Michael Foreman
December 10, 2015
Jay Jones
Campus Event Review
The culture of a nation is important to every country no matter where an individual comes from. Understanding the culture of a nation, people, or group, the arts, beliefs, customs, practices, values, and social behaviors, lies at the heart of your culture. By attending cultural events, an individual gets to experience firsthand the diverse offerings of culture and artistic expression found in a community. Education can’t happen just at school, it must go beyond the classroom. Watching a play performed live is a different experience than reading a play from a book. When attending events, it builds student’s horizons bigger and gains insights into their own communities as well as a broader perspective of our world’s diverse cultures. Some of the more common cultural events that are held are going to be in the arts. That’s going to be more music, customs, beliefs, and values. These cultural events are usually well attended with a good amount of people. My events that I’m going to be discussing is about First Sergeant Matt Eversmann from “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories”. Sgt. Eversmann spoke to a group of 100-150 people in our Olscamp Hall on November 10th. Sgt. Eversmann, who is a best-selling author and motivational speaker, focuses on motivating all people, soldiers, students, or employees, through value based leadership and encouraging them to do their best and dedicate themselves to a cause. His courage and patriotism are incomparable, and his power as a motivational speaker is perfect. Sgt. Eversmann has received many military decorations, including the Army Service Ribbon, the National Defense Service Ribbon, eight Army Achievement medals, and four Army Commendation medals. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor device and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge for his service in Somalia. Eversmann also served 18 months in Iraq leading an elite Army Ranger force before his retirement in early 2008.
Sgt. Eversmann’s first ever mission was leading his soldiers into the Battle of Mogadishu, where they spent 18 dreadful hours when US soldiers in Somalia were trapped in a hostile district of Mogadishu. Young Rangers and Delta Force soldiers fought side-by-side until a rescue convoy was mounted. In attending his speech, he introduced himself by telling us who he was and about what he does now after leaving the force. He told us stories on how he got to lead his platoon on his first ever mission into Mogadishu when his commander came up to him at base and told him the news. Sgt. Eversmann spoke to us about the movie that was created about the Battle of Mogadishu called “Black Hawk Down” and how it felt to be on set and seeing everything come together so perfect that it was like he was living it all over again. Eversmann also spoke to us about leadership and courage. There was this story he told us about that involved a soldier fresh into the military that slipped and fell when roping down from the aircraft. The soldier was right smack in the middle of gun fire and another one of Eversmann’s soldiers ran out in the middle of it all just to rescue that man. He used that as an example of showing courage and leadership because sergeant even told us he would’ve never had the guts to do that. Eversmann wasn’t encouraging us to join the force but to be a leader in everything that you take part in. He told us after retiring in early 2008, he’s been going from place to place telling people his motivational speech and encouraging people to do their best and to stand out.
This event with Sgt. Matt Eversmann was pretty much the only event I’ve ever attended but I can say he did a pretty good job on performing. In my perspective, he did a good job presenting because his stories were life like about military life. By the way Mr. Eversmann was introduced, you could tell they practiced at least a little bit before the actual event. Just by starting with the few small clips from the movie and then him walking up clearly showed they practiced. In the beginning of the speech there were so difficulties that had come up with the video which made things a little awkward for everyone, but once the video started to work it was a good introduction as to that was going to be talked about in the speech. I believe everything in the performance was great. The whole time he was speaking he had a rhythm and just everything went from one point and lead into the next. By all his stories and inspiration, it was very easy to follow, I wasn’t lost at one point throughout the whole speech. Everything was in good order as well. He started talking about his background at first and then led into his story. After that, he starting talking about leadership and was inspiring us to be leaders and step up when the time comes. Then he followed up with a little “Q and A” as people started to ask him question he knew enough information to give good answers with tons of information. His speech also contributed to cultural enrichment of the campus a little bit as well. This is because with the inspiration of being a leader and encouraging people to be someone better will inspire people to be a leader in their major in anything that comes towards them and encourage people to stand out and study for more exams to be the best they can instead of a lazy college student who just wants to be average.
All my life I’ve always wanted to join the force but I never had the courage or audacity to go ahead and join. Sgt. Eversmann’s speech that day was defiantly inspirational towards me and I guarantee many others. He set a perfect example for a U.S. marine and talked not only about what he did in the force but what he did outside of it. A lot of people once they leave the military will just retire but no, he ended up writing his own book about his experience in Black Hawk Down and became a motivational speaker that goes from point to point motivating people to be the best they can. Eversmann got many awards for his time he has served our country. Awards such as Army Service Ribbon, the National Defense Service Ribbon, eight Army Achievement medals, four Army Commendation medals, the Bronze Star Medal with Valor device, and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge for his service in Somalia. Mr. Eversmann is an inspirational figure to any cadet that is planning on joining the military in the near future.
The venue of the speech was a pretty good place for it to be held. The little stage fit perfect in the corner even though he didn’t stand on it, he seemed a little awkward standing up there. The acoustics were good and the room sat just the right amount of people. There were seat empty but still a good amount of people in the room. Since it was held in that certain room there were just library chairs to sit on. Not the most comfortable chairs but they upheld for about the time of the speech. I started to get a little uncomfortable in them towards the end of the speech. There wasn’t really an overall ambience, it was just all straight from the speakers and microphones from upfront on the stage.
Sgt. Eversmann had told us plenty of stories about his life. One story that really stuck out to me and struck me the most was the story about a man in his platoon. It was this soldiers first day and they were dropping into Mogadishu from the ropes. As he was sliding down the black hawk helicopter was struck, he fell off the rope, fell about 40 yards and smacked the ground. Eversmann rope down and the first thing he said he saw from the battle was “this man that fell down from the ropes right smack on his back.” Eversmann ran to cover as they were already taking unexpected gun fire from the enemy. He told us that the whole time his soldier was sitting in between both sides of gun fire and everything just hit him right there. Then out of nowhere another one of his soldiers ran out in the middle of gun fire just to grab this one man. Eversmann told us right then that he “never would’ve had the guts to do that.” That takes definite courage and showed great leadership there. Even though it wasn’t Eversmann that ran out there to grab his fallen soldier, he shows great leadership just by leading his platoon on that mission, his very first one and an awful place to start with. Sgt. Eversmann was a great leader that’s why he was chose to lead that mission. Even after he retired from the military he was still a leader with his motivational speaking. He then went on to tell us to be our own leader and not to follow others.
Overall, this speech was great. It was a great topic to talk about. Not only just about the military but leadership and courage. Sgt. Matt Eversmann did a great job in speaking to all of us and telling us about his life. I believe it was very well received by the BGSU community, at least the people that attended. So what do people get out of this speech? Hopefully people got the message to always be a leader in everything you do and to do the best you can. With this speech, it inspired me to work a little harder in classes. There’s plenty more events just like this one that happen all over campus. They are all easily accessible by the school website and you’re just a click away.