Many of the greatest accomplishments of men and women, whether they be notable like climbing Mt. Everest or little known such as discovering anti-biotics in scientific research, all have virtues that are common to achieving the goal. Those common virtues are fortitude, persistence and a desire to overcome, or what we call in the Marines "True Grit". These virtues are not learned, but experienced.

I believe one of the reasons, why the "Greatest Generation", the generation that fought World War II, had such great determination both in the battlefield, as well as peace time to build such a great American economy, was because they went through the school of hard knocks called the depression, during which they had to survive. People must experience the hardships weather they be in bootcamp for the military or maybe even their upbringing. These hardships and suffering build character in the form of virtue.

Hello, Everyone. Today's episode is about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and how this experience affected each one of us. It was myself, my 17 year-old-son and Fr. Desderius Katabaro, a priest from the Archdiocese of Tabora who climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. Mt Kilimanjaro is the worlds highest free standing mountain. The height is a little over 19,300 feet. It really took "True grit" and determination to climb this mountain. I was extremely proud and impressed with my son. The amount of pain and psychological heartaches we encountered were extremely huge, which would impress any Marine training. Very few people can claim to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, even fewer can claim to climb it at age 17. Let's listen to how we all were able to overcome and achieve such a great accomplishment. 01-Aug-2019