CHRIS CASSIDY

>> Craig Gould: Chris Cassidy, thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast. Chris, you are the CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum, a former Navy seal, a former NASA astronaut, and Chris, I like to start these conversations with rolling back the clock and asking folks about their first job. I feel like it’s, can sometimes give us a little insight into people. Chris, what was your first job?

>> Chris Cassidy: I grew up in a small town in, in Maine, on the coast of Maine, Southern Maine, York. And we had a corn farm that was like two miles from, from my house. And so I, I picked corn at Zacharias Corn Farm when I was 13. I think it was my first, maybe 12. and I would ride my bike at it was dark so about five in the morning to pick corn. And I was the youngest kid there and the first day I got picked on pretty, pretty badly. And my parents said well just hang with it, hang with it, it’ll be fine. And I dealt with it. Probably wasn’t that bad but as a 12 year old it was like man, these big kids are picking on me and is miserable. But I’m very glad I stuck with it. I did that for a number of years and then started mowing lawns. but that picking corn at five in the morning was my very first job.

>> Craig Gould: Is there anything you still take with you? Is it just the persistence or.

>> Chris Cassidy: I’m focusing on more of the negative thing. But they, they, the kids grease. The older guys greased my bike seat. It was a black bicycle seat. And had grease all over it and I was sliding on it riding home. And I remember that stuck with me like, okay, these guys aren’t going to get the better of me. I’m a hard worker. I’m going to show them that as a 13 year old I, I can hang with the 16 year olds picking corn and working hard and so that they didn’t know it. But that event motivated me to show that I could perform. And granted the performance was pretty simple. You just hang with the truck, you pick and pick and pick and don’t quit and everybody’s tired so you are too, but just keep going. And the owner of the farm saw that I was a good worker and that made me feel really proud, that I got the right, not recognition in a big way, just kind of a nod and a shake like seasoned grizzly farmer would do to a young kid. You know, passive acceptance, like, hey kid, you did a good job this summer.

Imagine that similar circumstances probably come back up in the military. And like in my head, you know,

>> Craig Gould: Imagine that similar circumstances probably come back up in the military. And like in my head, you know, I would love your insight on this but you know, you go to the Naval Academy, you go to buds, and when you show up at your first team, they’re the enlisted members of the teams. And then there’s you coming from the academy. Is there ever any of the same sort of thing where you feel like you need to demonstrate to the enlisted guys that you’re not just this guy who is just kind of green out of the academy? I mean you have to show them your medal.

>> Chris Cassidy: Well, I mean that exists military wide, right? Like junior officers are right out of college and they’re in charge of people that have been in the military for 15, 20, 25 years. And so that was not unique to me, but the people that I’ve watched navigate that process successfully and this was when I was right there in the moment, like kind of looking at my near peers, couple years ahead of me, who had kind of, who seemingly were doing well. I observed that they, soaked in the knowledge and experience and allowed it to come to them and listened with open ears and watched with big eyes. and the ones that I saw struggle a little bit were the ones that needed to, Flex is not the right word, but need to show that they were the ones in charge and they were the officer and you guys got to march in line to figuratively march in line to what I’m putting out. and I remember even as a very new guy in the military, specifically in the SEAL teams, like, okay, people that you lead, appreciate it when you value their experience. Quite simply, that was the takeaway from all that.

>> Craig Gould: It kind of goes hand in hand with having a certain amount of humility.

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah, right, exactly. Your ego can’t be so big that it has to be all about you.

What drew you to life in the military? How’d that unfold

>> Craig Gould: What drew you to life in the military? How’d that unfold for you?

