MEET THE PATRIOTIC SPEAKER Joe McGraw

BY ETHAN HARTLEY

Whether he’s teaching a class of up-and-coming officers at the Naval War College in Newport, or coaching a group of teenage athletes on the gridiron at Portsmouth High School, Col. (Ret.) Joe McGraw carries the lessons of his illustrious military career with him.

“Green Berets, if you zip them down to their core, they’re teachers,” McGraw said. “We’re built to go overseas and train foreign militaries and soldiers in whatever those countries and our embassies determine needs to be trained. You’re teaching foreign concepts in foreign languages to foreign people … It really does require that awareness of who you are, and that empathetic understanding of where those people are coming from. They’re, often times, substantially different.”

So perhaps there is no one better trained or experienced in bridging the gap between widely disparate points of view to be this year’s Patriotic Speaker for the 238th Bristol 4th of July Celebration — occurring during a time in the country where, McGraw points out, the theme of division and contention among American citizens is front of mind.

“The polarization that we feel from social media, or the news, or politics, from the local level all the way to the federal level, it gives the sense to all of us at an individual level that the threads that hold us together are frayed, or are fraying,” he said. “So it’s important to remember what connects us, because that’s not projected enough, I think.”

“Patriotism is the connection between all of us.”

From

Ohio, to the Middle East, to Portsmouth

McGraw grew up in the small Ohio town of Medina, southwest of Cleveland. Although he didn’t come from a military family, he said that his family and community had a profound respect and admiration for the armed forces. Without intending to make a career out of it, he attended West Point and had the opportunity to receive an education he wouldn’t have otherwise been afforded. But as time went by, he realized he excelled in the military environment.

“It’s funny how plans change, especially when you’re 18 years old,” he said. After passing Ranger School, McGraw spent more than three years within the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regimen before completing the U.S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course in 1998. He was assigned to the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Fort Lewis, Wash.

Over 23 years, McGraw commanded Special Forces units from the A team detachment level to Battalion Command, serving in named operations: Enduring FreedomAfghanistan, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom-Philippines. His last operational assignment was as the Commander of Special Operations Task Force West in Afghanistan, from 2013 through early 2014. He retired from active duty in 2017.

“I was surrounded by tremendous people, from my time at West Point to my early time in the Army and all my assignments in special forces, I was just surrounded by great people, great human beings, both from this country and from people overseas,” he said. “I had one of those lucky careers.”

McGraw moved from Seattle to Portsmouth in 2014, relocating so he could be closer to the Naval War College in Newport, where he is an Associate Professor teaching Joint Military Operations Department, as well as electives on Irregular Warfare, Military Deception and Special Operations.

In addition to his time in the classroom, McGraw said that some of his most rewarding work is done on the football field as an assistant coach for Portsmouth High School.

“There’s not a day where I don’t feel better about everything than when I leave the football field,” he said. “Just being around kids, working hard every day and working for a common purpose.”

On being Patriotic Speaker

Being a Rhode Islander for almost a decade, McGraw is no stranger to the festivities associated with this time of year, and is humbled by his role as Patriotic Speaker.

“I’ve always thought of Bristol’s Fourth of July Celebration as a big deal, how many committees are working on it, how many different programs and different things,” he said. “The history and tradition of it makes it extremely cool.”

McGraw said that in crafting his speech, his goal is to try to remind people that the American ideals that have endured throughout centuries of change and strife remain important today, and are shared by everybody, regardless of their political affiliations or beliefs.

“It has been an American characteristic since the birth of the country that hope — not just hope, but a belief in hope — that tomorrow is going to be better than yesterday, that next year will be better than the last. That our children will have a better future than we did,” he said. “Not because we’re pre-destined to be better, but by doing things the right way, that things can and will be better …

And because of the gift of the U.S. Constitution, we have an environment where it can be that way. That we can live together with differences, bound by a common purpose.”

McGraw said he is also encouraged that a majority of the American people continue to support members of the armed forces, not necessarily in a way that endorses every action the military takes, but in supporting the people who choose to serve. He says that is an important lesson he bestows to students in his classroom.

“I tell them that you are one of the things that cross-cuts society and threads them all together. So honor that, and don’t mess it up. Don’t spoil that by becoming partisan in how you conduct yourself and what you say,” he said. “They need you to represent all of them — from left to right.”

Rather than looking to the federal level of government to try and reunite people, McGraw said it is up to every individual at the local level to begin that movement.

“It really starts at the family and community level, where you just have to put down the social media and your screens and talk to your neighbors or people down the street and remember what connects us all together,” he said. “We’ve been here before, we’ve come together before, we’ve cross stitched society together to come back for a purpose. Don’t wait for it at the federal level, do it at the local level.”