Profiles of Valor: MAJ Mark Green (USA)

Mark has a compelling life story.
He grew up “dirt road” poor just across the Mississippi line, south of Jackson, Tennessee. His future prospects were dim, but with the encouragement of his parents and others, there was no stopping his drive to success.
Of his early life, Mark told me: “I worked various jobs because I had to, helped my dad roof houses for extra money. I always had a job, even when I was on the baseball team or in the band playing saxophone. My dad lost his arm when I was in first grade, and the company he worked for told him he was half a man and was only gonna pay him half a salary. So literally, he roofed houses with his left arm, with me as his right arm, to barely make ends meet.”
Mark says, “The determination I learned from watching my dad roof houses with one arm has stayed with me all my life.”
Regarding his path to the U.S. Military Academy, “I did very well in high school and wanted to go to a good college but couldn’t afford it, so had to find a way to get it paid for. West Point seemed like a really good deal, but my parents were concerned that I would not get accepted and told me so — which only motivated me more. I made it in, and when I got to West Point, I fell in love with the Army!”