Vance L. Cryer

Vance Cryer was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1968. His mother was only 16 when she married Vance's father, who was 20. Neither had completed high school. By the time Vance's mother was 20, there were three children, with Vance being the youngest. From the beginning, his parents argued. By the time Vance was three, they divorced.

"My mother is the meekest, sweetest lady you could ever meet," says Vance. "I think the break up with my dad really broke her heart. She slid into a deep depression from which she could never recover."

Along with the depression, there were chronic illnesses that made it impossible for Vance's mother to hold a steady job. For much of Vance's childhood, he was separated from his brother and sister, as they were housed with different relatives or with one parent or the other. As the years slid by, Vance felt unable to change his family's dire situation and the constant upheaval caused by the men who came in and out of his mother's life. He loved his mother and wanted to help her and his family, but he was too young to do anything but witness the chaos and neglect.

"I learned at an early age that if people don't want help, there is very little you can do other than just be there for them," says Vance. "Throughout childhood, it was my intent to be respectful and to honor my mother by staying in touch with her and just loving her and trying to be there when needed."

When he was seven, Vance's newly retired grandparents took the three children into their home, giving them much-needed stability for the first time in their lives. "I grabbed hold of my grandparents and just clung on tight," he says. "My grandfather fathered me. He taught me the value of hard work and kept me involved in sports. He played professional baseball in the minors for 17 years, and he gave me a baseball philosophy of life: You win some, lose some, and some get rained out, but in life you can choose to be a spectator or you choose to be in the game. He wanted me to be in the game. He taught me to show up and compete."

Vance's grandparents came of age during the Great Depression. They passed onto their grandchildren the value of saving and making do. He recalls, "They told us it's not how much you make in life; it's how much you save and how much you put back and give to others.

Religion was a central part of life for Vance and his family. They attended church every Sunday and Wednesday. "If the doors were open, we were pretty much there," he says. But Vance's early life turmoil and strife had left him with an internal anger he could not suppress. "As a kid, I was kind of a mess," he says. "I had a lot of energy, and I pretty much tore up everything I got my hands on. I was an angry young man. But when I was 14, I broke my arm playing football. For some reason, that injury changed me and my anger just quietly left me. I think that through the pain I just came to the realization that carrying this burden was no longer necessary. Letting go of it was very freeing for me."

During his junior year, Vance met Juli, who would be his eventual bride. Juli and her parents had a significant influence on Vance, teaching him about how to develop long-term positive relationships. "They weren't perfect people with perfect lives," he says, "but they had an ability to work through issues and problems together. I felt that was commendable, the way a family should be."

With Juli's family, Vance was able to return to church, which he had temporarily abandoned during his years of anger and resentment. "I was very happy to plug back into that part of my life," he says.

Next to Juli, Vance's greatest love was football. He hoped to receive a scholarship to play in college, but those offers never came to fruition. He had a few walk-on offers, but, without a scholarship, he knew he couldn't afford college on his own. He told himself he hadn't made the impression he needed to make, and his self-esteem was as low as it had been in a long time. Letting go of his only plan for college, Vance prepared to apply for military service, something he would have pursued whether or not college had been an option. He wanted to be a pilot, and he wanted to do something that would make a difference.

As it happens for many Horatio Alger Scholars and Members, someone came along at just the right time to change the course of Vance's life. Kay Baker, his high school vice principal, suggested he apply for a Horatio Alger scholarship. At first, Vance balked at the idea, but Ms. Baker was relentless. Vance spent one period a day working in the school office, and Ms. Baker had watched him interact with school administrators, parents, and students. She believed he was a born leader, and she wanted to help him reach his full potential.

When told he had been selected as a Horatio Alger National Scholar, Vance was more surprised than anyone else. W.W. Clements, the chairman and CEO of Dr Pepper and a 1980 Horatio Alger Member, came to his high school to personally congratulate him on his scholarship. During his visit, Clements gave Vance a marble that was inscribed with the Golden Rule. Impressed by the small gift, Vance put the marble on his nightstand, a habit that has stayed with him for more than 30 years, serving as a reminder of the time in his life when others believed in him more than he believed in himself.

"That marble also reminds me to pay it forward," says Vance. "I try to remember to look for people to invest in, to go out of my way to help, to stop, to pause, and to encourage in some small way that might make a difference."

