Mark Erwin Reflects on Impactful Military Journey
11/10/2023 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer, Les Johns
Craving a team-oriented career, the legendary men’s soccer alum turned his early ROTC experience at Wake Forest into a long and impactful stint in the military.
After scoring five goals in a game in front of Wake Forest men's soccer head coach George Kennedy, Mark Erwin was offered a spot on the inaugural squad for the program in 1980. When admissions scoffed at Erwin's application, Kennedy went to bat for the Georgia native.
That was political capital well-spent by Kennedy, as Erwin went on to have a storied Demon Deacon career. He's the all-time Wake Forest career leader in both points (160) and goals (68), leading the nation with 36 goals as a senior in 1983. Erwin earned induction into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Although he's one of the top 30 all-time scorers in college soccer, it's what Erwin has accomplished after his time at Wake Forest that has truly made a global impact.
After completing his psychology degree at Wake Forest, Eriwn served in the United States Army for more than 25 years, completing his career as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army Special Operations Command.
Starting his military career in ROTC at Wake Forest, Erwin held leadership positions and became integral to the United States global War on Terror with several deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.It wasn't Erwin's original plan, quite simply because he had no plan for what he was going to do after finishing at Wake Forest.
"I went to Wake Forest to play soccer, and that was it," Erwin said. "That's what got me there. I can't claim to have had a plan. I went to school to play soccer. I took psychology because I thought it was the most interesting thing to study enough to graduate. There was never a plan for what I would do next. I stumbled into the military opportunity and didn't know what it was going to be.
"My then girlfriend, Melanie, was told I would do this for three years and then figure out what to do next. That's what she thought she signed up for."
As Erwin progressed into an upperclassman at Wake Forest, he started to ponder what would be next and realized his psychology degree likely wouldn't get him where he wanted.
"The military recruits athletes, and the ROTC department did that with me," Erwin explained. "I met with them a couple of times. I took a couple of classes. As my soccer career was starting to wind down and I began looking at what comes next, I started thinking about the ROTC piece and what could happen with that.
"My junior year I joined the ROTC. I was doing psychology at Wake Forest, and you can't really do much with psychology without having yet more school. I decided this Army thing might be a good fit for me."
After graduation, Erwin tried out with a Charlotte-based National Soccer League team, and even scored a few goals, but realized he'd also have to work other jobs to make it work.
"What did I really want to do?" Erwin wondered. "This Army thing sounded cool, I thought, figuring I would do it for a few years and then grow up. It turned out to be the perfect team sport. I grew up playing team sports and that's what I loved. When I stepped into the military, I realized in every way it was a team sport to me. There are the things you do together with your teammates, the leadership opportunities that are provided like being captain of a team — as a young infantry lieutenant, it's a leadership laboratory.
"From Day 1 when I stepped into my first platoon as a young lieutenant, I had 25 people working for me. Half of them were older than me and half were younger. You're literally thrown into a leadership learning opportunity right off the bat, and that carried on for 26 years. When you're in those positions, if you keep your eyes and ears open to what is going on around you, you learn every day."
Knowing little about the military when he signed up, Erwin was first stationed in Fort Carson, Colo.
"At the time, the Fourth Infantry Division was there, and it was a mechanized unit," Erwin said. "This was 1985, we didn't think about combat. There wasn't a lot going on in the world that would potentially put us in harm's way. We were in training mode. We focused on how to train and how to maintain equipment. It set me up well for my next role, in the 82nd Airborne, when we moved to Fort Bragg (now named Fort Liberty), North Carolina.
"I became an infantry company commander and wound up deploying in the first Gulf War in 1990. All that training and learning I did the first few years put me in a fairly good spot to actually command an infantry rifle company in combat. We were in the western desert, where we spent 35 days in a foxhole."
The time away from his new wife, 1986 Wake Forest grad Melanie Blackburn, was tough on the both of them.
"That was seven-and-a-half months away from my wife, who was also a Wake Forest grad, back in the day when we didn't have cell phones or the internet," Erwin said. "That was in the old days communicating only by letter, which was quite an experience for a young couple."
