Chuck Hagel

Charles Timothy "Chuck" Hagel was born in 1946 in North Platte, Nebraska. His father, like thousands of other soldiers returning from World War II, needed a job and house, but both were in short supply. When Hagel was six months old, his father accepted a job managing a lumberyard in Ainsworth. The family moved into a large ramshackle house that nearly sat on the railroad tracks behind the business. The house was cold in the winter and hot in summer, and it relentlessly shook from the 15 trains that passed by daily. Two small coal stoves were the only source of heat. To make extra money, the Hagels raised chickens and ducks on the second floor.

Hagel's three younger brothers, Tom, Mike, and Jim, were born in Ainsworth. The early 1950s were difficult times for the Hagel family. Recalled to active duty during the Korean War, Hagel's father was away for one year. He then contracted polio, which required months in the hospital. In 1954, another tragedy struck Hagel's father when he broke his back in a car accident, landing him in the hospital for six months. Hagel began working at the age of five. Each morning before school, he went to the train depot and loaded his wagon with newspapers, sorting them for an older boy, who then delivered them. When he was six, Hagel got half the route for himself. Lacking a bicycle, he pulled the papers in his wagon in the summer and used a sled in the winter. By the time he was seven, the entire route was his. Eventually, Hagel's father bought the boy a bike, but he had to make payments to his father each week until it was paid off. "That deal taught me a lot about working for something you want," he says. Young Hagel took about any job that came his way, including delivering groceries to senior citizens, packing ice for two cents a bag, and sacking potatoes. On Christmas Day 1962, when Hagel was 16, his father suffered a fatal heart attack. Devastated and in shock, Hagel suddenly had to help his mother support his brothers, who were only 14, 13, and 8. Before that, he had never given his future much thought. He enjoyed life and youth and tried to savor every moment of it. "I wasn't in a rush to grow up, but when your father dies and you're the oldest, it does sober you up a bit," he says. "We had no money for college, and I started thinking about that." Hagel's talent on the football team earned him a scholarship to Nebraska's Wayne State College. During his freshman year, however, a pinched nerved in his neck left him unable to play. He transferred to Kearney State and worked as a banquet manager at the local Holiday Inn. But within two years, his grades were suffering, and he felt restless working as a Santa Claus during Christmas and for a junkyard, service station, and grocery store the rest of the year. Hagel left college and enrolled in the Brown Institute of Radio and Television Broadcasting in Minneapolis. To pay for his courses, he worked full time in a department store and sold encyclopedias at night. A year later, in 1967, Hagel enlisted in the U.S. Army. After completing his training, he had orders to go to Germany, but he volunteered for Vietnam. His brother Tom also enlisted and volunteered for Vietnam. They served in the same squad in 1968, which was at the height of the Vietnam War. Both became sergeants and both were wounded together, Tom three times and Chuck twice. They saved each other's lives on more than one occasion; Hagel was awarded two Purple Hearts while in Vietnam. A few months after the two returned home in 1969, their youngest brother Jim died in a car accident. "He was so young when our father died that I was essentially his father," says Hagel. "His death was hard on all of us." While working as a radio broadcaster and bartender, Hagel returned to college in 1969. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1971. Fully focused on his future, Hagel moved to Washington, D.C., to work for Representative John Y. McCollister (R-NE), earning $200 a month. A year later, he became McCollister's chief of staff. Hagel spent six years with the congressman and four years as a lobbyist. He helped organize the successful presidential campaign of California's former governor, Ronald Reagan. In 1981, the Reagan administration appointed him deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration. A year later, two friends asked him to invest in a new industry: cellular telephones. Hagel sold his car and cashed in two insurance policies to invest in a company that eventually became Vanguard Cellular Systems, Inc., which by the time of its acquisition by AT&T had become the nation's second largest independent cellular phone company. In 1987, Hagel was elected president and CEO of United Service Organizations, and in 1990, President George H. W. Bush appointed him deputy director of the G7 Summit. At the end of that year, he became president and CEO of the Private Sector Council. In 1992, Hagel moved back to Nebraska to assume the presidency of McCarthy Group LLC, an investment banking firm in Omaha. Four years later, he ran for the U.S. Senate and, in 1997, became the first Republican in 24 years to win a Senate seat in Nebraska. He was re-elected by an overwhelming margin in 2002. In January 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Hagel as secretary of defense, a position he held until November 2014. Hagel has addressed many youth groups and organizations, including the Horatio Alger National Scholars. "I don't measure success by money, prestige, honors, titles, or position," he tells his young audiences. "Success is being able to get outside of your own self-interests so you are able to reach beyond who you are, not just to improve yourself, but to inspire others to be more than they ever thought they could be."