Soft Landing


since the end of Operation Desert Storm. Garrett says that the true importance of his company’s work was brought home on Sept. 11, then with the threat of sniper attacks. “From that standpoint, I have a personal understanding of what it feels like to be terrorized,” he says.

At 61, Garrett has no plans to retire, and he attributes his success to having a stable family life with his wife Joyce and his two children, Rodney and Melanie. He also explained that his background growing up as a sharecropper’s stepson and working with his stepfather in tobacco fields around the South made him realize that nothing is insurmountable.

The experience of doing backbreaking hard labor also provided him with a drive and a solid work ethic, and has given him perspective. And Garrett has no plans to stop anytime soon. “If you think I’m working hard, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” he says.


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