>> Chris Cassidy: It’s an interesting story actually. I share it every time I do public speaking. because I didn’t set out to just to be an astronaut. I didn’t set out to be a seal. I didn’t set out with grand visions of supporting our country. It was just a way. We may be around the same age. You remember the guidance counselor’s office where pre Internet you searching for schools. You go and look through the book in the guidance counselor’s office. And that’s when I saw the Naval Academy, on the nice glossy photo and sharp looking men and women and cool buildings and a nice setting on the river in Annapolis. And, and then I realized that it’s free to go there. They, and they pay you a little stipend. You just have to serve in the military afterwards. And even then I was like, okay, it’s free. We, we did not have a ton of money so I realized that paying for school was on me a little bit. My parents would, would be able to chip in to some degree, but I was a huge part of that factor as well. So kind of just this concept of getting a military scholarship, so to speak, and then paying it back with service. I was like, okay, that sounds good. I didn’t know what you could do in the military. I just thought that you just be in the Navy. I didn’t realize you could be on submarines or surface ships or airplanes or SEAL teams and a variety of other things, until I got there and it just kept on being fun. There’s great mentors, there was cool mission. I loved the order and discipline of the whole at the academy and then ultimately in the military. But that initial part, like showing up, running around with people yelling at you, I didn’t find it that stressful because I just kind of liked the order and discipline of it all.

Can you tell me about teams? Because, uh, I was recently discussing corporations undervalue teams

>> Craig Gould: Can you tell me about teams? Because, I was recently having a conversation with a, person who had written a book about the problem with change that corporations undervalue teams. A lot of the loyalty that an employee has is to his or her teammates versus to the corporation. And I feel like the seals are really, you know, it’s probably across the military and platoons. But you know, we really think of the seals being kind of the gold standard for team based structure. Can you kind of talk about the value of teams?

>> Chris Cassidy: Well, I hadn’t put a lot of thought into this, but just kind of what’s coming to my head as you’re bringing this question to light, is I feel like human beings, you relate to other human beings. You know, when you listen to a public, a speaker, for example, if you can put yourself in that situation mentally living and feeling the experiences that that speaker is sharing with you, it resonates more loudly with you. And so when you transfer that into teams and organizations, it’s the human beings that you’re surrounded with on a daily basis that you have eaten together, you eat lunch together, you share an office. You know, they’re the health struggle that their wife is going through, for example, you know, and those are the bonds at the human level that are most strong and together as a, you know, your teammates go through the organizational ups and downs. But that sense of bond exists at the lower unit, which is your team, is your platoon, is your whatever, and your colleagues that you sit and share with, coffee with at the, at the break room. So it makes sense to me that those teams are, and I’ve never thought about it, but it does make perfect sense to me that those teams are the things that relate people are most related to. You feel a sense of loyalty to the organization or the company or the Navy, but that’s that they don’t have, those organizations don’t have a heartbeat and a wife and a kid and a mortgage, and don’t get sick, but the people do. And that’s what we empathize with.

In the military, there’s an order to maintaining teams

>> Craig Gould: In that conversation with, that author about teams, one of the things that he was bringing up was how because corporations undervalue teams, they tend to disregard blowing teams up and putting them back together. And a lot of corporations don’t even have ways of like effectively tracking teams. But in, in the military, you know, there’s, there’s sort of an order to maintaining teams. Right. I mean people, people are cycling in and out and teams are never completely blown up at a given time.

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah, typically this, I can speak to the Navy and I, it’s similar I think in other services as well. but time is largely in a two year block for an individual where you, you get assigned to a unit, you go through some pre deployment training and you typically it, that two year block ends with some sort of overseas deployment somewhere with your unit, and then you come back and, people rotate out, new leaders come in, new young people come in, and in some cases it’s the same unit the next month, but it’s entirely different culture. It’s a different, effectiveness, level, you know, what the word I’m looking for, but battle readiness or readiness level. but that’s what I think. Keeps. Keeps is really good about her. So when I was living and I thought, you know, this is kind of weird. We all get perfectly trained and we’re humming along and all the kinks are worked out, and then we all rotate and brand new people come in. It’s kind of inefficient, but for the go to the organization, I think it’s really, it’s a nice way to do it because what you’re ultimately doing is creating leaders and followers, who can adapt and, overcome challenges that a unit has. If you have a new leader in the middle, you know, God forbid in combat, you, you. A leader gets wounded or killed, somebody else steps in and the organization can, can figure it out pretty quickly. if you, if you’re together for years upon years and all of a sudden the leader gets wounded or killed, it’s a bigger deal to go overcome that hurdle. So. And the other thing, I think it’s nice. I say this often. It’s nice. It’s good to be a new guy every now and then. And what I mean by that, you rotate into a unit, now all sudden you are the new person, and you got to figure things out. You got to meet the new people, understand the new mission, and, get a little bit, you’re a little bit out of your comfort zone. And typically in military moves, you’re moving up in responsibility. So now all of a sudden, instead of being in charge of four people, you’re in charge of 20. And then two years later, instead of being a platoon commander, you’re a company commander, and you’re in charge of 200. and so that kind of just pushing the individual in their comfort zone and in their experience just gets. Draws the best out of people.

