Now, hes sitting on the honor committee in judgment of his fellow cadets, right? Now, maybe thats not the experience for every cadet, but I would say a vast majority, a solid amountmaybe majority, vast majority of people who leave the Army after five years leave a part of themselves with the Army, and have to have a feeling theres a void thereabsolutely. Viola, former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange and owner of the Florida Panthers professional ice hockey team, hopes to multiply his money several times on the historic home he. I remember as a young man unrealistically wanting to go to Vietnam. This is very, very unique. So what are theythis would be my take on those incontrovertible principles. So for more than one invasion, he was in the middle of the landing and in the middle of the action. Did you knowyou mustve known some of the cadets that were involved with this. She and her husband also own St. Elias Stables, based in New York City. So well just have a nice conversation here. If you are slightly potentialed to want to be hereslightly potentialed in your deepest personality to be selflessif you have the United States of America as part of your core identityyou have to understand that the rewards of selfless leadership are enormously infectious. I had an enormously fascinating experience around the honor scandal. In 2003 he founded the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point to provide education and research about global terrorism. He also suffered from alcoholism from when he came home from World War II until my Yearling Year. Enter Search Term. And upon further investigations, they found enough to where it was a systemic problem and challenge to the honor code. Donald Trump appointed Viola to be Secretary of the Army in December 2016 but
Since then, the Foundation has provided free educational programming for hundreds of local public schools and continues to serve the community through ongoing outreach programs, crisis relief efforts, grant programs, and partnerships with local 501c3 organizations. Well, and I remember my one buddy, who did go to collegetwo or three of us went to collegedescribing to me frat parties, you know. The honor committee became basically a full-time job for him, to the point where, as I remember, he missed many classes. The conduct of these honor committee hearings was going on. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Virtu Financial and its predecessors since April 2008. But our close, most closely contacted the officers that we had most close contact withour instructors and our tactical officers and trainersthey were all Vietnam. Its very hard to come here and notleave not having a selfless sense of what duty means, what honor is, and the importance of your country. And with the idea that he was going to clean up the Academy from the scandal. I mean even those whocertainly those who actually did it must have, but did the rest of the class feel tainted by this? Whats Next? [20], Viola withdrew himself from consideration for the position on February 3, 2017, citing his inability to comply with Pentagon regulations regarding personal businesses. The company that I was a member inas Im sure you knowafter Beast Barracks you are assigned to a company in one of the four regiments. Cause it seems almost to epitomize the nadir of the Army. We appreciate your gererosity! A native of Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Viola is a graduate of Brooklyn Technical School and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. My company was very unique, and Im sure there were others like thisI dont have statistics on thisbut we were what you called a sort of gray company. What was your own attitude about the Vietnam War at the time? Standing in formation, being of correct order, marching in formationso youre physicalizing on your leadership ability, and it was the same always. [16], Leah McGrath Goodman's 2011 book, The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked the World's Oil Market, describes Viola and his temperament. A graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger school, he served in the 101st Airborne Division and later attained the rank of Major in the Army Reserves. And my dad received a V letter from my grandfather, commanding him, basically as strong Italian fathers will do to their sons, that he must go visit his relatives in the village where my dad was actually born. Ill veer off to a very interesting story. [14] Viola was also one of the two partners who launched EWT, LLC and Madison Tyler, LLC, two electric trading firms formerly based in Beverly Hills, CA and was able to use the electronic trading technique to his own personal gain making him one of the richest men in the world. Viola and Teresa are both involved in horseracing as the owners of St. Elias Stable and Teresa Viola Racing, respectively. He was a phenomenal speaker. West Point had not undergone a social revolution, for obvious purposes. Youre transitioning from really leading the Corps, ensuring its duties are fulfilled, preparing to become a commissioned officer and enter the real Army, so to speak. It borders on failure or guiltyyou feel like I let down my central purpose, you know. Cool on honor meant to the people who apparently would cheat and collaborate was that you were okay with collaborating or cheating. They weren't immediately available for . Copyright 1999-2020 Florida Panthers Hockey Club, Ltd and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved. Viola is the owner of the NHL Florida Panthers. The Sexual Revolution was abound. Sure, sure. A graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne, Air Assault, Infantry, and Ranger Schools, Mr. Viola served as an infantry officer in the 101st Airborne Division, and his dedication to the U.S. military additionally led to his creation of the Florida Panthers' Heroes Among Us program, which has honored hundreds of veterans, and counting, since its inception in 2013. 