Author Archives: Douglas R. Satterfield
[February 12, 2021] The movie Dirty Harry (1971) came out in theaters 50 years ago to great fanfare. When a madman calling himself “the Scorpio Killer” menaces the city, tough-as-nails San Francisco Police Inspector Dirty Harry Callahan is assigned to track down and ferret out the crazed psychopath. This movie was popular because it tells an old story… Read More »
[February 11, 2021] Yeah, I’m an old guy (oh, should I just say age-challenged?), so I remember when no one got a trophy for winning a school baseball game. We competed for bragging rights. Not today. What’s more, some schools won’t give out grades below “C,” so no student will “feel bad.” This means that those in leadership… Read More »
[February 10, 2021] “Look at that, it’s weird,” my best childhood friend Wilson was transfixed. Hanging behind the bar in the small town we grew up in was a Gadsden flag with the words Don’t Tread on Me in bold letters. We were attempting to sell empty coke bottles1 to the bartender when the sheriff arrived and escorted… Read More »
[February 9, 2021] I’ve written of many battles in my leadership blog and frequently gave accounts of heroism, lessons learned, the horrors, and the struggle of the ordinary foot soldier and basic seaman. No other battle – actually a series of battles over six months – portrays the American spirit in times of great difficulty than the Battle… Read More »
[February 8, 2021] My final trip home to New York City after retiring from the U.S. Army took me through the Atlanta Airport; the largest airport in the U.S. Atlanta remains a central air-transport hub and is the site of the biggest USO on the East Coast. As I walked into this USO, it brought back fond memories… Read More »
[February 7, 2021] I spent my first year in the U.S. Army as a Private (E-1, in military jargon). A private is the lowest rank, least experienced, most impressionable soldier. They make up the largest population of soldiers, and we find lots of them on the battlefield. My peers from the Officer corps put little faith in them. … Read More »
[February 6, 2021] Two days ago, I attended a Vietnam War veteran’s funeral. The turnout was about 35 people, family, and many older veterans who knew him. A good number of attendees, in my estimation, given that we are in the middle of a pandemic. We were curious why vaccinations were so few in our state. In this… Read More »
[February 5, 2021] I learned this important leadership lesson the hard way. My Infantry unit deployed to Ft. Pickett, VA in the late summer of 1983 for a “shake down” exercise. As Platoon Leader, I placed our crew-served M60 machinegun on our right flank and had my men dig in. My commander didn’t like the placement and told… Read More »
[February 4, 2021] U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said that “Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.” This quote says a lot about Steven Crowder, a staunch political conservative, commentator, Christian, and comedian. Steven Crowder does not stand in the middle of the road.… Read More »
[February 3, 2021] Honestly, I am surprised this is even a topic of conversation. There is a movement today by Big Tech – like Google, Instagram, and Twitter – to crush free speech.1 It’s a bad idea, a bad decision on their part, and the best action they can take – in the moral sense – is… Read More »