Who is Billy Mills? A member of Essex County Leathernecks met Billy Mills in 2010. After his key note speech (fantastic, by the way) he stayed to join the organization’s pre-planned festivities celebrating Native American culture. When the ECL member was chatting with Billy during the festivities, he shared that after he won an Olympic gold medal someone came up to him on the track and said, “Who are you?”
During Billy’s keynote speech he memorably shared the victory moment when he overcame barriers to win the medal. The entire crowd burst into spontaneous applause. The ECL member, having met many great Marines and witnessed the regular implementation of high standards, deeply respects Billy and his accomplishments. The member reflects, what is it about Marines that we dare to accomplish such feats?
A 1999 Stars and Stripes interview quoted Billy:
‘When I was a junior in college, I almost jumped … committed suicide,’ said Mills, who was on Capitol Hill last week to celebrate International Olympic Day.
‘Being half Indian and half white, I was tired of being rejected by society. Instead of jumping, I closed the window and wrote down, “gold medal, 10,000-meter run” I took a commission in the Marine Corps and started training for the Games.’
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/1999-07-02/billy-mills:-pride-of-a-marine,-heart-of-a-warrior-1957802.html
Source – Stars and Stripes
The reasons for joining the Marine Corps are many. Marines-in-training are taught and get plenty of experience in learning how we can achieve what others deem impossible. However you get there, a Marine will learn to go beyond perceived limitations. Sometimes that is by choice and sometimes the situation at hand demands it and often it is both of these.
In another interview (unknown source) Billy shares, in addition to a physical training schedule, his mental preparation. He discusses how that mental training took him from accepting third place to winning the gold medal.
For me it was a form of self-hypnosis and I visualized dozens of times a day. Then I started with my workout book so in this particular notebook as I got closer to the Games this was the summer of 1964, I believe in August. I put down I’m in great shape; must believe, believe I can run with the best in the world now and I can beat them at Tokyo.
[Video narrator] The problem he faced was how to improve his best time by almost two minutes.
Now how do you improve almost two minutes? It’s just too phenomenal to think in terms of two minutes or a minute and 50 seconds. So I just went to the simplest form. The simplest form of something I thought I could believe. Once around the track. 25 laps. I felt I just have to put forth (snaps fingers) that much more effort a lap and that’s 25 seconds. To improve 50 seconds each lap I’d have to stay on top of the intensity of my pace just (snaps fingers twice) that’s 50 seconds.
[Billy commenting on his performance] Two laps to go I’m on Ron Clarke’s shoulder and Ron looked back. My thoughts were “my God he’s worried.” If I could just stay with him I have a chance.
I have a chance. We go into the last lap. I’ve got him boxed in, perfectly boxed in he nudged me a little, I nudged him back and he gently put his hand under my elbow and just pushed me out. I thought I was going to fall. I went out, stumbled. I closed back on his shoulder. Gammoudi from Tunisia broke between us. At that point I was going to accept third place.
Coming off the final curve I couldn’t, I could not hear any noise at all. I could hear the throbbing of my heart. I could hear the heartbeat pounding. I could feel a tingling sensation creeping down my forearm. My vision coming and going but my thoughts changing from “one more try, one more try” to “I can win, I can win, I can win.” I can see the tape stretched across the finish line 30 yards to go. My thoughts became over and over again “I won, I won, I won.” But I’m still in third place.
You focus for four years dozens of times a day, visualizing. Really reliving the moment the way you want it to be and then you win. That one fleeting moment, you know you’re the very best in the world.
In this author’s humble opinion, one of the best things about the Marine Corps is that it produces Marines. In so many cases many of us know one another only by the name Marine. It was a pleasure to meet Billy Mills and learn a little bit about him. If you’d like to know more about him, consider watching the biographical movie about him, Running Brave.
Marines are built through the ethos of struggle and sacrifice.
Gen James Jones
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