Bruce Thorn0:35
Bruce Thorn. US Army. Gulf War. Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, from an immigrant family, I was very proud to be an American. It was something that was very valued in my family. And so, growing up in that environment, I wanted to give back. And the way I thought about giving back was to join the military. But what really sold me is, back in like 1984, while I was interviewing and meeting representatives from the Academy, one of the generals that came in from West Point said, 'We don't just teach history at West Point. We make it.' And after that, I was sold. I was sold to go to West Point and enter the U.S. Army.
When I was in the Army, my first assignment was in Stuttgart, Germany, working for the Big Red One. But it was downsizing, and so I looked for a new opportunity. And the opportunity was in Vicenza, Italy—it was home of the third of the 325 Airborne Battalion combat team. And it was a perfect assignment for me. It was all those things I wanted to do: jumping out of airplanes, a lot of Rangers in the unit, 18 hours deployment everywhere. So it was very exciting for me to join. And we had a tremendous commander at the time. His name was Lieutenant Colonel Abizaid, who went on to be four-star General Abizaid, and who'd just finished up as ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
One of my proudest moments as an airborne rifle platoon leader was when we were serving in northern Iraq and safeguarding the exit of the NATO forces out of Kurdistan. Everything was pretty much okay until that first company of U.S. Airborne paratroopers went through, and then everything broke loose. Kurdistan people from every nook and cranny came out. In a matter of minutes, there were 4,000 rioters racing for that bridge. And so, I was running with the rioters, if you will, to the bridge. Mothers were throwing their babies over the concertina wire and my soldiers were catching them. It was getting very tense. And so, my platoon sergeant turned to me and said, 'What should we do?' I said, 'I think we need to fix bayonets to calm down the rioters.' And so we did it. We issued the fixed bayonets command, my team did that and the crowd just hushed for a moment.
I served in the Army for five years. I would have liked to have served longer. I had one jump too many out of an airplane that basically meant I couldn't jump out of an airplane anymore. The good news out of that was I met my wife, who was working in the Southern European Task Force. And the rest is history. We've been together for over 30 years. Within two weeks, I got married, left the military and—it was in Cincinnati, Ohio—started graduate school. Fortunately for me, during that year of graduate studies, Cintas was recruiting, and they were a military founder-led company. And I rose through the ranks at Cintas. That set up a career of going to other companies where I could have influence. And all the way through my career, it was very important for me to bring my military history with me.
Now, with Big Lots, we've been involved with the National Veterans Memorial Museum, as one of the founding donors, and we continue to support it here today. To be inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame is an absolute honor, and it's extremely humbling. I don't think any of us serve in the military to be recognized like this. We don't. We serve because we have a higher belief, a purpose, a belief in America and our way of life, and in freedom in the world. And so, to get honored for a career of service both in the military and in the business community is truly special and completely unexpected and very, very much humbling. And I'm so proud to be inducted with the other inductees into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame. It makes me want to earn it even that much more. It makes me want to give back for the remainder of my time on this earth, to give back in a way that continues to make a positive impact. I'll keep earning this honor till the day I die.
