Today’s installment of Meet the Author features LTG. Julius Becton, Jr., USA-Ret. His outstanding memoirs are entitled Becton: Autobiography of a Soldier and Public Servant. A great read. If I can be half as successful as LTG Becton, I will be most pleased. Enjoy the interview.
What contributed to your success?
My family upbringing, my K- 12 schooling, my basic Christian beliefs, and my very supportive family. Louise and I celebrated our 61st anniversary last January.
If you could live your life over again, is there anything you would change?
Very little. I would try to avoid all the miss-statements I have made to the media, and I would certainly spend more time with our children during their formative teen years.
Who were some of your Army mentors?
While not a soldier, I must always include my father (Julius W Becton, Sr., which is why I continue to use “Jr” after my name even though Dad died more than 40 years ago) and my first pastor (Rev J Arthur Younger), who baptized me, conducted our marriage ceremony, baptized Louise, christen our first two children, and remain a friend and advisor until his death. Army mentors include General Creighton Abrams, MG Frederic Davison, General Bob Shoemaker, CSM Walter Krueger, and a host of former military leaders, warrant officers and NCOs.
After 3 wars in a 40-year Army Career, you became President Reagan’s FEMA Administrator, a University President, and D.C. Public Schools CEO. How did your Army career prepare for these demanding positions?
I can’t think of anything I encountered as a retiree in those positions you mentioned that I did not experience as a soldier. Additionally, I developed a philosophy of command during my later years of soldiering that I used consistently in every post-army retirement job, under the title of Philosophy of Management (my civilian personnel did not like the term command):
1. Children First (added after I became the CEO/Superintendent DCPS)
2. Be Professional
3. Integrity is non-negotiable
4. Loyalty is a two-way street
5. Chain of command works – if we use it
6. Innovate – seek a better way
7. Admit mistakes
8. Disagreement is not disrespect
9. Challenge assertions
10. Be sensitive to (and intolerant of) abuse and misuse of our people
11. Conservation, security, safety and education: Everybody’s business
12. Maintain your sense of humor
13.Keep things in perspective
How long did it take you to write your memoirs?
I started to work on it while president, PVAMU in 1992 and I finished it in 2007. I am a slow learner.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
In every position since commanding an airborne cavalry squadron in Vietnam in ’67-’68 until I retired in 1983, I have maintain contact with many of those professional soldiers, as well as folks from those four civilian positions, until this day. Finally, we are very fortunate that we are in frequent telephonic and email contact with our five adult children, 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren — and they all like each other and get along well.
