MISSION FIRST: Rolling With The Punches

It is hard to wrap your head around something that brings you pain and suffering during your senior year at the U.S. Military Academy in the midst of your final season on the softball field, especially as your team heads to its second NCAA Tournament. Yet, everything in life happens for a reason. Those reasons may not always reveal themselves until years later down the path of life, but rolling with the punches, bending your knees and keeping your head up will indeed lead you down the right path.

Maj. Chrissy O'Hara, M.D., who jokes that West Point was easier than childhood, knew that the U.S. Military Academy was the place for her. Her family comes from a long military tradition of service and West Point satisfied the family tradition and her goal to attend a college that would fully challenge her in all aspects of life and raise her to her highest potential.

Throughout her childhood, she was surrounded by the military lifestyle. Her father had been awarded the Purple Heart (2) and Distinguished Flying Cross (2) while in Vietnam. O'Hara was the middle sibling of two brothers and they were all instilled with the same principles. These codes of conduct mandated "treating people right" as their top priority, that they owed it to their fellow Americans to pay it back and that people with thick skin needed to protect other people.

"Growing up as kids we had a stark reality of what life was," says O'Hara. "That was how we were brought up. My mom was a refugee from communist Hungary. She didn't speak a word of English when she arrived, but learned it. She then obtained her Ph.D in Psychology. She told me that education was power and that I needed to get into a great college in order to help others at a larger scale."

It could be these core principles that influenced all three of the O'Hara children to attend three different service academies. Her older brother, Lt. Col. Thomas Peter O'Hara, was the first who made the decision and went to the U.S. Air Force Academy. He entered the Space and Missiles track from there. He now holds the lives of our sons and daughters quietly in his safe keeping.

Chrissy chose the U.S. Military Academy and her younger brother, William George O'Hara, went to the U.S. Naval Academy. William, or "Bill" worked at the Pentagon in Information and Technology while simultaneously taking night classes at George Washington University Law school. Although he has his degree in Patent Law and is now a civilian, he continues to work with IT at the strategic level. His wife, Samantha Jo O'Hara, is a nuclear engineer and prior Naval officer. Together they both work to keep the America, that Tom is strategically shielding, running well internally.

When O'Hara's parents dropped her off on the banks of the Hudson for Reception Day, the words of her father were what stuck with her most throughout the 47-month journey. He simply told her to finish what she started.

During her time at West Point, O'Hara was an outstanding four-year starter on the Army softball team. She made a true impact, and served as the Brigade Honor Secretary within the U.S. Corps of Cadets.

"She was a young lady that lived on the edge and I mean that in the most positive manner," explains 19-year Army softball head coach Jim Flowers. "She was always willing to take risks for the betterment of others and herself. She set her goals and standards very high. And therefore she took the risks to meet them."

O'Hara became a role model to her teammates by leading by example. Back then, the team would get its conditioning in before practice by running the two miles to Buffalo Soldier Field where the softball field was located. Flowers would then drive them back, but O'Hara did not always opt for the van rides.

"Chrissy on occasion would run back to the barracks," he says. "She would do that more times than riding in the van because she felt she didn't get enough running in. Those are the kind of characteristics that Chrissy had. Pretty soon I wouldn't even need the van down there except for emergencies. Chrissy was that kind of leader. She came with natural leadership characteristics and developed those further up until graduation. She was ready to be a Platoon Leader and lead in the Army."

Softball was only part of O'Hara's focus while at the Academy, however. The coaches never had to worry about her grades or tests because as Flowers puts it, "She was there for the right reasons."

When it came time to rank her branch choices her senior year, she consulted her father. O'Hara had considered the possibility of Medical School and the Medical Corps, but her father reminded her that she was on a successful Division I program, was starting and also had responsibilities in the Corps of Cadets so it may not have been the right time to pursue her medical aspirations.

Then September 11, 2001 happened.

She recalls how the toughness of the U.S. Military Academy shone through the smoke from the Twin Towers that hovered over the West Point campus.

O'Hara then had another conversation with her most trusted confident, her father. He reminded her that she owed it to her country and needed to pay it back. He also told her that she went to West Point for a reason and that reason was to protect other people. He told her, "I understand that being a doctor does that, but people with thick skin need to go to war and that is what I raised you with."

So when she ripped open that sealed envelope on Branch Night, her top choice of Military Intelligence Corps, was staring back at her.

Being a 2002 graduate, O'Hara and her classmates were the first class since Desert Storm to commission into a period of war or conflict. However, that did not deter her.

Her thick skin is likely one of the attributes that helped O'Hara excel as a cadet and as a softball player under Flowers. She claims that being a member of the team thickened her skin even more.

