What club, group or sport most influenced your leadership character as a kid?

Boy Scouts. Made it to Eagle and learned a great deal about leadership, hard work, and cooperation.

We didn't have much in my small town but we did have FFA which was my choice. Learned all about leadership and public speaking during my time to the point that I acted as a chapter officer two years in a row and achieved my State FFA Degree which I keep hanging on my wall. Really enjoyed it and it helped a lot.

Baseball and football...total team sports and no I in team, had to learn to be a part of the team...

I would have to say football was my biggest influence. I came from a very small school and had the great opportunity to play sports there. God blessed me with some great abilities and talents which made me pretty successful in athletics especially football. The younger kids seemed to gravitate towards me as someone they looked up to and I was also placed in a leadership role on the team. I knew in order for my team to be successful I needed to step up and be the leader they not only needed but also deserved!

I grew up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). Our church uses the scouting program as the activity arm of our young men's youth program. In conjunction with both as a youth I learned how to accept great responsibility, and an understanding of right and wrong. Our young men's program trains boys on how to become missionaries and teaches them responsibility. They taught us how to be motivated to earn the money to pay for our missions, and how to serve others as Jesus did.

In the scouting program I made it to the rank of Eagle Scout, but my scoutmaster told me that he was not there to do it for me. He was there to give me the tools to do it myself. I had to find my own merit badge counselors and make sure that I was prepared for what ever was in store. At age 16 I got our unit to accept an Explorer program, and I became the first post president of that explorer program. I was awarded the Outstanding Leadership in Exploring, it was the last year they awarded it, that you can still wear the knot. You have to special order it from the national office. Both of these programs working together taught me how to be a better team player, and how to get along with others. I learned a lot about diversity and accepting others for who they are. It also gave me a great thirst for learning about other cultures, so when I would get an assignment in a foreign country, I would absorb all the culture I could. I grew up in Los Angeles, so I was fortunate to be exposed to many cultures from around the world, and my church leaders and advisors who had served LDS missions in many countries around the world were able to teach me many things about the cultures they served. This helped greatly while serving as the 1st Corps liaison to the ROK Army. I have been able to make friends from every country I served in, and I have great relationships with many people of other religions and cultures that allows me to understand where people get their belief structure and their desires to do good in the world. We are all God's children, and I know he loves each and everyone of us equally, without guile or favoritism. We are all equal in His eyes and we all have the potential to do great things, no matter what our circumstance. He has blessed each one of us with talents that he expects us to share with others, be it leadership, music, teaching, etc.. It is our responsibility to use and enhance those talents that He gave to us. Many of you have done that very thing, and I think that is why all of us are called Veterans of the United States of America!

Scouting for sure. Scouting produces competent, civic-minded, service-oriented young adults. It places kids into age appropriate positions of leadership responsibility. It is a merit based advancement system. The outdoor skills, first aid, pioneering, land navigation and extended hiking and camping trips teach real world leadership as well as how to be a good team player and follower. I like to describe Scouting as teach real-world skills disguised as fun and adventure. The entire experience prepared me well for time in uniform in the Army.

NJROTC. Four years. I had a chief who was fmf corpsman, 20 years.
He was an amazing leader. Made me want to be a chief.

Though I currently attend the Seventh-day Adventist Church regularly, I was attending the Church of God in Christ as a child. In that church, there were two youth oriented programs that had a profound impact on my maturity and development of conservative personal values -- the Purity Class and the YPWW (Young People Willing Workers). I also attended the Sunday School every Sunday. They were essentially an extension of home. Everything concerning respect of self and of others (especially the elderly and those with authority over me), table manners, how to treat girls and women respectfully and with consideration, how to dress for success, how to care for my clothes, personal hygiene and health, how so speak with authority and in an educated manner, striving to be the best and with honesty, etc., were all taught at home and reenforced at church through those programs.

In school, I was very busy with the music program, especially the Marching Band and Jazz Band. It was through the Marching Band in particular that I learned how to listen and respond to orders and how to march in step with everyone else. You had to be physically fit in order to do some of the things we did. And as a member of any musical ensemble regardless of size or type, team work is paramount in order for that ensemble to make good music and perform well during concerts. This is especially true when the ensemble is a part of worship services for two reasons. 1. It can often be the piece that speaks more powerfully to certain members of a congregation than the sermon itself, and 2. The musical ensemble is a part of a larger team that includes the pastor, elders, deacons, ushers, prayer ministers/warriors, audio/visual technicians and sometimes praise dancers and banner carriers. While each person has their own part, all of them working together in one accord in the Spirit of God usher in a powerful atmosphere of worship and praise. These kind of cohesiveness is supposed to exist in the military structure as well, putting service before self and maintaining the integrity of oneself and well as the whole unit.

At eight years old, my father, a Marine Corps Staff Sergeant and a Veteran of WWII, enrolled me into a Drum & Bugle Corps. For those of you who have very little knowledge of what a Drum & Bugle Corps is, I can tell you what it isn't. It is not a band and it has nothing to do with schools. It's a non profit organization, sometimes sponsored by VFW or a Legion Post, for kids from all kinds of backgrounds and walks of life and ranges in age from 8 to 21. It is semi-military and I was taught how to play a soprano bugle. I was in this Drum & Bugle Corps for over ten years and we marched and played all over New England and in Canada and we even marched and played at JFK's Inauguration. I became a soloist for the Corps and being a part of the Drum Corps taught me respect, team work, leadership and pride. The Drum Corps was the beginning of a Service Life that I lead me to wearing many Uniforms throughout my life. From the Drum & Bugle Corps, to the US Marine Corps to the NH State Police. (http://www.uniformsthebook.com)

As a kid it was Civil Air Patrol where I decided to be a pilot. As an adult Boy Scout leader training called Wood Badge gave me valuable leadership training.

Fulfilled the old joke: what's the difference between the Air Force and Boy Scouts? Boy Scouts have adult leaders.