Lynch said he was a supporter of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, then former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, as well as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
When all three were defeated by GOP nominee Donald Trump, Lynch said he had a different outlook on the race.
“All three of those gentleman were strong Christian men who cared about American for whatever reason in our process they fell by the wayside and you have the options you have,” Lynch said. “You have a choice of two, but don’t worry at the end of the day it’s not about what’s going in Washington — they aren’t going to solve the problems we are going to solve them right here.”
Ian MacKenzie-Thurley, Fitton’s executive director, said Lynch is a great speaker and a true example of a success story and a hero.
“We are trying to bring back people like the general to inspire and encourage the next generation,” he said.
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