SECDEF Austin Powers

By Jason Sherman / May 28, 2009 at 5:00 AM

Today's must-read: Defense Secretary Robert Gates' speech last night to the graduating class at his high school alma mater, East High in Wichita, KS.

He packs a lot into a relatively brief address, touching on memories of his high school days, growing up in Kansas, how getting a D in college freshman calculus changed the trajectory of his life, as well as the importance of being honest, having moral courage and choosing some form of service to the community or nation.

Gates, the only career officer in the CIA's history to rise from entry-level employee to become director -- which he was from 1991 to 1993 -- told students about how he found his way to the CIA and quickly realized he was not 007 material:

Then I went to graduate school, I ran into a recruiter from the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization I had never considered working for. I thought I was going to be a history professor. Now, at first, the CIA tried to train me to be a spy. However, my efforts were less James Bond and more Austin Powers -- and I don’t mean that in a good way. One of my first training assignments was to practice secret surveillance with a team following a woman CIA officer around downtown Richmond, Virginia. Our team wasn’t very stealthy, and someone reported to the Richmond police that some disreputable-looking men – that would be me and my fellow CIA trainees -- were stalking this poor woman. My two colleagues were picked up by the Richmond police, and the only reason I didn’t get arrested was because I had lost sight of her so much earlier than they had. I -- and CIA -- concluded pretty quickly that I wasn’t cut out to be doing operations in the field, and instead I became a CIA analyst -- one of the people who assess and interpret all the information that comes in. That led me into a career that allowed me to witness amazing moments in American history. So it may take you a few missteps and even embarrassments before you find the thing you’re really good at -- whether you go to college or not. So, keep at it.

Read the whole thing here.

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