By Rebecca Rose, WPAOG Staff
“I will never quit; I don’t know how to quit,” Lieutenant Colonel McKinley Wood ’01, the 2023 Alexander R. Nininger Award recipient, told the Corps of Cadets assembled in the Mess Hall for the Nininger ceremony, looking to inspire them to follow in his footsteps as future officers.
Presented by the West Point Association of Graduates, the Nininger recipient serves as a given year’s representative of all West Point-commissioned officers who have heroically led soldiers in combat. Throughout his time as a cadet up until present day, Wood consistently chose not to quit and used his acceptance speech to urge cadets to do the same.
Wood began by saying that as a cadet he considered himself “an academic rock.” During his first two years at the Academy, he spent summers on post due to his academic struggles. Rather than quit, Wood leaned on his classmates to overcome some of his academic and physical challenges. Eventually, he was able to develop techniques, tactics, and procedures that worked with how he learned best. Wood found that instead of simply reading, he had to “live the problem set or passage in a book,” and that “being there in the moment made the experience of academic absorption real.”
Once Wood discovered his “living in the moment” strategy, he used that tool to carry him through his military career. “The Army is all about living in the moment,” Wood said. “You know, if you’re dealing with a hard situation, whether it’s someone’s life or someone’s financial needs, it’s important to be able to completely place yourself in whatever is happening: mentally, physically, spiritually.”
The lessons of teamwork and living in the moment provided Wood with perseverance during the heroic actions that led to him being honored as the 2023 Nininger Award recipient. On April 6-7, 2003, then First Lieutenant Wood displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving as platoon leader of 3rd Platoon, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to Wood, who received a Silver Star for his actions, his unit fought using his battalion commander’s simplified rules of combat: 1) see the enemy before they see you, 2) make contact with the smallest element possible, and 3) maintain fire distribution and control. “These three rules of combat kept us alive,” Wood told the Corps. “It focused our minds on an unpredictable environment as we made contact with and went through the enemy.”
Wood’s tank platoon received orders to establish a blocking position in northwest Baghdad to facilitate the capture of the international airport; however, Wood saw a problem with this mission. “The only way to attack our objective was a penetration,” he said. “Basically, the battalion would be in a column with minimum firepower forward against prepared defenses of militia, regular, and Republican Guard enemy soldiers.” As Wood and his team proceeded with the attack, the three rules of combat all came into play. Wood’s team was at the head of the column. As they approached their targets, they saw the enemy before the enemy saw them. Then, with Alpha section forward about 500 meters, the enemy could not decisively engage the entire battalion, creating the ability to maneuver against smaller elements. As Wood described it, “My wingman and I engaged infantry, armored personnel carriers, command tracks, and the occasional T-55 or T-72 tank that decided to try their luck, which allowed the Task Force commander to develop options to force commitment.” Finally, fire distribution and control came in the form of the lead tanks. “As platoon leader, it was my job to see where every person and barrel was pointing visually,” he said. “The battalion’s fire distribution and control manifested behind the lead elements, not servicing the same vehicle twice.” Never quitting, Wood’s team successfully completed its mission despite the unique hardships it faced in this battle.
Wood also never quit gripping hands with the Long Gray Line. He recently chose to join the Army Reserve and train cadets this past summer. “It was an awesome experience,” he said. “It felt like I was back in a regular Army unit teaching soldiers how to be soldiers, and it felt really good to pass on my knowledge and experience.”
Just like the award’s namesake, Second Lieutenant Alexander R. Nininger ’41, who was posthumously awarded the first Medal of Honor in World War II for advancing in a counterattack despite his wounds and destroying enemy positions until he was killed on January 12, 1942 near Abucay, Bataan, Lieutenant Colonel McKinley Wood embodies a never-quit attitude, making him an admirable representative of all West Point commissioned officers and an inspiration for the Corps of Cadets. “I would challenge everyone in the Corps today to try and define what quitting means to them at a deeply personal level,” Wood said during the conclusion of his acceptance speech, adding: “If you are not able to come up with an answer quickly, you might be the type of person who does not know what quitting is; if you are able to define what quitting means to you, don’t worry, you have defined the problem set and found half the solution. Even in class, you’ll get some credit for a partial solution. You will only need to execute the answer.”
Listen to the “Don’t Quit, Never Quit” podcast with LTC McKinley Wood ’01 on the WPAOG Broadcast Network.
Read the complete Winter 2024 edition of West Point magazine here.
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