Nicholas Panarella:  

From when I was a little kid there were two things that I always wanted to do in life: One was to be a soldier; and, the other was to be an attorney. In retrospect, they are really similar professions inasmuch as they both involved imposing my point of view and will on others. I have done both. I. Military I graduated from La Salle College in June, 1967 and immediately enlisted in the Army. I proudly earned my Infantry Officer Commission at the Fort Benning's School for Boys in June 1968. I was then fortunate enough to be selected for Airborne and Special Forces training right out of OCS. I can honestly say that I was a member of America's most elite fighting force=I was a Green Beret. While on Active Duty, I served consecutive overseas tours with the 8th Special Forces Group in the Panama Canal Zone and then the 5th Special Forces Group in the RVN. From the CZ I deployed to Central America and the Caribbean. I was also an instructor in Jungle School for 6 months. In VN I served on an A Detachment at Plei Me in the Ia Drang River Valley, Central Highlands. If you are familiar with the movie "We Were Soldiers Once....and Young" with Mel Gibson-that battle started at Plei Me and them expanded into the Ia Drang River Valley and surrounding Chu Pong Mountains. That area was also my Area of Operations. Being a junior officer in a unit like SF is hard. You command but you better listen to your NCOs as they have "been there and done that." Its a delicate balance. During this period of my life I was guided by several fantastic NCOs. MSGs Milliard (RIP), Frank Weber (RIP), Claude Rule (RIP), JD Hunter (RIP), Dale Worley (RIP), Bob Mulcahy and Horace Givens (?) to name a few. Like the excellent NCOs that they were, they molded this humble Lieutenant! I have walked in their shadows ever since. These role models taught me literally and figuratively not only how to wear a Green Beret but also what that privilege meant for the rest of one's life. They would say that it is easy to earn the Beret - but it is much harder to wear it-even after you leave the Army. On returning from Viet Nam, I was immediately discharged and left Active Duty. I then entered Millersville State College and got a Teaching Certification. I did this as an academic transition from war to law school. After law school I had a break in service. Ronald Reagan's Presidency challenged me to rejoin. In 1983 I joined the PA ANG and commanded a rifle company located in Philadelphia. It was comprised almost exclusively of intra-city youths. It was the best job I've ever had. By 1986 I felt confident enough to rejoin SF and until 1990 I served in the 20th SFG in both the MD and MS ANG. At the end I was travelling from Philadelphia to Jackson MS for weekend drills. I did many deployments to then West Germany in preparation for WW III. I left the Army after the Gulf War and dedicated myself exclusively to the development of my business. My service spans three decades-in war and in peace-in the Active Component and the Reserve Component. I loved every minute of it. I returned to Viet Nam in 1999 and spent 45 days hiking from Plei Me to Khe Sahn to Laos to the Mu Gia Pass. I tracked the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Along the way I stopped at the sites of our former Special Forces A-Camps and paid homage and offere...Expand for more