Review of LEADERSHIP: Combat Leaders and Lessons
(Essays by Members of the Class of 1959, United States Military Academy)
Each generation of military officers is both similar and unique: As young cadets, midshipmen, and officer candidates, they are cut from the old school wisdom of senior officers and NCOs. Once they become officers, they continue to learn from both seniors and subordinates, as well as from drilling, training, and schooling; personal experience; natural maturing; and real-world command challenges over a period of years.
The United States Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1959, is no exception.
As cadets, the boys of ‘59 learned from the combat veterans of World War II and Korea (Certainly some of the more senior professors would have chewed dirt on the Western Front in 1918.). And as newly minted officers in a new nuclear Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps (The Air Force Academy was barely up and running in 1959, and a handful of Marines were trained at West Point, though most leathernecks attended Annapolis), these graduates of West Point were soon among the first to be schooled in – or in some way affiliated with – the new official art of special forces operations. Members of the Class of ‘59 held company level – and higher – commands during America’s involvement in Vietnam. They held commands throughout the most-challenging decades of the Cold War, the violent early years of the Jihadist terror awakening, and up through and beyond Gulf War I.
Now, 50 years after receiving their commissions as second lieutenants, several members of the “Long Gray Line” – many of them now retired generals and colonels – have written a series of essays for the next generation of combat commanders, the Class of 2009, compiled in a new book:
LEADERSHIP: Combat Leaders and Lessons.
I just received my copy this week, signed by my friend, retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely (an internationally respected military analyst who has held combat commands at many levels; is himself a West Point graduate, Class of 1961; and whose StandUpAmericaUSA published LEADERSHIP). And I’ve barely been able to put the book down.
Without giving away the entire game (because I urge every American military commander and future commander to
purchase and read this book), essays include conversationally written leadership lessons and anecdotes covering everything from “leadership under fire” to “a failure of courage,” to responsibility, loyalty, sacrifice, and the criticality of preserving operational security and, yes, military integrity at all costs.
Lt. Gen. Thomas L. McInerney, USAF (ret.) discusses the leadership and op-sec challenges he faced as commander of Third Air Force during the raid on Libya in April 1986. Gen. Frederick M. Franks, Jr., USA (ret.), commander of the now famous “left hook” that smashed Saddam Hussein’s army in 1991, addresses the essentials – “character, leadership, and competence” – for a commander to win on the battlefield. Maj. Gen. Nicholas Krawciw, USA (ret.) lends perspective from his personal experience in the Middle East during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Maj. Gen. John S. Grinalds (from my own Marine Corps), Maj. Gen. William A. Cohen, Brig. Gen. William J. Mullen III, Colonels Andrew P. O’Meara Jr., James L. Abrahamson, and others round out this collection of sage narratives.
It’s a quick read and a must: Nothing academic, just the proverbial nuts and bolts of military leadership in peace and war.
And make no mistake – though there may be parallels between military command and other styles of leadership – these essays are a stark reminder that running a corporation or a political campaign are nothing like commanding an infantry battalion. Though a good business leader or politician would do well to read this book.
