Mitch Perry
Florida GOP Senate candidate Todd Wilcox, a military combat veteran and former CIA case officer, was inducted on Friday into the Army ROTC Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Wilcox attended the University of Tampa on an Army ROTC scholarship before being commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army.
“It was there that I shed this idea that I didn’t deserve more,” he said in a statement. “It was there that I learned the value of hard work, the necessity of personal discipline and the value of genuine leadership. I am living proof that circumstances be damned — we all have a right to succeed in this country so long as we are willing to work and sacrifice for it.”
The 49-year-old Windermere resident said he owes much to his involvement at the ROTC.
“As a Green Beret, I led men into combat. As a CIA case officer, I fought in the Global War on Terror. As a CEO, I’ve created more than 600 jobs. As a husband and father, I’ve built a life for my family that, by any measure, is the American dream. And I have done all of these things because a little over 30 years ago the Reserve Officers Training Corps took a chance on a kid from the wrong side of town. What began as a way out, ultimately became the way up and I owe that to the ROTC.”
Wilcox is one of five Republican vying for the U.S. Senate nomination this August.
