Those Who Dare Lead Women and Men
Listen. This is for everybody. I will try to be on my best behavior. This has to be said and I don’t know of any other way to say it. I have had less than a handful of shitty company commanders in the United States Army. I am fortunate to be able to say that. Of a truth. I have never been in company briefings, battalion briefings, brigade combat team briefings where I have ever heard a commander say that he or she would gladly sacrifice all of the men and women under their authority to receive the praise of a politician. Never!
By the way. Politicians up to and including the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States of America!
First the Secretary of Defense Hegseth claims that the military forces are weeping children whom someone has just taken our lollipops (lethality) to now being thin skinned and unable to handle the scrutiny of an after action report. I mean which is it? Are we a lethal fighting force or are we weeping babies because we didn’t get an ‘A’ on a graded pop quiz?
Okay, now I’m about to get deeply philosophical. Are you ready? You’re not ready. I have to lay it on you anyway.
Does anyone know the answer to why soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines would freely give their lives, if it becomes necessary, so that others, who they will never meet, may live? It is because all who serve honorably have been given their lives back! Say what? What are you talking about SGT Moseley? They already have their life. What do you mean by this?
‘To Lead Women. To Lead Men. They have to know what they are being asked to do is honorable. A warrior knows this by the honor, integrity and fidelity of his or her frontline leader’. Theirs your answer. Life is passed on so that others may live ‘more freely and more abundantly’. If you do not understand this, don’t worry about it.
A politician is not their leader! Surprise! Surprise! The women or the men that stands before the ranks is who they put their trust in. I believed in SSG Thomas, a Black woman noncommissioned officer, because she stood up for me in Afghanistan when I was being unfairly targeted. I believed in Vanessa and Trish because they trusted me and backed me as I maintained good order and discipline at a behavioral health hospital where I once worked.
That’s why some of you read previous posts of me lauding my time working in mental health as rivaling my time in the Army. Look. ‘A warrior stands in the breach. Whatever comes crashing through that opening in the battlements. It strikes the warrior first! Do you not understand this?’
The woman leader, the male leader, gives a warrior his or her life back. The warrior pledges life to those he or she knows, and to those he or she will never know. Never to know how life is thriving because his or her life has been laid down, if necessary, to make more life possible.
Know this. Belief and trust in the leader means everything. That’s where a warrior gets his or her purpose and objectives.
I will stop here. That’s the benefit of an education in the Arts.
Be well. All of you.