The Erwins moved around a lot in his first decade serving in the US Army, having stints at Fort Carson, Fort Benning, Fort Bragg and Washington, D.C.
"Every time you're up for a promotion in the military, you think about if it's the right time to get out," Erwin said. "That's just natural and it's what most people do, but I never had that desire until I got sent to a job in Washington, D.C. I was a captain in the Army at the time and was put in an administrative role, which I was told was highly sought-after.
"But it wasn't the right fit for me. It wasn't that team sport activity that I was used to as an infantryman. It was an assignments officer, which was an important job and I learned a lot from it. But it wasn't what I wanted to do."
Unhappy with his role in D.C., Erwin's interest was piqued when someone suggested a role in Delta Force, one of the U.S. military's special units focused primarily with counterterrorism.
"I didn't know what Delta Force was, but it sounded cool and I wanted to get out of D.C.," Erwin said. "I signed up and tried out for that special operations unit and was successful. In 1995, I moved back to Fort Bragg and it was the best move I ever made for me and my family. I was in the best unit, around the most talented people I could ever imagine being around."
The move to Fort Bragg with Delta Force provided stability for Erwin and his entire family.
"Once you get in that unit, they keep you there," he explained. "So my wife was able to cultivate her own career there as a commercial banker. Continually moving around wasn't optimal for us, but that move to special operations — I was passionate about that and it allowed my wife to have a career and allowed for our son to be able to attend the same school system throughout his life. It's not the right move for everyone, but it was perfect for me and my family."
Erwin became a phenomenal leader by learning from his mentors and leaders along his career path, with special affinity toward former Chief of Staff of the United States Army George Casey, Gen. Stanley McCrystal and Admiral Bill McCraven.
"You learn from every leader you're around, whether it's good or bad," Erwin said. "It's important you learn, whether you think they're on the right path or not. I also think the first leader you have in an industry is hugely impactful in one direction or the other. A bad leader right off could lead you to believe that isn't the right fit for you.
"I wound up with one of the best leaders I've ever been around in my first job in the military with Lt. Col. George Casey, who eventually became Chief of Staff of the Army as a four-star. He ran the war in Iraq for a number of years while I was there. He was a mentor for me throughout my entire career. He showed me you could be a normal, good person and still be an effective leader. He was a great asset to me during my career and we're still connected."
He also considers himself fortunate to have served alongside McCrystal and McCraven.
"Gen. Stanley McCrystal, who ran our fight in Afghanistan, changed our whole special operations organization and the way it interacts with our interagency community and the way it interacts with the government," Erwin said. "I worked directly with him for five years while we were in Iraq. I learned a lot from him on how to create change in an organization and how to do it effectively.
"Admiral Bill McCraven, who a lot of people know from the 'Make Your Bed' speech. Good people who care about the people around them, and want everyone to be successful. Instead of looking out for yourself as an individual, it's looking out for your team that makes you and everyone else successful."
Erwin has maintained contact with Wake Forest soccer throughout his travels across the globe, even tracking the 2007 National Championship contest against Ohio State while stationed in Iraq.
"I was commanding a task force in Iraq and I had a lieutenant colonel who worked for me who was an Ohio State grad," Erwin said. "We were in the throes of operations against Al-Qaeda and prepping for an operation. I had no ability to watch the game, but on the Wake Forest website I was at least able to track the score of the game and the timeline of the game. I was watching that on my computer. At halftime, Wake Forest was trailing 1-0."
Marcus Tracy hit the tying goal for the Demon Deacons in the 66th minute, then assisted in the go-ahead goal by Zack Schilawksi in the 74th minute to deliver the national championship for Wake Forest in a 2-1 victory over the Buckeyes.
"I had to go out for an operation that night. I went out for four-or-five hours, and when I got back went straight to the computer to see what the score was," Erwin said, "I came in and saw the game had been over for quite awhile, but the Deacs had won 2-1. That was one of the good nights. I'll never forget it."
Several years later, Erwin delivered a special gift for his Buckeye friend.