One thing that translates across the board is mentorship and grooming future leaders

>> Craig Gould: What are the things about your time in the seals that you think are applicable to other people’s careers or their opportunities for leadership? When you talk to people about how you can apply what you learned in the seals to what they do in their careers, what is it that you feel like you’re able to share with them?

>> Chris Cassidy: I think that one thing that translates across the board is mentorship and grooming future leaders. So, for example, when I was a brand new Ensign at Seal Delivery Vehicle Team 2, STV Team 2, Seal Team, where we drove underwater vehicles and based out of Little Creek, Virginia. And my platoon chief was a guy named Mike Slinger. And, he was such a wonderful senior enlisted guy with, just this really great demeanor and way of guiding young officers like myself, but also leading the enlisted side of it, and grooming all of us to be better. and then I also had a really good commanding officer who set, us all junior officers down and said, okay, this is what I expect of you guys, and this is where you are today. This. Where do you want to be in two years? Where do you want to be in five years? We kind of talked about our career, but he also talked about his expectations for right now and what are we. What are we doing today and this month and this year? so sort of career mentorship as well as, leadership mentorship are two things that I learned early on from great examples and try to incorporate that in my leadership style today, because none of us are going to be in the positions we are forever. So organizations are better off when your. The leadership and, is thinking through who are the people that are going to continue on, the culture and the mission and, the thing that we are, working so hard to achieve right now.

>> Craig Gould: I didn’t serve in the military. I guess a lot of times these sorts of analogies I kind of parse through sports metaphors. But for example, my college football coach, a Hall of Fame player under Vince Lombardi, and there was this real emphasis on preparation. Right. So those Packer teams only had two plays. You know, it was just sweep to the left or sweep to the right. And what made them successful was flawless execution.

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah.

>> Craig Gould: And that only comes with repetition. In my mind, again, having never been in your shoes, my, My impression of the seals is that it’s really about that sort of excessive preparation so that you can have flawless execution.

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah. And that was obviously reinforced deeply in, in the military and the SEAL teams. And then when I got to NASA, the same thing. We train and train and train, and, you’re never. You’re never. What I learned from that whole experience is you’re never going to predict because what you train for is the baseline when everything goes right. But then organizations that take it to the next level is, okay, now this failed or this failed or what are we going to do if this happens? And, and, we did that in, in the SEAL teams. But then when we got to When I got to NASA, it is all about the next worst failure. So what do we do if this fails? And then if this fails, what happens next? And what are we critical to. And, and, and, So. And you’re never going to predict the, the failure that ultimately happens or the, or the curveball that you ultimately get thrown in, in when it’s time to really execute. But there will be something minor or major. And But what is so awesome about thorough organizational preparation is that everybody has like this then foundational baseline of what normal is. And then as curveballs happen, it’s so quick almost. You don’t. A leader doesn’t even hardly need to communicate what we’re going to do. People sort of know and off you go. And we had that, And I remember one particular spacewalk I did where my buddy’s spacesuit was leaking. It’s a whole long story. But we got back in, and it was quite an ordeal. And I remember thinking, once we got in, I remember thinking, I don’t remember what I just did. My hands took over from the baseline training of getting us into the airlock. And there’s a lot of details, but unhooking hooks and moving valves and closing hatches are, is something that’s very, very procedural heavy normally. but in that emergence situation, both myself and my partner fell back without even thinking. That training just took over. And, it frees your brain up to then focus on, okay, what are the threats that we are dealing with? And, and that foundational training just kind of happens in the back. Kind of like when you’re getting your car and you back up from your garage. You’ve done it so many times. You, you don’t even think about where you’re going. And you turn the radio, you do all. And before, you know, you realize, I just did like 20 things I didn’t even think about. And now I’m driving off to work, just because repetitive, repetitive, repetitive motion leads to pretty nearly flawless execution. When, when the time comes, does all.

