[May 11, 2018] On a quiet night where little enemy activity had been a pleasant break from the incessant mortar and rocket attacks on our small outpost, one lone rocket hit our unit’s ammunition storage bunker. Things went haywire after that. But leaders don’t panic and we were able to contain the fire and explosions rather quickly. Real… Read More »
[May 10, 2018] Leadership, in its most fundamental capacity, is not that different from a deep friendship. If a good friend calls upon you to help, then most of us would go to them as quickly as possible. In my first tour of combat in the Iraq War, I had a friend tell me, If you call, I’ll… Read More »
[May 9, 2018] Not that long ago in what we called the old brown-boot army, there was a saying that if you couldn’t wrap it in red tape (aka bureaucracy), then it wasn’t worth two cents. The implication was that the small stuff was important and leaders paid attention to detail … well, didn’t they? Well, boys, I… Read More »
[May 7, 2018] It was ten years ago but it seemed like yesterday. I was standing with three fellow U.S. military officers discussing our electrical designs for a construction project in the country of Iraq. We were at war and a young Engineer Lieutenant asked us a simple question, What’s the standard? We never answered that question with… Read More »
[May 6, 2018] Wilson, a childhood friend of mine, was an exceptionally smart guy but he had a real dislike of people who would criticize him in any way. One of the more difficult things for anyone to do is to listen patiently to criticism about themselves. This is a tough one. Wilson is someone without much tolerance… Read More »
[May 3, 2018] I’ve begun reading more frequently these days, now that the weather has turned for the better. I get to sit on my sun porch, relax, pet my dog, and read. The book is about how tragic events in our past can have a positive effect on our psyche. My point here is that what happens… Read More »
[May 2, 2018] Good decision making is not always easy and no one said being a leader was going to be a cake way anyway. Decision-making abilities are based on proper and independent judgment. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll), English… Read More »
[May 1, 2018] Many years ago as I was walking through my company’s motor pool, when I saw an army Private working on an armored personnel carrier. I stopped to ask why he was trying to fix the vehicle so early on a Sunday morning, instead of being with his buddies. He said that it was no hardship… Read More »
[April 30, 2018] A young Army Lieutenant was navigating across a swath of Fort Picket, Virginia; taking his platoon on a 5-mile march from his commander’s location to a road junction. With a map and compass, the platoon’s Infantrymen did not trust him to get to the road but he did without incident. In the Army we say,… Read More »
[April 20, 2018] The army Captain barked that he was looking for a commitment from all the 2nd Lieutenants going through the basic course at Fort Benning, Georgia. We all asked ourselves why he was even saying this; of course, we were “committed.” But what we later discovered was that his interest was more … it was for… Read More »