MISSION FIRST: Back Where It All Began

Col. Rob Dickerson had retirement on his mind in the spring of 2015, after just over 28 years of service in the United States Army. He had recently completed a two-year post in the Joint Staff J-5 department at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., where he worked under then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.

In his position at the Pentagon, Dickerson worked in the War Plans Division and aided in the proposal of recommendations regarding strategies, plans and policies and believed the job would be the final stop of a prestigious career in the Army that included nearly 15 years in Special Operations.

"I had kind of made up my mind to retire, but a few people mentioned to me that they thought I should come back to West Point because the Deputy Military Athletic Director job was opening up," Dickerson says about returning to the place where he starred on the football field during the mid-1980s. "I had great memories of Col. Al Vanderbush and what he meant to me when he was Deputy Athletic Director when I was a cadet. He was always out at practice and he was a great role model. I thought, what a great opportunity for me to go back and do something I know I'm going to love to do."

Dickerson supervises all military operations within the athletic department as Deputy Military Athletic Director and coordinates between the Academy, the athletic department and the U.S. Corps of Cadets to make sure cadet-athletes fulfill the necessary military requirements.

"For a guy like me who grew up playing sports, all of that stuff is in my wheelhouse," Dickerson says. "I have management, leadership and sports all wrapped up into one."

Dickerson's love of sports and his early taste of the military lifestyle he would later adopt were cultivated even before to his arrival at West Point, during a postgraduate year at the Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, Va.

He competed in football, baseball and basketball at Delcastle Technical High School in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., before opting for a postgraduate year to polish up his academic resume before attending college.

"I was in electrical trade so I didn't necessarily take the college preparatory classes that were required," Dickerson remembers. "I went to Fork Union Military Academy and that got me adjusted to what the military was, meaning how to put on a uniform, how to make a bed, how to be organized and how to be disciplined.

"I had been recruited by Army and coach (Greg) Gregory had a great influence on me during that process. I looked into it a little more and I took a trip up and loved the place. I felt that I could make it and I felt challenged by the whole opportunity, both on the football team and at the Academy. I chose to come here and 34 years later, I'm still really glad I did that."

Dickerson started at West Point in 1983 and, like many new cadets, had to strike a balance between the academic, military and athletic demands presented by the Academy. He understood the requirements of cadet life from his prep-school year at Fork Union Military Academy and he knew the importance of playing Division I college football at West Point.

Army struggled during Dickerson's Plebe year, finishing with a 2-9 record under first-year head coach Jim Young. But despite losing the 1983 season opener to Colgate at Michie Stadium, Dickerson felt proud to don the Black and Gold for the first time.

"It wasn't so much about the first game, but just about the aura of putting on an Army football uniform, playing in Michie Stadium and being reminded of all those great football players that had worn the uniform and played on the field that I was going to go play on," Dickerson reflects. "Even at that age, being a 19-year-old Plebe, I knew how special it was to be able to say I was an Army football player."

Dickerson was shut out from the stat sheet in the opener, but quickly made a reputation as a reliable tight end, making a pair of receptions in the season's second game against Louisville and going on to start twice as a freshman.

Dickerson went on to play in all 46 games during his football career, including starts in every game of his sophomore, junior and senior years. After adjustments to the offense following the 1983 campaign, the Black Knights finished 8-3-1 in 1984, won the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy and earned the Academy's
first-ever bowl victory with a 10-6 win over Michigan State in the Cherry Bowl.

Young changed the Cadets' offensive scheme for the 1984 season, opting to run out of the wishbone formation in the hopes of better utilizing the team's strengths as a run-heavy team. Even while switching to an offense that featured a higher frequency of running options in 1984, Dickerson turned in his best pass-catching season as an Army player. He caught 11 passes, including four for touchdowns, with the first score coming in a pivotal early season game at Tennessee.

"Our second game of the season was against Tennessee in Knoxville in front of about 95,000 fans wearing orange. We stayed with them the whole game and came back and tied them with a few minutes left," Dickerson remembers. "That's probably the only time in my life that a tie was good enough because it was a catalyst and we got so much confidence from that game and it pretty much carried us through the rest of the year."

Army went to its second straight bowl game the next year, defeating Illinois in the Peach Bowl to cap the 1985 season at 9-3. The Cadets posted their third consecutive winning season the next year, despite suffering a rash of injuries.

Dickerson caught just two passes as a senior after switching positions to left tackle, but helped Army to a 6-5 record and its second Commander-in-Chief's Trophy in three seasons, after defeating service academy-rivals Air Force and Navy.

"After the third game of the season, coach Young asked me to move to left tackle due to three starting linemen being injured," Dickerson says. "I played that position for the rest of the season. I didn't consider the move to be that significant a change because in the wishbone, even as a tight end, your primary job is being a blocker which I enjoyed doing."

Following his senior football season, Dickerson was approached by the boxing team to join and compete during the spring. He accepted and eventually was crowned champion in the heavyweight division at the Brigade Boxing Open.

Dickerson admits being nervous in the months after graduating from West Point, not knowing how he would be received as an officer and a leader in the Army. He went to Flight School in Fort Rucker, Ala., and graduated in July 1988 before beginning his career as an officer in Wiesbaden, Germany.

"I'd never been a Platoon Leader before and I was nervous," Dickerson remembers. "You have those fears: how are the soldiers going to view me? Are they going to view me as a leader? Are they going to respect me? You have all those normal fears, but you always remember to refer back to your training and do the things that you were taught. Like lead from the front, be a role model, do the right thing when nobody's looking. If you fall back on the training and all of the great characteristics of leadership that they teach you both as a cadet and as a football player at West Point, you're going to do very well."

In Germany, Dickerson worked in Operations as an Assistant S-3 and deployed in Operation Desert Storm before eventually returning back to Fort Rucker for an advance flight course in 1992. He was accepted into the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment to begin his nearly 15 years in a Special Operations position.

Dickerson stayed in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment for 10 years and next went off to Okinawa, Japan, with Special Operations Command Pacific to work in a detachment command. He was in Japan from 2002 through 2005 before returning stateside to work as an ROTC commander at Tulane University in New Orleans, La.

Stops in Fort Campbell, Ky., and Fort Lewis, Wash., followed before Dickerson made his way to the Pentagon to begin his role as a J-5 Officer in 2013.

With his nearly 30-year Army career nearing its end, Dickerson knows being back at West Point is exactly where he belongs. And he knows the lessons learned from athletics are just as much a part of West Point as anything else.

"Before coming here, I never heard of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's message on athletics and I never thought long and hard about the traits of an athlete," Dickerson says. "But it became readily apparent after I left West Point and as I progressed in the Army that the things you need to be successful as a military leader are the same kind of traits, whether it be tenacity, being organized, being disciplined, being a team player, camaraderie, everything I learned as a football player translated over and formed what I was as a military leader.

"Coming back to West Point, I've noticed that things have changed, but the individuals have remained the same. The type of cadet that I was familiar with and went to school with back in the '80s, that has without a doubt remained a constant. The fact that I can sit down now with cadet-athletes when it gets a little tough for them and say, 'Just remember the thousands upon thousands of folks that have gone before you that have made it,' is very rewarding."

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MISSION FIRST: Back Where It All Began

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