>> Craig Gould: Of that preparation help you overcome? Because when I look at all the things that you’ve done, you know, every paragraph, there’s another place where my palms get sweaty. You know, whether that’s even, just, even just being in an SDV sounds terrifying, or going into caves, on the Afghanistan Pakistan border looking for Al Qaeda, or being in outer space tethered by a line, or, doing some sort of nighttime underwater operation with a submarine headed toward you. I mean, just do you. In the moment you Just have to focus on just what’s in front of you.

You spent 17 years as a NASA astronaut, three different missions

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah. I thought a lot of this sort of your question in my mind is it’s in the line of fear and risk and compartmentalizing it all. And I think I thought a lot about this. I don’t remember thinking intently about it while all those things in my life were going on. But now looking back, I think that that fear or anxiety is ratcheted up with the greater. The unknowns are things that you don’t know about or out of your control. At the very basic level, a kindergartner that’s about to go to school for the first day screaming and crying and scared out of their mind. The mom or dad comes back at lunchtime and they’re happy as they can be playing and have the best friends of their life because all the anxiety and fear, all the unknowns are gone. They know it’s a safe place. And so, when you’re getting ready to go do those kind of risky things, as much of the unknowns and risk that you can buy down and eliminate unknowns with training and preparation or a thoughtful plan, this is what we’re going to do. If, or in a military mission, you gather intelligence about the enemy’s strength and their weaknesses and where they are and where they aren’t. and so you can kind of push that risk down and therefore push the anxiety and the fear down. You’re never going to eliminate it completely. Particularly like on a space launch or reentry or getting on a helicopter to go to a military mission. There’s always some degree of risk. But, the more that training and preparation and detailed, analysis you can do, I feel like you, you get more comfortable.

>> Craig Gould: You know, you spent 17 years as a NASA astronaut, three different missions. You’ve spent more than a year in space. You were on NASA missions. But then, I know at least one of your missions was, based out of Russia. Right. And two of them was there a lot of uncertainty. You had to prepare differently. Correct.

>> Chris Cassidy: So you talk about specifically with the Russians and the different ways that we do it. Yeah, well, interestingly enough, the International Space Station is a partnership between Russia, United States, Japan, Canada and European Space Agency. So we start right away. As soon as you show up, you start learning the systems of each of those countries contributions on the space station and therefore travel to those places to get training on them. And I got selected as an astronaut in 2004, was pretty heavily focused on the shuttle training and my, and my Shuttle mission was in 2009. but a little exposure to the whole international community. But then after that mission in 2009, I dove right into shuttle to space station training and a lot. And over half of that is in Russia. So in my time as an astronaut, cumulatively, I probably spent two and a half years, maybe three years over in Russia.

>> Craig Gould: Oh, wow.

>> Chris Cassidy: and living at the base at Star City, getting to know the cosmonauts and the instructors and their families, so there’s some familiarity with it. Now, if you look at the, the engineering, if you just climbed in a Soyuz capsule and then climbed in a SpaceX capsule, it’s amazingly different. The completely different design philosophy, completely different architecture, completely just look and feel. And the SpaceX capsule, for example, looks very modern and is. It very. Looks like a Tesla. Sleek glass things, very minimal switches. and the Soyuz is much older in design. they have a different design philosophy. So once you understand the philosophy behind it, there’s just more analog and believe that the more robust the system is, the more reliable and safe it is, and therefore eliminating some of the computers. it’s just different philosophy. And so, but at face value, when you sit down, you go, oh, my God, this thing is built in the 1960s. It’s crazy. and it is. But then they have a computer system that’s all backed up by analog switches and resistors and capacitors. That always works. now I’m not advocating that that’s the way we should do it. I think that with modern times, you should have a modern capsule. And I do prefer the SpaceX design. but it’s just really boiled down to a cultural difference in design philosophy. and you can see it very firsthand. I don’t know if I’m answering your question, but I grew to be comfortable in that environment. The language training was a huge part of it. so I was more worried about screwing up, an instruction in Russian, like entering in a number that I mixed up the number in my head. When they said the Russian version. Then, I was more worried about that, but my own causing my own misunderstanding m. Of the language causing a problem. Then I was worried about the capsule causing a problem.

