Lead or Get Out of the Way

Drill Sergeant Smith was not a man who asked for your trust. He took it, methodically, over weeks of breaking you down and building you back up in the image of a soldier. By the time we walked into the gas chamber at basic training, he had already earned something from us that most leaders never get, the kind of trust that holds when everything in your body is telling you to run. The exercise started straightforward enough. We filed in wearing our gas masks, the chamber alrea

"Sir, I've known a lot of commanders who have had open door policies, but I ain't never seen one as open as yours." That was Staff Sergeant Krause. One of my platoon sergeants. He said it with the kind of straight face that told me he wasn't sure if it was a compliment. At twenty-six years old I was given command of a company of over two hundred soldiers. It was the kind of responsibility that could swallow you whole if you let it, and it almost did. I leaned hard on my NCOs,

One of the first cadre members I met when I was in ROTC was a captain who had led a company of tanks on the charge north into Baghdad in 2003. He was unassuming and quiet, the kind of guy you wouldn't pick out of a room as someone who had been in real combat. He would turn out to be one of the most influential leaders in my life. I came into ROTC full of piss and vinegar. I threw myself at every piece of work they would give me, volunteered for things nobody else wanted, and