Keep Pushing On!

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Thomas J. Davison
  • 436th Civil Engineer Squadron commander
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  A funny thing happened to me the other day on our Team Dover Warrior Run.

I was cruising down the back stretch on Ramp Road, keeping my eye on Hangar 706 through all the heat and humidity. I was tired and sweaty at that point, but knew the washrack was the turning point for the home stretch to the Fitness Center finish line.

What happened when I actually got to the washrack wasn't very funny at all (or so I thought at the time). The running route had been extended down Ramp Road beyond the Aerial Port marshalling yard, and I wasn't nearly as close to the finish line as I'd been tracking. "Whose mean trick is this?" I remember asking myself at that point.

I knew I had a choice in front of me: make that turn down Chevron Avenue anyway and cut short my run, or go straight ahead following the route of the Warrior Run and keep pushing on.

To "keep pushing on" is a time-honored way Americans win wars, as history shows us again and again.

In late December 1777, General George Washington brought his beaten, humiliated, badly equipped and poorly fed troops into Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, after the British army had kicked them out of their supposed stronghold of Philadelphia.

With a healthy dose of "keep pushing on" and the tutelage of the Prussian Baron von Steuben, Washington's troops transformed themselves into the Continential Army and emerged victorious at Yorktown four years later.

Another "keep pushing on" moment took place on May 7, 1864 after the Battle of the Wilderness, when General Robert E. Lee had just soundly defeated the Union army yet again in an almost unbroken streak of victories for the Confederate army since the Civil War had begun three years earlier.

As the dispirited Union troops retreated they came to a literal and strategic crossroad: turn left and retreat to the safety of Washington D.C., or turn right and attack along the highway through Spotsylvania Court House to Richmond. General Ulysses Grant personally met each column of men as they approached, and sitting on his horse that rainy day, pointed to the right.

The Union army had never followed up a defeat with a continued assault before, and this "keep pushing on" moment re-energized the Union army to continue their offensive action against Lee's army and achieve ultimate victory at Appomattox Court House 11 months later.

On the home front, "keep pushing on" is a way I've seen my parents build a rock-solid marriage of 45 years despite circumstances that could shatter the best of relationships. When my little brother died suddenly in 1986 from complications of an asthma attack, they picked up the pieces of our shattered lives and "kept pushing on" by making a living and raising us up as right as they knew how.

Throughout my sister's six-year, ultimately unsuccessful battle against brain cancer, my Mom and Dad "kept pushing on" in taking care of her as her mental and physical capacities were fading away.

My Mom's "keep pushing on" attitude regarding my Dad's lifelong struggles with alcoholism had a powerful influence on how I've lived my life. One of the reasons I love my Mom and Dad so much, and owe them so much, is because of how they've both shown me what it means to "keep pushing on."

So, back to the run the other day and my choice of directions at that fateful corner by Hangar 706. I really had no dilemma at all...I went straight ahead following the route of the Warrior Run and kept pushing on.