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>> Craig Gould: There are just a handful of you guys that can compare the cultures of the seals in NASA. I mean, you’re, you’re not the only one. But you guys that are alumni of both. What, how would you, how would you compare and contrast the, the collaborative culture? How do they mirror each other and how, how do they differ?

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah, That’s a great question because at face value, two completely different things, right? Like one, the bad guys are, have guns and, and are shooting at you and it’s a military organizational structure. The other the bad guy is the environment. They’re not shooting at you but the environment’s still trying to kill you. And it’s a mission, of a civilian mission to represent a international community in space. Those seem totally different but when you boil it down they’re both very similar. And that is a small group of people trying to accomplish a hard risky mission backed up by an enormous team of support, enabling those successes. In the military you’ve got the SEAL in the SEAL team, you’ve got a SEAL platoon that’s out there fighting the fight through radio links and preparation. Before you had intelligence, the supply, the logistics, all the things that go into enabling the battlefield to happen. And then on a spacecraft you’ve got the crew that’s in the spacecraft and then mission control centers not only in Houston but ah, in Tokyo and Germany and Moscow, you’ve got them everywhere in Canada, Montreal. So it’s that whole team that are allowing it to happen. But it ultimately boils down to communication because the enablers that are help, that are the infrastructure is there to help you accomplish your mission. They don’t. It’s a little different now in the military with drones and constant video but in, in the absence of that they only know what you report back and, and so good two way communication is better for everybody and same thing on a spacecraft you are the eyes as a crew you are the eyes and ears of the spacecraft for mission control. But sometimes mission control has more insight into data and information through the different computers that are sending stuff down than you do in sitting in the cockpit. Oftentimes you’ll get a call, hey, we’re seeing a high amperage on the pump that’s blah blah, blah and, and before it even fails they’re going to tell you, telling you that you’re about to deal with something. So it’s very what my takeaway after living both those careers is how similar they are and risk mitigation and mission planning and a small team trying to execute safely on a risky mission.

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President of the National Medal of Honor Museum is transitioning from astronaut to civilian role

>> Craig Gould: What’s it like with, this new mission? CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum. What is it like transitioning to the civilian sector in a way that still honors, a lot of what you’ve been doing for 35 years?

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah, when I, I was very comfortable. It sounds funny, but I was very comfortable being an astronaut. I was, I was relatively good at it. I was, I knew the system, I knew the people, I knew the international community. I felt like I could launch on any given day and just go to the space station and do the mission just fine. So when I became the president of a nonprofit organization tasked with building a building and raising money and managing a team of 20 or so people, the managing the team of 20 or so people, I had no problem with. But I remember being a little intimidated. Like, oh, my goodness, I’ve never raised money before. I’ve never even built a house, let alone a humongous building. I built a few decks, but that, you know, that a guy at Home Depot told me how to do that. but, so I was a little intimidated. Like, how do I. Do I have the skills? Am I, am I sort of an imposter here in this role? but what I realized is that, and I share this with people when I talk is that, you individuals wouldn’t be put in the position if the organization that appoints those positions didn’t have the trust and confidence that you could do it. So we’re all equipped with what we’re equipped with at any stage in life. And I remember one night just kind of sitting there when I was getting not overwhelmed, but just like, oh, boy, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know how to do. Boiling it down to the simple level of, all right, I know how to lead people. I know that I need to get the right people on the right seat, on the right on the bus and fill that bus out with people in seats. And we can accomplish a lot I don’t need to know how to build buildings. I need to get people on board that do. And we had that. I don’t know how to raise $300 million. I don’t even have 300 friends, let alone ones with million dollars in their pocket to give it out to me. but, you know, we’ve got people that can help in methodic way put a plan together to raise money. And we did that. So it was this kind of aha moment when I realized, okay, all life’s experiences given me the tools to be successful right now. And I think that’s true whether you’re in your second job out of college and now you’re a director of some element in a company, and the company believes you can do it. The company believes you can direct those eight people and drive the mission of the company in a positive way. And then ultimately, you know, as career time progresses and your career moves on, you’ll be in another position where you can do that.

>> Craig Gould: Vision, mission and culture. Right?

As an astronaut, one of your collateral duties is public outreach

Yeah, but I mean, your time at NASA, I mean, my understanding is that you’re asked pretty frequently to go speak to people, but not necessarily asking for money.

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah. As an astronaut, one of your collateral duties is public outreach, and it’s usually for schools and community events. every now and then it’s for, like a company. as a government employee, you’re not allowed to get paid for speaking. The organization just has to pay the hotel and the airfare. so it’s. It’s a lot of schools. And at first, I was very uncomfortable with that part of the mission because I come from the SEAL teams in an era where you just didn’t talk about being a seal and there were. Nobody was writing books. This was in the 90s, and it was a little bit different now. But back then, it was not something we talked about. So for me, stepping from that kind of quiet, don’t talk about what you do to public facing, that’s your job to talk about the mission. took some getting used to.

It very difficult to be awarded the Medal of Honor, you say

>> Craig Gould: It’s a really interesting segue because my impression has always been of National Medal of Honor winners that they’re being awarded the medal comes at a great price, and that these folks that have been bestowed the honor. I feel like I hate to generalize, but it seems like every one of their stories, there’s, a great deal of, mourning and survivor’s guilt that a lot of those guys have to be convinced to tell their stories because it’s. It’s not about them. It’s about. It’s about something that happened, and they, they responded. Right. Can you talk a little bit about that?

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah. What struck me when I first got involved with this community and in this job is in getting to know the different Medal of Honor recipients and, and as people, and hearing them talk publicly. And then personally, very common theme that I heard, which resonated loudly with me, was that it’s more difficult to wear this medal than it is to earn it. And I thought the first time I heard that that’s probably not true. It’s. There’s only been 3, 500 awards of the medal ever. It very difficult to be awarded the Medal of Honor. But at, hearing them talk more and thinking it through more, they’re wearing it on behalf of those that didn’t make it. They’re wearing it on behalf of all the other service members in, in their branch. They’re wearing it on behalf of all of us as US Citizens. And so it comes with, this sense of enormous responsibility, and like you said, a little bit of survivor’s guilt or like, why me? My buddy did everything equally that I did. He didn’t get awarded. He’s dead. And I’m getting this recognition. and, and so I understand and appreciate where they’re coming from. And the other comment that I hear is this metal. I’m pointing to my neck because that’s where they wear it. This, this metal wears, or weighs more than the 5 ounces of metal that it is. You know, it’s, it’s. It’s in a, in a sense, figuratively tugging on the neck of those that are wearing it, and they’re care. The caretakers of the metal. So that sentiment is, often told and I think is very, very powerful because it just boils down to service others over self, service for others, really, powerful concepts that apply, I think, to all of us in life.

The Griffin Institute aims to inspire people through stories of Medal of Honor recipients

>> Craig Gould: So I saw that the Medal of Honor Museum will also have, a leadership component. Can you talk about the Griffin Institute?

