George Herbert Walker Bush has devoted his life to his family and to his country. At age 18, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve and became the youngest pilot in the Navy. During World War II, he was shot down in combat over the Pacific and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. After a successful career in the oil and gas industry in Texas, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966. Presidents Nixon and Ford selected Bush for a series of high-profile appointments: Ambassador to the United Nations in 1971, Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973, envoy to China in 1974 and CIA Director in 1976. Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan selected Bush as his running mate in 1980. The pair won handily and were re-elected by a landslide in 1984. In 1988, George Herbert Walker Bush was elected to serve as the 41st president of the United States. The two proudest accomplishments of Bush's presidency were the passage of the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act (the ADA) and the successful prosecution of the war to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. This effort saw the U.S. leading a grand coalition, including Arab countries which had long distrusted the United States. This experience of cooperation led to a renewal of the stalled Mideast peace process. After losing his bid for re-election in 1992, George Bush had the pleasure of seeing two of his sons achieve high office. George W. Bush was elected Governor of Texas in 1994, and Jeb Bush won election as Governor of Florida in 1998. In 2001, former President George H.W. Bush sat proudly by as his son, George W. Bush, was sworn in as 43rd President of the United States. Only once before in U.S. history had the son of a former president succeeded to the presidency. The elder President Bush surprised almost everyone when he fulfilled an old ambition and parachuted from an airplane for the first time since his wartime service. He was 72 years old at the time, and has repeated the feat to celebrate his 75th, 80th and 85th birthdays. On his 80th birthday, he parachuted -- not once, but twice -- onto the grounds of his presidential library. This podcast was recorded at the 1995 International Achievement Summit in Williamsburg, Virginia.