5 minute read
Q&A with Cody Mitchell '11
– Cody Mitchell ’11
Cody Mitchell graduated cum laude from PC and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army in 2011. Mitchell served as student body president, ROTC battalion commander, and president of Kappa Alpha Order before earning a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. Today, Mitchell serves as an attorney at Lucas, Warr, White, & Mitchell in Hartsville, S.C., and as a judge advocate in the S.C. Army National Guard. He also serves as the municipal judge for the town of Bethune and city of Hartsville, both located in S.C.
Mitchell talks about how ROTC and PC prepared him for law school and his career.
Q. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO BE IN ROTC?
A. ROTC is one of the main reasons that I ended up at Presbyterian College. Prior to probably the early spring semester of my senior year in high school and seeing the sign on I-26, I didn’t know anything about Presbyterian College. One of my high school classmates, Jeff Brown, who’s also a graduate of PC, had already applied to PC and had been accepted. He received an ROTC scholarship, and he talked to Mike Smith about me. Mr. Smith was the professor of military science at the time and reached out to me.
My mom and I went to Clinton the Monday after to visit PC on a rainy, dreary Clinton day, and we loved it. She loved it because it reminded her of a bigger version of Tusculum, which is located in her hometown. Also, we were welcomed like none other by the people of PC. ROTC is the whole reason that the Cody Mitchell / Presbyterian College story even exists.
Q. DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU WERE PUT IN A LEADERSHIP POSITION IN THE ROTC PROGRAM?
A. It was my sophomore year. We won the Ranger Challenge for the Southeast ROTC program, which was a big deal. The Ranger Challenge is a weekend competition at Fort Jackson. We competed against 13 or 15 other schools, and we won. I think it’s about eight or 10 events over a weekend afternoon and ending Sunday mid-morning. And we were able to win, which was a big deal for little PC to be able to beat the big schools. And I think that was probably the first time that people like Taylor Duren ’08, Corey Wynn ’08 and I were actually put in leadership roles. You trained, and you practiced, and you did different things all the time. We were doing this all while competing against senior cadets.
Q. HOW DID ROTC MAKE YOU A BETTER STUDENT OVERALL?
A. ROTC is an opportunity, but you have to reach certain benchmarks. You do PT three times a week. You would normally be up about 5:30 or 6 a.m., you would do whatever the exercises were that day, and you would run. And then, of course, depending on the week, you’d have ROTC class two or three days a week. You knew that you had a certain GPA that you had to maintain, and your grades go into what they call accessions.
When you are a junior, you go to your summer camp out at Fort Lewis. You come back, they rate you amongst all the other ROTC cadets that had graduated that year, and that determines what your job is going to be. And you get to rate the different branches of the service, the infantry, or whatever, and your grade played a big part in that. So not only do you have your scholarship to worry about, but you have the rest of your military life depending on it. If you do better, it’s going to put you in a better position to actually get the branch (job) you want.
I know people I served with who were probably not great students normally, and when they got in ROTC, you could see a direct change, and they’re still serving and excelling and making PC proud. And I think if you talked to them, they would say that ROTC has a lot to do with it.
Q. WHAT HAS ALLOWED YOU TO EXCEL IN YOUR CAREER?
A. It was instilled in me by my family long ago that the most important thing that you could do is help somebody. My Papaw, who everybody’s always heard about, even though they might not have met him, told me years ago that the most important thing in life was not about how much money you made, but it was about how many people you helped and how many friends you had. You normally got your friends from helping people. When you are an old man sitting on your rocking chair looking back at your life, you won’t think, “It’d be good to have some money” because you won’t remember the money. You’d remember the friendships you had, the people you helped, and people who helped you. That’s really what mattered. I guess it goes back to Dum Vivimus Servimus with PC. That’s what matters, or at least it does to me.
Q. WHO AT PC INFLUENCED YOU?
A. I don’t think I would be where I am today without PC.I don’t think that I would have probably made it into law school as quickly as I did. PC provided me the opportunity to be SGA president, KA president, battalion commander of ROTC, but more importantly, it provided me great friendships. PC provided me one of my best friends. I’d say more than that; it provided me a brother. I’m an only child, but my brother is Brian Barnwell ’06. Brian has always been there when I needed him and without PC, I probably wouldn’t know him.
Mitchell Spearman ’03 is another one. Even though we weren’t at PC at the same time, we had the PC connection, and he has always helped me and has always supported me. Dean Thompson, of course. How can you say anything about PC without talking about Dean Thompson? Dr. Hobbie was very supportive. Leni Patterson ’83 always makes me look good and gets me involved. Randy Randall ’75 is a great guy, and it’s always good to see him around.
I still remember every morning going into Jacobs Hall. Mrs. Virginia Vance would be walking around campus, and I always stopped to speak to her. If you’re running late for class, what better excuse than to say, “I’m sorry, but I was talking to Mrs. Vance”? Or Mrs. Ellie Campbell, who was always with Mrs. Vance and always made a big deal if I was around. Ms. Emily Bailey also was very involved in PC.
And then I would go down to GDH to find Johnny, who worked at GDH for who knows how long. Johnny always took care of me, and still does when I’m up there. And Ms. Lula Bell, who made me sandwiches all the time and tried to doctor me up if I was still feeling a little poorly in the mornings. Also, you can never forget the maintenance guys, Pork Chop and Ricky Hess, who always welcome you with a smile and ol’ Ricky even played a number of fraternity parties at the ol’ KA house.
If I didn’t mention Ginger Crocker, I would be flogged, but Ginger has always looked out for me. I was lucky enough to be adopted as one of her PC children. I don’t get to see her quite as much as either one of us would like, but she’s always been very good to me. Without PC, I would not be the person I am today.