>> Chris Cassidy: sure, I’m happy to, because we’re very excited about it. So our project is really threefold. The physical bricks and mortar museum here in Arlington, Texas. A monument on the Mall, our Nation’s mall in D.C. and then a leadership institute, which happens to be headquartered in the museum in Arlington. But it’s, it’s really our mechanism to reach nationally. and we want to, our mission is to inspire people through the stories of Medal of Honor recipients. Inspire Americans. and, how do you do that? There’s young people and adults. So we broke down the Griffin Institute into three centers. Center for Character Excellence which is focused on youth. And we’ve got several programs that are very exciting that are happening right now actually before, over the last couple years and we’re really getting those up to speed now. And I can talk more about that if you want. the adult focused center is the center for Leadership in Action and that’s really focused on adult professionals, mid career professionals who have potential to be wonderful leaders in their industry and company. and those programs are paid programs. Businesses and corporations have leadership budgets and training budgets. And so we have made a conscious decision to have those be paid because we don’t want any barriers to entry to the youth programs. So the adult programs, the revenue from that endows basically the youth program so they can all be free for any school district that wants to participate. And then the third center is more like a think tank to bring like minded organizations like service academies, ROTC units, and other companies that want to explore concepts of character, courage, sacrifice, those kind of things, integrity. and we’ve done a number of events with the Air Force Academy, Naval Academy and Texas A and M, just for starters. But we’re really really excited about the youth programs. We through partnership with the NFL they have a program called the Character Playbook. We’ve partnered with the NFL the last two years and put a medal of honor module on Character Playbook and that’s in 29,000 schools right now. Last year and this year and then parallel to that we developed a course, standalone course called Moments that Matter that it’s delivered. We delivered the pilot program here in Arlington to seventh graders in Gun Middle School and had 13 superintendents in the building two weeks ago who signed up their school districts, those 13 districts kind of around Arlington, for field trips in 20, 25 and 26 and taking this Moment that Matter course in advance of the field trip and then some post field trip and then through those lessons learned we intend to scale that statewide and ultimately nationwide on this program that can be taught in any school. so we’re really excited about all that because how you affect the future is through education. and education is a huge deal for everybody and we’re just hoping to do our part specifically focus on the character aspect of being a better version of yourself.

>> Craig Gould: How do you communicate that to this next generation? for ah, a lot of these stories come from folks from a different generation having gone through the Depression and having nothing. How do we reach this next generation given the types of media and the types of distractions that youth have these days?

>> Chris Cassidy: Yeah.

>> Craig Gould: How do we reach them and reinforce these qualities?

>> Chris Cassidy: That’s a huge question, because I think it’s an important one for all parents, all teachers, and for all of us that are concerned about where we are going as a nation in the future. So I don’t have all the answers to that. I don’t even know if I have partial answers for all that, because it’s an important question that is worth exploring with at many levels. but it starts, it starts with this all kind of goes back to that. One of our earlier questions were, how do you people associate with teams? Youth are people too, and they associate with other humans just like their peers in school. And if a story, ah, that they hear by the teacher or at a community event or listening to a medal honor recipient speak, if that resonates with a kid or 2 or 10 or 100, then, inch by inch, we can make a difference in those people and therefore in the future. so I think it starts with impacting people on, who can connect with others, connecting with other people’s stories. Medal of Honor is a great example of one. I love it when professional athletes, talk to school kids because everybody loves pro sports. In fact, most people can probably name five starting Dallas Cowboys before they can name five Medal of Honor recipients. And that’s okay. We’re on a mission to change that. But that’s okay as long as. If those football guys are, doing good with that, I think it’s awesome. Same, with other celebrities who are trying to do, good with the fame. So. Yeah. How do you do it? I don’t know. It’s a tough problem, but it’s fundamental to the success of our nation.

>> Craig Gould: Will you be able to actively have living recipients be part of. Of the community, part of the, the kind of the living community of the museum and its family?