Vance attended the University of Texas at Arlington, but it soon became evident that he was not prepared for the academic demands of collegiate life. His reading skills were at an eighth-grade level, which wasn't going to get him through the six books his English 101 professor required.

"I hadn't read that many books in my life, much less in one week," he says. "This was a wake-up call I couldn't ignore. I was fully committed to the opportunity that had been given to me. I was determined to do all I could to succeed, which included going to every tutoring class I could find."

To help pay his way through school, Vance worked as a journeyman plumber and also helped his grandfather in a business that prewired new houses for telephone service. During his first semester of school, he joined the Air Force ROTC. He then got a job at the local airport filling airplanes with gas and scraping bugs off windshields, using the cash he earned to pay for flying lessons thereby fulfilling his lifelong dream of being a pilot. By the end of that first semester, he contracted with the Marines to compete for one of two slots in north Texas for Officer Candidate School. Successful in that effort, he and Juli, now married, left that summer for Quantico, Virginia.

"Joining military service gave Juli and me the opportunity to make a life on our own," says Vance. "I think our faith was key in making that life work well for us. We always felt we were a part of something bigger than ourselves."

CAREER

Vance's 27-year career with the Marines took him through flight school in Pensacola, Florida; to Top Level School at the National War College in Washington, D.C., where he earned a master's degree in national strategic studies; to four AV-8B squadron tours, including as the commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron 211. He also served as an exchange officer with the UK Royal Air Force, where he flew the Tornado F3 air defense variant. He completed six combat tours in Iraq and has been on eight deployments, including six Marine Expeditionary Unit deployments. He served two tours of duty at the Pentagon-Headquarters Marine Corps in the Department of Aviation. In 2013, he was promoted to colonel and subsequently commanded the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Pendleton. In 2016, he was handpicked by Secretary Ray Mabus as the Marine Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, a position he held for 18 months through the transitional period with Secretary Sean Stackley.

Thinking back on his military career, Vance says, "It was a blessing to work with such quality people who wanted to be there, who were committed, and who were talented. These are people who give of themselves for each other and for people who don't even know they are beneficiaries of their sacrifice. It was an amazing adventure."

On the night it was announced to the Horatio Alger membership that Vance Cryer would be the first Scholar Alumnus to be inducted into the Association, General Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, had this to say about Vance: "He is a man defined by a life of initiative and a can-do spirit. Throughout his life and his career, he continuously answered the call of duty and demonstrated excellence in every role. Whether in the cockpit, commanding a Marine Expeditionary Unit, serving on joint staffs, or just in his daily interactions, both in and out of uniform, his reputation precedes him. He is the epitome of everything for which this Association stands."

In August 2018, Vance retired from military service and is now working in business development for Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control (MFC). He serves as the liaison between MFC and Lockheed Martin Aerospace, working on the leading edge of missile technologies and future capabilities.

Humbled by being named the first Alumni Scholar to be inducted into the Horatio Alger Association, Vance says, "To be recognized among some of the most successful men and women in this country is surreal and a great honor. I share this accomplishment with each of my fellow Alumni Scholars. I believe we all have much of which to be proud."

WHAT I'VE LEARNED

Vance had a successful military career and is now venturing in a new direction in business. When he reflects on the success that has come his way, he says, "I believe there are two pathways to success that I call the givers and the takers. A taker is someone who puts personal ambition first and climbs over others to get to the next rung on the ladder. A giver takes a different approach. After you have worked in leadership roles for a while, look down your wake. What do you see? Do you see people whom you empowered, inspired, and cared for? Do you see people who are flourishing and succeeding in their own right? Or do you see destruction and toxicity? My experience has been to identify with the givers. One of the joys of staying in the military as long as I did was that I had begun to see the people who served under me have their own successes and were even passing their knowledge down to the next generation. That's what I call success."

Throughout the years since Vance received his Horatio Alger scholarship in 1987, he has served in volunteer roles with the Association whenever possible. He has a long-standing admiration for the organization. "I've noticed that the faces don't come and go here; it's a very committed group of individuals who give of themselves and their resources without any fanfare. I've noticed a consistency of what this organization stands for, what it does, what it produces, and who is a part of it. The integrity of the organization stands out to me. I'm struck by the patriotism of the organization, the overall belief the Members have in the mission, and the positive influence they have had on thousands of young people."

Excited and honored to be named a Member of the Horatio Alger Association, Vance says, "I believe in what this organization is doing and the way it is doing it. In whatever way I can help carry forward the mission, it will be honor to do so."

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