How To Actually Build Discipline - Gen. Stanley McChrystal - #942

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
I didn't know that you nearly got expelled from West Point.

**Stanley A. McChrystal** (0:04)
I did. I had two problems my first two years at West Point. The first was I wasn't as academically prepared as some students, and I didn't have good study habits. So I had a very low grade point average, but that wasn't really what threatened me. I had a discipline problem. So starting my first summer, I got what they call a slug, and that was for disrespect toward a cadet superior. They actually called it disapprobation. I had to look up the word. I didn't know what it meant. And I got that. And then a few months later, I got caught drinking. Well, I didn't get caught drinking. I got caught drunk. And so I got in significant trouble for that, and they put you on the area to walk punishment tours. You might have seen that where you walk out on this, it's a courtyard in the middle of the barracks, and you have your rifle, and you walk back and forth for an hour at a time, and you are awarded those punishment tours in hours. So like if you get convicted of an offense, you would get a certain number of demerits, a certain number of punishment tours, and then a certain number of months of special confinement. And that meant that when you weren't walking punishment tours or in class or something like that, you were in your room. You couldn't go out. It was like being in prison. So I got my first big one. I got a three month slug. And then I got off on a Friday. I walked my last tours on a Friday in the fall. And, you know, you got to celebrate. So I actually had a date with a young Italian girl from New Jersey and she came up. And so on Saturday, we went to the football game. My friend and I and she and her friend. And so we go to the football game and that was great. And then the idea was they would go back to the Thayer Hotel where they had rooms. They would change and get ready for the formal that night. It was going to be a formal dance. So we went up to our room, theoretically to get ready, but we had more time than we needed. So we started drinking. And we started drinking 151 proof rum, mixing it with some cola out of that Coke machine. And sort of the last thing I remember is getting caught again.
Literally, the night I was, you know, the day I was off my first one and I get a second one. And I'm about to get thrown out for that, because I go into this commandant's board, where a colonel is the president of the board. And he was a, you know, obviously an older Vietnam veteran, real mature guy. And I thought they were going to throw me out, because based upon how much the punishment would be, it would either put me over to demerits and throw me out then or not. But when I walked in, he goes, I don't get it. He says, you just got off this other one, and now we're about to hit you with another big slug. And as soon as he said that, I knew I wasn't going to get thrown out, because he just said, you know, we're dismissing you. I knew I was going to get under the wire. So it was another big slug. It was another 44 hours on the area, another two months of special confinement. And so it was pretty painful, but I didn't get thrown out, which was a positive.

**Chris Williamson** (3:18)
What did you learn from that? What were the lessons that you took away?

**Stanley A. McChrystal** (3:21)
Well, it's interesting. In the moment, I didn't learn a lot. But over time, when I process it later, you know, I'd always wanted to be a soldier. I wasn't as interested in West Point as I was to be a soldier. So I had to go through West Point to be my father, because my father was my hero. He was a combat veteran, Korean, Vietnam. I was still on active duty at the time. And so I was trying to be him. And I put it all at risk. I literally put... You know, it's a great story now when I go up and I've spoken at West Point a few times. Here I am, retired four-star general. I can joke about how many punishments I had and how close I was to get thrown out. But if I'd gotten thrown out, it wouldn't be a funny story. It would be something I probably didn't mention. It would have been an opportunity lost. So, you know, maybe late in life, I learned if there are things that really matter, I value them.