>> Chris Cassidy: Oh, most definitely. There are 60 Medal of Honor recipients living today. 42 of them are of the Vietnam age. So those guys are. They’re getting to be 80s and. And, you know, upper 80s in some cases. so not as energetic, not as. Not all of them can travel and attend things in person anymore. Eighteen of those 60 are global war on terror. So kind of my and your age or younger. And, those guys. I say guys because there’s been one Medal of Honor recipient who’s a woman, Mary Walker. She was a Civil War surgeon. but all the 60 living today are gentlemen. and those 18 GWOT guys are, they get out and about and do stuff and they’ll be attending things in person with our museum as well as other programs. but we really believe it’s to impact the nation, it’s got to be scalable online and virtually. Otherwise you just impact a, in a great way the people that can be part of your thing physically. But it’s difficult to impact the nation on a scale that way. So we’re really putting a lot of thought into how can we get these Medal of Honor recipients out there digitally, electronically, through the Internet, also in person and in a large way possible.

>> Craig Gould: So again, it sounds like a big part of it is storytelling, right? Because it’s all about storytelling. Because I keep on hearing you talk about human connection, that the human connection is a big part of what you’ve seen as success in your history. But human connection is how you influence and change others.

>> Chris Cassidy: Right? Exactly. I think that’s so powerful.

The National Medal of Honor Museum is scheduled to open in March

>> Craig Gould: Well, Chris, I can’t thank you enough for your time today. The National Medal of Honor Museum. Are we still on schedule to open in March?

>> Chris Cassidy: We are. March 22nd is the big free for the community. you’re here in dfw, so you know Mark Holtz Lake, which is a little small lake just north of Choctaw Stadium. Our museum is on the shores of that. That whole lake will be activated with events for the community. everything from food trucks and bouncy houses to TV repeaters and big down system with live entertainment, military bands, all kinds of stuff. That lake can hold about 20,000 people. So we hope it’s fill, that’s free for the coal community. We’ll have announcements and marketing for all that. So everybody knows to market on their calend. But it’s a Saturday night, March 22. A couple days later on Tuesday, March 25, which is medal of Honor day. That’s when the museum will be open to the public. You can buy a ticket and come join us that day or after. our you can’t buy tickets on our website quite yet, but we’ll be, we’re wrapping that process up and so probably right after Christmas our website will be available where you can start locking in your tickets, and be able to know what day you’re going to come.

>> Craig Gould: Just from everything I’ve seen, the space looks amazing. And I imagine it’s not just a series of plaques. I imagine it’s a full on interactive space. I mean that’s oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

>> Chris Cassidy: You can’t have a museum where you just read plaque, read plaque, read plaque. Those days are gone. and we. It’s interactive. There’s lots of ways you can absorb the content, either reading it or watching it or listening to it. Ah, things for kids to do as well. Can’t just be for dad to go through and, reminisce about time in the military. It’s got to be for the whole family. you know, because quite truthfully, if a family has an evening and they have $200 to spend, are you doing dinner in a movie or you do in the mental Honor Museum? So it’s all part of an equation for a family to decide what they’re going to do with their time and money. And we just want to be a nice option in that, in that mix. The other thing I should mention there, Craig, is, event space, the museum. A big part of our business plan is event space and putting. We can do a seated plated dinner for up to about 400 people and many other smaller options be beneath that. so I think that’ll be a nice addition to the DFW Metroplex for companies in and places people to have functions and events.

>> Craig Gould: And I assume that if, if my company wanted to have an off site to, you know, kind of focus on leadership or whatever, I could probably partner with you guys to at least a host host that if, if not work with you for, for content and collaboration.

>> Chris Cassidy: There 1000% you can do that. We can help you with the meeting or you can just take the space and just be in the building but do your own meeting. All of those are options. And in fact we have about, 70 events booked right now for 2025. So we’re excited that we’re off and running.

>> Craig Gould: And so where’s the best place to follow you guys? Is it the, mohmuseum.org or the socials or.

>> Chris Cassidy: Mohmuseum.org is a great spot. We do have various social media things, but, right there on the website you can learn more about us, see, the building renderings and I think there’s even a link for the live construction site. You can click on donate if you choose to, but it’s really, at this stage we’re thankful for awareness and helping people like you. Let folks know that we are about to open.

>> Craig Gould: Well, Chris, thank you for your decades of service and sacrifice. Thank you for your continued service and thank you for being my guest today.

>> Chris Cassidy: All right, Craig, thank you.