Command Sergeant Major Terry L. Braddock (US Army, retired) will speak to us Friday about his book with the intriguing title of "The Stump." Braddock, who lives in Houston, is visiting our area and offered to give a talk and sell books. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago during the turbulent and challenging civil rights years. Parents and grandparents instilled in him strong family values and gave him the strength, love, and will to persevere.
Selfless service was always his calling, he says, which led him to enlist in the military and enabled him to serve for thirty-seven-plus years and fulfill the greatest words he had ever heard spoken—those by our thirty-fifth president, John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
His most cherished military award received was the Army Distinguished Service Medal, normally reserved for general officers. It is given for exceptionally meritorious service, when positions of great significance are held.
Life after military is working as the Military Liaison and Director of Sales for the San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind, where he continues giving back. In 2017, he wrote and published his memoir, “The Stump,” a tribute to the words he has held close to his heart all his life, "Let no one tell you 'No', or 'You Can't.'”