In my right hand I held three sheets of yellow legal paper, folded once down the middle.

The handwritten draft from three nights earlier was crisp, full of straight lines of dark ink laying out my speech on duty, integrity, and merit.

A cadet lieutenant stepped around the edge of the curtain and held up two fingers, signaling two minutes until the platform procession.

General Vance walked over to the bottom stair and looked up at me.

“The stadium is full, Colonel Mitchell,” he said in a low, steady voice.