Strength and determination define your life at every stage of your life. And the older you get, the more options you have in life if you are strong and determined. I smoked as a teenager to be cool and continued to smoke through my 20s. By the time I was 30 I could barely run and got tired on stairs. I quit and started exercising. In my 40s I became a bicycle racer. At 54 I re-enlisted in the Army after 25 years as a civilian. At 56 I deployed to Iraq. I ran my first marathon a week ago and learned to swim this year. My wife and I are planning to do an Ironman Triathlon in 2015. So much of what I do now depends on being healthy, fit and determined. I have six kids and have been an example of fitness for them. They compete in sports in school and in races outside school. Two went on to be college athletes. If I could “do over” my life, I would have been healthy the first 30 years, not just the second 30.

– Neil Gussman, Sergeant, 2-104th Army Aviation

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