WHILE WE LIVE, WE SERVE A Legacy of Service
From left to right: Capt. Phillip Carter ’12, Capt. Kel Harrison ’12, Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Rick Porter ’78,
Col. (Ret.) Jack Ziegler ’79, Maj. Brad Deloach ’04, 1st Lt. Evan Smith ’16, and 1st Lt. Cam Porter ’15
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etired Brigadier General Rick Porter ’78 wears a suit and tie most days. He serves as the G1 of the U.S. Army Forces Command, or FORSCOM, located at Fort Bragg, N.C. FORSCOM, the largest Army command, is a four-star headquarters responsible for providing combat units that are well-manned, equipped and trained before they go into combat. Porter is in charge of getting the right soldier with the right skills to the right place at the right time. Porter hung up his uniform in 2010, except for special occasions like PC’s annual ROTC Commissioning Ceremony, where he frequently speaks. Decorations on his uniform reveal the loyalty and commitment he showed in 32 years of service to his country. Awards and decorations like the Legion of Merit, the Master Parachutist Badge, and the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster are the same ones on the uniforms of some of the Army’s greatest soldiers, like George C. Marshall, whose framed portraits hang on the walls of FORSCOM. Porter is always surrounded by the presence of those, like Marshall, who served before him. Porter’s office is close to the All American Hall of Heroes, where plaques commemorating fallen soldiers line the walls. All the same, Porter always makes it a point to engage with those he serves with now. He stops to talk with everyone he meets in the hallways, regardless of how decorated their uniform is. “Every single day, as a leader, you’re building a team,” Porter said. “Every single day, you’re trying to motivate or
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inspire people, or crews, or groups, to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do.” Porter had the same approach when he led soldiers for the first time. He was in Wiesbaden, Germany, then and was a second lieutenant in charge of 32 soldiers. “I tried to approach everything just like I would as a coach,” he said. “A coach inspires and motivates his players. He recognizes them for doing great things. He coaches them and helps them get better.” Porter learned some of his leadership skills from his father, who was a command sergeant major in the Army and served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Porter’s leadership style was also largely shaped by the ROTC program at PC. Porter didn’t plan to join ROTC when he arrived on the PC campus. Although his father served in the Army, Porter didn’t intend to follow in his footsteps. Instead, Porter had envisioned a different path for himself. He came to PC to play football, major in business administration and join the corporate world once he graduated. But all that changed the summer before his freshman year. “I remember Coach Cally Gault gathering all the freshman football players in a classroom after practice,” Porter said. “We were still in pads and were all sweaty, and Col. Cameron, the professor of military science, who was a very dynamic and charismatic kind of guy, came in and talked to us about ROTC.” Cameron went to all of the football practices. He learned the freshman players’ first names and called them by their first names. That meant a lot to Porter, who was 18 at the time.