"He was a good friend and a great warrior," Erwin said. "He took the loss well. When I played at Wake Forest, we played a game in their football stadium. There were 200 people in an 80,000 seat stadium, so it was a weird environment to play. At the time, they had some OSU engraved wooden chairs on the sideline. Somehow a couple of those ended up in our traveling van back to Wake Forest and somehow one of those ended up in my garage for years and years, literally since 1983.
"Now flash forward to 2007, when we got back from that deployment, I got home and found that chair that I never used and sent to my good friend from Ohio State, so he had that to remember from that exchange."
Erwin admits the transition from the military to civilian life isn't always easy, and it took several years for him to find the right vehicle to harness his team-oriented talents.
"I started out doing what most people do with my background in special operations, and that's defense contracting," he said. "I knew it wasn't the right fit for me and I lasted about seven months. Because I was fortunate enough for my wife to have a good job, I was able to quit that job."
"What are you going to do?" Melanie asked.
"I don't know, but I'll figure it out," Erwin responded.
Working with a large private equity firm gave Erwin a better grasp of P&L management, and some relationships he built along the way offered him the opportunity to serve on the board of Bardstown Bourbon Company.
"I'd never thought about the business, but have always loved Bourbon," Erwin said. "I never thought about being involved in a business like this. Got on the board in 2019, and in the summer of 2019, I was asked to take over the business and grow it. I made the move from Fayetteville to Louisville. It's been a phenomenal opportunity, learning and growing a new business. I've got great partners.
"Now all of a sudden I'm back on a team with individuals passionate about what we're growing. It becomes something that you're proud to go to work everyday. We've grown from 50 people on the team to 370 people on the team. We're continuing to grow. I've found myself in an interesting spot for what I hope will be the last job of my career."
Erwin looks back at his career of service with a lot of pride, starting first with what he's built with his wife Melanie.
"What I'm most proud of is that I still have a family after my 26 years of doing all of that," he said. "There's a lot of families that don't survive all of that. I'm still in an awesome relationship with my wife of 37 years. That, by far, is what I value the most in terms of accomplishments. That's number one.
"My whole experience in special operations, that I got to work so many years side-by-side with these great warriors, most officers had to go in-and-out of that organization. I was able to literally stay in that organization from 1995 to 2009 when I commanded the organization. That certainly was one of my proudest times and was the majority of my career. It was the coolest job of my life."
That was political capital well-spent by Kennedy, as Erwin went on to have a storied Demon Deacon career. He's the all-time Wake Forest career leader in both points (160) and goals (68), leading the nation with 36 goals as a senior in 1983. Erwin earned induction into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Although he's one of the top 30 all-time scorers in college soccer, it's what Erwin has accomplished after his time at Wake Forest that has truly made a global impact.
After completing his psychology degree at Wake Forest, Eriwn served in the United States Army for more than 25 years, completing his career as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army Special Operations Command.
Starting his military career in ROTC at Wake Forest, Erwin held leadership positions and became integral to the United States global War on Terror with several deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.It wasn't Erwin's original plan, quite simply because he had no plan for what he was going to do after finishing at Wake Forest.
"I went to Wake Forest to play soccer, and that was it," Erwin said. "That's what got me there. I can't claim to have had a plan. I went to school to play soccer. I took psychology because I thought it was the most interesting thing to study enough to graduate. There was never a plan for what I would do next. I stumbled into the military opportunity and didn't know what it was going to be.
"My then girlfriend, Melanie, was told I would do this for three years and then figure out what to do next. That's what she thought she signed up for."
As Erwin progressed into an upperclassman at Wake Forest, he started to ponder what would be next and realized his psychology degree likely wouldn't get him where he wanted.
"The military recruits athletes, and the ROTC department did that with me," Erwin explained. "I met with them a couple of times. I took a couple of classes. As my soccer career was starting to wind down and I began looking at what comes next, I started thinking about the ROTC piece and what could happen with that.
"My junior year I joined the ROTC. I was doing psychology at Wake Forest, and you can't really do much with psychology without having yet more school. I decided this Army thing might be a good fit for me."
After graduation, Erwin tried out with a Charlotte-based National Soccer League team, and even scored a few goals, but realized he'd also have to work other jobs to make it work.
