West Point Superintendent 'thankful' for opportunity to speak to Boys Nation, Girls Nation

The original plan for Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland’s visit to Washington, D.C., was to join American Legion Boys Nation and American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation at Arlington National Cemetery as the two youth programs laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

When the opportunity arose for Boys Nation and Girls Nation to instead visit the White House the morning of July 22, Gilland, the 61st superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and his staff shuffled the general’s schedule to ensure he would still be able to speak to both programs.

“Quite honestly, in all the things I’m doing in the two days I’m down here in D.C., talking to Boys and Girls Nation was the No. 1 priority,” Gilland said that evening after speaking to the Boys Nation senators on the Marymount University campus. “That’s why I was coming here, to speak to the young men and women of both Boys and Girls Nation.

“Now, I also understand though, when you get an offer to go to the White House and meet with the president and the vice president, and on top of that they got to meet the NCAA champions from this past academic year, that’s a pretty awesome invite. And I’m not going to stand in between that. I’m just thankful, honestly, that Boys Nation and Girls Nation has really given me the opportunity to reschedule and to be able to talk to Boys Nation this evening, and tomorrow morning talk to Girls Nation. I think I’m the lucky one, quite honestly.”

Gilland was originally to speak to the participants from both programs in the amphitheater behind the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Monday morning. That evening, during his visit to Boys Nation, he spoke about his own Boys State experience and encouraged the Boys Nation senators — all of whom are entering their senior year of high school — to be positive, do their best and be good teammates.

“You’re going to get knocked down. You’re going to face adversity. It’s what you do about it. I think that message is powerful. And it’s not just for our youth, it’s for all of us,” Gilland said afterwards. “… We should all be challenged in various ways, and we should also ask of others to do their best. The three things I talked about: be positive; do your best; and be a good teammate. That’s not just at the Military Academy; that’s life, as far as I’m concerned.”

Gilland credited his experience at Illinois Boys State in 1985 with helping broaden his horizons. “When I look back on it, it was more about going away from home, meeting people that I never met before, I’m now living with them, having to build a team together, having to really put trust in others that I didn’t have a relationship with,” he said, noting that he grew up on a farm in a small rural town and was meeting people from cities like Chicago and Springfield.

He also encouraged potential Boys Staters or Girls Staters to take the chance.

“At a minimum, make someone else tell you no. And I’ve applied that principle throughout a lot of things in life. Make someone else tell you no. Pursue it,” Gilland said. “I was talking to a young man in there about service and specifically what he would like to do. He said, ‘I’m interested in policy, I want to serve.’ So I laid out for him the different things — going to college or university, studying different academic disciplines, internships that exist within the government service … but I also talked about owning it.

“Every day it starts with you, and how you go about life.”