You're listening to Taking Stock with Pim Box and Kathleen Hayes on Bloomberg Radio. Managing a more than one hundred million dollar budget, dealing with over forty four hundred very active members. We're talking about the core of cadets at West Point, the US Military Academy. Our next guest is Maureen le Buff. General Lebuff is a former brigadier general
in the US Army. She held a variety of posts in the Army, among which she flew U H one helicopters, and also presided over the head of the Department of Physical Education at West Point until her retirement in two thousand four. General Lebuff, thank you very much for being with us. Well, thank you, Pam, I appreciate it. Tell us about this title called Master of the Sword, what does it mean, and just give us a little bit of context for how sort of special that is that
you would have that title. Well, the title Master of the Sword is the title that goes with the position of the director and head of the Department of Physical Education at the United States Military Academy at west Point, And the title comes from the fact that West Point had the first full time physical educator in higher education in our country, and he was a sword master, so
that's where the title comes from. So when you are selected to be the director and head of the Department of Physical Education, you are introduced and carried the title master the sword. And when I was selected for that position in n UM, I was the first woman to have that position and the first woman to share a department at the United States Military Academy. And at the time, West Point was adine years old. Well, congratulations on that, uh, And you have done so much in your career in
the army. You held very staff and leadership positions w H one helicopters. Wow. What caught you interested in the military? What got you interested in the army? That's a great question, Kathleen. I actually I am from a large Irish Catholic family in western New York. I grew up about seventy miles south of Buffalo and Olean Um. My dad was a professor at St. Bonaventure and he also served in the Air Force Reserves, and so that was part of my life growing up, my dad being in the Air Force Reserve.
And then my oldest brother. I'm the middle child of nine and my oldest brother we called Timer Um did Army RROTC at St. Bonaventure and then he was commissioned and he served a full career in the army. And I think, um, because of my dad and my brother, that certainly got my interest. And then I had the opportunity to participate in a program for women that were you participate in this program and then have the opportunity
to go on active duty after college. And this was before our OTC was available and before West Point was open to women. The first women entered in the class in in nineteen seventy six, and that's the year I graduated from college. Maureen, I beg your pardon, go ahead. No, I was going to ask you about moments that matter, because that was really the topic I believe you're going to speak on at the Raymond James Network for Women Advisors.
And I'm wondering if you could tell us a moment that mattered for you, and maybe if you can connect that with I mean, you had responsibilities, you said at West Point over a hundred million dollar budget renovations, and you have some very I would imagine exacting uh colleagues. Well, I did not oversee over a hundred million dollar budget.
I wish i'd had that kind of budget and that apartment, I beg your pardon, but it's that was the renovation of the Raban at that Physical Development Center was over a hundred million dollar renovation and there are forty cadets who on a daily basis we had to educate, train, and inspire because in the in the Department of Physical Education, that was our mission because those are the future ground combat leaders of our army, so we needed to make sure that they were fit and ready to lead their
soldiers physically into combat. Um. But it's a moment that mattered. I will go back to my childhood, um Pim and being in that that big family of nine, and there were nine of us in eleven years, and I learned a lot from each one of my eight brothers and sisters. But the story that I want to share with you is around my oldest brother, Timer, and I can only imagine how daunting it is to be the oldest of of nine because you do everything for the first time.
But I remember when he probably was twelve, and Mom and Dad decided he was old enough to watch us when they went out, and one evening they went out, and of course they had rules, no other friends were allowed at the house. We were not allowed to leave the house or leave the backyard. And another rule was you were not allowed to hit golf balls in the backyard.
And for good reason, as you can imagine, and Timer decided that he'd bring out the five iron and a couple of golf balls, and he hit two or three balls, and the third one went over the fence, took a hard bounce and went right through a neighbor's window, and you can imagine the night of us stood there and without hesitation time or put the club down, he happed over the fence and he knocked down his neighbor's door, and he told them that he hit the ball and
broke their window. And then we waited for Mom and Dad to come home, and when they came in, Timer told him what he had done. And a few weeks later it was his birthday and Dad gave him a framed copy of the bill and at the bottom it said Dad was right again. But what I learned that they watching my brother was he did the right thing at the right time, for the right reason. And it's just one of those things that you know, you pull on during life that sometimes you have to step up
and it's not easy. That's right, General Marie Labouf. We're going to leave it there. We appreciate you taking the time for us today. Retired Army Brigadier general. I'm Kathleen Hayes. Along with Pim Fox. This is Bloomberg.