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The fatigued cadet willed his combat-booted legs onward, jogging from Virginia Tech to Victory Stadium. That gritty determination has served Salem's Jimmy Archer well.

Now he's Maj. Gen. James E. Archer of the U.S. Army Reserve - honored, he said, to have been so promoted by Salem's four-star Gen. William Rosson shortly before his death. In an e-mail, Archer humbly detailed his steps up the ranks. The 1972 Tech graduate (industrial engineering major) was regimental executive officer of the Corps of Cadets, and selected as 1971's top cadet of 3,400 from the "First Army area," which trained cadets between their junior and senior years of college and was headquartered at Fort Meade, Md.

This quiet gentleman has served in the Army for more than 32 years, including Regular, National Guard (Pennsylvania) and Reserves. He earned his master's in business administration at Emory University in 1974 on an Army fellowship while assigned to Fort McPherson. He's a member of the 95th Division of the Army Reserve, whose missions include training Iraqi Security Forces and the Afghan National Army.

After active-duty years in Germany, Archer worked for Corning Glass in Pennsylvania. Having treasured his early Salem years, however, he decided to come home and considered starting his own engineering consulting firm. But coincidentally, the Archer family's Blue Ridge Beverage Company was expanding, allowing "room for more siblings." He's now executive vice president of sales.

All but one of his five brothers and sisters work for BRB. President and brother Bob retired from the Army Reserves as a colonel and has received numerous business awards. Mother Regine Archer - a Belgian survivor of Nazi occupation - served as president for 30 years and and was recently was inducted into Junior Achievement's Business Hall of Fame.

Last year, Jim Archer logged 140 days on the road for the Army, so family support remains important - especially from steadfast wife Nancy, whom he met on a blind date at Tech. Archer credited her with their children's achievements (son Jim and daughter Leigh hold graduate degrees).

"I was gone much of the time and cannot imagine how they would have developed without [her] support," he said of his wife. "She has been the only reason that I have been able to successfully manage a dual career, and I am proud of her."

Archer noted that his wife's Air Force family background made her "an ideal partner. ... She is very stoic and accepting of my duties and the necessary separation."

Now about that 1971 jog: The Corps' Ranger company had decided to do a forced march overnight, carrying the game ball and arriving in time for the final Thanksgiving football game with VMI at Victory Stadium.

Archer, head of the parade's Color Guard, decided to "scout the route" the day before the game with a buddy, who was not a Ranger. So, with a salute to the campus War Memorial, he and another cadet set off at 3 p.m. Archer carried one canteen of water: "We didn't know much about proper hydration!"

After his buddy gave up in Christiansburg, Archer slogged on, mostly on unfinished Interstate 81's construction bed. The toughest part: resisting the urge to veer off Salem's Main Street and collapse at home. But he persevered to salute the Victory Stadium flagpole at 10 p.m. His "benevolent" mother then drove her beyond-sore son home. The Ranger company also completed the march.

"As an old Andrew Lewis cross-country runner, I was pretty fit, so the seven-hour trip for me was doable," Archer said.

What about the next day, when he carried the American flag in the parade from the Hotel Roanoke train station to the stadium?

"Brutal."

Archer said he has gotten "a little wiser" about ever trying that again. But he still has true grit.