On the same day former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton met for a rare joint appearance in Dallas at the Bush Presidential Center to usher in a new graduating class of nationwide leaders, a retired colonel from Fort Hood is reflecting on what he learned as part of the prestigious program and how it's helped him serve military families worldwide since graduating 12 months ago.

"I knew about military leadership but I had spent 26 years in the army and I needed to see what the rest of our country was like after that time," Col. Tim Karcher said.

The Belton resident was part of the 2016 graduating class of a group called Presidential Leadership Scholars.

He was one of only 61 people selected nationwide to participate in the 6-month program, which teaches leadership by drawing on the resources of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the Clinton Foundation, the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.

Karcher was selected not only for his 25 years of military service, but also for the job he's chosen to do since a 2009 injury in Iraq left him a double amputee.

"I work for a small non-profit organization called "No Greater Sacrifice" that provides college scholarship for kids of the fallen and severely wounded. To honor not only the service member's sacrifice but their family who is right there with them," Karcher said, from his office in downtown Temple.

Read the article on 10 KWTX by Julie Hays.