John was born in Charleston, South Carolina but spent his childhood in Alabama where he loved being outdoors, swimming and fishing. Coming from a family with a history of serving others, he believed in service and served as the student body secretary in high school.  After high school, John deferred an appointment to West Point and opted to attend Old Dominion University on an athletic and academic scholarship.  While swimming at ODU, he pursued political science and history degrees as a way to prepare him for law school. At the beginning of his junior year at ODU the tragic events of Sept. 11th occurred and changed John's plans significantly.  Passionate to serve for the country, John reapplied to the United States Military Academy at West Point.  As destiny would have it, John entered West Point as part of the first class after Sept. 11th and later graduated in 2006, exactly 95 years after his great-grandfather's (Colonel John F. Wall) graduation in 1911 and 50 years after grandfather's graduation in 1956 (Lieutenant General John F. Wall) . John then served in the United States Army for 6 years as an Airborne Infantry Platoon Leader with the 82nd Airborne Division and as a Ranger Platoon Leader and Company Executive Officer with the 1st Ranger Battalion.  After 5 deployments, he left the Army, got married, and moved to Columbia, SC to start law school at the University of South Carolina. What happened after the law school that made John dive into government relations? We learn about John's experiences in this next episode.