As a Marine, 2005 UW-Madison graduate Jake Wood was the ?point man? leading a sharpshooter team through land mines and booby traps in Afghanistan?s notorious Helmand Valley, a Taliban stronghold. As UW-Madison?s 2011 mid-year commencement speaker Sunday, Wood told graduates he had to close his eyes and clench his teeth but never stopped pressing on ? even leading reconnaissance missions ?in the most dangerous city, in the most dangerous province, in the most dangerous country on the face of the Earth.?
Leaving the Kohl Center on Sunday, graduates will embark on a similar journey, he said. ?You?ll have fewer land mines, but you?ll have perhaps more uncertainty,? he said. ?You enter adult life in a downtrodden economy, an uncertain labor market, foreign markets in shambles, and two political parties unwilling to create solutions.?