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thedrifter
03-26-04, 05:36 PM
Issue Date: March 22, 2004

Great commander leaves indelible memory


Let me tell you about the best battalion commander I ever had.
As a lieutenant and as a captain, he commanded three rifle companies, one in each of the Corps’ three active divisions. And the knowledge he gathered while commanding at that level served as the bedrock of everything we did.

In the field, he could tell with a glance if a machine gun was sited incorrectly or whether a platoon was well-prepared for an attack. He knew the little things, too, like how to get the most from a field expedient antenna, how to establish a rappel anchor and how to navigate a small boat in the dark.

When the battalion conducted field training, he ensured we practiced the hard things. We didn’t ride in trucks, we hiked to the field. At Twentynine Palms, Calif., we practiced live-fire attacks until every man understood his weapon and his role. At Bridgeport, we crossed the deepest gorges and scaled the highest ridges until our lungs felt as if they would burst. In Panama, we penetrated the jungle, rode small boats and raided the shorelines.

Always, he was out front — leading the attack, climbing the cliff and slipping into the ice-cold water.

He could have said he was too old to be out there with the rifle companies. He could have stayed in his office or the command post, and no one would have blinked an eye. But he was not that way. By nature, he had to lead from the front and, by his example, we followed.

He was tough. He could hike as fast, as far and with as much weight as any of the company commanders who were 10 years his junior. Even though he was in great physical shape, he didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time at the gym or running the trails on base. His secret to fitness was not the intensity or length of his workouts. He was in great shape because for more than 20 years he almost never missed a day of physical exercise.

When he took the battalion out for a run, however, he ran only as fast as his slowest man. He didn’t need to impress anyone by running his men into the ground. He knew inside that he could smoke us all.

He was balanced: His priorities were to God, his family and the Marine Corps.

At 16:30, he would roam the battalion spaces, kick us out the door and send us home to our wives. Sure, there were times when we worked late. There were even times when we worked all night, but he understood that if you worked at a maximum pace every day, you couldn’t surge when you had to.

Most important, he took care of his own family. When his kids played Little League, he was there on the sidelines cheering them on. When we were deployed, he wrote to his wife religiously and talked with his kids on the phone.

He was fair. When administering nonjudicial punishment, he gave the sailors and Marines in his battalion second chances.

Some thought he gave too many second chances. When the sergeant major grew irate and demanded that an offender be restricted to quarters, given brig time or stripped of rank, my battalion commander calmly would say to him, “I think that we can bring this one around.”

The majority of the time, he was rewarded by improved behavior, and many Marines thanked him as they left the Corps for civilian life, remembering him as the man who turned them around.

Finally, he was an enigma. He had an intangible quality that made us follow him. This may sound like voodoo, but we company commanders would speak of that quality as we watched him from a distance.

We strove to learn from him — to emulate him, and we sincerely hoped that some of his qualities would rub off on us. We never feared him. Our only fear during those many deployments around the globe was simply of letting him down.

I served with him for only a few short years, and then we went our separate ways. That is the way of the Corps.

I am just glad that I had the opportunity to serve with one of the great ones.

The writer is a lieutenant colonel who has served with light armor and infantry units.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2715172.php


Ellie