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Viola and his wife, Teresa, sold the places in March for $11.3 million. I can tell you that a vast majorityif almost every one of my professors that were uniformed here, and when I was a cadet, I dare say that seemed like 95 percent of the staffwere combat veterans. And Branch Night wasoh, it was the best days of my life, being a platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division was justfor someone who always desired to lead soldiers and experience the feeling of building an esprit and a camaraderie, it was just simply amazing. Did you find yourself when you would travel off being mocked and harassed by people? Prior to Virtu, Cifu practiced law for 18 years at the international law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he was a partner. Never wanted out. The persons on the floors who would grant the orders and run them from one broker to the next, and enter the order into a. Some of these very general storiesnot too specificand I thought West Point would be the best place to attempt to become commissioned. Dare I say they aretheyre definitional. Viola took the company public in April 2015. So were you investigatedwas every cadet investigated for their commitment? And you walk into Wall Street, and suddenly it is an environment you can recognizeit seems familiar to you. You come here, and its interesting because society was just integrating, and internalizing the disruption that it experienced from the middle of the Vietnam War until its end. Im just trying to understand this. What did you go to do after you left? And fast forward to the summer now of our Cow Year, into our first of yearnow, you have to remember, the First Class year of a cadet is so phenomenally anticipated and so waited for, because, obviously, its your last year at the Academy. The home's billionaire owner, Vincent Viola, who owns the Florida Panthers, nearly sold the home once before. Of all the locations this generational defender was expected to choose next on his managerial journey, a stint at a freshly relegated Lancastrian club was not on the list. Part of that was because we had some former soldiers in the company who were cadets throughout the four classes that were there any time, and part of it was because we had a tactical officerthen was at the rank of major, Major Joseph Kinzer an old-guard Infantry soldier who was a Vietnam combat veteran, a phenomenal infantryman and a fantastic tactical officer. Hes down at Fort Monroe now, I thinkis that right? We were enormously devout around the values and principles that we were living here. Yes. Cifu currently serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the board of visitors of Columbia College at Columbia University. Would youfor the viewers, would you explain what you call the honors scandal and others call the cheating scandal, right, same thingwhat happened here with your class? Born in Providence, a son of the late Albert and Michelina (DeGregorio) Viola. Its very interesting. Now, whyd you get out of the Army? Donald Trumps real net worth? The son of a truck driver from Brooklyn, Vincent Viola started electronic-trading firm Virtu Financial in 2008 and took the company public in 2015. The case is in Wilmington, DEs Chancery Court before Vice Chancellor Paul Fioravanti Jr. At the end of January, the court was notified that both sides are engaging on a schedule with the next update by the end of the month. New York City quietly, socially, is a very conservative place, so if Id go out in uniform to a bar anywhere in the city, most of the persons in bars or in points of culture, even at those points, in those years were somewhat older, born of the Korean War or World War II generation. I had to actually leave Fort Campbell, and I took a compassionate reassignment to Fort Hamilton in New York Cityactually, Fort Dix, and I got assigned to Fort Hamilton. 7901 4TH ST. N, ST. PETERSBURG, FL 33702. And. So my dad went to his captain and asked him if he could go and see his family, these small hamlets in the mountains in the south of Italyare very interesting and isolated subcultures. He actually commanded the forces during an operation up in the central highlands near the Cambodian and Laos borderit was 197071called Operation Ripcord. She didnt have any skills, per se, except to be a housewife. He is also Chief Executive Officer of Virtu Financial, one of the nation's foremost providers of financial technology products and services, which he co-founded along with Panthers Owner, Chairman, and Governor Vincent J. Viola in 2008. His personality was amazing. So the storyIm saying the story had kind of gotI mean you had two kinds of wars here. Now, the honor code says not only not to tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing, butor does it say something to the effect of or knowledge of?. 33307. [2] He is the former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), and the founder and chairman of Virtu Financial. Now, my roommate is a person you should interview for this. You cannot help but that feeling. These outsized distributions to Viola and other pre-IPO owners represent an increase of over 130 percent from the previous two years, while dividends to the Class A shareholders have stayed the same., The complaint goes on to say it appears that Viola and the Board have knowingly used cash that rightfully belongs to the Class A shareholders in ways that benefit Viola and other pre-IPO owners. In 1983, he graduated from New York Law School with a juris doctor degree. The upper classes led the military formation of the cadets as much as the staff here, so its a very unique environment. Vincent Viola is our Founder and has served as our Executive Chairman since November 2013. So I was experiencingI dont want to paint