Honorable Bobby L. Christine, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, visited his old stomping grounds of Georgia Military College this week to speak to the 140th Corps of Cadets for their Leadership Engagement Series.  Christine graduated from GMC’s 110th Corps of Cadets in 1989 as co-Valedictorian of his class, as well as a Distinguished Military Graduate.

The Augusta native went on to complete his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia and earned a law degree from Samford University. He is now the Federal Prosecutor for 43 counties, with a widespread influence across the state of Georgia. Christine joined the Georgia Army National Guard in 1987 where he continues to serve today. He has been an adjunct faculty member at GMC’s Augusta campus, and is active as an alumnus supporting the institution. In 2018 during Alumni Weekend, Georgia Military College honored Christine with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Christine says it wasn’t until he left Georgia Military College that he realized how much his education
there had impacted his life. He says his message to the 140th Corps of Cadets is to take advantage of the opportunities GMC provides now.

“I want them to observe the blessing of having the opportunity to be here at GMC,” Christine said.

“They’re at a factory that produces leaders – leaders that are dissimilar to any other leaders on earth,
because they are honed and polished here in the arts of moral courage and moral character and it’s a
blessing to have that opportunity. I shared with them that in order to succeed here in the Corps of
Cadets, they would have to have leadership abilities already regimented in them, but that this institution
will build the moral courage and moral character they need to succeed in life.”

In his speech, Christine expressed to cadets that in order to become better leaders, they’ll need to have
the mentality of being “a giver, not a taker.” Colonel Nelson Kraft, Executive Director of GMC
Milledgeville’s campus says having a Distinguished Alumnus come back to speak to the Corps was important.

“It was fantastic for our Corps of Cadets to hear from Honorable Bobby Christine,” Kraft said. “It was
inspiring to hear his message and to look out into the audience and see our Cadets taking notes, and
later asking him important questions about how to be successful. You could tell they were really
interested in what he had to say, and that means that they took something from his speech – ideas and
tools they can take back with them to the barracks and implement into their education here at GMC but
also later in life.”