Clermont Times

Life is not easy, Dave Swanson has learned, and it’s up to you to overcome the challenges.

That’s the greatest lesson Swanson learned at West Point.

“It will get difficult. At some point, you will be challenged and it will feel like you have failed,” he said. “That is the moment that defines us as people and the type of person you want to become. Success comes to those who continue, even when everyone else around you tells you to give up and every feeling you have says it is over.”

Swanson, raised in Owensville, attended Clermont Northeastern Schools, where basketball was his primary interest. Unsure of what to do with his life after high school, he joined the military. At that point, West Point wasn’t an immediate goal.

“I enlisted in the Army in 1995 when I was 17 and had been in the military for a few years when I applied,” he said. “I actually never applied to any other colleges.”

The United States Military Academy is located in West Point, New York. General George Washington ordered its defenses created in 1778 and located his headquarters there a year later. It is the oldest continuously occupied military post in America.

Among its graduates, most of whom depart as second lieutenants, are Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Henry “Hap” Arnold, Mark W. Clark, George S. Patton, Joseph Stilwell and Jonathan M. Wainwright. All rose to become generals.

Every summer, approximately 1,300 applicants, either applying for admission or nominated by the president, vice president or a member of Congress, begin their West Point careers. Four years later, nearly 1,000 cadets will earn their commissions.

Swanson, who first had to attend West Point Preparatory School, graduated from the West Point in 2002.

“West Point teaches you that you will learn to fail at something, but the important lesson is how to pick yourself up and be able to continue trying after that failure,” he said.

Swanson said he definitely recommends a high school student aspire and apply to West Point.

“Absolutely,” he said. “In every high school, there are students looking to challenge themselves after high school and there is no greater challenge than attending a military academy.”

He wrote a book about his experience at West Point. “The Dot on the Left” recounts how he faced and overcame personal and academic hurdles to graduate and build a career as an Army officer.

Its subtitle, “Life Lessons on Moving from Below Average to Ahead of the Curve” explains his path to, and since, the academy.

Swanson served as an infantry platoon leader in Iraq, where he earned the Bronze Star. That part of his life was recounted in Martha Raddatz's book, “The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family” as well as in the National Geographic miniseries of the same name.

It tells the story a surprise attack on the 1st Cavalry Division in Sadr City on April 4, 2004. The battle became known as “Black Sunday.” The book and TV show also focus on the turmoil felt by family members as soldiers literally fought for their lives.

“As soon as we came into the city, it's like the whole place came alive with fire,” Swanson told The Washington Post in April 2004.

He said he was in a 1st Cavalry Division Bradley Fighting Vehicle, patrolling a familiar area when the battle suddenly started.

“In our minds, it totally changes our opinion about how we think about this area,” Swanson said. “In a day, we went from a humanitarian mission to combat. It’s just amazing that the kids I talked with two, three days ago are the same ones that are throwing the rocks at us as hard as they can.”

After a year in Iraq, he returned home to build a career after taking off his uniform, yet still vividly recalling the events he went through.

Swanson, 43, works as a career consultant for a master’s program in technology commercialization in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. He was the 2016 recipient of the Dean’s Leadership and Service Award.

He also delivers motivational speeches, rode 3,100 miles across the United States in 30 days to raise money for nonprofits, and in his spare time, Swanson climbed to the summit of Mount Rainier, an active volcano 14,410 feet above sea level.

He’s been married for 15 years and he and his wife, Reyna, live in Austin with their three daughters, Isabel, Lulu and Ava. Swanson is working on a doctorate at Concordia University Chicago.

“It’s been a long path since growing up in Owensville,” he said.