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Empowered Storytelling Is the Power of a Journalism Degree


 

Empowered Storytelling Is the Power of a Journalism Degree

By John Admire

John Admire

Years ago (you could say in dinosaur years), I graduated from OU with a journalism degree. But my dream to become a nationally syndicated sports columnist or Madison Avenue advertising executive was ambushed.

The Vietnam War dominated headlines. War and the draft called many. I joined the Marine Corps to dodge the draft. My dad, a World War II veteran, smiled and asked, “OK, son, now how’re ya gonna dodge Vietnam?”  (Oops, didn’t think that through.)

In three combat tours in Vietnam as an infantry Marine, I often asked myself what the practical utility of a journalism degree was. I became more accurate and faster with a rifle than I ever was with a typewriter. I endured more mud and blood than printing ink or copy editing.

Writing a few monthly letters home on rationed cardboard or notebook paper was the only writing I did for years. Reading in combat is hard. I grunted in misery more than spoke. Listening for incoming rockets was a priority, and the thought of communication skills and a journalism career came secondary to surviving.

In time, however, I learned that the ability to communicate gave me critical, meaningful and useful skills and talents. Whether by writing, reading, speaking or listening, the ability to communicate effectively is an asset in any career. OU and my journalism degree prepared me for life and my career more than I ever imagined.   

Communication skills are practical and everyday necessities. Whether in your professional or personal life, you succeed or fail based primarily on your ability to communicate and tell your story. 

You may think this is an exaggeration, but wait until you’re challenged by tantrums from your toddler or temporarily incorrigible teenage son or in a debate with your spouse. They may present you with greater communication tests than writing a speech or presenting a persuasive decision brief to your boss ever will. At home, just as in your career, you have to communicate well to survive.  

In my 43-year Marine career, communicating effectively was virtually a daily requirement. I was blessed with numerous and diverse opportunities and experiences and practically every single one involved communicating with others. You tell your story well and you do well…or fail. 

While serving as the senior military social aide to the president of the United States, I coordinated numerous events with the military and social offices. State dinners were the most demanding events, but receptions and parties were fun and less intense.

"Communication skills are practical and everyday necessities. Whether in your professional or personal life, you succeed or fail based primarily on your ability to communicate and tell your story."

President Jimmy Carter hosted an official state dinner at the White House for Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito. I volunteered to serve as the president’s introducing aide for the event, primarily because no other aide volunteered. (I was ambushed again; I never quite learned to think it through.) When I received the state department’s Yugoslavian guest list about an hour before the event, I realized why no one had volunteered for the normally coveted assignment as the introducing aide. The Slavic language and names were beyond challenging.

While the specific names are now lost to me, passing a whispered Spiljak, Ribicic, Duranovic, Kolisevski, Gosnjak and similar names from a Yugoslavian guest’s unfamiliar accent to the president was unnerving. I massacred, maligned, butchered and botched many names.

Yet, I thought I’d survived when Presidents Carter and Tito positioned themselves to walk the red-carpeted Vestibule Hall from the East Room to the State Dining Room while I shrunk to the north end of the East Room to seek cover among the other aides. At this point, I noticed the president motion to his Secret Service agent. They both looked in my direction, the president whispered to the agent and the agent started walking briskly toward me.

My thoughts of survival disappeared. I knew I’d performed badly. I imagined I’d be relieved of my duties, leaving my Marine career doomed.

“The president would like to see you,” the agent said.

I headed toward the president as if walking the plank or in a funeral march. I thought I was about to be cashiered or crucified.

I stood at attention before the president. He leaned in and asked, “Sir, did you have as much problem with the names as I did?” I was startled that the president had called me sir, and more so by his confession that we both, not just me, had had difficulty with the names.  

I learned an unforgettable lesson that day: The most powerful person in the world is human and can be graciously forgiving. That was the measure of the man, the character of President Carter.

I only regret that my OU professors were seldom as forgiving with tests and grades! But seriously, without the red ink of my professors, their multiple edits to my writing and compassionate mentoring, I would not be as prepared for failure and success. Life often includes both.

On another occasion while serving in the Pentagon, I was invited to write a speech and speak on Constitution Day to Senior Officer War College students. Constitution Day is a major event in our nation’s capital. While I was honored to be invited and accepted, I was curious as to the timing of the invitation, which had only been weeks before the event. I later learned two invitees had accepted and later declined; I was a last-minute sub. Later, I learned why: There were to be two speakers, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and me. 

Justice Scalia was our nation’s foremost constitutional scholar. No one but a fool would attempt to share the stage with his revered legal expertise. No one it seems, but me. Justice Scalia spoke, then I spoke. Afterward, Justice Scalia congratulated me on my theme and said our two talks complemented one another. I sighed in relief. Again, I survived.

Here was another moment where I remembered the advice from my OU professors: Write or speak about what you know best. Justice Scalia best knew the scholarly and legal tenets of the Constitution. So, I tailored my talk to what I knew best, which is representing the military and “support and defend” aspects of the Constitution. 

During my Marine Corps career, I wrote reports or presented briefs to presidents, secretaries of defense and chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff at NATO conferences in Germany, the United Kingdom, the ministry of defense coalition warfare seminars in London and multinational experiment workshops in Paris, among many others.  

Communicating is telling and listening to the stories we read and write, and stories are empowering. Our professors empowered us to communicate with power. That’s the core of journalism.   

OU and my journalism professors prepared an Okie redneck for opportunities and experiences I’d never dared to dream of, and they truly changed my life. It was because of the communication skills I learned at OU that I was able to fulfill such dreams. I’ll always be thankful to OU and my journalism professors and the practical utility of my journalism degree.

About John Admire:
John Admire is a major general, United States Marine Corps (Retired). His 43-year career includes 33 years of active duty, three wars (Vietnam, Iran-Iraq and Gulf War), and five combat tours as an infantry and special operations reconnaissance Marine, plus 10 post-retirement years as a mentor with the U.S. Joint Forces Command. He commanded units worldwide at every level from a platoon with 50 marines to a division with over 20,000 marines. 

John also served as the senior military social aide to the president of the United States, the Marine Corps legislative liaison to Congress and as a member of Gen. Colin Powell’s Pentagon joint staff. He served on joint and combined Marine staffs in Korea, Japan, Thailand and Germany, as well as on the European Command Crisis Action Team to Africa, the Presidential POW/MIA Delegation to Asia and as the U.S. delegate to South American militaries. 

John is an Oklahoman, Phi Beta Kappa honors and Gaylord College graduate at the University of Oklahoma. He holds four master’s degrees and is an OU Hall of Fame Distinguished Alumni and Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame inductee. While John has served in diverse duties and locations, his favorite duty and title is “Dad” to his daughter, Katelyn, a former University of Tulsa magna cum laude scholar and athlete who attends the Penn State University College of Medicine.