"What did I really want to do?" Erwin wondered. "This Army thing sounded cool, I thought, figuring I would do it for a few years and then grow up. It turned out to be the perfect team sport. I grew up playing team sports and that's what I loved. When I stepped into the military, I realized in every way it was a team sport to me. There are the things you do together with your teammates, the leadership opportunities that are provided like being captain of a team — as a young infantry lieutenant, it's a leadership laboratory.
"From Day 1 when I stepped into my first platoon as a young lieutenant, I had 25 people working for me. Half of them were older than me and half were younger. You're literally thrown into a leadership learning opportunity right off the bat, and that carried on for 26 years. When you're in those positions, if you keep your eyes and ears open to what is going on around you, you learn every day."
Knowing little about the military when he signed up, Erwin was first stationed in Fort Carson, Colo.
"At the time, the Fourth Infantry Division was there, and it was a mechanized unit," Erwin said. "This was 1985, we didn't think about combat. There wasn't a lot going on in the world that would potentially put us in harm's way. We were in training mode. We focused on how to train and how to maintain equipment. It set me up well for my next role, in the 82nd Airborne, when we moved to Fort Bragg (now named Fort Liberty), North Carolina.
"I became an infantry company commander and wound up deploying in the first Gulf War in 1990. All that training and learning I did the first few years put me in a fairly good spot to actually command an infantry rifle company in combat. We were in the western desert, where we spent 35 days in a foxhole."
The time away from his new wife, 1986 Wake Forest grad Melanie Blackburn, was tough on the both of them.
"That was seven-and-a-half months away from my wife, who was also a Wake Forest grad, back in the day when we didn't have cell phones or the internet," Erwin said. "That was in the old days communicating only by letter, which was quite an experience for a young couple."
The Erwins moved around a lot in his first decade serving in the US Army, having stints at Fort Carson, Fort Benning, Fort Bragg and Washington, D.C.
"Every time you're up for a promotion in the military, you think about if it's the right time to get out," Erwin said. "That's just natural and it's what most people do, but I never had that desire until I got sent to a job in Washington, D.C. I was a captain in the Army at the time and was put in an administrative role, which I was told was highly sought-after.
"But it wasn't the right fit for me. It wasn't that team sport activity that I was used to as an infantryman. It was an assignments officer, which was an important job and I learned a lot from it. But it wasn't what I wanted to do."
Unhappy with his role in D.C., Erwin's interest was piqued when someone suggested a role in Delta Force, one of the U.S. military's special units focused primarily with counterterrorism.
"I didn't know what Delta Force was, but it sounded cool and I wanted to get out of D.C.," Erwin said. "I signed up and tried out for that special operations unit and was successful. In 1995, I moved back to Fort Bragg and it was the best move I ever made for me and my family. I was in the best unit, around the most talented people I could ever imagine being around."
The move to Fort Bragg with Delta Force provided stability for Erwin and his entire family.
"Once you get in that unit, they keep you there," he explained. "So my wife was able to cultivate her own career there as a commercial banker. Continually moving around wasn't optimal for us, but that move to special operations — I was passionate about that and it allowed my wife to have a career and allowed for our son to be able to attend the same school system throughout his life. It's not the right move for everyone, but it was perfect for me and my family."
Erwin became a phenomenal leader by learning from his mentors and leaders along his career path, with special affinity toward former Chief of Staff of the United States Army George Casey, Gen. Stanley McCrystal and Admiral Bill McCraven.
"You learn from every leader you're around, whether it's good or bad," Erwin said. "It's important you learn, whether you think they're on the right path or not. I also think the first leader you have in an industry is hugely impactful in one direction or the other. A bad leader right off could lead you to believe that isn't the right fit for you.
"I wound up with one of the best leaders I've ever been around in my first job in the military with Lt. Col. George Casey, who eventually became Chief of Staff of the Army as a four-star. He ran the war in Iraq for a number of years while I was there. He was a mentor for me throughout my entire career. He showed me you could be a normal, good person and still be an effective leader. He was a great asset to me during my career and we're still connected."