the picture like we felt estranged here. Yes. Military Times reported that Viola had been searching for ways to divest from his business ventures, including transferring ownership of the Florida Panthers to his family members and transferring responsibility for operations to Vice Chairman Douglas Cifu. Thats good, because the principles at demand for combat leadership, they really dont change. Is that what happens next, or is the, I cant quite remember, but what I believe happened was they were expelled from the Corps, and the federal government, at the Department of Army level, reacted to the forces, the social and political forces that were bringing to bear on the construction, which challenged the idea that, in fact, the Academy had protected the honor code well enough so that it was functioning and being followed. We are a 501(c)(3) organization. If no results appear, use Enter to do a full site search. He was for several weeks President Donald Trump's nominee for United States Secretary of the Army, before withdrawing from consideration. When you click on the link below, you will be taken to the West Point Association of Graduates website and instructions on how to give to the Center. SanzaS-A-N-Z-A. According to the complaint, Viola, through his affiliates, controls 82 percent of Virtus voting power. How much revenue does Broward County get from non-hockey events and what do the Panthers get for non-hockey events? They are co-owners of Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming. So the cheating happened in their Firstie Year? It was much the same as it is now and probably was for many years before: a very concentrated, specific social culture that was extremely singular in purpose. They would wear khaki uniforms, and they were called the speed battalion or the speed company. Even if he didnt know what he was talking about, he sounded like he knew what he was saying. Because now it had elevated past the control of the Corps, and it became a challenge to the administration of the Academy. I think it was the spring of our Cow Year, our third year here, and I remember during breakfast formationthese might be false memories. Many just did it almost as a social activity. These freedoms are gifts. So my class and my company of A4 did not have one persons paper questioned, so we were almost in this kind of vacuum. Its an internally generated strength. My dad hadnt been there since. He was a devout Airborne soldier named Sidney Berry. Vincent Viola and 2 Pierrepont Street (Getty, Google Maps) Tenants at 2 Pierrepont Street, a Brooklyn Heights rental building, filed a lawsuit against . Viola. He had commanded a brigade in the combat organization of the 101st Airborne Division during the conduct of that battle. And that stuck with mesort of confirmed for me that the military was an honorable profession. Panthers owner and Army secretary nominee Vincent Viola allegedly punched a concessions worker at a racehorse auction in Saratoga Springs, New York, on Aug. 8, according to a police report. I think hewell, I dont know what you would call that. Mr. Viola was the owner/operator o In 2008, Viola founded Virtu Financial, active in electronic market making. When I would go home on leave, all of my friends had gotten into some level of drug use, so I had to make a very specific choice, and that choice was, I cannot do this. You felt that from the first day, because it wasthe first day is transformational. And I had a few friends from other companies that were in there. Box 23763 Did you know you shouldnt have collaborated? In paperwork filed with the court, however, Virtu denied any wrongdoing. He took illthis is before his heart attack, though. My dad took ill during my Yearling Year, and I was theI had become quickly the sole source of leadership in my family, and. Vincent Viola was born August 13, 1933 in Brooklyn, NY. Vincent Viola And that's very powerful continuum there of an Italian-American immigrant family that, not more than 17 years prior, 20 years prior, had been in that village, and now my dad and three of his brothers were in combat. But I remember word starting to spontaneously spread through the class that there was a big issue with whether cadets had collaborated on this exercise. And so that means you arrived here in 1970. The Delaware attorneys for both sides Jeffrey Gorris for the pension fund and Matthew Stachel for Virtu declined to comment. So the investigation goes on sort of in the Spring semester of the Cow Year. A very tall fellow, ramrod straight, and he wore the Silver Star, and I can remember he taught us small unit tactics in military instruction either my Plebe or my Yearling Year. 2017. Some of the cadets that were indictedif I dare say that wordwere indignant. You were always very good at mathematics. I was always pretty good at mathematics. What was it like to be here in the period immediately after the end of the Vietnam War? The Ft L Commissioners lead by Dean to be honest, WERE STAR STRUCK BY PANTHERS LOBBYISTS CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS, but as a Commissioner said to me privately after I protested the proposed deal, Who cares what we do? (except the lobbyists)? We have the same number of Stanley Cups! But there was a very, very clear ethos that was sown into me by my immediate familymy nuclear and extended familythat you absolutely must be ready to sacrifice for this country that gave us so much. dchristensen@floridabulldog.org I was very blessed. Your RSA Security Is On Its Last Legs. Mobile Experiences For Businesses: How To Boost Accessibility And Revenue, San Francisco 49ers Salary Cap Situation And Finances Heading Into NFL Free Agency, Vincent Lo Plays Long Game With His Shui On Group, Making Big Bets In Shanghai Property As He Prepares Daughter Stephanie As Successor. Im sure theres some of that. My mom was not sick, but she was an Italian-American housewife.