"Coach Flowers was straight-laced and to the point," she recalls. "If you didn't run through a base, you bought yourself his growl and a run to the fence. There was always a consistent consequence for your actions. In life, unlike the game, I have had some unexpectedly hard consequences that I didn't buy…chance handed them to me. However, the game's teachings are vital because I handle the consequences just the same; by rolling with the punches. It is not about you, it is about everyone else.

"Remember your morals, your faith and your family. That and flexibility will get you through the storm."

With one Patriot League championship and one NCAA Tournament appearance under her belt, O'Hara and her teammates began the 2002 season with equal end goals. However, O'Hara's playing days came to an abrupt end during her senior season. While sliding into second base, her hand was stepped on and all the bones shattered.

"That broke my heart, but it made me realize that there's more to life than the game," recalls O'Hara. "It was a hard realization."

Her Division I softball career was over in an instant. She had to watch from the dugout as her classmates and teammates won another conference title and sought out the NCAAs for the second time in three seasons. Looking back, breaking her hand and watching her team win from the sidelines was a pivotal moment in her life.

"That broken hand really did change my perspective on life," she confesses. "I loved running down to practice every day, I loved competing. It was all taken away in a moment when I least expected it. It was especially hard at the indestructible age of 21. I couldn't imagine life without contributing to softball and boom – all of a sudden the X-Ray showed my hand shattered. Just as 9/11 catalyzed change for the United States, I had to lift and shift fire as well. Forcing my energy to become potential for a few months then, changed my life now, 14 years later, for the better.

"There have been some unexpected and significantly hard times in my life, but I remembered how I was given a very good crack at almost the same exact thing before with my teammates surrounding me. You understand how to surmount something like a blow to your pride and capabilities with dignity. Inevitably we are all going to leave the game, but that gave me the surest revelation that it is completely not all about me. Still face down, stretched out with my left hand palm down on second base, I realized this as the dust was still settling. I had to shift, pivot and move on."

As Flowers recalls, that negative situation turned out to be a positive one for O'Hara.

"Even after getting hurt, she was able to go on the trip and was the best cheerleader we could have ever asked for. She stayed right with the players and became another assistant coach for me. She turned the negative into a positive. She was still upbeat and didn't miss a lick."

That change helped O'Hara on her path to selfless service while serving in the U.S. Army as an Intelligence Officer and now as a physician. She confesses that her time overseas is what truly reminded her that she wanted to be a doctor.

"There were times that we were in firefights or were first responders pulled off another mission and I did not have the expertise to help with the wounded," O'Hara recalls. She explains that all she knew was to hold the wound which led her to wonder what threat shift she had missed."

The threat-tippers and intelligence world on an active battlefield are constantly shifting.

"I realized that intelligence is an imperfect science," she says. "It morphs and changes, but the human body does not. Saving a life is more in my control. I had my brothers keeping the enemy from the gate. Shouldn't I be the one sustaining what's inside the people they are already protecting?

"That was a really big push for me to go into medicine. I still deal with the 'Intel' world, but first and foremost I am a physician. Being deployed taught me a lot, but what doesn't."

O'Hara began studying for medical school around her time as a Platoon Leader in Iraq. After returning from deployment, she joined the ranks of the Medical Corps and transitioned back into school. She was the Class President of her medical class for four years at East Tennessee State University. For someone who chose West Point for the challenge, O'Hara confesses that her time at medical school was meant to be a break for her.

"I wanted to suck the marrow out of life while at West Point and that is how I continue to live," she explains. "No matter what you can, or can't do, you just have to roll with it. You've got to find a way even if it's not the way you wanted, you've got to help people."

Those who enter the gates at the U.S. Military Academy understand the deep roots of selfless service and the importance of the oaths they take on Reception Day, Affirmation Day and Graduation Day.

To some, selfless service is putting others first. To individuals that graduate from West Point, the preeminent leadership institution in the world, selfless service is giving everything you have to help other people while expecting little to nothing in return, and then even when you have little left of yourself you keep on giving. To O'Hara, selfless service is not just an oath, it is her way of life.

In keeping with that sentiment, O'Hara married Michael "Terry" Lucas. He perpetuates that way of life as well. Terry played football during his undergraduate days at the University of South Florida and is a U.S. Navy veteran, previously serving on nuclear submarines.

"I married Terry because we had the same morals, commitment to Catholicism, and views on family," says O'Hara. "He may even root for Army during Army- Navy games."

As she looks forward to her newest journey as Terry's wife, Aria's mother and a doctor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, O'Hara continues on with her selfless service to other people.

"I have learned that there is nothing more precious in life than other people," states O'Hara. "And I'll be damned if I can't preserve that."

Army West Point Athletics

MISSION FIRST: Rolling With The Punches

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