Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.  Thank you, Justin, for the kind introduction, and of course thank you Capitol Area Council for this wonderful recognition.

Georgeann and I have been back in Austin now for about a year, and I must say that we are thrilled to be back home in Texas.

During our many years in the military, we never really had the opportunity to establish roots, so it has been a real blessing for us to start sinking our roots deep here in a city that is, truly, everything we hoped it would be.

As we approach Christmas my family will at some point sit down and watch my favorite Christmas movie—It’s a Wonderful Life—starring Jimmy Stewart.

Stewart plays a man named George Bailey who grows up in a small town called Bedford Falls.  The movie is set in the 1940s. 

His whole life George wants to get out of Bedford Falls and see the world.  He wants to do something great with his life.

But as time goes on, one thing leads to another and George is never able to get out of the small town.  About half way through the movie George falls on hard times and decides he’s going to end his life.

He goes to a nearby bridge and is preparing to jump off when God sends him an angel—an angel named Clarence. 

Clarence is new to being an angel and in order to get his angel wings he has to convince George Bailey not to jump off the bridge.  He must convince George Bailey that his life has been worthwhile.

So Clarence decides to show George what life in Bedford Falls would have been like had he, George Bailey, never been born.

There is a great scene in the movie that sometimes goes unnoticed.  But it’s my favorite scene of all.

Clarence takes George to the Bedford Falls graveyard and there is the headstone of George Bailey’s younger brother Harry.  Harry had fallen through the ice when they were young, but George had courageously crawled out on the lake and saved Harry.

George looks at the headstone and sees that Harry died when he was just three years old.

George looks at Clarence the angel and tells him that that can’t be right.  Harry not only lived past three but during WWII Harry Bailey saved an entire ship from begin sunk by a Japanese Kamikaze pilot.

But Clarence reminds George that because George was never born he wasn’t there to save his younger brother.

And then comes the best line in the movie.  Clarence says, “And because you didn’t save Harry, Harry wasn’t there to save those 500 men on the ship.”

And at that point you realize that the act of one man saved not only his brother’s life, but the lives of the 500 men on that ship and…the children of those men and their children’s children.

And if you think it’s just a movie, let me tell you one more quick story.

When I was a senior here at Roosevelt I was trying to break the school record in the mile run.  I had come close a couple of times but struggled in the second to last track meet of the season.

The Thursday before my last track meet, I received a call from Coach Jerry Turnbow, a former Roosevelt football coach who had left the school 18 months earlier for another coaching job in San Antonio.

I was stunned that the coach even knew who I was much less took the time to call me.

During the phone call he said, “Bill, I know you can break this record.  All you have to do is run your hardest.  You have worked incredibly hard.  Just do your best and it will be good enough. You will break the record.”

The next evening I broke the school record.  It was a record no one cared about but me.  But breaking that record gave me the confidence that I could do anything I set my mind to.

Four years later, I knew I could be a Navy SEAL—because Coach Turnbow convinced me that if I set my goals and worked hard enough, I could do anything.

That one phone call changed the direction of my life and in doing so, likely changed the lives of thousands of young men and women who served with me during the Iraq and Afghan wars.

The Scout Slogan is “Do a good turn daily.”  That is what Coach Turnbow did and that is what you and the great folks here at the Capital Area Council are doing every day.

But you don’t have to be a coach or a scout master or a den leader to make those changes.

I was so very, very fortunate in my life to have had a hundred “George Baileys.”

From the very beginning, I had the great good fortune of growing up under the same roof as my two heroes—my mom and dad.

From my father I inherited a love of adventure, the outdoors, and physical challenges.  My dad grew up playing poker on Mississippi riverboats.  He played briefly in the NFL before serving as a fighter pilot in World War II.

Ten years after the war, I came along, and while I never made it past Weblo, my father and I loved to hunt, fish and camp together.

My other hero, of course, was my mother, an English teacher who, among other things, instilled in me a love of poetry.  This was something I hid from my fellow Navy SEALs for many years!

Mom taught me the importance of education, of reading and writing – and even more importantly, both my parents taught me, through their example, the value and nobility of living a life of service.

That’s a lesson that was reinforced by all the teachers I had, from elementary school all the way through UT. 

My mother used to quote Henry Adams, who said “teachers affect eternity.”  And it’s true, because their influence goes on and on. 

It never stops -- every life they affect impacts all the lives that follow.

