Citadel Cadets Respond to Hurricane

But it was the other volunteers—the freshmen cadets—who made the strongest impression on DeKold.

“These knobs were in the middle of their cadre period, one of the most rigorous times at the school, and when they had their first opportunity to leave—to potentially take a whole week off to go home to be with their friends and family—they decided instead to stay here to help out in a crowded shelter working 15 to 20-hour shifts.”

After a particularly long shift, DeKold was tired and ready to be home when he noticed one of the freshmen helping out the evacuees.

“It was 5:00 in the morning. I think I’d been up for about 26 hours…. I looked over and there was a knob, Cadet Greene—he was talking to people, laughing, serving them food. He’d gone through just as much as I had, and it was his optimism, his ability to move past that exhaustion that really put things in perspective for me.”
 
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