You Would Think!

If there were anyone in the world who would understand the dangers of taking a digital picture of his crotch it should be someone named Weiner.  This, not uncommon episode from a middle aged politician, has left me wondering whether I should just ignore it and move on or comment on it.  I would like to move on, but it reminded me of something that happened back in the mid-1980s and I would like to share that as a cautionary tale.

Way back then the country was growing the military, as President Reagan brought the country out of its post-Vietnam funk.  The United States Army was resurrecting the Rangers as a first line force.  In 1974 the Army Chief of Staff, Craighton Abrams, resurrected the Rangers with two battalions and a training school.  Wikipedia has a nice summary of the history of the rangers at: Wikipedia, United States Army Rangers .  In 1984 it stood up the third battalion and the Regimental Headquarters.  One of my jobs was to assist the 3^rd Battalion/75^th Ranger Regiment to become special operations qualified and ready to support the war on terror we were waging even then.

The 3/75^th was filled with men who had succeeded at everything they tried, they were airborne (parachutist) qualified, been top soldiers in their line units, and completed a rigorous year long series of training schools.  These were all type-A personalities and their leaders where the same.  My job was a simple one, take these professionals and provide them the training they needed to work with Air Force Special Operations forces like the AC-130 and MC-130.  This involved about four weeks of train-up exercises with airdrops, calls for ground fire support from the AC‑130 gunship, and rapid on-loads and off-loads from the MC‑130.

What was memorable for me about this experience is up until then all my dealings with senior Army leadership was they knew what they wanted and told the Air Force exactly what to do, whether they did or did not.  Often they did not.  This is one of the reasons I think we failed in Iran in 1980 but that is another story.  In this case I met with the battalion commander and he laid out for his S-3 Air (the operations officer for air) and me what the desired end state was and let us get to work building a training program.  When we worked out the details we briefed him on how the Air Force would provide the training his men needed and what we would deliver at the end of the training period.  He made a couple of minor changes and we implemented the plan.  He had let us do the jobs we were supposed to do. 

During the next month I was routinely at Fort Benning, GA coordinating individual, small unit, and company training events.  Working for and with the Battalion Commander I came to appreciate what an outstanding leader of men he was.  He laid out a clear vision, expected results, held his staff accountable, and motivated the men he led.  Not once did I see his men let him down, or he fail to praise them for their efforts.

At the end of the train up period we were to have a full-scale test of the units ability to implement its Mission Essential Task List or METL.  This is a list to small things to unit must be capable of doing (like get on and off a C-130 in so many seconds, or airdrop onto a runway and clear it of obstructions) to certify the unit is qualified to do the job it is assigned.  At the pre-mission briefing this Lieutenant Colonel stood to address the Rangers and Air Force personnel assigned to this mission to lay out his commanders intent, detail what was to happen at each step of the exercise, and prepare his force for the test we were about to undertake.  His speech was right out of a John Wayne movie, brilliantly delivered and completely motivated the assembled leadership down to the squad Sargent’s.  Interestingly though I only remember one line from that speech.  He was talking about safety and the need to look out for each other when he said “Gentlemen, don’t let your little head think for your big head!”  That line has stayed with me all these years.

He lost his command less then a year later when he was caught fooling around with his secretary.  Too often testosterone gets the best of even the people you would think should know better.