I’m living proof, because I still vividly recall – not just lessons – but also the kind, and occasionally unkind, words and gestures of teachers I had half a century ago.

I owe a debt to all my teachers, and that certainly includes my ROTC instructors at UT, who began the process of taking a skinny teenager from San Antonio and turning him into a leader of grown men and women.

It dawned on me relatively late in life that along with the Scouts, the military is one of the only institutions that explicitly teaches the values and principles of leadership. 

When I finally left college and joined the Navy, I found an entire ecosystem dedicated to building character and changing lives.

Loyalty, courtesy, kindness, courage, reverence, optimism – these core values are not just inherent in the boy scouts—they are universal for organizations that make a difference.

While folks would never mistake Navy SEALs for Boy Scouts, you might be surprised by the similarities—the  understanding on our part that character matters.

The Scout Oath says, “On my honor I will do my best, to do my duty, to God and my country. 

I will obey the scout law; to help other people at all times--  To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”

The SEAL Creed, says in part;

“My loyalty to Country and Team is beyond reproach.  I humbly serve as a guardian to my fellow Americans and always ready to defend those who are unable to defend themselves.

I serve with honor on and off the battlefield.  Uncompromising integrity is my standard.  My character and honor are steadfast.  My word is my bond.

The nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies.

We demand discipline.  The lives of my teammates and the success of the mission depend on me—my technical skill, tactical proficiency and attention to detail.  My training is never complete.

I will never quit.  I am never out of the fight.

Brave men have fought and died building the proud tradition and feared reputation that I am bound to uphold.  In the worst of conditions, the legacy of my teammates steadies my resolve and silently guides my every deed.  I will not fail.

The words, Honor, duty, country—the need to help those unable to help themselves—come up time and again. 

This Creed was written by a group of SEALs several years ago.  You probably wouldn’t be surprised to know that several of them had been Boy Scouts.

Character matters.  And in today’s world, where barbarians are attacking the very fabric of humanity, character matters more than ever.

We must grow men and women who are prepared to stand up to the savages.  Who are prepared to stand by their beliefs.  Who are prepared to do their duty to God and Country.

We must not be afraid to defend our values and yet—and yet-- at the same time, we must not become so fearful, so weak-kneed, so self-protective, that we lose our compassion and forget what Lady Liberty offered to the world——a place for “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free--she said, “send these homeless, tempest tost to me.”

As we teach our young scouts about the world, we should teach them that great evil abounds—but that there is also great good.  And that good, if wielded with the same vigor as evil, will overcome all obstacles.

So, the challenge before you is to build men and women of great character.  Strong, resilient, with uncompromising integrity and an equal amount of compassion and love for their fellow man. 

It is a tall order. But this is Texas.

One final story. 

After I broke the mile record in high school I never thought about coach Turnbow for another 15 years.

But, fifteen years later, I had become the Commanding Officer of SEAL Team Three.  I was home on leave in San Antonio and my father, who was a very outgoing fellow, bumped into a guy in the barber shop whose son was in high school and was thinking about going into the SEALs.

My dad asked if I would call the young man and give him some advice. 

I remembered-- from years before-- how kind coach Turnbow had been to call me-- so I called the guy and we talked for about 45 minutes.  But after the call, I never heard from the young man again.

Fifteen years after that I was in Afghanistan and we were conducting a hostage rescue mission.  An elderly American contractor had been abducted by the Taliban and they were threatening to kill him if we didn’t meet their demands.

Fortunately, we were able to identify the location of the hostage takers hideout.  I sent in the SEALs to rescue the man. 

It was a small cave complex high in the mountains.  It was a very difficult mission, but my most elite SEAL unit climbed the mountain, quietly entered the camp, dispatched the bad guys and rescued the American.

The next morning the Commander of that SEAL unit came by my headquarters and brought with him the SEAL that had led the raid and rescued the American.

As we made the introductions, both men had a funny look on their face.  Finally, the leader of the SEAL rescue team, said, “Sir, you probably don’t remember me, but 15 years ago you called me and encouraged me to join the SEALs.”

As I later learned the SEAL I had called was a decorated war hero who had saved countless lives in the course of his career.

One good turn—a phone call from a coach, beget another and another.

You may never know how the lives you touched will affect hundreds or thousands or millions of other people—but what I can guarantee you is that by working to improve the lives of our young Americans—through scouting, through family, through teaching, through public service —you will give the world its greatest gift—hope for the future.

Thank you all very much.