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First let me salute Doc for a great thread. Made me think and brought several related ideas to mind.
The first was in his enjoinder to look for examples around you worth emulating. All of us regardless of branch or even career see those we'd willingly follow and those we'd rather not. In January 1977 as a Ranger student going through the last phase at Eglin, Old Man Winter hit us hard one evening and the net result was 2 dead students and a very demoralized platoon. I remember sitting in water, under a poncho, trying to keep a heat tab lit while I was shaking too badly to keep the C rat coffee can from falling off my lap. We were all hurting; we were all wodering what had happened. And I have no doubt many were ready to quit. Then we got the new RI for that day, a Major by the name of Meadows. He surveyed the situation, got us moving, and pulled us back together in a matter of minutes. 25 years later, I got to shake his son's hand as the latter was promoted to LTC. I pulled him aside and told him about his Dad, as if he did not already know. Major Dick Meadows served as an example to me for the remainder of my career, one I would have to describe as a the epitome of a natural leader.
And that brings me to the second point: if the name Meadows does not ring a bell, you need to read. As a foreign area officer, I read everything I could on my areas and I read them critically. I taught regional history to inhabitatnts of those regions and I had the opportunity to research and write 2 books on operations in the Congo before I ended up as Defense Attache in the same country. That reading and writing stood me in very good stead when the Rwandan genocide washed across the border in 1994. Regardless of field, the true professional never stops learning.
Finally on the thoughts on offcers versus NCOs, my assignments overseas where by their very nature in very small detachments where officer-NCO relations had to be tight. In Rwanda I had an ODB with 2 ODAs and other attachments helping establish a demining program. We had our problems, none of which came from the teams. And we succeeded by listening to the senior NCOs on those teams. My own rule was to listen to my NCOs when they offered cogent advice--and act on it.
Best all,
Tom
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