TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Being the first to accomplish something comes with a lot of pride for some people, but it can also bring pressure.<\/p>\n
For a retired brigadier general who now lives in Tampa Bay, his journey to becoming the first Black general for the U.S. Army Special Forces came with obstacles that led to mentorship.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Butler says he faced challenges getting to the position, but it motivated him to help others<\/p>\n
Butler wrote a book about his journey in a book titled “Lead From the Front”<\/p>\n
If you ask retired Brig. Gen. Remo Butler\u00a0why he joined the military, he\u2019ll tell you it started with necessity.<\/p>\n
“I love to eat, and I needed to make money,” he said.<\/p>\n
Over time, he said, it became about leadership \u2014 a realization he came to while serving three years in Colombia.<\/p>\n
“In Colombia, it\u2019s just like our military was many years ago, you very seldom saw a Black officer,” he said.<\/p>\n
Butler\u00a0joined the military in 1974. At the time, he said there were very few Black men\u00a0enlisted.<\/p>\n
Butler said he faced barriers as he climbed the ranks. There were misconceptions: \u201cBlacks won\u2019t fight, and they aren\u2019t smart enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Butler\u00a0persevered \u2014 not only did he make it into special forces, but he also excelled.<\/p>\n
In 2001, he became the first black brigadier general in the U.S. Army Special Forces.<\/p>\n
Drawing on his own experience, he made mentorship a mission. \u201cI wanted to give them the benefit of everything I had gone\u00a0through, and when I got ready to retire, I was counseling regularly, probably about 10-15 minority special forces officers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
These days, statistics show Black or African Americans make up a significant portion of the U.S. active-duty military, about 17 to 21% overall.<\/p>\n
Butler\u00a0retired in 2004 but continues to inspire through his book, \u201cLead From the Front,\u201d a motivational guide.<\/p>\n
“Understand what they need to do to be successful regardless of race, creed, color, or whatever,” he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s still helping to pave the way for future generations of Black men and women in uniform, or anyone looking to serve.<\/p>\n
“Lead From the Front” will be available online on February 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Being the first to accomplish something comes with a lot of pride for some people, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1011,1013,59903,274,48241,71626,276,1190,2200,6076,2583,115,135,137,136,278,2032,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-148209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-latest-human-interest-stories","10":"tag-app-military","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-black-history-month","13":"tag-black-history-month-2026","14":"tag-hillsborough-county","15":"tag-human-interest","16":"tag-instagram-bn9","17":"tag-lizbeth-gutierrez","18":"tag-military","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-tampa-headlines","22":"tag-tampa-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-trending-topics","25":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}