We have a grandson that is in his senior year of school and is into everything good such as ROTC
He called me last night and ask if I would be their main speaker at their Military Ball in January.
I was really floored that he would ask his old granddad. I think as he was asking he was afraid the answer would be a thanks but please get some one else. When I told him I would you could hear the excitement in his voice when he excitely said "you will" and I told him I would be honored. He was really excited and said "wow thanks papa I really appreciate it".

I have talked very little about my military days but somehow he found that I was nominated for a very prestigous medal and from lack of caring back then it was never pushed up the ladder. He found out as well that I was given another medal which is a soldiers medal. It is the highest award that you can get in a combat zone for heroism but not under enemy fire when the deed was done

IT stands up there with the top of the medal chain. Have any of you ever spoken on your past military years at a function like this? and if so would appreciate any pointers?

They are wanting me to talk about this medal, as well as the purple heart I have, what it
means, and how I received it. That is about a 10 second speech ,but will bring up some old memories that have laid dormant for 40 plus years. Any help would be appreciated! These kids are the age I was when I went over so it is going to be tough.

 

thats really cool,and a great honor. good luck.

 

Just so you know, I edited your grammer and punctuation a little to make it readable.

Unfortunately I am a yung'in myself and have not experienced anything like this. If there is anything that makes me happier, its to see strong familial ties.

I wish you luck!

 

Thanks Track,I try to put spaces in there but they keep running off when I post .I have gathered them up a time or two and threw them back in but the run off as soon as I hit post
I have no idea what Familial ties mean ,I take you mean family I am not correcting it lol
This grand son is another story that I will have to share in another post at some point. He has really taken us into his life as if we were his real grandparents

 

My friend has 2 bronze stars and 2 purple hearts from 3 tours in Iraq. He spoke in front of my sister's college class 2 years ago. Apparently he spent the whole time cracking jokes.

The most memorable one being...

One time I was on the phone with my mom, and explosions start going off all around me, and my mom starts crying. So I'm like "mom, what you crying for!?", and she goes I can hear the explosions. So I'm like, "mom, that's just my explosive diarrhea, I must've ate something bad, I gotta go, I'll call you later!".

 

I've never had to talk about what I've done in front of a large group of people. I have talked about it in front of a lot of family members at family reunions and what not. I do talk in front of large groups of soldiers on a daily basis. Which is quite a bit different than civilians, but some of the general stuff carries over.

I would say the big thing is create some sort of outline you intend to follow so you stay on track. It's very easy to talk about things you didn't intend to if you don't have something to guide you.

Talk slow, have a normal posture, try to limit verbal distracters like "umm". Figure out how long they want you to talk for, and practice what you are going to say so that you stay within the limit.

If you can practice it in front of a few people to see if there is anything that might sound out of place. Try and limit the amount of military specific words that the general public might not understand.

Also be aware that some stories may make certain people feel a bit uncomfortable. What is normal to us, might sound crazy to them. Not a huge deal, but I would be careful how detailed you get.

 

Like Alex said, practice is key IMO.

I know for my grandfather speaking about war was not easy for him, even in front of the family. Emotions ran high with what he had to share and from the sounds of it if you arent used to talking about it, emotions could creep up fast. So again, I think the advice is sound of having an outline of what you want to cover, how long it has to be and practice if possible.

Perhaps someone can record it so we could see it down the road!

And thanks guys for your service... cept you Alex.


**just kidding..you too

 

The subject matter is important but practicing and editing it after writing the speech is more important. A well prepared speaker can talk about the process of paint drying and not be boring for 3 minutes. An unpracticed speaker can destroy the honor of being asked to speak in about 15 seconds. And then drag everyone else through every agonizing moment thereafter.

1. Don't take practicing lightly. It will be tedious but saying everything out loud without stopping over and over will help you to find what words or phrases were great when you put them on paper but don't sound natural when spoken. It will also make you familiar with your speech. And it will bore you to tears and you will want to quit after the 3rd or 4th time but that isn't enough. After getting it fine tuned and then presenting it 20 times to an empty room, get a small audience of 3 or 4 people and present it to them. Then take suggestions on revising the content and wording. Then say it out loud 30 more times after you make the changes.

2. Do practice speaking very loudly, much more so than your normal voice. Remember the drill instructors and how they spoke from their lower chest instead of up in their throats? You need about 80% of drill instructor volume, which is about 50% louder than casual speaking volume. This is important. It establishes you and puts you in charge of the room. Speak as loudly as you can without absolutely shouting.

3. Be expressive. Speak clearly and slowly with deliberate pauses to emphasize points. Allow you voice to rise and fall as you speak showing the beginning and end of thoughts. Show emphasis on important words and phrases by delivering them with more or less gusto or emotion. Use facial features expressively when telling the story to help convey the feeling behind the words. Let the story be real to them through your expressiveness and voice. Do you remember the storytellers on the old radio shows and how they used their voices to involve listeners and draw them in? Compare that to someone reading in monotone with no expression. There is a huge difference.

4. Organize your thoughts. Write down a bunch of key words about points and things you need to mention or want to mention. Just one or two words for each item and in no particular order. Then decide how you want to organize them. Do you want to have them arranged chronologically in order, or in order of importance, or to teach a lesson, or to set up a funny story to end with? Decide. Then place those key words in an order as an outline. Then work on sentences or paragraphs to go with each key word and flesh it out a bit. Then try to talk aloud about each point by saying what you want to say about it and by speaking the sentences you have written. You will want to add, remove, and alter the sentences as you try to make them flow as cohesive thoughts and ideas. Tie them together so that they flow well from one point to the next with connective sentences. Say the whole thing aloud as a whole and make further adjustments. If it sounds awkward change it. Make it flow.

5. Make your note cards. You will speak from your mind because you have practiced it so many times, but you should have a 3x5 card or two with your outline key words on them. Do not write out the whole speech on them or you will never deliver the speech to the audience but to your cards instead. Just the key topics.

6. Know your first four sentences so well that you will be saying them in your sleep and in the shower and driving in your car. They will get you through the little butterflies at the beginning so that you can get into your rhythm.

7. Tell a good story. Make it riveting. Make it funny. Make it suspenseful. Make it interesting. Make it frightening. Make it sad. Make it real to them.

8. Be proud of giving a good talk to some young people that will always carry it with them.

Thank you for your service, sir. God bless you and good luck.

 

I would start to think about the emotions it will rekindle. You don't want the first visit to these emotions to be while you are at the podium. Especially if you will get emotional.

 

How long of a talk do you have to prepare for?

Start off with an anecdote to capture their attention, a funny experience while you were in service perhaps? Then just go right into the heart of the talk. Give a brief introduction about you and your time in the service, then talk about the medals, what they are (bring props, like the actual medals or pictures of the medals) to show your audience, what they symbolize, who deserves them, then go into how you got yours. Then summarize with a point or 2 that you'd like your audience to take home. In my opinion, it is better to have a shorter succinct talk, rather than rambling on.

Once you have your talk written out, practice, read it out loud (in front of a mirror maybe) and adjust according to the amount of time allotted to you, and have fun with it.

Good luck!