My team went out on mission without me today. It’s only two
guys, a MSG and a SSG, but their absence was felt knowing they were outside the
wire. I met them back in June, home station drill, one of the first days I
enjoyed within my new assignment. The first thing I told my team at our initial
get together included one of my key principles of leadership: that I will
approach each of them first as a human
being then rank and position held in the unit second.
I based this approach on the belief that although the unit
and my team specifically have roots deeply embedded across the four corners of
the nation, we all have base motivations driving us. We want to serve in the
Army (or the military, for that matter) that what we do should matter, but
really, at the end of the day, what we all truly want to be able to go home and
be with the loved ones for whom we work.
This approach has served me well in the past, generally
speaking, but has often times led to being taken advantage of. On such an
adventure as a military deployment, friendship bonds potentially form that
surpass levels seen in a wide variety of friendships elsewhere, simply due to
the nature of the business. The bonds are not better, just different.
Such was the case, or I assumed, when I joined the team within
which I currently serve. One in particular stood out as one with glaring
potential for a friendship….no, wait…a brotherhood…that would last for a
lifetime. As time moved forward and the unit came together in pre-deployment
phase, my time with the one increased dramatically and the depth of what I
believed was a real friendship developed, I opened myself up and allowed
vulnerability. Then we arrived in theater, where true colors exploded all over
the big screen. My value diminished to the point of an entry-level recruit in
his eyes and my trust disappeared. My dedication to duty remains and though
work will continue professionally, I highly doubt contact will sustain after
the deployment.
Back to my team and our initial meeting. Originally there
were four of us, but we lost one due to admin issues that simply couldn’t get
worked out. Otherwise, he would have only added to what now have. My NCOIC
resides in Brooklyn, NY and makes the personal claim politically as a liberal while I lean toward the conservative.
Yet as we continue to carry on conversations and discussions, our political
stances truly are not so far apart as the media would want them to be. He is
married and while hasn’t ever had the need to drive a car in his life, he is
driving one the biggest rigs we have in the unit quite proficiently. He also
has a 3 year old little girl and wants desperately to get home safely to be
with them.
I also have the token old guy working for me. Although
working for me may not be the right
description since he is a former Lieutenant Colonel, retired, re-enlisted back
into the NCO Corps as a SSG. And is he old. I’m a spring chicken compared to
this bald-headed old fart with a sense of humor as long as the day. He is
humble, jovial, and smart with wisdom coming from a BC perspective on many
things. I call him SSG when others are around, but “sir” comes out more often
than not. His desire is to return home to his wife, kids, and grandkids too.
These two guys are making my existence here worthwhile. We
have set the standard for what a mission outside the wire looks like, and the
team has earned a reputation as the safest team in the unit. We have yet to
miss a weekly suspense and as a team of three, ours is the strongest, most
tightly knit group. These two will end up being the ones I carry with me for a
lifetime, and although we are only a month into this adventure I can honestly
say the only way this group will separate is failure of leadership on my part.
Back to principle one: We are all human beings wanting only after putting in a
good day’s work to go home and be with our families.
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