He also considers himself fortunate to have served alongside McCrystal and McCraven.
"Gen. Stanley McCrystal, who ran our fight in Afghanistan, changed our whole special operations organization and the way it interacts with our interagency community and the way it interacts with the government," Erwin said. "I worked directly with him for five years while we were in Iraq. I learned a lot from him on how to create change in an organization and how to do it effectively.
"Admiral Bill McCraven, who a lot of people know from the 'Make Your Bed' speech. Good people who care about the people around them, and want everyone to be successful. Instead of looking out for yourself as an individual, it's looking out for your team that makes you and everyone else successful."
Erwin has maintained contact with Wake Forest soccer throughout his travels across the globe, even tracking the 2007 National Championship contest against Ohio State while stationed in Iraq.
"I was commanding a task force in Iraq and I had a lieutenant colonel who worked for me who was an Ohio State grad," Erwin said. "We were in the throes of operations against Al-Qaeda and prepping for an operation. I had no ability to watch the game, but on the Wake Forest website I was at least able to track the score of the game and the timeline of the game. I was watching that on my computer. At halftime, Wake Forest was trailing 1-0."
Marcus Tracy hit the tying goal for the Demon Deacons in the 66th minute, then assisted in the go-ahead goal by Zack Schilawksi in the 74th minute to deliver the national championship for Wake Forest in a 2-1 victory over the Buckeyes.
"I had to go out for an operation that night. I went out for four-or-five hours, and when I got back went straight to the computer to see what the score was," Erwin said, "I came in and saw the game had been over for quite awhile, but the Deacs had won 2-1. That was one of the good nights. I'll never forget it."
Several years later, Erwin delivered a special gift for his Buckeye friend.
"He was a good friend and a great warrior," Erwin said. "He took the loss well. When I played at Wake Forest, we played a game in their football stadium. There were 200 people in an 80,000 seat stadium, so it was a weird environment to play. At the time, they had some OSU engraved wooden chairs on the sideline. Somehow a couple of those ended up in our traveling van back to Wake Forest and somehow one of those ended up in my garage for years and years, literally since 1983.
"Now flash forward to 2007, when we got back from that deployment, I got home and found that chair that I never used and sent to my good friend from Ohio State, so he had that to remember from that exchange."
Erwin admits the transition from the military to civilian life isn't always easy, and it took several years for him to find the right vehicle to harness his team-oriented talents.
"I started out doing what most people do with my background in special operations, and that's defense contracting," he said. "I knew it wasn't the right fit for me and I lasted about seven months. Because I was fortunate enough for my wife to have a good job, I was able to quit that job."
"What are you going to do?" Melanie asked.
"I don't know, but I'll figure it out," Erwin responded.
Working with a large private equity firm gave Erwin a better grasp of P&L management, and some relationships he built along the way offered him the opportunity to serve on the board of Bardstown Bourbon Company.
"I'd never thought about the business, but have always loved Bourbon," Erwin said. "I never thought about being involved in a business like this. Got on the board in 2019, and in the summer of 2019, I was asked to take over the business and grow it. I made the move from Fayetteville to Louisville. It's been a phenomenal opportunity, learning and growing a new business. I've got great partners.
"Now all of a sudden I'm back on a team with individuals passionate about what we're growing. It becomes something that you're proud to go to work everyday. We've grown from 50 people on the team to 370 people on the team. We're continuing to grow. I've found myself in an interesting spot for what I hope will be the last job of my career."
Erwin looks back at his career of service with a lot of pride, starting first with what he's built with his wife Melanie.
"What I'm most proud of is that I still have a family after my 26 years of doing all of that," he said. "There's a lot of families that don't survive all of that. I'm still in an awesome relationship with my wife of 37 years. That, by far, is what I value the most in terms of accomplishments. That's number one.
"My whole experience in special operations, that I got to work so many years side-by-side with these great warriors, most officers had to go in-and-out of that organization. I was able to literally stay in that organization from 1995 to 2009 when I commanded the organization. That certainly was one of my proudest times and was the majority of my career. It was the coolest job of my life."
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