LEXINGTON, Va. Feb. 20, 2026 — Virginia Military Institute’s 2025-26 Leader-in-Residence (LIR) Lt. Col. Scott Mann visited post Feb. 9 through Feb. 13. He is a retired U.S. Army Green Beret and author of The New York Times best seller, “Operation Pineapple Express.” Named in honor of VMI’s 14^th Superintendent Gen. J. H. Binford Peay III ’62, the LIR program is an important part of the Center for Leadership and Ethics’ (CLE) efforts to educate, engage, and inspire cadets, faculty, and staff to develop as leaders, and brings to post people of stature within their fields whose distinguished careers exemplify the citizen-soldier model. Mann’s residency will amount to a two-week visit over the course of the academic year. He has interacted with cadets in various formal and informal settings, including the classroom, barracks, and during athletic activities such as club sports. He also met with cadet counselling, VMI police, a group of VMI alumni, recorded an episode of the VMI Leader Journey podcast titled, “Relationship Centered Leadership,” and performed his one-man play, “11 Days” in Gillis Theater.

Mann shared his powerful testimony to cadets in several classes. He talked of being inspired, at the tender age of 14, to become a special operations officer, and described the true mission of the Green Berets, and the services he provided in Afghanistan. He shared his struggles in adjusting to civilian life, and in Col. Polly Atwell’s Artistic Responses to Social and Political Issues class in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies, he communicated how he learned to become a storyteller, a skill which led to his healing.

“I had a really crappy transition from the military. I went from being this high performing Green Beret to a dude padding around his house in a bathrobe and not having showered in two weeks.” It got so bad for Mann, that he considered ending his own life. Through a friend, he learned of a workshop in California taught by former Houston Oiler, Bo Eason, who helped people overcome struggles by sharing their stories. Mann flew from his home in Florida across the country to California to hear Eason. “The guy was telling a story about his final moments in the NFL, the moment he blew out his knee during a game. As they were carrying him off the field, he knew his football career was over. He thought he would end up in prison because the only thing he knew how to do was hit people hard. He wanted to learn how to take that TNT inside him and put it toward something productive. He took acting classes, and wrote plays, and actually performed one off-Broadway. The whole time I was listening to him, I was thinking, ‘that’s me.’ When he was done speaking, I went up to him and told him my story, and he agreed to work with me.”

Eason worked with Mann for two years in helping him in the ancient art of storytelling. It was Mann’s goal to share the stories of what he had done in Special Forces, and, more importantly, what his team had done.

Mann’s talent to weave a story blossomed and he authored the New York Times best seller, “Operation Pineapple Express,” which addresses the human cost, moral courage, and extraordinary leadership demonstrated during the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. It is a firsthand account of a covert, volunteer rescue effort led by U.S. special operations veterans and partners who refused to leave Afghan allies behind. Working from kitchens, basements, and living rooms throughout the U.S., the group coordinated across time zones and bureaucratic barriers to help evacuate nearly 1,000 at-risk Afghan interpreters, commandos, and their families. Mann later wrote, “11 Days: The Story of Operation Pineapple Express,” a one-man, one-act play adapted from his book, which he performed Feb. 11 in Gillis Theater to an enthralled audience. Directed by Jason Cannon, the production centers on themes of courage, healing, honor, and leadership under extreme pressure. “11 Days” is Mann’s second play. His first, “Last Out – Elegy of a Green Beret,” has toured throughout the country

Mann is chief executive officer of Rooftop Leadership, a professional training and coaching company specializing in human connection skills, and the founder of The Heroes Journey, a 501(c)(3) committed to helping U.S. and Afghan veterans tell their stories and transition to civilian life. He will return to post April 6-7 to complete his term as LIR, and will be the featured speaker at the Superintendent’s Leadership Dinner. Faculty interested in having Mann visit their classes in April should contact Col. Patrick Looney, deputy director of the CLE.

Marianne Hause
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE