[CDRODA396]

Steve was my first Team Sergeant. When I reported to Battalion, I was immediately taken into the Commander's office and given my welcome to battlalion speech, then told I was going to ODA 395 and to go find my Team Room. I walked out into the hallway looking for someone to point me towards Charlie Company and ran into an NCO who said (almost verbatim), "Hello, I'm Steve Maggard, your Team Sergeant. Your training begins now, and the first lesson is trust. To be successful, a Team Leader must trust his Team Sergeant. Now go home, dont call, dont come in, dont do anything until I call you." I said, go home? He said, "Sir, didnt we just discuss lesson #1?" So, I went home.

He called the next morning and said Ok, come on in and gave me directions to find the Team Room. Come to find out, a support guy had been out at the RTL as a guard on a Red Cycle Tasking and when released, he couldnt find the HSC Armorer, so he turned his weapon into the first open arms room he found. Having the next day off, it took some time to find the guy, and thus the weapon. The battalion had spent the night locked into the battalion area, so Steve had saved me the pain of being locked in and helping to account for every weapon in the immediate area.

Lesson 1 stuck with me and they just kept coming.

Lesson 2, One of his favorite "Steveisms" was "If you get everything you ask for, you didnt ask for enough!" When I got to the Team, it was one of the two dive teams that had been taken off dive status when SF went from 3 dive teams per battalion to one. So someone opened our mission letter, saw our primary country had some mountains and deemed us a mountain team. At that time, the old Mountain kits had become obsolete, and had to be turned in. 10th GP had published a memo stating what equipment you had to have to be considered a mission capable mountain team, only the memo came out well before we became a mountain team so no one ever saw it. The money was set aside at USASOC to local purchase the necessary gear, but not used so they had slid it over to the Static Line Squares. By the time Steve dug and found out the deal, the Static Line Squares were dead, and so was the money. So, during a battalion deployment to Camp Ethan Allen Training Site (CEATS) for ODA Exevals, our Team was lucky enough to be attending the VT ARNG Mountain School, but not part of the battalion exercises, despite being there at the same time. Steve talked the Battalion XO in buying us harnesses and shoes. Then later helmets, then some rappel devices, then some biners, then runners. After a week, it was funny to watch Steve track down the XO, the XO knowing full well he would not be able to counter Steve's rock solid reasoning for some more gear, would literally take off at a run to avoid Steve, Steve trailing after, also at a full run, yelling, Sir, I know you're busy, could I get just a minute of your time! He always caught him, we always got our gear.

Lesson 3. I believe if you boil SF down to its barest state, its all about establishing Rapport, developing the relationship, then manipulating that relationship to achieve your ends (manipulating not carrying the negative connotation that is usually associated with it). Steve was a master of this. We were the first ODA to make a JCET trip to Swaziland. By the time we left, we were so well in with the Embassy Staff, we had total, unfettered access to the Embasssy minus the "Como Room." He would make a point of talking to everyone, everytime we visited the Embassy, showing genuine concern for the person, their families, what we could do for them, and making them feel like they were the most important thing in the world. It was the same way with our Army counterparts, the soldiers we were training, the locals we hired to do our laundry, clean, etc. They had two aircraft in their Airforce. Whenever we wanted, they would fly us wherever we wanted. If we had wanted, we could have taken over the country with its own Army, installed ourselves as the government, and been recognized by the US mission there as the legitimate government of the people....he was amazing to watch when he was in his element.

I learned more in that first year as Team Leader with Steve as the Team Sergeant than the Q-Course and two more years as Team Leader combined. After the end of his year, since he was still an E-7, an E-8 was given the team. Steve moved to B Company, that was early 1998.

Years later, when I took command of B Company, he arrived at the same time to be the Operations Sergeant. He ran the B Team during our train up for, and participation in OIF. Again, he ran the B Team as you would expect from the professional he was. He then took ODA 383 for his last year in the Army before retiring. During OEF III, he led his Team on an infil 48 hours prior to the company raid on a compound to put eyes on, and landed in the middle of a hornets nest of Taliban. His Team Leader was not on the ground, so Steve took charge, rallied the wagons, chose the right spot and with the help of a B-2, took the fight to the enemy. After a long night, the target was too close to continue to prosecute so they were exfilled, with no casualties despite the potential for disaster.

Any one who knew Steve knew he was in his best element when he was in charge. When he was the man, it was nearly impossible to prevent him from having his way, you just hoped he was working for you, not against you. Most of the time, he'd work it so you thought it was your idea and he was just supporting you in doing what you wanted.

Even in retirement, he continued to support the force, working in DOTD on the 18B Desk.

It was a sad day when I heard the news, and the Army and the world is a little darker place without him to brighten it. For those that knew him, he will definately live on in the memories of the way he lived and treated people. I just hope there is a golf course where he is at, if there isnt, it wont be long before there will be!

Rest In Peace Steve, and thank you for your lessons, your service and your friendship.